The Other Side

The Story is nearly complete...

7/10/2021

Well, it’s been a while since I blogged. The world has been a strange place the last eighteen months.
Anyone else finding that?
Well, I have a story for you, but it’s not going to be the usual patter promoting a new book … but it is a real story … and if you read until the end there is something for everybody to be part of if they so wish.

Let’s start.
We need to go back a long way here to understand the true beginnings of this story. It all began when a few official representatives got together in a pub one evening in October 1863; all the discussions that had gone before finally culminated in the official putting together of something that many of us now call beautiful … while others don’t see it that way. there are so many other things that have got in the way.
One day 63 years later, police on horses were called to clear the way for the huge sporting event to take place at what has now become its home in this country. That was in 1926. It was quite incredible what had grown from those small acorns many years earlier.
It would be another 40 years before that place could really claim fame, that happened on July 30th 1966, and that is where the first chapter of my story ends.

The second chapter begins 4 years later, and I tell you now, for those who are with me so far, this is really nothing to do with the beautiful game. Football is just the backdrop to and English culture, whether you feel it or not. It’s always there in the background.
I feel it … I am passionate about the sport. I feel it too when our Rugby team plays. Rugby is part of football; they split over a century and a half ago … did you know?
One day at Rugby school a chap called William Webb Ellis decided to pick the ball up in a game of football and run with it. Although at the time he was rebuked for doing so, his actions gained respect. He had made a point and the point was well taken. Rugby was born. English sport has been born out of individuals taking risks and being allowed and able to express themselves.

I said that the second chapter of my story began in 1970. Every story has a beginning, then usually there is thrown a problem for the protagonist to solve.
In the late 1960s as a small boy who became very gripped by the game of football. I collected the stickers, and actually it was probably the first time I ever slipped into a childhood trait of being completely dishonest. I would do anything to get my hands on that extra packet of footy stickers. I remember one day my Dad noticing I seemed to have loads of them and asking where I had got the money from. I said friends bought them for me. In the end I got away with it. But, one night in June 1970 it all went wrong when England, the current world champions at the time lost to Germany in the quarter finals of the world cup, and from that moment on, things have never been quite the same.

I see football as a back drop to our social lives whether you are a fan of the game or not, it plays a part in the life of every British person because someone you know will be passionate about it even if you are not.

So the second chapter is a long trawl through the 1970s, my teenage years. I loved the game and followed it intently. For me, it began to blossom when the team I supported started to flurry and actually, over a couple of years came close to winning the First Division title! Sadly though, this chapter ends without me getting the prize hoped for, and without the England team even getting to play at a World Cup Finals tournament! Every cloud has a silver lining though and that team from my East Anglian roots did manage to win the FA cup.

Chapter 3 of this story is really quite long. I would probably break it down into about 3 chapters if I was writing a book but things never seem coherent when the middle of a book seems too prolonged. This is a long trawl that goes on and on with no real change. I will edit out all the boring bits by just stating that for the best part of four decades, the way our national football team played was rarely exciting, and certainly never breathtaking. It wasn’t even particularly risky either. It became a reflection of so many other things about society at the time:

Then came what I would call chapter 4. In 1996 we came so close to going all the way, reaching the semi-final and going out on penalties again … to the Germans!. Since then it has been a story of never quite having all the pieces if the jigsaw when you need them. There always seems to be a reason why … people have the answers, they’ve seen it all before, they say we’re going to throw it away, but I know we can play … we still believe.
The big question is why? Or, indeed, why not?
Anything is possible.

Chapter 5 is really what has happened in the last 3 years, in the world and in our beautiful game. 3 years ago The England team made a semifinal, the first in two decades.
We have learned living through the current pandemic that life has changed us all. Things are never going to be quite the same. There are so many positives, and one of them is a freshness of attitude towards how we approach things. Some people have achieved some incredible things, others have just sat, waited and tried to get through. Some have sailed through the last few months while others have experienced much sadness, lost loved ones or at least found time to be very tough. Myself, I have been quite lucky and I haven’t done too badly; I picked on something I was already doing then threw my heart and soul into it to nurture and grow it. I suppose really, it isn’t all luck. If you believe, if you are passionate, then good things will come to you, or at least happen around you and you will feel good about life.
This new approach, the freshness I speak of is happening in our national game right now.

We are enter the final chapter of my story. This will at least be a conclusion to all that has gone before. The last couple of weeks has shown us what a bit of belief can do … then one night in Rome, we were strong, we had grown, and now, since Wednesday evening we can look forward to the final, which will end of our story for now at least.

Stories don’t always have the ending you want, but I think this one is going to have a positive outcome whatever the result of what is the biggest football match to involve this country for over half a century.
We are all part of something huge here … if we want to be … win or lose!

It is an incredibly uplifting achievement that England have got to a major Final and that Wembley is once again going to see huge drama. We can win, of course we can, but we should still be celebrating the moment even if we don’t take the trophy home. Football has come home … nearly … and if it doesn’t happen completely this time … we’ll be back with real belief, because everything about the characters in the final chapter of this story have shown us so.

So, why am I bothering to tell you all this?
Well, I wanted to put things in perspective so that people realise what a big deal this is for English sport and for all involved, so teaming up with another family member we have decided to do something special to celebrate this huge event … win or lose … it still needs celebrating.

So what we have done is made available something quite unique and special. We are in the process of adding the finishing touches to a pair of original art posters that we have been working on to celebrate England’s achievements this summer.
There will be other people doing this but we aim to be the first to release these high quality limited edition prints.
There will be a run of 100 of each, and the allocated number will be marked on the print. The artwork for these posters has been done through our two collaborative businesses:
Back in The Day and Goymour Illustrations.
We are not giving these away they are of real value and will be of exceptional quality printed on our top of the range professional fine art printer. The price will start at a discount for the early takers … then we will need to raise it to full price.
Producing something of this quality is an expensive process but the product is unique and will last forever. The inks used to print are of the highest quality - guaranteed not to fade for hundreds of years!

This is a once only chance to get yourself something truly unique and special to remember the event by. It will be a talking point for years to come …

So how can you become an owner of one of these?
Well, you just need to go and place your order.
You will then receive a personal message from one of us within an hour or two confirming that you have secured your print. Your print will be posted out with 48 hours of the final whistle on Sunday and we will keep you informed all the way.
Of course, the finished artwork will reflect the result, but win or lose, we think England’s achievements thus far are worth celebrating.

And , to make it even sweeter we arc adding some free gifts …
When you place your order we will respond by sending you some free digital files form both Goymour illustrations and Back in the Day.

There are two unique styles of poster using our original artwork. Each one will only be sold 100 times.
this is a one-off opportunity to secure something unique at a low cost.
From Monday the price will gradually increase.

You can get these prints right now …or you can wait … or you can miss out.
The beauty of choice.

England poster Blue

England poster White

Whatever you decide, enjoy the moment, even if you’re not a huge football fan, don’t let it pass you by. This is huge deal for many around you.
We just want to make it as memorable as possible.

Come on England. We ca do it.

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Gripping, Thrilling & Spooky Autumn Reads

10/26/2018

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I’m going to keep this short. This post is about reading, and I don't mean reading what I have to say ... (much!).
Nothing beats a good mystery, we all love to immerse ourselves in a world of fiction, and if you’re reading this it will already be because you like it dark … the unknown, perhaps the quirky and the unexpected … maybe quite gritty too.

Well, the good news is that on this page you’ve got it all.
There are so many good offers around at this time of year I’ve been selective what to take part in and what to bother telling you guys about.
Some of these are time sensitive so take your time browsing, but do hurry!
That's enough from me.
Enjoy.

Burning: A fantastic collection of mini thrillers - all with a theme … yes, you’ve guessed it!

