Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 85

QueensDay: April 30th In The Netherlands.

Today is a special day in The Netherlands. It is Queensday (Koninginnedag). Basically it is one big party to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. The whole country turns Orange – and I mean that literally – and just generally has a great time.

It's an Orange Sea

There are concerts and celebrity events, in the big cities at least. In small towns such as where I live, there are countless activities and things to go and watch. Music, a fun fair, all manner of things for the kids to do. In short, it is a great day.

A Traditional Queensday Concert

As with any holiday, my family has a tradition. It is part of what makes this one of my favorite days of the year.

Beginning at 6 am and running through the morning, there is a large children’s market that takes over the entire high street. It is basically a flea market but only for children. Selling their old toys and games etc. You can find some great things here and for next to nothing. After all, it is more for the fun. Even at 6 am the kids are out on the streets, blowing air horns and riding bicycles with tin cans tied to the back, and nobody seems to mind. Not on this day.

We always visit this market, around 07.30. Nice and early, but not too crazy. We spend a lot of the morning just wandering around town, looking at everything that is going on. Before heading back to our Uncle’s house (my wife’s uncle) for Chinese, which is enjoyed by the whole family. Well, my wife’s grandmother, her uncle, her parents, brothers, and us five

After lunch we all head up to the fun fair, the kids get to go on all of the rides, win some toys and basically get to have a great time doing whatever they want. However, due to a slight change in dinner location, we did the fun fair with them on Saturday. They loved it, even if someone did steal a stuffed pony toy from my 20 month old daughter.

The afternoon is spent back in the town center again, there are normally things going on on the beach and along the promenade too. In the town, once the kids market is tidied away, there is fun and games for them; bouncing castles, a petting zoo, things like that. Live music at both ends of the street and also marching bands that can be seen here, there and everywhere.

With the kids being young, we tend to go home and they head to bed at a relatively normal time. It is a long day for them, but the celebrations go on right until the end of the day, when everything is closed off with a fireworks display.

All in all, it is a great day enjoyed by almost everybody. Each year the Queen makes a visit to a selected city. 9 time out of 10, this goes by without incident. Apart from this one time a couple of years ago when someone tried to kill the queen and her family live on TV. It was pretty freaky to watch. He just charged down the barricades in his car and tried to ram the bus. He missed and instead drove into a large statue. While he missed the Queen, he did sadly drive through a number of spectators. This act sadly cost 6 innocent lives, and will always be remembered. (The below image may be harrowing, so viewer discretion is advised).

The TV images were horrific, but even that couldn’t quash the Queensday spirit. Dampen it for a day yes, but destroy it, hell no. There was something oddly British about the defiant way the country, and the royal family themselves handled the situation.

The Interrogation

“I’ve seen your record; you got a long list of felonies after your name.” The office slapped the three-inch thick paper file onto the table. It rattled around the interrogation room like a gunshot. ”Tell me something” He sneered, leaning in so close to his suspect that his spit speckled the man’s glasses. “Are you just fucking stupid, or do you want to get caught? I just can’t decide which one it is.” He stood back off again. Moving to one side he resumed his pacing up and down. Overhead the long fluorescent light bulb flickered.

“It’s alright.” His partner spoke. She had been quiet up until now. “It’s a tough world out there, now more than ever, it’s only natural that certain urges will come over you. We understand” She spoke softly to him. His mind was confused. She understands me. Johnny thought to himself.

Behind him the first officer let out a loud tick of disapproval.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Johnny stammered, as his voice began to waver. Sweat poured from his face and stung his eyes. He was full of energy, his legs bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet.

Powerful hands clamped down on his shoulders as the first office snarled in his ears. “Come on you little bitch. Tell me. Tell me what you like to do with those little girls. Come on. You’re such a big man, talk to me. Let me know what you like about them so fucking much. Hey… Bitch.” He spat the last word directly into Johnny’s face. Their heads so close together their eyelashes almost collided every time they blinked. The cop now had one hand around Johnny’s neck, while the other held him by the front of the shirt.

“Just tell us, come on, this is your chance to explain yourself to us, we won’t judge you.” The nice one, the women whispered into his left ear. It was her turn to walk around now while Johnny remained held in the vice like grip.

