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Showing posts from May, 2013
Who wants Patti dead?
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“Hell, gal, the city is getting to you!” I told myself, as I turned onto Harrison only minutes from the apartment and yet I noticed a chill, despite the muggy evening air. Was this the start of the after-effect the sarge had talked about? I shouldn’t feel this way or perhaps I should after all I killed a human being and a fellow policeman, maybe this is my punishment even though nobody blamed me, I had to get passed this point, or give in, “Aw! C’mon gal, you ain’t going to crack up yet, you got more fight than any two of them men in the room and just as much brains,” I chided myself, walking onto Sixth Avenue. There had to be a reason for this but I sure as hell was damned if I knew what the reason was. Walking up to the door of the block, steps still covered in the same dirt from weeks ago, garbage trucks didn’t come here. Hell nobody did! “I have got to get away from here, but I ain’t going to do it on my pay. I need to get a higher rank,” I told myself walking past last weeks s
Rarity for sale from me :(
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![Image](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KX3zIGie_G4/UZ901wgLhrI/AAAAAAAABy0/uP7CotTrww4/s320/04stew_650+(1).jpg)
This is the new cover to the opening stories in the Pat Canella series which started in 2011 and may end soon as sales did not come from the book on Amazon and the on line stories had no readers. Buying this book may well let you have a rarity as there are no plans for the scheduled follow up book "Hunted down." Price £1.50?/$2
The Spirit Painter part 2
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The second part of The Spirit Painter story has gone out live, also FREE to read at http://alsdomain.weebly.com/18/post/2013/05/the-spirit-painter-part-2.html#.UZ39GNLVAW4 don't forget this is the third of the eight stories in the award winning Chronicles of Mark Johnson book 1, available for sale http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO and book 2 is due out mid-June.
Accidents on trains
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It's odd how something can bring home to you something which you hadn't considered. At Christmas I saw a video of a lady falling from a platform and ending up under a train and at that point, I realised how easily it could happen to me; true I never get drunk, but since the injury my ankles cannot take the strain and you need two good ankles to get on and off trains. This is the reason, I never use them now.
A crossover ending
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There isn't a lot to tell, the title said it all. I am planning on a crossover book for Patti and Mark; with a dramatic ending ending to two sets of stories I hoped would get your imagination; I was wrong, not for the first time but probably for the last time in my writing as I don't give a damn any more. You proved nobody wanted the stories, so nobody will miss them after Chronicles book 3. I am going back over the last series of Pat Canella stories because accidentally I let myself have the chance of the crossover plot to Chronicles. I would say, to understand book 3 you had to read book 2, but hey! You never got book 1, don't worry about it, after this nobody gives a hoot; not even me. All I will say is this I hope this will be a fitting finale' to two great characters I got to know and like. I hope to make this book even more scary than the endings to both Chronicles book 2 and the end of the Pat Canella series, as Patti and MJ go hell-for-leather for a grand f
The Porthern case, part 1
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This is the second of the eight stories in the award winning Chronicles of Mark Johnson; which is on sale at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO THE PORTHERN CASE Since resolving the matter of the trapped spirits at the old Morton house a few years prior, Mark Johnson’s expertise and skills as a photojournalist were in demand again. He was now getting serious job offers for both his photographic and writing skills. Even though wealth was heading his way, Mark had not changed. He preferred to stay a recluse in his cottage by the coast, his only contact with the outside world being his lady friend, the artist Annette Palmer, and his agent, Phil Moore. He had met Annette a few months earlier while on a case. He had felt an affinity towards her from the moment they met. Today he was out walking the dog, when the house phone rang. “Hello, Phil, what can we do for you?" Annette asked. “Hi, Annette. I think I might have a story for Mark, plus a chance of
Perils arising
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Some of the readers may know one of my worries is when friends and readers of my stories tell me, I get better with each story. Why is the compliment a problem? It means I have set myself a high standard to maintain as I don't want to disappoint my readers - not that I have so far - and this leads to the second part of the problem, if I do disappoint you, the higher the plateau I reach, the greater the fall. As yet I don't appear to have reached the plateau and that is an issue I have to ponder about; when will I reach it?
Support an Indie
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I am not expecting any royalties It has been almost six months since my last payment from Draft2Digital , and I am not expecting more. The reason is they are devouring up FREE LENDING libraries faster than hot food on a freezing November day. What this means for the writers is until the books reach a certain, unspecified, number of readers we will not see a dime. The best way to Support an Indie, is to ignore these places, and buy your ebook ; in my case from either Google Play , Apple , or Amazon .
A new face for a new start?
