Category: Roadrage

Psychological Thriller ROADRAGE Free on Kindle for a Limited Time

16/5/2018

Someone recently asked me how I’d come by the idea for ROADRAGE. I explained to her that the seed of a plot came about quite by chance at about 2.30 am on the M4 motorway around Briton Ferry near Swansea in South Wales. I was driving, and my passengers, my son and wife, were both fast asleep. We were on our way to visit my mother who had not been widowed very long at the time. Almost at the end of a four hour car journey and late at night, you can imagine my eagerness to complete the last few miles. As I came onto a long, dark, deserted stretch of road, I saw, in the distance, a solitary car moving slowly up ahead. I was covering the gap between us fast, so as I approached I indicated to let the other driver know I intended overtaking. As I passed this car, it took me a few moments to realise that I wasn’t making the progress I might have anticipated. I still didn’t quite get it, and simply accelerated, thinking it would immediately be the solution. Yet the car alongside me maintained its position, despite my having increased my speed. Suddenly, I realised what was going on and felt, I’m almost ashamed to say, a sudden burst of anger at the other driver’s rank stupidity. For a minute or so I reacted (as I was undoubtedly meant to) by continuing to accelerate, but nothing I did could shake the other car off. Then, sanity came to me by way of a simple, clear thought: “The people I care about most in this whole world are asleep in this car, am I going to risk their lives, and my life too, for the sake of some daft vendetta?”

I slowed down to forty miles an hour and immediately dropped behind the other car. As soon as I’d reduced my speed, and had drawn in to the left hand lane, and was once again following, the car in front immediately dropped its speed down to forty miles an hour again. We remained travelling in convoy like this for the next few miles; fortunately, my exit from the motorway was fairly close. Incidentally, I made sure they’d passed the exit before giving them any indication that I planned on taking this route myself. It occurred to me that I didn’t want someone like this following me to my destination!

And there you have it. Naturally I make this incident considerably more dramatic in the book, fleshing out a back-story for my seemingly hapless hero, and take the antagonist’s malice well beyond the bounds of sanity. The underlying theme of ROADRAGE is the corrosive nature of hate. I used an appropriate classical quotation to set the mood for the book:

Hate is a bottomless cup; I will pour and pour.
Euripides, Medea

ROADRAGE, which has never been offered free on Kindle before (and may never be again!) is available to anyone with an e-reading device from midnight PST on Thursday 17 May - midnight PST on Monday 21 May.

It’s scary. Enjoy.

Here's the link: ROADRAGE free on Kindle

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The Plot Thickens - Niedermayer & Hart

23/3/2018

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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!

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Some Other Thoughts

12/5/2016

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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.

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Holiday Reading!

25/8/2015

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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

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Guilt Ridden Angst!

7/8/2015

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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

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Book Promo for N & H and Roadrage

23/6/2015

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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

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Oh Boy, When Things Go Wrong!

5/2/2015

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“Oh, boy ... When things go wrong!” as voiced with great feeling by Kenneth Mars as Franz Liebkind, the pro-Nazi playwright and composer of the bogus musical-comedy Springtime for Hitler - billed as - a gay (traditional sense) romp with Eva and Adolf at Berchtesgaden- in Mel Brooks’ marvellous film comedy creation The Producers. I have watched this film countless times and am able to quote almost every line - for me, everything about it just improves with age. Kenneth Mars’ Franz, complete with German WWII helmet, is just a little too loveably insane to ever be truly terrifying. A Nazi-sympathising author would be a horror if encountered in real life, but this is the art of comedy: where madmen, liars, thieves and adulterous philanderers delight and entertain rather than enrage us. In the film, Liebkind, whose maniacal fantasy of ‘taking’ Broadway with his musical before going on to ‘conquer’ the world, comes out with this splendid line once his dearly-held dream has been thoroughly wrecked. He places a revolver to his temple and pulls the trigger ... only to discover he is out of bullets - “Oh, boy ... when things go wrong!”

