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

The Stone Has Rolled

Suprisingly I got through "Like A Rolling Stone" by Greil Marcus as it was a bit like reading Dylan and jumped around timewise, but was almost stream of consciousness like say Dylan's "Tarantula" . Incidentally I started a book called "MiTarantula" based on Dylan's style but it is currently lying in my writing wreckage but maybe I need to revisit and revise and revive it as I now know how to publish a book on th eAmazon Kindle Publishing Platform.

I am still reading "The Touch" by F Paul Wilson on KIndle and that will probably be a week or two before I complete that and then pick up on "SignalZ" the seventh book in "The Adversary" series.

Physically I have picked up on "The Talisman" by Jonathan Aycliffe a master ghost story teller who also frequents the Oxfam shop that I volunteered at for a few months. This is a reread but Aycliffe is one of my favourite authors in both his guises, the other being Daniel Easterman which is generally more polictical / religion based, but I am shocked none of his work has made it to the big screen.

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 Amzing Writer

The Stone Still Rolls

For my reading, I have now picked up "The Touch" by F Paul Wilson roughly the third book in the excellent "Adversary" series of six books but just found a seventh was added last year called "Signalz". I thought I had "The Touch" so to speak but I must have lent it to someone or borrowed it when I first read it. Again F Paul Wilson's writing is excellent although the technology in the books definitely dates them that is definitely no bad thing.

Physically while "Like A Rolling Stone" by Greil Marcus is still difficult going it is also engrossing and the ways it flits all over the place time-wise is disconcerting but entertaining, Lots of references to the film "Masked and Anonymous" in which Bob Dylan effectively plays himself under the name Jack Fate, then there is the story of the Winchester Mansion built by Sarah Winchester widow of firearms magnate William Winchester, which she believed as long as she kept building it, she would never die. She did, but you can find out more about it here.

One other thing that Greil Marcus touched on was Jimi Hendrix's cover of Bob Dylan's  "Like A Rolling Stone" which reminded me it was actually a simple barre chord progression with majors and minors (well it is the way I play it) so if I can remember the words I may try to do a YouTube version of it, just me my voice and electric guitar for six minutes or so,.

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

Becoming Infinite Like A Rolling Stone

I usually post on New Years Day and New Year's Eve but due to my writing being more diverted to Vocal this has become generally a commentary on the books I read. I have just finished  Fiona MacDonald's "Vampires, A Very Peculiar History" and it was thoroughly entertaining, far more engrossing than I expected, and also great fun.

I picked up an ebook from a Vocal friend Soleira Green called "Becoming Infinite" and although short, I loved the format and got a lot out of it, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to expand their vision of the Universe. The link is below.

Paper wise I picked up Greil Marcus' "Like A Rolling Stone" which I am finding difficult. It is written in an almost Dylanesque fashion and jumps back and forth in time and I am not sure what the final destination is, but it is not so bad that I won't finish it, but maybe one for the Charity Shop.

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

And Then There Were Vampires

I've just finished "Switch Bitch" by Roald Dahl and although only 140 pages it was difficult going. Like going back fifty years, full of racism and misogyny and yes some unexpected twists but not a nice read at all.

Then I picked up one I bought from Pandemonium in Whitby by Fiona MacDonald "Vampires, A Very Peculiar History" and I thought it would be something I would dip in and out of, but it is both a fun and interesting read, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Lots of anecdotes and explanations and some great archaic fonts used in my copy.

So music has to be Blue Oyster Cults "Nosferatu", though I am sure there are lots more vampire and bloodsucker based songs.

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

LIGHT and Darkness and The Switch Bitch

After finishing "The House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson with I still found an incredible ride through a cosmic horror in an Irish ruin.

I then picked up "LIGHT and Darkness" by friend Ana Radulescu which is an excellent easy to read contemporary fantasy. It was 160 pages and I went through in three days which is fairly fast for me. If you like fantasy with lots of contemporary hooks you should buy it , link at the bottom.

I also started "Switch Bitch" by Roald Dahl , and while it is sort of clever , it is very much of it's time and consists of four stories and I have only just reached the third one. It is only 140 pages long and plays on the final twist to the story , but actually getting there is an awful pain. This is no "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" but I will finish it and probably never pick it up again though I think I had read it before.

Also this week I published my first book , as a result of checking out how easy it would be to self publish an ebook for my good friend Lesley Leatherdale(who wrote The Owl In The Towel (see below), so we will work to get her new book published when she gets some free time,

All the important links are down below.

I am gonna lead with the Heptones "Book of Rules" because I like it and it is semi appropriate.

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