Megan Series

Megan Series

The Megan Series began in June 2013 with the first story ‘The Misconception’, a story about a young girl looking for help with her blossoming psychic powers. She asks her family first, but gets no help, then the dead offer advice…

Megan Publishing Services

Published by Chalita Majang on 4 April 2022 Respond

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Megan Publishing Services - MPS - Logo - Megan
Megan Publishing Services – MPS – Logo

A piece of history…

My (step) father, Owen Jones, created this blog, Megan Publishing Services, in 2013. It was shortly after he had written the first couple of volumes of The Megan Series, and it was meant as a vehicle for that series alone. The logo is the cartoon characterisation of the Megan in the series

He already had websites for his other books such as Behind The Smile and The Eternal Plan – Revealed and a personal catch- all called Welsh Products Online.

Megan Publishing Services

However, as his book real estate grew, and it happened very quickly, he decided to use the Megan blog to represent all his books. So, he rebranded it Megan Publishing Services.

Websites and blogs appertaining to specific series are now not being renewed when they expire. The rebranding of the blog / website has not seemed to matter. Well, to no-one except Facebook, which has labelled Megan The Misconception dot com as a spammer. It’s unfathomable!

In fact, people seem to have taken the site and the series to their hearts, even though we have rebranded The Megan Series as The Psychic Megan Series. We did this because it is more evocative of what the theme of the series really is. Megan is, after all, a psychic teen.

In 2020, he handed this blog over to me so that he could concentrate on writing.

Search Terms for MPS

Another interesting fact is that the three most popular search terms used to find our blog in order of usage are:

1] megs publishing services

2] meg’s publishing services

3] megan publishing services

People looking for us used the first search term eight times more than the third one! I am proud of that in a strange sort of way. I find it touching that people think of our blog in those endearing terms and, that the search engines accept the compliment.

Amazing, or what?

MPS and #MPS

When speaking about our blog, most people refer to it as MPS, but I have so far failed to make the search engines associate the acronym with us. A search on MPS comes up with boring ‘Members of Parliament’. Likewise, searching for #MPS on Twitter reveals posts about MP’s.

Still, I won’t stop trying to get this blog associated with MPS!

Publishing Services

I’ll take this opportunity to explain briefly what Megan Publishing Services actually does. It has two aspects:

1] Readers: we are showcasing about 800 books on this site. Owen Jones has written fifty-three stories and 125 manuals. All of the stories, and some of the manuals have been translated and / or narrated making up the 800 books mentioned above. For example, the first volume of The Psychic Megan Series now exists in 34 languages.

2] Writers: except for the basic writing skills that one learns at school, Owen Jones learned and taught himself how to write books. How to get them translated, narrated and published, and most importantly, how to get them in front of readers who might want to buy them. He is willing to share that knowledge with other (would-be) authors. He is also offering the said 125 manuals as niche PLR articles for writers to use in their own online publications in several languages.

Onwards and Upwards! Megan Publishing Services and everyone who uses it! ☺️

Chalita

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Modern Digital Designs

Published by Chalita Majang on 7 February 2022

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Or how to keep up with the Joneses!

Modern Digital Design for The Megan Series

My Dad, Owen Jones, is a writer, as regular readers of my blog will already know, and has been a author of books for ten years on February 21st 2022. I was a teenager then, but I remember the excitement of the occasion very well.

It had taken him about fifteen years to produce a book from his father’s automatic writings as a Spiritual Healer, and the last thing that he had to do was produce a cover for the book.

Looking back on it, it probably shouldn’t have, but it did come as a shock that he would have to do that as well. Now, my Dad knows his way around the Internet, but this was a totally new experience, and it was for me too.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he did that and uploaded everything to the leading online bookshops of the day.

The cover was basically a flat image of the front cover of the book, but that was what all authors were providing at the time.

However, over the years, some more design-savvy authors began to provide more eye-catching cover images.

As far as I recall, it began with spread-eagled shots of the front and back covers plus the spine. They were definitely a big improvement.

After that, book covers went 3-D, and that is even better in my opinion, as a general item, but there are specialised uses for all three styles.

Finally, so far, that is, some authors are putting the 3-D cover with the blurb on a relevant background image, and that is the bee’s knees in book advertising covers for me.

Look at the postcard I made for my father at the top of this page.

I am thinking of learning how to do this, so if you are interested, please encourage me with an email.

