Daniel Jones Doom (editor's copy)

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FRENZY on Amazon U.S.A
FRENZY on Amazon Germany
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Frenzy for the rest of the world
Mark King on Goodreads.
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@author_king





After my return from Tunisia the editor's changes to my new book Daniel Jones Doom the sequel to FRENZY a Daniel Jones Story was emailed to me. I have been working on it ever since. You have to be opened minded during this process because you have a stranger telling you where they think you have gone wrong, and it can be hard to except that something you have been working on for the last two years isn't as perfect as you may believe.

This is a process all published authors have to go though and no doubt they all feel the same way as I did when you work your way through the editor's remarks. So for all you budding authors out there below is the first chapter to Daniel Jones Doom (wort's and all) and the remarks of the editor. For you non authors then you are the first members of the general public to get the chance to read the first chapter of my new book.

Like in Frenzy a Daniel Jones story the first chapter to Daniel Jones Doom is only a page long and introduces a character that appears later in the story.

It's up to you as the author to except or disregard the comments that the editor recommends, but sometimes the editor will just change the sentence, and leave a strong remark that you just have to agree too. Then again there are times when you are just as forceful and will stand by your original wording. At the end of the day the reader will decide what they like so I will leave you to decide, and if you think something different about the chapter below then please feel free to contact me. 

CHAPTER ONE

JACK

’

A slap to the face brought no respite from the shouting.

‘What about my son[F1] ?’[LM2] 

A hard punch to the nose brought silence as the man slumped to the ground[F3] . His hands were un-ceremonially tied together with rough twine and then to a rope attached  to the horse’s saddle from which he would be dragged to captivity.[F4] .

A couple of kicks to his backside brought him back to consciousness, and as he struggled to his feet, a rag was stuffed into his mouth[F5] . He mumbled futile words of protest, but his gagged pleas fell on deaf ears as the Hunter lifted himself onto his horse’s saddle.

‘I should have executed you for disobeying Procedure Six, but I think we shall take you to the Achievement Centre. Our masters can make up their own minds about what to do with you.’

The other gang members laughed mockingly as they trotted off down the road dragging their crying captive behind.

Under the protective cover of a ruined building his young son watched in silent terror.

---

 [F1]Is it the same person who says 'No' as asks the question about the son?

I AGREE DELETE THE WORD ‘No’

 [LM2]This is immediately confusing (which is not the same as intriguing).

 [F3]Do you mean floor or ground? Floor would suggest indoors.

I AGREE IT’S BETTER TO USE GROUND WHEN OUTSIDE AND FLOOR FOR INSIDE BUILDINGS

 [F4]Dragged behind or dragged from behind?

I AGREE I HAVE CHANGE TO dragged to captivity.

 [F5]You don't really need a new paragraph here.

I AGREE PLEASE CHANGE

What do you think?

Regards

Mark

Back to school

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FRENZY on Amazon U.K
FRENZY on Amazon U.S.A
FRENZY on Amazon Germany
FRENZY on Amazon Canada
FRENZY on Amazon India
FRENZY on Nook
Frenzy for the rest of the world
Mark King on Goodreads.
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Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king











At last the children are back to school. The summer holidays can be great to start with especially when you have a trip abroad to look forward to as we did with out week in Tunisia; but by the end of the six and a half week break things were getting a bit tense in the family. The rain had returned and the sky was grey, and after spending so much time outside on holiday everyone soon gets bored when you are stuck inside.

This is when the local library is a great asset and we are lucky to have one not far from where we live. It runs various events during the holidays for children and we got ours involved in the Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge. They loved it and returned with hand fulls of books which kept their minds active, and more importantly our sanity intact. It's a shame when local authorities take the easy route to saving money in these chaste times by shutting down libraries. I know we now have use of the Internet, but it just isn't the same as a visit to building full of books, and the wonder there is to be found. The little ones love playing games on the Internet and also watching shows and sites on it, but they just don't interact with a machine as much as you do when you spend time looking through selves of books and comics.

As a writer you would expect me to want every child to have access to a book be it one you hold in your hands or one you can read on a computer or Kindle, but it goes deeper than that. It's the experience, the anticipation, the challenge, the wonder, the enjoyment and the feeling of sharing a community asset that makes such a visit so special. For children the local library is the first stepping stone to regular reading and ultimately leads to an adult using a Kindle or Nook to read. This leads them to paying for the pleasure and thus makes lots of money for companies like Amazon.

So on a business note I would think it would be in the interest of all the big publishing houses and book sellers to make sure local library's aren't closed down, and if this means they invest just a very small teeny bit of their profit towards helping to keep them alive then I think it's a long term investment worth making for them.