Mystery Suspense and Thrills giveaway (all free): Anne Tan regularly sets these up, there are loads of free books here. (If you look out for my short story, you’ll get the follow up story are as well)

Halloween Tricks ’n’ Treats: Great seasonal promotion of special offers, freebies, and some specially selected stories for halloween

Spooky Autumn Reads: The first 3 stories in my 5 story series that I have running up until Christmas. 3 stories that can stand alone … but they all connect

So plenty to get your teeth into here whatever your precise taste.
I'd love to know what you think so if you've seen something you like do let me know..

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Acting on impulse can be a good thing . . . if you do it right.

8/13/2018

10 Comments

Allow me to ask you a question, and then, think about your answer and whatever it conjours up in your mind before you read on.

‘Have you ever acted on impulse?’

(false question … because we all have … so I’ll rephrase …)

When did you last act on impulse to do something, and did it pay off?’

Okay, so here’s the thing; acting on impulse to do something can take many forms and lead to many results. Some of these will be positive but many will be consequential and lead us to regret. Here’s an example that you might relate to:

Quite recently, my wife arrived home from a shopping trip with a wonderfully colourful rug that was hugely reduced in price. (She loves spending money … when we’ve got it!) The saving was something in the region of £25 ($30-35). She had seen it on the market and fallen in love with it immediately. The rug could fit in our living room if I moved some of the furniture around. It was a harmonious clash of colours, but that didn’t come into play because we’d saved £25! The damn thing should have cost £90 and we got this fantastic bargain for just £65! The only trouble was … we didn’t need it. And, actually, we couldn’t really afford it.
My dearest had bought on impulse.

She’d fallen for that age-old sales trick of inflating the price then putting the item on a huge discount. She bought it knowing she had a bargain, but it didn’t occur to her that there was just a chance that it might not actually benefit us one bit – it didn’t.
Since then we have acquired a huge dog (actually my son’s), but as he is now back living with us the lovey animal is around most of the time. We have also acquired a new dear granddaughter who visits regularly, so guess what’s happened to the rug? Not wanting it to become full of hairs and then our granddaughter crawling amongst them, my dearest has had to roll it up and file it away for later!
Have we truly benefitted in any way from her impulse buy of a few months back? … I don’t think so.

This story is typical. Does you’re mind go back to something similar? Or do you have a positive experience of doing something on impulse? … I’d love to know.

Going back to the rug … we’ve all been there, but things can be better and we can choose whether or not to take control when these situations occur and make sure they can always benefit us in some way IF we follow a few simple rules.

I’m going to tell you about two extremes and how they have both worked for me in completely different ways, but first, there are a few rules about doing things
on impulse to get clear.

• Never do it purely because you’ve seen a cut price offer and think you’re making an unbelievably worthwhile saving – you won’t be
• Brain and heart must both say ‘Yes’ . In other words, be rational, but truly believe that what you’re doing is for the best. You must have a strong positive gut feeling.
• If those two things aren’t right … don’t take things further.

So, that’s easy to say, but how do we make it work for us?
Well, acting on impulse can be a good thing and I’m going to tell you how.

I did something earlier this week that shocked everybody that knows me. I always spend what money I have carefully; Like everyone, I make misjudgemental mistakes from time to time, but the other day I went out early in the morning and came back with this.

By the end of the morning I was driving it home. My family, were pleased because they trusted me, but they were overwhelmed that I had just gone out and bought a car – especially as they knew I had no actual money and there was no trade-in on my old banger that I had preached about not being able to afford to replace for weeks.
So what happened? Why did I do this/
Well, as always, there is a back story …

I knew that at any time I might land a bill on the old Fiat that made it not worth spending the money on. There were things inherently wrong with it – like the clutch was on it’s way out last year! (that’s been quite a joke amongst friends and family, but new clutches don’t come cheap.) So I made a definite decision that when the moment came I would have to do something drastic and I was prepared to pull all the strings I could to work this one in my favour. I’d been looking around at ways of making the money I have work a little harder for me instead of me always working harder to get that same money, so I’d been laying down a few stones … solid rocks so to speak. I won’t go into detail here but I kind of know that the next three months are going to be better than the last three.

This was all down to other things I had pipelining
(an important point if you’re going to act on impulse where money is concerned)

I also know that there is a little earner coming my wife’s way which will help us out at least over the short term.
Then, there were other things, like getting any sort of credit to make monthly payments had been out of the question for me for a few years now but there was daylight at the end of the tunnel. I knew just how much my old car was costing me to run. (Remember that clutch had gone . . . and most of the fuel gets drunk in gear changing and acceleration … think about that – and how little mileage I might be getting to the litre of fuel!) I’d already worked out on what a newer car might save me every month. When it came to it, I had to apply for credit, I needed a monthly payment plan.
In the UK, if you think you might not get credit, don’t apply … whatever anyone tells you a failed application makes things worse.
But I had no choice.
The choice I did have was to wait and not to have applied earlier when I didn’t really need it. This has been a deliberate strategy of mine for the last two years, and it paid off. Because I had held off for long enough until the critical moment came it was all good, I had recovered enough financially to qualify for whatever I needed.

Now, I was in the driving seat. The salesman, after having me in front of him for 30 minutes really wanted to sell to me and I really wanted the car – there was honesty here from both camps, but the most honest thing I told him was how I couldn’t afford to take the risk and I needed everything covered, right down to a full guarantee for the duration of the payment period.

The result of all this: Setting off all the costs I had for my other car against the new one, I’m paying something around £30 a month more for something way, way better, and I got a watertight deal that’s given me five years peace of mind.

Friends and family are asking how I did it as it seemed a totally impulsive action.
It took 3 hours of hard bargaining, but I got just the best deal. In fact, since the other day I have met two other people that have bought from the same place, one, even from the same salesman, and they are both paying way more than me for way less.

If you are determined and things are already in place you can get yourself the best deal. You just need to do things right.

The secret:

I had assessed the situation and made sure several things were in place
before I acted on impulse.

Now I’m not telling you all this so you can sit back and appreciate how well I might have done. Who really cares … until it becomes something you can implement for yourself.
For years I have looked on at people who have probably done something very similar and I’ve wondered just how they’ve managed it. Now I’m thinking every dog can have his day, IF you get things right in the planning.

What appears to be an act of impulse buying often derives as a result of
careful planning

I’ve thought about this a lot the last few days, and the thing that rings through my head is this:

Anybody can make this work if you have the important parts in place first

There is far more to this whole thing of acting upon impulse than you might think. We are human and we will always act impulsively in certain situations. There are so many things in life we react to on a daily basis it becomes hard to draw the line between true necessity and the impulsive actions we take without good reason. If someone decides to throw a punch at you there is an impulsive (instinctive) urge to duck or move away. If you come across a $100 bill on the floor you have an impulsive (instinctive) urge to pick it up … what you might do with it after that depends on the circumstance of the situation.
So you see, we are all wired to act in situations that require an impulsive response but we may respond quite differently in certain situations.

But can things that are long-term be born of an impulsive action?

Let me tell you about something else that has been on the news in my local area over the last month.
The City I live four miles from the centre of is a fairly typical UK City. It has seen massive growth over the last twenty years just like a lot of other towns and cities, but it has remained true to it’s routes, and historical occasions quite rightly, get celebrated.
Peterborough was once a small dwelling place with some of the surrounding villages once being larger. But something happened several hundred years ago that gave it some real status. When the Abbey in the centre of the town was burned to the ground a new era began. A new wave of peasant folk jumped on board to take part in one of the biggest builds there has ever been in this part of the world. In 1118 (yes, I realise 900 years is a long while ago), the building of Peterborough Cathedral was completed. I stand in awe and wonder every time I pass by just how they did it!

This was 900 years ago; it took 70 years and three generations of workers to complete … yet, it was still an ‘impulsive’ project.

They didn’t need to build it, nobody was pointing a gun at anyone’s head, but enough people felt it must happen … and so it did.

