Here I am at the edge

 The Worm A short while ago, I had my Facebook hacked. the hack was the most basic available, it is called the Worm. In this case, it attached itself to my Facebook Messenger list of recent contacts, and blocked them off my friends list. As they sent a mesage, I am certain I will be contacted by my lost friends online to find out what the message was, and so the hack is beaten,

   Check before approaching Without asking, this young lady (?) approached me on Facebook a few minutes ago on the assumption I like large breasts , and bottoms . If she had checked my posts, she would realise I am not a fan of either.

 What a laugh This had to be the lamest attempt to scam me yet. I was approached on Twitter this morning, by a lady I didn't know. She said she was offering me an open invite to join the Illuminati to imptove my finance situation. Naturally, I reported the scam; there is no way a powerful group of high financiers would wish for a writer like me to join them.

  Iceland According to my blog I am being tracked from Iceland by a company called Dalvik , I don't get many readers from Scandinavia , so this is a little surprising to me.

  A personal collection I will admit to having an ulterior motive to gaining some of my Facebook friends. I find many of the ladies are attractive to me, and I would like to see tem in their underwear ; that is if they are happy to share that type of photograph with me, I would never ask for them.

 Alan's den A few minutes ago, I opened a Google chat space called Alans' den

 For my sins As much as I would like to take another day off from writing, to ease the pains in my shoulders, and back I can't.  I agreed with my agent , I would have this project complete by mid- August ; so, I need to press on with the editing regardless.

 No contact Since last night, I have been trying to contact friends on WhatsApp , but I can't, and they cannot get me either.

  What a foul play How about this for a Triple Play , followed by a foul . Last night, I was approached on Facebook, by a charming lady; we'd only been chatting for an hour, when she said "What are you getting me for tomorrow?" My answer was "Is it your birthday?" She claimed it is, how was I to know that as she'd only been in contact hat night. Later she said she was going out for a meal tonight with he friend, as that didn't win any money she played the sick granny card; the image she sent could have been of any elderly lady in hospital , so again no luck. Then she said she needed $50 to free her Apple account; again no joy. Tonight, she was on complaining she's hungry, even though she said she was going for a meal last night, I am getting used to the various scam routines these days, so I close down.

   A younger following I had a shock last week, I decided to clear out the many people who used to follow me on Facebook , nobody has contacted me in over 12 years. The shock is I have amassed many young followers, young girls, probably hoping to scam me, but a follower is a follower.

 Talk about safety This morning, I re-opened my Yahoo mail account  - alanplace@ymail.com - other than me, I don't think there can be a dozen people know it is running.

                       My books on Amazon For now, this is the only paperback I have for sale on Amazon . When it came out, five years ago, it was my bestselling book of the year.

 NOT Insomnia this time For the second conecutive night, I had a disrurbed sleep; this time I cannot blame my insomnia as the alarm next door woke me at 04:30, and they disn't turn it off until 06:30, by which time I could not get back to sleep.

 The wrong man I am certain there are so,e men who are flattered to have yongladies chatting them uo inline; I an  not one of them. There some who appear genuine, but the majority have not fooled me from the moment they contact me. when the girls begin asking for money which is usually within the fiotst wo dozen message, I put my plan into action. The plan can go either way, either scare them off, or give me some underwear photos for my collection, either way it is a win for me. Some are so blatant you have to admire their cheek, but the ruses they play are worj out,

  Safety First As WhatsApp appears to be a safe site, and people keep asking me to join for a chat; I may well open an account there. It could be an interesting sales opportunity for my eBook selection , or it could not.

 I am prepared I am aware that I should not drink coffee , as it dries my throat, when I am suffering from Covid ; however, if I don't have a cup now I will be asleep in the afternoon, and won't get to sleep tonight. That will mean two sleepless nights, and I will be extra grauchy at this stage.

 It does not bother me Something dwaned on me a few minutes ago; when I view images of attractive ladies, I only see the lady; I don't think is she a transgender person even if she has strong facial features. The matter only came to light as I was talking about writing a story with a transperson in to a friend on Facebook .

