I am going to be really creative today

I plan a highly constructive day today.

I am getting a tiny bit jealous that my best friend Jake's blog with its tiny daily updates is getting more readers than any of the stories in my library !

My wife is going to be out all day, this evening I am going to watch a performance of Swan Lake by The Royal Ballet so we will pass like ships in the night. It will just be Jake and me at home for most of the day.

Overnight I have received an e-mail from Amazon which basically asks me to pull my finger out and get the first of my stories on to its e-book download site.

I have started to check over my story THE DIARY OF BILLY HARDCASTLE, I have worked through the first three chapters and have eight more to work on. My number one task for today will be to finish this.  I have designed a new cover for the book, I am no artist but I rather like it.

Probably not today but I will then get to grips with the technicalities of Amazon and offer the book for download. I am thinking to make the price 10p which will give me 7p per download after Amazon has taken its commission.  It would be very nice if by 1st March 2018 it had sold 10,000 downloads.

Where's my calculator ? That would give me seven hundred pounds. Not a fortune and I have had to file my tax details with Amazon so at the end of the day I will end up with about half this sum. Still writing for me is a hobby, it is not meant to be money-making.

I am most definitely going to write some more words today for my story FIREBALL XL5. This is something I am doing for my Grandson who is supposedly drawing pictures to illustrate the tale - he hasn't given me anything yet.

I need to chase him up.

Chasing me up are the characters in my third crime busting tale THE HIGHWAYMAN RAPIST.   Sometimes when I write it is as if a character is standing behind me and whispering into my ear. Detective Inspector Dave McDermott is whispering into my ear at the moment. He is telling me I need to make something within the introductory paragraphs clearer. He is also asking me if I am comfortable with the title. Of that I am not sure.

So today if I can sort these three areas of my story library I will have had a good day.

Over the week-end I started to tidy up my garden after the winter and prepare it for its summer glory. Today I want to fix a fence in the vegetable plot then way over the other side I want to prepare the opening of my summer house which has been closed all winter.

Roald Dahl had a shed in his garden where he sat to write his books

I am not a millionaire author as was Roald Dahl but my summer house is a lot better place all round than the "shed" on the left. My summerhouse, which I built with my own fair hands two years ago, is here below.

I can't wait until the weather gets warmer, until the garden stars to take on its summer look, then I can move my laptop to the summer house and work there.

Well I had better get on I suppose.

So that's my day planned.

Should be a good one.

Hope your is just as great.


THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER

New Diary Page

Every Monday I publish a NEW DIARY PAGE - do please have a read.

Monday - the start of the week. Here's my thought for today.

Make sure you have a GREAT one.

THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER

Have a wonderful Sunday

I am feeling so happy. I had a great night's sleep. Woke up and told my wife I love her.

Taken my best friend Jake for for his morning walk.

I have been into the garden and fed the birds.

I am now about to cook breakfast - full English !  bacon, mushrooms, fried bread - the lot.  This is going to be a lovely day.

I hope yours will be the same.

THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER

Jake's Doggie Blog

Have you read my STORY ?

I also write a BLOG.  This is today's entry.

Sunday 26th February 2017

Yesterday David went to the supermarket and spent some money on a beautiful piece of beef. I could smell it the moment he brought the shopping into the car but when he started to cook it the whole house filled with the rich aroma of roast beef. David always cooks beef in the slow cooker the day before he and Maureen plan to eat it. It was torture having to smell that lovely meat and not being able to eat it.

At supper time David carved a slice to make a sandwich and test the beef. I followed him into the kitchen and begged. I would test it for him. I know just how to play David, Maureen is not quite so easy. He cut a second bit off the delicious meat and popped it into his mouth. I could have kissed him !

I watched him switch the slow cooker off and leave the pot to cool. I knew that in the morning, when it came to wash up, I would be there to help. David always lets me clean the bowl of the slow cooker. So after my early morning walk today I undertook the task.

Calling it as I see it.

When I started my WEEKLY DAIRY I set out to tell it as I see it, to praise that which is good while naming and shaming that which I believe hurts our country.

I began the diary with a feature reporting on service providers. At the the end of 2016 I named Argos as retailer of the year. I still think the British retail establishment could learn a lot from Argos.

I still believe Britain's most despicable service provider is BT.

Dreadful operation !

I have stopped including this feature in my diary but started to use a fantastic reviewing website TRUST PILOT.

I try to post only positive reviews but now and then I need to make an exception. This morning is such an exception.

Yesterday evening I had to drive to a godforsaken hole by the name of Luton.

I was asked to pick a couple of people from a flight landing in what just has to be Britain's worst airport. The operators of this dunp call it London Luton Airport but trust me it is nowhere near London.

I today posted a scathing but true review of this horrible place on TrustPilot. This is what I had to say.

Do not be confused by the name it tries to use - LONDON Luton Airport is nowhere near London ! This is a delusion of grandeur gone a bit too far. In reality Luton Airport is a runway within a building site on a hill overlooking Britain's most unfashionable town. I only hope the pilots of the aircraft have a better understanding of geography than do the operators of this terrible place.

