Lack of landscape mode leaves premium ereader fatally flawed

I recently had the good fortune to win a free Kobo Aura One ereader. How that happened is a longish story – but it involved nominating my favourite website for authors for an event connected to  the Frankfurt book fair. My nomination won, so Kobo kindly sent me the Aura One, preloaded with free books. All very kind of them, and I didn’t even expect a prize or award.

I was, however, excited when it arrived, even though I already have a Kindle Paperwhite which I use for reading fiction, and an iPad Air for non-fiction. The Aura One promised something in between the two – with a bright, attractive and large screen and the ability to work with a much wider range of ebook formats than the Kindle. The Kobo device can display Kindle files (mobi etc) as well as epubs, PDFs and a range of text and comic book formats.

However, my experience with the Aura One didn’t start well. [continue reading…]

My latest novel, ‘Blood Read (Publish And Be Dead)’ launches on 15th November and is available already for pre-sale on Amazon.

The paperback version will also be available from 15th Nov, and it will be on iTunes, Barnes and Noble etc etc very shortly afterwards.

‘Blood Read’ is crime thriller / murder mystery featuring a left-wing investigative reporter, Tom Capgras, with a dodgy past and a prison record for handling stolen state secrets. He doesn’t get on with the police much, which is hampers both his day-job as a crime reporter and his investigation into the string of suspicious deaths across the London book world.

It is the first novel in the series ‘The Capgras Conspiracy’ – with the second book, ‘Cold Monsters’ currently nearing completion. It’s scheduled for release in early 2017.

You can order your copy of ‘Blood Read’ today, and it will be delivered as soon as the book goes live.

Cool.

Okay, don’t panic, there’s no fire. There hasn’t been a fire. Nothing changes. But there is a sale on.

A whole bunch of my books are on sale on Amazon for 99c / 99p for the ebook versions. Sorry, I would do something similar for the paperbacks but most of the costs cover printing and production and all of that is out of my hands.

But if you’re a fan of Kindle books, go here for a bargain. But don’t forget to leave a review.

‘The Dry Lands’, the first book in my prehistoric fiction series, has been reduced in price on Amazon to 99cents / £0.99p for a limited time only (and ebook only). If you don’t see the reduced price today (Oct 9th, 2016), then wait a few hours. Price changes can take up to half a day to shuffle through the system.

Buy the book here, and immerse yourself in a tale of love, betrayal, war and survival – set against a background of tribal conflict and a changing climate.

Faced with an environmental crisis of your own making, do you fight over dwindling resources or share technology, exchange ideas? Their choices will shape our world.

The internet loves lists. Here’s one of mine – these are the authory type things I’m working on at the moment:

• Preparing to launch Blood Read (Publish And Be Dead) – book one of The Capgras Conspiracy. 
• Editing Cold Monsters – book two of The Capgras Conspiracy. This is a copy edit stage.
• Planning a novella as a prequel to Blood Read – intended to be a giveaway to entice readers into the series
• Planning a stand-alone sci-fi thriller called The Man From Somewhere
• Mulling over the story of a sci-fi / fantasy series which starts with the end of world, and which features the most evil being in the entire multiverse
• Considering a prequel novella for the Koriba series

Blood Read is set to launch this month. A date will be set in stone any day now. If you want a free review copy, get in touch.

My latest novel, Blood Read (Publish And Be Dead) is a crime thriller with a twist of satire and a high body count. It features a serial killer who is bumping off the leading lights of the London book world one by one: editors, agents, reviewers, book bloggers…

It also features a hardened investigative reporter with a chequered past and a habit of getting into trouble with the police, with women and with the world in general.

Now you, lucky reader, can claim a free copy (ebook only). All you have to do is contact me or leave a comment, and it’s on its way. All I ask in return is that you read it soon, within the next couple of weeks, and leave a review ideally on Amazon or Goodreads, or both, or whichever is you favourite bookstore. And on your own blog too, if you post reviews. If you don’t want to review the book, then it goes on sale soon at all good outlets. News on the date is imminent.

We do not exist in isolation. We exist only in relation to other people, society, the world, the environment, to ideas and culture and things. We can’t understand ourselves in isolation. We must be able to observe ourselves in relationship to all these other things. Because all of our beliefs and behaviours and action are conditioned by the world around us, by other people, by nationality and culture, rules and ideas and social systems. We are machines, automatons, doing what the world has programmed us to do.

We need to be clear about this. We need to see it clearly at work from moment to moment. Only when we see this will we understand ourselves.