Best wishes,

Chalita.

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Villfarelsen – Misconception

Published by Owen Jones on 15 December 2020

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Villfarelsen: En andlig guide, en spöktiger, och en skrämmande mamma!
Villfarelsen

Villfarelsen

En andlig guide, en spöktiger, och en skrämmande mamma!

av

Owen Jones

Översatt av

Charlotta Zaar Böll

Berättat av

Ida Berglöw Kenneway

“Villfarelsen” är den första delen i en serie av tjugotre noveller om den andliga utvecklingen hos en ung flicka som heter Megan. Hon har latenta övernaturliga krafter och hon är nyfiken på att utveckla dem, men ingen annan som hon känner verkar ha någon aning vad hon pratar om.

Eller gör dom det? Både hennes mormor och hennes mamma gör allt de kan för att stoppa Megan från att ta reda på mer. Historien visar Megans frustration med de levande, så när hjälp kommer från den andra sidan, tar hon emot den med öppna armar och utvecklar långsamt men säkert sina övernaturliga krafter.

Detta är berättelsen om Megans uppvaknande.

“Villfarelsen” handlar om de paranormala krafter som finns inom oss alla, vilket borde göra dem helt normala istället för paranormala, om människor inte var så rädda för det övernaturliga, vilket i sig självt också är helt naturligt.

Det här är en bok för alla som någonsin har funderat över det övernaturliga, paranormala eller metafysiska- Det handlar om den normala andliga utvecklingen som alla högre själar måste gå igenom för att nå sitt ultimata, oundvikliga öde, hur lång tid det än kan ta. Dessa berättelser bygger på faktum på flera sätt än en.

Amazon   Apple iTunes   GooglePlay Kobo Scribd   Audiobook 

2] Megans trettonde

Översatt av: Jenny Ulvestål

Amazon   Apple iTunes GooglePlay   Kobo   Scribd   Audiobook

3] Megans skolresa

Översatt av: Jenny Ulvestål

Amazon   Apple iTunes GooglePlay   Kobo   Scribd   Audiobook

4] Megans skolprov

Översatt av: Jenny Ulvestål

Amazon   Apple iTunes   GooglePlay   Kobo   Scribd   Audiobook

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Waarom ik de Megan Reeks heb geschreven

Published by Owen Jones on 28 September 2020
Megan Reeks: boek 1
Megan Reeks: boek 1

Waarom ik de Megan Reeks heb geschreven

door

Owen Jones

vertaald door

Luc Wyn

Mijn vader was een Spiritistische Genezer, net als zijn moeder en drie zussen, terwijl zijn vader en zeven broers een beetje bang waren voor het concept. Mijn moeder geloofde in de principes van Spiritisme, maar haar ouders waren katholiek en waren er extreem tegen.

Mijn vader vertelde me echter altijd dat mijn moeder een heks was, en ze gaf vaak toe een witte heks te zijn. Mijn vader zei dat haar moeder ook een oude heks was, maar ik denk dat dat kwam omdat ze niet met elkaar konden opschieten. Toen mijn ouders trouwden, woonden ze bij mijn grootouders van moederskant, en nog een korte tijd nadat ik was geboren.

De basis voor alle verhalen in de Megan-serie vinden hier hun oorsprong. Mijn moeder vertelde me veel verhalen over mijn babytijd, dus ik ben de baby waarnaar ik verwijs, hoewel de rest van de serie naar mijn moeder verwijst. Ik heb ons tweeën samnegebracht omwille van het verhaal. Grrr de tijger was ook mijn vertrouwelinge, hoewel mijn beide ouders haar konden zien.

Blijkbaar droeg ze Grrr op voor me te zorgen wanneer mijn moeder me voor een korte tijd moest verlaten, bijvoorbeeld terwijl ze naar de WC ging. Ik herinner me dit alles maar heel vaag, maar ik kende mijn moeder eenentwintig jaar voordat ze op tweeënveertigjarige leeftijd overleed, en ze was volkomen bij haar verstand.

Boeken in het Nederlands op deze blog

Beste wensen,

Owen

Auteur van De Megan Reeks

 

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The Megan Series Audiobooks

Published by Owen Jones on 2 May 2019

The Megan Series

The Megan Series

The Megan Series Audiobooks

“The Misconception” is the first story in the Megan Series Audiobooks of twenty-three novelettes about the spiritual development of Megan, a young girl. In the first story, she is twelve years of age. She has latent, supernatural powers and is curious about how to use them, but no-one that she knows seems to have any idea what she is talking about.

