Golf, Dragons and A Howling Wind

As usual, it's been an interesting last couple of weeks since my last post, with book reviews, interviews, the cricket incident, pre-season football and of course, book writing!

So the first news is that my books are now being featured on a new promotional website called "Heibooks".  As well as featuring the cover, blurbs and of course, purchase links, I was also interviewed for the site.  So if you want to have a quick mosey on over, the first part of the interview can be found here.  All you need to d to see the second part is click on the link at the end of the first, as it is split across both "For The Lost Soul" and "Under A Blood Moon".

As for the cricket, ten days ago, the media were baying for Alistair Cook's blood, demanding that he steps down as England captain, and even that he should be dropped completely.  I was so happy to see him make them eat their words after a magnificent 266 run victory in the third test against India, and not only that, Cooky himself hit 95 in the first innings and was 70 not out in the second.

With the fourth test starting this morning, there is still the rumblings over the Jimmy Anderson / Ravindra Jadeja incident from the first test.  The ICC has decided not to appeal over the decision to clear him of the level three charge that had been bought against the England bowler, which should be a relief for him.

Talking of sporting events that start today, it's the final major of the Golf season with the PGA Championship in Valhalla.  Tiger Woods has managed to complete a practice 9 hole round with no pain, which is fantastic news as any major without Tiger is surely devalued.  It's hard to look past Rory McIlroy at the moment as the favourite, but with Sergio Garcia hitting some of the best form of his career, it would be great to see him finally win his first major.  You then have Ricky Fowler prowling around and I would definitely expect him to be there or there abouts as he has finished in the top 5 in all three majors this year.

This tournament is also going to have a major impact on the Ryder Cup teams, as it is only FIFTY days away.  The final qualification is the 31st August so there are only a handful of tournaments left for players to make their way into the team, or hold on to their places.  At the moment, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald are all outside the team and for me, would be the three captain picks, although with Gleneagles playing so long, Luke's lack of power could come under pressure.  With Francesco Molinari, Stephen Gallagher and Miguel Angel Jimenez also outside the placings, there is certainly a lot for captain Paul McGinlay to think about.

As for books, I had the pleasure of reading a new shapeshifter fantasy called Aranya, by South African author Marc Secchia.  Currently priced at £2.44 as an ebook, you can get it on Amazon UK.  Here is my five star review.

‘Aranya’, the first book in the Shapeshifter Dragons series is an imaginative tale, full of battle and heroism, romance and betrayal. Set on a world of Sky Islands, it tells the story of a princess given up as hostage in surrender. Sent to the Sylakian prison tower, she meets Zip, a Remoyan princess who is also a prison hostage. The two forge a friendship that transforms themselves and the world around them.

I found the story to be well written and conceived, with enough twists in the plot to keep you guessing where the author is going with the story. Aranya and Zip are enthralling as main characters and the dialogue between them, which forms a large part of the story, is excellent, witty and intelligent as the author explores how two former enemies can become the best of friends.

Throw in the minor characters who help them along the way, the main villain in the plot who is suitably evil and the romantic interest for Aranya, who is a commander in the Sylakian army but is torn between his duty and his honour.

Overall, I found this difficult to put down, wanting to carry on reading even when I had prior engagements to go to and I will certainly be putting book two on my wish list.

As for my own projects, I finally got finished laying the background work down for the next in the Alex Hayden Chronicles.  So with a lot of nervous excitement, I fired up Word and wrote the words CHAPTER ONE.  Before I knew it, it was three hours later and I was fully involved in the world of vampires, witches and werewolves (yes werewolves feature in this one!!) and "The Howling Wind" is now officially listed as a Work In Progress.  2600 words are already on paper as old friends and characters are re-introduced to the world and of course, there will be the usual twists and turns along the way.

The great news for me is that Debbie, who proofed "Under A Blood Moon" has signed on once again to the project as have Lucy and Dave who did such a great job on the front cover.  With a Christmas deadline, I have certainly put pressure on myself, but if I can have writing sessions like I did yesterday, I will comfortably achieve this.

So, that's all from me for now.  Enjoy the cricket, golf, and if you support a Football League team, hope your team gets off to a great start this weekend.  It's going to be weird for me, as my team have been promoted back to the Premier League after a ten year absence so I need to change my Sky Planner to record Match of the Day rather than the Football League Show.

