Tim Walker's Blog, page 15

Devil Gate Dawn…out now!

My first novel, Devil Gate Dawn, is now up and available to download from amazon kindle store.  It will normally be £2.10/$2.99 per download, but for this weekend, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th April it will be a FREE DOWNLOAD.

I badly need your support to read and review this short novel, hence the two day free promo.

UK readers: http://amazon.co.uk/product/dp/B01EGDLHLW

USA readers: http://amazon.com/dp/B01EGDLHLW

also available in amazon territories worldwide.

Devil Gate Dawn is a tense near-future thriller set in the UK and USA in the year 2026.  Retired railway worker, George Osborne, is drawn into a battle with a terrorist group as the country slides into chaos.  Will he succeed in neutralising a deadly internet virus and help rescue the kidnapped King Charles III?  Find out as dawn breaks at Devil Gate Drive…

 

Don’t have an Amazon Kindle reader?  You can download their fee app and read on any device:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apps-Amazon-com-Kindle-for-Android/dp/B004DLPXAO

How Much is Enough?

So, how much is enough when it comes to top executive’s pay? (‘earn’ doesn’t seem to come into it). Today’s news (15/04/2016) includes a story with the headline:

 

FATCAT BONUSES… ENOUGH’S ENOUGH!

 

The story concerns a shareholder’s revolt at oil giant BP’s plans to pay their Chief Executive a £14 million package, set against a background of a declining share price, £4.5 billion in losses and 7,000 jobs cut. It raises the questions, how much should a senior executive earn, and should it reflect company performance?  A shareholder asked if it was ‘morally right’ to hand him huge bonuses to boost his £1.3 million wages.

59% of shareholders voted against the proposed bonuses for their big cheese CEO, with another shareholder saying, “While much of the population must accept austerity, it is not right to increase director’s remuneration.” Clearly he didn’t get the memo from Tory HQ.  Shareholders are pissed-off because their dividend was less than expected, so their ire is more to do with, Surely we should ALL share the pain?

The Swiss started the debate on capping senior executive pay by putting a proposal to their citizens to limit the earnings of top executives to 12 times the wages of their lowest paid employee. Despite this 1:12 earnings ratio being rejected in a 2013 referendum, it has continued to fuel debate in Europe and North America on the thorny question, How much is enough?

 

The wealthy elite remain fireproof, despite recent offshore banking probes, showing how untouchable they are and unlikely to ever pay their fair share of tax on earnings. In the UK our Conservative Government shows no signs of easing up on their plans to protect them at all costs whilst bashing the poorest and most vulnerable members of society with their malicious austerity programme.  To suggest a cap on earnings ‘in the interests of society’ is abhorrent in our age of capitalist greed and insane wealth hoarding.

I’ll leave you with the words of comedian Frankie Boyle, commenting on the offshore savings probe: “The Panama Papers show that rich people aren’t even rational: they send their money on holiday to the Caymans, and live in perpetual rain in Britain.” Surely they can afford to do it the other way around?  Oh yes, but they would have to declare their pile to the tax man and contribute to the running of the country… We can’t have that!

Welcome to the New Gotham

A headline in this morning’s Mirror newspaper (11/04/16) caught my eye – Tories’ London ‘Now a Capital for Laundering’. Candidate for Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has finally come out and said what many have been thinking for some time: “We have people from around the world laundering money through London’s property market leading to hyper-inflation in property.”

It’s almost as if he has broken a taboo by speaking out about our run-away property market, particularly in London and the South-East that actively seeks foreign investment, at the expense of the ability of citizens to buy a roof over their heads.  The insanely greedy buy-to-let spin off is causing much suffering amongst families and workers battling to survive in a divided city with a growing multicultural underclass of people forced into poverty by unaffordable mortgages and rents.  Homelessness is rising, and residents are being forced out by social cleansing.

The piece is accompanied by a colourful graphic showing how money laundering works:

Placement. A criminal wants to hide sum of illegally obtained money, concealing the origin and ownership. The money is placed in an offshore account, usually in a British Overseas Territory.
Layering. A complex network of transactions is created through several offshore company names making the money difficult to trace back to its origin.
Enabling. UK professional services, such as lawyers, accountants and banks facilitate the transfer of the money into the UK.
Integrating. The criminal uses the funds to buy UK property, luxury goods or art to integrate laundered money into the UK.

Khan goes on to say, “What possible reason could there be to buy a property using an offshore company? What possible reason could there be to buy a property from a tax haven?”

