Worlds Apart -- the background to the story.

People often ask me where I get the ideas for my stories and I usually say it's my weird, conspiratorial mind playing with the What if? factor of life. 

In the case of Worlds Apart the idea came to me around twenty years ago in the Canary Islands. On our first night at the hotel, whilst I sat at our restaurant table, taking in the sunshine and the view, my wife went off to get her meal from the host of buffet tables at the other end of the crowded room. 

After about ten minutes I looked along through the throng of people and couldn't see her. Another five minutes passed and I stood up from the table, craned my neck again in the direction of the buffet tables - nothing. I sat down and thought ... imagine going to Reception and saying: "I've lost my wife" and the receptionist saying: "But you came to the hotel alone, Mr White".  How would I feel?  Suddenly realising that everything I knew was not as it should be? 

Eventually, my wife re-appeared - plate piled high with all manner of delights and, as she sat, she nodded in the direction of the buffets tables, "Go round the corner they have another room with some delicious sea-food".

I smiled at her and thought I must write that story.    

   

WORLDS APART (Another life) - Released on Amazon Kindle (December 2019).

Ever wondered what having an alter ego would be like? Would he / she be the better you - the worst you? How would you cope if you were thrust into their world? How would you cope with them being in yours?  How would you cope with switching between worlds and picking up  the pieces of both lives after they'd buggered them up? 

Harry Ford wakes from a heart attack to find his wife, Kim, at his bedside – an event that terrifies him as he knows she died nine months before in a car crash that he caused and which haunts him daily. Being told by a doctor that this memory and others are false and have been caused by the heart trauma, Harry finds hard to believe.

At home with a distinctly indifferent Kim he meets décor he doesn’t remember, a father whose friendship and support he doesn’t recognise and, when he returns to work, colleagues who look the same, but aren't. More importantly, he discovers that he is selling his company’s secret military electronics plans to a foreign power, has a mistress living in an expensive apartment that he owns and a girlfriend at his office.

Harry remembers none of this, nor does he understand why everyone calls him, Mac, and continually being told what he does remember doesn’t exist has him searching for the truth. What he finds blows his mind – and has him chasing his tail to stay alive.

---

What a year!

In late December of 2018 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It didn't really come as a surprise as my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) level had been rising steadily - although, not all elevating PSA readings are cancerous. However, when mine reached 20, my GP decided to get me in for biopsies (Christmas eve) and the result confirmed the condition. By then the level was at 23.6 and I was given the option of prostatectomy (surgery) or hormone injections together with radiotherapy (20 sessions over 28 days) - and more injections afterward - possibly for another two years. I chose the latter.

The reason I'm telling you about this is that I was lucky, in that my cancer was diagnosed relatively early on and I had options for treatment. Some guys don't get that. Some guys are told the only route is surgery and knowing people who have taken that route (by choice or by no choice) and knowing that it had its problems - albeit they might be temporary and not affecting everyone - it was one I didn't want to go down. My reason mainly was the 'not affecting everyone' aspect meant it affected some - and I feared it would affect me. In 2015 (you can read it in my previous posts) I was given medication to cure a simply problem and I lost my sense of taste for 3 months (a rare occurrence, apparently). Then after the prostate biopsies in 2018 I was given an antibiotic which caused me to contract tendonitis (another rare occurrence - that laid me low for ten days). So, I reasoned that if incontinence was a possible side-effect of prostatectomy, then I would probably become subject to it. 

Anyway, the three-monthly hormone injections and a course of hormone tablets began very quickly to devoid my body of testosterone because (my consultant told me) it helped prostate cancer to grow. So, gradually my PSA level dropped to around 3. Then, in August, I had the 20 sessions of radiotherapy (painless and non-intrusive) which brought it down again to below 1. 

