I am pleased to announce that Calamities Press have published my flash fiction piece, Vampire which can be found here (https://calamitiespress.com/2014/10/19/vampire-slippy-realism-by-kevin-morris/).
Vampire By Kevin Morris
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Category Archives: short stories
A Day In The Life – RNIB Writing Competition
Last year the Royal National Institute of The Blind (RNIB) ran a writing competition with the theme “A day In The Life”, which was judged by RNIB members and the writer Natalie Haines, (for a podcast of the entries please visit http://dl.groovygecko.net/anon.groovy/clients/rnib/Vision-65-podcast.mp3).
The winning entry imagines a day in the life of Blind Willie Purvis, a blind singer/song writer who toured the pubs of Newcastle regaling the locals with his singing. Purvis’s life was an interesting one (for a short article on him please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Purvis_%28Blind_Willie%29).
The runner up is also well worth a listen. In it Hariet Smith describes her first day attending Worcester College For The Blind. Hariet movingly describes the sense of uncertainty and loss experienced by a child attending a new school (in this case as a boarder).
RNIB’s current writing competition asks entrants to submit crime stories or court room dramas. Entries will be judged in 2015.
Print Books?
Thus far I have published 4 collections of short stories and 1 longer work. All my books are available solely in ebook format.
For some time now I have been considering producing print versions of my books using the Print On Demand (POD) services of Createspace (https://www.createspace.com/). My reasons for considering POD are:
- Not everyone likes ebooks and the availability of my stories in exclusively electronic format means they are not reaching people who might otherwise read them.
- Even among ebook readers there exist many book lovers who also purchase traditional (print) titles. The availability of my stories in both formats enhances the choices of such readers.
- There is something attractive about the feeling of permanence of print books which, to me at least is lacking in the new kid on the block, ebooks. I, personally like having books on shelves and I am far from being alone in this desire to be surrounded by physical works of fiction and non-fiction.
Having said all that,I hesitate to embrace POD as my longest story, Samantha runs to 29 pages and I am not sure whether people will pay for print books of that length. I could get around this issue by producing an anthology of my writing. However this would, I understand mean that I would lose all my Amazon reviews as these pertain to the individual titles, while an anthology is a different beast and would be reviewed as such.
In short I need to give this matter much more thought rather than jumping in feet first. Any advice from authors who have both ebook and print versions of their works available would be most welcome as would comments from readers of both formats.
I Am Sailing
As those of you who follow this blog will know, my name is Kevin. Yesterday I received the following text from a friend who was, at that time on his way to France via cross channel ferry,
“Just leaving Harbour. Where told the captain’s name is Kevin. Should I be worried?”
My friend’s text made me smile as, being blind there is no way in which I could hold down the job of captain. However, giving the matter a little more thought I arrived at the following brilliant solution to how a blind man might captain a ship. My guide dog, Trigger is trained to avoid obstacles so why not teach him the following additional commands:
- Bark once for rocks dead ahead.
- Bark twice for another vessel dead ahead and
- Let out a continuous howl when the boat strikes submerged rocks or an iceberg.
Does anyone have the contact details for shipping companies please? I’m taking time out from my writing to apply for the position of ship’s captain. God save me and anyone else who sails with me!
Kevin
Author Interviews – A Great Way For Authors To Promote Their Work And Readers To Learn About New Writers
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/
Managing The Online Distractions
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/).
Cyborg
The baby nestled in your loving hands. Your soft caresses elicit no response from it’s dead, metallic body. You fall asleep and dream of texts, the phone grasped in your warm, cyborg hand.
Anthology to Raise Money For Guide Dogs – A Further Update
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
The Power Of The Mindless Task
A short piece in which the author argues that the best way to clear one’s brain when you are not in the right frame of mind for writing, is to perform a mindless task. I don’t know whether walking Trigger, my guide dog, in my local park can be construed as being mindless. It does, however afford tremendous pleasure and assists in clearing my mind for writing. For the article please visit https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/community/resources/blog/2014/08/04/the-power-of-the-mindless-task?ref=822525&utm_id=6002&cp=70170000000bgWg&ls=Email&sls=KDP_NL
Controversy Rages Over Mantel’s Fantasy About The Assasination Of Margaret Thatcher
The author, Hilary Mantel has written a short story in which she imagines the assassination of the late Lady Thatcher. The story is set in 1983 and imagines a fictional scenario in which a middle-class lady allows an IRA terrorist into her house to assassinate the Prime Minister.
Mantel’s story has been condemned by people of all political complexions as being in poor taste and some are calling for the police to investigate. Others defend the story on the grounds of literary freedom. It is, they argue a work of fiction and Mantel has every write to express herself. For one of the many articles on this hot potato please see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2764520/Hilary-Mantel-unrepentant-backlash-grows-fantasies-assassinating-Margaret-Thatcher.html
K Morris - Poet 