The Design Is Still Dark

I am still on "The Dark Design" is Book III in the Riverworld Series by Philip Jose Farmer,, it is 450 pages and I have just passed three hundred but as you know I am a very slow reader. There are airships , reiverboats and a lot more to keep you spellbound and occupied.

So musically because Mark Twain is involved going to choose "Tom Sawyer" by Rush.

Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year in the UK and my phone is showing 24 degrees Centigrade which I think is 80 degrees Fahrenheit if my calculations are correct, but this is not Texas.

I am using my Amazon Kindle to play Backgammon when  I want to waste some time and after enjoying Wordle my friends Dharrsheena recommended I tried Weaver which I also find entertaining, from a concept by Lewis Carrol and you can play it here.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

A Dark Design and more Riverboats

I have finally finished "The Fabulous Riverboat" by Philip Jose Farmer, and thoroughly enjoyed the 250 pages (I am a slow reader) , and this ends with King John streaming Mark Twain / Sam Clemens riverboat, the "Not For Hire" which King John intends to rename.

"The Dark Design" is book III in the Riverworld series and was originally meant to be the conclusion of this part of the story, however at 400K words, Farmer and his publishers decided that was too much for a single volume, so they split it.

It still clocks in at 450 pages so I am going to be on this for a while, but that isn't a problem, as you meet so many historical characters in these books from most of "civilised" history.

Sam is going to build another riverboat and that made me think of the scene in "Fitzcarraldo"  where they really pulled a riverboat over a steep hill in the jungle.

Below is the Wikipedia entry:

Fitzcarraldo  epic adventure-drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski as the title character.

It portrays would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is determined to transport a steamship over a steep hill to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon Basin. The film is derived from the historic events of Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald and his real-life feat of transporting a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.

The film had a troubled production, and the documentary Burden of Dreams chronicled the film's hardships. Herzog had his crew attempt to manually haul the 320-ton steamship up a steep hill, leading to three injuries. The film's original star Jason Robards became sick halfway through filming, so Herzog hired Kinski, with whom he had previously clashed violently during production of Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre and Woyzeck. Their fourth partnership fared no better. When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe who were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him. Herzog declined.

Today's Music Choice -  Wild River by The Golden Palominos

You can read about the album, "A Dead Horse" Here.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Aboard The Fabulous Riverboat

I have finished the first "Riverworld" book  "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" and started "The Fabulous Riverboat". Grammarly and this blogger are totally useless. I cannot just select a font or size or whatever and if I make a mistake and Grammarly catches it puts the corrected word at a random place in the text, so I have to do everything manually,

"The Concept of "The Fabulous Riverboat is Sam Clemons (Mark Twain) with the aid of Lothar Von Richthofen and some Vikings. Sir Richard Burton (the adventurer not the actor) from the first book has just turned up.

Clemons has a problem as King John wants the Riverboat as well and is less than trustworthy.

I am forty percent through this book and will keep you posted on how it goes.

Today's Music Choice - River - Bishop Briggs

I had never heard of Bishop Briggs until I wrote this piece but her song "River"

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Decagon Key

After my operation and stay in hospital I haven't been writing much, so this is just an update on my current reading.

On paper, I am revisiting the first "Riverworld" book by Philip Jose Farmer  "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", which, though it was written in the sixties touches on so much that that is relevant today with religion, resurrection, racism , anti Semitism , and the history of the world in general. I wrote a high level piece on the series here if you want to investigate further, but halfway through this first book, it has me hooked once more.

Digitally I am reading "The Decagon Key" a book of short stories co=authored by my Vocal friend SJ Covey. All the stories so far have featured some kind of key and I will be leaving a review on Amazon when  I have finished, but I am a fairly slow reader, and at the moment, a slow writer, but you can get yourself a copy or sample it via the link below. So far I am really enjoying it.

Today's Music Choice - River of Dreams - Billy Joel

As with my Vocal piece I will share this wonderful Billy Joel song with you.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

The Creation is Finished, Women's History Month and The Situation in The Ukraine

I only did one post on here in February and we are six days into March already.  I have finished "The Day of Creation" by JG Ballard and it was more difficult than I expected, being a revisit, but still drew me in completely. Not everyone's cup of petrol but an absorbing read for me.

So I need something a little easier for my next read, so I am going to go back to "Riverworld" by Philip Jose Farmer starting with "To Your Scattered Bodies go and you can read more about it by me here.

March is Women's History Month and I think I shall have to write something about some of the incredible women, marginalise by the patriarchy, without whom the world would not be as incredible as it is.

On another note I wonder if Vladimir Putin thought that Ukraine was going to be as simple a pushover as the USA and UK. He installed is puppets in the USA and UK but the USA saw sense and much to the annoyance of the idiot part of their electorate, got rid of Putin's Puppet, while the UK still has his puppet at the help, and if Putin is kicked out Johnson will welcome him with a red carpet and a Lordship.

Today's Music Choice - Batyar (Bigmouth Strikes Again) by The Ukrainians

I just remembered that The Wedding Present morphed into The Ukrainians to cover Smiths songs in a Ukrainian folk style , so "Batyar (Bigmouth Strikes Again)" is a perfect musical response to Putin

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

The Day Of Creation

Jonathan Aycliffe - The Talisman and The Matrix

I have finished "The Talisman" by Jonathan Aycliffe and I now rate it along with "The Matrix" by the same author as one of the most unnerving and frightening books I have read. Both end on cliffhangers, the main characters who have survived are still alive ..... for now. I think a lot of my fiction is heavily influenced by this construct. Jonathan Aycliffe is an amazing writer.

JG Ballard - The Day of Creation

This is the first time in 2500 blog posts that I have used headings, I don't know if that will pick up any more reads but we shall see. I am now revisiting "The Day of Creation" by JG Ballard. As expected this starts out fairly normally with a doctor in Africa trying to discover underground water sources to stave off the encroaching desert, while being attacked by guerrillas, abused by failed TV presenters and policemen with political ambitions, but I know something will happen out of this.

Today's Music Choice - Painter Man by The Creation

For obvious reasons, just amazed that the CD, which is part of my collection is going for £75 on Amazon but the MP3 download is far moree reasonable.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

The Talisman

I am halfway through "The Talisman"  by Jonathan Aycliffe and I thought it wasn't one of his best but I am coming to think it may be close to "The Matrix"  one of his most frightening novels.

It is almost a drip, drip, drip of a slowly tightening screw of supernatural threat and horror.

Lots of unexplained deaths that point to a pre-Babylonian statue which may be of the Devil, a "Rosemary's Baby scenario, and a lot more.

Innocents are targets and with a blind wife in an old house, the possibility of malevolent ghosts I am enjoying this excellent tome.

I have just noticed a book of his that I was unaware of "The Silence of Ghosts" which I will have to get a copy of as he has not written a book that I didn't enjoy reading.

For some reason, Kate Bush's "Hammer Horror" comes to mind although that is far lighter in mood than this extremely scary book.,

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - My Directory
2. The Never Ending Music - My Music Directory
3. The Never Ending Poetry - My Poetry Directory
4. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
5. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
6. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
7. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer