Anyway from Sunday 31st January and until Thursday 4th February, the final, revised, updated, plot-hole filled in, continuity friendly. syntax amended, typos removed (as much as is humanly possible)
For further information on background, characters, environment, and other stuff refer to the dedicated blog’s introductory post and follow on from there (extracts to follow)
Yes, all sorted, tidied (as much as any book a writer wants to display in public can be tidied) the finalisation of the processing through the Amazon Kindle System completed 30th January 2021 at 9.35am GMT UK, and thence to sit back remembering to check later on to see when Amazon has made it public so the promotion via free books can be allowed (please, please Amazon co-operate and don’t do something ‘interesting’). Of course try as you might as a humble self-publisher you cannot guarantee that Kindle will (1) Align the word ‘Chapter’ at the centre of every single heading, no matter how hard you slaved over the business on WORD (also not the most dependable instrument for a writer of fiction) (2) Adhere to the same page breaks as WORD for much the same reason. But for the price I am settling either ‘Free’ (Don’t let me down Amazon) or 0.99 (whatevers) one should not make too much fuss over such matters; it shows a lack of taste. Thus sometime in the next 72 hours the 4th Edition will be in the Amazonverse. And those are the mechanics of the situation.
For those readers who are new to the saga of my own journey here (and there) and have not seen the dedicated site. The outlines of the categories / genres sub-genres / themes are as follows:
Fantasy: Epic (ie very long and lots of characters)
Feel-Good & Upbeat endings (Not fashionable in Epic Fantasy)
Action & Adventure: (Heroic, of course)
Humour: Various – Acerbic, Bawdy, Observational and some Satire
(Did I mention Feel-Good?)
Convoluted Events: Based on Reality- No perfect plots, no cunning villains always one step ahead, basically a Real World environment- If it can go wrong, it will. No one, like no one is every in control. If you want Illuminate stuff, go elsewhere.
Characters: Three main. Building through the experience. Bonding through trials.
The Special Power?: Oh yes, but no one really know how it works, so don’t expect any enigmatic folk of unspecified age turning up with an ancient mystic staff and talking at great length about the historical back story as if that was The Only Fact. That sort of thing doesn’t happen in this world and it certainly doesn’t happen in these books.
Controversial Aspects or Things That Might Annoy Some Readers (apart from typos, syntax and grammar that is): (A) In case I forgot to mention there is a Feel-Good Factor- a possible heresy in Epic Fantasy. (B) Then there is the portrayal of religion as simply institutionalised, generally only nodded to by the population, and also somewhat inefficiently run. So no sinister Bishops plotting in dark corners (C) Strong female leads, who are not particularly alpha, a positioning which might annoy all sides (D) LGBTQ female romance- potential minefield for a male writer. Don’t you shudder when the characters take over the narrative? (E) Just to repeat, no very all powerful, very all-seeing, darkly ruthless person or group who have minions who laugh a lot when someone can’t pierce their armour (Man! That is so boring) (F) Introspection- Not the brooding sort, more the ‘What the heck do I do next?’ sort or a lot of general grumbling (you know you do it too, so don’t complain). (G) A lot of folk and organisations- that’s the way History works, so that’s the way I wrote.
Reason for Writing: To hopeful produce a work which is there to entertain and provide a distraction from the Day around you. (Oh yeah, Annnddd I because I wanted to!)
That’s all then
For anymore information on the books, characters, lands, peoples, motivations, environments as an introduction please visit:
And as I was about to close this down Amazon has notified me the revised volume is up and available. Please note this will free on Kindle from Sunday 31st January 2021 to Thursday 4th February 2021.
In lieu of International Day of Education series, here is the second part of the story that features inspiring activists that are working in her countries to improve the conditions and advocacy on the importance of education for children.
4. Kakar Hayat Hamandzai – Pakistan
He is a youth campaigner and change agent teacher who dedicated himself to campaigning for education and girls’ education. In one decade of his local activism, he has achieved along with the support of Pakistan’s Department of Education to open many closed schools in his home district with the aim of giving every child the right to education.
He also writes in local media on education issues and has mobilized local community activists such as seminars and enrolment walks, especially with illiterate parents on the procedure of enrolling their children in school systems.
Hamandzai also collected over 13,000 signatures in 2016 in favor of…
Good day to you. My name is Merklin Silc and I come from the lands described in The Precipice Dominions . To be closer as it were, I come from the very busy and thriving city of Elinid, in which I and my brother Grenaww have certain influence, all done by hard work and intelligent applications of this and that.