A few years ago I acted impulsively to something that happened around me and the result led to my writing career taking off in some small way.
I go into great detail about this elsewhere, but in a nutshell, this is what happened:

A family member had a strange, ghostly experience late one night. The next day a sporting event took place involving the City’s football team. I told my children a story that ‘mixed’ the two things together (in part), and my eldest daughter, over hearing it said I should write it down. I did so and it actually became two separate stories, one of them did make the Spirit of Peterborough series and one them didn't ... but that's altogether another story for another time.

I had to act right away, and I knew it.

Acting on impulse is a good thing to do when you are following a true gut instinct – a real feeling that the thing you are about to embark upon is the right thing for you to do at that particular point in time.
For this to work you must have planned for the moment. It’s all about timing. Whether you are buying something or taking action to do something or actually using your talents to create something new, these things have to be locked in place. So you see, acting on impulse need not be negative. in fact … quite the opposite.
…
So what are you going to do? What will be your next move?
Or can you even guess when that moment might arise that you do something impulsively that is for the better?
I’d love to hear about whenever you acted on an impulsive feeling and how it worked out for you. And in reflection, is there anything else you would do if you had your chance again?

To make this interesting I will send a free copy of The Ghost Walks, the 3rd story in the series The Spirit of Peterborough to the first six people that leave an answer in the comments below.

If you haven’t read it, here is the link to the first story … it’s free … enjoy.

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It's the Strangest Things that inspire Writers

6/9/2018

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I’ve heard so many things from other writers: from being inspired by another famous story or by the writing style of another author, to traveling on vocation and getting ideas inspired by the setting.

Over here in the UK we have just had 500 Words 2018: The BBC’s children’s short story writing competition. There were close to 135,000 entries and there was a lot of pre-competition support and discussion about getting ideas. But there was one thing that I heard that really resonated with me. One of the finalists told of how, on a regular journey he had often observed a small Robin hopping and pecking on the same window ledge. Struck by it’s persistence it led the boy to wonder what it might all be for. He was then able to craft the most beautiful and quite moving tale based on this one little observation.

There really are so many ways writers of all ages and genres can become inspired so I would like to share one or two experiences with you in a little more depth. These are either first hand or are experiences had by someone close to me and have given me inspiration to write.

I suppose really I should start by going back to some of the sayings and proverbs we use. They often mean something because they are connected to an event that once took place, but then we find there are often so many versions to consider we might never discover the truth.

All stories that have derived from someone’s perception of an event have credibility

For example, there is an expression of surprise or amazement that is often used given through the use of a name – Gordon Bennett. Few people know the stories associated with the reasons why this is so. When i was younger I had a book about cars that claimed this story derived from a Gordon Bennet who back in the early days of motor sport racing became a surprise winner. Spectators had

to look in their programmes to see who the unknown driver who had just come from nowhere to win the race actually was.
There are other explanations such as the Gordon Bennett Jnr, son of the newspaper magnate, he certainly holds one honour - holder of the Guinness Book of Records entry for "Greatest Engagement Faux Pas". One very drunken evening he turned up late to a posh party held by his future in-laws, and ended up urinating into a fireplace in full view of everyone. Apparently mistaking it for the toilet! The engagement, unsurprisingly, was broken off, and Mr Bennett left New York to pursue his playboy habits in Paris.
The most popular reference for the phrase "Gordon Bennett!" comes from Lieutenant-General Henry Gordon Bennett who abandoned his command and fled to safety during the Japanese invasion of Singapore during the second world war leaving his unfortunate troops behind to be captured. Hmm … not so sure about that one, but it is interesting to see how such a simple phrase becomes totally associated with a past incident.

It’s real experiences that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up

Every now and again I hear something that makes my hairs stand up on the back of my neck. That may sound a bit of a cliche, and I might be exaggerating a little, but the truth is it usually takes something pretty strong to get me going. I don’t start to write until I have that feeling about at least some part of my plot outline.

When I was researching local ghost stories for one of my first books I came across one of those ‘make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up’ moments:
We moved to Peterborough when I was seven. before that we lived in a vicarage in a small village in Cambridgeshire. It was a big old house and had more than just the odd ghost story to go with it. One very vivid memory I have as a child was waking up to the sound of loud footsteps coming from the back staircase and along the landing and then stopping outside my bedroom door that was always slightly ajar. The landing light was always left on and I vividly remember seeing the covers at the end of my bed depress and a soft toy move around. I screamed and my mum rushed to my aid. I had always believed this to be a dream … until one day in 2011 when I read an account of a large private residence in the same village that had experienced the sound of footsteps coming up the back stairway and then entering the second bedroom where a figure would then appear sitting on the end of a bed. The residents wished the precise location to remain anonymous. I had always convinced myself it must have been a dream, now I’m not so sure!

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction

There is one particular event experienced by my oldest son in 2001 which led us to the discovery of a quite amazing true tale: This and a few other similar experiences gave me the inspiration to write The Spirit of Peterborough stories, where legends get weaved into a contemporary setting for stories.

He was 16 at the time and playing with two friends on the local golf course one warm summer evening. The golf course was built around 1981- 82 on the flood meadows that adorned the River Nene. Man-made lakes were formed and greatly expanded into the natural flood areas as this picture from the 1970's shows.

One of his friends came across some golf balls grouped together in a bunker (very odd). This grabbed the attention of all three players. Then, looking up they all saw an apparition of a thin young man in ragged clothes scrambling out of the lake. He had no legs and appeared to be struggling. One of the lads was so freaked out he ran off the course, but as my son and his other friend watched, the figure disappeared, then reappeared across the fairway heading towards the road. He looked as if he was wading through water that wasn’t there!

About four years later when a younger son of mine was becoming interested in local ghost stories, we found a book up in the attic that someone had probably purchased from a second hand shop or car boot sale. (There are lots of books in my attic that have been acquired this way by various family members.) I remember that day when I found that book – sitting up there and flicking through it by torchlight and coming across a story that so paralleled the ghostly experience my boy had had a few years earlier that I was just completely dumbstruck.
We spent the next few days investigating, looking online and talking to the local librarian. I have copies of the newspaper articles that picked up the story of a young athletic thin lad who drowned in the river trying to get home one summers evening. He had become quite a legend with the locals, but that fateful night he had tried to cross the river at a known shallow spot at what would have been the very same place my son and his friends saw the apparition scrambling to get free ... as if wading through water. This all happened in the mid - 1800’s.
This obvious parallel, about which we could have known nothing at the time, inspired me, and I found myself using this story as an underlying mini theme in one of the stories for The Spirit of Peterborough. You can get that story here

Real proven historical events are powerful golden nuggets for story-telling

Now if that isn’t enough, there’s more: I have two stories, from both of the wars, 1914-18 and 1939-45, Both of these are absolutely true and have something very much in common.

When my sister and I were very small we use to make the two hour journey across to my Gran and Grandad’s for a holiday stay. In fact both sets of grandparents only lived about 30 miles apart and we’d often find ourselves making those journeys maybe four or five times a year. One thing we loved to do in the days before tape cassettes existed in cars was just to get my mum and dad to tell us stories from their childhood. The war was a great topic as both my parents were children during WW2, and so it often came up as we listened in the back of my dad’s old Ford Escort. One time my mum told us of how my Grandad had been in the Home Guard. He was too old to be sent away to fight and did his duties from home, but he had a younger step brother who had not been so lucky. Mum used to emphasise to us how unlucky his step-brother had been because he had served on the HMS Hood the night of 24th May 1941 – the night it was sunk. Out of over1400 crew only 3 survived; one of those survivors was the guy on lookout. My mum’s uncle had done a duty swap in order to spend his free time with his mate, and the guy he had voluntarily swapped with was the lookout guy who survived.

