Hello, friends and fans!

Welcome to my 77th monthly newsletter! Pull up a chair, let’s chat! In this month’s newsletter: updates on publishing, reviews and news. Let’s take a look at this months’ “stuff”!

Some General News

I’ve had a busy few weeks between work and writing-related work! Between all that, I’ve managed to do some writing and promotion, creating and posting video “reels” and attempting to build my following and readership!

Moving on to other matters.

News About Writing & Publishing:

This is the current state of things:

Writing: For the past several weeks after finishing with the three new books in the Quantum Series, I’ve been working on the next installment in the Panic! Horror In Space saga; I’ve completed three parts of the story so far, namely “Hunger”, “Nine Tenths Of The Law” and “Memento Mori”. At this stage I’m still researching and preparing to begin the next part. The fourth installment in the series is as yet untitled.
Audiobooks: The good news is that Darla Middlebrook is already recording “Underground Movement” – the Quantum Series book 7, and will be also recording books 8 and 9 after that!
Marketing & Promotion: In the past two weeks I’ve been downloading the mp3 files for all my audiobooks – which I will be using in various videos in future. I’ve recently started producing and uploading “reels” to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and have noticed that they are getting a good number of plays!

I will, as always, keep you updated.

Publishing

Quantity AND Quality

The quantity and quality of my work appears to bother some people. I’m not sure if that’s down to jealousy, or what… For example, some seem to think 41 distinct separate works is a lot of books to have written. Okay, it is a lot – especially to people who’ve only maybe written one, or maybe none. Of perhaps half as many. Granted, one or two of those – among my earlier activism-related titles – are out of print, but the number of titles available today is 37 – and I’m not even done yet!

41. It’s quite a number, right? Okay, now I’m getting a big head… moving on…

Currently Available Titles:

My books are available as eBooks, Paperbacks, and Audiobooks, and you can find them everywhere. Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available in these formats.

If you’re still wondering where to find them in the format of your choice, you should read “Where To Get My Books – Specially For My South African Readers!” (recently updated).

New Releases!

My most recent new releases in 2023 were “Underground Movement“, “Xanadu“, “The Last Hurrah” and a 1-act play called “The Traitor Loyal“.

Audiobooks:

I have 19 audiobooks available on Audible and Amazon! Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available as audiobooks.

You can view all 19 of my audiobooks here.

Darla Middlebrook, the lady who narrated the Quantum and Panic! Horror In Space series, is currently recording the first of the three new Quantum titles as well!

Feedback & Communication

Reviews:

You can see all my previous reviews here.

Interviews:

I have no new interviews to show you this time, but all my interviews are linked to from this page.

What The Readers Say:

All my reader comments are linked to from this page.

I thought it ran a bit slow

“But there was excitement and mystery to keep you interested. Good for a short story.” – Gwen Boseman, review for Opsaal on Audible, May 15, 2023.

Very Exciting

“This book keeps you craving the next page. So well written and narrator is fabulous as always. Brings so much excitement to the book. Love it” – Gwen Boseman, review of Demonspawn on Audible, May 14, 2023.

Videos:

You’re welcome to browse through the videos on my YouTube video channel! I’m not really the performing seal type, but I do my best! There’s also a 13 minute animated movie on there, called “Bang, Splat!“, based on characters and settings from “The Time Saving Agency“.

Latest Articles:

Below are links to a few of my most recent posts or articles since my previous newsletter:

Other Stuff

The Sounds Of Violence

It seems there’s a new craze afoot. Back in the 90s there were these awful panpipe CD’s people used to play in their cars, you know, to torture their passengers with endless wall-to-wall covers of popular songs played on flat, monotone instruments with cheesy synth backing. They did this until they got sick of them, or the kids “lost” the CDs and everyone finally moved on.

Unfortunately a lot of restaurants found those CDs and still play them on Sundays.

20 years later, more or less, the same people – who seem to have still failed to develop a sense of musical taste – appear to have caught onto the same thing using a different instrument: bagpipes. I shit you not.

Don’t get me wrong – bagpipes have their place (preferably far, far away from my ears), but I doubt that even Algoa FM would play their Top 40 in bagpipe covers.

Good gods but the sound of bagpipes is awful. Soulless wailing, droning and screeching. It sounds like someone standing on a cat.

“The way you look tonight” by Chris de Burgh covered with bagpipes sounds truly bizarre. What’s worse is that I could actually recognize it. “My heart will go on” by Celine Dion was horrific and more torturous.

What’s next? The covers of popular songs using the xylophone? A digeridoo? Harmonica? The accordion? The possibilities are endless.