Actually, the reason I chose this title for the week’s blog is because my son and I spent a good hour and a half last night waiting for a breakdown man to arrive on the verge of a dual carriageway, in what felt like a wind spawned in the Siberian tundra. We were on our way to see an apparently excellent exponent of the blues, singer Kent DuChaine from Georgia at the Anchor pub in Sevenoaks. Tom, who is a much finer judge of great music than I am, and had already seen a Kent DuChaine gig, assured me I was in for a treat; we were eager and on time. I’d even brought along a copy of Roadrage (it’s set in Sevenoaks!) for Snakehips Sue, the dedicated organiser of the Blues with Bottle Club, who generally runs a raffle, to give away. All was going so well, that is until the engine on Tom’s little run-around suddenly died. We were fortunate that he could safely navigate the car over onto the hard-shoulder before we stopped moving forward altogether. So, if you were on the A21 last night and happened to see a young man and an older one wrapped-up together in a blanket whilst standing by the side of the A21 - that was us!

Actually, up until the breakdown, things had been going very well indeed this week: a Niedermayer & Hart countdown deal finished on Monday and I was extremely satisfied by the response to it; also Roadrage received an accolade - well, sort of, well, something along those lines! You see, it got onto a list. Let me explain, there are a number of things that are incredibly difficult for an indie/self-pub - writer to achieve:

1 It’s really hard to get people to believe that your book isn’t littered with typos and grammatical errors, and that it was thoroughly edited by a team of highly literate people.

2 It’s really hard to get people to believe that any nice things reviewers have written about your books weren’t all manipulated through multiple accounts organised and run by your Mum! Conversely, any negative review, no matter how badly it’s been written or how rotten the reviewer’s grammar is, or whether his/her spelling sucks, must be the damn truth!

3 Promotion is really hard - the big publishers actually pay stores like Waterstones to give prime positions to their latest titles. David and Goliath isn’t in it - it's impossible to compete! I’ve often wondered how they get starry reviewers to say all kinds of lovely things about a pretty mundane book. Ever read the blurb on a book’s cover and thought ‘This must be a cracker’, but fifty pages in you wonder if they attached the wrong cover to the pile of doo-doo you have in your hand? (Okay, rant over! )

Anyway, back to accolades, ah yes! In the words of Hamlet’s father’s ghost, “List, list, oh list!” This week Roadrage, as voted for by people on Twitter and Facebook, made it onto a W H Smith list entitled Underrated Crime Books. So - Hurrah! I say, and grateful thanks to W H Smith and especially grateful thanks to the kind souls who voted for Roadrage.

Incidentally, the list couldn’t have been better timed, because I had arranged weeks ago for a Kindle countdown promotion to begin over the forthcoming weekend on Amazon UK. From tomorrow morning, you can download a copy of Roadrage for just 99p, and I hope that as many people as possible will take advantage of this (US readers had the same opportunity on Amazon.com a few weeks back).

The Roadrage countdown offer starts 8 am Friday, 6 February and runs over the weekend until 8 am, Tuesday, 10 February before reverting to its normal price.

Here’s the link: Roadrage on Kindle countdown

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A Package Holiday to Earthsea!

27/11/2014

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I first read The Earthsea Trilogy when I was in my early twenties and absolutely loved it. The books are meant to be read in the order they were written: A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan(1971), and The Farthest Shore (1972). My wife (who it is more than likely discovered them in the first place!) and I have often recommended them to friends, we certainly sent our son Tom off in their direction once he was old enough to enjoy them. It was in fact he who first realised that Le Guin had written a fourth book, Tehanu (1990), and I have been meaning to catch up with it for some years. My son recently prompted me to get on and re-read the books by giving me a lovely surprise gift of The Earthsea Quartet a few weeks back. I don’t think he was actually aware, I certainly wasn’t, that Le Guin has, since the publication of Tehanu, added another two volumes under the Earthsea banner, Tales from Earthsea (2001), and finally (the last, perhaps?) The Other Wind (2001). Although I don’t think they’re available in one book as The Earthsea Sextet. Tee hee hee! (Don’t quite know why I think that’s funny!). Anyway, Goodreads sensibly refers to them as The Earthsea Cycle - books 1 - 6.

