The Best Seller That Almost Was

Back to the book that introduced me to the world of literature…

Have We Had Help?

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I’m currently re-working this massive tome – all one hundred and ninety-seven A4 pages (102,200 plus words) of it. It will take a few months to correct everything my former professional editor (so-called) missed. Wish me luck!

Back in 2010, before I saw the light and became an Indie, my first officially published book Onet’s Tale – a Science Fiction Space Opera, appeared courtesy of a small press based in the USA. At the time I was over the moon that one of my works was finally available via Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback versions. Back then, like a lot of writers new to the game, I seriously thought, “At last, I am finally on my way!”

Sadly the book is no longer available even though it still features on Amazon. Why? Because inevitably the time came when the chief editor who is also the senior partner in…

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The Day Dostoyevsky Discovered the Meaning of Life in a Dream

A drop of culture…

lampmagician

“And it is so simple… You will instantly find how to live.”

via https://www.brainpickings.org/

As I was lucky to be born by a family of “the art lovers”, my father was a professional writer and my mother was a professional book lover and my brother and I have grown up between a heap of books. though honestly saying that my brother who later had become a writer too, was much faster than me to run after the great world famous writers and me, as I was just about twenty months younger than him, began with the children books first 😉 of course, after my father’s death we’ve got much closer to each others and I took him as my teacher in the matter of literature.

Anyway, as I mentioned, there’re books and books all over and last not least, we have bought our own favourite books for the shelves.

One of…

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The Reviews Keep Coming!!!

All the novella needs is for you to buy and review it, as well as telling your friends it’s a MUST READ!!!!

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The Magisters is a science fiction story with a difference. Apart from chronicling the ultimate change of life for a select few individuals, it questions all accepted ideas by closeminded academics that leave no room for alternative thinking by some among their number. It is also about a woman born ten years after the Romans left Britannia forever and a man born in the twentieth century. Add to that everything that is currently environmentally wrong with our planet today, and you have all the necessary ingredients for an enthralling tale. Now read on…

 

The reviews so far…

marjorie mallon

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging Sci Fi novella #highlyrecommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The engaging story makes the reader wonder. What if our ancient monuments were resurrected, what would the outcome be? And what would happen if a modern day man could meet a beautiful woman from a previous time period? This, and many other questions are answered, some with a political/environmental slant.

Certain lines in the novella made me wish we could be the ones wielding an other worldly Science Fiction power over our Politicians! Now, wouldn’t that be great!

I believe this is book one and there is more to come. #highlyrecommended #reading.

Chris Graham

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and unsettling scenario…

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

What if Academics were proven wrong about the purpose of prehistoric structures scattered around Earth?
This short tale depicts how they, plus, world leaders and general humanity, would likely react when the truth is revealed.

R J DOCKETT

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-told tale

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2020

Format: Kindle Edition

The Magisters is a well-told tale; based on a lot of what we think we know about our past. What is the real purpose of a collection of monuments scattered over the globe? Are the things we believe really true?
With Jack’s usual flair he blurs the line where his imagination takes over from the history we have been taught, leading us into what might happen next and why. He addresses important issues in this fast-moving story, the end of which suggests that book two will be forthcoming.
Soon, please.

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Top international reviews

Brian Cla

5.0 out of 5 stars The Magisters.

Reviewed in Canada on 27 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Another fine story from a very accomplished author. Jack has the ability to draw you in from the first page and leaves you wanting more from the last. Well done.

Robbie Cheadle

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick and highly entertaining read

Reviewed in the United States on 28 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a quick and highly entertaining read about a few selected people from throughout history (Magisters) who are chosen by an ancient extra terrestrial to help him maintain certain historical monuments. The alien comes from an advanced race on another planet who have damaged their own home environment and the historical monuments guarded by the Magisters have a historical usage by this alien race that is very different from what modern man believes.

When a new comer, who has the power to restore these ancient monuments to their formal glory through his focused thoughts, finally joins the Magisters it enables their leader to re-establish his communication with his compatriots on his home planet. Using the Magisters collective powers, the leader is able to repair his space ships and travel back to his home planet as well as travelling around the earth world.

There is a bit of a romance slipped in which complements the main story nicely and makes two of the main Magister characters more human and believable.

Naturally, the scientists and politicians on earth notice the dramatic restoration of the seven historical monuments and question how this has occurred. How the leader and the Magisters deal with this curiosity and also with humanities determination to damage their planet home can be discovered by reading this fascinating novella.

