I did it! Well, the first of my aims for the end of this year. I made it over 10,000 views this year. Paltry compared to some I know but miles better than any previous year for me.
Just another 90 followers to pick up now 🙂
On top of that a few more sales this week – including a soft back! Maybe the ball is finally picking up some momentum.
For many reasons – roll on 2017!
It is dark but true
Uncomfortable evidence
When we dig deeper
So here’s the stats right now on Amazon UK – 276th in Short Stories – not bad!
Check it out – for a taster click here. And the Softback version will be available soon.
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Other are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and Smashwords and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version os being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
Another sale on Kindle of my Ghost Story collection! Check it out – for a taster click here. And the Softback version will be available soon.
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version is being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
Mist breathes on the moors
Then the new sun arises
Dissipates to green
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #123 Breathe&New
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge, and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon.
A paperback version is being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire, on your own, in the dark, with that noise behind you.
Death and lust
Entwined in one
Both without
A thought
Both with
Expert care
Sheer red satin
Ripped to shreds
Blood red
Pale skin
Gun metal grey
In cold blue eyes
And a name
That beats hearts
Passion and fear
And steel
And lead
Death and lust
And a name
The name is…..
I am deeply honoured that poem of mine – topical for today – has been featured on the Thanet writers website.
It was originally written for Armistice day – then later a friend and I adapted it as a song and this is the version they have featured.
While we are remembering – we also said goodbye to some more legends today. Robert Vaughn – the Man From Uncle, and also one of my favourite all time singer/songwriters – Leonard Cohen.
This is my favourite – and with apt lyrics for today.
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Others are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
Check it out at Amazon and other online e-book retailers.
A paperback version is being worked on for those who prefer the feel of the paper while huddling by the fire – on your own – in the dark – with that noise behind you……
START
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
←——Insert fear
…
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
…
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
…
My god, my hands are dry
Must remember to buy some moisturiser
——–> extract money
…
RETURN TO START
Wherever words roam
Over fantastical lands
The heart rests at home.
A collection of short stories concerning ghosts. Some are traditional ghost stories in the tradition of M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe. Other are not. Some scare, some are fun. Some play with the concept of a ghost. There are ghosts who are out for revenge and the living avenging the spirits that curse them.
Ideal for sitting around a campfire and late at night under the covers. Or maybe not if the stories themselves are any guide.
#PoweredByIndie
Less than a week since the release on its 149th in its category.
Spread the word – let’s get it higher!
Another blue birthday
Like his eyes
Two years as if yesterday
The memories of watching
Blue fading to darkness
Unlike his eyes
My memories will never fade
Watching dressing up
A mini ninja dancing
Whirling all in black
A day in the woods
Jumping in piles of brown leaves
Autumn brings us home
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #116 Home&Leaves
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Tarns tributaries tumble down
heather cloaked hills
red-brown tufts twitching in the wind
Cold water, cold air, eagle riding the high winds
Wolves range over moors
Sheep shiver, shepherds huddle
Fire crackles, broth steams
Tarns tributaries tumble down
heather cloaked hills
I am the hunter
The bringer down of prey
The destroyer
The shadow
The bringer of fear.
I am the master of war
The hoarder of riches
The steel lord
The holder of lightning
I am strength and glory
So why do I still struggle in vain
In response to the Daily prompt (from a few days ago!).
Plop, plop.
The sound echoes in the dark, reverberates around the cavern for many minutes after.
Yet, is it a sound? With no ears to hear? And are the ripples real if – in this absolute darkness no eye can see?
For this pool, this precious reservoir of pure water is deep beneath the troubled earth. The purest water known to humans – never to be known by humans.
Plop, plop.
It is far beyond their reach. In the roots of the world.
It is the last pure water in the world, the only unpolluted, uncontaminated pool.
As if drawn the last few clean drops seep down wind their way down the stalactites and…
Plop, plop.
No human ears to hear, no human eyes to see. Though every human tongue is craving, thirsting, it is beyond them.
Plop, plop.
No fish swims here. No life steals from this pool or invades its secrecy.
Plop, plop.
It is sealed away, safe.
Plop.