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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078VZREI Please note, in an attempt to draw sales; I have changed the cover and title for the first two Pat Canella stories. I am currently re-editing book 3 in the series "Hunted Down," as of now I have no idea when it may be available or even of it will be generally available. After the poor responses to the previous books and my books for sale; I am loathe to put books for sale. I will gladly send them to friends to read or you can get them from me via Paypal.
A ghost story of real horrors
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From the horrors of Sci-Fi to the real horrors endured by our forefathers in WW1 with my US top rated ghost story http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BNDHL0U . This story was very personal to me and brought me to tears, here is my Yahoo article which links well to the story http://uk.news.yahoo.com/world-war-2-trenches-grandfather-095300577.html .
On line serialised stories
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With the successes of "Love of the Sea" http://alsdomain.weebly.com/love-of-the-sea.html and "Chronicles" http://alsdomain.weebly.com/chronicles-of-mark-johnson.html#.UZY3GqLVAW4 on line, I am returning to my Sci-Fi horror mix to bring a new and cleaner read to The Word http://alsdomain.weebly.com/the-word.html
The race to 20 sales
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With another sale today, the next honour, the first book to reach 20 sales gets one small step closer for my best seller on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJKK84 read the next link to find which book is closest and how close they are http://alsdomain.weebly.com/9/post/2013/05/first-to-20-sales.html .
Chronicles of Mark Johnson is in the top 20
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The futility of Amazon ratings You read the title correctly The futility of the Amazon rating is no better depicted than with my award-winning book . You may ask, how can a book which never sold be in the top 20 books of its category? I have no answer, but it is true, when the book won the award (October 2012) Amazon pushed it into the top 20, though to this day it has not sold a copy.
Rise of the Prospero
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Continuing the story of the Prospero, after she leaves the shores of the UK Simon Miggins stood on the deck of the Prospero as she left the cove at Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, his eyes cast a final glance to the haunt of his former captain John Andrew and called to the crew, “Make sail for the open seas, this is the last time we’ll see Andrew or the Ship Inn.” The Prospero drew a lot of water in the shallows and more than once the crew wondered would their ship set sail - or would they be stranded here? Slowly she turned to the wind and her sails flapped with North winds, the winds of the North are cold and harsh unlike the warmer winds of the South and the crew had to wrap up well as the biting cold tore through their tattered clothes, Where are we headed, Captain?” called Paul Marler as he dried himself off after the swim under the hull, which led to John Andrew being keel-hauled. Miggins looked to the open sea and said with a wave of his arm, “Out there, Paul, where ev
Book 2 in the Chronicles series will be here soon
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Chapter 2 part 1
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THE PORTHERN CASE Since resolving the matter of the trapped spirits at the old Morton house a few years prior, Mark Johnson’s expertise and skills as a photojournalist were in demand again. He was now getting serious job offers for both his photographic and writing skills. Even though wealth was heading his way, Mark had not changed. He preferred to stay a recluse in his cottage by the coast, his only contact with the outside world being his lady friend, the artist Annette Palmer, and his agent, Phil Moore. He had met Annette a few months earlier while on a case. He had felt an affinity towards her from the moment they met. Today he was out walking the dog, when the house phone rang. “Hello, Phil, what can we do for you?" Annette asked. “Hi, Annette. I think I might have a story for Mark, plus a chance of some art work for you at the same time.” “Sounds interesting. Go on.” "I've just had a call from a man called Patrick Kingsley. He said he'd like the two of you to m
The mystery at the Morpeth Arms
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More tales from the Morpeth Arms Hotel with Algie & Bertie A teasing start to the new story :) Bertie was sitting in his regular spot on the porch of the Morpeth Arms Hotel, partaking of his "medicinal tipple" as he called it these days. The sun was lazily glinting on the waters of the pond and the Moorhens and Coots were displaying their finery, "What a lovely morning," he thought, "I think I will take a walk around the park before lunch." He rose from his seat and took a quick glance around him, making certain nobody could see him; he took a nip of whiskey before setting off on his afternoon stroll. Here at the "Morpeth", things rarely moved quicker than a snail, days lingered as the men told tales of exploits of their youth and the ladies were in "the snug," the area of the hotel which allowed them in, the men would retire to the smoking room and talk of things which they preferred ladies not to know about. While the ladies ha
Life without Draft2Digital
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eBook links I am not expecting miracles, and I know hunting writing sites is going to take time out of writing the story, but I would rather do it the old way than trust to Draft2Digital . The only use D2D has for me now is to show me a few sites where I can add to my eBook stock there, or perhaps create an account to add to.
Kris and Kelly doing a lovely version of my favourite song
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Is there any point?
