I opened up last week’s blog with a lament about the terrorist attack in Manchester. Now I find myself thinking again of another attack: this time it was in London last night. So far seven people killed. I don’t know if that includes the three terrorists who were shot by the police. Once upon a time you would be hard pressed to find an armed policeman in London, or anywhere in UK for that matter. Now you can expect a bunch of them to turn up within minutes of an alarm going off. A friend of mine believes that young people today are immune to the realities of murder and carrying weapons because of the impact that violent computer games have on them. Is that true? Who knows, but like I said last week: as a thriller writer, this is the kind of stuff that I use in my books: not necessarily killing innocent people, but certainly killing without much thought.

I have been battling with CreateSpace and Amazon over the last couple of weeks about the wrong edition of my titles being published. I think I have it sorted now, thank goodness, but I still haven’t finished the complete review of my books. So far I have revised three, not including the jackets, which I may attempt later. And while I was in a brain fog miles away, I began to think of another book. It was one I wrote about fifty years ago. It never got published because it was rubbish, basically. My sister found the copy a few months ago after having a clear out at home. She typed the whole thing for me, which is why she still had it with her. I dug it out this afternoon. I may try the opening sequence out on my subscribers; see what they think. I actually feel quite energised about this. I just hope I can make something of it and come up with another thriller within the next twelve months.

I’m still holding back on promotion. I can’t help but feel I need to hang on until I’m confident on doing the right thing and spending my money in the right place. This month I will be featured on Karen Ingall’s website, which I hope will bring me some sales and subscribers. I will also be interviewed on Malcolm Richard’s website blog. So a couple of promotions without having to pay out.

Looking ahead, I have signed up to take part in the UK Southcoast book show at Worthing in either September or March. My author group, CHINDI, will be taking part as well, so it isn’t just a single event for me, but for our group. Because it’s a dedicated book show, I would expect the right kind of punters to turn up. Hopefully we’ll do well and attract a few more fans.

The woman I mentioned last week who asked if I would review her book hasn’t got back to me yet. Perhaps I put her off. Too unkind maybe? But if I responded to all requests to review books, I wouldn’t get any work done. I didn’t refuse outright, but probably said enough to make her change her mind.

I finally paid for my hearing aids; must say it a vast improvement. I even have a remote control, with them. I was playing around with it yesterday. We were at a church family weekend do. It meant a lot of singing and rousing keyboard playing: all in a hall that had been built like an echo chamber. Fortunately I was able to control the sensitivity of the hearing aids to make life a little more comfortable for myself. Now if I could only find a way to control the thought processes of book readers and get them to read my books. Wish me luck!