Category: - M J Johnson

My Thanks

3/4/2018

I just wanted to say a special thank you to everyone who took part by either sharing, liking or downloading copies of Niedermayer & Hart, in my Kindle giveaway over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. The promotion (first time I've done one of these) went far better than I might have hoped, and a lot of copies of N & H are now on a lot of Kindles. There are some folk however who seem to just like acquiring books, and judging by the huge numbers listed on some To Read lists I've seen on Goodreads, it's unlikely they'll ever get round to reading them all, unless of course someone discovers a serum that can bestow everlasting life on them! I'm sure the majority of people will have downloaded N & H with the intention of actually reading the book in the not too distant future, I hope so anyway!

Naturally, I also hope that people will like what they read, and should they do so, tell their friends and/or post a review on Amazon. These simple actions are just about the most helpful things an appreciative reader can do for an independent writer, who doesn't have the vast marketing machine of a large publishing house to support them. Anyway, thanks again, I'll be posting more soon about the follow-on title to Niedermayer & Hart. In the meantime, I hope some of you at least will get reading. Enjoy!

The Plot Thickens - Niedermayer & Hart

23/3/2018

I seem to have been telling my readers for ages that the follow-on story to Niedermayer & Hart was almost ready. I wasn’t fibbing, honest! I started the proofing and fact-checking process well over a year ago, but a lot has been happening for me and my family (in the most part, I’m pleased to say, good things) which has somehow managed to slow everything in the Odd Dog Press publishing department down to almost a standstill at times.

However, we did recently manage to produce a newly updated version of my wife Judith Johnson’s book Southborough War Memorial, which lists the two-hundred and fifty-five names on our local war memorial. The original book was printed in 2009 and has been out of print for a number of years, although we did produce a Kindle version in 2012. The revised book contains some photographs and information not previously seen, as several names have been added to the memorial since 2009. Naturally, being a local history book, it was never expected to appeal widely or to sell in vast numbers, yet it continues to sell steadily, and not just in our local community but also within its far wider diaspora. This book took Judith seven years to research in her spare moments and remains, in my view, a very fine achievement. So, hooray for Southborough War Memorial I say!

To return to the subject of Niedermayer & Hart; the second book in the trilogy is at its final proofing stage. Actually, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned a trilogy. I concluded N & H with the words The End because I didn’t want to promise a trilogy at the time (although it was always my intention), just in case the book didn’t go down very well. Fortunately, most of its readers seem to approve. A reviewer said this about N & H last week on Amazon UK:
“A real rip snorter of a page turner. I don't normally read anything other than Stephen King (I'm a bit of a King snob and generally find other Sci fi / horror authors don't quite meet the grade) but Johnson has written what I love to read. Looking forward to reading more of his books.”

The cover artwork for the new title (soon to be announced) is being prepared at the moment. I’ve seen the rough drawings and find it suitably unsettling. Like Niedermayer & Hart and my psychological thriller Roadrage, the new book will not only appear in a printed format but also as an ebook. Actually, we’re also planning to bring out a new printed version of Niedermayer & Hart, if not simultaneously, then shortly afterwards. This is mainly because stocks of the original are running low and it’ll be good to have both titles conforming to the same style. An actor friend recently commented that they thought N & H would make a highly compelling film or TV series. If that ever happened, it would of course be terrific, but in the meantime, I’ll just keep on writing! Meanwhile, if you do happen to have an original copy, hang onto it, as the first edition will most probably go out of print sometime this year.