Regards

Mark

Reynard City the comic

Postings every week

Links to

FRENZY on Amazon U.K
FRENZY on Amazon U.S.A
FRENZY on Amazon Germany
FRENZY on Amazon Canada
FRENZY on Amazon India
FRENZY on Nook
Frenzy for the rest of the world
Mark King on Goodreads.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king




I was asked by the editor of the on-line comic series Reynard City to do a guest blog and below is the end result. It is truly amazing the talent that the internet allows to be expressed and all the comic team at Reynard City are a good example of that. So do please read the article and enjoy my replies to their questions.

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Category Archives: Blog

09/09/2014

Mark King guest blog

By Will Turner

Mark King is our latest sponsor and the author of Frenzy: A Daniel Jones Story. If you would like a promotional guest blog email us reynardcity@gmail.com (Sponsors get priority)



 What is Frenzy about?
Frenzy is a dystopian novel based in the very near future for Y/A, and adults alike that can be enjoyed by both male and female readers of any age from 11 to 100. It’s a fast paced story that will be enjoyed by anyone who likes Adventure Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction or Horror Fiction as in contains elements of all four. It’s based around a terrible secret found out by Daniel Jones that brings his life as he knew it to an end, and thus begins the adventure as he stumbles across the two female characters Mary and Gwendolyn. Between the three they fight to survive against the Over-seers the new masters of humanity.

What/who are your influences?
George Orwell was a big influence especially with his two classic books 1984 and Animal Farm. Another writer is Ken Follett. I love how George Orwell can write in such a way as to tell an interesting story that has a deeper meaning within. With 1984 and Animal Farm he is writing about the dangers of how dictatorships rise and how they then stay in power, and this is the same with my writing of Frenzy a Daniel Jones Story. With Ken Follett I like how his writing can suddenly burst in a frenetic energy of excitement and this is something you will find time and time again in both Frenzy, and its sequel Daniel Jones Doom.

How did you get into writing?
I was inspired to complete FRENZY a Daniel Jones story after the sudden death of father-in-law. At the time I was in paid full time employment, and always thought I would write a book once I had retired, but the whole horrible event taught me that you must do what you want to do now; because you never know what is around the corner, and we only get one chance on this wonderful planet. So I resigned from the company and gave myself a target of two years to get FRENZY published which I achieved. I was also inspired by someone else and there is a dedication in the front of my book that gives a clue to his identity.

How do you prepare yourself before you write (what is your routine)?
My writing is my living so I try to keep to regular hours and days like you would if working for an employee; so normally I’m at my laptop writing from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday then use the weekends as time for promotional work only; communicating with fans through my Twitter account and also on Goodreads plus Facebook. I also write a weekly blog at always-hanging-around.blogspot were people can keep up with my life. Sometimes though you can wake up at midnight with your mind buzzing, and then I find I’m sitting in the quite of the night writing sometimes my most exciting work!

Is there any advice you would give for people who want to write?
The best advice I can give is be prepared for disappointment! It starts from the very beginning when you ask people to review your first manuscript asking them to give you an honest answer. Don’t be surprised when they do, and tell you that what you thought was the greatest story ever told is just not their cup of tea! It carries on through getting rejection after rejection from agents and publishers. The other piece of advice is never to give up,keep going. If you have made the commitment, have the belief in your manuscript and are prepared to listen to advice, you will make it!

What book do you wish you had written?
That’s easy 1984. George Orwell was so right about us all ending up one day living under constant surveillance even though most people in the U.K, and gradually around the rest of the world, don’t know it or refuse to admit it. The only thing was that it took until 2004 until the tipping point was reached with C.C.T.V on every corner and the internet invading the privacy of our own homes.

Who would be on your superhero team?
The heroes of my youth were Superman and Wonder Woman and would make it into the team. Today there are new heroes for a new generation like the characters in Reynard City and these would have to make into a team of superhero team (Aw shucks, thanks!)

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Russell Crowe would be my favourite although in my youth when I had a flat-top hair style and worked out in the gym people used to say that Arnold Schwarzenegger looked a lot like me, although these days I look more like the actor Ray Winstone!

What are your plans for the future?
I have finished the manuscript to the sequel to Frenzy (Daniel Jones Doom) and it will be published by the end of the year or early in 2015. After that I want to carry on writing more stories. In fact I want to write for the rest of my life until my maker calls my number, and it’s time to check out!

Frenzy: A Daniel Jones Story is available now on Amazon. If you want to know more or have your own questions for Mark King follow him on Twitter or check out his blog!
Also a big foxy thanks to Mark for donating a signed copy of Frenzy: A Daniel Jones story to our raffle!