Car parking charges are a rip off AND SOME. When you have parked you then play the game - FIND THE TERMINAL. It is unbelievable. No proper signing as you clamber miles through rubble and excavation in a giant building site. Inside this unfriendly airport there were no staff anywhere to be found, no help NO NOTHING. They had all probably gone to London trying to find the place !

I have awarded this place one star but in reality it deserves one tenth of one star. WHAT A DUMP.

If you are planning a holiday DO NOT let it start and finish at Luton, go to a proper airport.

First thing thins morning before I posted this review 1,425 people had read the reviews I added to TrustPilot. As of the time I am typing up this blog there have been 1,450 people check it out.

Let's see how many have viewed it this time tomorrow.

THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER

Can I write three stories at the same time ?

Yesterday I finished writing my story McDermott's  Next Case. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed working on that and personally I feel it is a better story than Angels Of The Anti Christ which it follows.

The opening words of this story conclude the anti christ tale and the next Dave McDermott crime busting adventure will do the same. David McDermott has now been promoted to Detective Inspector and put in charge of a second Major Incident Team within Thames Valley Police. I have written the opening few paragraphs linking the former story with the new but have not yet decided on the crime to be investigated.

In Angels Of The Anti Christ  we have a serial killer brutally murdering traffic wardens then in McDermott's  Next Case the plans of a kidnapping duo are brought to an end before t

hings really start to turn nasty for their victims.

In both stories there are some nasty adult themes.

I do have an idea for this this Dave McDermott story, give me a few days to mull things over and I will start writing.

Nothing adult in content about my Fireball XL5 story which I am writing as a gift for my seven year old grandson.


Yesterday I added a couple of thousand more words to the tale. The teacher ion me is coming out as I have woven some knowledge building paragraphs into the text.

The story is going to be a little, no a lot, longer than I had anticipated. Adam is going to draw pictures to illustrate the story, over the week-end I want to take the plot along to the point where the spaceship actually takes off on its journey into space then I want Adam to begin drawing.

I am confident that I can manage to write simultaneously both Dave McDermott's next story and Fireball XL5 as they are so totally different in style but my head is bursting with an idea for a supernatural and spine chilling tale, something I have never attempted before.

Yesterday I took up my pen and scribbled the opening few paragraphs into my notepad.

Here they are.

"And so Man created God in his own image," Professor Garwood said in conclusion of his lecture.

Professor Kenneth William Spencer Garwood, world renowned authority on the history and development of religion smiled. Nineteen year old Toby Wolf smiled back. he had an idea.

The Garwood Theory was that there was no supernatural being which people called God. No god of the Christians and no god of the Jews. Allah was just as unreal in the Moslem faith as were the gods of Ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece. Yet they all spiritually did exist in their time, some still did exist. Existence was from the power of man's mind.

Man created God in his own image. Even within the Christian religion God took on different forms. The god of the Roman Catholics was not the god of the Pentecostals and theirs different from the Methodist and Baptists. While man's collective mind also created the Devil his was only one persona, he did not differ from sect to sect. Hell was Hell and the Devil was the Devil.

There is a myth that Adolf Hitler had a team looking into the use of supernatural powers to aid his cause. I do not think that is true, if it were then history would have made far more of it. I think Hitler believed in what I am calling THE GARWOOD THEORY. My story will follow this thought.

Oh My God !  While I was writing the above paragraph an idea burst into my head. The crime Detective Inspector David McDermott will be asked to investigate will be the Dick Turpin Rapes. No, of course, the historical Dick Turpin was not a rapist, he was a highway robber. However, in 2017 his counterpart will be both a highway robber and a serial rapist.

So I will have THREE stories on the go at once. Can I manage this task ?

I must not forget Jake's Diggie Blog. Are you checking out my best friend's story ?  As soon as I have finished this I will be updating it.

Do have a read.

I'd better get cracking then hadn't I.

THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER

McDermott's Next Case

This story is now finished and published:

www.mcdermottsnextcase.com

Do have a read.

Bin Bag Thursday AND a Weather Bomb on the way !

It is foul outside !  Wind - rain and horrible all round. Not going to be outside much today. I've put out the rubbish sacks for collection and got soaked in the rain. Jake has not had his morning walk and I've not yet fed the birds. Grotty day. A grotty day so let's cheer it up.

Here's my THOUGHT FOR TODAY.

Below is my MUSIC TO MAKE YOUR DAY GO WELL - think I will turn the volume up to eleven.

But looking on the bright side I will be able to spend more time at my laptop. I've a lot to do.

Ok - here's the music. Listen to it, enjoy it's happy melody then take it with you and brighten up your day.

OK so what's the news ?

Jakes Blog has been updated so drop in and have a read. See how he got on at Doggie Weight Watchers yesterday.

I am expecting to finish my story DcDermott's Next Case today. There has been a lot of interest and a wide readership and I know many are waiting to know how everything turns out.