 Oversize breasts I find it sad, that some ladies think that the only thing men are interested in is large breasts . I can accept ladies being proud of their figure, a little exposure is arousing, but to shove them as your main feature is a little upsetting to me. I don't object to transgender ladies being proud, and showing their breast changes, again a little can be enticing. If you are wondering, yes, I do see some transgender ladies as attractive.

 What survives? Most detergent ads "claim" to kill 99% of household germs, this leaves a big question. Is there one germ nothing can kill?

 The one and only My blog has always struggled to gain readers in the UK , but yesterday was shocking with the news it had more readers in Israel than the UK. Because I check in, I tend to cut UK readers by half, these days I wonder if I am the only UK reader :(  :(

 All I got was more scams I don't know if it me, or the world. I went looking for friendship , and all I found was young ladies trying to scam me. Are there any genuine people left?

 That's the way to do it Ubtik this weekm the only way I could get a few eBook sales was to cast out my links , and pray somethig turned up. Now I have an agent, I am hoping for better things.

 A hidden motive I am attemting to expand my Facebook contact list, I do have an aggenda; I contacted several ladies - nothing sexual - to try to raise interest in my eBook selection, I hope a few will let me get some intel on the LGBT community f or a story I have thought about writing for a while.

 Being an editor I am not a qualified editor, but going over the files for my proect , I can see I will need to make some major changes as the way I wrote five years ago is a lot different to how I write today. I look at the old files, and cringe at how I wrote the story. It does flow, but the editor in me demands a better, tighter, content; and not so much extra wordage.

I have no objections  I have never had any questions about my sexuality , I can sympathise with people who do have issues with their image. I have no objection to what people decide, it is their life, therefore their choice to make - I would rather see a happy couple, than two people uncomfortable because they feel the need to conform. I have had gay friends, and lesbian friends; I respected their choices, and they respected my choice so we got on well. I have not had a trangender friend, yet, again I have no objection to being friends with transgender people; I was planning to write a story with a transgender character in, but I didn't wish to offend the LGBT community.

 Flattery got them nowhere The various young ladies who try to scam me via Facebook , or Twitter do not realise from the moment they make contact they are playing the game to a set of rules they do not know - my rules. From the first contact , I have one plan, to see how far they are wiliing to go to win me over, not that there is any possibility they will get money from me, when peope I have known for years never asked me for money, there is nothing a person I have only been in contact with for a few days can do to get money from me.

 Going online I am not being conceited, but it appears ladies like my looks. One of the reasons I came online, over 20 years ago, was to get a ladies view of my appearance. I was not being arrogant, I was curious as I had always considered myself anything but attractive.

  A shot in the dark Not a lot that happens to my blog amazes these days, today is an exception as I have link backs from blogs of friends that I hadn't used for over a decade. One is from a friend in London who died about 10 years ago, and the other is from a blog run by my friend, Siggy Buckley .

  I am a non-drinker As my back is aching, I think it is time for a coffee break, I don't drink as much as I used to; how I didn't get caffeeine poisoning I am not sure. In those days I drank more per hour than I do a day now, and my mental health is thanking me. I am not teetotal, nor an anti-alcohol person; it is that my body has trouble accepting alcohol since I returned from Germany in the late 70's.

 Another story could be promoted There will be delays in the promotion for my current project , I didn't realise what I had undertaken until it was too late. However, I have let Lina, my agent know there is a story about India 9shown above) I could send her this week; she was intrigued a few days ago when I first let her know of its existence. This story has elements of religion , spirituality , science fiction , and romance in. I didn't think it would appeal to the US readers, but as the story crosses genres there are possible sales arena it can fall in.