As for reading the first three books again over thirty years after my first outing to Earthsea, the experience was quite simply better than I’d imagined. I was both entranced and delighted by the books, not only by the clarity and drive of Le Guin’s narrative but also by the richness and depth of her always economic prose. I love The Lord of the Rings for its wealth and genius as an epic narrative, however, as a piece of fantasy writing, the world and people created by Le Guin in her Earthsea books have a depth and sense of reality with which Tolkien, in my opinion, never managed to imbue his land of Middle Earth or its characters - and she can cover in fifty pages what JRR would need most of a book to say. This was the first series I ever read that was about a school for the training of wizards, and whilst another school is almost certainly more popularly famous these days, if given the choice I’d definitely want my own wizard’s training to take place on Roke. The first three books were wonderful to read again, and the writing, perhaps not heeded by me then as much as now, was elegant and sublime.

This brings me to Tehanu , the final book in The Earthsea Quartet (as my volume, re-issued in 2012, is entitled). The writing is once again impeccable, however, this is not a tale of epic fantasy like the first three adventures. The main character of the first three books, Ged, is largely absent and the main focus of the narrative is Tenar who we first meet in The Tombs of Atuan. Tehanu has, unlike its predecessors a mainly domestic setting and is concerned (it seemed to me) with the process we all must go through of accepting and accommodating ourselves with life and to how our lives may ultimately fall out. Le Guin has a number of points she wishes to make about gender inequality and the differences between male and female power. I felt that she was (for Le Guin that is) a little heavy-handed at times in her treatment of these matters, and there were just a few moments when I wanted to declare: yes, I already got that. The Taoist philosophy of balance that so firmly binds together this world of Earthsea is never pointed-up or highlighted in such a deliberate way as these feminist issues are in Tehanu. However, Le Guin is a very fine writer and whatever her motives for writing Tehanu, perhaps she simply wished to redress the balance and tidy up the rather male-centric world she’d created in the first three books, and while I’m not wholly convinced that this book should ever have been marketed as the final part of a quartet (so as not to disappoint those anticipating something altogether different, perhaps it should have been presented as a separate story about Earthsea? Just a thought!) it is still a very good book indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, I find myself with two more Earthsea books left to go. Perhaps I’ve had enough, already? Certainly not. I shall definitely be looking forward to reading Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind in the not too distant future ... and who knows, with Christmas fast approaching, maybe Santa, or someone else perhaps, might well be reading this blog post?

And now on to other matters:

Print versions of psychological thriller 'Roadrage' and horror/thriller 'Niedermayer & Hart'

Over the past ten days I’ve happily been required to fulfil an increasing number of orders for hard copy versions of both my books. Perhaps people are ordering them as gifts for Christmas for their ‘rellies’ or chums? The books are trade paperback (airport) sized, and were beautifully produced to a high standard by the sadly no longer trading print firm of MPG Biddles. A librarian friend claims the books have remained in good physical condition even after multiple loans - so, both good-looking and durable, definitely a winning combination! Anyway, my personal thanks to those of you buying print versions of the books. I do of course appreciate that they are considerably more expensive, but they do make for lovely reading and they look great on a shelf too! If anyone ever wants a copy signed, I’m always happy to oblige, simply get in touch through the contact form on this site.

Finally, starting today, Kindle copies of my psychological thriller Roadrage are on a countdown deal. Once again, the best price comes at the beginning as it rises incrementally until returning to its normal retail price. I hope as many thriller readers as possible take advantage of this offer. Please take a peek at what people have said about Roadrage on the reviews page of this website, and if your appetite has been whetted - here’s the link to follow Amazon UK

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Random Harvest and Roadrage

14/11/2014

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My late mother adored a darn good film and was generally a lot of fun to watch a movie with. I went to the pictures with her often when I was a boy, and I recall she always got caught up in the action on screen very easily. Sometimes (as children are strangely wont to do!) I’d cringe with embarrassment at her cinema antics, like the time when we were watching Where Eagles Dare and at the moment when it looked certain that Richard Burton was a Nazi spy, Mam muttered loud enough for me and a few nearby rows to hear, “Ooo, you wicked bugger!” I momentarily shrank in my seat, and by the time the interval arrived (RB wasn’t, it turned out, a baddie, and yes, long movies had intermissions back in 1968!) Mam looked round at me, her eyes dancing with excitment and exclaimed, “It’s very exciting, Mart, isn’t it? Shall we have an ice-cream?”

