I am giving away 2 free print copies of my collection of poetry, “Lost in the Labyrinth of My Mind”.
The first 2 people to answer the following question correctly will receive a signed print copy
What is the name of Scrooge’s nephew in Dicken’s novel “A Christmas Carol”?
Please send your answers to me at newauthoronline (at) gmail dot com, (the address is given in this way to defeat spammers).
Please put “Competition” in the subject line of your email.
The best of luck!
Kevin
If you are interested in writing a guest post for newauthoronline.com, please read the following prior to contacting me:
Kevin
“CHILDREN as young as five are calling a helpline to be read bedtime stories because their alcoholic parents are too drunk to tuck them in at night”,
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/769135/Children-call-helplines-for-bedtimes-stories.
This is just so incredibly sad.
Checking my Gmail spam folder, I came across a solicitation, from a book promotion service, inviting me to advertise my work on their website. The following paragraph particularly caught my attention:
“The (name of site redacted by me) specialize in making
sure that your book gets seen by readers
as well as media on major platforms to force
sales and with clear visibility”.
I am a simple soul and struggle to comprehend how one can “force” sales. As anyone with a rudimentary grasp of the English language knows, the word “force” implies coercion, compulsion etc. The use of the word “force” conjures up images of readers being frog marched to virtual check-outs and being compelled to part with their money. A virtual version of “stand and deliver” if you like. Surely this is not what the company in question mean by their employment of the word “force”.
One can not “force” another to do something against their will without the employment of blackmail, and/or the threat of (or actual utilisation of) violence. I am sure the organisation in question are not in any way advocating the use of such methods. None the less their use of the word “force” is sloppy in the extreme and does not inspire me with confidence regarding the service on offer. Consequently I wont be signing up with this outfit.
When you get your thousand pound
Handbag will it make a profound
Difference to who you are?
Throw in a fast car
And you on the arm of a film star.
I wonder, as I stand
Pint in hand
On the other side of the bar
Whether such things
Can happiness bring.
Would you throw over your boyfriend
For a man who would spend
All his money
On a sweet, brainless honey?
In any event why should I care
For it is not my affair
And we all have our interests such as they are,
Mine being poetry, and yours a fast car.
Passion
Ashen
As a cold winter’s day.
The hounds bray
And he will go hunting for the sly fox.
They will box
In the dim light of morn.
Fate wont bother to yawn
And there will be a draw
As before.
When you leave your shoes
You lose
Them for a while,
Yet there can be no denial
They will be found on the floor
Outside the front door, and you will smile,
Put them on
And be gone.
When you lose your jeans
There will be scenes,
But they will be discovered
On the ground where they lie.
I sigh
And idly speculate
Whether you learned to late
That some things can not be recovered.
I posted yesterday (24 September) regarding the availability in braille of my collection of poetry, “Refractions”. In that post I also mentioned the availability of my previously published collections, “Dalliance” and “Lost in the Labyrinth of My Mind”.
All of the above books where transcribed into braille by the Royal National Institute of Blind People’s Ivybridge Transcription Service, and should be available to borrow from RNIB’s Library,
While I hold braille copies of “Refractions”, “Lost” and “Dalliance”, on checking the library’s catalogue this morning I was unable to find any record of my books having been added to RNIB’s stock.
I have raised a query with RNIB and await their response.
If anyone is interested in obtaining a braille copy of any of the above books, please contact library@rnib.org.uk in the first instance, (please feel free to mention that the publications have been transcribed by Ivybridge).
If you experience problems in obtaining my books in braille please don’t hesitate to contact me at newauthoronline (at) gmail (dot) com.
Kevin
I have never yet
Seen a regret.
Though I have felt
A pang
That sprang
Into my heart and dwelt
There, unknown by all but me.
StillI can not be free
Of the nagging voice
That whispers, “you had a choice
And where hoist on your own petard.
This lesson hard
You should learn,
Do not conscience spurn
When it cries,
He who acts thus dies.
All regrets and sighs
Will not repair the broken shell.
This truth I tell,
Actions misjudged may end in hell”.
He met a vulture
Of sculpture
Fine.
To him she did seem divine.
Her words
Would the pretty birds
Charm
And all scruples disarm.
No alarm
He heeded
Though his conscience pleaded,
But none interceded
And the ground was seeded
With a poisoned crop.
Chop, chop
Her beak went
And a heart
Was forever rent.
He played his part
And set it down as art.
K Morris - Poet 