Oooh yes, almost forgot! I’m planning to do a series of promotions/giveways etc. over the coming weeks, so WATCH THIS SPACE, as they say!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Some Other Thoughts

12/5/2016

I am sometimes appalled to hear educators declare that teaching the classics of English literature in our schools should be abandoned because they hold no relevance for modern children. I firmly believe that anyone who truly wishes to understand the development of language and writing needs to possess a firm grasp of of our literary heritage. The famous quotation from Sir Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke acknowledging his indebtedness to others, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” can be applied to any discipline just as easily as science. There would be no detective/thriller genre if Wilkie Collins hadn’t created books like The Woman in White and The Moonstone (just imagine what prime-time TV would ever have done then, even more reality and game shows perhaps?), without H Rider Haggard there would be no Lost World genre (Tarzan would still be apeing about in the jungle and there would be no Jurassic Park!). If John Polidori’s The Vampyre hadn’t influenced Bram Stoker, then there may never have been a Dracula, and Stephen King wouldn’t have written Salem’s Lot. The whole Fantasy genre basically stems from the pen of one man, J R R Tolkien, who had himself been inspired by the Norse myths. On a personal note, I most definitely couldn’t have written Niedermayer & Hart or Roadrage without following the bright trails that lead back to their many rich sources. Anyone who claims total originality is I think deluding themselves. However, there is a big difference between following themes or traditions and direct, deliberate plagiarism.

I’ve just read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus, for the first time (published 1818 - and acknowledging its debt to Greek mythology in the title). It is of course the original mad scientist scenario that has since become a stalwart of just about every form of popular culture. The story, then not a hundred years old, first made it to the cinema screens as far back as 1910 - we just love to be horrified! The book might be loosely classified as science fiction too, and its influence on art and literature has been incredibly far-reaching. As a novel it most certainly deserves its classic status. The book’s basic premise of man taking on the role of God has cross-bred with other genres: combine a mad scientist and lost world theme and you get Jurassic Park, mix mad science that creates computers who themselves create horrific human-like machines and you have the Terminator series, perhaps even Tolkien had something of the book in mind when he has Saruman create the Uruk-Hai.

Mary Shelley was born Mary Godwin in 1797, the daughter of the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft and writer and journalist William Godwin. Her mother died soon after she was born, and Mary received no formal education and doesn’t seem to have taken very well to her step-mother. She began an affair with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley when still a teenager and eloped with him to the (then war-torn) Continent. She began writing Frankenstein in 1816 whilst holidaying on Lake Geneva ; by this time she had lost her first baby and had given birth to a son (sadly not to survive either). They were assailed by weeks of rain, and their chum Lord Byron suggested to the group of friends present, that they each compose a horror story to pass the time. The rest is, as they say, history.

The story is well written and has withstood the test of time. The monster of her tale undertakes to do many cruel and vindictive acts in revenge upon his creator Frankenstein; yet it is the monster who is given the last word in the novel by Shelley, and it is for him that we feel the deepest sympathy. Frankenstein never acknowledges his responsibility as creator, and simply abandons his creation which he finds too abhorrent to even gaze upon. The monster subsequently wanders the world like a lost child receiving only cruelty, unkindness and hatred from mankind who he yearns in his heart to join. Is the monster in this story the creature, or the human ego?

We stand at a point in time where such matters are no longer far-fetched. Whilst our governments can attempt to reassure us that any genetic experiments are only carried out with the utmost care and with every attention paid to what is both morally and ethically right ... we know too that once the genie is out of the bottle ...

I wrote a blog some time back that was based on the National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein.

And on a lighter note - one of my favourite comedy films, Young Frankenstein.

Careless Talk ...

10/1/2016

As mentioned before (see How I came to Traditional English Folk via Abba) it can be a dangerous thing to voice a preference in my house. This Christmas I received a pile of Patricia Highsmith books - I read her Ripley stories last year as well as her classic first novel, the psychological thriller Strangers on a Train. All it would have required from me were the words “I really like ...” and Judith would have ear-marked them for her pressie drawer. Fortunately for me, I probably completed the above sentence with words along the lines of “(I really like) and admire the way Patricia Highsmith writes,” rather than “(I really like) the artwork - it’s the best thing about her books!” So, lots of great reading for me to look forward to in 2016. I already own a (tragically small) cache of the Charles Portis titles I haven’t read yet - I eke my Portis out because he’s a favourite writer, and as a novelist he hasn’t been very prolific (although he may still surprise us, of course!) - maybe I’ll pick up one of the new ones and re-read an old favourite this year. Yippee!

