My thoughts lost on the damp air

Going who knows where.

The sodden grass

I pass

Where children play

but not today.

No ball

or bird call.

Only the rain’s incessant fall.

Where I to walk barefoot
In these leaves
On this cold
Sunny day,
People would say
“He is mad”.
Yet I should be glad
To be free
As the windblown tree

George Orwell, pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal (now Bihar), British India

English novelist, essayist, and critic, his work is characterised by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, and strong opposition to totalitarianism. His most famous novels are “Animal Farm” a satire which allegorically depicts Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian revolution on 1917 and “Nineteen Eighty-four” ,a profound anti-utopian novel that examines the dangers of a totalitarian government.

When Eric Blair was getting ready to publish his first work, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, he decided to use a pen name so his family wouldn’t be embarrassed by his time in poverty.

The book was an account of his tramping days in England, particularly in the hop fields of Kent, and of the poverty he endured while living in Paris trying to write novels. Furthermore, at the time…

This poem is not currently included in any of my books

Poet Kevin Morris reading his poem ‘Time’.

There is something about the song
Of birds, on a cold, January day,
That makes me wish to stay,
Out in this wood,
Where
The air
Is good.

There song
Is long
As joy, or grief.
Although, we know
That joy is, too often brief.

The smile
Oft flits across the face, then is gone
While
Grief
Lives on
In the hearts of men
Who, when
They hear the birds
Pour out words,
To our feathered friends,
Who comprehend
Not our ends).

My dog revels in the sscents of grass,
Whilst I
Look up to the sky
And think “all this will pass”,
(A thought that he can not grasp).
Yet he, and the birds that fly,
Are happier than I.

Authors just starting out, either Indie or traditionally published, rarely earn enough royalties to support their families. Regardless of the path you choose, if your spouse makes enough to support you in your early days, you can devote more time to advancing your career.

But not every author has that option.

Before you embark on either path, consider this: publishers, large and small, don’t waste budgets promoting work by unknown authors the way they do the few who have risen to the ranks of their guaranteed bestseller lists.

You will do the work of getting your name out there regardless of whether you choose the traditional route or not.

So, what are the perks of going traditional if you’re an unknown? Why go to the trouble of wooing an agent and trying to court a publisher? Even today, an air of ‘respectability’ clings to those who are traditionally published.

The…

When a careless young lady named Wood
Got her stilettos stuck in deep mud
And I said, “get them off”.
She replied, with a shocked cough,
“Not here! In this nasty deep mud!”