Fast forward to August 1975. My Gran and Grandad were on holiday in the south of England somewhere near Brighton when something caught my Grandad’s attention. There was an article in the local rag about a certain gentleman who was I believe, if memory serves me correctly opening an Estate Agents. There was a bit about his past and it mentioned that he had been a survivor from a sunken battleship during the second world war. My Grandad got that feeling ... they had to go and meet this man. While my Grandad started to tell the story of who they were and why they had come, the gentleman standing listening started to shake a little and soon his eyes welled up. My Grandad always said afterwards that he knew what he was coming … he was the very man who had swapped duties with my Grandad’s step-brother and owed his life to the very fact that had happened.

Now, just a few months ago a very good friend of mine made a wartime discovery. This happened on his wife’s side of the family last summer when his brother-in-law sat down to watch a documentary about a tank that had been discovered by a farmer in a field in Belgium. It had been renovated. They had traced it back to being one of the first ever tanks. They were called ’Tanks’ because when they were delivered to the western front in 1916 in large crates the whole operation was made credible by adopting a suitable measure of disguise. They fooled the Germans into thinking they were tanks containing water or critical supplies of some sort. (The name has stuck from that very first week).

At the end of the documentary a photo of the original crew was shown, and in the corner was my friend’s wife’s Grandad.
In the family the story had always been that he never fought. He went out there to paint the equipment – something he was highly trained for and very skilled at. This tank was one of the few to survive that first battle and he was one of the very few to make it home and live a long life. I believe he lived into the 1960’s.

What makes this story so powerful is that it was not until that day last year that any of the family knew he fought at all; he had kept it from them. His letters home told his family not to worry and that he was behind the lines a mile away from the front. Until the day he died he never changed his story; he never told of how he had been in far more danger than anyone at home ever realised.

What these two stories have in common is the sheer unlikeliness, the rarity of something like that happening. The chances of making those discoveries must be very, very small.
Or are they?
I’ve told you some strange things here, but they are all absolutely true and they are just experiences that I have had and use as inspiration in certain ways for my writing. If it happens for me like this it must surely happen for others too.

I’d love to hear from you if you’ve had any similar experiences or have any stories to tell.
You can eave a comment below

Things always happen by chance . . . just at different levels of likelihood.
Always expect the unexpected.

So, I did say that these wartime stories have inspired me. Well, they certainly have, but the second one I told you is quite recent and can’t lay any claim to it having helped to produce a fully crafted story yet!
But the story about the survivor from the HMS Hood was very much on my mind along with many other tales of valour and heroism from World War 1 that were floating about when I penned Prophecy of Peace a year or two ago.

Chance is a fine thing … or at least, it can be.

You can get Prophecy of Peace from here

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Why ‘Change’ is inevitable, but becomes what you make it.

12/21/2017

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Change can be the very best thing and the very worst thing. It has been so for me on many occasions in the past, and usually, when it hits you in the face it isn’t welcome.
We can’t control our lives, things happen to us. But what defines us is how we deal with them, what action we take, and how we come out of it at the other end.
I want to share with you some stories about a couple of people who were forced into making changes that required some hard decisions as well. These film stars each have a different story to tell but the outcomes have a lot of similarities.

Why does Danny Trejo get all the ‘hard guy’ parts?

Danny stars in many movies, appearing mostly as a tough prisoner, a hitman, gang member, or drug dealer. Razor Charlie, Johnny Six Toes and Crazy Joe are just some of his screen character names. His movies have grossed over $2 billion, and he can count himself as very successful. But this hasn’t always been the case. Danny didn’t go to acting school, he didn’t have parents that ploughed every last cent into his education. He had to learn life the hard way.

There is a reason why he does so well in these roles – he was once one of them. When younger, he spent at least 11 years in an out of prison for armed robbery and various related crimes. He was able to turn his life around, though, by throwing himself first into boxing, and then beating drug addiction. When he got a job as a drug counsellor in the early 1980’s it led to him helping a young guy overcome his battles against addiction while on the set for the 1985 film Runaway Train. Hearing that he was also a trained boxer, the director paid him to train Eric Roberts for the fight scenes in the film. This got him noticed, and then he found himself being offered parts in several movies.
Danny had needed to make drastic changes to his life before his acting career took off, and a result his life changed very much for the better.

Who put Angelina Jolie together?

Angelina is today the very picture of togetherness. She is unarguably a great actress, a humanitarian, a UN Goodwill ambassador and a good mother.
What a lot of people don’t remember is that not that long ago things were very different. It would be fair to say Angelina was somewhat weird. She came from an acting background but parental separation, isolation at high school and a series of addictions and depression left her looking like one of life’s ‘also rans’ as far as acting was concerned. She wore vials of blood as jewellery, and by 20, had a serious drug problem and twice tried to commit suicide.

Things came to light three years ago when some old footage from the 90s was released that showed her as high as a kite under the influence of cocaine. It was apparently shot by her drug dealer at the time. Angelina did a spectacular job of turning things around simply because she wanted to. She adopted a child and knew she had to make those changes. Today, she couldn’t be more together. The person responsible for it is herself.

Whatever happened to Rick Moranis?

Whatever happened to Rick Moranis?
Who doesn’t remember Rick? During the nineteen eighties and early nineties he was possibly the top supporting comic actor in major box office hits. His repertoire includes Lewis Tully in both the Ghostbuster films, Wayne Szalinski in Honey I shrunk the Kids, and he also featured in a heap of other big screen hits such as Parenthood, My Blue Heaven, Spaceballs The Flintstones, and Splitting hairs, to name but a few. Since the turn of the century he has done very little by way of acting. So what happened?
Well, Rick suffered a tragedy. His dear wife Ann died of breast cancer in 1997 aged just 35 and Rick was left with two young children. He decided to make the best job he could of bringing them up and being the Dad they deserved.

"I went from that to being at home with a couple of little kids, which is a very different lifestyle. But it was important to me. I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever. My life is wonderful." (Rick Moranis referring to his time working on The Ghostbusters films).

For these guys change was enforced, it needed to happen, and, as of today all three have made the best of it.
It got me thinking about my own life situations now that we are near the end of the year. I haven’t got anything terrible or crazy going on but I come across problems – stuff that doesn’t work out, things that get in the way, almost on a daily basis. So how do I do when it comes to dealing with such things?

I look back on 2017 and feel that it has been a bit like a river rushing by and I’m supposed to be on a boat sailing along with it, but I’m not, I’m stuck watching from the bank. Or it feels like I’m that small child again in the playground waiting to hop on the roundabout when it slows enough for me to make that leap . . . but I never did quite get on board, too much stuff just got in the way.
In summary, I missed out on a few things, especially in the writing world. But what I take from all this are the positives. Some things have gone very well, I’ve sold some books and I have kept writing. My other little business is doing okay. The family is all good and I’m about to become a grandparent again (before Christmas please . . . !).
One thing I have learned is exactly what I talked about at the end of the summer in my last blog post:

‘Why everybody needs to take a wrong turning sometimes’

You need to make mistakes to learn, and when a change is enforced upon you the remedy is always the same.

‘You have to try and make the right decisions for the situation.’

As I sit here writing this, really, I’m quite happy. Not because I’ve achieved all my dreams for 2017, I haven’t, but because I made a change and I’ve seen it through.
The last three months have been tough, I haven’t been to bed the right side of midnight once. Many hours have been spent working hard late at night or early in the morning on top of all the family commitments and my day job. It was necessary to complete the challenge I set myself.
I managed to get my mini-series completed.
The idea was hatched in August when I realised my larger work was nowhere near ready to launch and I wanted to get some fresh stuff out there for my readers. The first story was released in September, and the 3-week cycle of stories was only interrupted once, by myself when I rejected one of the proposed stories at the eleventh hour. That was a hard decision to make, it threw the next couple of weeks into turmoil but I think the resulting fourth story was more pivotal as a result, and it became longer, giving readers a bit more to chew on before the finale.

So why am I telling you this and what has it got to do with change?