The Mayor of London would not have the powers to force buyers to be named, unlike in New York City, where they are ahead of us in this game of money laundering posing as ‘foreign investment’. Khan has called on the Government, “to ensure transparency.”

Meanwhile, over in the Houses of Parliament today, a cornered Prime Minister, David Cameron, will attempt to explain to the country his hitherto carefully hidden personal finances. He has benefited from his father’s tax-free offshore investments, from inheritance money ‘gifted’ to him in a tax dodge, and conveniently forgotten about a second property his family owns that yields income. His estimated net worth is over £40 million, but we will never know the full truth, or gain a clear insight into his privileged world. Wriggling like a worm on a hook, he has already lost credibility as a trusted leader who can lecture us on what is right and wrong. He is at the centre of a system that encourages the wealthy to hide their money from the taxman, whilst hypocritically lecturing us on the importance of paying taxes and the need for cut backs in public spending.  This is sounding more and more like an episode of Gotham, with its comic book characters, who seek to out do each other with their outrageous behaviour, whilst manically laughing all the way to the bank.

We can all understand the desire to pay as little tax as possible, and maximise on income. But here’s the thing. The majority of workers are employees who have tax and national insurance deducted from their earnings at source, and have no chance of wriggling out of payments for the running of the country (including MPs expenses). We are the cash cows of a rotten system. A system that encourages money laundering and welcomes ‘investment’ by murderous leaders of repressed countries with sham democracies; the world’s criminal elite. Picture a meeting of criminal gang leaders around a Gotham City bar room table.

We will all be made to regret the Thatcher legacy of the dismantling of the welfare state, the cheap sale of national assets, deregistration of the finance sector, and the whittling away of our personal rights and freedoms. Welcome to the New Gotham – where money can buy you anything, and no one asks where it came from.  It is a society divided between rich and poor, where criminal gangs battle with a shrinking police force and fear is used as a political weapon to keep the citizens in check.

A Pandora’s Box of sleaze has been opened, and the Joker has escaped.  Where is Batman when you need him?

Amazon Scout Campaign Review

Amazon Kindle Scout (https://kindlescout.amazon.com) is a promotional platform for new authors wanting to promote their e-book (and try and garner ‘reads’ of your 5,000 word opening extract and nominations from those with amazon accounts) prior to launch, provided you are willing to commit to it being published exclusively on Amazon Kindle for a minimum period of 75 days. Phew!  there’s always conditions….

Their blurb says: “Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published. Selected books will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing.”

I submitted my entire manuscript (which just crept over the 50,000 word minimum requirement, and further qualified as having been professionally proof-read and copy edited, although no proof of this was asked for – they must make their own assessment).  I selected the category as ‘Mystery/Thriller’.

Also, you must have a decent book cover.  I designed my own but sent it to a graphic designer through fiverr.com to give it a more ‘professional’ look, and ensure the cover image used is copyright paid.  I’m happy with it, although it perhaps is a little too much dark, brooding and foreboding for a novel with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour!

I was accepted, whoopee! and my promotional exposure period on their site ran from 9th March – 9th April 2016.  It has just ended and they have emailed the following message:

“Dear Tim Walker,

Thank you for submitting DEVIL GATE DAWN to Kindle Scout. The nomination period for your campaign has just ended and we are reviewing your book for possible selection.

Here’s what happens next:

You will receive an email from us in the next few business days notifying you whether your book has been selected for publication by Kindle Press.
Each Kindle Scout reader who nominated your book will also receive an email from us with the result, along with the following thank you message you submitted with your campaign:

“Dear Reader, many thanks for taking the time to read and nominate my book, Devil Gate Dawn. I hope you were suitably entertained by my storytelling, my attempts at raising tension and alleviating it with some humour. I sincerely hope you were engaged and enjoyed the ride. Thanks again, and look out for the return of George!”

We will list all books selected for publication on the Kindle Scout website a few days after the selections are made.”

Yeah, forgot to mention that when you fill in the application form at the start, you also put in a ‘thank you’ message to all who nominated you.  Also, Amazon will email them when your book is up on Kindle – something useful, even if you don’t win a deal and put the book up yourself, they will still do this.

Now, my campaign did not break any records!  I could moan about being up against US authors with huge social media followings, but I won’t!

I amassed a total of 320 page views over the 30 days, and 0 (yes, zero) hours in ‘Hot and Trending’.  Totally stuffed by the Chick Litters and heavy-weight Yanks!…

But consider this…I was always going to put the book on Kindle, and this has given me greater exposure, plus those who nominated will get an email with the link once it goes ‘live’.  Fine by me.

