Short Story for April - Market Forces

next story is up  on  smashwords:  I wrote it while living  in  London in  106 St Georges Rd, opposite the Imperial War Museum. An uncle had lectureed me about his fears of flooding, especially south of the river, and he was particularly disturbed by the fact that it was a basement flat. Anyway, his worries affected me.

I was also involved in telesales and publishing. It was an eye opener and made me realise how awful the '80s were, how greedy they were and sadly, its only got worse.
I have tried to de-80s it a bit. maybe wrongly.

March's story is now up  on Amazon: The Birth of Barley-boy. I sort of remember writing  it. I was 19 and had just read Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. The plan had been to write a book, and this was the first chapter. I wrote 9 or 10 chapters in all but stopped as i had lost the plot.
The problem was that after my first story ( a short book , 50,000 words, The Felix Tale) i thought that instead of having  a very fixed plot in  my head, that it would be more fun to write with only a vague idea of what the end should be and that that would  leave me very free with how to get there. The problem was that it just to too out of control: i lost the plot.
I thought for a few days that i could write it backwards - i knew the ending and therefore i could write the last chapter and then the one before. But that was just stupid. So i stopped and wrote the second Felix Tale (also a short book - 50,000 words or so).
So, i then showed this to a cousin, and he said that this first chapter was great and that i should forget the rest. So there you  have it: The Birth of Barley-boy.
Also available at Smashwords .

Bored - story for february

so, it was so much easier this time getting  it acepted on  Smashwords - first time in  fact. For some reason it took 2 goes to get on  amazon. not sure why, i cut and pasted into the Carp Pond story so it should have all been pretty well the same...

On Smashwords here the story is available in many more useful formats.

Since putting bored up it got a noticeable immediate bunch of views. I suppose because the 'Murder Mystery' category is more popular. no sales yet.

There has been a slight complication to this whole 12 stories in  12 months. I got it into my head to also release a  tune for each story, and a video. And the video is completely nightmarish. its done but it won't render. or it will render but only if i break it up  into parts, and those parts keep getting  smaller and smaller as i get closer to the end. its a bit like infinity - will i ever reach the end??

The Carp Pond available in all formats at Smashwords

The Carp Pond is now available at Smashwords in all sorts of formats - for those who cannot cope with Kindle, iStuff or Nook: The Carp Pond at Smashwords.
Goodness knows when it will be arriving  at the other stores - itunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Sony but i suppose at some point this month.

Will it be before the next story appears - i have no idea.

First Story: The Carp Pond is up and here's the plan

SO, the first paragraph could be better i feel but the first short story The Carp Pond by TWG Fraser is up, at least on  Amazon so far, others will follow:


So, i would be lovely if you  could buy it and review it.

Reviews
It seems that short stories are quite popular. So to get some reviews could help push it up  the ratings in  its given genre and then maybe i could get a sale from an unknown person!

Which would of course be incredible.

Good bad reviews: 'i hated it but if you  like Enid Blyton then this is for you' is great compared to bad good reviews: 'This is my brother, its great.' So please, if you  can't write a good review (which i completely understand could be difficult), do please write a good bad one. 20 reviews, good or bad, does imply sales of many more - thus popularity!

The Plan
The plan is this: try to put up  12 stories over the next 12 months, perhaps finishing and coinciding  with my 50th birthday in February 2014.

I am not sure if i have 12 stories. Here's what i think i have:

1. Jan 2013: The Carp Pond
2. Feb: Bored
3. Mar: Imperial Ends
4. April: The Birth of Barley Boy
5. May: The Prussian Story
6. June: Market Forces
7. July: hmmm  not sure
8. August: Unwritten - L. O. S. T.
9. September: Unwritten - How I stopped the English invasion of Scotland
10. October: The Tears of Winter (not sure this is such a good title tough it is a fairy tale)
11. November: The Felix Tale I
12. December: The Felix Tale II

And in  fact this all comes together as the Felix Tales.