Well, I wanted this latest offering of stories to be a bit more than just a collection of stories, so I had the idea of involving the whole concept of needing to change and regretting missed opportunities into the story plot.

I will be honest, I had no idea that it would fit together so well. Sometimes you find the message you want to give finds it’s way through in the writing whatever you do.
Those who know me well will tell you I don’t always do things by the book. This isn’t a deliberate ‘be different’ action on my part, things just seems to work out that way.
As I was putting it together I realised the book had to be called after the last story, not the first one, (which is more usually the case.) I didn’t write it in chapters, I wrote separate stories as they came to me, but connected them by keeping the same unnamed character and linking some of the events throughout.
I’ve had these stories out for free and at a reduced price over the last few weeks and I’ve decided that a couple of them at least will remain perms-free.

You can find out all about the series here.

None of us will escape bad things ever happening to us for our entire lives, and somewhere along the line we all make mistakes. So you, I and everybody else will at some stage be faced with decisions that involve change. Just remember, when these things happen and drag us down, there is always a way to overcome them,
Doesn’t everybody deserve a second chance?
Find out why Christmas 1975 was, for one man, like simply no other. . .
Second Chance

However you are planning on finishing your year, a very merry Christmas to you , and to many more to come.

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Why Everybody needs to take a wrong turning . . . sometimes . . .

8/23/2017

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Have you ever found yourself following a pathway only to find it disappears on you? You know the one – perhaps you’ve been walking in the forest and decided to take a short cut only to find the path leads into thick overgrown stuff that you can’t get through. Or, you have driven to somewhere you don’t know and taken a wrong turning and had to go back. We’ve all done it.

When this happens you have to make a deliberate decision to change something. We do it subconsciously, it is a natural process, but those little decisions become important without us giving them so much as a thought.
Sometimes though, things are confusing. We still have to make that decision, even when it isn’t clear which way to go.

‘Some decisions are easy to make . . . some not so!’

I was reminded of a comedy sketch I watched years ago. It was funny because it was so simple and made the point; A jogger was running along, and the short commentary accompanying the film implied he wasn’t very bright. When he came to a parked car that was in his way he stopped, scratched his head, stared ahead for a moment then turned and jogged home. He hadn’t the capacity to look left or right and make a decision to go around the vehicle.
The whole point of it was to make us think about how life would be if we didn’t make those decisions that we take for granted. The lesson here is simple:

‘If you can’t move forward, move sideways’

But, there is something else that comes into play when we find ourselves not being able to do something we had planned to do. Doing something different can end up being no more than an excuse for not moving forward with something . . . it can merely become a distraction. However, when you feel you have to change something in your life you are probably right. Our instincts are so often so.

I am a great fan of the TV show Doctor Who. There was one episode a few years back called Turn left. In the story the series is building to a climax, and it comes down to one decision the character Donna Noble has to make in order for the future to run smoothly and the world to be saved from impending doom. The only problem is when the moment comes she doesn’t get it correct . . . she turns right . . . so the whole story becomes about saving the world from this dark, bleak future, and the Doctor and co. take her back in time and get her to realise she must turn left at that certain moment. In the end, she realises that this is so important that she has to throw herself in front of a lorry to cause a distraction which blocks the road forcing her other self, (who wouldn’t know any of this) to have to turn left at the junction up ahead.
This is sci-fi and it’s all a bit complicated and fantastic, but it makes the point of how important single decisions are and how events can change forever. Sometimes taking a wrong turn becomes the right thing to do. Distractions can be a good thing.

So why am I telling you all this?

Well, basically because it has happened to me over the summer; in spite of the best planning I could give it, I have had to change the path I am going to follow for the next few months. I am going to share with you why this is because it has turned out to be a very good thing.

So, I’m near the end of a long summer break, and in spite of the weather it’s been a pretty good family time together, but boy, have I had some distractions!
It started in late July when I took my family to The Lakes in the UK for five days camping with my second eldest, his partner and their children. There were fifteen of us altogether. My brother made it up from the south as well, he is quite a character. He brought some board games with him for us to play in the tents or around the campfire. Now, my kids love board games, and so do I . . . but on a camping holiday? Well, somehow he made it work. He just got everyone interested and we were all playing and talking about these strategy board games . . . there was a real buzz in the air.
When we got back home to Peterborough my kids reminded me that in another life outside writing I used to make board games and we all used to play them. So, guess what happened next. . . I found myself making a couple of games. They are quite detailed and there was lots of planning involved, but I like a challenge.
The big thing for me was realising how much technology has moved on since I last did this some 8 - 10 years ago. Those that know me will know that I do graphic design for print as a sideline business; I design my own covers and graphics for promoting my books, and so cobbling together the graphics for the board and sets of cards and then making them was a breeze. I am very pleased with the result.
This was the first distraction, but I had such a lot of fun and it was all thoroughly worth doing.

   Then came the next thing:
   I have three boys that are quite reasonable footballers, 12,14 and 16. Right now there is a bit of a buzz going around about the game of Foot-golf. Small courses for this are springing up in our part of the world left right and centre. As a family this was something we messed around with last summer, so this year we thought we would try and do it properly. (Or at least, as properly as we could).
   I found myself visiting local public areas where I knew we could create something without there being too many people around. We figured if we found three places in each location to place the flag and three starting points, we could then play each position from all three starting points and, voila, you’ve got a nine-hole mini course. So we mapped it all out on score cards and started a summer competition.
   Making it, and playing it has taken quite a few hours of my time, but it is so much fun I don’t regret a moment of it.

‘Being aware of these special moments in our lives and embracing them
is key to our well-being’

Distractions from the task in hand can be a good thing when they are something lasting and meaningful that benefit everybody, but there is always a trade-off . . . and that brings me to the whole point I want to explain.

I had a plan for the year, and how I was going to fit my writing around my already busy life. It was all going well until June, but then things happened and the wheels came off the cart. I found my resources for continuing were being drained away, i.e., time and money. I couldn’t finish the rewrites for my book by the end of the month, I had too much other work that would earn me money the money I desperately needed and that had to come first. I was going to need to put things on hold. The money I had budgeted for paying my editor had to go on something more important. Times are quite tough right now and I’m not going to see my kids suffer and go without just so that my book gets published sooner. All in all, the path I was travelling down had to change. Now, two months later, I am only just getting time to get back into my writing.
I needed to change what I had planned and that meant allowing things I hadn’t planned to take over for a while and embracing the opportunity they gave me for doing things differently. I got a rest that I probably needed anyway, and now I feel refreshed. Initially I felt a bit lost because I had failed to reach targets within the time frame I had set myself, but you know what . . . we can plan all we like, sometimes we still get it wrong. Doing things the model way the same as everyone else doesn’t always work. We are all different, our situations are different, and that sometimes means that quite simply, we just need to do things differently.

Sometimes, change is good

So I have made my plan for the next few months and it is a plan I can stick to . . . as far as I can tell. We never know when we are going to come across an unexpected hurdle, but I am at least more than ready to handle any parked car that might be in my way!

For me, it’s about doing what I can do as well as I can with what I’ve got. Circumstances have forced me to do things differently, and so that is what I am going to do. I have a plan to do something pretty unusual with my writing that is not the normal way of doing things. This is good because I won’t need any money to pay for services. I like to be a bit different, it’s sort of becoming a bit of a trade mark in lots of areas of my life.
It was sitting there staring me in the face for months but it has needed me to take a wrong turning, or, to put it correctly, take a ’different path', for me to be able to see it.

I’m not going to reveal exactly what it is that is going to be different, but, like many of my stories, there is going to be a twist. New books are on their way as previously planned but the way I am going to deliver them over the next few months is I think, going to be pretty cool.
For me now, the equation sis simple . . .

Has anything like this happened to you recently?
I'm sure it has at some point. If not, be ready, because sometimes in life change happens when you are not expecting it, and when it does, be sure to embrace it and discover out how to make it work for you.

