What is Dead Centre? Most people will think of it as ‘the bull’s eye’ or centre of a target, or a shot that hits it. However, in the context of his book, the Welsh writer Owen Jones uses the term in three ways:
as in bull’s eye above
to refer to the point where a killing took place, or the location of maximum fatalities
to refer to The Dead Centre Agency, which is a secret organisation that is responsible for the wave of extreme terrorism that’s sweeping the world. In different contexts, the term has been used in reference to terrorist attacks since at least the 1980s.
What is Dead Centre? Did it really exist?
The Dead Centre Agency, as used by Jones, is fictional, as far as he knows. In acts of terrorism, especially in the past, terrorists would attack targets such as shopping malls, train stations, and airports. These were places where large numbers of people gathered, making them easy targets. However, the author envisioned a scenario where terrorism could be a business opportunity.
He foresaw an organisation that found willing volunteer suicide bombers in order to carry out terrorist attacks on areas with little or no security. The client would choose the target, and The Dead Centre Agency would do the rest. Even to the point of paying the bomber’s or participant’s family his fee after the conclusion of the attack.
Could such an organisation really exist?
They say that the FBI has identified a terrorist group called “Dead Centre”. Apparently, it was formed in 2009 and its members are believed to be responsible for several recent terror attacks. The group’s name comes from the fact that it uses tactics similar to those used by the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. However, the author is not aware that that that group operated to order as Jones writes in his work of fiction.
Surely crime on this scale could not happen in real life?
This type of terrorism is very different from other forms of terrorism because it does not involve any kind of political agenda. Instead, it involves random acts of violence carried out by individuals who are paid to commit suicide… and they do it because they have a terminal illness.. Furthermore, these people do not represent any particular religion or ideology, so they are very difficult to trace.
Although it is a form of terrorism, killing innocent people is not the objective. The client sets the purpose of the attack, and it is usually financial gain or revenge.
Did the owners of The Dead Centre Agency have a guilty conscience?
There was no evidence that the owners of The Dead Centre Agency had any sort of guilty conscience. In fact, they were quite proud of what they were doing to help the terminally ill provide for their families. They believed that they were doing something good for society.
Is there a sequel to Dead Centre?
At least seven police forces around the world and the SAS sought the leaders of the agency high and low. However, in Dead Centre 2, they are located by MI6, and offered a very special mission by an extremely important client.
“I can say no more”, said the Welsh writer with a smile.
What is the likelihood that such an organisation could really be out there?
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones is the first novel from this Welsh writer. It explores why so many girls work in Pattaya and how they fare. It is his best-selling book.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones is an insightful look at why tens of thousands of young women choose to enter the Pattaya sex tourism industry, and how many of them get on. They and other attractions bring more than a million tourists to Pattaya every year. Most of them are men with money looking for a good time.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones – Origins.
In the mid-to late Seventies, Owen Jones was working in the south Netherland’s city of s’Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in Noord Brabant. One day, a popular new bar opened up at the bottom of the street he lived in. It was a ‘Relax Bar’, a concept he didn’t understand, but he liked the sound of the music. One afternoon, he ventured inside. The bar was practically empty despite the fact that the landlord was very friendly and played lots of Heavy Metal, which was very popular at the time.
After a while he noticed a few scantily-clad young ladies looking at him from the darker recesses at the back of the room. When he went to the toilet, he was left in no doubt what a relax bar was. The owner/barman, whose name was Rick, I think, played the Meatloaf album ‘Like A Bat Out of Hell’ from cover to cover three or four times a day and sold marijuana, which had been decriminalised. This record more than any other brought the ‘house dancing girls’ out onto the floor.
The bar was called ‘Daddy’s Hobby’. I liked everything about it including the name, which I thought was very clever. Within a month or two, it was the busiest bar in the city. However, sadly, within a year, Rick had been murdered and his bar burned down. We all thought that it had to do with drugs.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones – Development.
