What was the beyond-human being who walked into her dreams? How could mere dreams seem more real than reality? This enchanting collection of poetry describes the author's long search for answers. This collection of Adele Cosgrove-Bray’s poetry describes how, at the age of nineteen, she entered an order known variously as the Eternal Companions or the Initiates of Ma'at, which was led by an elderly man called Thomas Joseph Walton, (or "T"). His philosophy was similar to that of GI Gurdjieff's.  Entering the Grove describes her seven years with this group. She hoped to find answers to a series of experiences which had haunted her since early childhood, as depicted in the poems I Wonder , Twilight and Love's Hermitage , but she gradually became disillusioned with Walton’s philosophy. In 1999, Adele joined the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), and this heralded the start of a highly creative period. Yet she had still found no solution to the l...

Researchers have learned that they can train volunteers to meet aliens in their dreams by focussing on a half-dream state, ie. lucid dreaming, and seeking out ETs with their minds. In this recent post I offered this idea: "The potential of the mind is immense. What if...the universe is all mind? What if the world you see when your brain interprets light beams caught on your retinas is really a creation of your mind? What if the whole of Planet Earth is, in effect, a giant holograph kept in place by mutual unconscious agreement? What if other collectives of mutual conscious agreement could create for themselves another kind of holograph - a parallel dimension, in other words?" Is it really so difficult to accept that if a person determinedly sets out to visit other dimensions via their own will power - which, like most abilities, can be improved upon with practice and persistence, that it is possible to slip from one dimension to another?  Contempora...

Dark Tides is now available on Apple iTunes at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/dark-tides/id472904959?mt=11 Spanish Jones is available on Apple iTunes at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/spanish-jones/id472906427?mt=11 You can also find both these ebooks on Barnes & Noble at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/adele-cosgrove-bray I'm still waiting for these to be shipped to Kobo and Amazon, but that's in the pipeline.  They should also be available on Sony and Diesel within the next week or so.   

  

Looking forward into the future... And further into the future... One of the arguments against cryo-preservation and life extension insists that humanity will run out of space.  Earth is already a cramped cosmic island, so where are we all going to fit? Firstly, not everyone will choose an immortal life.  How many times have you heard people say they'll be glad when life is over?  To an immortalist, this is the statement of someone with suicidal tendencies but many think this way, imagining that death will always be inevitable and unconquerable despite the continuing progress of sciences which - given proper investment and further research - will overcome present limitations. Secondly, look up.  It's a big universe up there...  Big as in infinite .  If the "universe" is expanding, logic dictates that it has to have something into which it can expand.  If it had a boundary, an edge of some kind, there would have...

Alan Billis, a sixty-one year old taxi driver with terminal lung cancer, volunteered to be mummified after the manner of Ancient Egyptians.  The taxi driver from Torquay allegedly said his only regret would be that at he wouldn't be around to see the programme, although he hoped it would give his grandchildren an insight into his personality. I wonder if Mr Billis gave cryonics any consideration?  If cryonics works, then he could tell his grandchildren (if they also opted for cryonics) all about himself for himself - and that's assuming cryonics isn't a working reality before Billis's grandchildren require cryo-preservation to make that leap into the future.  A cryo-sceptic would say that's a lot of "ifs", and that is a fair point.  However, looked at with a rational mind which makes the most sense - a slim chance of a possibly-eternal life, or no chance at all? Mummifying Alan: Egypt's Last Secret will be screened on Channel 4 on ...

Adele says:  Welcome to the first of a series of guest blogs written by a diverse array of interesting people.  This installment is from author and poet Nick Armbrister .  If you would like to contribute to this blog, feel free to contact me via email at ACBwrites@aol.com and write Guest Blog in the subject line. Nick Armbrister writes:   2011 has been busy for me; I released 5 books on www.lulu.com/spotlight/nickarmbrister of poetry and fiction stories. I could pick out one important book of the five but to me, all five are important. One is a huge poetry collection covering my fifteen years of writing poems ( The Complete Nick Armbrister Poetry Collection ), two others are short story collections. One is erotic stories ( Take It In Your Stride , a series of erotic adult stories) and the second normal ones ( Heart Of The Country Short Story Collection ). Finally there are two fiction novels in my Juniper’s Daughter series ( Juniper's ...

Amazon will allegedly be publishing 122 books, fiction and non-fiction, in the autumn.   This is far more than many traditional publishers produce in an entire year - or two or three years, even.  Not only can authors already self-publish with Amazon's Create Space (for paperbacks) and Kindle (for ebooks), not only are all authors offered virtual shelf-space and dedicated pages on Amazon's massive - and always growing - site, now Amazon is diving into the role of a traditional publisher.  And I say good! Does this action finally kill off the myth that ebooks, including self-published ebooks, don't sell?  If there wasn't money to be made then a hefty company like Amazon wouldn't be expanding further into this field.  While many businesses take chances, the successful ones only take informed chances.  If a product works and is wanted and is affordable, it will sell.  If a system, no matter how long-established, ceases ...