THANKS EVERYONE! WATCH OUT FOR IT ON AMAZON KINDLE IN A WEEK OR TWO…AND I’M PLANNING TO MAKE IT A FREE DOWNLOAD FOR THE FIRST SEVEN DAYS…PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

Devil Gate Dawn

Thames Valley Tales and other stories

Source: Devil Gate Dawn

Devil Gate Sundown

Thanks to all the 300+ who took the time to read my opening 5,000 words and nominate my novel, Devil Gate Dawn, on Amazon Kindle Scout. This is a promotional platform for exposing new authors.

Today (8th April) is the last day of my 30 day exposure, so if you haven’t already, follow the link and nominate me!

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3AC6627K4Q0B2

All who nominate will get an email from Amazon in a week or two when the ebook is published on Kindle, with a link.  I intend to make it a FREE download for the first 7 days, to encourage as many reads and reviews as possible.

Thereafter, I will put a nominal £1.99 price on it and see how it goes!

Thanks to all my friends, my copy editor and beta readers for your valuable feedback. Changes have been made to the final version to make it a more compelling read.

I hope you all enjoy reading it, and PLEASE put a Star rating and brief review up on Amazon for me!

Time to Panic, Mr Mainwaring?

Since the dreadful Brussels Airport and Metro bombings on 22nd March, there has been much alarmist reporting in the media, aimed at, well, terrifying the citizens of Europe. It used to be the case that the media reported news events and went in for measured and balanced analysis, with the aim of helping us sheep understand complex events. Now they have thrown that aside in an undignified, disrespectful and hysterical scramble to out-do each other as they stoke up a huge moral panic. I’d prefer my news without the hysteria, please. I find it disrespectful to the survivors and victims’ families.

Check out this morning’s (28/03/16) usually calm mirror.co.uk (newspaper of the year and not the mail!) news report…

SPOOKS ON ALERT AS EASTER TARGETED… (page headline)

50 hardcore jihadis ‘plotting terror attacks in the UK’ (sub-heading)

“More than 50 hardcore jihadists are suspected of planning attacks in Britain in the wake of the Paris and Brussels atrocities…they are among 450 extremists across the UK…it is believed MI5 and counter-terror police are tracking as many as 25 serious plots in support of Islamic State or al-Qaeda…Investigators also fear ‘sleeper cells’ could be awaiting orders to activate plots to bring carnage to Britain’s streets…”

Hold on a minute! If the security services know who is a threat, where they live, and where their weapons and bombs may be stored, why are they not picking them up? European citizens are asking this question, particularly after the Brussels bungle following on from the Paris slip-up. Hostile settlers intent on destroying us from within are laughing as they use our freedom of speech, association and human rights laws to their advantages – laws that they wouldn’t tolerate in Islamist countries/societies.

Maybe it’s time to remind ourselves that our hard-won freedoms are the result of hundreds of years of citizens agitating for fairness and equality as we struggled to throw off the shackles of feudal/Victorian oppression. They are a part of our history and social development, and suit our western way of life. They should not be a wall behind which those who mean to kill us can hide.

The citizens of Western Europe do not want to be told to run and hide in fear. They want to hear that our security services are acting to protect them. NOW.

 

Please Nominate My Book!

My first novel, Devil Gate Dawn, has been selected for the Amazon Scout scheme (it has been professionally proof-read and copyedited and they have approved my manuscript).  This means I am competing with other debut novelists for an Amazon Kindle publishing deal.

Their stats record how many reads I have of my 5,000 word opening extract, and I have an encouraging 45 reads after just two days – the promotion period runs for 30 days and ends on 9th April.  When they first put up my opening 5,000 words I carefully read through it and yes, spotted a couple of minor errors and things I’d like to change, but also notice, with horror, that my first dramatic moment comes just after the cut-off!

I got in touch with them (amazon.com in the USA) and requested a re-submit.  After a couple of days they agreed, and I did some editing and re-submitted.  The new version went ‘live’ on Friday evening, and it now reads much better (in my view) and ends on a dramatic high…

Please read my extract and if you feel it is worthy, please nominate it.  After the 9th April, the book with the most nominations wins a publishing deal…help make it me!