Buy Frenzy now at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Frenzy-Mark-King/dp/1846248779

Tunisian Dreams

Postings every week

Links to

FRENZY on Amazon U.K
FRENZY on Amazon U.S.A
FRENZY on Amazon Germany
FRENZY on Amazon Canada
FRENZY on Amazon India
FRENZY on Nook
Frenzy for the rest of the world
Mark King on Goodreads.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king








I woke up just past midnight on Thursday morning. I had just been through a disturbing dream. It wasn't so much a nightmare, but the ending I didn't like. I was in the parachute regiment travelling in the air on a glider on a secret mission. The type of glider used during the second world war. My fellow solders consisted of the cast from the American television comedy series The Big Bang Theory! But also on the glider was my young son and another child who both sat in front of me. Next to them was a side door that wasn't shut properly and kept swinging open. As we were flying over the North Sea my son kept leaning out of the glider trying to grab the door so he could shut it. I kept telling him to leave it alone and finally my concern for his safety made me react. I ordered him and the other child to swap places with me. As they did so the other child fell over and my son tripped over his out stretched feet then tumbled out of the open side door, and fell thousands of feet into the water below as the plane carried on flying. In that split second I had to decided if to carry on with my mission, or to dive out the glider after him.

At that moment I woke up. The memory was so vivid it took me about 30 seconds to find out it was just a dream, but I still had a terrible feeling in my belly. I got up and quietly walked through to my son's bedroom, and there he was fast asleep in his bed. I wanted to give him a cuddle. In fact I wanted to wake him and tell him how much I loved him as well, but I didn't, I was just glad he was safe and sound.

When I went back to bed I couldn't get to sleep. It made me think that at that very moment in time as I laid my head down; somewhere in the world there would be a father like me who had just lost a child because of one of the violent conflicts or wars that seem to be a constant in human history. I thought about the horrible events with the recent be-heading of two men by the son's of Satan that are using the name of religion to justify their own evil. I thought about the poor civilians caught up in fights they want nothing to do with, but are having to pay the price by loosing loved ones in the name of pointless human aggression.

My final thoughts turned to our recent family holiday in Tunisia and to a report I had read in the local paper about foreign fighters who have joined the Islamic State now fighting in Iraq and Syria. The authorities in the U.K are getting themselves into a right mess, and muddle, over what to do with the hand full of British citizens who have now flown out to join the fight. As normal it seems to be an excuse to take away more rights from the people, and to give more power to the authorities who now control us.

What was most worrying about the report was the nation that was listed at the very top for the number of their own citizens who had joined the Islamic state as fighters. The clear winner with thousands upon thousands of volunteers was Tunisia! Yes the very same country my family and I had just spent a wonderful week in. I couldn't believe it. The staff in the hotel were well educated with most speaking French, English and Arabic, and looked and acted what we would consider to be western ways.

So I wonder what will happen to Tunisia once all these radicalised fighters come flooding back to their home land? Will they be happy to see their fellow countrymen, especially the women, dare to dream and want a western lifestyle? Or more importantly will they be happy with a pasty white English family coming over to frolic in the sun and enjoy the delights of an all-inclusive holiday?

Regards

Mark

Tunisia Part Three (up,up and away)

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Links to

FRENZY on Amazon U.K
FRENZY on Amazon America
FRENZY on Amazon Germany
FRENZY on Amazon Canada
FRENZY on Amazon India
FRENZY on Nook
Frenzy for the rest of the world
Mark King on Goodreads.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king










It started with the soup!

I had decided I would start with a bowl of soup before every evening meal so I wouldn't be so tempted to over-fill my plate when I visited the buffet bar. It was day four and so far the family had been able to miss the dreaded deli-belly. I'm not a great lover of spicy food and the soup didn't taste too spicy that evening as I enjoyed it with some bread rolls, but once it had settled my belly began to burn.

Now you do have to take a risk with eating soup in an all-inclusive hotel because there is a good chance it has been made with the left overs from lunch, and it could have been the case on this occasion, or it may have just been made with a local, and very hot spice! By the time I had finished and had made my way to the poolside bar I was suffering from indigestion. Even a couple of cold beers couldn't quench the fire that was flaming in my gut and in the morning my back-side was on fire too.

Deli-belly, the runs, squits, call it what you like, but one thing I wouldn't call it is enjoyable. My good lady had packed the medical kit and over the remaining holiday I used up all the tablets packed for such an emergency. In fact two weeks after my return I still hadn't made a full recovery and had to make the odd emergency visit to the loo. The flight home was the biggest worry as anyone who has been in the same situation will know. But like the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.

The wife and daughter wanted to go paragliding and had been bugging me to try it out. Now I don't like heights and I didn't want to go up. I know I say I will try anything once, and if I like it I will try it again, and if I don' then I won't, but on this occasion I had an excuse. 

Yes; you have guest it. I told them both I would have done it, but I couldn't take the risk of getting caught sort stuck up hundreds of feet above the Mediterranean sea just in case I had a call of nature. 

The wife and daughter went up, up and away together as seen in the above picture while the son and I rode in the speed boat that dragged them out to sea. We got soaking wet and the boy enjoyed the experience as much my daughter. I just hope when he is a little bit older he doesn't bug me to take him up. If he does then I will have to eat plenty of soup and hope for the worse.

Regards

Mark