She tries asking her mother and even asks friends at school, but she gets no help. However, it is unclear whether her mother has had previous experience with the paranormal, although we do see early on in the first novelette that Megan’s maternal grandmother was against the paranormal too.

Her grandmother and her mother do everything they possibly can to prevent Megan from finding out any more. The first volume shows Megan’s frustration with the living, so when help comes from Beyond, she grasps it with both hands and slowly develops her supernatural powers.

The Megan Series Audiobooks is about Megan’s psychic Awakening.

‘The Misconception’ is about the paranormal powers which lie in all of us, which would make them not so much paranormal as quite normal, if people were not so frightened of the supernatural, which is quite natural too.

In the following books, and they are being released at the rate of one a month, we see Megan’s behaviour under different circumstances. We also meet the people, and animals, who interact with her. The main characters are: Megan’s mother, Suzanne; Megan’s father, Robert; her spiritual guide, Wacinhinsha, her maternal grandfather, Gramps and her familiar, a huge Siberian tiger called Grrr.

Wacinhinsha is a senior Spiritual Guide who has come to help Megan because she had no-one else, and was actually being punished for her curiosity into the paranormal and supernatural. He is a native American, what most people outside the USA would call a Red Indian of the Sioux tribe.

Wacinhinsha has a deep knowledge of spiritual life and is willing to help Megan with anything that she wants to know, which no-one else she knows is seems able to do.

Her grandfather, Gramps, has been dead for about thirteen years, but he is still very much a novice. He wants to help Megan and tries to get involved but his inexperience trips him up sometimes. Despite that, Megan is close to her Gramps as she has known him as a ‘ghost’ since she was a baby

Grrr is a tiger that died a long time ago. She cannot speak any language but tiger, of course, and humans do not understand much tiger – Megan is no exception. However, Megan and Grrr tend to understand each other a little more than anyone with a close pet does, although Grrr is not a pet by any stretch of the imagination.

The Megan Series Audiobooks

These books are for everyone who has ever wondered about the supernatural, paranormal or metaphysical – it is about the normal, spiritual development that all higher life forms have to go through in order to reach their ultimate, unavoidable destiny, however long that may take. These stories are based on fact in more ways than one.

Reviews are available on the website you will reach by following the link below. Please leave your own short review too.

The Megan Series audiobooks, ebooks and paperbacks are on Amazon and also available in many other languages (see Foreign Translations above)!

or get a free copy here: Megan The Misconception – 100% free!

or get regular free audiobooks by joining our Megan’s Free Audiobook Club

M1: The Misconception: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M2: Megan’s Thirteenth: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M3: Megan’s School Trip: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M4: Megan’s School Exams: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M5: Megan’s Followers: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M6: Megan and the Lost Cat: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M7: Megan and the Mayoress: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M8: Megan Faces Derision: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M9: Megan’s Grandparents Visit: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M10: Megan’s Father Falls ill: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M11: Megan goes on Holiday: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M12: Megan and the Burglar: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M13: Megan and the Cyclist: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M14: Megan and the Old Lady: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M15: Megan’s Garden: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M16: Megan Goes to the Zoo: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

M17: Megan Goes Hiking: Amazon, Audible and Apple’s iTunes.

You can find a great article, fantastic review and top resource on Audible and audiobooks here:

https://www.carefulcents.com/audible-review/

 

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Megan’s Christmas Progress Update

Published by Owen Jones on 25 March 2017

I just finished Proofing! Woohoo!
[mybookprogress progress=”1″ phase_name=”Proofing” book=”1″ book_title=”Megan’s Christmas” bar_color=”2900cc” cover_image=”7798″ mbt_book=”7795″]

Amazon Image

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It Is So Sad…

Published by Owen Jones on 4 May 2016

It is so sad...

It is so sad…

It Is So Sad…

It is so sad that people, often writers, feel that they can talk about subjects they know little about in chase of their dream of celebrity and fortune. They wouldn’t write a load of tripe about an ethnic minority, but will about a religious one.

Imagine a Southern Baptist writing a story which involved Muslims without any knowledge of the religion… just making it up as he went along to suit the twists and turns of his plot? It would take a brave or stupid author indeed to write in such an irresponsible manner.