(That’s Grenaww, he figures quite a lot in most of the books, but we don’t show him too much, he doesn’t like the portrait and he tends to unsettle folk anyway…until they get to know him and see his point of view)
Me, I’m more inclined to the friendly conversation and discourse of subjects. After all everyone has their point of view; true sometimes you need to give them a friendly hand to demonstrate they are wrong and guide them, but I say, it’s a lot neater than other, let’s call ’emcolourful ways. Other times you need to give folk confidence to do ‘Wot’s Wot’ as we say in Elinid. And there are times when you get the task of announcing to the wider world about things you reckon would enrich their lives. Normally for me that’s tied up in Trade Deals, Mutually Beneficial Arrangements or Negotiated Understandings and the like. But someone very close to me these days asked if I would help out on the matter of a series of books charting the adventures and I must say the more accurate histories of what took place a few years back. Well since I could never turn down a request from this particular person and as the tale is quite favourable to Elinid how could I refuse?
Before we go any further I have to say I’m not too keen on these images, Yeah, there’s alright for the ladies, adding a certain Indefinable Quality to their features, but us lads…well whatever was tried we still come out looking a bit like ‘walnuts’ (that’s ‘twits’ to you folk), however Wigran says, it’s all to do with the transmission of detail between worlds.
That’s Wigran by the way. You might say he started the whole business, him and his explorations of the Stommigheid but overall he’s good lad; these days he’s my Advisor on such matters, and has come on quite well.
Anyway, enough about us lot, let’s get you onto the real nub of the matter which is about the events laid out in the trilogy The Precipice Dominions and centring around the activities three rather remarkable woman, who to use a phrase you might recognise ‘were dropped right in it’ . All about how they got involved, teamed up, coped, worked together and prevailed despite others (At one later stage once I’d worked out Wot was Wot, I did warned Grenaww he was going too far, but I leave that for you to find out about way down the tale) the three of them prospered in their own ways.
There’s a lot of action, and since folk kept trying to cross them, quite an impressive body pile, of all races; the language and some of the humour you might not want to repeat in mixed society. It’s against a backdrop of a whole lot of cross-purposes, rivalries, hidden agendas, sharp workers, walnuts who thought they were sharp workers, mistakes made, opportunities snatched, strategies veering off in all directions, making up policy as you go, and all sorts of permutations . Some folk who read the whole account got confused, I didn’t. The accounts struck me as the Usual Sort of Business I deal in.
Basically these three women, they change, read the three volumes and you’ll see;
Like how Arketre Beritt of the LifeGuard (in Elinid we call them ‘The Grim’) goes from being a Healer (Medician) to Captain of a regiment (or what have you) holding the line at in a right nasty set to at what was thought a small, dowdy place called Yermetz .
And ….. also….later on…(Everyone is worried she’ll find out about the next picture because it’s not an image, portrait; it’s sort of live, at the time and she is very touchy about privacy during that bit of the narrative but I said I would square with her….we have a Negotiated Understanding)
Then we have The Puzzle, The Confusion, The Won’t Stand Still For A Moment, who claimed to have come from Elinid but had a whole different story
Trying to follow a conversation started by Karlyn Nahtinee is an acquired skill and as far as I know there are only two persons who can do that all the time (being the other two in the trio). You know there is something odd about it but you can’t pin it down, it’s only later she starts acting like this do you realise she’s got a history.
And finally there’s the one I reckon to be the True Hero of the whole story. Trelli, also known as Trelyvana Waywanderer (sometimes Lady Tee) the girl who started out as a not so simple but pretty shrewd orphan and housemaid, had to adapt quickly to this
And learning to work this way
Finally became this Lady
If you’ve been following this blog (Where the First Hell did you get that word from for a bit of writing?) you’ll know the old fellah who got the task of putting the words down has had all sorts of trials and tribulations getting here. You might also know Trelli, bless her got him to make this last final effort on the first volume and all the improvements are down to her (By the way, any comments about ‘What Improvements?’ will result in me visiting the unwise person to point out that making mean spirited, not well thought out statements can have repercussions).