Patriotic? Support our Armed Forces? Not if you are a member of Solihull Council

Okay then, I hope you all forgive me for this as it is not my normal blog post.  It isn't very often, heck, it rarely happens that I talk about things that affect me or the things that I want to be involved in.  However this has got me really wound up.

Last year, a wonderful lady within a small village called Dickens Heath, on the outskirts of Solihull in the West Midlands, put together a charity night in aid of the charity Help For Heroes.  It was extremely well supported within the village and raised within the region of £5000 on the night.  It was an overwhelming success, and one that I helped in a very small way to support by donating a signed copy of "For The Lost Soul".  A large proportion of the village pulled together and there was a real sense of community spirit.

With the 100th anniversary commemoration of the outbreak of World War One on the 1st of August, that same wonderful lady, Debbie Hobson, wanted to recreate that atmosphere of community spirit and respect for our current and past serving men and women of the armed forces, and so the next Help For Heroes function was arranged.  Poppies were ordered and grown at her home and planters bought.  These were soon arranged around the venue, The Chalice Bar & Restaurant, in the heart of the village.

Tickets, priced at only £10, were being snapped up and with the regular live band, "New York Minute" booked, everyone was looking forward to a chilled night of entertainment, socialising and of course, fundraising for Help For Heroes.  Raffle prizes were coming in thick and fast, myself included of course, and the whole of the village was expecting a fun filled night that would honour those men and women who have served our country so proudly.

OR SO WE THOUGHT

As it turns out, a local resident, one single person, put a complaint into Solihull Council saying that it would be too noisy and that it would ruin their evening's entertainment.  Apparantly, the council, in their wisdom as only councils can do, agreed and allegedly have threatened the landlord of the bar and restaurant with losing his license if the event goes ahead and someone complains.  This is a local business that has been running for over seven years in the village.  A business that supports local charities, such as the Maddie Fighting Fund, which raises money for a young girl suffering from leukemia, who lives within the village.  A business that is a focal point for the community of the village.
At every charity event, party, heck even a normal night, the owner ALWAYS insists that no-one is allowed outside the bar with a drink after 10.30pm.  Music is always turned down before then.  Even though they have a license to run until 2AM, they always ask the customers to respect their neighbours when leaving the premises.

YET Solihull Council has decided that the event is going to be too upsetting for that one resident to endure and so they have killed it off before it starts.  There was no consultation with the residents of the village.  No consultation with the owner.  No consultation with the local Parish council.  Someone sat in their ivory tower, with no knowledge of what the majority of the village residents want, has made a decision which has caused the organisers to cancel the charity function.  After all, if someone has complained BEFORE the event has actually happened, do we really think that small, petty minded individual will not be on the phone as soon as the evening starts?

Our brave soldiers who fought for freedom from oppression, those very people who the charity night was there to remember and commemorate, must be turning in their graves.

Solihull Council... you need to have a long, hard look at yourselves and decide if you are the type of person that your mother would be proud of.

Rory is the main story in a weekend dominated by Unlimited news.

Well, what a weekend of golf it has been at The Open Championship and once again, Rory McIlroy has rediscovered the form that lifted him to number one in the world and he picked up his third major of his career.  What is more impressive is that he has now won three different majors and is on the verge of becoming one of the few players in history to do the clean sweep.

You do have to give a lot of credit to the chasing pack though as well.  Although Rory never had a lead of less than two on the final day, Sergio Garcia and an ever improving Ricky Fowler certainly made sure that Rory couldn't relax.  Talking of the Californian, that is now three top five finishes in the three majors in 2014 and surely it is only a matter of time before he picks up a win.  His interview on the BBC afterwards was one of respect and intelligence and he certainly has made a lot of friends in the UK this week.

Roll on the PGA in a couple of weeks, and of course, The Ryder Cup at the end of September.

The big story that is going to rock the world of reading is the announcement by Amazon of their new subscription service called Kindle Unlimited.  At the moment, it is only in trial in the US but it certainly looks like the more active readers amongst us will get great value for money.  Priced at $9.99, it allows the customer to download upto 10 books at any one time.  Once read, you can return the book and download another.  You can do this as often as you want, hence the Unlimited nature of the name.
I believe that this can only be a good thing for us aspiring authors as it should encourage readers to take more risks on the unknown names, trying their books "for free" which may lead to full sales rather than the hire of the books under the subscription.

