Here I am at the edge

 Many of my stories are set on the coastal regions of England. I grew up on the Yorkshire coast north of Scarborough and use the area in my various stories as I have great memories of nice times, even before my last visit in 2010.   Many sailors will tell you they don't feel at home on land and can feel the pull of the sea in their blood, I can well believe what they say as I am at my calmest near the coast and love nothing more than being out on a stormy day watching and listening to the waves.   I am not sure which element is connected to my birthday -- but I had a scary few moments on the docks in Bristol many years ago -- I was working at the Bristol Industrial Museum at the time and was walking across the rail lines, something I had done for many months without thinking. Suddenly, I could feel myself being drawn to the water's edge as if by some elemental energy, was it because my marriage was going through a bad patch? Did I feel the urge to k...

Time Vs Income I don't suppose a writer with a contract has this problem, being an indie author the problem is always in my thoughts. At what point do you decide the story is not worth the time you have spent writing it? At one time, the question never arose, because I thought I could sell an ebook , now I found that Draft2Digital have been giving away more ebooks than I sold on the site, the issue keeps cropping up. The short story above is being written in two versions. I started to write a Gothic Romance , and it became a Gothic Horror story. I have no preference as I love Gothic stories.

When I was good, I was great and when I wasn't good I was better than great LOL  My first ghost has sold again in the UK, taking "The Ghost of St. Mary's"   http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ERVQA9I    to a new Amazon high rating for the second time in a week :) Amazon Bestsellers Rank:  #44,993 Paid in Kindle Store #86   in  Books  >  Fiction  >  Horror  >  Short Stories Three sales in the first week is more than I had hoped for to start the year, especially as most months last year never saw three in a month.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EPGKFR8 The idea for this story came from the days when I could travel. I used to go to local music festivals and one favourite of mine was the Cheltenham International jazz festival, this is the largest festival of its kind in the UK and the second most popular in Europe.   At the time of going to these festivities I was a member of the Cheltenham Jazz Society -- I don't play any instrument, sadly -- we used to meet once a month at various venues in the town to listen to UK artists and some of the local bands were very good.  The main venues used for the festival are the town hall and the Everyman Theatre, across the road from the main halls is a tiny club and unless you know where to look it's easy to miss. One of the last gigs I saw there -- The Subtone -- was a collection of UK saxophone players and while I enjoy listening to the sweet sounds, two or three is the maximum a small group needs and in the group there were half a do...

No, this isn't an angling blog post. This relates to selling books. A couple of years ago I was on a German site and despite some of the people on there having issues with both me and my rising popularity -- some people did consider my opinion worth listening to -- one frequent question was how do you attract more readers?  A simple analogy for the question shows the way.  You catch more fish with a net than a rod and pole.  If you miss the point, let me explain by using one of my books.  Pat Canella (The Dockland Murders)  From the off the title sounds either a gang or police related story. The cover shows a young female holding a smoking gun (strong female lead ). But, if you read the blurb there is also mention of a supernatural element -- so, where does she sit? -- Take your choice, I wrote the story with all of the genres in mind to maximise her chance of success.

VIEWS ON DREAMS   You might not agree with some of the points in the post, but please remember these are only my views and neither a definitive opinion or a scientifically proven theory. Does everybody dream? Yes. Does everybody remember dreaming? No.  Dreams are the escape valve from reality in my view and whether we remember them or not, in my opinion we all dream  -- I can remember some of my dreams  -- but not all of them. Do we dream in colour? I do. I can say without a doubt I dream in colour, unless I see a shape I recognise from life and my memory reminds me of its colour in life. Can we die in our dreams?  This is an unanswerable question. Many specialists hold the opinion that if you fall in a dream you will never hit the ground as he shock would kill you in the dream and so in life. From personal experience -- I can tell you I have fallen many times while running across roof tops in my dreams -- and never hit the ground. ...

 This is the latest extract from my book "A Sailor's Love," to understand the story it is best to read the background to the story by getting  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EZ84216  . A lot has been going on since the end of part 1 of the story and the current word count is 34,000 words.                Jannine shook her head to clear her mind and asked Helmut, “Where do you think the memories are pointing?”             He held her tight as his sweaty body calmed from the shakes and replied, “I don’t know where or when they came from, all I know is the memories were vivid and scared me.”             Jannine ran her hands through his wet and matted her as the tears filled her eyes, “Oh, my poor sweet man I wished I could help you but all I can do is be here for you to talk to, if you want.”    ...