Here I am at the edge

A transperson romance .  Again, the argument of should Transwomen be allowed to compete in ladies sports is raised.  In my mind, the question is are you worried that a tanswomen has the strength of a man? If this is your argument, you are locking the door decades after the horses have bolted. Us of the older generation asked that question back in the 1970's when Soviet women were built and trained to be fitter than any lady would normally have been trained; they WERE stronger than most men because they never had the life of a woman. After writing A Homecoming , which approached the subject of sexual intimacy between same-sex partners. I had an idea for writing a romance about a trans person, as I have seen some attractive trans ladies. The lady above is Dr. Lynette Nusbacher , who I listen to when I watch Abandoned Engineering . Well before Caitlyn Jenner made her fortune Keeping up with the Kardashians there was a Welsh writer called Jan Morris   who was a respect...

Sea Ghosts sequel . These are the opening pages to the sequel to my ghost story, Sea Ghosts . The young couple stood on the quay viewing the sea, with a smile, the young lady asked the sailor, "Would it be possible to take a boat out for the afternoon, please?" The sailor glanced out to sea, and replied, "As you are asking, I presume the young man has sailed before." The young man replied, "I crewed with my late father many times, captain before cancer struck, and he got forced to sell his boat." "That be fine, young man, but have you been to sea? These waters are treacherous and full of riptides and mysterious happenings that have baffled any investigation. Mind you keep an eye on the weather, sea mists rise quicker here than any shore I have come across, and if you see the water boiling and a green mist rising head to shore at full speed, and pray you to make landfall before Mad Jack 's crew catch up with you." The young lady lo...

Dolor y Gloria Pain and Glory is the title of a film by Pedro Almodovar . The film is about a film producer who is looking back at the sadness and glories he has had over the years, something I can relate to with ease. Pain A decade struggling to get a publisher interested in my work, while I watched writers who my friends considered lesser talented than I prosper for want of two things, They live in the USA and have money to spare for publicity . Wasting money, I couldn't spare in buying a book cover for a romance novel  that never sold. Finding out the only publishers interested in me are scam sites where I'd have to pay for publication. Glory My one blinding success story in my decade of struggle is the science-fiction series Forgestriker which has sold over 850 e-books in five years.

I am not infallible . There are many complaints on the Amazon site about people buying a film and finding it has no English subtitles. As a rule, if I buy a foreign movie, I check it has English subtitles.  The film above is one that I had wanted to see for a while as it features Carmen Maura, who is one of my favorite actresses from Spain . However, the first version I bought was dubbed in German, I would rather listen to the movie in its original language, and read the subtitles than try to listen to a dubbed film. Another incident is my recent acquisition of a 2002 film from Belgium called Alias . I bought the movie because it has three of my fave actresses from Belgium in, Hilde van Mieghem ,  Veerle Baetens , and Hilde De Baerdemaeker . I should have realized buying the film from Italy it would be dubbed in Italian.

A popularity rise in Germany for my e-books . Having checked the raw sales data, which tells me not only how many sales, and the channels my e-books have sold in, but the countries where the sales are for Draft2Digital .  In one way, I am surprised to find that in recent months there has been a glut of sales in Germany , there again, German reading is similar in some ways to that of the USA ,  as both countries enjoy stories with a scientific basis, so the rise should not be so surprising.

My life . Going into self-isolation is nothing hard for me to do/cope with as I have little money after paying bills, other than going to the hospital once a month I have not left the house more than once a month in the last two years. Yesterday, 8th September, I went for my first walk in months, not because of the Coronavirus policy but because my disability makes standing painful. I have been fighting a growing inability to walk for years, so I am sure a virus will not take me down, yet.  As my youngest daughter says if we had been infected with my health problems I would be dead by now.

Ban hunting wildlife . One good thing that has come from the Coronavius crisis is the ban on fox hunting until further notice, in the UK. I have always been against hunting wildlife, it serves no purpose other than to keep the wealthy occupied. The lie the rich tell about the hunt providing jobs is so far beyond a farce to be laughable, they don't buy anything from the shops or give a service to the area. The only people who do well are the breeders, and surely it is better to let the bitches live a happy life rather than force them to breed. Two years ago when I was having a lot of aggression from my stepson, on a nighttime I'd go out into the park near us and sit in the dark watching the vixen playing with her cubs. In a time of anger it was nice to enjoy the sight of foxes playing.

The answer is simple to understand . The answer to the question begins with the false concept that if I give out a free story, and you like it, this will encourage sales for my e-books; that never happened. Though I'd like to be paid for writing short stories , the ones I have put for sale never sold, so the time I took in devising the story is wasted. If I put a story on here, there is some chance it will be read, and that is all I am after. Sales of my work were my guide to how you valued my work.

A train crash on the route to Kyiv . The  Coronavirus that is going around the globe reminded me of something that happened many years ago, near  Kyiv in Russia . At the time, I used to listen on the short wave band to messages from all over the globe, even religious broadcasts from America. This one concerned two trains heading across Russia, one was going into Kyiv, and the other leaving the city. There was a report that they were carrying toxic nuclear waste when they collided; naturally, nothing official was said.  This incident lead me to write a short story about such a train crash, and the extent the government would go to keep it quiet.

Facing death . I have come as close to death without dying as I would ever wish to get. In the summer of 1978, I had to go on a ski-lift to see a castle in Germany. I did not want to go up on the lift as I have a fear of heights, but as my friends pointed out, there was no other way up. For all the five minute trip I stared at the back of the people in front, and prayed, I realize thousands of people use them each day but that was no help for me. When the lift reached the top and began its descent, I went to get off but found myself trapped on the front edge of the seat as it descended endlessly over the treetops.  I can say I thought I'd die, with my weight on the front and the ground dropping from my feet, I was sure I was going to die. If you are wondering, NO, I didn't see my life flash before my eyes in those moments of fear, all I had on my mind was getting off the lift before my feet lost contact and I fell to my death.

Resident Evil . I realize that as a writer, I need a vivid imagination, but to me, there is a similarity that is hard to ignore. The story begins in a laboratory in a far east city called Raccoon City - the name sounds a lot like Rangoon . The ensuing panic caused cities to go into lockdown, we have done that, not only with cities but countries. Soldiers on the streets, that is happening in Bristol , I can't speak for anywhere else. Civilization breaks down and people kill for food, we are well on the way to that stage with all the panic buying that is happening.  I don't think the world will turn into a mass of flesh-eating zombies but who can tell?

Amazing readership in France . Yesterday, the largest group of readers for my blog came from France with over 150 readers; followed by Germany well behind only 30.

Donating to SSAFA via Give as you Live . It is my wife's birthday next week, so I sent off for a book that she loved but had to throw out as it got eaten by woodworms several years ago.

Since the end of season 2 . Since the cliff hanger ending to season 2 of  The Witches Of East End , I have had the inkling to write some more stories for the series about the Beauchamp ladies. I have started a short story that begins after season 2 ended called The arrival of Helena Beauchamp . If there is enough interest in my story, I will continue writing it, as usual, you, the readers are in control. Sometimes, we need to bend the rules to get what we wish for, as is the case with this series as season 1 is not available to buy I am downloading it from an upload site in the UK. If the series had been available, I would happily have bought it. The upload site is okay for films but useless for series issues, not only are they episodes out of sequence for the seasons, but also for the series. Madchen Amick (Wendy) told reporters she would love to do a series exploring Wendy's darker side, I think that would go well with fans of the show.

I could live for a century and never see everything I wish to see . I could spend my life in Spain , and die not seeing all the glorious beauty and culture it has to offer. You would not see me on the beaches, more likely seeking out an item of historical  interest to me, and possibly writing a short story about the subject.

I am gathering readers in Argentina and Mexico . To me, there is no surprise to the fact this blog is gathering readers in both Argentina and Mexico this week. One of the reasons is in both countries, Spanish is the primary language, and I have been blogging a lot about Spain this week.

The boom that never happened . Strange as this may appear, this is a true story, not one of my ghost stories . In 2003, the Spanish government decided to go ahead with building an airport to accept any overflow from the central airport in Madrid . At the time, it was estimated the new airport would take up to 20,000 visitors a day; at this point, the plan began to unfold rapidly.  The building started in 2004 but was forced to halt in 2009 before the airport had seen one customer. The main issue is the new airport is over three hours by road from Madrid. Secondary to this, the airport at Madrid expanded to take in another 10,000 people a day, so making the new airport defunct. If I were to build a new airport, I'd build it somewhere on the North coast opposite Barcelona  as that side is not catered for, I realize it is not a holiday coast, but the scenery could be an attraction. It would be for me as I am more interested in the culture and history of the areas...

A sequel or a horror story? Several months ago, I was asked if I was going to write a sequel to my romance short story "Ghosts don't dance," at the time I had no intention of doing any more to my story as it is four years old, though it has been well-read online, it has not sold. If I did do more to my romance, I am not sure if I would keep it in its present format, I may turn it into a horror story .

Nit I Dia If you are watching Night and Day on Walter Presents , here is an interesting item for you. The lady who rushes is hysterical to the police is the mother of the actress, Vicky Pena , who plays the invalid wife.

Night terrors . I have suffered from night terrors for many years, but none were as bad as last night. Looking at the date, I am not surprised as yesterday was Friday the 13th , I am not overly suspicious, but many bad things have happened to me on this day.

Google blog map . I found out today that my blog is being read by some readers in Nepal , I wonder if this is the area that Google refers to as the Unknown Region on my map of readers?

The destabilization . of Western Economy. The Coronavirus threat , I think, has been designed as a means to destabilize the economy of the Western world.  The economy in Europe is heavily linked to the world of Soccer , as this is where the largest crowds gather.  If you get people to believe that staying away from football grounds will lessen the risk of the virus spreading, you will cause a massive amount of economic damage. Tomorrow night, Manchester United will play Lask from Austria behind closed doors; this means there will be no food sold at the match, no programs sold, and souvenirs will be sold either. The match is probably being held as travel arrangements were made weeks ahead of the time.  The clubs that will be affected the most will be those like Manchester United, Liverpool , Juventus , Roma , A.C.Milan,  and those who usually could be relied on to go far in the European competitions. The smaller clubs who never think of competing i...

My constant war . For a long time, I doubted I could write a story of novel-length (40,000 words min). My friends never had this doubt in my ability. Either to write to this length or to keep the readers interested in the full story. One thing that many of them enjoyed is that my stories were not formulaic and could keep the tension until the final pages. When I stopped  A Sailor's Love , the story, in my mind, had a long way to go, I stopped at 35,000 words because I kept asking myself if anyone was interested enough to buy a copy, and nobody is.  This is the problem, I could easily spend time writing a novel , but what for? I have been asked why I don't enter  NaNoWriMo ?   I had thought about entering several times during the years when I was working, but these days, the thought of writing, on average, four pages a day (1,000 words) for a month is beyond me. In the last three years, with the decline in sales for my e-books, I doubt I have writte...

Other than the need to correct errors . The problem I have with rewriting my short story The Lodge  is that when I left the story, it was 30 pages long, and I was content to leave it at that, even though it is not complete. Now I am rewriting the story with a more erotic feel, and with names changed, I have created a significant editing dilemma for myself.