Speculation

"It must be remembered, too, that the political condition of the country was such as constantly to agitate the public mind, and divert attention from spiritual things."

Handbook of Revivals:
Henry C. Fish


The above quote concerns an 18th century time period between America's spiritual awakenings. A spiritual ebb similar to that in which we currently live.

From Henry Fish's perspective it is the political sphere which acts as the true 'bread and circus' to distract people from more important, spiritual issues.


But let's be distracted for now...

There are 88 days to the next general election in the UK. It is highly unlikely that there will be a spiritual awakening or a revolution in this time period. I don't want to dishearten anyone, but it just is almost certainly not going to happen.

For the politically enlightened, most commentators concede that there are a few possibilities and variables for the future. Either Labour get in, the Tories retain power or else there is some kind of deal between parties again.

UKIP may be a political force, but few people think they will gain power. As of May we will almost certainly either have a Labour Government or remain with the Tories. Simply because this is how it seems to work. This is the most likely scenario. Please plan accordingly and vote with your conscience (of which you don't need another).

But the 'black swan theory' is a theory which suggests that the impossible shouldn't be ruled out (the idea being that black swans were thought not to exist until people spotted them and then everyone had to concede that the impossible is possible). So who knows? Maybe there could be a revolution under Russell Brand or a UKIP landslide. Maybe there could be a spiritual revival. Maybe there could be a new-age paradigm shift. Maybe the Queen could die. Maybe our personal lives could get so overhauled that we couldn't care less what happens in the country.

So we have to return from our bread and circuses to focus on the real things. We have to become or remain enlightened either politically or spiritually or else we are fast asleep, lulled into complacency by the eerie, comforting circus music which drones on and on and on...

As for myself, I am fast asleep. But at least I know that.

My novel in print

Destiny and Dynasty is now published in print. It's available on Amazon now. The official date for publication was 23rd January 2015. The print version is £5.99.

I've also created a new website just for the book which can be seen here www.destinyanddynasty.com

I haven't had much time to market or promote the whole thing but hopefully I will be able to carve out a little time to do that in the coming weeks. But I will try to focus on some other topics for this blog as there are a lot of things I want to write about.

Click here to see it on Amazon.

Into the Woods we go again...

There are so many things which could be said in this blog - they range from comment on the report on the bill which has passed committee stage on prayers in local councils through to a criticism of the sheer scariness of childrens dolls these days.

And as one of the uber-fans of the musical 'Into the Woods' I could also whinge about the loss of the narrator in the film version. But it seems that Sondheim himself is complicit in the Disney decisions and I will spare you my rants. It's 'Agony' - for some feel that Sondheim has killed too many of his babies and the world has gone too far (Where is the intrusive narrator? Where are the best songs?).

I don't have anything useful to add to the existing comments on the events in France beyond saying that I feel too many people are affected by it. I wrote a parable called 'The Good Terrorist' some time ago and you are welcome to read it here. There is no particular agenda or message to it - I'm anti-violence so I have few ideological sympathies for either side (both of which use violence).

But my first novel, Destiny and Dynasty, has been published. I'm working on the print version which I hope to have available before Easter. If you need an escape then please read it.

Publishing the ebook was harder than you may think. There was a technological error which caused the ebook text to come out as grey instead of black. I spent the launch day uploading new files again and again and again. I did this ten times. In the end I felt that God himself was against the whole thing. Maybe he is, who knows, he is enigmatic and although I find him fascinating I do wonder at the things he allows.

I fear that I am a superficial oaf and I don't want to be that.

Think happy thoughts.

Launch day - Destiny and Dynasty

My first novel has been published today. And this is the hub of the subdued launch party. Any party I throw is possibly doomed to failure so I am sparing the world further hassle (after all the world has enough to deal with).

What is the book about?

So there are possible angels and possible miracles. There are dreams and there is a really nasty piece of work or two. There are tests and trials and there is a fire and more than one person dies.

It’s a really hard story to describe. Whenever anyone has asked me what it’s about I’ve always struggled to answer. In the end I tend to say: ‘It’s a love story’ – but it is more than that - it’s a strange and wild love story.

For example, I’ve deliberately littered the story with anthropomorphisms and broken a lot of the traditional writing rules (for example, I’ve ‘told and not shown’). I’ve used a kind of ‘butterfly-mind’ thinking which is designed to create a particular atmosphere and also parallel the imaginative mind of the protagonist and the eerie motives of the villain. Mike Sumner is the hero and the villains are a whole family named ‘Ravenscroft’. They are the dynasty. The destiny is under question.