I’m not going to go on about how wonderful a series of tales these are, how you might be missing an enjoyable reading experience and that there maybe enough for everyone in the pages. No, that would be pushing it a bit and no one really likes being pushed (even when they haven’t got the option). I’m here just to give you options, that’s fayre enough isn’t it? For a start off you can visit the site which gives more information about the tales at
Where the new version of the 1st Volume will be available free for a few days (I think it’s seven days, but Wigran says you should never make promises where Amazon is involved he reckons it’s short of ‘fully operational capabilities’- anyway he also says you folk will understandwhat that means)
I think that’s all I need to say on the subject. You’ve got the introduction, you’ve seen images of the girls and a rough idea of where they are going, you know where to go for more information, and you can get a free copy of the book.
20th January 2021. The majority of Americans along with the vast majority of the population of the world celebrated the descending of an oaf followed by the inauguration of a person worthy to be called President of the United States of America.
Much, the overwhelming wealth being favourable has been written, and so it should be. I have said my piece(s) on the matter, therefore let me turn to another cause which can be celebrated on a smaller scale but celebrated nonetheless.
Two folk I call WP-friends (WP- Word Press) are intending to collaborate on a writing project. This is their first attempt and they are naturally hesitant. The fact they are going to try is something to be applauded, and our community of writers should encourage this and wish them well in their endeavour.
I understand they are a measure reticent because they perceive there are far better writers than themselves and thus dare they take this step? To which my reply is.
‘Oh don’t you worry about those perceptions. You may be told these are better writers and you may believe they are better writers, however those very writers you look up to, if they are true to the very spirit of their art should be the first to insist you write and should support you,’
After all Writing is its own universe. There are myriads of subjects, told in a wealth of styles for a host of reasons and in consequence a whole celestial dynamic for creation. (Sadly there are the hacks, hate-mongers and opportunists who produce dire dross and poison to spread tawdry thrills, intolerance, oppression and cruelty-away with them).
Each person or team who has a genuine pure wish to write for the pleasure, edification and, let us be honest, entertainment of the reader should not feel there is something less about their work. They have as much entitlement as any to gather together their images, feelings, ideas and motivation to forge into words. We who have spent many years on this path know the road is long, hard and demands attention. The rewards will probably be scant and the recognition might well minimal. Yet these are simply all parts of the writer’s life, or call it ‘lot’. You should write because you want to and can. True there are many worthy tracts and places to go for information on how to ‘market’, but you should not be thinking of those at the onset. To write is to be the primary thought.
Strive on then, you latest additions to the community. Work, and work again until you are looking upon the completed task, then put it out into the Reading Universe, and you can then sit back and say:
‘It is there. We have declared our work. It now belongs to The Ages,’
It would be nice to say using the Brave New World of WP setting up a new site was fun. However for the sake of dignity let me just say ‘It Was Interesting’ and being a retired UK Civil Servant would suggest ‘I could have produced a better basic instruction manual, shorn of assumptions about the prospective user’s knowledge’.
Anyway. It’s launched (Without Widgets– I opted for the Blogs I am Following, and was presented with a list of ‘Who?…Well only once?…Hey where’s…..’ It looked quite rude and offish)
As part of my aim to create more art in both digital and traditional ways I wanted to re-create the space scene that I use quite a lot on my site and see how well I could make it using what I had. Unlike the previous times I have created planet rings I didn’t take a shortcut. I created around 200 thing individual rings and set their colour and transparency for these pieces.
This was the first piece that I created, is quite pale I think, but it’s a bit more accurate to the picture I’m re-creating.
The second piece uses more of a camera flared Sun as if it was being looked at through glass.
I’m quite pleased with how these turned out and I’m going to try and do more. Which one do you think is best?
Writers are all about being published, either by traditional means or doing it themselves. But sometimes, authors unpublish a book.
I can think of a few reasons for this decision:
The author has decided the book is unworthy or even embarrassing. Maybe it was rushed into publication and has attracted mainly negative reviews
The book has attracted other forms of unwelcome attention, such as accusations of plagiarism or threats of lawsuit
The book contains obsolete or inaccurate information. (This would apply mainly to nonfiction)
Sales of the book have been disappointing
The author has issues with the sales platform(s)
In my opinion, only numbers 2 and 3 are really good reasons to unpublish. Number 1 may be as well, but it depends. Like the decision to publish, the decision to unpublish should be made after careful consideration and asking for opinions from writing partners or trusted readers (“omega readers?”).
do you realise she’s got a history.
Writing Despite Computers and Programmes 