Here I am at the edge

 Summer Reading Several members of the writing community I used to know told me they looked forward to this time of year, they used to get a summer boost for their eBook sales. If I had a boost, mine usually came around Christmas, but what most writers would call a slump I called a boost; after all, if you only sell one or two ebooks a month it is hard to have a slump.

 Nonsense I doubt anyone has not been a victim of spam at some time. The mass comments have no relevance to your post or try to force you to buy something you didn't know you don't need until they force their sales pitch at you. I used to get a lot from Egypt, mainly to join sex sites, that is the two faces of Islam . They are not allowed, publicly, to talk about sex, so the men send out mass emails to the sites. I had another spam comment this week, a man wanted to convince me that he could get some eBook sales for me if I undertook his guidance. I felt like saying, "The best way to help me, is to buy my books ."

 School days A thought occurred to me recently, the film from 1947 Sweden entitled Woman without a Face reminded me of a girl I know in school . The film is about a young lady who feels she is invisible, so she tries to find happiness in numerous affairs. I knew of a girl like that in my school, she would do things for a drink that I would not dream of asking; some of the boys took advantage of her search for love, but I felt sorry for her. I got the impression home life was a misery, and her easy manner was her way of tryiing to find love - sadly, the only thing her actions brought her was a reputation for being "easy."

 This is NOT Sport Hunting I am against trophy hunting, there is no question about it, the practice of "Sport Hunting" is diabolical. This is NOT a trophy hunt; the news that a mother Orca - Killer whale - is training her pod to attack boats off the coast of Gibraltar  is a frightening concept. Imagine what could happen when the pups decide to leave to form their pods with this knowledge. The scenario is similar to a science fiction film from the 1970s featuring Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling  with the exception that mother was after the killers of her lover. Another consideration is these whale s are killers of seal s wherever they travel .

 The Final Frontier As I no longer class myself as a writer , and I have found a hatred of books, I am going to throw out many of my collection as I doubt I will read them. The lack of eBook sales is a small part of my troubles, other parts include an aversion to reading which has grown in the last three or four years. The aversion is fuelled by the knowledge that books I would class as poor reads have been shown as TV series. I never thought I would be published , other than self-published as that requires a belief from a publisher the book will sell, and the money to publicize the book .

 The Dream that became my Nightmare What a headline from a writer ! Scary it may be, but it's the truth. I have developed an aversion to reading over the last three or four years. Some of the problems I put down to chasing the elusive butterfly, of believing people would pay to read my short story collection. I never imagined I'd get a contract as that takes money  and a belief from a publisher - some books question the beliefs of the producer of TV shows. A case in mind is Deadwater Fell , an apt name for a terrible story. How anyone could conceive of turning a half-decent film into four, hour-long episodes is beyond me. The same can be said for the latest series from India , the film Nagin is a classic of 1970s cinema from India, but the newest version to be seen; there is a new film out next year, is a series of half an hour long episodes stretching over several series. My saving grace is not having papered my room with wallpaper that resembled bookcases. This is one of ...

Bahut Achchha The term  Bahut Achchha means well done in Hindi. At this point, I wish to make a point clear to you; when I say I watch films and buy DVDs of films from India ; I have no specific language in mind. Hindi is the most spoken, but there are several other regional languages. If you wish, you can view a small selection of my favorite movies from India on my YouTube playlist  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyAvcumxnGk&list=PLN_cA-MjGHZTmW8GGcth_6DKrOzEpzAHS .

  The Rocking Lantern My second ghost story The Rocking Lantern holds a record I doubt I will see passed. At 15 years old, and with no sales record, this eBook  holds the record for the longest without a sale.

 Ghosts of your past The second installment of my Pat Canella series has a sales record I doubt will be equaled, never mind broken; the eBook -    https://www.draft2digital.com/book/32330   - sold two copies within an hour of being published .

