K. Morris's Blog, page 762

Book Reviews, How Important Are They?

drewdog2060drewdog2060:

Reviews are invaluable to authors. I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to read and review my stories.

Originally posted on Have We Had Help?:

The short answer is that without good, bad and indifferent reviews, books simply don’t sell, doubly so these days since the concept of the electronic book became reality.

Not too many decades ago, before the coming of the internet, when books were written by a handful of establishment writers under contract to traditional publishing houses, reviews were the domain of a few individuals employed by newspapers like the New York Times and leading magazines such as Time. They were often critical, sometimes praiseworthy, but never vicious like the one star variety most writers are subjected to today.

How times have changed. These days literally anyone can write a review for any book they find on any given internet book site. There lies the problem. No matter whether you are an Indie, or under contract to a publisher, we are all equally at risk of being attacked by a vocal minority…

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Gifting Kindle Content

As an author I would love to gift my Kindle titles to family and friends. If I lived in the US this would present no difficulty owing to the facility, on amazon.com to “give as a gift”. However, as a UK-based writer the ability to gift copies of my books is not available. I am at a loss to understand why a facility available to US authors can not be extended to writers based in the UK.

Amazon has many great author features including KDP Select which enables writers to promote their works by offering them for free, or at a reduced price for upto 5 days in any 90 day period. I am, on the whole a fan of Amazon but I can not grasp why the ability to gift publications is restricted to US-based authors.

After having posted this I will send a word copy of my latest collection of short stories, “The Suspect And Other Tales” (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U), by e-mail to my mum. It would be wonderful if, instead of having to do this the title could be gifted by me from the Amazon Kindle Store. I will raise the suggestion with Amazon and will post their response once received.

Fine Feathers~

Originally posted on :

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds~ Aesop


My love affair with birds started when I was a very young child. I bred and raised parakeets and cockatiels as a kid. I had two egrets, one pigeon, two cockatiels, and one great blue heron find me at picnics or hikes or at home, who I adopted and raised at various points in my life.


I talk to birds wherever I am and they tend to talk back. You should try it. I highly recommend it.


Birds just make me happy. Always have and I find more and more now that I am retired, that the things that made me happy as a kid, still make me happy as an adult, and once again now, I have time for them!

I cannot however adopt a bird until I stop traveling, so I get my bird fix these days…

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A 4 Star Review Of My Collection Of Short Stories, “The Suspect And Other Tales”

I was delighted to receive the following 4 star review in respect of my latest collection of short stories, “The Suspect And Other Tales”:

 

“Eleven clever and entertaining short stories, ideal for dipping into and each with a nice twist in the tale.”

 

For the review please visit (http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R15SEEQ1V22J9T/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00PKPTQ0U). Many thanks to the reviewer for the above review.

 

To purchase or download a free sample of “The Suspect And Other Tales” please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=cm_rdp_product (for the UK) or http://www.amazon.com/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U (for the US).

The Raven By Edgar Alan Poe

An excellent short essay on the site, Interesting Literature regarding Edgar Alan Poe’s poem, The Raven (http://interestingliterature.com/2014/11/15/guest-blog-the-raven-nevermore/). The post’s author rightly sees the raven as the personification of melancholy and death.

 

The Raven plays a pivotal role in my story, “Something Wicked”, which appears in my latest collection of short stories, “The Suspect And Other Tales”, (http://www.amazon.com/The-Suspect-other-tales-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U). In “Something Wicked”, a young boy, Charles becomes obsessed by the Raven with the bird worming it’s way into his nightmares. Is the knocking which Charles hears produced by the sinister raven or is the sound a mere figment of his imagination?

 

—

 

The Raven By Edgar Alan Poe

 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

“’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—

This it is and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;—

Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—

Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice;

Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore—

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—

’Tis the wind and nothing more!”

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,

“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;

For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—

Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

With such name as “Nevermore.”

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

Nothing farther then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—

Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before—

On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”

Then the bird said “Nevermore.”

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store

Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster

Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—

Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore

Of ‘Never—nevermore’.”

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;

Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,

But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer

Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.

“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee

Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,

Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—

On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—

Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—

“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted—nevermore!

BBC London Documentary Reveals The Extent Of Discrimination Faced By Disabled People

A documentary on BBC London reveals the extent of discrimination faced by disabled people. Using hidden cameras a woman in a wheelchair documents the inaccessibility of venues (lack of ramps, high tables and broken lifts), while a guide dog owner is refused carriage by 5 out of 20 taxis.

