The time for Ghosts is near

 In the mood

As I am writing mainly for the blog, I don't feel the need to follow a trend - not that I ever did - if only for the satisfaction of bringing several stories to a close, I am going to attempt to get back in the mood to write.

Meena Kumari

 The Tragedy Queen

The life of Indian actress Meena Kumari could have been from one of her films.

When she died from Cirrhosis in 1972, at the age of 38, her sister, Nargis Dutt, said some vicious comments at her funeral. What Nargis didn't know, or chose to ignore was her sister had been the victim of spousal abuse for years. It was so bad other actors, and actresses begged her to leave her husband, but for a Islamic woman to do that is considered a crime; yet, her husband could legally perform the Triple Talaq for no reason other than he chose to; which he did.

What is the Triple Talaq?

Islamic men could go to a judge to request the annulment of thier marriage for no reason; all they had to do was say the word Talaq three times over the course of three months, and the deed was done; ladies could not defend themselves. This ruling was changed in July 2019.

Fu Manchu's dream

 The changing face of Covid

He was only a fictional villain, but Dr. Fu Manchu had a dream of world domination. He would love the situation of the modern world, with Covid changing almost as quickly as the wind, and being untraceable as it hides as a variation of other illnesses.

The situation is almost like the book "The Satan Bug" by AlistairMaclean, or even The Andromeda Strain.

Sell your Haunted House

 Amelia

Sell your Haunted House is an excellent horror mini-series from South Korea showing on Netflix.

The idea of selling a haunted building was going to be the focus of my ghost story - Amelia.

The central aspect of the story was to have been the discussion between two businessmen about whether they should let buyers know a propert is haunted by the ghost of a nurse who died during the Bristol Blitz; that part of the story is true. The Bristol General Hospital site has the ghost of a nurse who got trapped rescuing children during WW2.

The discussion would have been from both sides, with one of the men wishing to hide the fact, and hoping nobody would see her. While the other man wished to run the site as a haunted hotel for ghost hunters.

As usually happens, my idea, and the end product did not gel.

Believe it or not

 Lost in the EU

You may not believe this story, but it is true.

Last year, I bought some DVDs from Spain, that is nothing unusual for me. What was annoying is that they didn't arrive from the seller on eBay for three months, why?

The DVD box set got held up in the Netherlands for three months, no wonder the EU is struggling if their sales are delayed that long.

My father in WW2

 Service record

Today, I came across my father's service record, from his entollment in 1940 until his demob in 1947. 

He spent most of the time in the UK; when he was posted to India in late 1944, he went on the SS Ranchi which was hit with a bomb, this meant she had to put into Alexandria for two months for repairs.

Dilip Kumar

 A great find

As I am unable to buy the Nargis Dutt box set of six films, I shall buy the six-film set of films for Dilip Kumar; there will be some overlap as they appeared together many times in the 50s, and 60's. Also in the set is Nargis's younger sister Meena Kumari, who was known as The Tragedy Queen

Dilip (left) is shown here with Jawaharial Nehru, the father of Indira Gandhi.

Sales areas

 Australia

Not surpringly, the USA is the largest area for my eBook sales from Draft2Digital; second place goes to Australia, with Canada and New Zealand fighting for third place.

What is a little surprising is I have sold several eBooks on the African continent, but not in either Rhodesia, or South Africa.

If you are wondering about the UK, we come well down the list.

Yesterday

 eBook sales in Japan

My surprise yesterday, was not selling an eBook in Japan, I've sold several from Draft2Digital as they control the Pacific Rim   https://hereiamattheedge.blogspot.com/2023/08/pacific-rim.html, my surprise was selling on Amazon. Other than the eBook I bought,to try to get some interest in my writing in the UK, I cannot recall the last of my eBooks which sold on Amazon.

Heads you win - tails I lose

 Medicinal choices

I am not certain what caused the growth on my liver, one thing I am sure of is my choice to restrict the tablets I take has helped slow the progress, why?

Several years, I had to make a choice; I found that some of the tablets I was taking could cause liver, or kidney problems. The choice was to risk a heart attack, or liver failure? Having seen what a liver failure did to my father, I decided to stop taking some of the tablets; I didn't like the option of going to a hospital twice a week for a blood transfusion.

At the same time, I found some of my tablets contained a banned colouring, the colouring had possible links to epilepsy.