My book, Samantha is now available in the Amazon Kindle store as an ebook http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BL3CNHI/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_QErlrb12J4Y1K. A big thank you to all of you who encouraged me in writing Samantha both through your comments and by liking the drafts as they appeared here.
Kevin
My collection of short stories, The First Time is available in the Amazon Kindle store for £0.77 http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00AIK0DD6. In the first story, The First Time, we meet Becky a young graduate with a first class degree in English literature. Becky runs up a large credit card bill and fears losing her home. In order to solve her financial problems she becomes a professional escort (prostitute) and the story explores the effects of this decision on Becky and her fellow escort and friend Julie. Other stories look at what happens when machines attain human-level intelligence. To sample or purchase The First Time please visit the above link.
This story about a young girl with a mother who is addicted to drugs and alcohol is worth checking out. I’ve just read chapter one and I’m looking forward to reading the remainder http://medusamoon13.webs.com/
A theme running through my story, Samantha is that of evil. Barry (a pimp who owns an escort agency) drugs and rapes Sam. When she wakes he shows her pictures of the sexual abuse and threatens to send the photographs to Sam’s father unless Samantha agrees to work for him as a prostitute. Not wishing to induce another heart attack (Sam’s father has just undergone a heart operation) she agrees to work for Barry and enters a world of physical and mental abuse.
On discussing Barry’s personality with a close friend he remarked that I should consider endowing him with one redeeming feature or including in my narrative one act of kindness by Barry. I thought long and hard as to whether I should follow my friend’s advice, however Barry possesses no saving graces and I decided to portray him as the unfeeling psychopath that he undoubtedly is.
Barry possesses many of the classic traits exhibited by psychopaths. He is superficially charming (it is his charm which convinces Sam to accept a drink from him which unbeknown to her contains the date rape drug GHB). Barry has no conscience, he beats one of his girls, Tanya because she is unable to work due to being high on Crack and in the final chapter Barry attempts to kill Sam because she has had the temerity to tell him to “Go fuck yourself”. Barry is egotistical. In his world it is only Barry O’Connor who matters, the prostitutes he controls are mere means to his profit. Barry does not acknowledge that anyone other than him possesses feelings or if he does accept this, he shows no sign of caring about them.
To acknowledge that Barry is a psychopath with no redeeming features is not the same as saying that we can feel no empathy for him. In chapter 7 (http://newauthoronline.com/2012/12/18/samantha-part-7/) Barry has a nightmare in which he is, as a six-year-old thrown into a dark cupboard under the stairs by his mother. He bangs his head on the gas meter and is left bleeding there while his mother watches television. The terrible abuse which Barry has suffered as a child warps his view of women “they are all bitches and deserve everything that men do to them”. We rightly abhore and condemn Barry’s view of women and the abusive behaviour which flows from it. We can however understand (but in no way excuse) why Barry behaves as he does.
Barry is at bottom a thoroughly nasty piece of work. We can shed few tears when he meets his grizly end However had Barry experienced a loving childhood rather than one filled with abuse, would he have turned out as the cold hearted pimp he is trawling the streets of Liverpool for girls to entrap into prostitution? .
I feel bereft. Since December 2012 I’ve been working on my story, Samantha and yesterday (20 February) I completed the manuscript. For several months Samantha and the other people in my book have been my more or less constant companions. While walking to the station to take the train into work my mind has been busy thinking about the storyline and rehearsing dialogues. Suddenly all that is over, ends have been tied up and the story put to bed.
Since December the actors in Samantha have become real to me, they have lived in my brain and become part of my life. At a fundamental level I know that the persons in Samantha are mere figments of my imagination, however to write convincingly one must believe in the people you create, they do at some level take on a life of their own. When Sam is abused by her brutal pimp it is a mere will of the wisp, a nothing which suffers. Sam does however represent those who are forced into the sex industry against their will and, as such she is real. Her pain represents the suffering of actual sex workers who have been compelled to become prostitutes so, at another level Sam does, most definitely exist.
I said at the start of this post that Samantha has been completed. This is not quite correct. While Samantha exists in draft form on my blog (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/02/20/samantha-part-16/), It is my intention to edit the book with the view to publishing my manuscript as an ebook. During this process changes will be made although the fundamentals of the story will remain the same.
Once I have finished my present project (my book Samantha which tells the story of a young girl forced into prostitution by her brutal pimp, Barry in the city of Liverpool) I’m considering writing about the experiences of a young muslim girl/lady growing up in the UK. I want to explore the conflicting pulls of the west and Islamic worlds. This will entail a great deal of research in terms of reading both online and traditional paper books. It will be a long term project and I’d welcome any help which anyone can offer. In particular I would be interested to hear from muslim ladies (either practicing or non practicing) who have been brought up in the west. Please do get in touch either by leaving a comment on this blog or, alternatively by sending an email to newauthoronline@gmail.com.