As for me?  I have been receiving some nice reviews for my latest book, Under A Blood Moon, including one where a reader from the USA stating that she has fallen in love with my new teenage vampire, Alex.  I have also just been interviewed this afternoon by Heibooks, a new website that helps advertise books.  I've been told that it should go up in the next week or so.  I have also started work on my next project, which is book two in The Alex Hayden Chronicles.  I've been hard at work, re-reading Blood Moon so that everything is fresh in my mind again, and with the general plotline and ongoing series plots laid out, I am just about in a place where I will start putting the proverbial pen to paper and start writing "The Howling Wind".  I know that Lucy, my cover designer, has already started putting together ideas for the front cover so it's all exciting once again.

I have also been hard at work with reading and reviewing other books and here is one for you to have a look at.

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick fire fun action

By Michael Andrews

Format:Kindle Edition

This short story is a quick paced action book based around the Hartman siblings, who's company run the online game Dragonfire. This is a game where you transpose your human self inside the game, but while there are safety measures in place to protect you, things can go wrong.

It is an intriguing read as the author meshes in the idea of the game, the differing characters of the "real" world with the computer world and in my opinion, would work well if he ever decided to turn it into a full length novel.

If you want to pick it up, it's priced at just 99c or 77p and you can do it here for the US and here for the UK

In other news, it was with sadness that I have just heard that James Garner has died at the age of 86.  Famous for his roles in Maverick and the Rockford Files, as well as appearing in The Great Escape.  He will be missed.

Well, that's my lot for this week.  Hope you have all had a good weekend.  Peace!

"Pulled" into a Flawed universe

Well it's been a busy week or so since my last post, with new books being read, adverts being accepted and World Cup matches to watch.

 

Firstly my stuff.  "Under A Blood Moon" is now officially up and running with sales coming in from Europe and the UK.  Still waiting for that first US sale, but with it now up on Goodreads as well, who knows?  Received my first copies in paperback which is always a cool feeling.  I've also been accepted for an email shot by eBookSoda which goes out on the 12th July so hopefully that will help push things along.

 

I've started laying the groundwork to book two of the Alex Hayden Chronicles, which is called "The Howling Wind".  No prizes for guessing what paranormal creature is going to make an appearance in this one haha!  I've set myself a tough deadline though, having announced in the first book that "Howling Wind" will be released in time for Christmas this year.  It took me around eight months to write "Blood Moon" so with only five months realistically for "Howling Wind", I am going to have to make sure that I am not distracted as I have been by other projects.

 

Talking of other projects, I received an advanced copy of a short story by Becca J Campbell called "Pulled".  This is a short story from her "Flawed" universe, something that I had not been aware of before receiving the book but one that has now tweaked my interest.  This is my review that I have left on Amazon for Becca's book.

 

“Pulled” is an interesting short read that introduces the reader to the “Flawed” universe.  I have assumed this is written as a prequel to a future story, “Pulled” introduces the eight year old Juniper, a girl with the ability to be physically transported to the location of other ‘Uniques’, other people with special abilities.

The story is fast flowing, which at twenty eight pages it needs to be, but you are drawn into the plight of the young girl who has been in and out of foster homes due to her ability.  It was an enjoyable short read and is billed as a standalone story so you do not need to have read any of the other “Flawed” stories, which I have not…yet.

A nice introduction to the author’s other books which I will now be taking an interest in.

 

If you are interested in taking a look, here is a link to the UK site.  Pulled by Becca J Campbell

 

I have also recently read another short sci fi book called Rescue One: Breaking Point by a New Zealand author called Michael Gardner.  This is a prequel to his new book which I picked up through seeing it on Goodreads.  Again, here is my review.

 

Roll on the first book proper!!
I bought this book as I had seen it on Goodreads and I liked the front cover, it grabbed me straight away and as a fan of sci-fi, I thought, heck why not!!
I read another review comparing it to the Star Trek universe and I can see where he was coming from in that this is the Star Trek First Contact to the next set of films.
This prequel sets the background to how humanity discover faster than light space flight and the main protagonist is someone that you want to like, while wanting to dislike as well. Going back to the Star Trek similarity, he is the James Cromwell!
All being said, it is a short story that has grabbed me and is making me wait for the first book in the series, as I am sure that I will be hooked.