A funny thing happened this Christmas - the first time in all the Christmasses Judith and I have spent together : we gave each other the same present. It was a DVD of The Seventh Cross (1944) starring Spencer Tracy. It’s a bit difficult to get a copy of it in the UK, and I’d always wanted to see it again having caught it only once on the TV as a boy in Wales. It’s set in pre World War Two Germany, with the Nazis in power, where an atmosphere of fear exists. It’s easy to understand why we thought to give each other this film, as we did a Christmas market trip in mid-December to Dortmund in Germany, where we visited a former Gestapo prison, now a museum which bears testimony to those who opposed the Nazis and their despicable ideology. The film tells this story too, and is perhaps an unusual example of a wartime propaganda movie because many of the Germans are portrayed sympathetically and not simply as stereotypical bad guys. For my money, Spencer Tracy is always worth watching. The museum in Dortmund was excellent and my wife Judith has written a very interesting piece about it on her own blog, take a look Winterreise to Dortmund .

So, here we are, the Christmas/New Year shenanigans are behind us once again and most of us have, I expect, settled back into daily life. I’m back writing, working on the last chapters (second draft) of the follow-on book to Niedermayer & Hart. One nice thing about writing a second draft, in contrast to a first, is the certainty that you actually do have a book.

Pip Pip!

Holiday Reading!

25/8/2015

Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?

There have been times in my life when I didn’t read very much, when our son was small for example, or when I was busy on some project that didn’t allow much room for books; however, there has never been a time when I wasn’t reading something, albeit at a snail’s pace. I’m omnivorous in my literary appetite and truly appreciate a varied diet; a heavy main course will generally find me opting for something lighter to follow, although I never partake of ‘fast food’.

We have just returned from two weeks’ walking in the Austrian Tyrol. Most days offered about an hour or two’s reading time before dinner plus however much could be squeezed in at the day’s end before the eyelids finally came down (I regularly wake up with a book open before me and my bedside light still on, and sometimes am urged to redress this state of affairs by stern words or a sharp prod in the ribs from ‘She who must be obeyed’).

I love holiday reading because there is generally far more time for this shared favourite pastime and the books are always chosen most carefully. This year I took with me Excursion to Tindari by Andrea Camilleri, The Wolf and the Buffalo by Elmer Kelton and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (on Kindle). I did avail myself too of a couple of books from the hotel’s own bookshelves by writers who had great reviews and interesting blurb, but after giving them a try and finding myself up to my neck in ad(verb) nauseam, they were subsequently abandoned.

I read Andrea Camilleri’s Excursion to Tindari first and thoroughly enjoyed it. I discovered that it was actually the fifth in the Inspector Montalbano series, but to be honest, although I intend to read the books in order from now on, I don’t think it made a whole lot of difference to either my understanding or appreciation. Whilst ostensibly part of a police procedural series, it boasts a richly comic cast of regular characters. The writing is very witty and manages to conjure up before the reader the sights, smells, tastes and quirkiness of Sicilian life. The plot, obviously an essential part of any crime thriller, was satisfying too and wasn’t sacrificed for the sake of the book’s humorous tendencies. I chuckled a lot as I read this and if you’re in the market for a police thriller series, light but well-written, I can highly recommend it.

I came across The Wolf and the Buffalo by Elmer Kelton in The Giant Book of the Western which is an anthology of Western stories compiled by Jon E Lewis. In the collection it was renamed Desert Command and relates just one episode from the novel. It certainly whet my appetite, and I subsequently received a copy of The Wolf and the Buffalo for my birthday. I believe the book is out of print but Judith managed to find a secondhand copy from the US. The book is set in the years following the American Civil War and tells the story of ex-slave, Gideon Ledbetter, who together with his friend Jimbo, suddenly discovering themselves homeless and jobless, join the US Cavalry and are sent to serve in a black regiment (Buffalo Soldiers) at a frontier fort. As men born into slavery and who have known nothing other than obedience and servitude they find clear decision-making very hard indeed. Kelton manages to communicate this dilemma to the reader very well; he shows us too that ‘freedom’ didn’t mean equality or an end to racism.

