Here I am at the edge

A forgotten email Few people, including me, realise I have an email account with Yahoo . The account has produced some funny moments; one was when a person I knew years ago contacted me asking "Al, do you have an email account in Spain ?" I replied, "Why would I, Rick, I have not been there, or know anyone living there?" The cause of the question was an email from the Spanish Yahoo site, "supposedly" sent by me to stir up issues on a writing site we shared. As soon as I cleared RIck's question, we knew who sent the email. The only time I felt offended was when I was contacted on Yahoo by a young coloured lady. Her colour, or age wasn't what offended me; it was that she assuned that as she was young, coloured, and had large breasts I would want a date; even though we had not made contact before then. While I was there, I was on the chat site Plenty of Fish ; A young lady using the penname "Porno Queen" started to chat me up, she turned ou...

 Following the success of "Nerja"   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ODWS4C  , which to date is still the only one of my stories to rate 5 stars on the Amazon ratings-twice. I wrote the follow up story "Glacier of Death,"    http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EZSCIYE   , which to date is my best seller of the year.

Before we proceed, in the words of Arnold J. Rimmer, "Let us define what we mean by a rumour." A rumour is an unsubstantiated fact. In this case, I have a growing US fan base. Why is this a rumour? Because over the last two years there has been no evidence to prove the fact to my satisfaction-true, the FREE reads ratings go well, but the sales have constantly fallen and that is my gauge of success or failure. I was never able to figure out what made people return for my stories-was it because I was a good writer, or because the stories are free?

One of the major changes which occurred this year is that I started to be paid for articles by Yahoo, it isn't much but more than sales at Amazon. The first article was about the grandfather I never had the chance to know  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/world-war-2-trenches-grandfather-095300577.html  This is the story I wrote as a memorial for the people who either never come back or come back mentally scarred for life-the war doesn't matter, the damage is the same whether it's WW1 or Desert Storm.   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BNDHL0U  The second article is about the damage done by second hand smoke and why I quit   http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/quit-smoking-little-girl-124800633.html  I am hoping to get another article published about the storms which have hit the UK.

A sign of my age It could be seen as a sign of me getting older, I find I prefer older ladies (over 50) these days. I have always preferred older ladies, they are more alluring and interesting to me; which is why most of the ladies in my short story selections  https://www.draft2digital.com/book/ are mature women with strong personalities. I have always found young ladies, that I knew, more into the trends of the day, while older ladies have a life story to tell. A good example, in my view, is Shefali Shah above, the lady is in her 50s, and to me, very alluring. She is also an excellent actress.

At the end of the month I shall be going off line for a time, how long is not certain; the reasons are many but the short version is I am not sure my work is valued and I need to re-evaluate my work. I have been pushing myself to get a few sales and a little recognition for two years and feel jaded. I think I deserve a rest.

The official report shows that "The Love of the Sea" has surpassed "Chronicles of Mark Johnson" in length.  Completed Chronicle ended at 26, 314 words and 104 pages.  LOTS at the moment is at 85 pages and 26,585 words, but is far from complete.  This brings up another situation, with the trend for shorter reads, do I break the book up into chunks? The final note "The Descent of Mark Johnson" was finished at 73 pages and only 17, 168 words.