Monthly Archives: October 2017

Vandals on the trains

On Sunday night someone damaged the signals between Doncaster and Meadowhall, meaning that stretch of line was out of use all day. It was being treat as a major crime scene. The staff working for Northern and TransPennine Express on trains and at the stations did their best but there was a lot of confusion, especially at Doncaster in the morning.
 
I don’t much care about train companies losing money because they make enough profit and don’t put much back into the train network, but I do care about the people, me included, who were inconvenienced and distressed by it all. As you know, one of the traits of my Aspergers is that I get seriously distressed by changes to plans. It right put me out and took at least an hour of mini golf to put me back in a fun mood. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one; people were desperate to get to work, or home, catch other trains or flights, or spend a day with their kids or friends doing something fun.
 
Punishment for a bit of property damage, where no one is harmed (harm being loss of a home, a means to earn a living, life etc.) seems a bit over the top to me, even though yesterday I wanted to kill the vandals, but at what point does it become a case of that property damage has caused more harm to individuals and/or a community, the commons, and serious punishment is just?
 
If a train company decides it’s cutting too much into their profits to put on replacement coaches or do the repairs so ‘sorry, we’re not running a service on that line anymore’ and leaves people dependant on the trains stranded; if someone misses an important medical appointment and suffers for longer because of the delays; a person loses their job because they got to work late or couldn’t get to work at all? How much harm has to be caused to the community, not the profits of rail companies and their shareholders, by vandalism, and how should it be punished?
 
I spend far to much time thinking about this stuff.

November book reviews

Happy Halloween peeps; I spent yesterday in Sheffield playing mini golf dressed as the new breed of vampires from Blade 3. My costume was composed of an over-large hoody and a pair of jeans.

But on to the reviews for November.

  • 1st November
    • Jay Chirino – The Flawed One
  • 2nd November
    • TP Fielden – Resort to Murder
  • 7th November
    • Theresa Cheung & Claire Broad – Answers From Heaven: Incredible True Stories of Heavenly Encounters and the Afterlife
    • Clink Street Blog Tour
  • 10th November
    • Matthew Ludden – Caitlin Kelman
  • 18th November
    • Joe Eckhardt – Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason
  • 23rd November
    • Annabel Fielding – A pearl for my mistress
  • 24th November
    • Nicola Findlay – Live Like you give a f**k
  • 25th November
    • Daniel M. Jones & Theresa Cheung – Become the Force: 9 Lessons on How to Live as a Jediist Master
  • 29th November
    • Jeanne Skartsiaris – Dance Like You Mean It

I’m probably going to be a bit busy this month. I’m trying to get Fire Betrayed ready for publication too.

Review: ‘Zombie! Haunted Mansion: Memoir of Jesse Jamieson’, by Zombie Origin Media

I received this e-book from the authors after they saw my listing on http://www.indiereview.com.

Zombie! Haunted Mansion: Memoir of Jesse Jamieson by [ZOM]Published By: Independently Published

Publication Date: 29th May 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781520352121

Format: E-book, also available as Paperback

Price: £2.33 (Paperback: £7.80)

Blurb

Stranded in the middle of nowhere, an unlikely group of high school friends embark on a series of adventures and mishaps to survive a remote zombie outbreak. With bloodthirsty ghouls trailing close behind, Jesse and his friends stumble upon an eerie mansion offering refuge from the zombie infested woods. But the residents of Krakuz Manor may be hiding a sinister secret more dangerous than the undead threat outside, or they might just be complete lunatics. Either way, Jesse and his friends must prepare for the impending zombie horde if they hope to survive their trip to hell. With no communication to the outside world for help, can a mismatched group of teenagers defend Krakus Manor against the undead, or will they fall victim to a living dead nightmare

Continue reading “Review: ‘Zombie! Haunted Mansion: Memoir of Jesse Jamieson’, by Zombie Origin Media”

Review: ‘Lady First’, by Lea O’Harra

Lady First by [O'Harra, Lea]

Independently Published

Publication Date: 28th August 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781549610981

