K. Morris's Blog, page 762

Stop the Rain

drewdog2060drewdog2060:

Incredibly poignant.

Originally posted on Laura A. Lord:

It is two weeks from the anniversary of the day I lost you and I have been so completely swallowed up in the excitement of new life that I have not thought of you in months. I have pushed back the brief memory – static images in grey scale on a monitor, the thump, thump, thump of a tiny heartbeat.

These fourteen days will be filled with sleep-over birthday parties and Thanksgiving meals. They will be a bustle of last minute Christmas shopping and decorating and wrapping and hiding and excitement and frustration. For you see, your brother is due soon and we are all in some sort of limbo state: in one way waiting, in one way actively working to be as ready as possible. Is one ever, truly, ready?

It is only 336 hours away, but I feel the tightening in my chest. I dreamed of you…

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The Dark Net By Jamie Bartlett

The internet is, for most of us a place where we shop, interact with other like-minded individuals via social media and pursue a variety of other activities. We use search engines such as Google and even when our browser’s cookies are cleared they can, by a person with a fairly rudimentary knowledge of computers be restored enabling browsing habits to be ascertained.

In his book “The Dark Net”, Jamie Bartlett deals with the so-called dark net, a world in which anything is possible, however malign the intentions of the user. Guns, child pornography, all are available to those who know how to navigate the Dark Web.

Apart from criminals the Dark Web is also used by political dissidents wishing to avoid the attentions of authoritarian regimes. It is, in short the wild west of the internet. The Dark Web is, in brief a tool which can be employed for good or evil and is, like all technology neither good or bad, dependent as it is on the motivations of those who avail themselves of it.

 

For Bartlett’s book visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dark-Net-Jamie-Bartlett-ebook/dp/B00K0M6JQC

Waves

Cars, like waves swish past.

Distant sound of engines forever passing, here then lost, tossed on the tides of time and space.

A horn sounds, a driver going somewhere perhaps.

 

My study. Books in cases stand. A poster on a wall, the dolphin swims, forever caught on paper.

 

The night is dark. Outside engines rev and die. In my room the dolphin looks down from the picture. A fish on a wall, how strange.

 

Thoughts travel with vehicles along endless roads, while I sit, the dolphin looking on, swimming perpetually on a wall.

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