However, switch the religion to Spiritualism (or anything similar), which has millions of followers and tens of thousands of churches, and the author thinks he can write with impunity. OK, I am a Spiritualist and so were my parents and paternal grandparents, but I am not advocating a Jihad, if our church has the power or inclination to order such a thing.

I still think that it is sad though that many/most writers, who talk about ghosts, Spirit, life after death, and psychic powers tread on our beliefs so readily. For something to be paranormal, you have to believe that it is unexplainable and so possible, however remotely. Most stories labelled paranormal are explainable simply as being unbelievable even by their writers,

I know that Spiritualists don’t have sole belief in those subjects, but most writers of ‘paranormal’ don’t believe what they write about AT ALL. they just make it up as they go along or copy the old stereotypes.

That is also very sad – just regurgitating old Victorian Gothic tales, because the fact is that within the scope of the religion, Spiritualism (and all the others), there is plenty of choice for great stories without the writer having to appear to be a plagiarist or just plain silly.

Dragons (of the Welsh variety), vampires, werewolves, ghouls, zombies and all that ilk are not paranormal, unless you believe that they might exist! As it happens, I believe that it might be possible to shape-shift, but not that such an advanced person would choose to become a cannibal.

So, this is a plea to all you writers who think that your subject is Paranormal, just do some research like the rest of us and you will find that your stories become much more scary because they will be believable!

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All the best.

Owen

Podcast: It Is So Sad…

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Book Give-Aways

Published by Owen Jones on 21 December 2015

Book Give-Aways

Book Give-Aways

Book Give-Aways

I have always been suspicious that book give-aways are counter-productive, but I am open to learning that I am wrong, so I have decided to conduct an experiment. To that end, I have added a page to this, my busiest website, for book give-aways, although it will probably become a permanent feature of the blog.

Megan Publishing Services had an average of 90,000 page-views a month in 2015, although I don’t know much about the demographics. However, given the title of the blog, I assume that most surfers know that it must be about reading and writing before they click the hyper-link to get there.

If you are an author who would like to test whether book give-aways work in your case, please follow the link at the bottom of this page. Likewise if you are a reader wishing to take advantage of what you will find there.

(I have also added links to some free videos that have given me food for thought recently).

If you, as an author, would like to run a book give-away for a limited time only, say, the first week of the New Year, that is possible too – just pass me the dates when the give-away should be live.

For those of you who revel in statistics, I should be able to provide an insight into how many times your book was downloaded, which I don’t think I have seen any other site offering. At the end of January, I could run a short poll to find out how successful the book give-aways were, if there is enough interest.

These are the relevant links:

Book Give-Aways (for readers)

Book Give-Aways (for authors and other artists) and other advertising opportunities on this website

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Book Give-Aways

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Twitter Feeds

Published by Owen Jones on 30 November 2015

Twitter Feeds

Twitter Feeds – @Megan_and_Grrr

Twitter Feeds

I have three Twitter feeds ranking in age as @owen-author, @lekwilliams and @Megan_and_Grrr. They were always meant to be kept separate. One was for me, one for Lek from the Behind The Smile series, and one for Megan from that series.

Unfortunately, over the years, due to my ignorance, the difference between the Twitter feeds blurred and the same posts were sent to all three of them and at the same time, so it wasn’t worth joining them all. This came about because of the way it was using Hootsuite.

So, I am going to put all that right again, and I have started by giving up on Hootsuite and adopting a new system, which may be the subject of a later post.

Anyway, my new system will redraw the original lines between the Twitter feeds, so that you have more choice what you want to receive. There will be a tiny bit of overlap, but I will be consciously trying to keep it to a minimum. Most of it will be concerning books. For example, a post about a new volume in the Megan Series or Behind The Smile will also be posted in my author account.

However, posts related to Thailand will only go to @lekwilliams and posts on fantasy subjects will only go to @Megan_and_Grrr. So, if you follow one or more of my Twitter feeds, I suggest that you decide which one(s) you are interested in and react accordingly.

Most of the changes necessary at my end have already been implemented, now my biggest task is to change my mindset and stick to the new system.

Some of you have already noticed the changes and, most of those approve. It should make for a more targeted news stream, but if you prefer a more general Twitter feed, opt for @owen_author

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Twitter Feeds

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Publishing

Published by Owen Jones on 21 November 2015

Publishing

Publishing Megan the Psychic Teen

Publishing Megan the Psychic Teen

I am having quite a time of publishing at the moment. Yesterday, I published the 112,000-word fifth sequel to Behind The Smile, called The Dream and today I published the second in the Megan Compilation Series of five 11,000-word novelettes on the psychic development of Megan, a teenage Celtic psychic.