The Eastern Cape Department of Education – Fucked

In July 2015 I applied for a change of name on my matric certificate to reflect my correct name. In doing so, I had to surrender my original matric certificate to the application, which the office told me would be sent to Bisho. “Just check back with us in a few months” they told me.

I went back the next month, and the next to check, and was told they had no news for me, “just keep checking” I was told. And gradually my visits to “just keep checking” became less frequent and less regular, to the point where the last time I checked up on it was in 2020, shortly before the pandemic lockdowns hit us in South Africa.

Just last week I was thinking it’s been SEVEN FUCKING YEARS already, surely it’s been done by now – I ought to go and “just check” again – and the very same afternoon, I found a letter in my mailbox announcing that my newly updated certificate was waiting for me and I could go along to collect it. Was I ever surprised.

Today was the day – I went to the Dept. of Education offices and asked about my certificate, and the gentleman who helped me confessed: “I’m very sorry, I’m the one who sent you this letter, but the certificate you’re collecting is your old unaltered one.”

Was my application declined? I wondered. No, it wasn’t. Apparently the other day, this gentleman discovered a stack of UNSENT applications dating as far back as 2008 which WERE NEVER SENT AWAY. Where did he discover them? In a rubbish bin, while he was emptying his office waste basket.

I was handed my bundle of application forms – filled out in 2015, with my original certificate with my old name still attached. He suggested I visit their website and applied online. It’s been seven years and I’m already fifty, and at the time I was still hoping to study something – which is why I wanted a matric certificate that carried my correct name, so that I wouldn’t need to attach a dozen letters to explain my change of name, gender and ID number – so at this rate I’m unlikely to bother.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how far the rot has spread in our government service. This is how the department treats its administrative duties – too lazy to do a job? No problem – just moer it in a bin! It’s not as if we, the public, will do anything about it.

I have literally waited SEVEN YEARS for an outcome on this certificate, IN VAIN – while without my original matric certificate. This is the sort of unapologetically shit service the Department of Education unashamedly provides to the public and tax payer.

If not for the EXTRAORDINARY conscientiousness of this gentleman who took it upon himself to let me (and the other people in the pile) know to come and collect my certificate, the original would’ve been lost to me as well!

My heartfelt thanks to this gentleman – whose name I don’t know. At least I have my original certificate back, which is better than nothing. As for the Eastern Cape Dept of Education, I’d tell y’all to go and get fucked – but you clearly already are.

Apparently I Sound Crazy

I received this comment on a comment I left on a social media post. Thought it was amusing.

Another Day, Another Scam Email

I received this scam email on 24 May, and while it seems to look sort of believable, my suspicions were aroused right away. My print books are all perfectly “integrated” into Amazon’s systems – if there were any problems with them, I’d have received a notification almost right away via my KDP dashboard – which I haven’t. Even if there was a problem, the process of publishing through Amazon is completely free for authors and small presses alike – so the extra charge is immediately suspicious!

Also, notice how “Brian Wilson” didn’t even mention WHICH of my 30+ books he was talking about?

Obviously he operates off a standard template, assuming that most self-publishing authors only have one book. Yet even so, they’d happily take up to $999 from anyone gullible enough to fall for this scam. People like this, preying on poor struggling authors, are lower than dirt. I’d happily step all over them.

Finally Sorted

Finally! After 4 months of calling the Post Office almost daily (and not getting through) on four phone numbers, being shunted from pillar to post between loadshedding closures and unhelpful and often useless counter servers, last Saturday morning I got my duplicate registration for the Golf – and was able to scrap it!

As it turned out, my application had been approved a while back – “didn’t you get an sms to notify you to come and get it?” the lady asked me.

I hadn’t. Not once. I verified my phone number – yes, they had the correct number, but I never received a notification from them.

And they never once answered the phone when I called them every day for the past two weeks, on ALL 4 NUMBERS!

I had been there on Friday – and their doors were shut due to loadshedding – apparently their doors must need electricity to stay open.

“Yesterday was the last day.” She said, reading the screen. “It’s expired. Or wait, maybe it’s still valid today, let’s try.”

It printed. She smiled. I smiled. Even though it still cost me R642 for that piece of paper – that I would almost immediately invalidate by scrapping the vehicle it stood for. At least next year, I won’t have to pay for TWO vehicles again.

Basically, if I hadn’t BY SHEER CHANCE gone that day, I’d have had to reapply, and go through this nightmarish process all over again.

Just as well I paid heed to that subtle voice that seemed to be talking me into getting up early on a Saturday to go and check up in person.

Bearing in mind the obstructions that lay in my path, I felt like celebrating with a drink of some sort.

In Closing

In spite of some of my books having been on Amazon since 2005, not one of them has yet reached 50 reviews! I would really appreciate your help on this! Come on, leave a review – it’s free!