Many thanks,
Kevin
I write because I believe that I have something to say. Also I write because I must. I have an itch which must be scratched. Human nature being what it is I hope that people will enjoy my writing and I’m thrilled when they do so. However not everyone likes what I write. I sent a gentleman of my acquaintance a complimentary copy of my collection of short stories, The First Time (at his request I should add). About a week later I bumped into my acquaintance in the street and he remarked that while he had liked the first part of The First Time he’d found the rest “not to my taste”.
To put my acquaintence’s comments into context it is necessary to know a little about The First Time. The main story, The First Time relates how Becky, a graduate with a first class degree in English literature enters the world of prostitution, as an escort in order to clear her debts. The book deals with the physical and emotional effects of working as a prostitute on both Becky and her fellow escort and friend Julie. In The First Time a tragedy befalls one of the girls and it is this which made the gentleman of my acquaintance remark that the story was not to “my taste”.
At one level I am sorry that my acquaintance did not find The First Time to his “taste”. As I said at the beginning of this post I hope that people will derive pleasure from my writing and being only human it gives me satisfaction when my work is praised. However I can not change my stories to please the gentlemen of my acquaintance or anyone else. In the real world as opposed to the world of fairy tales people do not always “live happily ever after” and The First Time reflects this truth. I wrote what I believe to be an accurate portrayal of the world of prostitution not a fairy story. Consequently while I am sorry that some will find The First Time not to their “taste” I’m pleased that others have understood it and derived enjoyment from the story.
I will continue to write as I do. I can do nothing else.
For the First Time by Kevin Morris please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-First-Time-ebook/dp/B00AIK0DD6
Yesterday evening as I browsed through the books on my bookshelves I was struck by the beauty of the hard back titles. The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) used to provide books either in soft paper covers or, alternatively in what they described as cloth . boards. I am of the view that books are long term friends so purchased the hard back versions. Sadly RNIB no longer offer cloth bound volumes so the blind person wishing to purchase titles has Hobsons choice (they must like or lump the soft cover books sold by the Institute).
The hard cover books feel permanent and possess a wonderful scent wholly lacking in their soft bound alternatives. It is a real pleasure to take down Wuthering Heights in it’s cloth boards not only because it is a marvellous story but also due to the volumes being a pleasure to handle. They feel as though they where made to last and the braille protected as it is by the robust covers remains easy to read unlike some of my paper bound books. Where I to be a sighted person I would purchase hard backs in preference to paperbacks as they exude a sense of permanence and dare one say it stability.
As I browsed my books my mind wandered and I began to ponder the issue of permanence more generally. On occasions it seems as though we are, as a society obsessed with the ephemeral. Next time you are on public transport witness the number of people who are engrossed in madly texting rather than reading a book. Some of these texts are no doubt important, however especially with teenagers one suspects that many are wholly inane and are being sent to people whom the teen has only just left. Again the constant checking of Facebook fosters a view of the world in which nothing is permanent, things change constantly and one must always be moving forward on a roller coaster from one exciting post to another.
To sit down with a book is in contrast an experience to be savoured. With a good book one must concentrate and yes sometimes struggle. However the pleasure to be derived from comprehending a complicated plot or a difficult subject does (in my view) outweigh the shallow pleasures which eminate from the obsessive use of social media. In time (a very short time) most of the posts on Facebook will be forgotten, however Emily Brontae, Charles Dickens and other great writers will remain as proof that there is more to the world than a vapid ever shifting obsession with change for change’s sake.
I hope that I am not turning into an old fogey before my time!
Kevin
Asian girl, like some beautiful caged bird, enmeshed in your mother’s world. Your voice never heard, beautiful Asian girl. Caught between two worlds, beautiful Asian girl. No veil covers your long black hair, beautiful Asian girl. Part of the west but constrained by a faith from another land, entangled in a religion which you only dimly understand. Are you happy in this world oh beautiful Asian girl?
Imagine the chaos which would ensue if a machine with the capability to read minds was released onto the market. I have an idea for a story which I may take further at some point in the future.
The London tube train has just left Hammersmith. The passengers are lost in the daily papers while others beat time to the music playing on their iPods. The only sounds are the rustling of papers and the chug chug of the train. Suddenly the sound of a slap echoes around the crowded carriage, “What the hell was that for. If you weren’t a girl I’d break your f … nose”! a young guy in a suit shouts at a slim brunette who’s hand print can clearly be seen on his reddening right cheek. “You where thinking that you would like to f .. me you filthy perv!” “You should be locked up. You need help lady. I was thinking no such thing and even if I was since when has fantasising been a crime?!”
Incidents such as this had sky rocketed ever since the release of the mind reading app which was earning it’s developers a fortune. Apple had stopped selling it in it’s iStore following a plea from the government, however it could still be downloaded for a few pounds from sites in countries over which the UK government had absolutely no control.
The cells where full of women (and a few men) who had reacted violently when the app picked up the amorous thoughts of persons in the vicinity of the app’s user. Secretaries had been fired for hitting their bosses while young ladies flew into a rage when the app detected the amorous thoughts their partner was directing towards their girlfriend’s best friend. What was to be done? Society tetered on the edge of collapse.
Perhaps I will write my story one day.
K Morris - Poet 