JacquiP

5.0 out of 5 stars Gets you thinking

Reviewed in the United States on 12 January 2020

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Jack’s newest novella certainly makes you think – what if the ancient monuments were not quite what we think they are? What if we started questioning the way things are made, or were used for?
With a slight political slant, it makes for interesting fictional commentary on the world as we know it. Really interesting read, and I can’t wait for more!

Oh Dear, What a Wet Season…

A little something from Professor Francis Pryor…

Francis Pryor - In the Long Run

The rain showers kept coming. As my favourite commentator, Brenda from Bristol, would have said: ‘Not another one!’.¹ The rain started more or less the weekend after we opened the garden for the National Gardens Scheme, back in September (note for your diary: in 2020 we’ll open on the weekend of September 20-21). At first the wet was just irritating. It meant, for example, that long grass in the meadow couldn’t be cut until it was a bit too long – which meant in turn that it had to be raked off in places (hard work!). Some areas, such as the orchard, even missed their late autumn cut. But even so, there were compensations. The summer growing season had been warm and wet, which meant that trees grew well and the red stemmed white willows (Salix alba var. Kermesina) laid down vigorous new stems, which glowed a…

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The Triple Curses – Internet Trolls, Cheapskates and Giveaways

More advice…

Have We Had Help?

No matter whether or not you self or traditionally publish, if you offer free eBooks as part of a book’s promotion, inevitably you leave yourself wide open to attack by idiots, and cheapskates who want something for nothing.

Yesterday I read Charles Yallowitz’ eloquent article These are Not Rules of Fantasy where he pointed out the six totally absurd rules that readers of fantasy have dreamt up regarding what they expect to see in any fantasy tale these days.

Further to what Charles said, (click on the highlighted link above) I would like to add another dimension that we are all subjected to. I give you today’s new breed of reader – the cheapskates who cannot bring themselves to actually buy a copy of any book, prefering to wait until it becomes free, and the ill educated moronic internet trolls who hide behind pseudonyms.

As writers we are all…

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A Very Short Moan Concerning Weather

More from our correspondent in Beetley…

beetleypete

Just after 5 pm last night, it started to rain in Beetley. Not torrential, but enough to be heard on the windows and roof. Enough to wet the grass, and the paths around the house. Nothing unusual there, and as we had enjoyed three days with no rain at all, I wasn’t that depressed about it.

Just before dinner, I watched the local news on TV. At the end of that, a lady weather forecaster came on to give the weather news for this part of Britain.
“A cloudy night, with a minimum temperature of 2 C in rural areas. At least it will be dry, with no chance of any rain”.

As you might imagine, it enraged me to watch such a totally inaccurate forecast, when I could still see the rain hitting the windows, and hear it too.

Much later, I went to bed, and checked my Tablet…

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If You Can’t Stand the Heat…

When does a writer become famous? Seldom if ever. So cease and desist from adding the word ‘Author’ to your name. All your telling the world is that you are a nobody masquerading as a wannabe!!!

Have We Had Help?

Over the past four years, the number of fellow writers I have had conversations with via social networks numbers in the hundreds. Most are like me, simply happy that other people read our work. But there are a few who delude themselves into thinking that writing equals fame and fortune. The simple fact is that fame and fortune via writing happens to only a chosen few, whether they are in an establishment publisher’s stable, or are independent i.e. self-published, like yours truly.

In the past seventeen years I have written dozens of short stories, hundreds of articles and posted about all kinds of topics over six hundred times on my blog. I have also written four novels. Am I famous and rich? No. Will I ever be? I seriously doubt it.

One thing I do know for sure is that my readership has slowly but surely grown as evidenced by…

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Speaking to my inner anthropologist

More from our Jim 😉

Jim Webster

Yes I do know it’s New Year’s eve. Even if I wasn’t on social media, I’ve still got access to a perfectly adequate calendar. It has to be confessed that I’ve never made a big deal of the New Year. Having been the one who was up at 5:30am for thirty consecutive New Year’s mornings doesn’t help.

It’s just that today I would walk into town. It was a beautiful afternoon, and there’s a couple of very pleasant walks to get there. Not only that but whilst I was at it I could pay a cheque in to the bank. When I arrived at the bank at just after 2pm it was shut. On the door the sign said that on Tuesdays it would be open to 4:30pm, and a rather hacked off young lady was staring at the sign muttering something under her breath. It turns out she’d gone…

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The Magisters : Jack Eason

Go to your nearest Amazon outlet and buy a copy of Book One of my latest scifi tale…

Books Review

Another one…