K. Morris's Blog, page 782
May 31, 2014
Samantha Remains Free In The Kindle Store Until Monday 2 June 2014
My short story, Samantha, which has received 5 4 star reviews, remains free in the Amazon Kindle store until Monday 2 June. Samantha tells the story of a young woman forced into prostitution in the city of my birth, Liverpool. Can Sam escape the clutches of her brutal pimp, Barry or will she end her miserable existence in the murky waters of Liverpool’s Albert Docks.
For interviews with Barry O’connor, the pimp who ruthlessly exploits Sam and other girls, please visit http://newauthoronline.com/2014/02/14/have-you-ever-interviewed-one-of-your-characters/. For an interview with Samantha please go to http://newauthoronline.com/2014/02/16/have-you-ever-interviewed-one-of-your-characters-interview-with-samantha/. For links to reviews of of Samantha and my other books please visit http://newauthoronline.com/reviews-of-my-books/.
My collection of short stories, Sting In The Tail also remins free in the Kindle Store until Monday 2 June. For reviews of Sting In The Tail please go to http://newauthoronline.com/reviews-of-my-books/
May 28, 2014
Free Book Promotion
My collection of short stories ‘An act of mercy and stories’ is available to download in the Kindle bookstore on http://www.amazon.co.uk/An-act-mercy-... for the UK and http://www.amazon.com/An-act-mercy-ot... for the US from the 2nd June until the 6th June
If you download ‘An act of mercy’ it would be much appreciated if you could leave a review
Free book promotion
My collections of short stories ‘Sting in the tail and other stories’ and my short story ‘Samantha’ will be free in the Kindle store from the 29th May until the 2nd June.
For Samantha please visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BL3CNHI/r... for the US and http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BL3CNHI... for the UK
For Sting in the tail and other stories please visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DFK6R54/r... for the US and http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DFK6R54... for the UK
May 26, 2014
School Days
Distance blurs memories. A small hut in the school playground. Me, alone listening to the rain. Half content in my solitude but fearing/hoping they will come.
Did I believe that I would be collected by the teachers or was it a clever ruze to get the other pupils to go away, leave me to the rain and solitude?
Never part of the collective whole, the herd of boys and girls. I sought the solitary hut but yet was half in love with the clamour of the playground. To belong, to be part of the happy mass. Drawn to the multitude and yet repelled by it. Wanting to belong but knowing the difference, the chasm which separated us.
Where you happy my peers, shouting and playing in the great playground? I played also, pushing the big metal truck. It stopped suddenly, the sharp edge cut my right shin, the scar is with me still. Yes I played but, try as I might was never truly one of you. Did I want to be? Yes, no, perhaps. I am confused, bemused memories play tricks distance befuddles my recollection of the past.
May 25, 2014
Why Gove Shouldn’t Kill the Mockingbird
I read To Kill A Mocking Bird as part of the english literature syllabus at school together with Steinbeck’s The Pearl. I also read Middlemarch and Shakespeare, a good rounded education if ever there was one!
Originally posted on Interesting Literature:
Regular readers of this blog may know that we at Interesting Literature are rather fond of the following story about the genesis of To Kill a Mockingbird. The story goes that Harper Lee’s friends gave her a year’s wages for Christmas, on condition that she give up work and write. By any standard of measurement, she used the time off work wisely: she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. It was published in 1960 and remains her only novel. Harper Lee – or Nelle Harper Lee, to give her her full name – is now 88 years old, but her one novel has done enough by itself to secure her reputation. It has sold over 30 million copies.
This morning, it was reported that Michael Gove, the UK Education Secretary, has removed To Kill a Mockingbird and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men from the school GCSE syllabus. Gove…
View original 668 more words
So Long And Thanks For All The Dots
I became blind at about 18-months-old as a result of a blood clot on the brain. I have some useful vision including the ability to see outlines of objects, I can not, however read print.
As a young child I was taught how to use Braille, a system of raised dots which blind people touch in order to decipher text. Growing up Braille was central to my life. I read Braille books voraciously, my school examinations and university exams where in Braille and I could not have progressed easily in life in the absence of those strange, bumpy dots!
Today there is growing concern that Braille is under threat. See, for example the following article, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11258778. The growth of digital technology makes it incredibly easy for blind people to access printed material without having to use Braille. I am typing this with the assistance of Jaws which converts text into speech and Braille on a standard Windows computer allowing visually impaired PC users to access the internet, send and receive e-mail etc. While Jaws does work with Braille displays allowing visually impaired PC users to read Braille via their machines, Braille displays are not essential to the task of reading. My home laptop on which I am writing now is not hooked up to a Braille display and I don’t feel the lack of the technology. I can cope perfectly well in the absence of a Braille display.
Amazon Kindles are equipped with a text to speech facility which allows the reading of books without looking at the device’s screen. Apple products such as the iPad have voiceover which enables visually impaired people to utilise various apps including the one for reading Kindle content. Safari and other key apps are also accessible.
From the above one might conclude that braill is, like the parrot in Monty Python well and truly deceased. However Braille remains incredibly useful. Most medicines are now labelled in Braille which allows blind people to find their medication without having to rely on sighted friends, neighbours, family etc. Again some household products contain Braille labelling (next time you go to the supermarket take a look at the bottles of bleach many of which are labelled with “bleach” in Braille.
Despite the proliferation of digital technology I still enjoy reading Braille. It is lovely to sit in a comfortable armchair leafing through The New Oxford Book Of English Verse or Poe’s “tales of Mystery and Imagination”.
Braille is certainly declining but there remains fight in the old beast yet!
May 21, 2014
Help For Disabled Students To Be Cut
As a registered blind person who is not able to read print I benefited, as a disabled student from the Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) which enabled me to purchase a Kurzweil reading machine. The Kurzweil translated printed text into speech via scanning books, documents etc enabling me to access material which was only available in print. The Kurzweil was extremely important in allowing me to study independently and obtain my BA and, later an MA in political theory.
I was concerned to read in The Guardian that the government intends to cut the amount of money available through the DSA due to it’s potential impact on people with disabilities. The support provided via the DSA is vital to many disabled students and the reduction of that assistance could cause disabled people to either not go on to further and/or higher education or (if they do go on) to suffer academically due to the lack of adequate support. I will be writing to my MP to raise my concerns. For the article please visit, http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/20/disabled-students-shut-out-government-cuts-allowance
May 19, 2014
Brain Hacking
If, at some future date machines can read our memories as well as our dreams this is, obviously open to abuse by hackers and/or an authoritarian government. I wonder whether anti brain hacking software will be developed in the same way that people use Zone Alarm and similar products to prevent people from hacking their computers. Science fiction perhaps but stranger things have happened, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2632115/Machine-scan-brain-read-dreams-Scanner-powerful-detect-reconstruct-images-faces-people-thinking-of.html
May 11, 2014
Thoughts On A Windy Day
Wind gusting on a spring day, you speak to me of freedom, of things beyond expression. Eternal force blowing forever on ancient peoples and now on me. You care not for civilisation, your gusts of laughter shake the bending trees. You blew before these buildings came, when all is gone you will remain.
Sometimes like a gentle girl, your soft caresses delight the world. At other times cold and sharp, your ice laden gusts freeze human hearts.
You are a force beyond control, you dwell within the human soul.
Love For Sale Elvis Costello
Originally sung by Cole Porter and performed here by Elvis Costello, this rendering of Love For Sale is sad and beautiful, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt4HS1ce8Hs.