Last weekend Judith and I watched a favourite film of Mam’s from her wartime days, which we’d bought on DVD. My Dad, her fiancé, was by this time (1942/3) far away in India, and Mam was at home alone, just a lovelorn girl of eighteen or nineteen. The film Random Harvest was based on the James Hilton bestseller of the same name and starred Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson. It’s about a young man who has lost his memory after he is discovered injured in No Man’s Land during World War One. Believe you me - this film helps you arrive at a fully comprehensive understanding of the term ‘tear-jerker’! I’d never watched it before, but Mam, who had seen it at the Rex Cinema in Aberdare, and had gone to every single evening performance over the week it played, had given me a scene by scene description many times throughout my childhood years. Yes, it’s sentimental, but so what, we had a box of tissues leftover from the last time we watched It’s a Wonderful Life! The performances, despite the era when it was made, are subtle and understated, and the script is always convincing, even if the overall premise may be a little far-fetched. Anyway, it was great to watch, not least because it was in some way like being able to share the experience with Mam. Definitely got the thumbs-up from me and Judith.

Last week I announced that Niedermayer & Hart was on a Kindle Coundown offer - however, this offer only applied to US readers. A similar deal starts today on Amazon.Com for my psychological thriller Roadrage, which will kick off at only 99 cents (before rising incrementally every 40 hours to its normal price of $4.99) - so if you’d like to read a copy, get in fast! UK readers will have their own opportunity to purchase both books through a similar offer from the end of next week.

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Nightmare Builders!

5/11/2014

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It has been a strange hectic few months since our summer holiday in Ruhpolding, Bavaria in early August. Upon our return, I’d arranged for some necessary and fairly extensive building works to get underway. I’d considered what needed doing carefully and gone about things cautiously, or so I thought, and had received about half a dozen different estimates for the work. The job mostly required the repointing of brickwork that was in poor condition and had been hidden beneath masonry paint. I didn’t have any immediate contacts when it came to bricklayers, so I used an online directory provider who claim that they thoroughly vet the tradespeople on their website, and that the reviews for them posted by scores of satisfied customers are most definitely to be trusted, enabling you as a prospective customer to feel confident and sleep easy in your bed. A note of warning ... beware!

What I didn’t realise, and probably most prospective customers don’t either, is that these companies charge the tradesperson a nice fat fee to to use their service. A reputable builder explained that even impressive acronyms for what might seem to us novices as representing solid-as-rock trade organisations, are often meaningless - “Just an opportunity to hike-up the price,” he suggested, and went on to say, “The only way to be sure of a good builder is either to see their work, or, through the recommendation of someone you completely trust”. I entirely agree. These customer-review sites are simply opportunities for tradespeople to advertise their skills and should definitely be seen as such; undoubtedly there are some good people on these sites, but they are easily open to abuse; the danger lies in the perception (which they have a vested interest in promoting) that customers are dealing with an authoritative voice that can be unequivocally trusted ... again, I say, beware!