I should be ready to publish my Nano 2015 challenge entry, the 50,000-word A Night in Annwn on Monday.

That all sounds good enough, but I still have the 80,000-word Andropov’s Cuckoo waiting in the wings ready for publishing.

All well and good, but my patience finally ran out as far as my website host Hostgator was concerned and I dumped them. I have moved to a company I had never heard of before, but they moved me lock stock and barrel this afternoon.

That meant publishing my websites again, but they took care of that for me. I have not had a chance to test the sites yet as I am out proofreading Annwn, but I will go home to test them within the hour.

I will post a report on my experience tomorrow, so if you are dissatisfied with your website host, wait twenty-four hours and I’ll let you know. My first impression of publishing my websites with these guys is very good, I can tell you that much and I have spoken to two people at the firm so far.

As for my publishing future, after about the second week of December, I find that it is not worth promoting for the rest of the month, so I will probably be publishing some of the non-fiction that I currently only have on Amazon, on other platforms too. Notably, Lulu, Kobo, and GooglePlay.

It is also a good time to be thinking of new ideas – book titles and the like.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Publishing

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More of the Same

Published by Owen Jones on 25 October 2015

More of the Same

More of the Same

More of the Same

Reading my recent posts must be becoming as boring and predictable as my Internet reception is for me! It is just more of the same!

Unfortunately, the story today is also more of the same. Last night the signal was strong, as it was this morning, and then, all of a sudden, at noon, it crashes to 48 Kbps, which, if you don’t know, is like unloading a lorry-load of sand with a spoon.

Don’t worry about what size lorry, any lorry and any spoon for that matter too.

Nevertheless, I am learning, so I got my advertising done at six a.m. or so, then uploaded a few more books, and when the inevitable crash came, I switched to editing Lek 6. I have completed a third of the first pass, which puts me back on track.

I imagine that more of the same is on the cards for tomorrow.

Neem, my wife, for new readers, told me today that next Monday and Tuesday are ‘Big Days for Buddha’. I don’t know which ones yet, but possibly it’s when they walk around the Wat in procession with candles. If it is that one then many people will come back for the weekend etc..

We also have a wedding in the family on the fourteenth of November, she told me. So, a busy first two weeks of next month coming up. I also promised to take a week or two off over Christmas so that we could go to Pattaya for a holiday.

It was a rash promise to make, but it is done now. Nine weeks away, less, so I have just worked out. In November, there will also be Loy Krathung, Thailand’s St Valentine’s Day and many women’s favourite day of the year and I have to remember to tell the police where I live, my 90-Days Notification.

And of the whole lot of things to do, the last is the most important.

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All the best,

Owen

Podcast: More of The Same

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No Internet Connection

Published by Owen Jones on 25 October 2015

No Internet Connection

No Internet Connection

No Internet Connection

I really want to apologise to all the people I work with on the Internet for letting them down so often this week, but my Internet connection has been shockingly bad. One bad day is unusual, but this is the fourth in a row and it is driving me insane. It was all right late last night when I went to bed, and this morning when I got up at five, but by ten the Internet connection was struggling again and was down before midday.

I managed to re-edit and republish three more books in that time including putting them on Kobo and GooglePlay. My goal is four or five a day, so not good. I would have liked to finish before NaNoWriMo started, but that looks unlikely now.

In my ‘down time’, I started to proofread Lek 6. I would like to get the first reading out of the way before NaNoWriMo too, which will give me twenty-one days to read and edit it again before it has to be handed over to Kindle to comply with the conditions of being able to set up pre-orders. So far, only one person has pre-ordered. Thank you, Glyn! Although I know that others are waiting for the paperback version before they buy.

Does anyone actually use, read or sell, on Kobo or GooglePlay? If so, please let me know, because I don’t know anyone personally. However, I am doing all this work and neither of them has sold a book for me this month yet. I find it very discouraging and coupled with the lack of an Internet connection, downright soul-destroying.

Gail’s mother has come up from Bangkok to visit her daughter. It is always nice to see her and even better to watch them together. Kook can’t get here every month, but it is amazing that Gail remembers her at her very young age. It is so true that a girl and her mother have a very special bond.

