Hello, friends and fans!
Welcome to another “Peek At My Week” for October 30, 2023! Here are some things that happened this past week!
News About Writing & Publishing: This Is The Current State Of Things
This being Halloween month – and tomorrow being the big day itself, I’m hoping you’ll be celebrating the Halloween season with me!
- Writing: In spite of what looks to be the start of WW3, or the collapse of “civilization”, or both – and all sorts of other shitty weirdness going on out there, I’ve managed to escape into my writing! My main focus at this time is still “Freedom Inc” (book 1 in my new sci-fi adventure series, “Threaders“). The story is now at over 71,700 words, and having finished the third part of the envisioned five for this book last week, I’m now busy on the fourth! Hopefully I’ll be able to report back with more impressive progress to you next week!
- Articles: None the past week.
- Audiobooks: The audiobooks for “The Last Hurrah” and “Terror In The Outblack” will be coming soon!
- What Readers Say: I know I can’t please everybody (so I’m not trying to!). That said, it really pleases me when I see that I’ve managed to do it anyway! Drop me a line and let me know how you think I’m doing – or leave me a review on Amazon or Audible! This past week, I received the following response to a share of an excerpt from the upcoming Threaders book, “Freedom Inc.”:
“Now that’s what I call style. First, it’s extremely visual, it’s funny, it’s over-the-top, and the reader gets caught up in the slapstick and outrageous characterizations. It’s not tedious and by the numbers like so much genre fiction, it’s fun, and effortless. Extra points for assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia. Also, kudos for a consistent point of view and reminds me of a cross between Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Doctor Who, Monty Python.” – Alex S. Johnson, October 26, 2023.
Bibliography – A listing of all my books:
Other Stuff:
In Memoriam
On 24 October 2023, I shared the following post on my social media:
Today is the tenth anniversary of the worst day of my life.
On 24 October 2013, at 1730, my dear mother Yvonne Engela died.
I still can’t believe it’s been that long, because it still hurts like it happened yesterday.
In memoriam.
Make It Make Sense
One thing I’ve wondered about for a long time now is why our governments are structured the way they are. By that I mean, when we have elections, our choices are limited seemingly to exact or polar opposites – and our choices always seem limited to choosing between people who support freedom, individual liberties, humanity, compassion and healthcare and the like – and the other always seems to be opposed to all these things, often wrapped up in religious extremism and hatred of various minorities, often coupled with a complete incompetence to administer finances or the economy, or both.
Why can’t we have better choices? Is that such an unreasonable question?
I mean, why can’t we have a choice between different parties that support ALL these good things – freedoms, liberties, the right to marry people we love, the right to be ourselves in public, the right to not be persecuted etc.?
I mean, it’s not as if parties with similar agendas can’t co-exist in the same state – with each of them competing for the top jobs? This brings me to the ultimate point of this thought:
Why do we – as global democracies ALLOW divisive, paranoiac hate-mongering, war-profiteering political parties founded on principles which would undermine and usurp democracy as a whole and try to remain in power in order to exercise their racism, religious hegemony, sexism and a litany of phobias, to even EXIST as registered political OPTIONS for the electorate to choose from? Surely these are a vile toxin that fester and foment support, further dividing us as human beings from one another?
Perhaps that is the point.
But still, I wonder, who in their right fucking minds would literally WANT to support these malicious jackals who build their platforms on fear and hate for others? What the hell’s the matter with these people? What went wrong in their lives that they are so incredibly broken and twisted?
Please, someone try to make this make some kind of fucking sense!
In spite of some of my books having been on Amazon since 2005, not one of them has yet reached the magical 51 reader reviews yet! (The highest number any of them has, is 10 – which is a pretty good number compared to many others, but it’s still not high enough for the almighty Amazon!) I would really appreciate your help on this! Come on, leave a review – it’s free!
I wish you all a pleasant week until next time!