K. Morris's Blog, page 802

Review of my short story ‘Samantha’

I was delighted to receive my third 4* review for my short story Samantha. For all of my reviews, please visit http://newauthoronline.com/reviews-of-my-books/

A Question

Conversation diverting, we two flirting. Words meaning’s, lost in dreaming. Mutual attraction or mere distraction?

Where I to broach, would your reproach, destroy all hope? Would your objection, to my suggestion end in dejection? Fear of rejection, no suggestion? Should you agree, what then for you and me?

High Heels

The sound of stilettos approaching. He, fearing, hoping. Tremulous with expectation, torn twixt dread and elation,  he holds his breath, waiting.

The Silence Is Deafening

One of the joys associated with e-books is the fact that most are accessible to people with a visual impairment. As a blind book lover who is not able to read print I relish my ability to read e-books either on my Kindle or using the Kindle app on my iPad, via the text to speech facility (on the Kindle) or by Apple’s in-built screen reader, Voiceover on my iPad.

I was disappointed to find that a book recommended to me by an acquaintance (and available in the Kindle store) does not have the text to speech facility enabled thereby rendering my purchase of the title in question pointless as I would be unable to read the work in question.

As an author I can understand the legitimate desire of writers to protect their work from copyright theft. All of my books are Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected rendering them virtually impossible to copy. However all of my books as with the majority of those available in the Kindle store have text to speech enabled thereby allowing visually impaired individuals to purchase them. I would never disable text to speech because, by so doing I would be locking out blind people from the possibility of reading my works independently.

I have sometimes heard it argued that authors disable text to speech because their book is also available as an audible download from companies such as audible.co.uk/audible.com. If the book is available as an audio download then what is the point (the argument goes) in providing a text to speech enabled version of the book on Amazon.

In answer to the above I would argue that visually impaired readers should have the same choice as to how they access books as their sighted friends and acquaintences. If a copy of a book which does not have tex to speech enabled is available from Amazon and, in addition as an audio download then the sighted reader has a choice of either purchasing the Kindle book or the audio download. In contrast the blind reader has only one choice, to download the audio version as the Kindle book is inaccessible to him or her. This is, to my mind grossly unfair as blind people should (as stated above) be afforded the same opportunity to access books as their sighted compatriots.

Certain works are only available as inaccessible (non text to speech) enabled Kindle downloads with there existing no audio alternative. Consequently blind people have their ability to access such books severely curtailed. They can request a sighted friend to read the book which negates their independence or request a charity such as the Royal National Institute of The Blind (RNIB) to record the work or transcribe it into braille. However the latter option can be time consuming and can leave the visually impaired person feeling like a second class citizen who must rely on others for his or her reading enjoyment.

I won’t name the book or the author as I hope to be able to make contact and persuade them to make their book available, on Amazon with text to speech enabled (there appears to be no audio alternative).

Most authors who sell their books on Amazon do make them available with text to speech enabled and I am, as a blind person grateful to the vast majority of writers who do the right thing. To those authors who don’t enable accessibility for visually impaired people, I am sure that most of you do not realise that the effect of your decision is to make the lives of blind readers difficult by reducing their choice of reading material. If you are one of those authors please look again and ensure that your books are accessible to all not just those who can read print.

In conclusion this post is not aimed at the vast majority of writers who make their works accessible by enabling text to speech (on the Kindle) or Voiceover (on Apple products), it is aimed at the minority of authors and publishers who do not do the right thing.

Shop Girl

Shop girl setting my heart awhirl. Does she like me? Does she not? I only came in here to shop! Regular visits, shop assistant divine, what can I do to make you mine? Is she interested? Is she not? Sir you only came here to shop!

Sea And Sky

Take my hand, let us walk along the sand, where the seagulls mournful cry fills the sky. See the beauty of the sky, the wild clouds on high, you and I will die, be as one with sea and sky.

