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Showing posts with the label quiet lives

New Ebook Covers

New covers for four of my ebooks are now available.  Here they are:-   The image on the cover of Dark Tides   comes from one of my photographs of West Kirby beach.  It was a late summer evening and the tide was coming in, which is why there's a snaking rivulet of water over the shadowed sands.  Tides come in fast there as the Dee Estuary is very wide and flat, so there's nothing to slow the flow of water.  When we still lived in West Kirby I'd walk my dogs on the beach regularly, and we often go back with them now we're in Oxton, which isn't very far away. This cover uses one of my photos of the seaward side of Hilbre Island, where the Irish Sea pounds against the red Bunter sandstone rocks.  The rock pools around Hilbre and Middle Eye are always fun to explore.  You have to watch your footing, as the rocks are covered by slippery seaweed plus cockles and barnacles, but it's easily worth the effort.  Take binoculars if you want to see the seals baski

Walkies, Writing and Cryonics

A bird in the bush... It feels weird going for a walk with only one dog in tow.  Even Emily keeps looking behind her and waiting, as if half-expecting Ygraine to emerge from behind a clump of long grass.  Emily's missing her life-long buddy too.  And the heap of old jumpers between the wall and my computer desk feels very empty.  Ygraine always snoozed there while I worked.  I have begun compiling short stories for the forthcoming sequel to Dark Tides , which I've called Dark Waters .  However, since planning these two short story collections I have re-released the two Amazon Shorts ebooks, A Wirral Otherkin Trilogy and Quiet Lives , thinking that as they were already in publishable condition it would be silly to leave them gathering dust on a shelf.  A bird in the hand..., etc.  Compiling Dark Waters, I realised that too many of the stories which I'd earmarked for that project already feature in those.  So this project will have to slow down a bit until I'v

Quiet Lives

All her life, Dawn has been told she isn't beautiful. Armajeet is bored by compromise. The generation gap dances through an ordinary family. And the witch who welcomes a door-to-door salesman grants an unexpected gift. Appearances can be deceptive…and nothing is as it seems in these four short stories:- Beautiful ; Dear Harry ; The Four Seasons ; and Mirror . Quiet Lives The new ebook from Adele Cosgrove-Bray. ISBN: 9781476010632 (for all outlets apart from Kindle) ASIN: B0081P81QG (for Kindle)   
 Recent press articles about the continuing rise in popularity of ebooks have set me thinking.  My stance on self-publishing has long-since been one of obstinate refusal, partly due to my past experiences when running a self-published music zine a long, long time ago.  Who on earth remembers Smokin' Dragon now?  Even I have to flex my memory - and I owned the pesky thing!  And before anyone asks:  no, the title did not imply a heroin habit.  Any drug-related implication didn't even occur to me until the zine's name was already well established.  I forget who pointed it out to me now.  Its name was a reference to Chinese astrology - I was born in the year of the dragon - and to an admittedly corny usage of the word "smokin'" as in "hot".  I did say it was corny...    The project began as a few sheets of A4 photocopying paper stapled together, printed with news about emerging rock bands, penpal contacts, and a smattering of badly reproduced p

Amazon Shorts

Amazon Shorts will cease to be available from June, so if you wish to purchase copies of my two Shorts, A Wirral Otherkin Trilogy and Quiet Lives , you’d best act now. You’ll find these on Amazon, or you may prefer to use the clickable links on my website. According to the email sent out by Amazon, their Shorts program has been replaced by Kindle. If I wish to make my Shorts available on Kindle (an e-reader which costs nearly $300) then this self-publishing option is available to me. Otherwise, all Rights revert to me. My views about self-publishing can be read here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Self-Publishing-Pitfalls Amazon Shorts were short digital downloads which enabled a customer to try out a writer’s work for a minimal fee. For the author, Shorts offered a way of supplementing their income and promoting their work to a wider audience. At least, this was the theory. In practice, few people seemed to grasp what an Amazon Short was. Was it a piece of clothing designed for

Vandals and the Radio

Just back from the village, and what did I see when I walked up my garden path to my front door? My best camelia lying crushed on the floor, its main stem snapped. Five years to grow it; one second for some clumsy idiot to ruin it. Yes, the scaffolders will be receiving a flea in their ear from me in the morning.... I didn't have to grant them permission to put the end poles of their scaffold on our side of the hedge. The least they could do is respect our property. Anyway, I've just taken photographs of the roof with the scaffolding in the frame, so if they leave any broken tiles behind I have visual evidence that our roof was fine before they walked over it. Our immediate neighbours are having their roof done. Emily nearly climbed out of the open front-room window in order to scrounge cuddles off the builder who was in our garden whilst erecting scaffolding. I've already had to warn one of them to pay attention to our clear Beware of the Dog! signs. He'd pus

Quiet Lives

I am pleased to anounce the publication of Quiet Lives , ASIN B0013CX3HQ, available only from Amazon.com. Direct link:- http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Lives/dp/B0013CX3HQ/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202834377&sr=1-12 Four tales of seemingly quiet lives:- Dear Harry - Armajeet writes a parting letter to Harry. He is lovely but she's tired of too much compromise - and her friends would rip him to shreds. Mirror - Having violated Melissa's hospitality, a salesman learns that not all witches comply with New Age stereotypes. The Four Seasons -  When Granny visits, teenager Megan and her mother face a yawning generation gap. Beautiful - Dawn is as tall as a man and twice as broad, yet her determined quest for love, passion and beauty will strike a chord with everyone who has ever felt disheartened by their own reflection.