It was always going to be a case of whether or not to create a very gritty story so as to be realistic. In the end I largely turned away from that idea because everyone else was doing it. The story isn’t without realism, but there are elements of magic realism and an attempt to create a particular unique style in the storytelling.

So there are supernatural elements to the story but the supernatural elements take a back seat to the main story.

Why release it as an ebook first?

I’ve decided to release it as an ebook first but will probably create a paperback version sometime next year. The whole landscape and environment to publication has changed and I am a great believer in ereaders so I’ve embraced the changes (for now). Anyone with a laptop. PC or tablet can read it simply by downloading the Kindle reading app:  Kindle app.

What are you trying to say through the story?

Apart from the obvious subtexts of nepotism, sexism and corruption, my faith has influenced the story. And so the protagonist is unashamedly a Christian. This is because Christian heroes are thin on the ground in literature these days. This may alienate some readers and I’m sorry about that, but someone has to do it.

The megachurch in the story is entirely fictional but I hope it is realistic.

I don’t want to give too much away in case you are kind enough to read it.

Above all it is a story to be enjoyed and it is not a story with a moral message – it is a story which is designed to be an escape.

Hold on, these aren’t my questions…

Huh?

Wait a minute…

Don’t question the questioner.

This is outrageous, I have rights! Give an account of yourself man!

Think happy thoughts citizen!

Destiny and Dynasty ebook at Amazon

Digital legacy

It's a preoccupation with melancholy writers to want to be recognised for work in this lifetime. But failing that, the second best thing (although fairly useless when you think about it) is to want to be posthumously recognised, like Franz Kafka, Emily Dickinson or Edgar Allan Poe.

Of course, it's a complete waste of time to be famous after you're dead and the sad fact is that most of us will not be recognised either in this lifetime or afterwards (obviously I speak for myself). This is why it's so important for writers to enjoy the writing - or there just isn't any point. Neil Gaiman says 'make good art whatever happens' - and presumably this also means whether anyone notices you or not.

This is why a digital legacy is so interesting. What happens to anything you have created after you die? Obviously there is the Google Inactive Account manager for those who want to let others access their material after they have crossed the glowing human rainbow bridge (not sure why the rainbow bridge is glowing - just trying to keep things light).

There are digital legacy firms who will protect your writings, passwords and digital art. But I don't think anyone has written about the Amazon pre-order system - which has the potential of being a peculiar form of life after death.

Because I've come to realise that should I kick the tin bucket (still trying to keep things light) before December 15th, my first novel will still be published. That's because it has all been uploaded to the Kindle Direct Publishing site and everything is ready to roll whether I do anything or not. It will happen automatically from here on.

In theory it is possible to add a book 90 days in advance. So if you had a particularly scandalous (or libelous) autobiography (or wanted revenge) you could upload a manuscript if you knew you were about to pop your glow-in the dark clogs (light?) in advance.

I have no plans to give up the happy ghost just yet and all being well, we will all survive the winter and not have to worry about bridges, buckets, ghosts or clogs. After all it is for such losses that many people (understandably) grow to hate Christmas. All I'm saying is that with the changes in the publishing industry and the rise of the ebook there is now a new way of leaving a digital legacy.

Think happy thoughts.

Comets are usually said to be bad omens

I'll be honest with you, you're a busy person. I just want to reach 100 posts on this blog and this is just filler.

NaNoWriMo Completed

I’ve finished NaNoWriMo with 20 days to spare. I wrote 50,005 words averaging at around 5,000 words a day (according to the addictive stats on the site). NaNoWriMo is so huge now and whenever I look to see how many people are on the forums there are always over 100,000 writers. Maybe there are too many of us.

I was lucky in that I’ve had some spare time to write (because I am working part-time hours at the moment). My wife is also doing the challenge and she has somehow reached over 15,000 words. But it is much harder for her because she has been working full-time hours with overtime commitments. And she is writing by hand.

When I completed the challenge I updated my word count on the main NaNoWriMo site expecting some huge congratulations or some amazing graphic to flash up. Instead it just said ‘You made it’ in an obscure part of the webpage. It was a little like completing a really hard computer game and looking forward to a fantastic end-sequence only to get the words ‘You win. Game over’.

But there it is. I now have a rough draft for a new novel. If I go back to it I will need to do a lot of work on editing, but at least I have some more spare material now.

Now I shall be focusing my spare time on the final edit of my novel Destiny and Dynasty. This is about the same length as the NaNoWriMo novel (but it took a tad longer to write). It will still be published (first as an ebook) on the 15^th December on Amazon.