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All the best.

Owen

Podcast: No Internet Connection

 

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Writing My Books

Published by Owen Jones on 18 September 2015

Writing My Books

Writing My Books

Writing My Books

Regular readers will know what I’m like by now – if I’m not writing my books or talking to you like this, I’m reorganizing my files or trying to improve them, but writing my books has to take priority.

So, I haven’t been posting much recently because I’ve been busy with Behind The Smile 6, but after completing chapter six yesterday, I have come to an impasse, therefore I turned to amalgamating the first five of my Megan Series into a compilation.

This will probably be called ‘Megan the Psychic Teenager’, and will make it 55,000 words long. It is a different format from the single books, which I had hoped people would buy on a monthly basis (and still do 🙂 ). They will still be available singly as they are written, but will also be compiled into a volume once every five months. It will allow those who have come to the series late to catch up more quickly.

Please let me know if you think that this is the right way to go.

I have content for the first four volumes, and writing two more novelettes will give me a fifth.

Taking about writing my books, NaNoWriMo 2015 is just around the corner. It starts on November 1st, so if you are planning a book, bear it in mind. For anyone who has always wanted to write a book, NaNo is the ideal time, you will never get more encouragement and support, and you will make friendships locally that could last forever. This will be my third NaNo and I am looking forward to it immensely, although I don’t know yet what I will be writing about.

Any suggestions?

I enjoy writing my books and am lucky that I have that I have twenty-four hours a day to devote to it, minus a few hours sleep, because my wife, Neem, takes care of me so well.

Oh, one last point! I realized today (only because something someone asked me a month ago has sifted through my brain), that I have a massive advertising opportunity on my blog. Every page carries seven ads for random books out of my bookshop, with 90-100k pageviews a month, that means about 700,000 books are shown on my site free every month!

Did I say free?

Yes, free to those who have bought a classified ad in my bookshop, which costs $5 a month for one book, or $15 for four books for two months, or less than $2 a month a book!

Check it out if you have books or artwork to sell.

Place an Ad in the Bookshop

All the best,

Owen

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Podcast: Writing My Books

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Computer Problems

Published by Owen Jones on 12 July 2015

Computer Problems

Megan’s Followers

Computer Problems

I have been working on the computer problems caused by Microsoft Office’s reinstallment all day, but I fear that it will take quite some time to replace all the little refinements I had built into my versions of the office suite over the last eighteen years.

As an aside, when going to type in the word ‘problems’ above, I noticed that the letter ‘p’ has disappeared from my Kindle’s keyboard in landscape view but it is there in portrait. I don’t know, my computing world has been turned upside down in the last month what with Google’s and Amazon’s forced site changes and now my hardware and software malfunctions.

I swear that I haven’t had so many computer problems in such a short space of time since I started computing thirty-three years ago.

Still, where would I be without a computer and the Internet? Stuck in my home town, I guess, whereas with them I am in sunny Thailand writing books and novels, which I very much enjoy doing. I often wonder whether I would ever have started writing that first novel if I hadn’t been in Thailand. It’s about Thai bar girls after all, so I think that the chances are against it. The encouragement I received from my brother, Rhys, spurred me on to write the sequel and now I have written thirty-eight novels and factual books, plus ninety-nine ‘How To’s…’

Which reminds me, I really should get the hundredth written to round the number off.

Therefore, now I am looking for a literary agent to help me find a publisher, who will take the distribution of my books to a new level and so increase awareness of them and hopefully also improve sales figures.

That’s the master plan anyway, while I hand the nitty-gritty of the recent spate of computer problems that is plaguing me.

Wish me luck.

All the best.

Owen

Please visit my book list on this site

Podcast: Computer Problems

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Writing for Pleasure and Profit

Published by Owen Jones on 18 May 2015

Writing for Pleasure and Profit

Writing for Pleasure and Profit

Writing for Pleasure and Profit

If I don’t mention the temperature for a while, it’s because it is still in the forty-five to forty-seven range. I have slept nearly all day today because of it, and people assure me that I am not the only one the weather is affecting like that. Writing has become a thing of the past 🙁

It is just so out of character, I am known for sleeping only four or five hours a night, which has always been a cause of concern to my wife who needs eight or nine, but likes to go to bed at nine thirty.