In the early 2,000’s Owen Jones moved to Pattaya, and started going out with the cashier of the first bar he had a drink in. It put him in a ‘trusted position’ with ‘the girls’. Soon most of the thirty-odd girls who worked there were seeking his advice. Their favourite topic was how best to write saucy texts and emails to their ‘boyfriends’. Most of these had already returned home to their wives or girlfriends in Europe and elsewhere, but mostly the UK. That bar was a more flagrant example of Rick’s Daddy’s Hobby, but without the drugs.
After a few weeks, he had inadvertently collected many scraps of paper with translated messages on them. So, he sought the girls’ permission to write them into a book. No-one disapproved when he promised to use false names. It was funny, he said, because all the girls and most of the clients were already doing that anyway. Everybody was lying, especially the men. He recalls that he had never met so many navy SEALS, SAS, commandos, MI5 and CIA operatives in his life before. Not a one of them was a carpenter or civil servant, and they were all single, looking for a wife!!
There was no other name for the book than Daddy’s Hobby, subtitled Behind The Smile but for various reasons, it took him eight years to self-publish it.
Daddy’s Hobby by Owen Jones – Sequels.
Owen Jones used the name of Lek for his lead female character. She was also the life and soul of the bar, and didn’t mind the author using her real name. She too is sadly long dead. He used the Welsh name Craig for the main male, although there are many other dramatis personae in the novel. When he was writing the book, it was the Lek character that dictated to him in his head what he must write. He had already determined that the book should be 100,000 words long, but when he reached that level, it was clear that Lek hadn’t finished her story. So, Owen closed book one, published it, and started a sequel.
You may be wondering why it took eight years to bring Daddy’s Hobby to market, if it was being dictated.
“Well, when I looked at Craig’s character I could see too much of myself… I just was not prepared to share it at that point”, he says. “I nearly gave up several times, but Lek and I stuck with it and produced a result”.
He did not like the idea of calling the second volume Daddy’s Hobby 2, so he gave it the name of a significant chapter in volume one, An Exciting Future. It now needed a series title to bind them together and that became Behind The Smile. The books are frequently referred to as Behind The Smile.
Lek kept up the pressure for several more years until Behind The Smile consisted of seven volumes, of 720,000 words.
Daddy’s Hobby – the Future.
“Although the Lek in my head was the inspiration of the actual stories, encouragement came from elsewhere. It was also more important”, he says.
“My stepmother hated the book, and two of my three brothers have never mentioned any of my fifty-odd novels. However, one thought it was fantastic though, and asked me to write a sequel. I had also run a competition for a free copy. Coincidentally, the woman who won it was a student journalist, who wrote an encouraging review. I opened the door to Lek again, and started volume two.
“Suddenly, I started to receive encouragement from complete strangers all around the world. Unfortunately, I have still heard nothing from friends and family from my home town. It used to upset me a lot, until I learned that that was quite common in the UK. People seem to resent someone improving themselves”.
He claims to know three readers, who hadn’t read a book since leaving school – one of them being eighty-four! Two others have since written novels, and one has moved to Thailand to see it ‘for himself’! Many readers have sought him out for a drink when they are visiting Thailand, and others went to Spain and Wales to meet him.
Owen says that he hasn’t been back to Pattaya for several years. However, when he was last there tourists and expats knew of his books, and some had read them all. Its particularly affected him when a young Thai woman ran up to him, kissed him on the cheek, and said: “You’re the lovely man who writes nice things about Pattaya bar girls, aren’t you. Thank you very much”.
Every month, he sells several box sets of seven, who can only be going off reviews or recommendation.
Behind The Smile by Owen Jones – Narrations and Translations.
In these days of Covid, it has been difficult to find further inspiration for what he calls the Lek Series. Between 2016 and 2018, he and his Thai wife (that first girl, the cashier, that he met in Pattaya) lived in Andalucía, Spain. From 2018 to 2020, the tried living in Wales. However, Pritti Patel and the Tories made it too difficult for his wife to obtain a residency permit. He says that he will never forgive them for that.
However, while in Spain, Owen started to have his books translated and narrated. Principally in Spanish so that he could sell them to the local Spanish as well as the expats. He soon started to receive offers of collaboration from all over the world in fifteen languages. Since living back in Thailand, and he has been in lockdown in the village because of Covid-related travel restrictions. So, he has been concentrating on these narrations and translations. He now has more than one thousand books in thirty-eight languages registered in his name in the British Library.