 Again, here is the link for it if you want to check it out on Amazon.  Rescue One:Breaking Point 

 

 

And finally, England decided to cut short their summer vacation in Brazil, a nearly pointless exercise, and with two of the four quarter finals completed, I think Germany are now looking strong favourites to win it.  With Neymar now out of the tournament, I think that the Germans will be too strong for the hosts.  On the domestic front, Leicester are signing their players to longer term contracts, which is great news.  Only Lloyd Dyer has left the club but should easily be replaced with the signing of Aston Villa winger Marc Albrighton.  How and why the Villa let him go I've no idea!  Just need to add a little bit of quality to the squad and I am sure that we will survive next season, which is all that matters after a ten year absence.

 

Peace!

New release!!! Under A Blood Moon and a little bit of Flash!

Hi everyone

 

so my biggie news is that my latest book, "Under A Blood Moon" is now out there for you to have a look at on both Kindle and paperback, through Amazon.  I have already had a couple of nice reviews for it and it is my latest project exploring the paranormal world of vampires, witches and warlocks.

 

Here's the cover, which I have to thank Lucy for designing and of course, my wonderful proof reader Debbie for her work on finding all my errors.

 

 

Under A Blood Moon

 

When Detective Harry Shepherd stops a young teenager throwing himself from the end of Blackpool pier, he has little idea that the world around him would change forever. As the boy scampers away, he vows to discover why the lad was so willing to die.

However, Alex Hayden is no ordinary teenager, but one with an insight into the multiple murders that are occurring within the town. Sensing a loss within the soul of Detective Shepherd, he becomes embroiled in the search to stop the killer at the risk of exposing his own secret.

As the worlds of mortals and the paranormal collide, Alex and Harry battle to stop the vampire pack from achieving their goal of forming an army that would rip apart the fragile balance between the two worlds.

Under A Blood Moon is the first book in the Alex Hayden Chronicles.

 

 

So it has been an exciting couple of weeks for me with the release of my book, and I have been doing the social network thing, with an interview on Rosie's blog to come soon.

Of course I have been looking at other things as well, and one thing that I have found is some of the groups on Goodreads do flash fiction threads.  Having seen one of the pictures, I looked at it long and hard and despite it supposed to being a romantic thread, I wrote this little piece of flash fiction.

 

I hope you like it as much as my friends on Facebook.

 

 

Missing You by Michael Andrews

 

I’m sat here with my besties less one, not quite believing, not quite understanding that you are gone.  You were the best of us, the smartest, the cutest, the most loving.  Is that why they turned on you, on us?  Is that why they made your life, our life, hell?

We tried to stop it, the sneers, the names, the punches and kicks, but in the end it must have been too much for you to bear.

Now you’re gone and the world has lost a beautiful person, and we are left here, sitting, wishing you were still with us.

Other than my own stuff, I've been reading other books as well and here is my review of the latest one that I have read.  I thoroughly recommend this if you like a different genre to the norm.  I had never heard of Clockpunk but boy, this has me into a whole new genre of fiction.

 

 

Forever Boy

 

More please! May 23, 2014

By Michael Andrews

Format:Kindle Edition

I received a free copy of Forever Boy in exchange for an honest, non-reciprocal review and boy, was I pleased that I did.

I’ll admit that I had never heard of Clockpunk, or Steampunk, before reading this story but now that I have, it has opened up a whole new genre of reading for me to look forward to.

The story in itself was well written and constructed with likeable characters and a fast flowing plot, but for me it finished just as it really should have gotten going. I am hoping that this is the first book in an ongoing series as I could see this one as the ‘pilot’ episode introducing you to the characters where episodes two onwards gets to the meat of adventures.

Overall an enjoyable read and I will be keeping my eye out for a hopefully second release in the series.

 

 

Well, other than the news that Nigel Pearson has signed a new three year contract at the mighty Premiership Foxes, I am gonna sign off!!

 

Peace!

 

Oh wow....I didn't realise I'd left it thing long!

Sorry everyone...I knew that it had been a while but November???  Jeez...sorry peeps.

 

So what's been happening?  Well, I have been a busy bunny on Goodreads, finding new authors to read and review their books.  I have found a couple of absolute crackers.

 

 

The Proposition by Vardan Paramyan - 5 stars out of 5

 

This is an enthralling, sardonically funny tale of man versus the Devil as a down and out, long term liar is given the chance to be granted a wish by the Devil. All he has to do is race him to the habour, some five miles or so away and he wins. If he loses, the Devil gets his eternal soul. As Louis ventures through his nine levels of personal hell, the constant monologue of description of his feelings and thoughts are at times laugh out loud material. In fact, I was attracting some very strange looks on the bus as I sat reading my kindle.