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3AC6627K4Q0B2

Devil Gate Dawn

Devil Gate Dawn, my debut novel, has been selected for inclusion on the Amazon Scout scheme!  This means that from now until 9th April visitors to their site can read the first 5,000 word extract and nominate my novel (plus two others).  The novel with the most nominations at the end of the promotional period will win an Amazon Kindle publishing package.  Please help me win this by clicking and nominating!  Thanks…

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3AC6627K4Q0B2

SHADOWPLAY

I jump out of bed and get dressed as quickly as I can in a practiced routine, clothes laid out neatly on a chair before going to bed, knowing how cold it’ll be in the morning. I ignore the gloominess of the tiny rooms and narrow corridors, quickly eat my toast and drink my tea with just a grunt of acknowledgement to my nan, pull on my great coat and head for the bus stop. I am a young man and this is my World.

Stamping my feet on the frosty pavement, I take a deep drag on my ciggy. It looks even bleaker in winter ‘round here. Macclesfield is a dump. Meeting her, though. Something to look forward to. I turn up the collar on my coat to deflect the biting wind from my ears – a bargain from the army surplus shop – and shuffle forward into the warm of the bus’s interior, finding a seat upstairs. To the centre of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you.

I’m glad now that I put that advert in the shop window to be a singer in a band. Wasn’t sure at first, but now I’ve met those mad lads from Salford, maybe something’ll come of it. It’s stimulated my creative juices and given me a reason to turn my poems into song lyrics. What can you write about living ‘round here? There’s little colour in this grey landscape. The factory owners have fled, leaving dilapidated buildings and forgotten people, wandering about searching for meaning in this post-industrial wasteland. The Germans didn’t bomb here – they didn’t need to.

But I’m meeting her. She makes me laugh, with her cheeky Scouse humour. Our tribal cousins and football rivals – Liverpool – a port city with people coming and going, plus the Irish influence that crept westward along the canals, rail and roads to Manchester. Hell, they built it all. But they brought laughter and music and a positive outlook, to mix in with us bleak mill workers. So now we can be both dour and happy. Light and shade, we live in the shadows, we play at being thinking, rational humans, and kid ourselves that we have a say in our destiny. She makes me laugh, though.

I’m waiting for her in the caf in a department store. Busy, clean, bright. I’m scared though. Scared that my eyes will roll back, my body will tense, I’ll black out and end up on the floor, twitching, sending the kids running to their mums. I can’t control it. Confusion in my eyes that says it all, I’ve lost control. The drugs just make me feel shit, grumpy, moody. Here she comes. I break into a smile and stand awkwardly to half-embrace her, hands on her arms, a peck on the cheek. I need her positivity like a shot of caffeine. She’s a nurse, and sees the good in people; a reason to save them; a reason to save me. I feel like I’m in the sea, swimming up to the light, and she’s there, in a boat, pulling me out. To the depths of the ocean where all hope sank, waiting for you.

She chats madly, and I think I’m falling in love. The way she flashes her blue eyes at me makes me feel more than I am, more complete. She has to go – she’s on shift. Good luck with the job interview she says. I say it’s not an interview, just a check-in at the Labour Exchange. It does what it says on the tin – exchanges your labour for money. I wander through the city centre, end up in the record shops, flicking through albums and singles. I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you. Will my songs be here one day? Sometimes I feel so alone, even in a crowded place, I want to curl up in the corner, arms around my knees, head down, thinking. In a room with a window in the corner, I found truth.

What do you want to do? he says, smoking and not minding where he blows it. Not bothered, I say, and then – but I like writing. Oh, a writer are you? Then maybe an office clerk. He smiles like a movie villain. Think I’ve got something here… As the assassins all grouped in four lines dancing on the floor. Maybe I can use that. I did everything, everything I wanted to, I let them use you for their own ends.

That evening it’s rehearsals. I bring my notebook with my scribbled thoughts. Hooky’s fooling around and Bernie’s sullen and moody. We need a new drummer, he says.   We need a new name, I say. Warsaw’s too bleak. Yeah? Says Bernie. What else is there ‘round here but bleakness? Them grey pictures of post-War Europe describe the urban shithole we live in, and our music mirrors that. It’s only a backdrop, I say, although we’re its products and we can’t escape ourselves, I concede. Our music is our way of rising above the gloom, Hooky chips in, and bursts into a manic bass riff. We can lie in the gutter and look at the stars.  One day…

In the shadowplay acting out your own death knowing no more… I sit at a table and refine my jumbled ideas into song lyrics. I’ve got a new song, I say, and laugh, which gets their attention, as it’s not something I usually do – laugh out loud, I mean. After all, it’s been a good day.