 I amazed myself I was very grateful when my friend from Twitter , Linda Lael Miller , who is a bestselling writer put me in touch with her agent, Lina Cruz . Naturally, as Lina is a busy lady, it took time to make a firm contact; at the time, I suggested several projects which may interest Lina, most did.  One project I have in mind is the combining of two stories into one. This is the stage when I realised I had thrown a curve-ball.  I thought the original story, plus the secod section would come to around 150 pages, that alone got Lina interested; then I checked my files, and I was wrong, way way wrong. I had grossly misjudged my writing ability. Instead of a combined length of 150 pages, the original   (shown above) is over 160 pages long, and with the second section, the book could exceed 200 pages with ease. I pointed out, this could lead to a series of stories if there is interest. To compound my error, I told Lina I expected to finish the joining by mid- August , as I thought

 It would be deliciously ironic Here is a passing thought, when I started on the road to being a writer , I began a course with Writers Bureau , the tutor I had told me I didn;t have what it took to be a writer; I guess he knew as he was useless, why? He broke the 3-minute rule, that is how long it takes to sell a book. Stage 1 - a good cover, his cover was a girl screaming through a porthole :)  Stage 2 - A title that links to the cover and leads the buyer to the back cover for a brief read. The title - Sheep :( :(  By this time, you are wondering if the story is about a farm, and the sale has been lost. Stage 3 - The blurn on the back intrigues the reader into buying, I was good at writing blurbs, two of mine earned their writers a contract.

Suella Braverman may as well join Labour  If you join Reform UK , as  Suella Braverman plans to do, you may as well leave Politics as you are joining a dead-end group. Let us looks at the record of Nigel Farage ; in the last three elections he has paid for a party, none have got anywhere. He does not live in the UK, unless it is an election year, so you cannot tell me he cares about the UK . All Farage cares about is Nigel Farage becoming Prime Minister .

The major work will be under way soon  My agent   has shown interest in my writing project ; now I have interested someone I can begin to write again; rather than potter about on the blog.

 Fully stocked After running a check, I can confirm all the eBook selction from me is available on Draft2Digital , there are a couple of blanks, one is because the story was too short, and the other is an unfinished romance . Though I distrust the site, I have no options available as they have grown to dominate the eBook world.

 I get paid to write Several times I have been asked why write a story, then let someone else the credit for it? The answer is I was paid as a writer ; after that I am not bothered who gets the credit for my work, crazy? Perhaps. If the story sells, which many of mine did, I get repeat orders; if it flops I haven't lost anything.

  Against my better judgement Only time will be able to tell if relisting my eBook selection on Draft2Digital is a good decision, from my experiece it is dubious at best, and more likely an error. However, as I have an agent , putting the eBooks for sale may help Lina increase my sales, I have nothing to lose as my sales have been nil for years.

  I could be flattered I am prepared for another young lady on Facebook to contact some time today; this young lady I do consider attractive, so I may put my plan in action if she wishes to chat on Messenger . One young lady from earlier in the week did try to scam me, and another said she found me attractive because of my beard.

  The early days of the cinema in India Earlier today I was doing something on my cellphone , when I relised I know more about Bollywood films of the era 1940 - 1990, than I do modern films from India . To many, this would appear odd, but not to readers of my blog. Regular readers, if there are any, would know that I have little regard for modern Indian cinema as it is sexist , and ran by the Kapoor family, Shah Rukh Khan , Aamir Khan , and Salman Khan . More good roles are going to ladies such as Raveena Tandon - Aranyak - Shefali Shah - Delhi Crime , but ladies are still only in as the love interest of the male leads usually. In the beginning, ladies had if not an equal role, at least good acting roles. They were regarded almost as equals to their male leads, and in some cases it was the lady whose name carried the film more than the male. During this time, ladies were billed as they were in Hollywood with the lead being seen as a double-lead as in Clark Gable and Carole Lombard

 That is a many faceted question One of the most asked questions I get is, where do you get your inspiration? That questions has as many answers as there are eBooks for sale on Apple , and more, as many ideas recently i have ignored as part of my new policy . I adpoted a policy this year of not thinking about trying to turn dreams into eBooks as I am not selling any eBooks, and I was suffering with depression thinking of the time I spent writing for nothing.