The book also tells the story of Gray Horse, a Comanche warrior who is determined to drive the white settlers from the lands of his ancestors and believes that they will be destroyed and their wanton destruction of the seemingly limitless herds of buffalo will be restored once the spirits of his people are appeased. Kelton manages to portray the Comanche as they truly were without ever imposing upon them any kind of New Age soppiness. So much of their culture seems brutal to a modern reader, yet I was deeply touched by their loyalty and compassion to members of their tribe. Elmer Kelton is obviously very knowledgeable and skilfully gives us an insight into their thought processes. We know all too well the tragedies that befell the Plains Indians - the (probably) inevitable outcome when a stone-age culture is overwhelmed and all but swept away by the determination of post-Industrial Revolution settlers. This book makes good reading and I can highly recommend it.

I am still only about a quarter way through The Moonstone, so more about this later perhaps. I need to hurry up though, as on 1 September I’m ‘buddy reading’ Norwood by Charles Portis with some chums I’ve met through Twitter. Anyone is welcome to join us by the way - just pick up a copy and start reading on 1 September, then post a review somewhere and let me (us) know where to find it. It’s fun.

Finally, I’ve extended the offer on my own books until the end of August. This means that Niedermayer & Hart and Roadrage are still available at half price when you add the following coupon code at the Smashwords checkout.

Niedermayer & Hart - LZ65A

Roadrage - UE79V

Happy reading time!

P.S. if you want to read reviews for both books take a look on Goodreads

Guilt Ridden Angst!

7/8/2015

Forbidden Fruit (testing lacto/gluten intolerance)

I feel a touch guilty and need to make a confession ...

Oh-oh! What terrible crime or dreadful indiscretion has he committed, you’re probably asking yourself? Your imagination takes flight: you think of shoplifting, credit card theft, adultery ... murder ... steady on! Perhaps he’s about to confess to some minor but embarrassing compulsion - maybe he’s been posting pictures of himself on the internet dressed up as a nun or a Klingon perhaps?

Truthful confession: I haven’t written a new blog for several weeks!

“Flippin’ ’eck!” I hear you cry, “We were hoping for something a bit tasty!”

Sorry about that.

But you know, it’s a funny old business, this guilt thing. I seem to have always had it - felt a little bit guilty about one thing or another.

Anyone else feel like that?

Do you remember when you were at primary school and the headmaster was mad because someone had cracked a sink in the boys’ washroom, or written a bad word on a wall or left a poo in a teacher’s desk or something (I just made that one up!). His face was red and angry and he had a way of standing before you and making one eye bigger than the other and of eyeballing every single child in the hall - it was like having a spotlight shining in your face. When it was your turn to get the blast from ‘the eye of Sauron’ even though you were totally innocent, you felt almost compelled to confess - perhaps it really was you, you’d done it and forgotten - maybe it was done in a fit of temporary madness, a sugar-high perhaps after one too many Wagon-Wheels at break-time, or too much milk?

Pretty crazy huh? But I’ve always felt a bit like that. I can easily feel guilty about stuff I didn’t even do! I blame my Welsh Congregationalist upbringing - but then, my wife enjoyed a more secular upbringing in Kent and she’s pretty much the same. I bet we’re not alone either.

Anyway, I feel guilty about not having written a blog for a few weeks. I love my blog, I really do, and I haven’t forsaken it; it is simply that I’m working flat out on my new book. Plus I generally take a bit of a break over the summer - a blog holiday if you will!

I have been busy in other ways though: both my books are now available once again at Smashwords. They can also be purchased via Barnes and Noble and i-tunes. I hope this will introduce the titles to a wider audience. You can see a selection of what people have said about the books on the review pages of this website or check out the reviews and ratings on Goodreads.

And to celebrate my return to Smashwords I thought I’d be very summerly (? is that a word?) and offer the titles with a fifty percent discount for the next two weeks for your holiday delight! All you need to do is choose either book, or both, go to the Smashwords checkout and put in the following codes:

Niedermayer & Hart - 50% discount code - LZ65A

Roadrage - 50% discount code - UE79V

Enjoy! Happy August reading!