“I’m sorry.” Johnny cracked, his mind exploding as the tears began to fall. “I couldn’t help it. I love them.” He stuttered, trying to speak through the waves of emotion that were flooding through him. His fear of punishment was forgotten. He had been living with the burden of his actions for so long, he just needed to confess.

“You’re sick. You think that makes you a man, a tough guy. What you would do if I brought a little kid in here right now, hey?” The male office released his grip pushing Johnny with such force, that the chair he was tied to slid backwards on the concrete floor. “Why not pick on women, hey or are they too much for you to handle you little faggot.” The office snarled slamming his fist into the wall.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” Johnny snivelled, “I’ll be good, I promise, I won’t let them go again, I’ll feed on them all. Drain ‘em dry.” He begged, snot ran freely from his nose and mixed with the tears that covered his cheeks pooling together on the floor in a semi congealed mass.

“It’s too late for that now Johnny” The women whispered in his ears.

Yep,” The male answered, smiling as he stared down at Johnny’s bound form. ”It’s a staking for you at sunrise.” He said as they left, slamming the door behind them.

The Swings and Roundabouts of Social Media

Over the last two weeks or so, I have been rediscovering my love of Facebook. Not the games, or the other glittery crap that they put out there to distract you, but the very core of what it is. How it works.

Before I had published my first book, before I had even written it in fact, I was always on Facebook. Then along came Twitter, and it became my new darling. This was back in the time before I knew the term social media, and before I even had to begin considering an author platform and a strategy for myself and my profiles.

Jump forward a year or more and I was using both platforms to promote myself and my writing. Yet, there was always, as is only natural, one that seemed to be the favorite. For a long time it was Twitter. It was new, it was different and something about it screamed simplicity in a way that Facebook didn’t. I know they are both dynamic and people post and update their lives as they go, but Twitter still seems more personal to me than Facebook. Maybe it is the short sharp nature of the updates.

Then as I mention at the start, my attention has recently drifted back to Facebook, and I have all but forgotten about Twitter. I know, I know, it is almost a sin, especially as the majority of my marketing is done through Twitter, but that is something for another day.

But it occurred to me, that there is always a hot topic, some flavor of the month that everybody seems to invest more time in than others. It says nothing about the media platform itself, but rather everything about trends set by… us.

It is us who ultimately determine the success of a site, whether it is in terms of crash and burn, or rocket to the moon, the users hold the fate of any such site / platform in the palm of their hands.

So why is there this ebb and flow to social media, what is it about Facebook that keeps pulling you back, only to have Twitter lure you away again? I mean, looking back at the time I have been using both sites, nothing has really changed. Ok, the layouts have been fiddled with.. wait, that sounds wrong. How about adjusted… much better. The layouts have been adjusted, but strip away the paint and the body underneath is relatively untouched.

What is your current darling site, and why did you make the switch back to it?

This, Stat, or the Other

I am a man of many idiosyncrasies. From having to put my trousers on right leg first, to only being able to watch TV or listen to the radio is the volume is on an even number, there is plenty of reason for me to be labeled crazy as a loon and locked away somewhere.

My newest obsession is stats. I am constantly checking my blog for the daily stats, and I am always checking amazon so see my stats there, in the form of my ranking. Most people may check it once a day, but I seem to be drawn to the PC just to check these things as often as possible. It is crazy.

I am not obsessed to the point of my day being ruined if I don’t check, far from it. Maybe it is more of a continuous curiosity rather than an obsession. In any case, it is odd, and I hope that I am not the only one who is like this.

The strangest part is, I do not really mind what the stats tell me, it is more about the checking rather than the results I see. Maybe it is kind of a comfort thing, to be able to check and know that things are still ticking along.

So tell me, are you obsessed with anything? What are your idiosyncrasies and maybe I won’t feel like such a nut job

ROW80: Mid-Week Checking 25-04-2012

I’m officially calling a Mulligan on the week.

Maybe that is a bit drastic, but my goals have kind of slipped away from me. Due in large part to illness. First my daughter and now my wife and I have a stomach bug. Luckily, it looks to be a 24 hour thing and nothing worse. Fingers crossed.