I leave you with some prophetic words from the late John Lennon

'Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans'

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Watch TV or Read?

2/26/2017

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Do you watch TV for more than 2 hours a day

Ii might seem like a daft question in this day and age with everything else we have going on around us . . . but you watch some TV, and you read too in some form or another. . . right?
But does the time you spend on one outweigh the other by more than 4:1?

Well, if the time you spend watching TV is less than four times the time you spend reading then you are in the minority – less than 4% (UK figures)

I was not surprised to learn this, but when I gave it some thought, all the same it was a cold and startling fact.
15-19 year olds read on average 9 minutes per day and watch 2.6 hours of TV according to a recent study from The University of Sussex. That is a ratio of 16:1
For people over 75 the average was closer to 4:1– still watching a lot more TV than reading books.

On digging further I wasn’t surprised either to find that watching too much TV can actually lower your brain’s verbal IQ, increase the frontal lobe grey matter . . . even make you less empathetic as a person! We read this sort of stuff all the time and it kind of makes sense in the same way that having an unbalanced diet isn’t going to do you any good.

But what really got me thinking was this quote

Dr. Gregory Berns of The Emory University outlines the benefits of employing the brain to read:

“At a minimum, we can say that reading stories—especially those with strong narrative arcs—reconfigures brain networks for at least a few days. It shows how stories can stay with us. This may have profound implications for children and the role of reading in shaping their brains.”

This is pretty profound stuff and it should be good for readers and authors alike because the way our brains work when we read stimulates our senses in a different way from the visuals we are so used to having shoved in front of us on a daily basis.

Action scenes on TV are often so overdone to the point that we have now become desensitised to them. This often results in us not really caring about the characters because we know ‘It’s only a film!’
We don’t often say that about a book do we? In fact we feel cheated if we can’t care enough about the characters. That is because we use our brains in a different way when we read. It is why you will often hear said:

“The film wasn’t anything like as good as the book”

Lots of people will love the film . . . but have they read the book (if there is one)? Are they in a position to compare?
If they haven’t read the book, then I say not.
Still more individuals will talk in great detail about a good read to one another than will about a film or TV show.

I have worked closely with teenagers over the years and have got to know their reading habits. The one thing that sticks out is their reluctance to read fiction because there are so many other options available to them that offer immediate fulfilment. They get their kicks from TV and films, video games and social media platforms. Reading is involved with all of these that they have access to and find so much easier and more appealing.

We have never lived in a time where so many mediums of choice are available. It’s rare nowadays to find two people that like to listen to their music by exactly the same means such are the multitude of choices available as to what device you might want to use.

So what are the new generation going to read in the years ahead?
Well, the one common theme that that always scores well is action, but there is more to it than this. Mystery, suspense, romance, science fiction, thrillers . . . they all appeal to our human emotions and that will always be the case.

You see, both reading and writing are fuel for our imagination, but in slightly different ways. Think of it as input and output in perpetuality: What the writer puts out the reader takes in, and then readers can have a strong output in terms of response and emotional reaction. Authors respond to this feedback over time. This is no different from the way in which any business works: if a car manufacturers produces a beautiful car that doesn’t sell, then that feedback will cause them to change the design until kit does.

Authors react to feedback and build it into their future writing.
The best advice I have had as a writer has come from other readers, not other writers, and that is because of the emotional attachment and human responses which, although we find sometimes hard to understand, are never faked.

So, read on. It undoubtedly makes you a more rounded individual. And while you hold your head up to reading, know that there are still many adults that are missing out.
As an author I think one way I try to address this by making my books fast-paced That is something I can do whatever the genre. With the ease of access digital media offers us comes a reduced attention span – particularly amongst the younger generation. It therefore stands to reason that although we know that serious readers like a longer read, many partial readers simply don’t!

So, should any of us really be concerned?

Well, for our children perhaps the answer is yes?
But what is more important is to channel and focus. If a young person does most of their reading on screen taking in instructions for some video game or other then it is still reading. Their interest is still being channelled towards something related to a fantasy world and at some point in the future they might develop it into a habit of reading fiction.
If you are reading this it counts as time per day spent reading . . . it doesn’t mean watching TV has to take a cut (unless you’re an obsessive – then you might want to reconsider!).

The message is clear:

Readers: Read anything and everything you can in the time you have, read what you like because reading is reading and it broadens your horizons and feeds the brain in a way that no activity can.
Writers: Write what you like, write from the heart, but focus . . . always focus things and move it along at a fast pace. Slow books loose people quite quickly.

My success has been modest, but one thing I have found is that if you can be unique - slightly different, and not spend too long over-thinking things, then - you are going to help a whole lot of readers . . . and you know what . . . I never could watch more than 2 hours of TV a day . . .I always felt like I was missing out somewhere.

http://bit.ly/2dNUfTz

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A Tale from The Other Side

1/18/2017

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You know, I always feel that short stories work best when there is an element of ‘it could happen to me’ about them. It is something I love to write about and I guess that’s one reason why this blog has the umbrella title of The Other Side. I like to look at things that way.

There are always two sides to everything and it is always fascinating to look at things from more than one perspective, but with fiction we can go right to the edge.
We can be taken to that dark corner . . . just enough to be out of our comfort zone without it being a big deal . . . but this is all the more effective when it is close to being real - or at least . . . you can believe it to be.

Enjoy this short tale set in the heart of the English countryside late one spring. It didn’t turn out quite as Sue Lamond expected!

At the end of the story I share with you where I got the inspiration for the idea from.

THE WOMAN OF THE WOOD

It had been her idea in the first place so she couldn’t really complain. The two men would be arriving together and had left her to meet the woman from Woodland Britain. She didn’t mind though. Sue Lamond had a habit of taking the lead role whenever it was needed.
‘She’ll be here soon’ she thought to herself as she leaned against the small wooden style that marked the entrance to the ancient woodland.
Their rendezvous was six o’clock at the old outbuilding marked on the map at the far west of Trevalyon wood. She imagined that Tim and Robin would probably already be delving deliciously into the deep undergrowth surrounding the rich woodland rides that, according to the map, were plentiful throughout. She could visualise Tim with his camera almost ‘tasting’ the insect life – he was a complete boffin, but a very likeable one. And Robin . . . with his knowledge of woodland plants would surely have a tale or two to tell when they meet up later that evening. But Sue had to wait for a Miss Evie Pollard, the lady from Woodland Britain who should have showed up by now! She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket to reach for her mobile for what must have been about the fourth time - still no signal!
The rays of spring sun filtered through the trees concentrating a beam of warmth onto the back of her neck, and as they did so she felt a longing to be able to start her exploration of this invitingly ancient site. Her great love was for its larger inhabitants, she had based her dissertation when she graduated from university on the urban fox and it’s effect on woodland ecology. The prospect of an opportunity for discovering any new colony of creatures inhabiting Britain’s timeless greenery always excited her.

* * * * *

She strode vigorously through the narrow grass pathways lined with bracken, stick in hand. She had been walking for some time now and she was tired. Now and then her stocking-clad legs brushed against aggressive foliage, her skirt occasionally catching on the bramble. On many a spring day had she trodden these parts and many a time had the birds sung her home. She needed that today more than ever, she actually felt quite faint, but she would soon be there, it wasn't far now.

They would most probably be waiting for her, that was usually the case. She looked forward to seeing them every time, but this was different. Somehow, she knew her arrival at the cottage today was significant.
She could see the outline image of the familiar building sharpen between the greenery, ever clearer as she struggled closer towards it. Once there, she laid down on the wooden seat in front of the quaint old building. She felt tired and weak, but they would all be there and she was just glad to have them around her. At ease now, she sunk into a deep and peaceful sleep.

She awoke with a start. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep at all. The others should arrive soon but she had apparently beaten them to this unusual spot at the west edge of the wood - their agreed rendezvous. With her usual dose of enthusiasm, she had made both mental and physical notes on her way through. She’d seen much of interest.

