Tag Archives: reading

Death Watch

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The autumn sun slanted down through the branches of the great oaks which lined the woodland path. It was a wonderful place to run and Tony relished every moment of his runs in Barclays woods. The scents of autumn and the feel of the leaves beneath his pounding feet made it feel good to be alive.

From time to time Tony glanced at his watch. At first glance it was an unremarkable timepiece, a cheap digital watch which you might pick up in any store which stocked watches. On closer examination however it became clear that this was no ordinary timepiece. The date and time features where augmented by a counter which showed the anticipated demise of Tony Parkin. Imperceptibly as the growing of grass the counter moved towards “death day”.

Tony had filled in an online questionnaire regarding his medical history and that of his family. Once completed his age was deducted from the results to predict his “death date”.

Tony felt the sheer joy of being alive coursing through his veins. Neither he or his family had any history of heart disease or any other serious medical condition. While he enjoyed the odd drink, 6-7 pints of mild beer consumed over a week could in no way be viewed as excessive. Tony ate all the right foods and ran every day. There was no reason why a man of 24, in peak condition as he was shouldn’t live well into his 70’s or longer. Indeed the watch predicted that Tony would draw his last breath at the age of 81.

As he ran Tony became aware of a young woman running in the opposite direction. Tony had a girlfriend but this had never prevented him from admiring other women. There was after all no harm in looking. Tony gazed approvingly at the girl’s shapely long legs in her skimpy running shorts. She really was a looker.

He never saw the tree trunk which had fallen across the path. Even had he spotted it the speed at which he was running would, almost certainly not have allowed him sufficient time to avoid the obstacle. He fell head first over the log. There was a crack like a bough breaking.

The girl stirred in horror at the prone man. Even without her training as a nurse the impossible angle at which Tony’s neck was twisted clearly indicated that Tony Parkin was no more.

 

(The above story was prompted by a recent article in The Daily Mail which can be accessed here, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2448539/Tikker-watch-shows-countdown-death.html).

Free Book Promotion Ends At Approximately 12 pm 8 October

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The free promotion of my collection of short stories, “The First Time” ends at approximately 12 pm on Tuesday 8 October. If you have read “The First Time” please consider leaving a review on Amazon as I’d love to know what you think of my book. For further information please visit http://newauthoronline.com/2013/10/04/free-book-promotion/

Who Owns Your E-Book Library?

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If you purchase a physical copy of a book then the purchased copy becomes your property. You can lend or if you are so inclined destroy the book as it is yours to do with as you please provided that you do not copy or pass the work off as your own. The position as regards e-books is not so straightforward. On purchasing an e-book the buyer gains the right to access the content but not to lend or otherwise distribute it. I must confess to having been under the impression that the right to read my e-book library perishes when I draw my final breath. However according to an interesting article Amazon confirm that it is possible to leave your e-book library to your heir, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/08/1205979/-e-books-who-owns-my-digital-library.

As an author and reader of e-books I believe that an electronic book should be viewed as the property of the purchaser provided that he or she does not pass the work off as their own or copy the book. To me it is fundamentally unfair to pay for a product only to be told that you do not, in fact own it. Consequently I am somewhat reassured by Amazon’s statement that e-books can be passed on to one’s heir. I guess the interesting question is what happens if Amazon goes out of business. Unlikely in the near future but stranger things have happened.

(My collection of short stories, “The First Time” is free in the Amazon Kindle store from 4-8 October, http://newauthoronline.com/2013/10/04/free-book-promotion/).

The Great Leviathan AKA Amazon and how to sell your books

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Amazon is frequently portrayed as the great Leviathan, a monster who devours independent publishers and authors without mercy. Amazon may well have grown to big for it’s boots, the company is, however a great way for authors to promote their work.

Last year I self-published my collection of short stories, “The First Time” using authorsonline.co.uk, a self-publishing company. Initially “The First Time” appeared on a multiplicity of sites including Smashwords, Google Books and the great Leviathan itself! Months past and not having sold a single copy (actually I tell a lie as one book was downloaded by myself in order to check how it read on my Kindle)! I determined to make “The First Time” exclusive to Amazon and enrol it in Amazon’s KDP Select Programme which allows authors to promote their books free for upto 5 days in any 90 day period. I had already enrolled my other books (“Samantha”, “Sting In The Tail” and “An Act Of Mercy”) in the Programme and had an idea of what to expect. Enrolment of “Samantha” led to two 4 star reviews while “Sting In The Tail” has, thus far received one 4 star review. As at the time of writing “The First Time” has been downloaded 47 times as a consequence of it’s participation in KDP Select (the book is on free promotion from 4-8 October).

I believe in my books. When “The First Time” first appeared in serialised form back in 2012 it received a large number of likes and encouraging comments. However despite these encouraging signs “The First Time” languished on virtual book shelves until it’s enrolment in the KDP Select Programme.

The lesson I have learned is that however good one’s book is it is extremely difficult to get noticed unless you are lucky enough to be an established author. I have done all the things recommended by social media experts (E.G. use of Twitter and Facebook) to promote my books, however I’ve found that the use of KDP Select is the most effective way of bringing my books to the attention of a wider audience. Blogging and other social media are a great way of letting people know that you are out there and interacting with readers and I derive enormous pleasure from such interaction, however when push comes to shove it has in my experience been Amazon which has moved books from their virtual shelves into the hands (do I mean virtual hands?) of my readers. I’d certainly recommend blogging and the use of other tools but you should, in my opinion give serious consideration to the KDP Programme.

“The First Time” is free to download in the Kindle store until 8 October, http://newauthoronline.com/2013/10/04/free-book-promotion/

When is a short story not a short story?