 A temperate climate To some extent I can agrree with people who like the sun, nobody enjoys living in the dark; that is one reason Scandinavia has the highest suicide rate. On the other hand, I have to say I am pleased the shorter days, yes we are heading into the dark age, have ended to some extent the hot weather the UK had for the last few weeks; I can breathe easier  now. I have never been a person who could sit for hours in the sun, I suffer from heatstroke , and having tanned skin I am prone to attacks as I can endure a lot before it hits me.

 I rarely sell on Amazon This time last year was my best sales month for eBooks in over a deacde, thanks to Apple . I sold eight eBooks that month, that is more than I had sold in over a decade on Amazon . In 15 years on Amazon, my bestseller there has only sold 15 eBook copies, and that is because twice it sold seven in a weekend; the next bestselling  eBook has only sold a dozen in the same time. The problem is you need to be a name people look for, and to get that, you need to seel your product - double-down losing policy for an indie writer like me.

 I find large breasts a turn-off The world is made of people with various tastes, fortunately, I accept this idea readily. One thing which I find a turn-off is a lady with over-size breasts who thinks these are her greatest asset. To me, the personality is more value than the size of a lady's breasts; I admire a lady with large breasts if she has the figure, and frame to carry them, even then to a limit.

 A change for the better Of the two young ladies who contacted me via Facebook last night, I made an improvement in one, and hope to do the same for the second. What is the change? A piece of advice, I suggested to them, if they seek a lasting relationship with a man, not to focus on showing their large breasts as not all men like large breasts, I am one of them. It is better to focus on your personality rather than have men think you think your breasts are your best feature. If I wasn't married, I would not have been interested in either girl.

 A decade of calm This month is the 10th anniversary of the passing of my mother, am I sad, no, why? All my life I felt something was off in the family, there was never any love shown to me; even as a child I could sense there was resentment towards me, nothing I did was correct. A month before she died, my mother admitted I was not wanted; this news did not startle me, all it did was clarify the reason for the ill-feelings I had felt over the years. The best thing to come from my mother's passing is that I stopped being comapred to my cousin Annette, we are not even close in personality, or intention. Annette is a money-grabbing, rule-breaking, marriage-wrecker. In her short time in the Police, she had an affair with a senior officer, who began the affair I don't know, but it should have been stopped as it is against Police policy to have a relationship with an officer of higher rank. This affair brought about the end of the officer's marriage. I have a policy that I nev

 A double whammy A couple of minutes ago, I was approached by two young ladies on Facebook to be their friend. They are probably trying a scam , they have no chance of success; in fact I find them so unattractive I won't use my plan later.

  A revamp edition For several weeks, I have been pondering how to revamp my romance ; A Homecoming . The main issue was the lady shown above, Anouk Aimme from France , is dark haired. The lady on the cover of what was to be the sequel is blond  Benedikte Hansen from Denmark . I viewed my downlaoded files of the original story, and began to adjust the character to the image of  Benedikte Hansen; it was then I realised the enormity of the task ahead. I would need to go over 100, changing small details to match the ladies; this is why I stalled. Last night, the answer came to me; instead of changing the original character outlook, why not forget the second image, and add parts 1 & 2, and move forward. Part 2 - Project India - is about 50 pages long at the moment, with room to expand. I intend to change a few items seen on the blog as I changed my mind abotu adding them to the story.

 Thanks to a friend on Twitter With thanks to a lady writer I have got to chat to on Twitter , she put me in contact with her agent; so, I may have reprentation finally. The issue is what does the agent think? I could have her promote my award winner - Chronicles of Mark Johnson - but to me it has limited appeal, whereas A Sailor's Love has good sales hopes as it covers several  genres (not intentioanal)

  Book marathon One of my great failings is self-doubt ; I am always doubting my worth as a writer , mainly because it appears not many eBooks of mine sell. Several times I have set off an a story, only to reach the point at which I say "What am I doing?" Why do I ask this question? Some times I spend months, or even years, on a story only to realise it has no sales potential. This is the main reason I stopped writing; it wasn't that I wasn't getting royalty from Draft2Digital as much as I begin to see a lack of sales potential in my work as I tried to be my voice, not follow the trend .