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
i-tunes

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
i-tunes

Book Promo for N & H and Roadrage

23/6/2015

A long-lost but recently rediscovered second cousin of mine living in Cardiff, who is an accomplished graphic designer/illustrator, kindly emailed me a few weeks back to say that he thought I had some work to do on my website. “It’s all about branding!” he advised. I took his advice, scratched my head for a bit and set to work. I haven’t been in communication with aforementioned cousin since putting these website changes into place and hope he finds them an improvement. I certainly think the site looks a good deal better for a make-over and brush-up. I’ll let those who visit it be the judge of that!

Having reworked my website I thought I ought to do a book promotion to get the whole thing nicely launched. That is why for the next week, starting on Wednesday 24 June at 8 am British time and at 8 am PST for US readers, both Niedermayer & Hart and Roadrage will be available on Kindle Countdown deals.

At Amazon UK Niedermayer & Hart and Roadrage will remain at 99p from 8 am 24 June until 8 am 30 June when they revert back to their listed price of £1.99.

On Amazon.com Niedermayer & Hart and Roadrage will both start at $0.99 on 24 June at 8 am, and increase to $1.99 on 27 June before finally reverting back to their list prices on 30 June of $2.99.

This is almost certainly the last time these books will be available on a countdown deal as I intend to withdraw them for sale exclusively on Kindle and broaden their sales outlets, which will make them ineligible for this particular promotion. They will, of course, still be available on Kindle but only at the list price!

These people found the books quite by chance:

“I found Niedermayer & Hart through Twitter recommendations and am really glad to have done so. In many ways a classic horror story, the tale incorporates the twists and turns of a contemporary crime thriller and the combination makes for a breathtaking read.” - review left for Niedermayer & Hart on Amazon

“Brilliant, gripping and a real page turner. Couldn't put this book down, so many twists and turns you just have to keep on reading. Downloaded this last year when it was on Countdown Deals, so glad I did. Can thoroughly recommend you will not be disappointed. Will definitely read more from this author.” - review for Roadrage posted on Amazon

Happy reading!

N & H at Amazon.UK

N & H at Amazon.com

Roadrage at Amazon.UK

Roadrage at Amazon.com

Scaredy Cat!

31/5/2015

I remember back in 1977 watching The Towering Inferno at a cinema in Derby. It was while I was doing my very first acting job, a national tour for a Theatre in Education company. Because we performed in schools and therefore worked daytimes, my evenings were always free, so I’d taken the opportunity to catch this popular star-studded disaster movie. In those days, long films tended to have an intermission, and this one I recall came to its half-way point leaving Paul Newman and Steve McQueen on an explosive cliff-hanger; after a number of well-loved box-office names had already been char-grilled, deep-fried, toasted and flambéed to the delight of the audience. In those days people still smoked in public places, and as the light on the silver screen faded at the half-way mark and before the house-lights came on to guide us to our Kia-Ora and choc ices, the chap next to me struck a match to light his cigarette. Still entirely caught-up in the movie, I saw the naked flame in my peripheral vision and literally jumped about a foot in the air!

Embarrassing.

I suppose that reading is generally a good deal safer than film-going . The stuff I write isn’t likely to cause any similar embarrassment - not publicly anyway! Although if you’re planning to read Niedermayer & Hart at bedtime you might heed the following warning posted on Goodreads:

“... If I use the quality of my nightmares as a rating system for horror novels, this one was definitely a 5/5 ... Just don't read this book right before you go to sleep unless you like waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat with your own screams echoing in your ears.”

This could prove awkward if sharing a room!

Niedermayer & Hart from Amazon.com
Niedermayer & Hart from Amazon.co.uk

Bring Me Sunshine!

25/4/2015

The sun has taken its hat off and has been shining down on us for well over a week now, a situation I find very tolerable, although I’m suffering a little earlier than is normal for me with hay fever symptoms. I suspect the pollen situation must be high this year as even Judith was violently sneezing a few days back and said she thought she was coming down with a cold - no cold developed but she’s still sneezing a lot! I guess that’s what happens when acres and acres of Kent countryside are turned over to oil-seed rape. You know, I really could launch a personal vendetta against that particular genus of plant!

