Milton Dreams - The City That Never Was - I had been anticipating publication week beginning Monday 10th August but think I am now looking at week beginning Monday 24th August.
I am actually writing what I thought would be the final chapter - Milton Keynes The City That Truly Is. Well it was the final chapter until I had a "ZOOM" chat yesterday with my friend and former Mayor of Milton Keynes Mike Barry.
I had wanted to pick Mike's brains from when he was our mayor and include his memories of a couple of specific things within the text. However, Mike gave me so much information I am going to need to expand the length of the book.
We talked about his year as Mayor and The Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda, Mike was Mayor in 2007 - 2008. I knew that Mike had seen The Dalai Lama when he came to Milton Keynes and assumed this was during his year of office but no, this was in 1984 so this will need to be written as a separate feature.
Within the draft text as it stands I am a little less than kind writing about Campbell Park and the memory of Lord (Jock) Campbell after whom the park is named. It is, sadly, a notorious meeting place for drug dealers which I feel so seriously discredits the memory of Milton Keynes Development Corporation's chairman, Lord Campbell. Mike spoke about The Milton Keynes Rose which is, of course, located in Campbell Park. I have not included this in my current text which is a serious omission I need to put right and give a positive slant to my review of the area.
I only make a fleeting mention of Bletchley being the home to the Tea Bag. Was the tea bag invented at Tetley Tea Bag actually invented in Bletchey ? In all likelihood it was but if not it is a legend I must include in the text.
My writing is NOT to be equated with the historical accounts of Sir Frank Markham. It is NOT a comprehensive account of our new, now slightly ageing, city. AH BUT WE ARE NOT A CITY ARE WE ? That is the point of the book. I use the word KALEIDOSCOPE. I used it in my 1994 book Not The Concrete Cows written during the adolescent years of Milton Keynes. I use it again as I take my readers through what I am putting forward are arguments why Milton Keynes should achieve city status and why every single resident needs to keep alive the dream that one day we will truly become The City of Milton Keynes.
The cover for Milton Dreams The City That Never Was comes from Milton Keynes Hospital Action Group's campaign to bring forward the building within Milton Keynes Development Corporation's strategic plan a hospital. What was intended to be the final chapter explains how that happened and celebrates the wonderful hospital we have today.
However, that will no longer be the final chapter. This is the introduction to a post script.
Milton Keynes The City That Truly Is
- ·
Not The Concrete Cows - published in 1994
- ·
Milton Dreams The City That Never Was – published in
2020
- ·
Milton Keynes The City That Truly Is – to be
published in 2046 (?)
I would so much love my writing to be the second
book in a trilogy.
There are parts of this book where my tongue has
been firmly in my cheek, you will have found such in different chapters. There
are parts of my writing where you have wondered where my tongue was, could it
have been in my cheek or was it poking out of my mouth in scorn ? Right now, as I type these words my
metaphorical tongue is still.
History- Culture – Legends - Icons ?!? Together these surely give enough weight to
the case that as Milton Keynes was planned as a city a city it should become.
However, history
When published this will be my 24th book on the Amazon Bookshelf of Max Robinson. (My Pen Name). Until the dawn of 2020 the last time I published anything was 12th June 2018. However, with lock down and much of the work I was previously doing on hold, I have been writing in excess of 3,000 words a day.
Just ahead of lock down on 22nd February I published THE RAMBLINGS OF A SILLY OLD MAN. I have actually sold a few copies of this nonsense !
Then came on 22nd March THE FANTASIES OF A GERIATRIC DJ. I began writing this two years ago but set aside the manuscript.
Yes, I am The Geriatric DJ, most definitely. Yes, this is a fantasy and fiction throughout.
Yep, I have made a few pennies in royalties from this book. PENNIES I said not pounds !
What next ?
31st March and THE LOTTERY OF EVIL, a new case for my fictional detective Dave McDermott.
Again a few pennies made it into my bank account.
As members of The National Trust Maureen and I go to the trust's jewel in its crown as often as we can, Stowe Gardens near Buckingham. The former home of The Duke of Buckingham and the first project of Lancelot Capability Brown. For several years I have promised myself that I would write a book centred round Stowe's Gothic Folly and call this THE LONELY GHOST.
I wrote this for my two granddaughters, Katherine and Frances, publishing it on 19th April.
Soon after it was published and lock down was relaxed slightly I took Katherine and Frances round Stowe showing them were their story is set.
OUR REBEKAH published on 13th May was my personal tribute to our NHS. While the book has sold a lot of copies I am hurt that I could not engage the media with what I feel is the biggest celebration of our NHS during these difficult times.
I do not write for profit, simply for pleasure but I hoped and failed to make this book a profit for our NHS. I have been a very vocal supporter of our National Health Service for almost 40 years, sadly the NHS failed at every turn to engage and support me when writing this highly personal account of my late daughter's life.
Moving on. The next book is one I do not want anyone to buy !
Shortly after lock down I began writing a daily diary. ESCAPE FROM ARMAGEDDON is a compilation of my diary entries for the first one hundred days of lock down.
It is not written for people alive today to read. It is for historians and sociologists to pick up in one, two, three hundred years time and understand how an ordinary person was feeling during the pandemic.
That brings me to Milton Dreams The City That Never Was.
But.....................
I am also writing Getting To Know My Granddad. I want to publish this on the same day as Milton Dreams.
Note: The Concrete Cows, if I remember correctly, sold about five thousand copies in the adolescent new city. I hope that Milton Dreams will sell more. I want Getting To Know My Granddad to ride on the back of this and sell more copies than my books usually do at their time of publication.
Philip Johnson is a disaffected and under achieving fifteen year old living in a wealthy and successful family. His father is an eminent surgeon, his mother a successful writer, his two brothers enjoying promising career times at university. Philip, he likes to be called Pip, is just a failure.
He learns that his grandfather in his teens was a national rock and roll sensation about whom it is said if it was not for The Beatles would have been bigger than Elvis Presley. Granddad - Trickie Dickie And The Diamonds !
Grandson Pip Diamond inherits his grandfather's singing voice and ability to play the guitar. Trickie Dickie has a plan to make Pip Diamond the biggest pop music singer ever, dwarfing the fame of Elvis Presley and The Beatles but this is not what granddad is all
What then ?
I have yet to write a science fiction story. Love creeps into many of my stories, particularly what I consider to be my best piece of writing THE BRIDGE HOUSE. Once I have Milton Dreams and Granddad firmly available on the bookshelf I plan to combine the two genre in AN ALIEN IN LOVE,
On the 29th July Amazon will credit my bank account with royalties earned in May. May was a good month for me. Not so far July and there's just a couple of days in the month left.
Fingers crossed that September with Milton Dreams The City That Never Was and Getting To Know My Granddad are my most popular works yet.
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