At 47 pages of Kindle viewing, it is a story that you will find yourself unable to put down and easily readable in one sitting, which is what I did.

Thoroughly recommendable to all readers who like the supernatural with a twist that caught me unawares, I will definitely be looking into other books that this author has written.

After that, I moved on to a longer length novel...and boy did I???  At over a quarter of a million words, Deneb by Pearson Moore which was a challenging read, but one that I gave four stars out of five.

 

 

 

I always worry when an author proclaims his own work as an epic and so approached Deneb with cautious anticipation. However, my fears were allayed within the first few chapters as I discovered the wealth of interesting and differing characters mixed into a complex plot that certainly pushes itself into that category.

From the moment that flight Pacific 159 is hit by a blinding flash of light, you are thrown into a story of how the passengers try to survive not only the weird new environment that they find themselves in, but also the mysterious appearance of an 18th Century French navy ship as well as the native inhabitants who believe in an ancient prophecy that the passengers seem to be fulfilling.

The story does involve some violence and sex but the fact that it is over a quarter of a million words long will probably take it out of the range of any younger readers who may be offended. However, I feel that this is important to the story and it would certainly be less without it. I would liken my reading of this book to that of The Lord of the Rings, in that it is now a book that I can say that I am pleased to have read it.

There are two versions of the book, the “normal” version which includes maps and sketches in a style similar to Matthew Reilly’s Scarecrow and Jack West series of books, as well as an “illustrated” version which includes the author’s impressions of the characters and places.

 

So after completing some reading, I got back to writing and in my next blog, which I promise not to be too long, I'll tell you about my new release as well as a little piece of flash fiction that I have written.

 

As for other things, the World Cup is upon us, but for my lot, it's already over.  England have to do something against Costa Rica tomorrow otherwise this team will have our worst ever results in Finals history.  I've just heard the team and it is basically giving everybody who hasn't played yet a taste of the action.  Hopefully they will be hungry to prove themselves and not leave us with the dreaded NIL points!

 

So, with a promise to you that I will be back to regular posts, I'll sign off and wish you all a goodnight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Empty Chair now released on Kindle

It's been a busy few weeks for me, so firstly apologies for not blogging!

The big news from the World of Michael Andrews is that my anti bullying poetry book "The Empty Chair" is now up and running and available on Kindle (and other smart devices via the free Kindle app).  It contains seventeen poems, all based on bullying and the effects that it has, not just on the victims themselves, but friends and family as well.  There are also weblinks to my chosen charity Beatbullying.org and some concerning statistics from various studies into bullying in the UK.

Did you know that on average TWENTY schoolage children in the UK kill themselves each year because of the effects of bullying.

However, there is help out there and in the UK, anyone concerned can go to www.beatbullying.org and find a lot of advice, adult counsellors and even mentors of schoolage children who have had training to help other children their age.

If you think it's a worthwhile cause, and want to help in a roundabout fashion, for each copy of "The Empty Chair" that is sold, I am donating royalties towards the charity.  So if you want to grab a copy, please click on https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00G4TA2SG for your copy in the UK, or http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G4TA2SG in the US.

Talking of the USA, I need to give a big shout out to Alisha, who has invited me to guest on her internet radio show, Bully Survival Radio.  It's very short notice but it is TODAY at 6pm GMT and I will be reading some of the poems from my book, as well as talking about it, the inspiration behind it and bullying in general.  You can find the link to it on my facebook page which is here...Michael Andrews Facebook

And as I am in a generous mood, as a teaser and a sign of goodwill to all and sundry, here is one of my poems from the book.  So if you do like it, please help me support the charity by grabbing a copy and leaving a nice review if you do enjoy it.

Thanks!

Stand Up To The Bullies

 

Sometimes you don’t know what to do.

The so called cool kids pick on him,

And you think you should step in

Not knowing if they’ll start on you.

Do you stand up and see it through?

 

Up to now he’s been alone.

Plant a foot forward, be like stone.

 

To support the kid who gets so hurt ,

Over how the thugs treat him like dirt.

 

The things they do and things they say,

He barely makes it through the day,

Even though he says he’s okay.

 

But you know he not and so you’ll stand

Under pressure but you’ll take his hand.

Like all bullies, they won’t like it

Like all bullies, they’ll hide from you

If you show the needed grit.

Each one of us must take a vow to

Stand up to the bullies.