Editing of Trials and Tribulations had been going well until yesterday. I did nothing yesterday and up until now, nothing today. I decided to take a step back and give myself a little rest. I even slept almost 8 hours last night. I haven’t done that since before… um, well, probably since I was at school. (Cringe as I realize that it was 10 years ago this year that I left High School.

My reading goal has been the best stuck to so far, I finished reading The Butcher’s Boy by M. R. Mathias, and I loved it. You can read my review on Goodreads here.

For the rest, I have been plodding along and chipping away at things as and when I have had time. I like to think that I have been interacting with my social media friends a lot more over recent weeks, and am enjoying getting to know people.

However, I will cut this post short now, as I have this afternoon developed a migraine that just won’t back down. I’m going to rest and hopefully get some editing done tonight once the kids are in bed.

How are all of you doing this week with your ROW80 goals?

A Post a Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay

Well, I’m not sure how much truth there is in that, as I have been posting at least once a day recently and find myself laid up at home with a stomach virus. But I am sure you get the point.

I have been reading on a lot of blog recently about how important it is to post every day. I have been trying my very best to do this, and over the last few weeks I have forced myself to write something every day. With Friday as the exception as this is solely for Fiction, and last week I had nothing.

While I have certainly seen a rather sharp rise in my stats as the days have gone by, I am often found myself asking the questions, or rather making the statement. I am a writer, not a blogger.

Could these daily posts I am writing be spread out during the week, say one day on one day off? There has to be a balance right? I mean, let me break it down.

Do I enjoying blogging? Hell yes, it is great fun, and at time can be very therapeutic.

Is blogging taking up a lot of my time? Yes and no. The posts themselves don’t take too long to write, but most of the time I have a really small window to get all of my writing done in. So yes, I could argue that blogging every day it removing key writing time from my schedule.

Is blogging raising my profile? Without a doubt. My stats are small compared to a lot of others bloggers I know, but they are not only consistent but also increasing at a similarly consistent rate. Which I see as growth and a sign that I am doing something right.

Am I making many sales as a result of my blogging? At the end of the day, that primary goal of any writer, indie, traditional, or as my, 100% solo published, is to sell books. We build an author platform, gain recognition, but at the end of it all, selling books is they key to being able to quit the day job and write for a living. On that scale, I have to say no. I am not making many sales via my blogging. I am sure there are some, but my sales are so low that the actual figures are unimportant.

On the note then, should I be spending more time on marketing? Yes

Why don’t I? Because I have no clue where I am, what I have to do or how to do it. Plus, I have $0.00 to be able to invest. I live from paycheck to paycheck and most of the time the last week of the month is tighter than tight. We pay the bills and buy the groceries, but anything above that is just not an option.

So what do you do instead? I blog… hmm, I see where this is going.

At the end of the day, I do enjoy blogging, but I am, and always will be a writer. I understand the importance of having a blog and an author platform, and in essence, blogging is marketing. Only rather than marketing my book, I am marketing myself.

I have always worked on the theory of ‘if I have something to say, I will.’ However, I will not force myself to post every day if I cannot think of something useful to say. Besides, I have a novel and two short story collections to finish editing, and am more than aware of advantages of having more than one novel / collection available.

It is a ……

Baby Blues… or Pinks

Well, I have had a crazy day that started bad and got worse as the day went by. Thankfully however, the day finished on a very high note. We finally went to have an echo done to determine the sex of our baby.

We already have two boys and a girl, so we have no real preference. As long as the baby is healthy, that is the main thing, but after two boys, you really want that third baby to be a girl.  This time around however, we were just looking forward to seeing the baby and hearing the heartbeat.

It was a nice quiet little place, but, taking three kids with you to an echo is not a great idea. Let me tell you. Just before we went in, our Youngest son, Logan, fell over and hit his head against a chair and now has a huge bruise on his cheek. He then cried through the whole echo. However, we did get some great photos.

So here we go…. what do you think it is. I will not give the answer until I have enough comments going to see what the general consensus is. 

