569 pages? You're crazy, Orion!

I got a book for Christmas. William Napier 'Attila the Judgement'.
It's a 3rd person POV (point of view) Historical fiction about the Romans and Atilla the Hun. It's strange, it doesn't know where it's going in terms of style, it keeps changing from one paragraph to the next, you get a really nice flowing paragraph and it ends in a stinky sentence which is way out of style. The dialogue to cliche too, then rude, then so unreal.
The story is good, though there are too many coincidences for it to work right. And the story kinda loses strength after Part One. Plus at one point one Roman called Knuckles struggles to kill one single Hun, then suddenly he can kill hundreds with his bare hands and club, crushing skulls, etc. Just like a Hollywood blockbuster. So what is this book? Who knows?
Head jumping happens a bit, too, even more irritating than when I do it. At least when I do it, there's a break of some sort.
AND on page 181, suddenly from out of the blue comes a 1st person POV (point of view). Where did that come from? It continues on for I don't know how long, I stopped on page 183..of 569 pages?!
Do I read on? Only because I can't find my 'Catcher in the Rye' at the moment...
I can't believe this book got a publisher. Who is it? Orion! Jesus! Someone in their office has a screw loose. Congratulations to William Napier, though, he got a 3 book deal from them! Which is more than what I could...

Researching the 4th book

Researching a new book is just one of those wonderful things in the journey of creating. Sorry? What?
Yes, researching, going round in circles, trying to find the answers to the questions which will be the skeleton to the logic of your book, I like it. Well, I would. Got a hell of a lot of it done in the last few days, pieces are falling into place in my mind, scenes are appearing, coming to life...
Those French are crazy when it comes to numbers. They count up to 60 and then stop. 70 is actually 60+10, 80 is 4*20, and 99 is 4*20+19 (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf)! 100 is finally a new number (cent). Crazy. Just wondering how to put it in...great fun!

Support an author, buy their books!

I was thinking again (oh no). All those books I bought, all those books from the bookshops and internet and Kindle (buy? Ha! Aren't they all free up to 7 days?). I was not only looking for some 'entertainment' but also 'supporting' the authors and the publishing houses. Yes, I've bought Dan Brown books! It's me that is to blame for publishing houses looking for crap to publish, it's my fault that 100s of thousands of potential authors clone Brown's and Grisham's books, desperately trying to get published. It's my fault as a reader that the publishing houses keep the literacy level low! And now that I have no money, I can't go and buy those books which could change the shape of the future literacy market and bring a capital 'L' back into literature. The rot will continue without me!
So, support this author, this author who's trying desperately to increase the literacy level of readers, and get a book!
My books on Amazon.com

Finally, the 4th book!

Honestly.
After 'Rage', my writings gone all over the place, writing short stories, a few poems, some ideas here and there, and 2 novellas, 'Too Dull to Die' and 'Sicknotized'.
Now a few of those ideas keep popping up and now I've got the seed of my 4th book. But what to call it?
The final inspiration came when I was listening to the Stranglers' 'Gospel According to the Men in Black'.
It'll be based on that, that's all I can say at the moment. Maybe I'll call it 'The Manna Machine', though there is alreadyy a book with that title :-(
There's a female character, 4 'strange' men (from another planet), and of course the 'evil' counterparts. The story will revolve around the Manna Machine. There is some stuff on wiki about it, but my Manna Machine is slightly different :-)~ So, watch this space :-)

Cheaper Kindles!

Yes, I finally put the prices down :-)
Amazon.com is doing something strange with the prices, I set them low, and they put them higher???
At the moment, the cheapest place to buy my Kindle books is at Amazon.co.uk.
'Man by a tree' ... £1.02
I tried to make it £0.99 but even Amazon.co.uk put it up a 3p! The other Kindle books will follow very soon, but who knows what Amazon.com is doing???

'Man by a Tree' Chapter 7 snippet

The first mention of Sniff and Grint, the two dumb hobgoblins orderedto follow Graham Reader around...

“Let’s eat,” said Sniff, eating kept his mind off his nose. They both took out some sandwiches and ate. Grint took out his flask and poured himself a cup of hot fairy tea. He held the cup for a few moments, mesmorised by the action below in the church, or maybe his brain had just stopped, that was more probable. He burnt his hand.

“Oww! It’s hot!” Grint put his tea down on the beam they were sitting on. Sniff put his finger into the cup and measured its temperature.

“Nah, that’s okay, just be careful drinking it.” He took his finger out and continued to eat and wipe his nose.

“Drinking it? I’m not drinking that now. You put your finger in it!” Even the stupid spotted the obvious.

“Okay…” Sniff picked up the cup, measured his finger against the cup, and drank that much from the cup. “See, I’ve drunk that bit now.” He passed the cup back to Grint.

“Oh.” He seemed happy with the result. “But what about my drink? You drank most of it.”

“How about a pixie stick?” Sniff rummaged through his backpack.

“Yeah, that’s com…pen….that’ll do.” It took him time to find words, but long ones were pointless. Sniff took out a pixie stick, a tiny miniscule example of a pixie stick. “Err, that’s a bit small for a pixie stick, ain’t it?”

“Err…” Sniff wiped his nose with his finger.”Nah, it’s just very, very, far away.”

“Oh...right.” Grint was working on the math. “How long will it take to get here?”

“Oh, at least a few seconds, here it comes,” Sniff slowly brought the pixie stick closer and closer. “It’s coming, it’s coming,” closer and closer, “and here it is!” Sniff put it into Grint’s anticipating open mouth, and Grint gleefully began to chew on it. Grint was at first happy, then realising its true size, was a bit disappointed. Shrugging his shoulders, he crunched on it in his mouth and ate it, gone in one gulp.

Why 'Man by a Tree'?

That's what people ask me. Not that they read the book, just they're curious about the title. The books on the market with 'tree' in the title aren't so...interesting. But...
1. The title 'Man by a tree' is one translation of my original family name from my original ancestral place. Other translations are 'man by oak tree', or 'folk by a tree'.
2. The book 'Man by a tree' is about us monkeys. Humankind, after thousands of years of civilization, is still only a step away from their origins in the trees. We are still standing 'by a tree'. Look around, see the shallowness surrounding you...
3. The image of a man by a tree shows loneliness, being alone. There are even some scenes in the book where the main character, Graham Reader, is alone with trees.
4. And there is, of course, the obvious reason, if you have a copy in your hand, that is. You are a 'man' (long ago, 'women' were also called 'men') 'by' a 'tree' (paper is wood)
I've been told it takes a few pages to warm to the book and its style, but once you're in, you're in. Shame not many sales, there's a lot of things said in the book, and I'm not talking about Chapter 2 or 3.