We are not looking to compile a report, however, full of historical incidents and examples. It is not about accumulating knowledge, which we then have to cart with us as so much baggage, referring to it rather than seeing clearly in each moment. We must not be burdened by the past. When we learn about ourselves, we do so afresh in every moment. It is a living process, ever changing, always alive and moving.

This is essential because we are also ever changing. We are not static. We are always alive and changing and so our observing selves must be free to follow, and fleet of foot into the bargain.

This means bringing no judgements or ideas or preconceptions along for the ride. We all carry around an image of ourselves and it’s that that we see most of the time – not our true selves but our self image. This prevents us from seeing our true selves.

To get around this, we need to learn to look out ourselves with simplicity. This means not making excuses for what we see, or allowances, or distorting the picture, or turning away if we don’t like what we discover. Instead, whatever we find, we should not judge but merely observe, with innocence and humility.

We have an instinctive need to search for meaning. This has been true throughout human history, and it has helped to lead us towards both wisdom and folly. We want to know what life is all about – beyond the surface, why does it feel so strange? Is it a game? Is it deadly serious? Does it matter what we do, or think, or say? Was this life made for a reason? Was it made at all, and if so, by whom and why? Or is it all a big accident? A coincidence? Something that is happening but without a plan, or a planner, or a reason, or a destination?

Many people offer answers to such questions. Faiths and religions in particular. We want someone to tell us what to believe and how to behave, what is right and what is wrong, what is acceptable and what must never be done. But there’s a problem with this approach – taking answers from others. It comes from outside of ourselves and ends up leaving us hollow inside. We become second-hand human beings, with our beliefs and actions all hand-me-downs from someone else. Everything about us has been influenced by society and by the thoughts and teachings of other people.

What have we found for ourselves? If we think life has meaning, surely we must find it ourselves in our own life. I’m suggesting we cast off all tyranny of belief and thought and refuse to follow someone else. We should each stand alone – even if that means we are no longer respectable to mainstream society.

But in casting off the hand-me-down beliefs, we must not define ourselves by this rebellion. There’s a trap lurking there, ready to catch us and hold us. We end up always fighting against the other thing, when we should be putting it aside, and looking at what is new, or what is real, or what is here and now.

The search for meaning in one’s life must begin with oneself. With self knowledge.
But we must also look at the world as a whole. It’s in a mess, always has been, full of war and hate, greed and fear. There are good thing too, of course there are. But why so much narrow-minded bigotry and dislike of others? Why is there so much crime, so much bullying, so much killing of each other and of innocent animals? Why do we harm the world on which we live and even threaten the environment in which we live? It’s insane, but it can’t be stopped. One can one person do?

That one person can recognise the truth of their own life: the anger, the brutality, the uncaring attitudes. Fix those, and see what might happen.

We must take a long hard look at ourselves – but not through the filters or lenses of religion or faith or spiritual leaders or even science and academic theories. You must see that there is only you – the only thing for which you can be responsible. The only thing you can change. And you must do it, alone, with no guide or guru or teacher.

The revolution which the world needs must take place inside yourself. The revolution, however, needs no ideology. What it needs is facts. It must be based on the minute by minute, second by second reality of what is really happening in your life and inside yourself.

Can you change? Do you want to? Or will you insist it isn’t necessary? Or possible.

How can it be done, you may ask. I have no answer for you. Any answer I give would be useless to you. You must find your own. No gurus, remember. No method. No teaching.

If I hand you a truth, it is a second-hand truth. If I give you rules to live by, they are hand-me-down rules.

Accepting the authority of another breeds laziness and blind obedience.

All authority is false. Reject it. Throw off the burden and walk lightly. Be free.

Ah… but now that we have rejected outward authority, are we truly free? Or are we still subject to our own inner ‘authority’ with all of its prejudices and preconceptions? That authority has been built up over the years of your life based on thoughts and events and things you’ve been told or read or researched.

Put it all aside. It’s gone. That is the dead authority of things that are rotting and giving off a bad smell. Be aware of what is happening, what is fresh and new and real. Observe. Investigate. Do not censor what you find.

This is the beginning of a wonderful journey, but you must travel light. Bring no prejudice or preconceived conclusions. Don’t set out on the journey expecting to find proof or any particular faith or belief system. And bring no fixed ideas about yourself or your place in the world and what you are really like. Start afresh and see with innocent eyes. Who are you today, here, now? What is happening in this moment, both around and within? Begin today, and see where the journey goes.