There were flowers, - so many natural spring flowers in bloom, and the insect life was prolific: There seemed to be far more butterflies than she would usually expect to see at this time of year!

There was also the cottage, or at least the faint outline of what she’d thought to have once been an old cottage. Falling asleep however hadn’t been in the plan, it was a slightly odd thing to do, even for her!
It was the sound of low voices nearby that awoke her. She sat up quickly, quite shocked at having allowed herself to doze off. She rose to her feet ready to greet the two men as they came into view.
“By jove, you’ve beaten us to it!” exclaimed the stouter of the two men as he looked at his watch with a look of mild surprise showing in his eyes. Both men were surprised to see that their friend had arrived before them, but she seemed to be alone!
“Not got her highness with you then?” asked Tim, as he carefully replaced the lens cap on his already well used camera.
“No.” replied Sue. “Well, you see, I waited. I waited for ages - tried to ring her mobile but I couldn’t get a signal. I’m hoping she’ll just be here as agreed . . . like any time now!”
“What did you say her name was again?”
“Evie Pollard, I think she’s a ‘Miss’.”
“Goodness, did you see that?” Sue remarked, instantly distracted by movement in the long grass twenty yards or so to her left. Both men seemed mildly surprised, they hadn’t actually seen the fox that appeared suddenly from the undergrowth to their right;
“Quite unusual - to see a fox in a woodland area like this.” Commented Sue.
“This point we’ve agreed for a rendezvous, - it isn’t very significant,” remarked Robin, the other man.
“No, I thought that too. The conservation map actually shows a building here but it just seems to be remains now. We were working from the same map though, I’m sure it won’t be a problem. She seemed to be quite switched on when I spoke to her.”
“So you have spoken to her directly?” Robin raised his eyebrows sharply.
“Yes, the other day, just briefly. It was a bad line but we were clear about the time and place to meet up. It’s just that she was supposed to meet me at the entrance first and we were going to have a gentle saunter through. As it is, after waiting for ages I’ve had to rush a bit to get here.”
A disturbance from above caused Robin to look up. Not just one, two, or three, but four squirrels were all busily scurrying between the branches. But no sooner had the other two followed his gaze and the attention of all three was suddenly diverted towards a shuffling sound coming from the trees behind them:
“Ahh!” came the voice. A woman perhaps in her late sixties emerged, stick in hand, dressed in a three-quarter length brown skirt that allowed just a glimpse of the heavily stocking-clad legs beneath. Sue thought she seemed a little old-fashioned and somewhat overdressed for such a warm day.
“It’s lovely to see you here.” continued the woman, “Have you seen them? Are they all still here?” She looked around at three puzzled faces. “The creatures . . . that’s what you’re here to see isn’t it?” Now it was the woman's turn to seem puzzled.

“Well, yes, along with various other aspects.” replied a slightly bemused Tim.
“Good, good” replied the woman gazing dreamily towards the now setting sun.
There was an awkward pause before the elderly lady looked around then suddenly turned. She prodded her stick into the ground as if expecting to find something.
“Well, this is all wrong!” she muttered, peering into the long grass as she began shuffling away from the trio towards the trees with haste.
“Wait a minute . . . Evie!” called Sue, but the quaint old figure didn’t respond. She just walked off, back into the trees from where she’d come. Sue glanced at her companions. After just a moment’s hesitation all three made their way after her. Surely they were owed an explanation, she couldn’t simply turn up late as the representative of a national conservation body and then just leave without so much as word on the subject!
The three followed her into the trees but to no avail - she was nowhere to be seen . . . gone as quickly as she had come!
“What a cheek, and after I spent half the day waiting for her,” protested Sue indignantly.
They had not to wait another moment before they heard movement in the trees once more. They looked up, but it was a different face that now appeared through the foliage; - a much younger one;
“Ahh!” began a cheerful enthusiastic voice; “Evie Pollard,” she offered her hand to the two men, “and you must be Sue Lamond? We spoke on the phone. . .”
he three stood silent as they looked blankly at each other. Evie continued enthusiastically;
“I’m so sorry for the delay, as always I got caught up looking over some stuff about the place. I've not actually been here before you see, and I always like to research a new venue thoroughly.”
The new arrival looked around slightly awkwardly at the three somewhat bemused faces. Perhaps now would be a good moment to share what she’d found.
“You know it’s amazing what you can discover online. This woodland has a quaint old history. There was apparently a ‘Woman of the wood’ that once lived here in an old cottage. She had an affinity with animals and they used to gather at her cottage . . . in fact, it would be just about here where we are standing. Well, anyway, one spring morning she was found dead outside her home. It seemed she had passed peacefully away in her sleep. She lived a solitary life but was well known to the locals and she had often stated with some passion that whom so ever enters this wood always has a duty to care for all wildlife. Apparently she went on to say that when she was no longer on this earth she would still be watching over them and checking up on everyone who ever passes through the wood.”

* * * * *

Where did this idea come from?

This is a strange tale that we can all identify with. We've all come across someone who just didn't quite add up but we didn't want to go there and find out any more. The events on this story are a tiny bit similar to something that I remembered from many years ago:
Somewhere back in the late nineteen-eighties when I was a teenager my mum worked in a school right in the middle of a wood. One year around about late May she told me about some guy who just appeared one day. He was glimpsed by a few in the surrounding woodland and suspicions were soon aroused as he was dressed strangely in a long tunic that covered him, making him look rather like some representative of a religious order. It soon became the common view that this illusive guy was up to no good.
When he was eventually confronted he claimed to be a Franciscan Monk. The police were informed but couldn’t find him to talk to.
It seemed he had taken refuge hiding away deep in the wood but he was discovered and befriended by a couple of the more courageous female staff at the school. They took him food and hot soup, against the advice of colleagues who said he might be dangerous. He told them some of his story and it appeared he was indeed a genuine Franciscan Monk that had become separated from his order.
He disappeared the next day as quickly as he had come leaving no trace that he had ever been there.

The school building had been many things in the past and to this day it has many stories to tell. I had no doubt even at the time that this little event had been probably quite exaggerated, but it fascinated me all the same.
It gave me the seed of inspiration for writing this story.

I would love to know what you think. Has anything like this ever happened to you? . . .
Strange occurrences can trigger our imagination, they do for me - it's certainly one of the reasons I write, but remember, sometimes the truth is stranger than the fiction!

If you enjoyed this short story then you might like these too:

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Why deep down, everybody likes a dark story

10/26/2016

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It is an interesting statement that holds true - nearly everyone deep down whether they admit it to be so or not, likes a tale with a bit of darkness to it. This need not necessarily be horror or violence (although in modern literature they hold a very important place), but a story with a morbid side to it where we are taken into the unknown.
It may be as simple as a plot centred around a villainous character in the story, or it might just be the setting, an eerie place, or an unexpected twist of events. Whatever it is it will invariably take us away from of our comfort zone.

I got to thinking, why is it that people will tolerate all manner of things that happen between the pages of a book but not when it appears on your screen at home, or at the cinema? And I am no exception to this:
I will read the preview at least of virtually anything - any genre written in any style, but I wouldn't necessarily be comfortable watching the same thing on my TV at home. Why? Because when I read I'm choosing where to start, what world I want to be taken into, and how I interpret it is between myself and the author. There is that element of privacy
A really good writer will paint a picture so vivid that I am swallowed up and sucked into the world on the page. Other times I find I am needing to use my imagination to take me just as far as I want to go . . . I can always close the book and have a break if I'm not sure. Then, if it is a real page-turner I can go back to it later. TV and films don't quite work this way for me.
So, here are a few things I came up with that I believe we all sub-consciously consider when we are making decisions about the things we want to hear, see, or experience through reading.

