Coronavirus: What about the charities?

My second blog post about Coronavirus is prompted by a message I received from Dove House Hospice. While everyone is demanding a strict lock-down and that citizens be forced to stay indoors for a protracted length of time it seems that the valuable work down by charities has been totally ignored. Dove House Hospice is …

I am back (again)!

Things certainly have not gone as I had expected. I took two weeks off to go on holiday with my wife but then we got caught up with the whole Coronavirus epidemic, or pandemic as it has now become. Things are finally beginning to get back to normal, although that might be a relative assessment …

I will not be posting for a couple of weeks

I am off on my travels and will be taking short break as a result.

How the Myth of Sisyphus relates to Me today

I have a very rare muscle condition, Myotonia Congenita. Of the two recognised variants I have Beckers's, which brings with it not just an impaired ability for my muscles to relax after contraction but also sudden and unexpected bouts of weakness, especially in my arms and legs. My symptoms are severe, but I do get …

The Queen of the Mountain Kingdom is Here!

There is always something satisfying in announcing the release of a new novel. The Queen of the Mountain Kingdom is my sixth book and it still gives me a thrill. There was a time when I thought it would never see the light of day, but then everything just came together. I very happy with …

Getting Ready for the Big Launch

I am in the process of trying to market The Queen of the Mountain Kingdom. To be honest, and as I have previously mentioned, I am not a fan of this particular aspect of being an independent author. As I am still waiting to make it big, however, then there seems to be no real …

If the World were like Dubrovnik!

I did not get to make a blog post last week as I was in Dubrovnik on a family holiday. It was my second visit to the city, the first being about 3 years ago when our cruise ship called at the port. This time we got spend a little longer and very much appreciated …

The Frustrations of the Large Book Writer

At some 170,000 words The Queen of the Mountain Kingdom is a long book. I can remember when writing a 10,000-word essay at college was considered a massive undertaking; they gave us a whole year to write it! I did not set out with that intention. In fact, the only target I have when I …

This Fantasy Thing

Well, The Queen of the Mountain Kingdom (hereafter known as QMK) is almost finished. I expect to have the book published to Kindle this weekend. I will not be advertising the fact, however. My attention is going to be centred elsewhere for at least a week, other things are happening in my life, good things …

Cover by Design

As well as writing my books I also like to design the covers. I am not a trained artist, just an enthusiast. I also like messing around with photograph manipulation in a digital format. I do draw and paint as well, but I find digital to be a both quicker and less messy in the …