Lot’s of writing, not much publishing!!

I have written a number of stories through the pandemic and in the past year but I am going back and to between them, and struggling to get one edited enough times to be ready to publish. I need to stop indulging myself in the different worlds I am creating and focus!!

The Clockwork City is nearly ready, and I have some great images for it from artists who have been a pleasure to work with – what do you think of these? And do they whet your appetite to read the story??

Images of Clockwork City

Big reveal

Here we go, next in the series of Riders of the North, The Clockwork City. Here is the first draft for the cover.  Thanks to the team 😀

Lone Wolf Terrorism

With terror and war at the forefront of the global news, what do we need to do to tackle, limit, or even stop these attacks? In America, Australia, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and the Middle East, the two main concerns seem to centre around the availability of firearms and the issue of mental health.  Continue reading Lone Wolf Terrorism

Child Refugee

The number of refugees living in camps in Northern France has increased dramatically over the last five years, with the influx from the migrant crisis adding to the already high numbers of economic migrants from Europe and further afield. These camps have grown exponentially and with such growth comes suffering, appalling conditions, and the worst kind of human interaction – exploitation. I am, of course, talking of the traffickers and the exploiters many of whom are British or French using the desperation and fear that exists in these camps for their own ends. Continue reading Child Refugee

Is Faux Fur Really Fake?

Do you have a fake fur jacket? Perhaps a glimmer of fur around your Uggs or the hood of your coat? Then, in all likelihood, you may be wearing real animal fur.

An investigation by the Humane Society has revealed that the “faux fur” jackets by designer Marc Jacobs sold at Century 21 department stores actually contained dog fur.  This is just an example of a mainstream retail company using dog fur from China to line its clothing under the pretext that it is fake fur.  There was a storm at the time and it was withdrawn but do you know if what you are wearing is really ‘faux fur’ or not?  The problem is that they often blend real fur with fake fur to line a hood, jacket or boots so legally that can say it’s fake fur but, in reality, it’s not.

The Fur you most readily see when you’re walking about the high street is Continue reading Is Faux Fur Really Fake?

Is Fur ‘Cute’ Again

If you’re like me you grew up with people raging against fur being used and raging against people who wore fur, yet in the last five years the fur trade has quadrupled profits and is close to being a 12 billion pound industry, so is the fur trade back in vogue and what has changed? Most fur is used in clothing is taken from dogs, small rodents, minks, and ferrets. There was a time when it was not socially acceptable to be wearing the skin of an animal; so why in the last few years has animal fur in clothing returned, and so many people fine with wearing it? Continue reading Is Fur ‘Cute’ Again

Free download this weekend

Thanks for following my ramblings.  Just to let you know that I am now working with a great team of likeminded folk at Roberts Ink.  We are running a free download this weekend of my most recent book ‘The Kingdom of Men’ and it would be great if you would read it, and leave a review on either Amazon or GoodReads, hopefully, a good one!

You can get it now here http://goo.gl/tUk5VL but just for 2 days.  Roberts Ink is also running a weekend promo of free delivery for 2+ orders on their clothing, all original designs, as the focus is on creativity – you can view them here Roberts Ink Independent Publisher and original designs

I hope you can give your support. Reviews from the WordPress community would really help with getting this book launched.  Have a great weekend!

Junior Doctors, Senior Problem

For the benefit of non-UK readers, you probably know that we have something called the National Health Service (NHS) which is basically free health care to every British person so we don’t need to pay private health bills, although some do opt to do so. This was the major demand of the people post WW2 and it was established by the opening of the first NHS hospital in 1948, by the then health secretary, Aneurin Bevan.  As you can imagine, the NHS is a massive organisation with pools of money to help care for and keep British people healthy. The issue here that as the NHS is state owned, the medical staff; doctors and nurses are working for the State, similar to the military, so their pay is decided by the government.

The British government set out to keep junior doctors working seven days a week but without a pay rise, to save money over the weekend, of course, junior doctors in England Continue reading Junior Doctors, Senior Problem