Category Archives: books

Author Interviews – A Great Way For Authors To Promote Their Work And Readers To Learn About New Writers

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Kev Cooper (no relation to yours truly) offers a great (free) author promotion service. Kev’s Author Interviews allows authors to promote themselves and their work by answering questions supplied by Kev. The interviews also act as a great way for readers to learn about new authors. For further information please visit http://kevs-domain.net/author-interviews-and-contact-information/

For The Good Of Humanity (satire)

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For the good of humanity we must sacrifice the paltry joys of the here and now for the ultimate bliss of tomorrow.

For the good of humanity we must abandon the selfish goal of individual fulfilment for the common good.

For the good of humankind we must place freedom on the backburner for we are building an earthly paradise where “the people” shall rule.

Yet Eden remains, floating, somewhere forever out of reach while “the people” shrug their shoulders, and smile or weep.

 

Written after reading an article on North Korea).

 

Abandoned

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Rain sodden corpse, in a churchyard. Abandoned, unclaimed, slowly decay setting in.

Once you wowed audiences. Your music had couples dancing, romancing. Many a love was born as you filled the air with melodies sweet.

Now your heart is still. No more tunes will eminate from your once mighty chest.

An old piano, your notes immovable, choked with rain water, you stand by the church, sadly waiting to be taken away.

 

(On Thursday 2 October my mum, her partner and I came across an abandoned piano, in the church close to my home. When first discovered it still worked. However due to heavy rain the piano’s notes are now immovable. How the instrument came to be in the churchyard I have no idea but, at time of writing it remains there).

Managing The Online Distractions

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Many thanks to author Linzé Brandon for hosting a guest post by me, on time management, (http://linzebrandon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/managing-online-distractions-guest-post.html). Please do check out Linzé’s other posts and, of course her books which can be accessed here, (http://linzebrandon.blogspot.co.uk/).

Birdsong On An Autumn Evening

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An Autumn evening. The park deserted save for me and my dog. A solitary birds sings. Entranced I stand, his song bringing thoughts of sorrow comingled with joy. Beauty, pain and happiness, contradictory emotions stir within my breast.

The lonely bird continues to sing, his voice filling the darkening park.

Distant sound of traffick. I linger, reluctant to break the spell.

Later, the pub full of noise. Yet, through the din I fancy, dim and distant, the singing of the birds can be heard.

Come Back My Little Oxford

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We have all done things in life which we later regret. As a child (teenager) I owned a Braille edition of The Little Oxford Dictionary Of Current English. I regularly consulted the dictionary (all 16 braille volumes of it)! To ascertain the meaning of words with which I was unfamiliar. It was an invaluable resource and, in retrospect I can not, for the life of me recollect why I decided to donate The Little Oxford to The National Library For The Blind in Stockport (UK). My decision to donate was no doubt connected with the proliferation of online dictionaries (why retain a dictionary which occupies a whole bookshelf when one can ascertain the same information by logging onto Google or another internet search engine of your choosing)? However I now regret my hasty decision, and wishing to obtain an updated replacement I logged onto the Royal National Institute Of Blind People’s (RNIB’s) website, only to discover that the Dictionary is no longer available in Braille.

Why the desire for a paper dictionary? Online dictionaries are convenient in that they do not take up shelf space. In addition an internet work of reference can (unlike it’s print counterpart) be easily updated. However online dictionaries (the free ones at any rate) tend to be chock full of advertisements (I hate wading through ads to find what I am looking for). Additionally I dislike being online while writing. The ideal, for me at least is to turn off my mobile, log off the internet and close e-mail thereby ensuring that I can concentrate, 100 percent on my writing. Also, to be frank I like leafing through paper dictionaries, perhaps at the age of 45 this love of traditional sources of reference is ineradicable. I suspect that in years to come paper dictionaries will become quite collectable. It will be a talking point when someone has on their shelves a copy of the last print edition of The Oxford English Dictionary but, in the meantime I still regret the loss of my 16 volumes!

http://newauthoronline.com/2014/04/21/shed-a-tear-for-the-oed/

Anthology to Raise Money For Guide Dogs – A Further Update

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I posted on 17 September regarding my idea to raise money for the Guide Dogs For The Blind Association (GDBA) by producing an anthology of stories and poems, (http://newauthoronline.com/2014/09/17/possible-anthology-to-raise-money-for-guide-dogs/). Many thanks to everyone who reblogged and agreed to provide material. I have now received the first story from Sally Cronin, (http://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/), – Many thanks Sally! A big thank you also goes to Dave Higgins for his kindness in agreeing to edit the anthology free of charge.

The anthology is still in need of contributors. If you haven’t already agreed to contribute and would like to do so please contact me at newauthoronline (@) gmail . com (the address is rendered thus to try and defeat spammers).

 

Many thanks,

 

Kevin

I am Puzzled

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I must confess to being puzzled as regards why reviewers who (by their own admission) do not care for a particular genre choose to review books which (clearly) fall within it. Very recently I came across a review which awarded a book 2.5 stars. By their own admission the reviewer is not a lover of romance which contributed to the low rating, (the work in question is, in part at least a romance).

I don’t review many books. However on those rare occasions when I sharpen my favourite quil pen, dip it in the ink well and write a review it is for a book which falls within my range of interests. I would not, for example review a Mills and Boon romance because romantic fiction is not, on the whole my cup of tea. The writing would, almost certainly not captivate me leading to a review which wouldn’t do justice to the author’s hard work. I could not, in fairness post such a review because, in my heart of hearts I would no that my own personal tastes had influenced it.

I have not read the book in question and have no acquaintance with either the author or the reviewer. I have taken the decision not to name the book or the reviewer because my comment is a general one and I have no desire to get into a discussion with the reviewer regarding their review. I would, however make a plea to reviewers to ask themselves prior to embarking on a book review whether their dislike of a particular genre could impact negatively on what they write.

 

(Note: I have reviewed one work of romance due to being intrigued by the author’s blog. You can find my review here, http://newauthoronline.com/2014/01/22/book-review-12-days-the-beginning-by-jade-reyner. I enjoyed the book). /