Life on the edge

 Michael Parker’s September blog

The month of September has contained much of the usual stuff for me like gardening, walking the dog, keeping my body and soul together and watching films on TV. Oh, mustn’t forget the football either. But one change to my routines that had an impact was a ‘March For Britain’ demonstration down at the Guildhall in Portsmouth. It was on a Saturday, and I went with my neighbour, Rick. I went because I feel strongly about the collapse of Law and Oder in our Country, the complete intransigence and mendacity of our governments (yes, plural), and simply because I felt there was nothing I could do other than to stand alongside others who felt as I do. Yes, I had my flag of St. George with me. I could spend a lot of time talking about what I saw etc., but it would make this blog very long. I’m happy I went, but my four sons are happy that I’ve decided not to do anymore. And for anyone reading this blog who believe people like me are nothing but right wing fascist bastards, the same crowd are meeting in London on October 5th at Downing Street to do a ‘March For Jesus’ to Trafalgar Square. Now that’s something I would like to have gone to, but at my age the whole day could probably prove too much for me.

In my world of books, I’ve had ups and downs as usual. I decided to advertise my Emma Carney Romance on Facebook. I put the offer price at £0.99. After three weeks (ish), I pulled the ad simply because it wasn’t selling. But the truth of it was that the ad had 14,000 impressions, 275 clicks and nothing else. At £0.99 pence I thought I was bound to sell at least a few copies. Seems I’ve no idea how to promote my books successfully. I also spent a lot of time editing the book again (nothing to do with the flop) by going through it with a red pen. It makes you weep when you come across errors that you wouldn’t expect in a Junior school essay.

Work on my current book, Shadow Over Paris, is progressing at a fairly good rate. I’m using the time saved by not going out in the garden (because of the weather) and putting it to good use on the book. I’ve cracked 65,000 words (total) and expect to reach maybe 100,000 words by the end of the year. Oh, and if any of you think that’s good progress, I was watching an Indie Writers Podcast (I’m a member of this group) earlier this week. There were two writers: James Blatch, who I’ve met, and Cara Clare, who I have never met. Cara writes about 17000 words a day! And has published 45 novels in the last two years. That’s going some, eh?

One thing I may try to do is see how interested a traditional publisher might be in Shadow Over Paris. It probably wouldn’t happen, but as a starter I went along to my local library and ordered a copy of the Writers and Artists Year Book. It’s a handy book to have access to. My plan is to contact about five agents and five publishers offering them an opportunity to see the final manuscript. This might sound a bit presumptuous of me, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I will almost certainly be turned down, but having a creditable CV, someone might be interested. I’ve had two trad publishers in the past, so I’m not new to it. Oh, and I still have a trad publisher in America (only one book though). 

Something else that surprised me was a short venture into TikTok. I logged on to #booktok to see what was needed to load a promotional video up, when I came across at least thirty posts of my book, A Song in The Night, and about twenty of one of my Emma Carney Romances, The Girl With No Name. They’d been put there by a Promotion Company called BooksBuzzer — a Company I’d used to promote those two books. Obviously BooksBuzzer had done what I’d asked them too, but the result was exactly the same as my FB ad — nothing! 

But I will soldier on. The Indie Writers Group (who used to be a part of the Self-Publishing Formula) are updating their Amazon Ads Course in a week’s time. It has been prepared by a member of Reedsy (well-known in the industry), and for me it’s free because I’m a paid-up member of the group. I plan to continue advertising my books, so hopefully I will make some progress with this new course. Does that make me a glutton for punishment? What else would I do with all my non-gardening spare time, apart from trying to learn some chord progressions on my Clavinova and making a spectacular hash of that as well. Ah well — C’est la vie in my case.

 I’m off to see my granddaughter, Gemma, next week. I want to catch up with her two boys, Orin and Liri. Orin is seven and Liri is six months. The last time I saw them, I fell over and bruised my hip badly; ended up in A&E. Must be dangerous visiting your great-grandchildren, eh? 

I had a chat with my Aussie boy, Stephen (son No. four) and got brought up to date with our fifth great-grandson, Elliot. Little Elliot had a heart scare, but the local hospital sorted it out, so he’s okay now. Elliot’s mum and dad live in America. I plan to go over there next year for Elliot’s first birthday.