Format: Kindle e-book and paperback

Price: Kindle – £2.00, Paperback – £7.99

Blurb

Murder is back, and it’s nastier than ever… Fujikawa in southern Japan is finally getting over the shock murder of a resident university head and, three years later, the strangling of a local child – when terror strikes the quiet, provincial town once more. When young Mayumi Ikeuchi is killed on her way home from her job at The Paradise nightclub in a Fujikawa park, there isn’t a shortage of suspects. These include Mr Tani – Mayumi’s boss – who likes to leer over the girls who work for him, and Atsushi Taniguchi, a man who seems quite normal to the outside world but is free with his fists around his wife, Yui. There is also Nose-san, a loner who lives with his aged, incontinent mother, with witnesses hearing the sounds of brutal, physical arguments coming from his house. Even Mayumi’s sister is reported to have been overly possessive of the girl, threatening her when Mayumi had declared she wanted to strike out on her own. Lise Foster and Yui Taniguchi forge an unlikely friendship after the death of Mayumi: one is a victim of violence and the other may become one. Lise is a teacher at the local school, living close to the murder site in Ogawa Woods, and is it her imagination or is there someone sinister lurking outside her home in the shadows? Could Lise be next? For Chief Inspector Inoue and Inspector Kubo – Yui’s brother – and their colleagues, it is a race against time to find the perpetrator before he strikes again.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Lady First’, by Lea O’Harra”

‘Fire Betrayed’ update

fire betrayedSave the date!

Fire Betrayed is now available for pre-order from Amazon.

Publication date: 1st December 2017

Price £1.99

Promotions

If you buy the paperback of  Fire Betrayed through Amazon, you can get the Kindle e-book free between 1st December 2017 and 31st January 2018. From 1st February 2018 the price will increase to 99p.

And as a bonus, Hidden Fire will be available for free for just one day – 1st December 2017

‘Fire Betrayed’ update and a way you can help me

In the past it wasn’t unusual for books to be published by subscription, where an author would solicit funds to pay for the publication of their book, in return the subscribers would receive a copy of the book and their name in the book. A list of subscribers was included. This idea has modernised, with sites like Patreon and Go Fund Me helping creatives raise funds to produce their work.

Continue reading “‘Fire Betrayed’ update and a way you can help me”

Review: ‘Sweet Pea’, by C. J. Skuse

33229410

Published By: HQ

Publication Date: 2nd November 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9780008216719

Price: £7.99

Format: Paperback

 

Blurb

The last person who called me ‘Sweetpea’ ended up dead…

I haven’t killed anyone for three years and I thought that when it happened again I’d feel bad. Like an alcoholic taking a sip of whisky. But no. Nothing. I had a blissful night’s sleep. Didn’t wake up at all. And for once, no bad dream either. This morning I feel balanced. Almost sane, for once.

Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog…but she’s got a killer secret.

Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhiannon’s life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list.

A kill list.

From the man on the Lidl checkout who always mishandles her apples, to the driver who cuts her off on her way to work, to the people who have got it coming, Rhiannon’s ready to get her revenge.

Because the girl everyone overlooks might be able to get away with murder…

Continue reading “Review: ‘Sweet Pea’, by C. J. Skuse”

Changes to this month’s reviews

I had booked in John A. Heldt‘s Mercer Street in for Friday and M.N.Mekaelian‘s Choose to Rise: The Victory Within next week, but  Mercer Street doesn’t really fit into my interests at the minute. I don’t want to read a book and give it a bad review because I’m not in the mood, so I’ve shelved it. I was expecting to receive Choose to Rise: The Victory Within in early September but it hasn’t arrived yet. I’ve been in touch with the author and he’s going to resend, probably as an ebook this time. When the book arrives I will schedule it, probably for next year now.

Instead of those two books, on Saturday I’ll be reviewing C J Skuse‘s new book, Sweet Pea, which will be published by HQ on the 2nd November, and next week, on the 26th, I’ll be reviewing Lady First by Lea O’Harra (the pen name of Wendy Jones Nakanishi). It’s the third book in the ‘Inspector Inoue Mystery Series’. I’ve started it already, because I’ve nearly finished Sweet Pea.