"Rings of Power" is moving on quite fiercely and I am very impressed with the series. It fits in well with Peter Jackson's vision of "Lord of The Rings" although there are those who still don't like it, but I definitely do.
I also found out that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.
Music is "Power and The Glory" by Horslips from The book Of Invasions.
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:
I have"The Magic Labyrinth" in the "Riverworld" series and although it was a bit of a slog it was a good read, but I am taking a break from "Riverworld" now. Although this was originally a four-book series it does finish on a cliffhanger and there is then "Gods of Riverworld" to follow it up, but that is another day.
I am impressed with "Rings of Power" and have revisited one of my favourite Michel Moorcock series "The Swords of Corum" and am almost finished "The Knight Of The Swords" and finding it remarkably easy to read. It is a wonderful fantasy with love, violence and some incredible imagery, some people describe Moorcock as the greatest fantasy author since Tolkien though there are many who could claim that mantle.
This is the first of six books and I know this will be an easy twelve hundred pages for me to read.
I also found out that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.
Music is "Black Blade" by The Blue Oyster Cult and co-written by Michael Moorcock.
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:
I am two thirds of the way through"The Magic Labyrinth" in the "Riverworld" series and still enjoying it although Riverworld is just becoming a setting for everyday issues in that setting, but I do love the juxtaposition of all the characters from history being set up for a battle between boats on the river. You do learn a lot about historical figures from Farmer's writing.
I also found out that my Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here although now I am saying this it seems to have disappeared, c'est la vie.
Music is "By This River" by Brian Eno
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:
I am almost halfway through "The Magic Labyrinth" in the "Riverworld" series and still enjoying it although Riverworld is just becoming a setting for everyday issues in that setting, but I do love the juxtaposition of all the characters from history being set up for a battle between boats on the river.
I also found out that my Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here although now I am saying this it seems to have disappeared, c'est la vie.
Music is "Que Sera Sera" as used in the series "From" by The Pixies
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:
"The Wind Whales of Ishmael" turned out to be a 130-page interlude into a non-Armageddon end of the world scenario and though only 130 pages long because it was a single unbroken piece it seemed much longer, but still an enjoyable unusual sci-fi follow up to Melville's "Moby Dick"
"The Magic Labyrinth" continues the "Riverworld" series and all the characters are there in this five hundred page first finale to the series (which like many such series just kept spawning more books, so there will be more after this no doubt.
Music is "Underground" from Labyrinth by David Bowie
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:
I have finished "The Dark Design" the third book in the "Riverworld series but before setting out into "The Magic Labyrinth," I thought I would take a detour with another Farmer novel "The Wind Whales of Ishmael".
It is only 130 pages long but has no chapters, just a single piece of text that runs over those pages. Chapters enable you to take a break, and while 130 pages could be read in one sitting I am a slow reader.
The story is a futuristic science fiction sequel to "Moby Dick"
Music is "Nantucket Sleighride" by Mountain
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:
In my last post, I tried a redirect and it seems to do it automatically even when the page is not selected. This is to see if this normal post will stop the auto-redirect on the blog when the last post was at the top. Hope that makes sense.
I am still on "The Dark Design" by Philip Jose Farmer but only have twenty pages to go, This has been the most difficult book in the series because of the length and the expanse of characters and planetary development.
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:
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.
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
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:
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:
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:
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:
