Here I am at the edge

The writer of romances. I planned to use this image to launch my e-book    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075BJH2D2   as a paperback, but the picture was too small, so I kept the original. By keeping the original, I can hope to recover some of my outlay from last year. This is a low-risk gamble as I am out of pocket with little opportunity to get my money back with sales.

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. My ghost story    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EPGKFR8   is not the usual type of ghost story. The setting is a jazz club in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , and the ghosts are the spirits of dead jazz musicians. But that is not all, the story has a mysterious theme to it.

Lemon tea with Ginger. For many years, I wondered if caffeine was the fuel to my writing. This week I found the answer - no - I have not lost the imagination for my stories. During the last two weeks, I have been hit with a severe bout of hay fever that has at times left me in shivers. My saving grace has been lemon tea with ginger or marmalade. After all, marmalade is only fruit peel boiled in sugar water, plus mine comes with a good helping of medicinal whiskey. If I can't cure a fever, I'll get the germs so drunk they won't care LOL.

I have to accept I am a disabled person now. The time has come for me to consider myself as a disabled person, not a person with a disability as the limitation is now controlling my life. People keep telling me they consider me a fighter and an inspiration for not giving into my incurable illness for two decades.  I wasn't macho denying to myself that I thought I was disabled, it was merely that before last year as I could get around (slowly) on my own, I never thought I was disabled. Now, I cannot walk down the stairs without the aid of the banister rail I think of myself as the batter at the bottom of the ninth innings, two out, two strikes down with the team trailing by four runs, and three men on base. If I make the big play, we can win.

The Word. My science fiction serial    https://disqus.com/home/channel/indieworld/topics/the-word/   continues on Disqus .  This is week 7, and before I need to write more, there is the same number of weeks to be pasted from several years ago when the serial was last online.

Allergies drain you. I have been offline for the week not because I chose to go offline for lack of readers, that could still occur. I have been offline this week because it has been hard for me to work as I am suffering my worst bout of hay fever this week. One year, it was so severe that I lost the sight in my right eye for three days.

Indie World plays host to online science fiction for free. If you didn't realize, on my page on Disqus , I'm running a free to read serial    https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-indieworld/the_word_part_6/ .  The serial started out as a series on this blog  five years ago but got stopped because of a lack of readers. When I finished writing, the story was still unfinished.  With this week's episode, I am now close to halfway through posting the 100 pages that I wrote back then.

How we hear interests me. One aspect of science holds great interest for me, how much sound is affected by the facial structure. To give an example, all the ladies on the post are from the state of Georgia , but they sound so different. I've bee told by friends that they can detect my Yorkshire accent when I talk, even though I left the county over 55 years ago.

My unpublished short story collection Until last month, I had over a decade of unpublished short stories on file. What happened to them? I decided to have a clearance of my data, I thought if I hadn't got to finish a short story in a decade, then it was not worth keeping the files. I found that during my clearance I had deleted some stories I would have wanted to continue - c'est la vie - it is no loss that I deleted them.

In the scrap pile. My task tomorrow is to locate and trash the stories I have on file. The stories online now will stay, but this is the end of the line for me after a decade of defending my work against vitriolic attacks from critics.

I try to look at the person, not the clothes. I try not to judge a person by their clothes. I never can tell how their lives have been before we met. I am reminded of a man I met in a park near a museum I worked in; at first glances, you'd pass him like a tramp.  I earned his trust over a few weeks and got to know his story. He was once a successful businessman who had hit a terrible spell and lost his business. He decided to save his family from his shame that the best thing for his family was for him to live on the street as a tramp. I am writing a story on my page on Disqus about a man who finds the Lord in his hour of need    https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-indieworld/god_walks_these_dark_hills/ .  Like my leading man, the Lord didn't give me a body that suited trendy clothes, and like my character, if I had the money, I would not change how I dress. If you judge me from how I dress; that only proves to me how superficial yo...

The sequel to my romance book is online. I don't hold out any hopes for my e-book to sell online    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075BJH2D2  and  https://www.draft2digital.com/book/235628 . That is why I am putting the sequel free to read online    https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-indieworld/the_sequel_has_begun/ .

Go to my Disqus page for some free short stories to read. On my page, on Disqus , a friend and myself are writing short stories each week. If you follow this link    https://disqus.com/home/channel/indieworld/ , you can read the stories free every other day. Some of mine have not been online before as I am writing the segments this week.

I have no need for a Comfort Zone. From an early age, I never formed a "comfort zone," I saw reading as an adventure, and I wished to explore new worlds, I suppose that is one reason why I started to write stories. My shelves have books by James Swallow and Robert Goddard next to books by T.E. Lawrence  and Stephen R. Donaldson .

The Word part 2 is now online to read. If anyone is interested, my science fiction serial is now online   https://disqus.com/home/discussion/channel-indieworld/the_word_part_2/ .

I believe in the power of praying. Every night, I pray that my Max is at peace now he has passed away. He suffered so much from cancer in the last years of his life, he needs some peace.

                                John "Mad Jack" Andrew My story  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QERF2E   may be fiction, but it's based on the life of a real pirate who lived in Yorkshire . The inn he ran for over 40 years still stands and is haunted by the spirit of his four-year-old daughter who died of meningitis. As a small consolation for not selling until last week, the story came third in a Facebook writing contest several years ago.

Science Fiction on Disqus. In the last five years, I have earned an excellent reputation for writing science fiction in the USA . With this in mind I have started an online serial today    https://disqus.com/home/channel/indieworld/discussion/channel-indieworld/the_word_part_1/ , If there is interest, the serial could go for months, as the stories cover over 100 pages, and I am not halfway to the end.

The only way I can afford a short break. The only way I can get away from writing  for a short time is to watch some TV shows from overseas. After this break, I could be going to either Copenhagen  or Naples .

I am a reader of many varieties of books. Either I expected more than I got, or I waited too long to read the books. I had wanted to read both Satre and Checkov for many years. When I did, I found them both a hard task to continue reading. Checkov I found to be boring, while Sartre I found was too pensive and lacking enough to maintain my interest. I had the same problem with Graeme Greene , other than the "The Third Man." As I wish to read Pushkin , I hope he is better than his fellow Russian Checkov.

As scary as the award-winner. The Chronicles of Mark Johnson may have won the award, but the sequel  https://www.draft2digital.com/book/32125 was better as it is scarier and was written during a dark time in my life, not unlike now. I must warn you, I had terrible nights without sleep while;e I wrote these stories, and I knew what was going to happen.

I am a wandering writer. Even at the ripe age of 62, I find it hard to put down roots. It could be because of my gypsy soul, or because I have the sea in my blood coming from a fishing family.

Forgestriker is still selling after more than four years. After more than four years, my Science Fiction series      https://hereiamattheedge.blogspot.com/2016/04/forgestriker-hit-series.html#.WxPI7UgvzIV   is still going well.

The Chronicles of Mark Johnson Eleven years ago, in another life it seemed, I wrote my award-winning e-book     https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO .  What has happened since then? In short, nothing. The book was sabotaged by a writer I used to know who was jealous of my success because she always told people online how I was a terrible writer . At the time I was angry, and almost went on a site we shared and attacked her as she had me many times, but I didn't as I thought it wasn't my way. Over time, I pitied her more than was angry with her for ruining my opportunity to shine. She is 10 years older than me, and yet she felt so threatened by my success she felt the urge to waste time trashing my ebook online.

The Chronicles of Mark Johnson. A reader in the USA has this to say about my award-winning e-book  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BEDMSO  -  Just read the first story and dang its friggin brilliant. I totally love how the story is written (especially the spirit photography). Though it’s not scary at all but its clearly lot better than twilight and other retarded stories. No wonder why its award-winning book. Great job writing good stuff.

I am heading in a new direction. The editors have not said that my book    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075BJH2D2  is going to be published, but on the other hand, they have not told me it won't get released and with days to go before the deadline I'm taking that as a good sign while preparing for the bad news.