The Reading Spectrum

When I first heard about e-readers, I was skeptical to say the least. I didn’t like the idea of reading from a machine. Books were the place where the written word belong. Filling shelves in libraries and bookstores around the world. Row after row of colorful covers and amazing images.  The idea of a small machine, hand-held above all things, just seemed wrong…

…

Oh how times and opinions can change.

I am now officially addicted to my Kindle. I love it, it is always with me, I read it every morning and evening. The thing that shocked me the most was, how easy it is to read on. Not only the whole sunlight no glare issue, but just how soft it was on the eyes. How easy it is to slip awake and completely lose yourself in the text. It was nothing like reading on computers, which is what I had feared it would be.

Saying that, I will never give up on the real deal. Paperback books, hardcover books, old books, new books, it doesn’t matter what sort, but books will always be a part of my life. It is imperative that books never be left behind, not matter how much the digital age continues to advance.

Once again, I digress from original statement, so to summarize, I am been converted. I think e-readers are great, and recently – on the drive in to work this morning – I was thinking about reading and books, as is so often my train of thought, and another benefit of the e-reader dawned on me.  One that it would be hard it’s paperback counterparts to challenge.

Who you are, and the character your project unto others, sets a certain bar, creates a stigma if you will, that denotes what sort of books your should be reading. With the advent of the e-reader, this stigma has met its match.

I read a post the other day that said more men are reading Romance novels now.  I fail to cannot accept that this is just a sign of modern times, and wholly agree with the notion that it is thanks to the reading anonymity offered by e-readers. You can sit on the train, the bus, in the office canteen or outside at any location and happily read any book you want without having people (especially friends and or colleagues) looking at the cover and making fun of you for your choice of reading.

Can you imagine a biker reading a bit of Jilly Cooper? or what about a married man reading homo-erotic fiction, not because he has any latent feelings or issues, but simply because it is out there and is something different to read?

Both of these examples are now not only possibly but I dare say occurring as we speak.

The range of genres that we as people can now read has expanded exponentially in recent times because we can now read the books we want to. We can try new things without risking ridicule from our peers. Let’s face it, even as adults, a lot of us will bow to peer pressure or the internal whisperings of the mind.

“If anybody sees you reading that…”

“That’s a girly book, blimey what if the guys in the gym saw this in your bag…”

People always say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but maybe it should be, never judge a reader by their book’s cover.

Review: The Butcher’s Boy

The Butcher’s Boy by M.R. Mathias

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

To put it simply, this book was one of the best ghost stories I have read in… well, quite possibly ever. It was perfectly paced, the build up had me sitting with Goosebumps at times. The urge to continue turning the page was intense, and the mix of characters was well through out they complimented each other perfectly.

From the opening page you know that there is something more than just a haunted house behind this story, and from the moment you meet the creepy, senile woman who lives next door, you know that you had better hold on tight for a wild ride.

As a horror writer myself, I certain feel as though I have learned a lot from reading this book. Besides enjoying it for the great read it was, I found advice and solid teaching throughout, and for that reason alone, I will definitely be re-reading The Butcher’s Boy one day.

If I had to pick a weak point with it, there would only really be one. It is a ridiculously simple thing, and will vary I am sure, from reader to reader.

There was one line of text in the book, early on which for me gave away the big reveal at the end. Maybe it was just me, the way I read it etc, but I read that line and just knew what was happening. Now, I will not give any spoilers, and can honestly say that the book was not made any weaker because of this line. In fact, maybe having such a strong suspicion as I had encouraged me to keep reading long into the early hours. To see if I was right.

That aside, this book, in my opinion is as close to perfect as you get. To be complete, I can not recall any glaring grammar of punctuation errors, not formatting problems or other issues of a technical nature.

For anybody reading this, who is already a fan of the fantasy books from this author brace yourself for a fantastic paragraph of self promotion. Inserted so smoothly and professionally, it just about made my day to read it.

I don’t think I can find the superlatives to further articulate my appreciation of this novel, and so I will leave it as this. The Butcher’s Boy is a must read for anybody. Forget about genre, forget about tastes, because this novel comes close to transcending them all.

View all my reviews