Back to school, but not for long.

Postings every week

Links to books

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

The children went back to school after the Christmas break on the 5^th of January and although it was a hectic, but enjoyable, holiday I was glad to get back to some normality. I sat down enjoying the piece and quite with a hot mug of tea answering questions to my latest interview for my new book, Daniel Jones Doom, on my laptop when the wife set down some old letters next to me.

She had decided it was time to go through them and recycle some. Most were letters from various groups and the school with dates and information on them. One she did keep had all the school holiday terms for 2015 and when she left the room to answer the phone I took a quick peek at it. I looked and then took a double take at the dates. The next holiday term was only six weeks away! Six weeks, that’s it! As a parent the school holidays seem to come around too quickly, but as a child I remembered it seemed the other way around, and took ages to arrive.

We had one week’s grace before all the groups the children attend started and King’s taxi service had to resume which felt like a small luxury, but one we knew would not last for long. As they grow older more things spike their interest and the more things they like to try. This only means more groups they potentially want to attend, and so the more time us parents have to sacrifice to full fill these new desires. On the one hand it’s great for any child’s development, but on the other it can be hard work, not just with your time, but also financially, but it’s something well worth making the sacrifice for.  

Regards

Mark.

2015

Postings every week

Links to books

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








The decorations are down and packed away for another year. The family lounge now looks bare and with the grey, and cold, wintry weather blustering outside it's not the time to look back over 2014 with negative eyes, but to look forward to 2015 with positive eyes.

The children are back to school so now for a short period during the day there is enough piece and quite to concentrate on the all the hard work involved that all authors do in self promoting their works, and with the release of Daniel Jones Doom at the end of December their is plenty of work for me to do.

Christmas was hectic, but enjoyable, although when I climbed the stepladders on a cold Sunday morning to take down the outside fairy lights I was glad it was all over. There are only so many nuts, chocolate, sweats and cheese you can eat before the thought of a hard workout in the gym becomes ever more appealing by the minute.

So here we are. 2015 has arrived. You can never tell what the future holds although history can give a sneaky preview. All I know for certain is that the up and coming year will have high moments and also low moments. I just pray there will be more highs than lows.

What I also wish for is that all my readers at Always-hanging-around will be with me for the following year as we travel through life together. Also that you all enjoy reading Daniel Jones Doom, and that it brings you as much pleasure at it brought me in writing the manuscript and bringing this story into being, and the characters alive.

I know one other thing and that's life won't be dull in the King household during the next year.

So I wish you, your family and your friends all the best for 2015, and may your highs be many and your lows be few.

Regards

Mark

   

Another one done and dusted

Postings every week

Links to books

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.

Christmas Frenzy

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

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

Here comes 2015

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

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.

And before you know it Christmas will be here.

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

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

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