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I began writing short stories in mid 2012. At least I thought that my compositions where short stories (I knew of no other means of describing them), however I now realise that many of my compositions are, in fact flash fiction (a term wholly unfamiliar to me until comparatively recently). Wikipedia describes flash fiction as follows

“Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or

fiction

of extreme brevity.

[1]

There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category. Some self-described markets for flash fiction impose caps as low as three hundred

words, while others consider stories as long as a thousand words to be flash fiction”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_fiction

I have never consciously aimed at producing flash fiction (indeed, as mentioned above I was unaware of the label until quite recently) but many of my stories none the less fall into this category. See, for example my story entitled Chicken, http://newauthoronline.com/2013/09/15/chicken/. To be frank I haven’t counted the words but I guess that they total 1000 give or take a few either way!

Other stories most definitely can not be classified as flash fiction. Rather they fall into the category of short story, (see, for instance my long short story, Samantha which runs to approximately 29 pages, http://www.amazon.com/Samantha-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI).

To the best of my recollection all of my flash fiction has been composed in one sitting while my short stories have been written over a longer time-frame (Samantha was written over a period of several months).

To me it is irrelevant whether a composition is, technically a piece of flash fiction or a short story. What matters is that the story gives pleasure and (hopefully) causes people to think about the world in which they live. If I can achieve that in a thousand words or less then all well and good, however if it takes longer to convey my “message” (if that doesn’t sound too pompous)! Then that, also is absolutely fine. Ultimately it is the production of a meaningful tale which matters rather than how many words I as a writer have churned out.

 

Thank You

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Thanks to you, my readers newauthoronline.com has, as of today (4 September) achieved a total following of 307. I very much appreciate all your likes, comments and other feedback.

While writing just a quick note to let you know that my collection of short stories, Sting in the tail and other stories remains free to download until 6 September. To download Sting in the tail please visit http://www.amazon.com/Sting-tail-other-stories-ebook/dp/B00DFK6R54.

Reading Aloud

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On Monday one of my colleagues mentioned how he reads to his 2-year-old daughter using a Kindle. His little girl likes to look at the pictures on screen, however my colleague said that he prefers print books as the photographs are bigger.

I was heartened to learn that parents still read to their children as it brought back happy memories of visits to W H Smiths with my grandfather. Most Saturdays we would pop into Smiths and buy (well my grandfather would do the purchasing) a book. On reaching home I would sit on my grandfather’s knee or lie in bed as he regailed me with the adventures of The Famous Five or other classics of children’s literature.

Today most of my reading is done using the text to speech facility on my Kindle. After a while I forget that I’m being read to by a dalek and enjoy the experience of listening to the classics of world literature, however there is no substitute for the human voice, of being read to by a much loved parent or grandparent. Sadly my grandfather died many years ago but I often think of him reading aloud to me or of our walks together in the woods near to where he lived.

Books to Prop Up the Wonky Leg on your Coffee Table

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Yesterday’s (12 July) Daily Mail contains an article regarding the books which people most frequently fail to finish. The survey was carried out by the Goodreads website and shows E L Jame’s Fifty Shades of Grey and J K Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy as being the books which readers most often fail to finish. I must confess to having read neither book so I am not in a position to impart words of wisdom on either work. I have, however read War and Peace in the original Russian and I must admit to having derived great pleasure from the experience. It was hard going in places but I felt a real sense of achievement once I read those final words, “the end”. OK I’d better come clean. I have indeed read War and Peace from cover to cover but it was in translation rather than the original Russian! I did, however plough through 20 odd braille volumes which took up some considerable space on my book shelves!

For the article please visit http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2361598/JK-Rowling-EL-James-bestsellers-list-books-readers-finish.html

The Dismal Science

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On Monday I attended the first part of a course on economics. The course was offered free to people in the organisation I work for and, knowing little about the subject I decided to attend.

One of the arguments advanced by the lecturer was that the value of things lessens the more of them we possess. So, for example many of us find it useful to own several pairs of shoes as it is helpful to be able to alternate them. However the more shoes we own the less value they possess as we can not possibly wear 20 pairs (or more) on a regular basis (no jokes please about ladies who have wardrobes full of shoes)!

It struck me that the argument holds good for shoes and many other consumables, however I do not feel that it holds water as regards books. For the lover of literature the more books one owns the greater the joy as one has more works in which to lose oneself. Merely possessing a small number of books would drive the average book lover to distraction.

When I raised this point with the lecturer his response was that one can only read so many books. Indeed one can but I still can’t help thinking that economics, while it undoubtedly has it’s uses falls down when applied to matters pertaining to culture. Not everything is susceptible of economic analysis thank the lord!

In Praise of the Traditional Book

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Does it matter what form a book appears in? Both my books – The First Time and Samantha – are available in ebook format only (it was the easiest way of publishing and the cheapest).

As a reader I value the accessibility of ebooks. Being blind I can read electronic books using the text to speech facility on my Kindle or Voiceover on my Ipad. I am, however unable to read hard copy print books as my poor eyesight renders doing so impossible.

Having said all that I would like, in the longer term to collect my stories together (in real rather than virtual covers) and have them appear on actual bookshelves. There is something magical about handling a paperback or hardback book. Literature somehow appears more real preserved between covers than is the case when it flashes up on screen or is read aloud using voiceover or text to speech.

Print books can (and do) last for centuries and I guess that many owners of e-readers would feel long lasting pangs if their print books disappeared in a puff of smoke while the loss of e-readers would cause less profound turmoil.

Perhaps I am showing signs of my age (I’m 44 years young)! But, in my view print (and braille) books possess a value which their younger relative (the e-book) lacks. One can not sit in a room surrounded by e-books nor can one obtain pleasure from the texture of electronic publications. Long live the book in all it’s forms but god preserve us from a world in which only e-books exist.