Friday, 31 October 2014

Two stabs at the heart

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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.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king










last Sunday was my birthday and all I wanted after the recent events was a quite family get to together in my home. My step-father had passed away the previous Sunday and with his cremation service only a few days away I was in no mood for celebrations.

Then I received a call from my sister just after I had opened all my presents and cards while in bed with my wife and two children snuggled up by my side. She was in tears and her voice struggled to release the news she had for me. My niece had lost her baby. She had been pregnant and it was a small ray of light on the  low horizon of doom that had engulfed all our lives recently. My sister would have become a granny for the first time and my mum would have had her first grand child. The child's birth wouldn't have taken away the pain my mum is going through in loosing Tadger, but it would have a least soothed her agony.

The service on Tuesday went to plan with plenty of people attending and the wake at the Kind Alfred pub was a traditional British affair. I thought that after this I would be able to cheer myself up and start to get back to some sort of normal life, but how wrong have I been again. The numbness just won't go away and it's a struggle to leave my home at the moment. Tonight my team Norwich City F.C are playing Bolton at Carrow Road with the game being beamed live on the television. Normally I would be looking forward to having a Friday night out with my friends afterwards, hopefully celebrating a home win, but I just don't fancy it. I'm going to drive to the ground and carry out my steward duties and then come straight home.

How things seem to be going at the moment I expect Norwich to loose the game. In fact I don't care what happens tonight, all I care about is being with my family, especially the senior members because my life seems to be hurtling along so quickly before I know it they will all be gone, and then my time will be up.

Regards

Mark


Saturday, 25 October 2014

Name change

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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.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king





My Step-father's cremation will take place at 10.30 am in Gorleston next Tuesday the 28th. Afterwards a wake is being held at the King Alfred Pub in Carlton Colville. That was the easy bit to sort out, the hardest bit has been contacting all the firms, and organisations, that hold his details and which either need to be changed over to my mums name, or deleted completely. My mother is in such a daze at the moment she's unable to carry out the simplest of tasks so I have taken on the duties of sorting out the bureaucracy. 

And what a merry-go-round has this been!

All the bills and documents are in my step-fathers name as is traditional for that generation, so I phoned them up, and with every one of them I got through to that annoying number system. "please pick one of the following six options" then after picking one hoping it would put you in the right direction you then hear again "please pick one of the following five options"; and just as you thought you might get through to a human I got through to a third set instructions, "please pick of the following three options". I found it so frustrating because after going though it all you were then asked to talk to a computer which asked me to give personal information as a security measure, and as I didn't know this information because it went to the grave with my step-father I couldn't go any further. I would have to start the whole process again hoping if I pressed a different number option I would finally get through to a human voice who could help me.

In most cases once I was able to speak to someone they were able to do what was required and occasionally I had to send off a copy of the death certificate; although I must add the worst institution was the Television Licence office who refused to do anything over the phone and insisted everything has to be done by snail mail. Their attitude was what you would have expected in the 1940's.

What was most upsetting about the whole process, and also the most worrying, were the mistakes made by the people at the other end of the telephone. As an example my mother received a letter from a government department that had been contacted which stated "Dear Mr Cassidy we are sorry to hear about the loss of Mr Cassiday! So I would have to go through the operation again to get the mistakes corrected. I have been encountering problems again and again as the changes we requested to be made start to filter through the system. As the saying goes with computers "you put garbage in you get garbage out."

If you think about the billions of bits of information that are added to computer systems of one sort or another around the world on a daily bases. If you then factor in the high percentage rate of mistakes made by the people who are inputting this information, and which is never corrected, since electronic systems started to take over our lives thirty years ago, it does beg the question.

If so much of what is held on computers is corrupted should we place so much faith on what we are told in this digital age?

Regards

Mark


Friday, 17 October 2014

William Cassidy

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FRENZY on Amazon U.K
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FRENZY on Amazon Germany
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Frenzy for the rest of the world
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Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king





My mobile phone rang around 6 am on the morning of Sunday the 12th October 2014. It was on the floor next to my bed as I slept. Before I even answered it I knew it could only mean one thing because no one phones you at that time of morning unless they have something major to tell you. Still half a sleep my voice had a tremble in its wake as I answered its ring with a simple word "Hello." 

My auntie was on the other end and she was straight to the point. "Tadger has passed away." That's the nickname my step-father William Cassidy has been known by for many years and which morphed into the character Badger in both Frenzy a Daniel Jones Story, and also in  the sequel Daniel Jones Doom that comes out later this year. 

I couldn't say much and within the minute the call was finished, and then my tears began to flow. The wife could sense what had happened and followed. The grief that wafted through our bedroom woke up my daughter who came into our room concerned. She kept asking what was wrong and when I finally steadied myself enough to tell her the news it sent her into a fit of crying and howls. Finally all the commotion woke my young son and he too came into our bedroom asking what was wrong. When we told him his reaction was totally different. He turned without saying a word and then walked calmly back to his own room, climbed back into bed and then hid under his sheets, refusing all requested to come back.

We all handle grief and sad news in different ways, but the one constant is that it feels as if our own world had changed for ever.

The wife and I, and the children had visited Tadger the afternoon before he passed away in the James Pagent Hospital in Gorleston. Two weeks that's all it had taken! Two weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. That Saturday night after our visit to see him there was a terrible thunder storm that sent out lightning flashing across the sky, and as I stood looking out of the kitchen window I knew something was going to happen within the next 24 hours that would cause me a lot of pain. It reminded me of the scene that unfolded when Jesus died on the cross and I knew then that God was coming to take my step-father's soul back to where it belongs.

This week has been terrible, but I have been thankful that William Cassidy has been part of my life. At the time when I was only my son's age, and my parents divorced, I found it just as hard then as I do now to cope with the loss that I now feel; but since my late teens I have been grateful, and have considered myself very lucky, to have two mums and two dads. Tadger never had any children of his own so I was always treated as his only son. I've appreciated this fact even more since I have two children of my own because they have had the luxury of having at some point in their lives six grand parents who have shown them nothing but love.

I have handled many funerals at the local parish church and one constant you always hear during the service is when adults stand to say a few words. They normally lament, and wished, they had spent more time with the person that now lay in the coffin next to them. This is one thing I won't have to say because I have always enjoyed family life and have tried over the years to spend, and do as many things as possible, with all my family.




All I can say to all of you out there who are reading this blog is that you never know when the thunder storm is heading towards someone you love. So go and enjoy their life now before it's too late.

Regards

Mark

Friday, 10 October 2014

Horror society

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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
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Frenzy for the rest of the world
Mark King on Goodreads.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king


The last seven days my life has resembled a horror story as my step-father gets weaker by the day. We took the children to see him and it was hard not to cry in front of them. I thought it apt that my latest review was published on the web site,HorrorSociety.com. With my mind so preoccupied with family affairs I for once was stumped on what to writer about; so I though it fit to post the review onto today's copy of always-hanging-around.

For the last few days I have lost interest in going to the gym, surfing my on line sites like Twitter, Facebook, linkedin etc and even going out in general. That's the thing with cancer, it effects not only the person involved but all their loved ones as well. What has really got to me lately are the constant adds on the television from various organisations linked with cancer trying to get your money. What a con they all are. As I stated in one of my first ever blog posts cancer is an industry that has consumed billions of pounds over the last 120 years keeping hundreds of thousands of people in employment and with all of this humanity is no closer to solving this problem than the Victorians. But then again do we really want to find a cure? The only way to stop cancer is to stop cells dividing and as that's the building block to all life the person who has this knowledge will then have power over all living things on this planet.

Now that's a horror story yet to be invented.

Regards
Mark



FRENZY a Daniel Jones Story

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Frenzy-3-v2
There is always that first book that starts off a new genre which will lead over the following decades to many off shoots and spin offs from it. Just think of Graham
tThere is always that first book that starts off a new genre which will lead over the following decades to many off shoots and spin offs from it. Just think of Graham Stoker’s Dracula that first brought Vampires to the Victorian reading public, and which today is as popular a theme as ever, especially for T.V. From Roberts Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide through, to Zombies, to Werewolf’s, to killer dolls; they all started from a very first book. With FRENZY a Daniel Jones Story we have a new genre in the Over-seers which will over the coming years lead to numerous copycat stories.
Without giving the game away about who, or what, the Over-seers are the focus falls on the top quality of the story telling. There are 220 pages with every one packed with a vivid writing style that paints a wonderfully clear picture in your mind as the story unfolds. The first dramatic chapter is just one and half pages and sets the scenes perfectly. After this you are introduced to Daniel Jones a teenager full of confidence in the path his life is going to lead until he stumbles over the terrible truth about the Over-seers in a chapter so gory you will wake up in the night in a cold sweet. A new ruling class that are treated as the saviours of humanity, but Daniel knows the truth, and the Over-seers know he knows! He has no choice but to go to the run to save his life, and to protect his family. Near to death he is saved by Gwendolyn, a fiery girl of similar age, she introduces him to Mary who becomes the mother figure within the trio.
The adventure begins as all three are forced to flee on a journey to find the one thing that could protect them while being chased by Hunters. Groups of people who live by no laws other than the Seven Procedures and who do the Over-seers dirty work. Along the way there are moments of sheer terror and plenty of blood is spilt. The final chapter is as dramatic as the first with the whole story being a page turner that will leave you wanting more.
Mark King follows in the great writing style of Horror and Suspense novels that made Stephen King such a hit. It can be down loaded on Kindle, Nook and iTunes and hard copies can be purchased on Amazon. Recommend FRENZY a Daniel Jones Story by Mark King to your friends because it is unique in that although it is full of blood and guts; it is also great fun to read. Now you don’t get that very often!at u it is also great fun to read. Now you don’t get that very often!

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About Mitchell Wells

Mitchell Wells
Head Freak in Charge of Horror Society. Self proclaimed Horror Movie Freak, Tech Geek, love indie films and all around nice kinda guy!! - Email Me HERE
      





Friday, 3 October 2014

A smack on the nose

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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.
FRENZY Facebook Page
Email markkingtheauthor@gmail.com
@author_king











There were so many different things I could have chosen this week to talk about on always-hanging-around. The week started of badly when I pulled a muscle in my back why jogging at the gym and then on Monday I couldn't get to sleep. I'm working my way through the editor's copy of Daniel Jones Doom and it was in my head. I laid in bed thinking about it while tossing and turning. I finally got out of bed at 12.30 am, and then spent the rest of the night sitting in the lounge with the laptop on.

Tuesday didn't get any better. I was exhausted, but had to help with a funeral service at the the parish church before heading to Carrow Road the home of Norwich City F.C to carry out my steward duties. I work in the away section and that night we played a team for  south London called Charlton Athletic. Norwich played their socks off and were all over the other team. We had a goal disallowed and should have been awarded two penalties. But as I say there is always a but, and in the dying minutes of the game Charlton counter attacked and scored a goal. The away fans next to me went wild and I could feel the anger winding up inside. By the time I got home I was ready for bed but the lights didn't go out until midnight and then the dear wife didn't feel too well so by 1.30pm we were both up again. In fact I didn't get another nights sleep so by Wednesday afternoon I was at least 14 hours short of what I would have normally enjoyed.

It could only get better I thought, but once again the but came in, and how wrong was I! 

I got a phone call with some news. It concerned my step-father, someone who I am very close to. It was to inform me that he had liver cancer. He had been ill for some months and looked more poorly by the week, but the news was horrendous. It was a smack on the nose as hard as I have ever suffered, and I've had the odd smack there; believe me.

My voice started to wobble as I tried to hold back the tears, but it was no good, and I had no choice but to drop the phone; it landed on my lap. My step father's name is William Cassidy although he has always been known as Tadger. For readers of Frenzy a Daniel Jones story you will know him as Badger because this character is based on Tadger. In Daniel Jones Doom the sequel you get to see more of Badger and the friendship he has with Daniel's father John. The phone call is just the first chapter in my personal story that will now unfold over the next few months. Not only for me but also for my mother, and all the other family members, and friends who love Tadger.

We haven't told the children but are taking them over on Sunday to see him. Life can be good but when you receive news like this about a loved one nothing you do seems to take away the numb feeling that take holds of all your senses. You eat but you don't taste, you drink but you don't get jolly, you look but you don't take anything in, you listen but you don't hear what is being said. We aren't the only people now going through this experience and if you are too then I can honestly say I don't know what words will make you feel any better at this moment in time.

Regards

Mark