After I’d sacked the builders I’d taken on via this well-known website, I rang to make a formal complaint. The girl on the phone was warm and expressed dismay that we had had a bad experience with one of their tradesmen. She said she’d put me through to their ‘Complaints Department’, pointing out that there may be no-one in that office at this time, but reassured me that if I left my name and telephone number someone would be sure get back to me promptly. Ten days later I’d heard nothing and rang again. I was about to be put through to their complaints department once more until I mentioned this was the second time I’d called. I got the distinct impression that most people give up before they make the second call. The apologetic chap I spoke to suggested, as I hadn’t been given an invoice number by the tradesman, that I leave my feedback on their website, which they would understandably, for the sake of fairness (presumably because I might be an unrealistically demanding or even vindictive customer) allow the tradesman an opportunity to comment on and offer his explanation, or perhaps he might be able to put the work right ... after twenty-one days if the matter wasn’t resolved and the tradesman couldn’t justify himself, my comments would be posted on their site. I suggested their organisation, to ensure fairness, might like to send someone over to examine for themselves the builders’ thoroughly dreadful work ... witness for themselves the mortar they’d thinly smeared over paintwork to make it look like they had ground-out and repaired a joint, or see their wafer thin pointing that would no doubt ‘ping-out’ at the first frost. He gently explained that they were not able to make site visits at that time (whatever that meant!).

It’s quite a big thing to get rid of your builders once works are underway, because by this time you generally have quite a lot invested already in what they’re doing. At first you try to convince yourselves that maybe they just got off to a bad start ... maybe next week their time-keeping and perhaps even their work might improve ... in your heart you already know you’re deluding yourselves ... the sleepless nights have already started! There were four of them and I don’t think I ever saw one of them before 9 am ... some days I didn’t see them at all ... the last straw was when only one of them rolled up for work in the second week at about 11am, broke for an hour’s lunch at 12.30pm, then condescended to do an hour more in the afternoon before packing up for the day. Their on site presence was as rare as a hen’s teeth (as someone who works from home, I took to jotting down their hours) ... four guys over two weeks totalling 72 hours present on site (I suspect time actually working was far less) isn’t going to win any gold medals for diligence and hard work. The moment arrived when they just had to go! And once I’d bitten the bullet it immediately felt better - no work is better than rotten work that is going to require a good deal of putting right.

However, there were inevitably consequences to bear: I’d agreed to what I’d considered to be a reasonable payment at the end of each week’s work, so we were taken for some money - but in the great scheme of things and against the overall cost of the job, we didn’t suffer too badly. There’s certainly no way of getting any money back, they’re the sort of guys who if you took them to the small claims court, it would not only end up costing you more money, they’d probably claim to having no money at all and would probably be allowed to pay you back at £1 a week. I’d suggest that if a builder requests any interim payments, that you discuss this thoroughly with them before agreeing to it and make any agreed payments a week in lieu. Hindsight is a great thing!

Once the builders were finally gone we then encountered a couple of weeks of disturbed if not entirely sleepless nights - our home was now surrounded by a large scaffold, costing us money as it lay idle. There has been something of a building boom in the south-east of England this year; the number of other houses in the surrounding streets that bear their own scaffolds confirms this. For over two weeks every reputable builder I approached who came recommended to me turned out to be busy. The situation seemed impossible ... I was comforted by a story I knew from Eastern wisdom about the transience of all things ... “This too will pass” I assured myself many times. And to ease my frustration and to save my nails from being bitten down to the quick, I launched myself at the house’s gable end (not literally!), and my son lent a hand too - I don’t possess the skill to dismantle and rebuild a chimney, but I could certainly grind out and repoint brickwork that would ultimately be painted again. I persisted in looking for new builders and eventually some of the good guys in white Stetsons turned up and took on the more skilled work. We are very grateful to them.

Up to 81% discount on Kindle from 8 November!

And that’s what happened, and why this has been the longest blog-holiday this website has ever taken! I’ve still got a few bits and bobs inside and out to finish off, so I can’t get down to my daily writing schedule again just yet; but I’m no longer solely thinking and dreaming about bricks and mortar - the house is looking great and the end is definitely in sight! I’ve actually started thinking about my books and their marketing again, and recently set up what I hope will prove to be some attractive opportunities to get Kindle copies of both my books at highly discounted prices on Amazon.com and Amazon.uk. The offers will start on Saturday 8 November and go on until Thursday 4 December. Both the books will be available at different times and the price they’ll be available at will vary - I’ll simply say this, remember, it’s the early bird that catches the worm!

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Nightmare Builders!

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