The equalities Act 2010 makes it an offence to refuse to convey an assistance dog, when accompanied by a disabled person meaning that 5 out of 20 companies are in flagrant breech of the law.

As a registered blind guide dog owner I am depressed (but not surprised) by the findings of the documentary. It is, to put it mildly extremely upsetting to be discriminated against. It makes one feel like a second-class citizen which, in the 21st century is wholly unacceptable. Hopefully the drivers concerned (together with the companies) will lose their licenses. It is only through stringent enforcement (coupled with education) that discrimination can be eliminated.

For the documentary please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29917990#afterFlash

The Suspect And Other Tales By K Morris Available In The (UK) Amazon Kindle Store for £0.77

Earlier this morning I posted regarding the release of my latest collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales. At that time The Suspect was only available on amazon.com. I am pleased to report that The Suspect And Other Tales can now be found on amazon.co.uk by visiting the following link, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suspect-other-tales-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415948675&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Suspect+and+other+tales. To purchase The Suspect or to download a free sample please go to the above link.

 

Many thanks

 

Kevin

The Suspect And Other Tales By K Morris Available In The Kindle Store

My latest collection of short stories, The Suspect And Other Tales is available for purchase in the Amazon Kindle Store.

The Suspect comprises a collection of Tales of the unexpected, ranging from stories of crime and vengeance through to ghostly happenings in an ancient mansion. The stories originally appeared on this blog, newauthoronline.com.

To purchase The Suspect And Other Tales or download a free sample please visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PKPTQ0U. At time of writing The Suspect And Other Tales does not show up on amazon.co.uk. However, in a few hours time the anthology should be available on both amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. I hope you enjoy reading The Suspect And Other Tales. If you purchase The Suspect or any of my other books I would appreciate it if you would please consider leaving a review.

 

Many thanks

 

Kevin

 

Strange Dream

“They will put the people in cells. Put them to sleep and suck out their brains. They will start with the elderly and disabled then move on to the rest.

The people will feel a sense of freedom when they are asleep but, on waking will have buttons where they once had eyes to operate them. They will feel only a dull headache”.

 

This was, so far as I am able to remember it the dream from which I awoke some 10 minutes ago. I was listening to a narrator expounding his conspiracy theory? Regarding a take-over of the world by an unnamed group, aliens perhaps?

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories (they have caused much suffering. Witness, for example the Nazi’s mad view that Jews are intent on taking over the globe through the manipulation of the financial markets, which lead the Third Reich to murder at least 6 million innocent people of Jewish origin). I remember, in my dream inwardly questioning why the unnamed entity would want to take over the world and wondering whether I was listening to the ravings of a lunatic.

As pointed out above I do not believe in conspiracies. Given this fact I am at a loss to explain my dream. On going to sleep I have no recollection of pondering on the atrocities of the Hitler regime (“they will start with the disabled and elderly first”) has echoes of the Action T-4 Programme under which people with disabilities where sterilised and/or murdered, the Programme being the precursor to the mass killing, in gas chambers of Jews and other groups, including gypsies deemed undesirable by the regime).

In conclusion I do not know why I dreamed thus. However my dreaming was so vivid that I wished to record it before it vanished in the cold light of day.

Brave New World, By Aldous Huxley – A Review

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (http://www.huxley.net/bnw/one.html) is one of those novels which have left a lasting impression on me. Published in 1932 Brave New World describes a global society in which genetic engineering and social conditioning rule supreme. Society is rigidly stratified with those at the bottom of the pyramid being only of sufficient intelligence so as to enable them to perform the most basic of functions, such as operating machinery, while those at the top are endowed with great intellects permitting the elite to govern the lower social classes. Due to genetic engineering, coupled with social conditioning the overwhelming majority of the population is content and lacks the capacity (or desire) to challenge the system.

Child baring has been outlawed with all children being created in facilities such as The Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. The only exception to this state of affairs are “the reservations” in which “savages” continue to bring forth children in the traditional manner.

Sexual promiscuity is almost universal in Brave New World with lasting relationships being discouraged as they lead, in the view of the world controllers to the evils of attachment which breeds murder and other vices.