Wirral's annual Bookfest began today, with a chick-lit event at Bromborough Civic Centre with authors Lesley Pearse and Judy Astley.  Tuesday sees Professor Stephen Hawking at Birkenhead Central Library, talking about a replica Viking longship named Draken Harald Fairhair, which will sail to Wirral from Norway next year.  Wednesday brings Sir Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate, to Bromborough Civic Centre.  There are two events on Thursday 13th.  Elizabeth Williams, of the Gaskell Society, will give a talk at Bebington Central Library about the role of love in Jane Austen's and Charlotte Bronte's fiction.  The history of Birkenhead will be the subject of a talk by Elizabeth Davey at Upton Library. The event which interests me the most will be held at Wallasey Central Library on Friday, when Gavin Chapell will give a talk about the infamous Wirral privateer called Fortunatas Wright.  Personally, I suspect Wright might just be a pse...

Apparently, former SNP leader Gordon Wilson wants a referendum on the government's proposals to allow same-sex marriage.  In  a nine-page document he allegedly described same-sex marriages as an assault on Xtian values which could lead to social disintegration and sexual confusion. Excuse me, but exactly how can two people loving each other and deciding to get married bring about the end of life as we know it?  Who is anyone to declare how love should be expressed or where love should blossom for anyone other than themselves?   And how do gay people become a social hazard through marrying each other; does this mean that by remaining unmarried they're somehow more safe?  How ridiculous. As for Xtian values, how about:- “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Matthew 7:1 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if y...

Have you ever loved a story so much that you wanted to visit the place where it happened? Have you been so involved in a scene that you felt like you were really there? Well, a new innovation means you almost can be there - almost. When an ebook's tale is set in a particular place - a cafe, a theatre, an historic location, a bowling alley etc., - then readers can click a link to learn more about the factual place. This opens up a new angle in virtual tourism, which could potentially result in readers of a story booking into a hotel or diner where their fictional heroes stayed. So what we have here is another way of writers gaining an income. Just as sports people are sponsored to wear trade logos, then why couldn't writers be sponsored to include linked-to places/businesses in their ebooks? The principles are fairly similar. Blind Fate by Patrick Brian Miller and Dixie Noir by Kirk Curnutt are the first of these innovative ebooks to be published on Kindle (which c...

Hazel and Adele, a long time ago... There are some photos which simply make you smile.  They might not be the most professionally done or the most artistic, but they're precious in their own way.  Like this one, above, which shows my sister and I paddling somewhere near Southampton.  I totally forget the name of the place; it had three shallow pools in a row, and I recall feeling incredibly adventurous for walking through each of them all by myself.  We visited this place more than once during various visits to my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle George's home.  My four cousins were probably paddling not too far away, just out of camera shot.  My first typewriter, a Smith Corona, which was a Xmas present shared with my sister.  I used to type poetry on this before mailing it off to various magazines.  Some of it got published, too...  This machine worked well for many years until the carriage developed a...

Enjoy!   

Learn about the history of tattooing, and about Liverpool's famous tattooing family, of which Richie Tattoo Artist is a member, in this interview with Richie broadcast on Radio Merseyside in 1996.   

Several people have asked me why I've recently self-published two ebooks, Spanish Jones and Dark Tides .  In the past, I've been dead set against self-publishing.  Vanity publishing (where you pay a company to publish your book) is mostly an expensive dead-end, and self-publishing (where you DIY) requires much product promotion, can also be pricey, and in the past wasn't taken seriously.  The given wisdom was that people only self-publish when no-one will buy their book. Is that still true in 2011?  If readers didn't take self-published ebooks seriously, they wouldn't be buying them.  And they are, in ever increasing numbers, to the point that ebook sales are now apparently overtaking paperback sales. Producing an ebook can cost nothing but time if an author can create their own eye-catching front covers and do their own editing.  In my case, I went to art school where I studied art and design; I've worked as a photographe...

Pirates, selkies and witches battle to survive in this dramatic short fantasy tale. When Charlie Porter makes a deal with Spanish Jones, he ensnares the Porter family in a vicious centuries-long feud. Can Charlie's descendent stop the violence? Set on the ruggedly beautiful Hilbre Island in the Dee Estuary, history and folklore blend to create a magically atmospheric tale. Spanish Jones - a new ebook short by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, out October 1st, 2011. Available from:  Here