  Three of a kind The movie M eghnadbodh Rohoshyo from India  is a great puzzle to solve if you enjoy a complex mystery . The storyline is about a writer who disappears after his new book is launched at a birthday party.  The guests are family and business associates. The mystery begins with the discovery of a present that none of the guests brought to the party.  As the police investigate the disappearance, it becomes obvious that all at the party hated the author for one reason or another, including his wife and daughter.  What makes the story intriguing is until the end, you don't know if he is dead, or left the party unseen. Why is it one of three of a kind? Having located this film which I saw on Netflix , I hope to locate two more films that I have not been able to find on DVD. I will add those if I can find them. After checking my Netflix account last night, I found the other films I am looking for are still on there; despite them being there for three ...

 A Phone call away I cannot claim to have been an influence in the decision-making, but something I said to a specialist at our hospital may have been passed on. Each year, after the examination of my liver, I would be called across the city for a talk with the specialist; each year, I would tell him "What is the point of this? I have to travel for 1 1/2 hours each way in pain, and I cannot always afford the bus fare, and for what as we could have had this 10-minute talk over the phone?" Now, the hospital sends me a letter informing me of the date of a phone call.

 Zalzala I have been searching for the film Zalzala for several months, as my wife would like to watch it. I have the DVD on a 3-film disc, but there aren't subtitles. Today, I found a copy of the movie on the  Internet Archive site. The film is from 1988; the story is an Indian version of King Solomon's Mines .

 I Crossed the line Last week, my friend Julia, in Seattle , pointed out the reason two of my ebooks had been blocked on a site. The Love of the Sea   https://www.draft2digital.com/book/32521 and its extended version A Sailor's Love    https://www.draft2digital.com/book/34522   are sexually explicit in sections, though not in an outrageously graphic style.  In years past, I was offered a contract by a publisher in Miami to write for them, but I turned the offer down - I did have second thoughts about the decision for months - the reason was the remit for getting published; anything goes, but keep it legal. At the time of the offer, I had my reputation as an author to think about, something that no longer bothers me. A friend of mine, who took up the same offer, later told me she was selling more from her blogs than the site was. I checked up about two years ago, and it is a case of "The lights are on, but nobody is home."  The link is there, but...

 The Original Nagin Movie With my latest buy from eBay , I have completed the Nagin series of films available to buy. I can view the series from the original movie ( 1954 ) through to the cheap movies of the last five years, and give a reasonable opinion on how I rate the films. The bottom three are already set; the worst is without a doubt, in my mind, the new series. I am at a loss as to how you can turn a very good film of 1 3/4 hours, into a series of 1/2 hour episodes that run for several series. I can understand going back to show how Nagin became what she became, but this should only take a few minutes of screen time. I have to smile with the acquisition of this film, one of the "new" characters in the Harry Potter films came from a film that is two years older, maybe more depending on the month the film was released, than I am; making the character about 68 years old :) 

 Japanese Islands I foresee some confusion among sailors in the future.  The reason is there is a plan to name some of the islands around Japan " The Land of Fire and Ice ." However, it has been accepted by everyone that Tierra del Fuego ; the land of fire is off the coast of Argentina .

 RAF Mosquitos Though the Amiens Prison raid    https://hereiamattheedge.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-dam-busters.html   was nothing short of a failure, its successors the Aarhus Raid , and the Copenhagen air raid in Denmark were successes with hundreds of resistance files being destroyed, and the efficiency of the Gestapo being severely hindered. A similar raid in Oslo failed to achieve its objectives, but these raids did prove that despite the fame, and glory of the fighter planes in T he Battle of Britain, and the heavy bomber raids; other planes played a vital role in the war effort. People forget the value of the De Haviland Mosquito because the pilots were not involved in daring duels, or flying to bomb the enemy; but, flying at low level and high speed takes its own brand of heroism. There are many pilots who are forgotten, among them are the men who flew night patrols, Air and Sea Rescue , the young ladies who flew for the ATS to fly planes between stat...

 My fave James Bond film My fave James Bond film is Thunderball . I admit I haven't seen a film since Moonraker , in my defense, the gadgets had taken over from the story by this time. Adolfo Celi was the best villain I saw, and the battle below the waves is a classic scene stealer.

 One Definition of Hell To each of us, Hell is different. My HELL as a writer is spending time writing and editing a story for months, that will not sell; that is the norm for my ebook  production. For my troubles, I earn less than $1 a week, I could earn more busking on a street corner in the freezing rain. On the other hand, HEAVEN would be to sell 10 copies of one of my ebooks in a month, I did start with 10 a day but I soon realized 10 a month would be a more realistic aim; yet in the 15 years I have been writing no ebook has managed the target. The closest is my Amazon bestseller Holding Richmond    https://books.apple.com/us/book/id808256528   which sold seven copies in a weekend (twice).

