Mission: Africa

 

Mission: Africa

E-book: amazon.co.uk/dp/B08XMLQPC7

Paperback: amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D74QR59V

A gripping tale of revenge served cold.

Blaise Cochrane runs a London security consultancy with Sailor Louw, an ex-Springbok. A wealthy former Rhodesian comes with a shock request: assassinate a former ZIPRA commander responsible for the murder of the client's family and the Muti killing of a child.

Initially, Cochrane is ignored: he lacks African experience. However, Sailor insists on him being in the team. A third member will guide them to the target. Cochrane reveals that his father was murdered. It creates an emotional bond with the client who adds a codicil to his will. The team will receive a large sum if the mission succeeds. But time is limited, the client is a sick man.

Problems mount. In Johannesburg, Sailor drops out injured. Cochrane links with a Soweto glamour model with a troubled past. Will she stay loyal or change sides? Consumed by greed, the guide has his own agenda.

Ahead lies Matabeleland and the unfenced Hwange National Park where wild beasts roam...

#thriller

#adventure

#revenge

Pursuit

 

Pursuit

E-book: http:amazon.co.uk/dp/B08WKGG5MT

Paperback: http:amazon/dp/B0D6RPQK4P

Hounded from the RUC over his past friendship with an IRA volunteer, ex-detective Blaise Cochrane moved to London. The Troubles, for him, were over.

Without warning, his former chief tormentor - a senior police officer - comes calling, accompanied by a subordinate. The two former antagonists still loathe one another. Cochrane will listen only to the junior officer.

Security forces are desperate to gather intelligence on a ruthless dissident thought to be planning a London bombing campaign. The dissident and Cochrane's IRA contact are known to be close - they shared prison time. Security chiefs want Cochrane to visit his boyhood friend - the IRA volunteer - and learn what he can about the dissident's plans.

The irony is not lost on Cochrane. The very friendship he was vilified for, that cost him his promising police career, is now seen as useful by the same people who forced him out.

Only a strong sense of duty compels him to agree to the mission.

It's a decision he soon has cause to regret as he is sucked into a series of  dramatic events. He's up against serious players. One slip-up could be fatal.

#troubles

#dissidents

#police

#terrorist 

Hemingway Quest

Hemingway Quest

E-book: amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D661MWXK

Kyle, a London bookseller, has women problems. There's Mallika his flirtatious, married Asian flatmate, and Janice his ex - now a bitter emotional wreck. Kyle's Hemingway obsession leads him to Cuba. There he uncovers a shocking truth about his own family, and enjoys a fling with a troubled tourist. After her partner falls to his death, Kyle is stunned to find himself suspected of murder.

Shaken, he arrives home where Mallika now treats him as a low-caste pariah. Is she serious or playing another of her teasing games?

Following a business meeting with an American entrepreneur, Kyle's future looks bright. But trouble is brewing. Mallika receives unwelcome attention from within her family - a man who holds a grudge against Kyle. Janice, too, is out for revenge.

Allegations and blood flow as, once again, Kyle fights to clear his name.

#suspense

#thriller

#travel

Squirt The Egg-Eater and other stories

Squirt The Egg-Eater and other stories

 My recently published e-book and 197 page paperback. Five short stories for children aged 6-8. The stories are aimed at kids who love birds and animals; they will excite those with an adventurous spirit who dream of travel to exotic places.

Contents:

* The Lesser Who Yearned to Be Great. A young woodpecker learns a harsh lesson.

* The Barbecue. A girl and her dog enjoy their first barbecue.

* First Migration: A Swallow's Tale. Can Grace, the runt of the swallow brood, survive the long migration to Southern Africa?

* The Crow and the Mirror.  A young crow fights its image in a mirror.

* Squirt The Egg-Eater. A young snake in the Kalahari embarks on a perilous mission to find his dad. Later he leads the fight against marauding meerkats.