The sequel to ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok’ http://tigerlilyofbangkok.com was published two weeks ago and received it’s first review today (a good one 🙂 ), which you can read on Amazon.com if you are thinking of reading it. In this volume, she is in London, and becomes incensed when she learns of the infamous ‘meat rack’ on Piccadilly Circus.

The review is here: http://www.mikishope.com/2015/05/book-review-tiger-lily-of-bangkok-in.html

I have promised to write at least one more ‘Behind The Smile’, number six, but I think I will write another Lily this year as well. People like her, but it is awkward, because their conscience tells them they shouldn’t. I like that, but then I like her too and like writing about her.

Some books are funny like that for both readers and writers, you become attached to (some of) the characters. They speak to you – quite literally in the case of many authors. A lot of writers will swear that the characters dictate the book to them. I have experienced this with all of my novels. It is a strange experience, and with Lek in BTS1, I had to cut her off with the promise of writing a sequel.

Quite a few readers have noticed that that first volume ends abruptly. The assume that it is a cliff-hanger ending, but that was not the intention, it just worked out that way. I stopped ‘Daddy’s Hobby’ at 112k words, but the series is now five times that length – 560,000 words!

On the other hand, compiling a book of short stories is not the same, because there is no personal continuity, but it is a worthwhile project and at least two contributors have never seen their work in print before, so they should get a buzz out of that and, hopefully, the impetus to carry on writing.

Thanks again to all who have submitted a story, the book is now 53% full, so you still have time to send something in.

I hope you will.

All the best,

+Owen Jones

Podcast: Writing for Pleasure and Profit

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Miserable Sods

Published by Owen Jones on 12 May 2015

Miserable Sods

Miserable Sods

Miserable Sods

I have received a few snide remarks from some miserable sods concerning the designation of the revenue from ‘Asian Shorts’, well, let me tell you miserable sods a true story.

Many members of my family give £5 a month to help ‘an unfortunate, Third World child’. I can think of at least four at the moment, so that is a total donation of about £200 a year, of which about £50 gets to the person it is intended for.

Now, here’s a fact, like it or not, but £50 a year does not go very far at all, even in a Third World country, whether you are trying to feed, clothe a child or send it to university. £120 a weekly is a lot closer to the mark for a decent education. For four years, and I have tried to make that by writing books as I have no other source of income and may not work here.

Likewise, my wife may not join me in the UK, if I went home to live, because the stupid rule now is that you need an income of £18,000 per annum to support a spouse. So we are well and truly stuck.

All you, miserable sods, you holier-than-thou critics, can stick that in your pipes and smoke it, and perhaps try to mind your own business.

∞

I feel better after saying that. Anyway, it’s a degree less today at forty-five Celsius, but it’s hard to tell the difference and still no signs of the monsoon that is doubtless on its way to reduce the temperature by ten degrees. I thought I’d seen signs of it a few days ago, but there you are, I’m a falang (white foreigner), so what do I know?

∞

We have two days off from Gail, as the other grandmother wanted to have her. Usually, she comes back confused by the change of routines (I suppose), but it gives my wife a break and a chance to catch up on the things she no longer seems to have time for – mainly socialising and the garden, I think, but she misses Gail all the same.

∞

More promises for ‘Asian Shorts’, but no more deliveries as yet.

Perhaps tomorrow, but as my wife is fond of singing, ‘Tomorrow never comes’, she has never noticed the fist two words of the line, and I have never pointed them out to her, since her version seems apt too.

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Miserable Sods

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Dead Centre II is Finished

Published by Owen Jones on 1 March 2015 10

Dead Centre II is finished!

Me finishing Dead Centre II, my latest novel. Photo by David Taylor

 

 Dead Centre II is Finished

I have always thought that photos like this were posed, but this one honestly wasn’t. I was on the point of finishing, Dead Centre II, my latest novel at my usual watering hole, when my friend David Taylor came to visit.

“Don’t say a word,” I whispered only one sentence to go and I’ve finished my latest novel.” Anyway, he sat down, kept stumm, and took this just as I was finishing. It was great timing If he had gone in to order a beer before coming over, he would have missed it. A second after this photo was taken, I looked up and said “Dead Centre II’ is finished!”

Happy Saint David’s Day to all you who are reading this on the day it was written or any number of years to the day later . March 1st is the Patron Saint of Wales’ Day, for all those of you who don’t know – the majority, I suspect.