Realism
This is something that should be important to any writer, of screen plays, films, or books. 'Does this do what it says on the can?' That is the question that should be asked.
If it is a sci-fi set three centuries in the future then the realism needs to be simply an acceptable level of believability. Characters need to stay real but virtually everything else can change to whatever the creator of the work fancies because there are no facts of certainty about how the world will be that far into the future. You only have to look at the strongest and longest running sci-fi series' to see that one good reason they have survived so long is because of the characters and how they react to the perilous situations they are confronted with.
If the story is set between the wars in the middle of the twentieth century in England then the realism of a period setting, factual relevance and realistic characters akin to the time become of paramount importance. If it is a romantic story then the relationships have to be authentic. Fail on any of these and you are on to a loser.
Where will it take me?
Will I be exhilerated after this experience? Will I know more than I did before? Will I be taken to the brink and then hauled back to normality?
We all want to know . . . but we don't want to know exactly, that would spoil the surprise!
Being in the shoes of the Protagonist
As a reader, that is important. We don't want to be told about what is happening in the story, we want it to feel as if it were happening to us, or at least as if we were part of it. We need to feel for the main character even if he/she/it is evil, stupid or foolish.

What is a dark story?
For me it is something very much of the unknown but not the unbelievable. More of the 'it could happen to you' than the 'that will never happen to me'.
When a story takes me to that other place so that I want to find out just that little bit more but not really become part of it. When I can't turn away from it because there's no logical explanation, and when it chills me but doesn't totally horrify me.
How about you?

So, why do we like dark stories?
It's surely because as humans we just love being a tiny bit scared. We get a deep built-in thrill from being on the precipice. It probably dates back to our primitive years on this planet when life had to be lived on the edge.
I believe it's because these stories take us to a world of the unknown that we wish we did know about . . . we'd like it to nearly be true but not quite, because then real fear and danger kicks in.

It's what I call Big Red Button syndrone: Imagine being shown into a room with nothing but a big red button on the floor in the middle with a sign saying 'Don't press me' What would you do?
Well some would and some wouldn't, but everybody would be thinking about it - considering the possibilities asking themselves 'what if'?' Nobody would be able to switch off the mental torment of needing to go through this process, (excuse the pun).

It is the same thing at work here when we read to delve into the unknown. It isn't quite the same with horror or science fiction, historical fantasy or any other genre because we already know something of what it is going to be about and we make an informed decision based on that . . . but a dark story . . . can you you really resist one?

So, as a bit of a seasonal offering I've penned a tale for Halloween. You can read it here
(Confession here, I actually wrote this a year or two back.)
Personally I don't really celebrate Halloween, and I think a lot of people don't really know why they do! But I often wonder what might happen if there was that little bit more than we bargained for waiting for us, if there was a sting in the tale!

I would love to know what you think.
Please when you've read the story leave a comment below.

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Technology is holding you back

11/2/2015

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Technology is holding you Back

You may not realise it . . . you may not want to admit it , but it's a plain hard fact that right now, in the latter months of 2015, with supposedly every techno gismo at our disposal, technology around us is actually hampering us more than helping us!

Okay, I hear your cries. - It's not right across the board and not everyone is affected right now . . . but there is a high chance that you're going to be . . . so listen up all you mere techno-mortals that, like me, try and take it in your stride every day.
(This post isn't for the 5% that have everything sussed as soon as it comes on to the market . . . you guys probably don't need to worry!)

Let me go back here a minute to explain:
While I'm writing this, (and I admit, it's part of the reason I am doing so), my smart phone is trying to load a 'new' free sat-nav app. I didn't want this but . . . needs must.
And why?
Because the service provider in their wisdom, had just sent an upgrade notice direct to my smartphone . . you know the ones - where you need to upgrade so that your device still works properly and can deliver all the latest info as required.
Truth be known - I'd been ignoring this for days because my phone was clogged with photos, videos, and apps I don't need - (you know the score, we've all been there.)
So, today I spent thirty minutes uninstalling stuff and uploading pics to google drive so I could free up enough memory to even take the upgrade!

Then I clicked 'Install now' (wish I'd clicked 'maybe later' and I might have had an evening!)

You see . . . this is my point; the upgrade was pants, to put it politely. Once my mobile was ready to run again it was completely different.:
Firstly, all the text for things like emails was smaller and less defined. I have a small but significant problem with my sight, and right away that was a bit of a bummer. Worse still, when I'm writing anything onto the screen I can't see the cursor - they've 'lightened' it - that doesn't help me at all.

While I'm writing this I am looking across to see if the download of a replacement free sat-nav app has completed. My sat-nav app which was brilliant as it was no longer exists in the same format once the upgrade has taken place. I reckon I'm reasonably tech-savy, but I consider 20 minutes trying to get to terms with its replacement is time enough. The thing they've replaced it with is clearly inferior and complicated - I can't get it to work satisfactorily and I need to use it IN THE MORNING . . .Grrrr!
While all this was going on I got booted out of an online seminar because my computer wasn't up to it . . . the memory in the ram just got used up to the point that everything was going so slow they thought I'd lost interest! (It was actually the best hour and a half of the day - so thank you Mark Dawson and Nick Stephenson)

But my point is this:
We are being sold lies:
The next new thing - the time saving techno-gismo that will cost you a lot of money, or the free app that will save you time. The 'investment' that will pay back in droves once you use it . . . I have some news for you . . . it's all crap I'm afraid.

What it depends on one hundred percent is YOU. And you need to ask yourself some hard questions first.

Will it cost you ANY money?
Is it worth your time investment?
Is it likely to leave you in a better place than you were before?

Everything we do requires a decision. We play the percentages game every day. I made one bad decision today when I took that upgrade, but I've made some good ones as well. My better decisions however have not been helped by the implementation of the advanced technology that is constantly bombarding us.

Some of the technology out there being made available to you today will actually send you backwards

Now, it's perfectly true that sometimes we need to take a step backwards to move forwards. Every serious business owner knows that, nothing is totally linear and happens in a constant upward curve.

BUT, you can make some good choices.
You can choose NOT to take everything that is pumped out in front of you, but you can also choose where to spend your time and, your money.

As an author, I find the battle is constantly there between time spent writing and time spent marketing using the technology which more and more seems to hold me back . . . mainly because of the constant seemilngly unnecessary changes. Only last month my website hosting company 'upgraded' their user interface . . . ooh! don't even get me started on that one . . . !

So you see, it's about being savvy and homing in on stuff that works for the long term. If you don't want technology to hold you back then you MUST identify, this year - before 2015 closes, exactly what is likely to work for you and what isn't.

Now here is something I never thought I would be plugging a year or so ago, Facebook has it.
I've never got on particularly well with FB but fair play to them, they are innovative and although constantly changing their algorithms, it isn't too hard to keep up to date.

If you are an author like myself, an entrepreneur, or business owner of any capacity then you might like to keep up to date with the incredible technology they are making available to everyone. It takes some work but anyone can learn it and the results are very encouraging.
There's no link coming here . . . just go take a look at the Facebook power editor and see what it can do for your platform. Sure FB wants your money, but for once, with what they provide there is scope to really drill down and target your market.
Home in on things that you know can work, things that aren't going to go away, or change radically overnight
If you operate some technology on a platform that works, then stick with it and adapt - don't dump and change because some marketing guru says so.

Right now . . . I've got to go . . . my sat nav has finally downloaded the new FREE app . . . which means that hopefully I can get to Mansfield in time in the morning . . . (apparently . . . years ago they had actual physical maps . . . and people (usually the passenger) would unwrap them in the car . . while it was actually going along!

Make good decisions . . . don't let technology hold YOU back

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TOM's BLOG

Tom Goymour : Creative writer from Peterborough, England.

Welcome to my blog spot where I basically just like to write and comment on whatever's happening around and about the subjects that matter to me.

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Acting on impulse can be a good thing . . . if you do it right.

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Why deep down, everybody likes a dark story

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