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To salvage or to scarp? I have checked Patti over with Word and there are masses of edits to do. I wonder is it worth saving? Nobody bothered about the earlier stories. I have to ask myself this question as it will involve a lot of work for what? Sales of the first books over the year amounted to less than one a month, the on line readership to which is was re-writing these stories amounts to less than half a dozen a day, considering all the networks they link to this is crap. It does show how little my work on Patti is valued :( I enjoyed the excitement of writing her stories and will have to tie the threads up as I re-write the series to end it over the next few weeks, nobody wants to read it and I will close the series; which in a way answers my previous post. No crossover .
A crossover for MJ & Patti?
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Recently I was talking with a close friend about how I felt that with all the problems that have beset the last Pat Canella stories, and how I felt the series was haunted from the time I started writing it. I said at one time I had to redirect the plot line as it was becoming too like a Mark Johnson plot line. My friend suggested that would be a great theme for a book to join my characters in one series of stories. I had to think about the backgrounds to my stories and while Pat Canella is set in the 1940's; Chronicles isn't set in a time period, so the possibility is there. What do you think? The bottom line here is that neither series has sold well at Amazon, and this may well be a kill or cure for either or both.
My days off
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From time to time, I may not be writing; here is an article explaining some of the symptoms I suffer from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occipital_neuralgia Putting it in terminology which is easy to understand:- The least painful is like a bad headache on the top of my head. Stage 2 is like having somebody put a pen in your ear, push on your eyeball and squeeze your head and the worst case is like the USS Enterprise going into warp, with stars flashing around and yellow stripes on the walls.
A hard days night
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A day lost The pain from the growth on my liver has been bearable today; the growth may not be growing - I should find out tomorrow - but, that doesn't mean it is not affecting me. I am in so much pain today that I had to spend most of the afternoon in bed as standing was too painful. The pain is similar to having a sword stabbed in my side, and twisted and being pushed in and down.
How stories expand
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When I wrote "The Love of the Sea," I started out with the idea with the idea of a short ghost story with a romantic theme. I had a reputation for good ghost stories and had not done a romantic one before, so I thought I would try. I sent it to a friend for her free read section on the blog and had some nice comments and my friend told me that the story was very popular. I had the thought maybe I can expand it a little; never imagining that I would expand a 1,200 word story into a novel, but that does appear to be what is happening as the story is now over 26,000 words and still going strong. I think my largest collection to date is the first Chronicles book at around 30,000 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO which is a series of short stories introducing the characters who appear in the forthcoming book 2.
Thank you for the support
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I would like to open today's blog by thanking you for your support and the growing numbers of readers which this blog is achieving. Over the last week, you have continued to read more each day, which is great . I was worried a few weeks ago that the erotica was the only reason why people came here. Fans of my stories on line keeping telling me that the stories get better each time, which is a little disconcerting as there has to be a time when I plateau and cannot surpass my previous story. My worry is that when the time arrives, I will let you down and the greater the height, the greater the fall.
Caves of the Undead Spirits
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This story is the follow-up to my best seller "Holding Richmond" http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CJKK84 and tells how the Undead Spirits move. Here is a short sample:- The Sergeant sat up in the saddle, the hills around the troop were quiet which was unsettling as he knew the Comanche would be near, but the air was quiet, too quiet, "Well, here we are Cap'n. Those cliffs are where they are s'posed to be hiding out. I don't like it, sir, the Comanche's should have chased us, but they gave in too easy for my liking." Captain March of the 17th US Cavalry took a few moments to observe what was going on around the soldiers, then he said, "I know, I feel the same about this, Sergeant; Corporal Hind, you know what to do, son." "Yes sir. If you and the men don't show at the cave mouth in twenty minutes, I'm to ride back to the wire station and ask the fort to send out Pete Jackson and Mike Horner and get them to close the ca
Bill Chart speaks
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In the stories of Pat Canella, one of the recurring characters is a former PI, Bill Chart:- one time tough nut and a good cop gone bad, or was he? I plan a few stories featuring Bill telling his story, if anybody is interested. Here is a sampler:- The man at the bar was playing with his half-empty glass of beer, he looked shabby and down-at-heel but so would you, if nobody trusted you and you couldn't get a job. He sat alone at the counter watching the door and chewing his cigarette butt, "Hey, can I have a refill, Jim? You know I'm good for one, he said as he downed the last of the beer and slid the glass over to the barman. Jim Mellor, head bar keep at the Lincoln Arms looked him over and replied, "You were,but your credit is out, Bill, until you get some work." "Hell, Jim, who is gonna be crazy enough to do that, everybody knows my rep and how I took the rap for the cop-killing over at the docks. All I can do is clear my name, so my kid don&