The last week or so has been fairly uneventful. We went to a jolly good organic farm shop the other day and we plan to stop shopping in supermarkets quite so much and lend our support to these people who are doing a good job at a fair price and making the world a bit greener and healthier in the process! I daresay I’ll be writing more on this blog about Cherry Gardens Organic Farm Shop in the future.

The second draft of the follow-on book to Niedermayer & Hart is busy underway at the moment and I’m really enjoying it. Mrs J gets given the completed chapters and really doesn’t have a clue what it’s about yet; of course she recognises themes, characters etc from N & H - but says she trusts that I’ll bring the whole thing together satisfyingly by the end (poor deluded fool!). I hadn’t previously discussed anything about the book with her, she didn’t see a word of the first draft, and so she’s experiencing it now completely ‘blind’ as it were. I personally find this is a really good opportunity for gauging response - and so far, so good! I stopped writing for over a week while we had some guests staying from Amsterdam, and although I was happy to get back to work, I didn’t in any way resent stopping work for our lovely relatives. It was fun spending time with them and we especially enjoyed having a toddler about the place, Tee hee hee! Actually they were model house guests. Judith’s Mum is the little-un’s Great-Great-Grandmother - now that has to be a pretty rare five-generations photo opportunity!

Keep smiling whether the sun is shining or not - might as well!

Filming the Prologue to Niedermayer & Hart

29/1/2015

The prologue to Niedermayer & Hart was originally a scene appearing thirty-seven pages into the book which introduced a new character. It was only through a series of trials, errors and pure luck that it actually found its way to start the book, but once I’d sussed it, I was never in any doubt that it was in the right place. I always do numerous drafts of any story and I’ve found there is absolutely no substitute for taking the odd ‘breather’ from the work; I believe it is absolutely vital to allow a piece of writing the opportunity to ‘leaven’. It never fails to astound me how perception can change so much after only a few days away from a project - insurmountable problems can suddenly seem altogether more manageable.

The film of the prologue was shot over two nights by my son Tom, operating a borrowed camera; the lighting, white van (blue really) and location site we used were all generously donated gratis too. It was freezing in the van on the late November nights in question, and of course we had to turn the engine and heating off during takes. Our primary aim was to find a means and style of presentation that would enable us to convert a seven minute piece of book-text, written in the third-person, into something that not only grabbed the attention of a viewer but which might also prove quirky and (hopefully) unsettling - we basically wanted to produce a shop-window for the writing and mood of the book. We’d never done anything like it before, although I do of course have the advantage of being experienced before a camera. Even so, it was very much an experiment and not something we felt confident we could achieve.

I did the film editing over a week on Adobe Premiere Elements and at times I admit I almost came close to despair, as I not only had to acquaint myself with previously unknown software, but needed to join together the different takes in what might otherwise have been a straightforward monologue. The trouble with attempting this, it seemed to us, was: that seven minutes is an awfully long time for things to go wrong; lines might easily be dropped or forgotten; a car or plane might suddenly whiz past; or someone might walk by giving a cheery wave to camera; it would also have been a completely static shot. However, I may well have risked this, as the sense of claustrophobia created by one unbroken shot might have been quite chilling - a homage to that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, perhaps? However, we were very lucky not to have chosen this one-take option, as I, in my naivety, had not yet discovered that the royalty payments that would be required on the three tiny snippets of song originally written and subsequently filmed in the prologue would cost far too much to be viable. The songs were cut from the text and had to be edited out of our film - this would have been impossible to do if we had gone for the one take idea. Phew! We got lucky!

If you haven’t watched the prologue before, I hope you enjoy the experience. US readers will have to wait until the end of February to get a discount copy, however, UK readers can still download a Kindle copy of Niedermayer & Hart for just 99p for a short time. Here’s the link: Niedermayer & Hart on Kindle