E.book:  http:amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DH6GNP98

Paperback:  https:amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DFMMM4XC

#childrensbooks

#kidsstories

#animalstories

A Night at the River and other stories

 

A Night at the River and other stories

Top image: e-book amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DX7596TV

Bottom image: paperback  amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DVLGGMYT

Six adult stories:

While a teenage boy watches salmon poachers netting a river, a sudden deluge of storm water floods the pool.

When a young woman arrives in Tenerife, she is dismayed to learn that her ex-boyfriend is about.

A rookie screenwriter catches his big break. But when the producers demand a certain scene, his good feeling vanishes.

A young English fashion designer's Paris dream job sours when colleagues denigrate her worth. Then a work crisis develops - is this her chance to shine?

A serial loser hits on a sure-fire robbery idea - but his triumph is short-lived once his callous female accomplice discovers she's among the victims.

When a retiree moves to a flat in a desirable area, he thinks he has found the ideal place. Then problems start with two angry old men. 

#shortstories

#writingcommunity

#bookish 

An Irish writer's lament

For many Northern Irish novelists the 1990's were particularly lean years. The country was in the news so often some wag labelled 'Northern Ireland' the two most boring words in the language.

Literary agents didn't want to know. Many agencies included No IRA Stories in their Submission Guidelines. And who could blame them when the real thing, not fiction, dominated newspaper headlines and TV newscasts?

Lean times indeed.

At the time I was engaged in writing what I believed to be the great Irish novel. Sadly, London agents I queried took a different view. I was not prepared to pay someone to publish my masterpiece and so it was abandoned, but not forgotten. I got on with my life ...

Times changed.

I discovered the internet, only ten years or so behind everybody else. The same with mobile phones. With a sense of near disbelief I read about self-publishing. You mean, I could actually bring out my novels in both print and e-book formats myself? No more long hours agonizing over query letters and synopses. No more long waits for rejection letters This was progress. Progress, too, in my home country. Peace had come to 'Norn Iron' and with it the emergence of much new writing talent. Men and women who had lived through tough times, heard the gunfire and bombs, the sometimes horrific reports. They had a well of experience to draw on.

And suddenly publishers and agents opened their arms in welcome.

Me? In the past year I've published four novels and a few short stories. I'm happy. And I've saved the best for last. Currently I'm polishing the cast-aside-but-not-forgotten masterpiece. Some sections surprise me. After so long, it's like reading a stranger's work.

Wish me luck!

KDP formatting - those troublesome first-line-of-a-chapter indents

Got through the formatting minefield and successfully published your story on CreateSpace? Congratulations!

But the job is only half done. Most authors want an e-book version of their work. What could be simpler? Just click the buttons and follow the steps from CS to Kindle Direct Publishing. The hard work is already done. Right? It's time to uncork the bubbly and celebrate.

Whoa, hold your horses! Don't make the mistake of thinking that because all the kinks were ironed out of the print version, KDP will automatically format as you want it.

Every page must be checked - just as you did after uploading your file to CS.

Having recently published three novels on KDP, I can point to two issues that require careful attention.

• Dialogue that ends in a dash (-) or three dots ( . . .).  After uploading to KDP you may find places where the three dots are split, with only two on one line and the third carried over to the next line. Or a sentence ending in a dash could have the words on one line and the dash appearing on the next line with only the speech mark (") for company.

• First-line-of-chapter indent. You've followed the steps from CS to KDP and are reviewing the content on the on-screen previewer when you notice the first line of each chapter is indented. First line after section breaks too. Huh? This didn't happen with the CS print version, so what's gone wrong? Through reading community threads I learned that KDP indent every paragraph. So it's up to you to amend those first liners.

Corrections must be made to your original file stored in your desktop or laptop.

Fixing the dash and dot issues is simple - just a matter of altering the wording of the offending sentences to change their length. The best way of correcting the indents, I read, is to highlight the paragraph. Then go to 'paragraph' at the top of the Word page and click Special, then from the box 'first line'. Next at By type in 0.01 and then click OK. This command overrules the KDP default. Repeat for each chapter's first paragraph and each section break.

Then upload to KDP - and re-check.

It worked for me.