The DayDream
As a professional day dreamer here's the plan. Kickstarter the printed version - softback, hardback, woodcuts, readings etc... next year.

Help
Well, obviously, reviews would be great. If anyway would like to help editing  these  things that would be great.

Anyway, thanks and good luck.
tom

2 new tunes: CASIOM.T.B and WIlliam Gerard

William Gerard & CAS10 MTB: Its nice to have you home again at last .mp3
and
 Cas10 MTB & William Gerard: Oh My Dear God She.mp3

for more info read this:
http://www.floppyrecords.co.uk/cas10-mtb-oh-my-dear-god-she-mp3/
and
http://www.floppyrecords.co.uk/william-gerard-cas10-mtb-its-nice-to-have-you-home-again-at-last-mp3/

120312 Spotified or Radio 6'd, not sure

Continuing  the debate as to whether to stop paying  for Spotify, I just can't decide. This weekend is a very good example of why it is difficult.

On  Friday evening  we were listening to the unbelievably good Tom Ravenscroft show, which has a couple more days before its taken off line. The thing  is that its difficult to keep up  with what you  are listening  too, often the radio can't be bothered to say, now the website, and if he does speak it can easily be a series of vowels and consonants that often make little sense: Inigo Ugarteburu Aeraberan being  a particularly good case in  point. Even now i am not sure if i am correct, bu this may have been a brilliant tune.

So, on  saturday night i found the track lise for the show and decided that the closest thing  i could find to what i had written down the night before (i had written 'beringi el berengar' about 3 minutes after he had said it as by then a  second or even third track had been played and i had no idea what he was referring  to.

Yes, i do sit there with a note pad to write down things we listen to and talk about.

Anyway, staring  at the set list  of fridays show i decided that Casiokids Kaskaden, Ben Butler & Mousepad was what i had liked, and tried to find it in  Spotify - and couldn't. Though i did find Casiokids by Kaskaden but thats a different thing. (And who knew Bernard BUtler was doing  interesting  things with Mousepad, AND as a big big fan of my casio and what can be got out of it i liked the idea of the tune Casiokids. But it wasn't that. So i wondered down through the set list, thinking  that was where i had been listening.


And thats when i found Sugar Minott Ghetto Youths. But i dodn't play that. What caught my eye was Sugar Minott Exit Music. Surely no?! But yes, digging  deeper into Spotify it turns out that there is an album called Radiodread, what a fantastic name. And what a fantastic album, well mainly anyway. According  to wiki Radiodread 'is a 2006 album by the Easy Star All-Stars (on  backing it seems), a collaboration of reggae and ska artists', so its not as varied as i had originally hoped (i had hoped it was completely different artists playing  any Radiohead song, when actually it turns out its OK Computer). But still worth getting  and listening  too. Actually, its just brilliant.

And they have an earler album called Dub  side of the Moon! Just makes me laugh even saying  that. Got to hear that too.

Anyway, i have to go back and continue relistening  to Tom Ravenscroft's show, i am beginning  to think the songs i am after are:
Inigo Ugarteburu — Aeraberan
A Giant Dog — Trash Can USA
Kromestar — Wooo
Groundislava — Creeper Shit
Trans Upper Egypt — Cleopatra
or maybe it was the The Haxan Cloak — Untitled - which i think is a 20 minute mix.
i dont know. More work needed.

So, the result is i need radio 6 and spotify. I need spotify to find the bands i hear on  radio 6, and to branch out to find more.


Whoops, sorry forgot another song that got played: The Beach Boys — Feel Flows. Reading  about that on  wiki too. Its surprising  late, 1971, but a lovely tune. I dont like like the Beach Boys, i bought Brian Wilson's Smile, and liked it a lot, yet somehow it feels wrong. But maybe Surfs up  is the album to actually listen too. Just a surprise i suppose.