Last night I was at a Quiz-ine night at my church. It was an international dining experience coupled with a quiz session. My hearing lets me down on these occasions, so I was unable to help my quiz table, but I managed to enjoy a chicken curry and rice.

What’s next on the agenda? Much the same as before. Life goes on and I make progress in some ways and have setbacks in others. But in that respect, I’m no different to most of us. I hope those of you who are reading this and managed to get this far will have a happy and fruitful October. No floods, no roadworks, no tax rises… there I go, dreaming again!

Oh yes, one other thing; I will be getting new neighbours. They should be moving in around mid-October. I do hope we will get on okay. Wish me luck!

Living a Fuller Life

August blog

The month of August was certainly busy for me, one way or another. There were good moments and not so good moments: a trip to the dentist for one and remembering my lovely Pat’s passing on August 18th; always a difficult date for me. The highlight of the month on the domestic front was bringing my friend, Pauline, down here for a week. It meant a total of four days on our sadly overcrowded roads of course to bring her down here and take her home again. But that had to be endured. We spent time visiting of course, but with two dogs, my Tuppence and Pauline’s Chihuahua, Daisy, it meant we were limited in what we could do. I organised a Garden Party — ten of us, all singles except for my neighbours, Rick and Anne. I discovered that afternoon the alcohol limit I was once used to no longer applies!

Another highlight was being over at my son, John’s, to watch the Cardiff Speedway Grand Prix on TV and stay overnight. John and I used to go to Cardiff regularly for the SGP. I would travel over from Spain for that.

On the domestic front, it was nothing more than the usual. I get no pleasure out of weeding, cutting the grass, pruning and hedge trimming, but like most of us, there’s little choice. The bonus comes often in getting to chat to people passing by, even if it’s only for a few minutes. I’m usually on my knees when they walk by, but it gives me an excuse to stand up and leave the work for a while.

One of mine and Pauline’s visits was to Christine, an ex-sister-in-law of mine and Pat’s. She’s on her own  now and uses a mobility scooter to get about. We were teenagers together (years ago). Chris brought some old photos out, a couple of which were of her when she was sixteen. I told her I fancied her then, but it was no more than a teenage boy fancying all the girls anyway. It made us both laugh. Happy memories.

Which kind of brings me on to my latest Emma Carney Romance, Dare to Dream. The story is about ten young people, five boys and five girls at their College Prom night. They are all eighteen years of age and, like most youngsters, have their fancies and their dreams. I set the scene in the first couple of chapters and then take the story forward fifteen years. That’s where the reality of life and our expectations, our dreams, reflect very little connection to the hopes we may all have had as youngsters. When I was eighteen, I was engaged to Pat — we’d been courting for about three years. Happily my dreams became a permanent reality I glad to say. Anyway, I’m digressing. Once Pauline’s visit was over, I got down to writing and managed to finish the book and publish it. I’ve set the price at £0.99, simply because I’m hoping people will buy it and maybe want to buy the other three Emma Carney Romances I’ve published. And since then I have picked up the War story I started at the beginning of the year, Shadow Over Paris, and have started getting back into the extensive research I’ve already done. With luck I might have that finished by the

end of the year. You can find Dare to Dream at

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DDYGYQMG. Why not have a look?

Now that I am well into my senior years, I find myself lamenting the loss to the youngsters in our country of the kind of life I enjoyed as a young lad. I won’t get into a political diatribe here, but I found myself wishing I could have been involved in the protest marches — not the riots, I hasten to add — and waved my English flag along with the hundreds of other like-minded people. Well, it looks like I may have a chance. There’s a March for Britain to be held in Portsmouth on September 7th, and I’m going with my neighbour. I’ve ordered my flag and am really looking forward to it. Does that make me a “Far Right” thug? I think not; just an Octogenarian who dreams of better things for his family. Dare to Dream?

Wish me luck!

Giving birth to kids and books

I sat down almost an hour ago to start writing this blog post but got caught up in a merry-go-round with PayPal’s website pointing me to links that were not there. Then the help section — what do you need to know? Whatever I needed to know was nowhere in the preset questions. Then a technical help assistant who couldn’t understand my request to cancel a future payment. That’s what happens when you employ robots. I gave up. Anyone would think I’ve been trying to write a book on merry-go-rounds.

So, what have I been up to this last month? The highlights were the ‘Naming ceremony’ for our fourth great grandson, Liri, with his mum and dad, Gemma and Max; the birth of our fifth great-grandson, Elliot, to Sam and Taryn, and the fact that I cracked the 50K word length in my latest Emma Carney Romance, Dare to Dream.

Liri’s naming ceremony was a Humanist ritual performed by fellow Commune dwellers (I nearly wrote communists — oops); a fairly bizarre group of people from all walks of life, but a group who show a great deal of love for each other. Oh, there were people like me as well: the Patriarch of the family on my granddaughter, Gemma’s side.

Our fifth great-grandson, Elliot, was born about three weeks ago. I have promised myself, and Elliot’s mum and dad, that I will make every effort to be in Atlanta next year for Elliot’s first birthday. That’s really something to look forward to.

I bought myself a Smart watch because one of my boys tends to worry if I don’t answer my mobile. He probably thinks I’m lying dead on the carpet with Tuppence licking my face. With the Smart watch it will ring when he phones, so if I don’t have my mobile with me, I can at least call him back. The good thing about this watch is that I have a photo of my lovely Pat on it, which comes on each time I flick my wrist. It tells the time too. I’m not interested in any of the other zillion things it can do, so long as I have Pat’s photo and I can see the time.

I ventured out of my shell again and paid a visit to the Arun Scribes Book Group in Littlehampton. The group is the brainchild of Patricia Feinberg Stoner, an author I’ve known for a few years. We were in the now defunct Chindi Book group and did a couple of book events together. I joined Patricia’s group on Facebook first, then made it over to Littlehampton for a meet-up. Took Tuppence too because the meeting was held in a dog friendly café. It was nice to spend time with like-minded people and talk about books and the book world.

My current work-in-progress, Dare to Dream, has gone beyond the 50k word count, and for that reason I have commissioned a jacket, which has given me the impetus I need to complete the book. I hope to have it published by early October. It will be the fourth of my Emma Carney Romance titles, and it looks like I might be rolling out more, particularly as I find it so difficult to market my own titles. I’m currently promoting one of my better selling books with two campaigns on Amazon but making very little noise with what is a very good, page turning thriller: The Devil’s Trinity. I suspect that a lot of people will think it’s a Satanist book, unless they read the blurb, which will tell them exactly the opposite. I will keep trying of course, but I may find going down the Romance route could pay dividends.

I will not get much more done between now and later in August. I’m off to Lincolnshire on Friday to pick up my friend, Pauline, and bring her down here for a week’s holiday. I’ve done that for a couple of years now. I have a few dates lined up for us, which means visiting friends and relatives, all of whom are quite happy for us to bring our dogs. Pauline has a Chihuahua by the way. Hopefully the weather will be good — not too hot, not too wet. Am I expecting too much? This is England you know, and it is Summer.

I haven’t mentioned gardening, washing, ironing, walking the dog, feeding myself, falling asleep in the chair because that’s life for people who are on their own. Oh, yes, I had to buy a new laptop. It meant leaving my old one with the shop for three days. Going without the laptop was like losing an arm. I was lost! I couldn’t write, even though I have a desktop PC in the back room. I just couldn’t settle in there. Trying to write on an iPad was a pain too, so in the end I bit the bullet and filled the time with gardening, washing… No, I won’t go into that. But happily, I have my new laptop fully booted and spurred and I’m back in the land of the living.

So, now what? My next few weeks are planned out. I will probably manage a few more words for my WIP, and then a completely different couple of weeks ahead of me. Oh, another thing: I have invited some neighbours round for a ‘garden party’ one afternoon next week. It will only be singles, not couples, although I’ve asked my neighbours, Rick and Ann along because I will need some male input. There will be six widows and two widowers (including me) if they all turn up. It’s a way of getting Pauline to meet some of my neighbours who are in the same boat as us. Pat and I knew Pauline and her husband, Brian for almost thirty years. Pauling lost Brian about four years ago. Hopefully the weather will be good, and we’ll all enjoy having a laugh and a joke.

So, that’s it for this month. I hope you all have a splendid, carefree summer and can make the most of your time. Hopefully I’ll be back in September.

Michael Parker.