Always hanging around

Saturday, 20 December 2014

Another one done and dusted

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FRENZY on Amazon U.K
DOOM on Amazon U.K

FRENZY on Amazon U.S.A
DOOM om Amazon U.S.A

FRENZY on Amazon Germany
DOOM on Amazon Germany

FRENZY on Amazon Canada
DOOM 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 am proud to announce the release of my new book Daniel Jones Doom the long awaited sequel to frenzy a Daniel Jones story. As you can see by the header above I have inserted the links to the book for my readers not just in the U.K but In America and other countries too. The book is available in digital format and at a special introduction price. Daniel Jones Doom is also available in paper back and a limited edition hard back version should be released soon. To co-inside with the release the cover price for the Kindle version of Frenzy a Daniel Jones story has also been reduced to match.

The New Year will soon be here and by February 2015 it will be four years since that day when I emailed my resignation to the company operations director explaining my reasons for giving them my notice. It was still the height of the financial crises and the world was still on a tight rope. The world order could have collapsed into a frenzy of mayhem (and it may still!), but I was determined to become a author, and now four years later I have two books published that are available for sale in over twenty countries.

By the time the date arrives where I can celebrate my fourth anniversary as an author I plan to have started writing my next book. It will be the third in the Daniel Jones series, and I plan to keep to the fast pace unique style of writing that my readers have come to love. New characters will arrive and like the previous two books a beloved character will go. No one character is safe from the author’s cut, even Daniel Jones himself, because I don’t want the books to become predictable.

The last four years have been full of lows and highs, but to be truthful there have been more lows than highs. In fact for any author that’s new it’s a constant struggle to get established. For every high I would say there are ten low points; a constant stream of rejections, no shows and failures. I’m still not there and have a long way to go, but as Sir Winston Churchill once said. ‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning.’

So I still have a long way to go and probable that’s the best part of it because I still have plenty of dreams to follow, and hope, like one day seeing my books on the big screen, and according to some reviews for Frenzy this could be a good possibility one day. But until that day arrives another of Churchill’s quotes is in my head. ‘My rule of life prescribed an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also drinking of alcohol, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between.’

So with this in mind I’m heading to my local pub the Fat Cat and Canary at lunch time because my football team, Norwich City F.C are playing away at Derby County, and it’s live on the Television. So I don’t care what the health lobby say because if it’s good enough for the great man Churchill then it is good enough for me.

Regards

Mark

P.s As this is the last post before Christmas I just want to wish you peace and joy during this festive season and to remember the true power of Love.

Saturday, 13 December 2014

Christmas Frenzy

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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

It's a hectic time of year for anyone with a young family as we hurtle through this festive season. Every single group seems to want to put on something special to celebrate Christmas, and with the school there seems to be something different every week that needs to be done because of some event they are putting on. From the Christmas fair, nativity plays, parties, there is always something we have to make for the children, or send them to school in some special clothing. When you add on all the after school clubs like Beavers, Guilds, football, athletics, music, it goes on and on, and so does the stress and expense for us parents.

Gifts for the stalls and prizes for the draws, cakes and costumes for the shows, and then there is the taxi service as you shuffle not only your own children, but others too whose parents can't do it because of work reasons, or they just can't get any child cover for their other children. By the end of Christmas it leaves us looking towards the New Year and hopefully a short break before the school term begins once again.

Schools in Norfolk close on the 19th and all the clubs my children attend stop as well as the wonderful volunteers who give their time for free get a well-deserved break. Then the real excitement begins as they both wait eagerly for the big day. My daughter may be too old now to truly believe in Father Christmas, although not that old she will totally dismiss it, but my son is still a firm believer in the power of Santa.

As the verger at the parish church the little ones still know the true meaning of Christmas as a time to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, and that it's not just a time for self-interested consumerism. The local schools' naivety plays were held within the church building, and we will hopefully find time to visit one of the two Crib services on Christmas Eve. My daughter will be singing in the church carol service a week on Sunday with the whole family attending, and it's during moments like this that the real spirit of Christmas fills your soul with joy.

I think if you celebrate Christmas although you consider yourself a non-practising Christian, then you should try out just one of the many different types of services held over the festive period, because it just adds a little warmth within your heart during these cold nights and days.

Regards

Mark

Saturday, 6 December 2014

Here comes 2015

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As we hurtle towards 2015 and January looks at us with all its winter glory we can’t but help to take time to not only look forward to what may happen in 2015, especially with New Year Resolutions, but also backwards to what happened in 2014. We all do it even if it’s only for a few brief moments, and it’s almost impossible to escape it in the media from news shows to papers, to magazines and even the radio will host a series of retrospective features about the last twelve months.

There is still Christmas to look forward too, and this weekend the family will be putting up the tree and festive decorations. Traditionally since the children have been born they will help the dear wife to dress the tree, while I’m outside up the step ladder setting up the lights. We don’t go made with the decorations especially the outside ones, but we do like to dress the house in a tasteful manner. We also like to use things that nature provides for free this time of year. So I will go on the hunt in the local area for holly and other bushes that are in fruit with an assortment of coloured berries. And of course we also have mistletoe which we normally buy from Norwich Market.

We also use Christmas cards we receive to decorate the home. We tie some string on the walls and hang them on it. Even in this day and age of the Internet with digital x-mas messages we still receive about 120-140 traditionally printed cards. They make a wonderful site with all the various designs, and shapes, and many different themes. It also cheers the heart when you sit there looking at them, and think how lucky we are to be thought of by some many people that they will take the time to pay for, write out, and then post a card to us. The children now get a lot from their friends and they will spend an enjoyable afternoon writing their own ones out together.

I’m hoping after the recent deaths in the family that the Christmas factor with all the decorations and general jolliness of this festive period will lighten the mood that has depressed my heart over the last two months. I also have the up and coming release of Daniel Jones DOOM the sequel to my last book FRENZY a Daniel Jones story to look forward. Two years of hard work will hopefully be on sale by the 1^st of January 2015.

The publishers have stated the book is now at the printers and that the digital version will be available for sale on Kindle soon. Frenzy came out in just hard back and digital, but this time Daniel Jones DOOM will be out in paperback as well as the other two formats. After the success of Frenzy a Daniel Jones story not just in the U.K but also in America, Canada and even non English speaking countries like Germany I am confident that Daniel Jones Doom will increase even more the fan base for my style of writing. So once 2015 arrives I will then be starting my next book and in a years’ time I hope to still be writing my blog here at always-hanging-around, and that you the readers from all around the world will still enjoy reading it.

Regards

Mark.

Friday, 28 November 2014

And before you know it Christmas will be here.

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No matter how much you try to ignore the on rush of Christmas which seems to run from the 1st of October to the 1st of January if you are to believe the adverts in the media; the harder it becomes as the first few adverts that appear becomes a deluge before the big day arrives. For the children it's the time of year for writing their Christmas list and which will keep them occupied, and happy, on a rainy Sunday afternoon as they ponder the delights of the presents they want.

Now as they get older the days are gone when colouring pens, books on Bob the Builder and fairy stories, or small cars and simple board games topped their lists. Now it’s mobile phones, iPads, a pet dog, gaming machines plus all the games that go with them and money too. The more time they sit, nice and quiet, scribbling away the longer the lists becomes, and the more poor old Santa Claus will have to work over time to pay off all his elves.

This change didn't happen slowly as the years passed, but came about this year. Suddenly that little baby you once cuddled in your arms becomes a little child, and then suddenly they become grown up children, and before you know it they will be teenagers. I ponder to think what their lists will be like then. Maybe Santa will have to exchange his poor little old slay for a gleaming new big four by four to carry all those gifts? Now that would be a present indeed and one Father Christmas truly deserves! Of course there is always the mince pie and sherry (a big double measure) for him to look forward to until that day arrives.

Today in the U.K we have been hit by a shopping craze that first appeared a year or two ago and this year has hit the nation like a fist in the face. It was imported from America and that is Black Friday. The media have been hyping it this year to the point where at 00.01 am this morning people were fighting in the shops in a mad Frenzy to get to shelves so they could spend their money. Police had to be called and in some cases the shops closed so the whole point of the exercise was lost.

Are people mad? Or are we as a species doomed? Or maybe we are both, and thus doomed to destroy ourselves because of our own madness?

Read Frenzy a Daniel Jones Story an the upcoming sequel Daniel Jones Doom and you may just find out the answer.

Regards

Mark

Friday, 21 November 2014

The turn around begings

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

Slowly, very slowly I have have been climbing out of the pit of despair. On Tuesday the burial was held for my niece's child that died during child-birth. The ceremony was held at St Micheal's Church in Oulton Broad. A medieval church that when constructed would have been in a rural parish, but is now on the edge of a major town of Lowestoft that has spread up to it since the 70's.

It was a cold, but sunny day, and the doom could be felt by everyone that turned up. It was a simple service, but one that allowed everyone present to shed their grief. I have now been to two family funerals in the space of two weeks. One a secular cremation for my step-father, and the other a church burial. I must admit that although I shed tears during both ceremonies, I do find a church service more powerful that a secular service. It doesn't matter if you are buried, or cremated, after the church service; I just find that with a religious service when the priest stands there, and talks about the after life, you have more hope that there is a point to life than if you are just there, and here about the good points of somebodies life, which is all they do during a secular service.

Either way it's still two moments in my life I wished I could avoid, but as the saying goes; 'the only two things in life you can't avoid are death and taxes.' This sentence out of all the famous sayings, or words of advice, or doctrine is probable the the most truthful thing of all time. It doesn't matter what religion you believe in, what faith you have, or if you are an atheist, there is no escaping the fact that life comes down to paying tax, for most people, and then death.

I'm sorry if I sound pessimistic today, but when you suffer two deaths in family as close as ours, within seven days, that's how you end up feeling. But then again the family can be more powerful than the tax man, and more powerful than death; because the family lives on from one generation to the next. And that is the whole point of life.

Regards

Mark

Friday, 14 November 2014

DOOM

Postings every week

There I have been sitting at home in self-pity when I was forced to go out. Two funerals had been booked for the Parish Church and as I'm the verger I had to go, and set everything up. So on Thursday morning just after 11 am I arrived to be greeted by a young stranger. He was friendly, but looked out of place standing there in the church with a can in his hand. As other members turned up I found out more information about this chap. Apparently he had arrived a day or two before, and was homeless. He had slept in the porch way of the church and looked in a sorry state. He left the church for the funeral and returned after it, sitting on the back pew with his can of drink in his hand.

I was locking up and stopped by his side as he sat there silently, starring into the oblivion. I was on my way to the cafe on River Green just a few doors down to get something to eat for my lunch. I asked if he eaten today, and then said if he wanted to come with me I would get him something to eat as well. He looked pleased as punched and within a couple of minutes we were talking away. On our arrival I ordered some food to take away and we sat down at a table as we waited for the order to be prepared.

Then he bleed his heart to me. I asked about his life and he let the flood gates open. He was 26 and was in a terrible mental state. He already had various children from various women but never saw them. He had run up rent arrears and admitted to a violent temper that had got him into constant trouble. So I asked the next obvious question. But why?

Then what he told me put my self-pity, and myself in general, into its true place. I thought I had it bad dealing with Tadger's death, but it was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to his life. He was psychical abused by his dad, and even worse his was raped until he was taken into care. Now for anyone who knows about the British care system for children it can be a hell as bad as which the poor children are taken from. The next twelve years of his life seemed to be a constant hell. He had tried to committee suicide at various times and showed me his arms with its many slash/knifes marks.

This Friday there was another funeral and when I arrived to get things set up once again my young friend was there. Once again he kept out of the way of the service. Afterwards the men of community had a talk with him, Us men had got into action, We knew he couldn't spend the winter months sleeping rough, in the the church porch or on the street, and so men had been in contact and things were arranged.

Afterwards I took him out for a quick drink, and talk, in the Rushcutters. Then he headed back to the Church Porch for hopefully his final night. A bed had been found in a hostel, although he didn't want to go I explained it was just a small step in many steps that he will need to take in getting his life back. He had had bad experiences in hostels, but this time there was a difference, this time he had men by his side to help him. Not people there to exploit him, but men there to help him.

And this whole experience brought home how lucky I have been to have certain men in my life, like my step-dad, who have been there for me when my luck has failed me. And this is why the dedication in Daniel Jones DOOM reads as follows.

This book is dedicated to Dennis King, my father; to William Cassidy, my step father; to David Cragg, my father-in-law; and to Andrew Bagshaw, my friend. Four men who have had a positive influence on my life that I shall never forget.

Regards

Mark

Sunday, 9 November 2014

The proof read.

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I would like Daniel Jones Doom to come out for general sale by the end of the year, so need to get cracking on because as the adverts on the television prove; Christmas is only around the corner and the year is fast approaching its final swan song. Before you know it 2014 will turn into 2015. So next week I will be working hard to finish the proof reading, and nothing can be allowed to get in my way, including decorating my son's bedroom. So the wife will have to put on her old jeans and T-short and get covered in paint.

Now that's one job I don't mind not having to do.

Regards

Mark