Sunlight on a late November day,
Transitory beauty, all will pass away
Sunlight on a late November day,
Transitory beauty, all will pass away
A great 4 star review of my collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales,
“I, too, enjoyed these stories. Short but tasty morsels that dont fill you up but yet leave you satisfied!”. My thanks goes to the reviewer for taking the time to write a review. For the review please visit the following link (http://www.amazon.com/review/R5ZYKHOEVDT3L/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00PKPTQ0U). To download The Suspect And Other Tales please visit the following links, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=cm_rdp_product, for the US or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suspect-other-tales-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1417268733&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Suspect+and+other+tales, for the UK).
I grew up listening to books, recorded by professional actors and actresses on cassette tape, (does anyone remember cassettes by the way?!). My listening ranged from Brontae’s Wuthering Heights through to Dick Francis’s High Stakes. I still own a huge library of spoken word cassettes which fill several shelves of a bookcase in my living room. Many of the recordings have warped with age. However, as with books I am reluctant to throw them away.
Today cassettes have been replaced by audio downloads from sites such as audible.co.uk/audible.com. CDS retain a foothold but it is digital downloads where the future lies.
Being blind, talking books are a wonderful way for me to enjoy a good story. The text to speech facility on my Kindle is wonderful. However the Kindle’s speech is robotic and can not compete with the quality of a well produced audio file.
I have been thinking for some time now about producing audio versions of some of my books. It would be wonderful to give my readers the choice of an ebook or audio version of my stories. However the costs of producing high quality audio appear, from my preliminary investigations to be prohibitively expensive, (professional actors do not come cheap nor do recording studios). I think that the idea of producing audio downloads needs to remain on the back burner unless I can sweep away an actor with my charm and get them to record my works at a huge discount. Is that my phone I hear ringing …!
My collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales is currently free in the Kindle Store (the free promotion being scheduled to end later today (Saturday 29 November). My anthology, An Act Of Mercy also remains free in the Kindle Store until Monday 1 December.
You can find all of my books by following the below links, (http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0, for the UK and http://www.amazon.com/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0, for the US).
In My Last Duchess the poet, Robert Browning describes a seemingly simple scene. A Duke is showing a portrait of a beautiful young woman to the servant of his future father in law, (the Count). As the poem progresses it becomes apparent that the Duke had his previous wife (the Duchess) killed owing to his jealous nature. The Duke became insanely jealous at his Wife’s open nature and, in particular the way in which she would smile at other men. The Duchess’s inability to conform to the standards of behaviour expected of her by the Duke are her undoing,
“Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands, as if Alive”.
The Duke’s matter of fact description of the events leading to the murder of his previous wife is chilling, the chill being compounded by the manner in which he moves on from speaking about murder to talking of plans to marry the Count’s daughter. (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173024).
My Last Duchess prompted me to write Claire, a short story regarding the obsession of a man with his beautiful lover. Set in the 21st century Claire draws on Browning’s analysis of how love moves from passion, through to jealousy and thence to murder.
Claire appears in my collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales which is free in the Kindle Store until Saturday 29 November (http://www.amazon.com/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U).
The free promotion of my collection of short stories, Street Walker And Other Stories ends on Thursday 26 November. If you would like to download Street Walker please visit http://www.amazon.com/Street-Walker-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00HLRNDP4 (for the US) or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Walker-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00HLRNDP4 (for the UK).
Today I was subjected to the worst thing in the world. I attended a meeting, at my place of work in room 101. In point of fact the meeting was an uneventful one. There was no O’brien threatening me with a ravenous rat in a cage which, if released would tear me apart. Nor where there any posters with the slogan
“Big Brother is watching you”.
Yet, for all that it was still room 101. My uneventful meeting got me thinking, not for the first time how words and phrases find their way into common usage, often with those employing them never having read the publications from which they eminate. How many viewers of the television programme, “Big Brother” have actually read George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four? I suspect the answer is that a majority of viewers have not read Orwell’s novel, although most would, I think entertain a vague notion that “Big Brother” and room 101 originated in Orwell’s dystopian novel. It is rather sad that Orwell’s critique of totalitarianism has been reduced to the level of popular entertainment by the TV show, “Big Brother”.
Thank you to K J Rollinson for the below guest post. You can find out more about Kathy and her books by visiting the following links: http://www.amazon.com/K-J-Rollinson/e/B009ATNOQO and http://wordplay-publishing.com/wordplays-authors/rollinson-kj/.
NAME Mrs Kathy June Rollinson (I write under the name of K J Rollinson)
I live in the Costa Blanca, Spain.
A founder member of Wordplay died a few years ago called Ian. He always said that he had never read book where the main character was called Ian. So the main character has to be called Ian, and into social issues. Apart from these criteria the book can be on any subject. My character goes to a little country in East Africa that has been torn by wars and famine to help. My book is called, ‘Where Lies My Heart’.
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I am giving away free copies of my collection of short stories, The First Time to anyone who can answer the below question. (In order to participate you will need to download my collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales, which is free in the Kindle Store until Saturday 29 November). Everyone who guesses correctly will receive a free electronic copy of The First Time. Entries must be received on or before 12 PM (UK time) on Saturday 29 November. To obtain a free copy of The First Time please answer the following question,
Which story in The Suspect And Other Tales derives it’s title from a Shakespeare quote and what is the name of the play from which the quote derives?
Please e-mail your answers to newauthoronline (at) gmail dot com (the address is given in this manner to defeat spammers).
In The First Time I explore why young women enter the world of prostitution while other stories look at what happens when the
worlds of sex and technology collide.
In “The First Time”, the first story in this collection, we meet Becky a young graduate who enters the world of prostitution in order to clear her debts.
The story looks at the effects of prostitution on Becky and her fellow escort and friend Julie. In “The Pain Behind the Smile” Issie presents her friend,
Peter with a birthday cake, however things are not what they seem.
In “Lucy” the acquaintances of a crusty old bachelor speculate how he could attract and retain the affections of a beautiful young woman. As with “The
Pain Behind the Smile” things are far from what they seem.
“Hemlock” explores what happens when machines attain the capacity to appreciate high culture. The story is both humorous and deeply serious.
To download The Suspect And Other Tales free please go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U (for the UK) or http://www.amazon.com/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=cm_cr_pr_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8 (for the US).
Many thanks to Jane, of Fluency for the below guest post, which first appeared on her blog and can be found by following the below link, (https://fluencyofwords.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/death-march/). The below poem is reproduced by kind permission of Jane and remains her property.
—
Onward, men, don’t linger for longer,
feel that pride rushing through you,
the unworn wind filling your lungs.
Don’t look over your shoulder no more,
I vouch no guns pointed at your head.
Don’t worry about the world,
about your dead friends and lives,
of your soul in the barracks.
Ain’t nothing you can do,
if you wake up in a nightmare.
Lads, don’t make trouble,
to hear a bomb explode is mad,
you hear?
Don’t go telling others what’s not,
or you’ll live in a damn facility.
Go on, soldier,
live the rest of your life
with family,
in peace.
My collection of short stories ‘The suspect and other tales’ will be available to download for free on Kindle from the 25th – 29th November.
A reviewer has written of ‘The Suspect’ as follows: ‘Eleven clever and entertaining short stories, ideal for dipping into and each with a nice twist in the tale.’ You can see the review here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
To download The Suspect and other tales free please visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U for the UK or here http://www.amazon.com/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0 for the US
For my Amazon Author page please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/K-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 for the UK and http://www.amazon.com/K-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 for the US
If you download any of my books I would appreciate it if you would please consider leaving a review.
Many thanks, Kevin