 Nobody is out there Yesterday, I didn't check my blog readers, and it proved a point I had pondered for years.  Nobody reads this blog; the readers fell below 15, which proved to me that nearly all of the "readers" are me checking to see if anybody, other than my friend, Julia, in Seattle , reads what I write . I had thought nobody was reading this for years, and now I have proof - if I needed the proof.  I am to blame for the lack of readers, in part, as I don't post about what is the trend , and at times the blog does force people away with my style of writing .

 Too hot to handle Thi s ebook is classed as too  erotic for three sites, which is ironic as the extended edition - A Sailor's Love - passed the same tests. I wonder if this failed because I published the short story under the pen name of a lady?

  A Waste of Time If you live in the UK , NEVER try to be a Writer , everything is against your success. It may be different elsewhere, but in the UK WRITING IS DEAD . If you don't believe me, look at the recent releases on TV, and the cinemas. ANOTHER version of Peter Pan , Three rewrites of Agatha Christie novels. A revamp of Lost in Space , the only difference, these days you have to give parts to Black People to accommodate Black Lives Matter . My biggest loss in the last 14 years since I tried to answer the What if question which plagued me, is not my failure as a writer, but my desires to succeed denied my best friend Max, shown here, the love he deserved during his last years.

 I am Plagued  For months I have been plagued by the theme of the James Bond film Dr. No . It isn't enough that the song has stuck with me; I don't rate the film as one of my top three Bond films. I don't rate Ursula Andress either as an actress or an attractive lady; the climax was an anti-climax - even considering the age of the film - there were far better endings. The villain was not threatening as some others were.

 I am at a loss For some reason I have not been able to decide. I have had several of my ebook s banned. I could understand if Sexual Explosions got banned, but it didn't. The banned stories are mild in relation to some of the ones I am writing now.

  The Union Jack The Union Flag  is only called the Union Jack when it is flown from the jack spar of a ship with the King or Queen aboard. Though a member of the Royal family is aboard, the captain of the ship remains in control of the ship.

Modesty Prevails  T he film Janbaaz was banned in India for many years because the censors were offended by the romantic scenes between actress Dimple Kapadia and Anil Kapoor . There was another film that got banned for a while as the poster featured the image of a naked young lady being carried across a graveyard, this film was from the late 80s and is a Ramsay Brothers horror film.

 A Mammoth Task A project I often consider is whether it would be possible to rebuild my science fiction story - The Word?  I wrote a section each week for over four months several years ago when I stopped writing the story was over 90 pages long, and as far as I was concerned nowhere near finished. There were several reasons for stopping, one was I had invested so much time I would not get any benefit from trying to sell it; equally as strong, was that I had no idea when I would finish the story.

 The Clearout   Today, as I have done for the last week, I began the day online by clearing out some of my blog posts. There is no pattern, other than most of what is going out is either old or has no value now. Many posts are ones I did for other people's book s, or projects. Items that I never got a thank you for. Such is life - I was able to get two writers a contract, and boosted another's sales by 100% with my ability as a promoter -  I did all this for free, yet nobody cared enough to thank me, so I started to play hardball and only promote my work, as nobody would. As we'd say in Yorkshire , "Di nee do ought for naught unless thee does it for thee sen."  In English, "Don't do anything for nothing, unless you do it for yourself."

 The Paleface I was thinking of a joke about dentists and thought it was suitable for the Bob Hope and Jane Russell comedy western The Paleface .  The dentist gives the patient anesthetic and then pulls the wrong tooth out. With the patient drugged he says, "I have some good news, and some bad news." The patient replies, "What's the bad news?" "I pulled the wrong tooth out." The patient asks, "What is the good news?" The dentist comments, "The other one is getting better."

  On the Loose Two days ago, the park authorities captured an elephant that escaped 15 years ago from a farm in Kerala , India . She was tranquilized and taken to an undisclosed area to live her days out in peace.