My life is being spent
Waiting outside shops
Herding kids
Driving
Working for reasons unknown
On maintenance
Not on friends or laughter
Not on relaxation
Not on health
Not on passions
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Life’s precious coin
Being spent
For very little change
From the shallows to the icy deep
Where dolphins dance and starfish sleep
Through swaying kale and shifting sand
Feel the touch of an oily hand
Where lights speed by in total dark
Where rest many a sunken ark
Where through the kale fish do slip
Feel a cold and choking grip
Where bubbles rise and currents surge
Where waters from the heavens merge
Where weight does crush both bones and rock
Feel the iron fingers lock
And here my heart it swells and roars
From roiling dark to shattered shores
And I will rise with fury’s might
And crush the hand that picks this fight
So fear the shark with jaws that rend
And the mighty swell that shall bend
Every fence and dam and wall
And drown the rumble of cliffs that fall
And when the hand has done its deed
You will curse your dirty seed
And then, at last, you will see
How small you are beside the sea
What’s behind the story
What is the reason for that news
Who gets the benefit, the prize
The envelope with the bread
The law successfully passed
The company tracked greased
Somebody’s life made easier
At the cost of somebody else
Wandering the shore
Through new lands everyday
Ancient fishermen
Our voices are simply the shadows
Cast by our dreams and our thought
If the shadows become ineffectual
Then our voices will end up as naught
Yet shadows can give us the outline
Of what is looming above
If we take note of the darkness
We can give those dreams a shove
One thing we must yet remember
To give those shadows a shape
Sunlight is needed behind it
From brightness the dreams will escape.
All my heroes let me down.
All of them.
I tried to be my own hero.
That. Was the worst.
Do not lightly discard them
with tales of the foolish bold.
They sat for weeks, for months, for years
in trenches freezing cold.
Sometimes feet simply mouldered
in the sucking mud.
And now and then they’d rise and run
and spill their loyal blood.
Do not belittle the suffering
of soldiers now long dead.
With nothing but talk and songs and bombs
bursting in their head.
Bound together with chains of love
shattered by leaden death.
They ended as they had begun
with cries upon their breath.
Do not lightly remember them
with only paper flowers.
they faced the fear, the pain, the cold,
for hours and hours and hours.
They ran together and fell alone
upon those foreign fields.
Protecting those they loved
those frightened human shields.
Do not read these words and think
that these things are passed.
Do not think you will not hear
that deep and dreadful blast.
Do not sit in decadence
and take for granted peace.
You owe a debt to those who died
and that debt will never cease.
Glistening silver
A delicate spider web
Fallen tree around
Rivers carve the land
Rocks turn flows: who can resist
The river of stone
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #112 River&Stone
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Listen to all the anger
Hark at all the fury
Just remember that
You no longer own the jury
Humiliate the whistleblower
Make him out a fool
Wielding propaganda
Like an old blunt tool
Don’t you know we’re cynics now
We can see through all the lies
You will have to do much better
Or suffer the surprise.
The new can’t replace the should have been
The should have been haunts us forever
Though the new will be a healer
And receive all our love just the same.
It’s pointless being angry at fate
But that doesn’t stop the burn
The frisson on top of everyday stress
For the should have been we always yearn.
The new will have it’s own should have been.
So maybe we will understand.
And make a happier will be.
At least that is the plan.
If I stay my path
The world will not mind a bit
So change is a must
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #110 Change&Mind
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
Chancing to look up
Seeking hope on my journey
I trip and stumble
In response to RonovanWrites #Weekly #Haiku #Poetry Prompt #Challenge #109-Hope&Up
#Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge
A detailed, in-depth and insightful review of Mankind Limited from Silver Threading. Check it out here.. and many thanks to her for the review!
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
Now also available at Smashwords, IBooks, Barnes and Noble and many other reputable outlets.
Benakeri sorful do
Lillytigh shamton benigh
Alluver ecater feru
Selater erater canoo
And that is how I feel
Not a beer in the house
For this thirsty mouse
Just silent walls and noise
The chaos of standing still
So much energy
Put into going nowhere
I came across this quote by Ray Bradbury which makes a brilliant point.