A “savage”, John is introduced into Brave New World. At first he is thrilled by the new civilisation and remarks,

“Oh brave new world that has such people in it”.

However, on discovering that his beloved Shakespeare (along with all literature) is prohibited he begins to question the foundations on which Brave New World is built. John’s disenchantment with Brave New World is heightened by his love for a girl who, despite being attracted to him is incapable of showing John the exclusive love which he craves. Lanena is conditioned to desire many sexual partners and can not comprehend John’s desire to have an exclusive relationship with her.

Things come to ahead when John’s mother (a woman from Brave New World who had a baby by traditional means and was abandoned by her then partner, the Director of Hatcheries in the Savage Reservation) is taken into hospital. John is incensed when a group of children undergoing “death conditioning”, to prevent them from grieving when people die, laugh and point at John’s dying mother. John boxes the ears of the children which leads to a full-scale riot requiring the use of Soma (the drug of choice) in Brave New World to quell the disturbance.

On being taken to the controller for Western Europ John begs to be allowed to return to the reservation. However he is told that the experiment to ascertain whether savages can be integrated into society must continue.

Fleeing into the countryside to live the simple life John is pursued by Brave New Worlders. In a fit of anger he whips a girl to death and, the following morning is found hanging in the warehouse in which he has been living.

For me one of the most interesting (albeit minor characters) in the novel is the resident controller for Western Europe. Tasked with upholding the system he admits to John and his 2 friends, to loving literature. He opens a safe showing banned books, his attitude being that as he makes the laws he can break them. The Controller says that he serves happiness, not his own but that of other people. Society is stable now and to allow books and ideas from the past would only unsettle matters leading to the return of jealousy, war and other evils banished by the introduction of Fordism (the philosophy/religion in Brave New World). Art, beauty, all must be sacrificed for the common good. I suspect that behind his smiling exterior the resident Controller for Western Europe is not a happy man.

 

Brave New World raises a number of troubling questions, notable among them being whether the Resident Controller for Western Europe is right in his contention that the sacrifice of high culture is worthwhile as it promotes universal happiness. With a few exceptions, for example John’s friend, Bernard Marx and, of course John himself, all the people in Brave New World are happy. One can argue, as John does that their happiness is meaningless but perhaps, to the observer everyone else’s contentment is vapid. Undoubtedly the inhabitants of Brave New World are genetically predisposed and socially conditioned to like what they do which leads to almost universal contentment, however almost all crime has vanished from society which, on the whole functions like clockwork.

 

On reading Brave New World I am revolted by much of what Huxley describes. The crushing of the individual (not through ruthless violence but via genetic and social conditioning, is abhorrent to my liberal sensabilities). Yet I am left feeling uneasy that I have no killer argument to advance against that of the Controller for Western Europe when he states that society is stable, disease has been eliminated and people are content with their lot. How many of us in such a world (assuming we could see beyond our genetic and social conditioning) can say, hand on heart that we would join with John, the “savage” to upturn the apple cart even if by so doing we would loose the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse (my words not those of Huxley).

Having posed the above question I suspect that a society such as Brave New World would be supremely ill equipped to deal with a crisis due to the narrow tramlines which conditioning compels people to traverse. Individuals possess the ability to think for themselves and the lack of this capacity would, I suspect, sooner or later lead to disaster in Brave New World. When Lynda (John’s mother) faces her own personal crisis, death she is ill prepared for it and can only cope by taking copious amounts of Soma. Despite the laughter, the “Feelies” (virtual reality films), at the end the Brave New Worlders come face to face “with that fell sergeant death” who, as Shakespeare says, “is swift in his arrest”. At the end there is no poetry, no family and friends to comfort the dying, only Soma, Soma and more Soma.

 

(I was prompted to revisit Brave New World by a series of articles in The Daily Telegraph concerning the predictions of Karl Djerassi (the inventor of the contraceptive pill) that by 2050 most sex in the west will be for recreational purposes. Babies will be born from frozen eggs and sperm implanted in women who will, when young arrange for the freezing of eggs and sperm enabling them to pursue careers and give birth at a time of their choosing. This is not Brave New World as there is no state impelling men and women to act thus. Again Djerassi does not point to the destruction of culture. However Djerassi’s predictions have obvious echoes of Huxley’s Brave New World. For the articles please see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/11219735/Well-defy-all-logic-to-make-babies-in-the-traditional-way.html