This ousting of testosterone from my body coupled with the radiotherapy, I was told would not come alone - and it didn't. My oncology nurse advised that I would experience symptoms similar to the female menopause - to which my very supportive and caring wife jested "Now, you'll know how I felt for fifteen years!" In addition to the hot flushes, loss of body hair - (not that I had much of that to begin with) and the mood swings, came loss of strength and a level of fatigue I never dreamt possible. Suddenly, even the most menial of physical tasks made me exhausted and I would fall asleep at the drop of a proverbial hat.  I was told not to beat myself up over it as it was to be expected and when it hit me I was to accept it for what it was - overwhelming tiredness - which, over time, would gradually get better.

So, here we are a year on and I'm back at the gym - not training with the weights that I used to - as I have to work myself back to those, but things are improving and hopefully my PSA reading will stay below 1 for the future. 

All of the above I have written because I would like to see guys over fifty have regular blood tests for prostate cancer. The blood test isn't perfect, but it will give a level and perhaps, more importantly, will show if that level is elevating. Like I said earlier, not all PSA readings that are rising are rising because of cancer - some may just be an enlarging prostate making itself known, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Interestingly, on the news this evening was a piece about an MRI scan test which may more accurately replace the PSA blood test. Somewhat surprisingly, I learned that not everyone who is diagnosed with PC had the usual suspects (difficulty peeing, weak flow, erectile dysfunction etc.) for symptoms. 

All I would say is: "Get it checked, Guys" - especially those of you who may have had (as I did) a father who also suffered prostate cancer.

On a lighter note, despite the tiredness I managed eventually to finish my thriller: Worlds Apart (Another life) and it's on Kindle. My next post will be about it. 

Thanks for listening. 

                      

OMG ...

"Children shouldn't have to worry about spelling ... or grammar - it stifles their young minds. We should just let the essence of their creativity shine through - no matter what."

I was told this 20 years ago by a teacher who felt that corrective red marks on a child's school work was a disincentive and not only inhibited the creative flow, but could bring problems with self -confidence in later life. 

Whether you agree with that philosophy or not, the written word is changing. Text-speak is here among our everyday written language and, like the boundary of the mind, once expanded, will never shrink back. 

So, what's happening in the world of text-speak? 

Words and phrases are now abbreviated to two or three letters (cd -could / wd - would / u -you / pls - please / BTW / OMG / LOL ). Emojis tell us how someone feels. The confusion over there, their and they're - your and you're - it's and its can have us pondering the meanings of posts. The apostrophe is being used for all things plural (MOT's - apple's - snake's). Dates: the 50s, 60s, 70s etc., have become 50's, 60's and 70's. Phrases like "Totes amaze" (totally amazing) -  GR8 M8 (great mate) - have many of us (oldies) stopping to decipher the message on our mobile phone from an eight year old grandchild - to whom phonetic and abbreviated speech is becoming more and more commonplace. 

Is the use of text-speak increasing because our lives are so busy that we must save time anywhere we can? Is it just a lazy use of language? Or, perhaps, a need to fit in with our peers - to be one of the crowd? Or is it that it's become a God-send to the person who finds spelling and grammar difficult to grasp. Does someone who has no particular problem with the English language use text-speak - or soldier on with correctly spelled and grammatically sound posts, complete with commas and full-stops?   

And what happens about legal documents? Will they ever be written in text-speak? Or will there be a cache (possibly 'cash') of lawyers retained for the purpose of composing legal papers at higher and higher fees? I wonder what would happen if the most prolific of text-speak users received his / her house deeds / divorce papers / income tax demand, written in phonetics and emojis? Would he or she feel overjoyed that authority has embraced this modernity - or feel cheated that the documents aren't in the English of the echelon of society which makes the rules?  

Should we allow all aspects of text-speak to creep into full acceptance in everyday written usage? Is little Johnnie's (or Mary's) essay going to be littered with abbreviated words and symbols - something to be deciphered rather than read? Will big John (and Mary's) application to university / job application be full of the same text-speak?  Will it matter? (I suppose if someone decided to associate its use with an assumption that the applicant has come from a particular background and views that as a problem, then it might. Paranoid - moi?)