Must Be Funny In A Rich Man’s World

Sometimes I think that it would be far easier for me as an author where I to be fortunate enough to possess an independent income relieving me of the necessity to engage in paid employment. I leave my flat at around 7:30 am and usually get home between 6:30-7 pm by which time my brain wants to rest and, if I do write the tiredness sits on my shoulders like some giant succubus but without the delightful distractions offered by that mythical creature. On occasions I am able to shake off that guileful demon and write (much of my collection of short stories, The First Time was written in those long, dark winter evenings after work). While I felt a great sense of satisfaction after having spent several productive hours writing into the late evening, on the morrow my body and brain cried out in protest. Consequently most of my writing (other than blog posts) takes place during the weekend when I can sit undisturbed plugging away at my stories.

A good friend who is retired frequently spends the entire morning writing. I am envious of his ability to do this. Long gone is the necessity for him to spend a large portion of his day working for others. My friend is the master of his own time which he uses to good effect.

I would love to be able to write for 4-5 hours a day knowing that I had an independent income to sustain me. No concerns about the need to earn money to pay the bills, just the joy of writing filling my mornings. Having said that my participation in the world of work gives me a wider perspective on the world. There have been writers (some of them great) who have possessed independent means relieving them of the necessity to work. However participation in the hurly burly of society as opposed to being cloistered in the library of one’s house on a country estate furnishes the author with a broader understanding of the world with all it’s foibles, but if anyone wants to leave a landed estate to me in their will I will, reluctantly accept the bequest (it would be rude to do otherwise)!

Kevin

The Wonderful Team Membership Reader Award

I was surprised and delighted to be nominated for the Wonderful Team Membership Reader Award by Manchester Flick Chick, http://manchesterflickchick.wordpress.com/.

The rules of the Award are as follows:

 

The Nominee of the Wonderful Team Membership Reader Award shall display the logo on his/her post/page and/or sidebar (being blind I have yet to get a sighted friend to help me copy the logo).
The nominee shall nominate 14 readers they appreciate over a period of 7 days. This can be done at any rate during the week.
The nominee shall name his or her Wonderful Team Member Readership Award Nominees on a post or on posts during the 7 day period
The nominee shall make these rules or amended rules keeping to the spirit of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award known to each reader he nominates.
The nominee must finish this sentence and post: “A great reader is .”.

 

 

http://atopsyturvyworld.wordpress.com/

http://seumasgallacher.com/

http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/author/thestoryreadingape/

http://judysp.wordpress.com/

http://kevs-domain.net/author/cooper1963/

http://300stories.wordpress.com/

http://bottledworder.com/

http://belsbror.wordpress.com/

http://adventuresinlowvision.wordpress.com/

http://interestingliterature.com/

http://mcwatty9.wordpress.com/author/mcwatty9/

http://laurie27wsmith.wordpress.com/author/laurie27wsmith/

http://storyshucker.wordpress.com/

http://emilyspoetryblog.com/author/emilyardagh/

Many thanks to everyone who follows or comments on my blog both those named above and the many others, I appreciate you all.

Five Reasons Everyone Should Know Ernest Dowson

Reblogged from Interesting Literature:

What's the connection between wine, poetry, Gone with the Wind, and soccer? In a couple of previous posts, on George Meredith and Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, we've endeavoured to find five interesting things about two of Victorian literature's neglected figures. Now it's the turn of Ernest Dowson - decadent poet. Some of these are particularly surprising.

1. Ernest Dowson coined the phrase 'the days of wine and roses'.

Read more… 571 more words

An interesting post on one of my favourite poets. "They Are Not Long" is beautiful in it's simplicity. Besides being a poet Dowson also wrote a number of short stories and one play. The latter concerns a moon goddess and her trist with a mortal at Versailles. Dowson should be far better known than he is.

An Extract From My Friend’s Unpublished Novel

An extract from my friend’s unpublished novel can be found on his blog here http://besonian.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/excerpt-from-an-unpublished-novel-part-v/.