I’m glad it’s St. David’s Day, it gives me something else to celebrate – yesterday’s excuse was finishing my book – because, finishing a book like that leaves an empty feeling behind with me. I imagine it’s like any big project, it consumes most of your thought for the duration and when it’s finished… then what?

As an indie author, the answer is simple, read it and edit it, then reread and re-edit it, then put it up for sale and market it. However, that is not as satisfying as writing the thing. Like riding a horse is more exciting than polishing the tack. I want to get on with the next one, but that would be stupid at this moment in time. First the editing and marketing of this one has to be done – if you can say that you are ever done with marketing. That’s an on-going, permanent feature of my life from now on.

Besides that, I don’t have an idea for a new novel, although I want to write a sequel to ‘Tiger Lily of Bangkok‘ later in the year. This happens from time to time, although I have a simple cure. I have written a series of novellas that I call the ‘Megan Series‘ (see the header of this page for details). Whenever, I get stuck like this, I write one or more of them until a satisfactory idea reveals itself to me. The fact that there are twenty-one novellas in the series so far does not mean that I am often stuck though 🙂

Looking out of the window before me in my office yesterday, I noticed that a root in one of the tree stumps my wife uses for growing orchids in, has transformed itself into the head of a sleek-looking dog’s head and neck. Can you see it as well? It looks as if she has spotted something at two o’ clock

Can you see the dog's head

Dog’s Head in old Stump’s Roots

By the way, that is not an old po in there next to the dog (clue), it is an as-yet-unused flower pot. I will admit, that as I am writing this, I cannot see the head in the photo – it is too small – still perhaps you can, but the flower pot looks more and more like a chamber pot.

It is nearly time for my daily visit to Jem’s shop around the corner – immortalised in my series ‘Behind the Smile‘ as Nong’s, so I’m signing off for today, but taking my brand-, spanking-new manuscript with me to read over my couple of beer Changs (Thailand’s most popular beer) and very nice they are too.

Anyway, I’m happy that Dead Centre II is finished, now I only have to sell a few copies 🙂

All the best,

+Owen

PS: Someone returned a ‘Dead Centre’ to Amazon yesterday – the first one ever. I like to think they bought it, copied it and are now going to pirate it, rather than that they didn’t like it, but that book is rather gory, I have to admit, but then suicide bombing necessarily is.

PPS: the ‘+’ before my name above is pandering to Google’s inefficiencies – they won’t recognise me without it 🙁

Amazon Image   Dead Centre: Not All Suicide Bombers Are Religious!

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Review of The Megan Series

Published by Owen Jones on 24 July 2014 1

The Misconception of the Megan Series

The Misconception – of the Megan Series

 

The Megan Series

A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger, and One Scary Mother!

by Ceri Carpenter

Review by Owen Jones

I have read all eleven titles in the Megan Series so far, so I will review the series as a whole rather than just each individual book. The series opens with ‘The Misconception’, which may seem like a strange title until you have read it.

‘The Misconception’ actually sets the story for the rest of the series, which should really be read in sequence, but it is not absolutely necessary, although reading this one first is best really.

It opens with Megan, a young girl, locked in the coal hole ‘for being naughty’, although most sane people would not agree with her mother that she was naughty, or that the punishment fitted the crime, if indeed one had been committed.

We learn that this is not the first time she has been locked in that dark, dirty, scary cellar, but some friends come to console her, namely her familiar, a ghost tiger called Grrr and her deceased grandfather.

Despite her mother’s cruelness, Megan feels a special bond wither her, so she doesn’t tell her father what is going on. He suspects nothing.

The last chapter of the book, each book or novella, in fact, has Megan’s Spirit Guide giving her advice on how to become a better, stronger person, with lessons on how to develop her psychic powers, a subject that has interested Megan for years, despite her tender age. It is also the cause of her imprisonment.

In the following novellas, Megan finds herself in all sorts of common, everyday situations, but her take on them is far from average. Each story can be read alone, but the reason why she is like she is comes from ‘The Misconception’ which is why it should be read first.

The other ten novellas include Megan at school, on an outing, on holiday, being bullied, having a birthday, et cetera, et cetera, all charming little stories that can be read on several levels, although sensitive Catholics may not like them much.

Carpenter has promised one new novella every month and I believe that a twelfth is being written now.

Amazon Image   The Misconception: A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother! (The Megan Series Book 1)

by +Owen Jones

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