Here I am at the edge

  Tonight we celebrate the first sale of the first story in the Pat Canella series to B&N.  Amazon, where are you? Two years on Amazon and no sales, and yet two days on Draft2Digital and we have the sale :)

For the last few days I've been run ragged trying to catch up on things. It is normally hectic after Christmas with family birthdays to account for but this year, I had to vector in a doctor's appointment after nearly choking to death between Christmas and New Year and a surgery visit for a breathing test today.  Add to that my daily writing schedule and some printing for a friend's birthday present and then all of a sudden -- it's the last day of the month -- and I forget to get my magazine, mass panic tonight and a mad dash out but I got the last but one copy.

   The night was cold and frosty, and the freezing Chicago rain had kept most people inside but for some, even the freezing rain was no hindrance. One such person was Carl Kolchak -- reporter for INS -- he had just got back to the offices, when the phone in the editor's office rang. His boss, Tony Vincenso, picked it up and sat talking. Tony put the phone reciever down and hung his head in his hands as he ran his fingers through his hair, then giving in to reality he called out, "Carl, there's somebody on the phone for you."  Astute as ever Kochak replied, "Who? Tony." Vincenso lifted his bulky figure off the chair and using his coffee stained desk as a prop he answered, "How the heck should I know? All the guy said was he runs a paranormal research facility and wanted to talk to you. Are you going to answer the call?" Kolchak came out from behind the desk he used and walked into the office, picking the receiver up he said, "Carl Kolcha...

That was my left ankle on July 2nd, 2011 when my tendon snapped. The injury itself goes back to Christmas 1978 and a hockey match in the Royal Air Force.  All the time since the tendon injury, my dread has been the pressure on the other ankle will cause a repeat and totally disable me -- it looks like it is happening -- the irony of the situation. I found a disturbing lump on my right shin one day and not wishing to find myself in a pool of blood from burst veins, I decided to put more weight on the left leg, the result you see above. Now, with having to change back after the injury my right tendon is taut and could go any day. :(

  Today, I have relaunched all three Pat Canella stories on D2D, as they were previously not available at B&N and on Apple -- not strictly true -- in the beginning I put Dockland Murders on but at the time B&N had a thing against UK writers. From today also available as separate short short stories are "Back from Ohandsworth" and "Ghosts of your past."

The main book news is that there will probably be no more. I don't mean news, I mean books. As nobody is buying what I write, why should I waste my time writing?  Hell, I only make just over a quarter an e-book, so, I am not going to miss the sales.  I have the stories to write but if nobody wants to read them, what is the point in writing them? 

That is a question I have asked myself many times over the last eighteen months. Holding Richmond hit the ground running -- Okay, seven sales in one weekend is a good start -- but the book entered the sales forum at the height of the "Twilight" craze. At the end of 2012 HR hit another good spell and sold a further seven copies in three months. I got pilloried on one site for showing vampires as being unsexy and vile creatures of the night. As I said at the time, my vampires are based on the German Nosferatu played by Max Schreck Anything less like "Twilight" I cannot imagine, there is nothing sparkly or sexy about the vampires in Holding Richmond. These creatures of the darkest fears of mankind are loathsome. Is that a reason for the books success I wonder? People got tired of sexy, young and sparkly things and went back to the 1920s imagery.  I make no bones about it -- I like B&W films of this era -- and many of my stories are written in this style, whet...