So I have taken up that challenge. My next post will be my first week’s attempt.
I am not going to post every one – I want to save them up and put the best (or maybe all of them) into a collection.
Wish me luck.
Want to know where we will end up when we have finished selling off society? Read on..
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
Humanity reduced to a bottom line.
Trapped. In a world where everything is measured and control pervades every area of life, four people begin to break down. Instead, they break through the walls of deceit and propaganda and into a world of revolution.
Each, in their way, vow to overthrow the established order. They embark on a journey against the forces arraigned against them, forces of state and self-doubt.
Ultimately their paths converge on a dangerous road and the discovery of an ancient secret.
On one level this is a story about how different people react the ever growing and relentless pressure of everyday oppression. It explores their journeys as they are broken and rebuilt and investigates their modes and motivations for rebelling.
At another level it is a critique on the darker side of capitalism and free markets and how that has driven us further and further away from the evolutionary advantage that gave us supremacy in the first place. It questions whether the human race has doomed itself or whether we still have the capacity to wrench ourselves from the track we have so tightly committed our society upon.
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
Well, it’s only been a week since I venture onto Smashwords so this is probably premature – but…
Emotionally it’s been up and down. I was elated that I got through to the premium catalogue on the first attempt – gives me confidence that I have the technical skills at least!
Seeing my book in the Nook store and on IBooks have me a real pleasure.
On the Smashwords dashboard, I see that 14 people have sampled the book already and over 100 pages read.
However, 0 sales.
That’s making me feel despondent. I thought that maybe I just wasn’t reaching anyone through Amazon Kindle. That my feeble marketing attempts just weren’t going anywhere.
Now? It seems that it’s getting noticed – but after reading some of it, they are not buying it to read the rest.
What do I have to do?
It’s hard to tell what’s going on though. Under Kindle, there were not stats on how many people sampled the book. So maybe I wasn’t getting noticed there. And the stats at Smashwords don’t give me reasons and details. Maybe those 14 people were expecting a different kind of book? Maybe my description is misleading in some way that I haven’t spotted?
Or maybe they just didn’t like it. There’s no feedback so I can’t really tell.
So – I am feeling a bit defeated and tired. But it won’t stop me ultimately – I will get back to writing a bit more now instead of marketing. The writing is the pleasure anyway.
The media lies. We all know that. Sometimes, though, it is very subtle.
Like what it tells us about being a man.
Everything we see gives us the same message. The brash businessman dispensing his wisdom, the cocky chancer charming the ladies, the whisky guzzling spy or DCI. Even the greedy bankers and the corrupt politicians – who we all condemn but are still reaping their rewards.
They all tell us the same thing – to be a man and be a success – be strong, take what you want! No one will give it to you so grab it with both hands.
Far more subtly than that but that’s the message.
I have come to a different conclusion lately. To be a man, properly (and I don’t claim to be this by ay means) you have to learn to give. To give of your strength – and to keep giving when your strength has run out. Give your strength to those you care about.
When you’re in love
Nothing matters
Yes, there are annoyances
Sacrifices
Anger
Even tears
Nothing matters
Savour the moments
Bask in the sunlight of her smile
Be warmed by her touch
And keep on giving
Your strength
By Scott Bailey © 2016
What right had she to make decisions for other people?
What had made her think that those posters were true?
How dare she have the courage to break those chains?
Read an excerpt here.
Available as
or hardback
from Amazon
or CreateSpace
Well a bit anyway – but how’s this for a jump in sales rank!
A jump of 923,067 ranks! Come on! Buy a few more people – just a couple – I might get to number one!
Thank you whoever brought the latest copies – my ego needed it.
Kerching! Kerchang! Pow!
Our economy picks up!
Soul still desolate.
Dancing with my wife,
last week the telegraph came:
Coughs ring round the trench.
A sad shadow falls
Casting gloom over our dreams:
Sparks dispel the dark!
Wherever words roam
Over fantastical lands
The heart rests at home.
Fleeing from killers
The child runs desperately
To fill out a form.
Old light from the past
Is still illumination
Wisdom echoes far
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 