Could we end up with a number of people unable to read or write anything other than text-speak? Would official forms have to reflect this anomaly?  

Will authors of the future write in two formats? One for those who have grown up with and prefer  text-speak as their reading (and writing) style and one for those who still want to read stories incorporating correct spelling and grammar? 

Was the thinking of that teacher 20 years ago prophetic - or the beginning of the end for the English language as we know it?  I wonder. 

Here's ... Johnny!

Hi Guys,

Well, it's been a while ... 18 months to be exact. But I'm back! (Actually, I didn't go anywhere - just out of the loop in terms of blogging.)

Lots of stuff has been happening since last I posted - a new great-grandchild, a wife who spent time in hospital having her heart re-aligned (cardioversion), thankfully she is better now, me gradually losing my hearing and requiring the on-off assistance of a couple of hearing aids - at least the neighbours don't have to listen to Wheeler Dealers and the News at full blast anymore - and, also me, still busily working on my next thriller - Worlds Apart. I'd tell you what it's about, but I haven't finished the script, so it may change before it hits Kindle and I wouldn't want to lead you up a movable feast of a garden path. 

No real excuse for leaving you chaps in the lurch, I know, but I will start posting again. Promise. 
Coming up - The written word - what will happen to it over the coming years? 





  

THE PARADIGM CULTURE -- Free download 25th, 26th and 27th September 2016

I had always wondered how far people would take revenge or punishment if they were granted the power of retribution. 

We all see reports on the TV and in newspapers which make us angry, sometimes even fighting mad - with people being murdered, mugged, raped, bullied, fleeced of savings by con artists, cowboy builders - the list goes on. But would the meekest of men and women change if bestowed with the power to provide an eye for an eye?  Would they then become like the people they despise? Inflicting pain and torment until they feel better? Until they feel satisfied that their 'target' has learned his or her lesson? Or would they become like King Midas? Would having the power turn them into people unable to look at the news - unable to read or hear anything without fearing that they couldn't control their reaction?

And what if this power escalated - became not just the ability to dish out punishment, but to kill just by thinking about it?  What then? How quickly then would the individual with that power be snapped up by the Government or the Military? Would his life not be his own any more? Would he be too great a risk to be allowed to exist free in society?

The Paradigm Culture is about just such a talent and how one man struggles to deal with it, before it deals with him.     

THE PARADIGM CULTURE - OUT ON KINDLE NOW.  https://goo.gl/AsRVtm

The Paradigm Culture. Now on Kindle.

Hi Guys,

My latest thriller - The Paradigm Culture - Born to Rule (453 pages), is now on Kindle. And, as an added bonus, it's going to be on free download from Sunday 25th September until and including Tuesday 27th September.  Link here: goo.gl/AsRVtm

If you feel like leaving a review on the kindle page, pleased do. You can also sample the first 14 chapters there too. 

The Paradigm Culture takes as its theme that old adage: Be careful what you wish for – which, in the case of Dan Wright, does come true. 

His troubled upbringing has left him believing life is either black or white. He has no faith in the justice system, and no truck with people who break the rules. Being made redundant from a lucrative role at close to 40, and, despite trying, still being out of work six months later, has not only seriously dented his self-esteem, but his marriage to Jayne, who is at her wits end with him and his increasing obsession with rules. She just wants him to get another job – they need the money. Imagine then Dan’s delight at, after a freak accident, suddenly being able to bring criminals to justice, move objects and see through walls just by thinking about it. What talent – what kudos – what power! Except the stuff of his dreams is becoming a nightmare. People he’d been told were there to help him, are not to be trusted, and his abilities are in demand by everyone and they’ll kill to get them – which is why he must break the rules to survive. But, above all this mayhem, is the question of where this power came from and why Dan has it. The answer, could affect the future of our world.