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Please Excuse me

Do I have a excuse for the lack of blogs over the past months. I could lie and say that having paddled out to sea in a leaky canoe; intent on circumnavigating the local pier, I was suddenly swept away by a tempest to a small Caribbean Island that was inhabited by a mad religious sect of nudists.

Unhappy at being invaded by someone in shorts and T-shirt, they stripped me naked, tied me to a raft, made from coconut shells, then pushed me back out to sea with no provisions.

Six months later, having survived on seagull droppings and rain water, I finally beached on another Caribbean Island where the super rich laze around on their luxury yachts.

Unhappy at being invaded by a naked commoner I was given a pink wetsuit to wear, then frogmarched onto a cargo plane that took off the second I’d been handcuffed to a crate full of bottles of rum.

Eventually I was thrown out drunk as a skunk but, thankfully with a parachute on, to splash down where my adventure fist began. Home at last.

The truth is, despite entering writing competitions and putting a book of short stories together [still in progress] I had lost momentum and the discipline to keep up with all aspects of my writing. So, in short I’ve been somewhat lost at sea, but at least I kept my head above water.

Update on The Birching

We have updated by putting on the cover and the first chapter for reading. However, as usual it didn’t go quite to plan but is still perfectly readable.

Here is a description: The trafficking of children in Victorian London is paramount to a story that is as brutal as it is sad, as miserable as it is joyous, as grotesque as it is beautiful.

It is a tale of revenge and redemption. Two dogged Scotland Yard Detectives hunting for the killer of an upmarket prostitute are side tracked to also hunt down twin brothers William and Robert Boyle.

Having returned to London after a five year absence the twins are determined to track down and violently punish anyone who crossed their paths when they were children. Top of their list are all those who trafficked them along with two policemen who birched them. It is not only the detectives who are hunting the Boyles, so is Joe Straw, a notorious private detective who will go to any lengths to protect his upper-class paymasters. Straw is a s ruthless as his prey.

This is a tale of the social injustices of the times, where the poor are there to be used, abused, and thrown away by a callous establishment interested only in covering up its perverted secret twilight world.

Follow the detectives as they pursue all manner of bizarre inquiries in their quest to not only catch the twins but to also expose the pimps, madams, and their vile clientele to the full force of the law.

Mixed with light and often very dark humor this tale will grip you by the lapels and drag you through the slums, upmarket brothels, and the Streets of London. A wealth of characters is packed into an easy-to-read full-length novel that will enthrall you, horrify you, amuse you, and if you have a kind heart it may break it.

FBA 4 The Birching.

The eBook and print book will finally be on sale from 7th December 2022.

The book is longer than previous books and as a consequence the print book is dearer than I had hoped it would be. Charges for everything has gone up, and as self publishing equals dearer books because you don’t tend to sell enough to get them published cheaply, either through ordering thousands at a time or by having them printed abroad, you are stuck.

However, the eBook is still very reasonable and on par or cheaper than most new releases.

I have ticked the ‘browse’ button for anyone who knows how to be able to check out sections of the print book to see if they like it before buying. Once I can get someone to upload the first chapter or so of the book on this site I will let you know.

Best wishes Dave.

The Birching

I have finally had book 4 formatted, just a couple of changes to correct.

Once that has been done I can put the book on Ingram ready for sale, eBook and print. It will require about a months wait before release for advertising and completion of other paperwork. This book has been a bit of a trial to reach this stage simply because I am useless at technology. I will inform when the actual sale date is enabled.

Best wishes to everyone. Dave.

FBA Book 4

As usual nothing has gone to plan and hopes of publishing book 4 shortly have been put back by a month or so. The formatters I used last time went on holiday but don’t seem to have returned, so I’m currently deciding on who else to hire.

I, along with my wife, tested positive for Covid for the first time and we found we couldn’t get motivated to do anything much for a couple of weeks except lay around and sleep. Bizarre.

I have also been sidetracked by a host of other issues, good and not so good, that none the less were often more important than my writing, as much as I love it.

Best wishes to all nice people for now and will update on the books progression as it happens. Thank you.