Here I am at the edge

Don't miss the chance of a great read from the lady who give us The Ice Queen.

     Over 30 e-books for sale on Apple Can you afford to miss this opportunity? I have over 30 e-books for sale on the Apple site    https://books.apple.com/us/author/alan-place/id504489780?see-all=books , most are priced at $1.99, with none more than $2.99, and more to come for sale over the next month.

Finally I got the Pat Canella series out. Hunted down will be out as a story for those who did get the original story and the 4-pack contains all the Pat stories from Dockland Murders up to Hunted down, for those who missed out or just want the whole set as a book :)

Category: 1 - The Book Rack Read what Crystal has to say about Chronicles of Mark Johnson

    Two upcoming books with  various outlooks on the dark and mysterious. The descent of Mark Johnson is about the fight for Mark's soul as he fights a witch.  Whereas Hunted down the new Pat Canella is about the fight to regain control of Witchborough from a gang of hoods in mid-USA during the 1940's.     Mark's story line is dark and brooding as he knows, feels and can sense the presence of the witch, much akin to either the original Kolchak series or a little known Stephen King film "The night flier."                                   Patti's troubles are more in line with the Donald Sutherland & Julie Christie film  "Don't look back," with that feeling you get when you catch sight of something out of the corner of your eye, and when you turn to see it. It isn't there or was it there at all?                                                                      

   The resolution from last year was that I would NOT enter any more contests. I kept that promise, Okay I did enter two but I was asked to enter, I did NOT ask to enter.    I think the next year's will be that despite a lack of interest and sales of my books, I have to start believing in my value as a writer.    Come back in 12 months to find the answer to whether I convinced myself.

This is a recent guest blog I did for my friend Sylvia Jenkins http://sylv-jenkins.com/guest-blog/a-short-resume-by-al-pla-e

A question to ponder.  I will be visiting my favourite detective soon, to those how think they know the answer it should be easy. To those who don't, here are a few clues; well it is Christmas. He rarely leaves his brownstone house. He has friends called Archie, Sol, Fred & Orry. And the movie of the series was called "The golden spiders."

  The arrival of Book 2 will be slightly delayed. I am gathering together the various parts now and have just realised that Julia and I have only done the first of six chapters, this will give you more of a chance to get to know the plots from Book 1.                                                      Wishing you a merry and safe Christmas

With the re-growth in popularity of the serial, I have cut The Word down. Don't worry, you can now keep up easier as The Towers of Enlightenment starts at Chapter 8. http://hereiamattheedge.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-towers-of-enlightenment.html#.UNdv_OTZY6M

                                             Chapter 13- Out alone Frankie laid the Exrollo down and waited. Hiding behind the largest dune he could see, he was sure of a little cover at least but looking around him, he could see that there was little he could but wait for the inevitable ending, “Frankie, my boy. This time your luck has run out,” he said as he checked his pistol. Although, he knew exactly what was left in the cartridge, it was just to pass a few seconds. In the skies above him, clouds hid the radrians as they flew back to the base, carrying a bleeding Adria, barely conscious but with the aid of the Choroman pain inhibitors she was given, she was staying alive. James dashed to the windows and called out “Radrian incoming with Adria. Call the medic she looks bad, Marcian.” When he got no reply, James turned and saw the doors swing closed behind a dashing Marcian as he ran out of the room. Entering the room, Alanov was almost knocked over in Marcian’s rush to

I am now even convinced that these stories so not want to be seen. After almost losing the first 17 pages, then the last 12 and now having spent another four hours trying to get the complete series together and ending up back at square one and ready to scrap the idea :( I may come back to try the whole series again, or just the set of stories.

With the ever growing popularity of Holding Richmond and the likelihood of more sales honours, I thought it the right thing to do was to give it its own page.   http://hereiamattheedge.blogspot.co.uk/p/holding-richmond.html#.UNYhduTZY6M Like Chronicles before it, Holding Richmond will not be on the Honour Roll now.

I would like to thanks my friend Jamie Moody for this lovely cover to my story. A story which is featured in my book "Apparitions recalled."   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apparitions-recalled-ebook/dp/B00ALHSC6G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356182411&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Apparitions-recalled-ebook/dp/B00ALHSC6G/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356182411&sr=1-1 which features among others the popular child friendly "Old Church ghosts," soon to be revised for adult tastes. Along with an early work called "The ghost of St. Mary's," which precedes "The Rocking Lantern" which can be read in "Sea ghosts (Extended)." http://www.amazon.com/Sea-ghosts-Extended-version-ebook/dp/B0088QPW92/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356182560&sr=1-1&keywords=Sea+ghosts+%28extended%29 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-ghosts-Extended-version-ebook/dp/B0088QPW92/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008BEDMSO I know it's hard to relate to after he bummed at the KDP but here is the evidence  Amazon Bestsellers Rank:  #18,740 Paid in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store ) #10   in  Books  >  Fiction  >  Horror  >  Anthologies #84   in  Kindle Store  >  Books  >  Fiction  >  Anthologies

Don't be fooled There is an old adage that says, "Those who can teach, do; those who can't, write a book about it." This aptly applies to the massive amount of books on the shelves about " How to Write a Bestselle r." I have been trying to sell some of my ebook stock for over a decade, and got nowhere - so, as of the end of the month, I am not writing .

Chapter 12 – Running for home  At the back of the bike sheds Frankie was thinking “Shit, things have gone to hell in a hand basket, and so quickly! We came to rescue 501 and found him beaten to death; Jeff is down there dead and Adria is badly wounded. For my sake, I'm trapped here with no way out.” Slowly walking around the shed, trying to see a way out of the mess that he was now in. “I've been in tight situations before and scraped out, but this time Frankie lad, I don’t see you getting out,” he thought. Outside the sheds, the searchlights were focussed on the front doors. The bright lights were casting eerie shadows of the men waiting there for him to exit. Frankie had nothing on his side; they could just wait him out for now. Sooner or later they would either open fire or charge in and with only a few shells left, he was as good as done for. Peering out of one of the windows in the shed wall, he could see the gun emplacements swivelling to the shed doors now. “ S

I know it doesn't mean much really, but Amazon have just linked my work with one of MY favourite writers - F. Paul Wilson - Okay, who is he?  He wrote one of my favourite scary story reads ( The keep) and it made a really scary film too.

   I read this book for a numbers of reasons varying from wanting to read a great classical tale of adventure to a study in the art of writing.     From the beginning, I will let you know that I am big fan of the 1960's film with Michael Rennie & Claude Rains, it was this which partially aroused my curiosity. When I saw the 2001 film with Bob Hoskins & Peter Falk, I noticed vast plot differences and wanted to know more about the original story. To the extent that I contacted the Conan Doyle society.    The film was brilliant but after reading the book, I must say the later film is closer to the original story, yet not entirely all there. Both are worthy of getting to know in their own rights but other than basic characters and plot line, they bare little likenesses.      My next read is going to be something a lot lighter. It will be the new Titus adventure by my good friend Carol Wills. I am well known for my ghost stories on line, but I am a very big fa

With the weekend over, my next plan is for the Smart Book Awards 2012, currently being judged by MENSA qualified people. I don't expect much, being invited was a thrill in itself :)

3 hours to the end, I thank all my friends who joined this venture.  Final total after 2 1/2 days of freebies was less than 150 :( , there is no point in dragging it out further. In the last day only 2 have been downloaded.

An Uncertain blog The future of this blog remains undecided when there are hundreds of readers in Singapore . While the blog as a whole could be seen as growing, the posts do not get more than six or seven readers; I keep asking myself, why go on? To be honest, I cannot answer the question.  Some people would tell me, "You are a writer, so you write ." I used to believe I was a writer, but what is a writer who cannot sell his books? Selling is not my my project, but it does give my work value, reading this blog means little as the blog is free; I had considered attempting to make it a paying site, but that may have been detrimental to the few readers I have.

Despite Chronicles getting to No. 26 in the Anthology section at Amazon, it will claim no place on the page, as this is a false position made by the freebies and not by sales. From here on, no sales of Chronicles or future actions other than Smart Book Awards will be deemed fair for Book 1 :(

As the year closes, I had great ideas for themes for books LOL :- The Mayans lied to us & 2013, a new beginning. But, never forget the old regular crops of zombies and cheap sex

Spooks galore From tomorrow until Monday :- Chronicles, the award winning books is free on Amazon

Vintage Script The week before Halloween 2011, the editor for Vintage Script magazine asked if I would like to contribute a ghost story https://www.draft2digital.com/book/66076   to her magazine. I was very happy to oblige, at this time, I had not had a short story published, I don't count the stories I put online. This version is entitled " The Unseen Version "  because after Halloween, it could not be read. also for several years, I thought I had no copy of the story. If you buy the Special Edition    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H4F38AI/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i10 you can trace the development of the story from the original, to the family version - written for a charity book - then from the first edition of the horror story I wrote, to the final edition with the scary end. Four stories for the price of £.50, what a bargain . I did say, I don't count what I write on here as being published, in that case, this is my second ghost story I published. Fo

Called out Part of this is based on fact. In the mid 1980s, I used to listen to the short-wave radio transmissions from around the world. One such broadcast from the old USSR talked about a double train crash, involving nuclear waste. The news never got out. “ICQ Kiev3 to ICQBristol4, over.” “ICQBristol4 to ICQKiev3, over.” “Hello Al, how are things at your end?” “Hi Carl, just the same as usual, nothing much happens here sadly. I can do with some excitement,” I said with resignation. “Yes, sometimes it is like that. Here we are still hiding from the authorities, if they find this transmitter. It could be a camp for us,” Carl, my Russian radio friend replied. “Have you heard from Joe in Texas yet?” “No, I was thinking this call would be from him. I’m a bit worried, he hasn’t been in contact for weeks and that isn’t like him, usually he is so full of himself.” “Al, maybe this pandemic is hitting him worse than he is letting on. You know those Americans don’t like to tell you how they

  A few nice and amusing comments from friends about me.   Al is like a diamond in a field of coal   Al is like a dinosaur, in this day when few men appear to have morales. He sticks to his old ways.  Al is a true gentleman and a gentle man  Al is like Don Quixote.  Al is a great friend but a bad enemy.

   The story behind this series goes back many years. To the days when I used to play war games and I could paint models well :(     In the world of Games Workshop there are two main battle groupings, Warhammer deals with the knights of old and defending an empire and Warhammer 40K deals with the Imperial majesty of man regaining worlds lost to Chaos Lords.    Both are great for modelling and playing, but both deal with huge numbers of men, either with cavalry ( Warhammer ) or massive robotic armies (W40K). While I am not decrying them and the thrill of massed troop attacks causing huge damage, there is another aspect to wars.   The game Mordhiem deals with hired hands, mercenaries and witches in medieval towns. It is great if you prefer skirmish warfare to large scale battles. This game is long forgotten apart from a few addicts, mainly because of the biased way of massing points for your groups.   Another big influence was the Xbox game Thief, similar to Tom Clancy's Sp

   Most people are familiar with the stories behind Pat Canella, Mark Johnson and The Old Church ghosts; if you are not they are easily followed on the blog.    The story behind Holding Richmond is less well known. In June 2011 I entered a contest on a site called Knightwatch, the theme was to be an alternate history involving real people from history and vampires. As I have had a long time fascination with the American Civil War/ Indian Wars, the choice was easy to make.    The interesting part was to choose a point where history could have turned, the fall of Richmond came to mind. It was a crucial victory for the Confederate side, opening the flank and mid-West theatre.    From the night before this crucial battle I drew my story, what could have stopped the Confederate onslaught. After researching the battle on line, and with my limited knowledge from both previous researches and playing ACW war games in my late teens I knew something of the weapons and uniforms that were used

Tonight's sale gives yet another honour to my anti-Twilight vampire story. HR is now the first book to reach 10 sales on Amazon, it ran close to Nerja for a while but in the final dash it out sold Nerja 3 - 1 in the last six weeks.

                                                Chapter 11 – Hiding away             Riding his bike up to the burning gate, Jeff said “Okay, we know for sure now. If 501 was here before, they are probably not here now, Frankie!”             Sitting on his bike, Jeff replied “I think that is a given thing, Jeff. So, what do we do next?”             “The way I see it, we came to rescue 501, as far as we know we are the only people near enough to get to them. I don’t know about you but I can’t rest easy knowing I got here and left them alone, Jeff.”             “I guess you’re right, you know this means we go in naked.”             Yup, you got that part right. We take in what we can carry and pick things up as we go.”             Looking at the four raydrians flying back to base, Frankie said “I’m glad Adria will get back safe, but for us, who can tell?”             Jeff was busily eyeing the roof tops, watching for some sign of movement. The more he searched, the less