I want to write another adventure for Dave McDermott and have some ideas but as yet have not come up with the crime he has to solve.

I will be working on the story I am writing for my grandson, Adam. FIREBALL XL5 but my mind, at the moment, is fast filling with something I mentioned on yesterday's blog entry.

When I wrote, a couple of weeks

ago the first Dave McDermott crime story - ANGELS OF THE ANTI CHRIST I was exploring a brand new genre of writing for me.  I had never before written a crime story even though this is the most popular type of story among readers world-wide. Now I find I am really in to this area of composition and promise Detective Sergeant David McDermott will be returning. I'll let you into a secret - he will soon be Detective Inspector David McDermott !

But back to the idea I bounced round yesterday.

As a teenager my favourite style of reading was horror where good and evil, heaven and hell played off against each other. I particularly liked the writing of Dennis Wheatley. I want to try my hand at this and have come up with an idea for THE FIRES OF HELL.

I'll let the idea develop for a few days then see what I can do with it.

So my pen will be rather busy.

I am sitting at my dining room table looking out of the window into the garden. The rain is lashing down and the wind is battering the trees. I don't think I will stray far from here today.

So I had better get on writing.

Speak again later.

THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER

My Plans For Wednesday

I want to be excited today. Outside the weather is typical February. It was W S Gilbert, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, who described February as a "beastly month". The weather man says we are in for a weather bomb, what ever one of those is, tomorrow so I need my spirit lifting. Let me start with today's MUSIC TO MAKE YOUR DAY GO WELL.

I was a bit late getting up this morning, I am usually up by 4.30am but today it was 5.15am ! Naughty.  I have taken the dogs for their walk - my best friend Jake and his girlfriend Lucy who is staying with us for a week. They have both had their breakgfast.  I've been into the garden and fed the birds. I've put a load of nuts out for the squirrels.  The only person who has not eaten is ME !  I have a fasting blood test at the doctors at 10.40am - that's still THREE HOURS AWAY.  I'm not feeling hungry -YET but by the time the blood has been taken I'll be famished.

Right I need to stop writing for a moment as I have to go and take my grandson to school. Be back in a moment.

Jake always comes with me when we go round to Adam's house to pick him up for school. Here's Jake looking out of the car window for Adam. Today Adam.s brother Oliver came to school as well. he is in the nursery class and goes there twice a week.

Jake has persuaded me to re-start his blog so I'll be doing that when I come back from the school run.  You will be able to read it in JAKE'S STORY.

My story - McDERMOTT'S NEXT CASE is almost fiished.  I know exactly how it's going to end, I just have to get the ideas out of my head and on to paper then into my laptop and on-line. I want to write a third case for Detective Sergeant David McDermott but I have an idea for something completely different. I will be working on FIREBALL XL5 but I am going to have to give some attention to this idea racing through my mind.

I used to read horror stories by Dennis Wheatley novels - The Devil Rides out, To The Devil A Daughter, the Ka of Gifford Hillary, The Haunting of Toby Jug and so on. I do not believe in the devil any more than I believe in god but I do have a theory.

MAN CREATED GOD IN HIS OWN IMAGE

Think about that for a moment. Who is God ?  The God of the Jews ?  The God of the Moslems ? The God of the Christians ? If Christian - catholic, pentecostal, methodist, baptist ?  Each forms God in the image they meant him to be. While there is no such supernatural being as God if enough minds come together they can actually create him. The same with the Devil, goodness knows there is enough evil in this world for that to happen.

That's something I want to explore in a story.

Now can I have a few words about my YouTube Channel ? I operate this partly because of my love for music and partly in the hope that it will find new readers for my stories. I have now published a collection of my Top Ten Favourite songs - CLICK HER and have a listen. With each I explain why the song is important to me and what part it played in my life. I am listening to those songs right now as I write this blog. What I would like to do is to invite you to tell me about YOUR Top Ten. I have set up a new website TopTen4U for you to do that. It would give me a thrill if you wanted to check it out.

It is now 9am, another two hours before I can eat.  I am famished !

Oh well.

Let me bring this blog entry to a close with my selection of music to end your day.

The Patriotic Pensioner

I am EXCITED.

Have you read the post I made earlier ? CLICK HERE

I am so excited !  I have just come back from taking my grandson Adam to school. Sitting in the car I played him the Fireball theme song:

I then told him about my idea to write the story FIREBALL XL5. I handed him the draft introduction I had written and looked in the mirror as we drove along to see what his

reaction was.

I was thrilled to bits when he said he liked the idea.

Then I suggested he could draw pictured to illustrate the story. "My mind is already full of ideas," he said.

But the really big thrill came, this is why I am so excited, when I saw him run off to a group of his friends outside the school and point to me. He told them about our story.

I am planning a day at the laptop, I want to get the ideas I came up with last night for McDermott's Next Case written up and on-line but one thing is certain, before I pick Adam up from school this afternoon I had better have more of his story written !

THE PATRIOTIC PENSIONER