“I still would prefer to be writing fresh material though”, he adds with a hint of sadness.
Located in South Wales, Barry lies roughly south-west of the centre of the UK, in The Vale of Glamorgan about ten miles west of the capital of Wales, Cardiff. In ancient times, Barry Island was famous because St. Baruc lived on it. In olden days, it became infamous for pirates and wreckers. Barry Island ceased to be an island in the late Victorian era, when they dug out the docks, and used the spoil to make a land bridge to the mainland.
Barry Wales Heritage
When my grandparents were youngsters, Barry was the exporter of the most coal in the world. I believe that it still holds the world record of a million tons in one year. However, that was more than a hundred years ago. My parents told me stories of being able to walk across Barry Docks by hopping from ship to ship. They were so tightly packed in when they were teenagers. They also told me that Barry had the greatest difference between high and low tide of anywhere in the world. About 44 feet, I think.
Owen Jones – Welsh Writer
My name is Owen Jones, and I am a novelist from Barry Wales. The Colcot, to be specific, which is north-east of the town centre, on the way to Cardiff.
I grew up in Barry-Wales in the Fifties and Sixties, so just after the Second World War. Barry escaped relatively unscathed from the bombing, or so I gather, because nearby Cardiff was deemed a more important target. I enjoyed my youth there. It was busy and there was plenty to do. There seemed to be lots of work too, and there were leisure facilities galore. My particular favourites were Saturday Morning Cinema Club, and the outdoor public swimming baths, although various types of beach with clean water practically surroundBarry. The rip tides were dangerous though, so I preferred the pool.
Then I left Barry-Wales for university in Portsmouth for five years, and almost ten years abroad in The Netherlands. Eventually, I returned ‘for good’ in my early thirties. I remember feeling that I had to be shoehorned back into Barry after the freedom of living in continental Europe. I don’t mean political freedom of course, but the English Channel is quite a mental barrier. For example, if I became bored in The Netherlands, I could hitch-hike to the South of France in a day or so. From Barry, I would have to get to the channel (175 miles), cross that (about eight hours) and then start travelling again. It takes the edge off it.
Yes, flights were an option back then. However, they were not the mode of transport that sprang first to my mind, as they would nowadays. Doesn’t anyone hitch-hike any more? It’s probably deemed unsafe 🙁
Life in Barry Wales
I worked very happily with my brothers in my father’s local construction firm for about fifteen years until he died, work dried up, and we all went our separate ways. That was when Barry-Wales started to go down hill too. Perhaps, I’m exaggerating because my father died and our firm went bust, but I think that it is more than that. There were two big, Edwardian (or Georgian) pubs in the town centre – The Vic(toria Arms?) and the Windsor Hotel. In fact, both were built as hotels but never used as such. One day, the Vic closed down! It was such a shock.
Within a few years, they had knocked it down and replaced it with a Tesco’s. The huge Royal Hotel in Cadoxton is now a Tesco’s too… and the massive Barry Hotel became a theme ‘disco’ for a while before also closing down. The same fate befell the large Romilly Snooker Hall. The council filled in our swimming pool too and built houses on it. Pubs and clubs, not to mention shops, were closing down at an alarming rate. Even Butlin’s Holiday camp on Barry Island, which had already changed hands several times, was demolished to build houses.
In my youth, it had brought in 3,000 happy, enthusiastic visitors a week in the summer. Those, mostly young, holiday-makers, rarely left the Island and its Pleasure Park and brought in a lot of money. A large proportion of Barry’s youth got their first job in Butlin’s or on the fairground. I did too, ‘on the jets’! Cheap flights to Spain and all-inclusive holidays probably killed that cash cow.
Barry’s Death Rattle
A sure sign that Barry had given up any lingering hopes of becoming a prosperous industrial town ever again was when they filled in Barry docks and built upon it. Tourism finally died too when the once beautiful Barry Island beach lost all its sand, because of dredging near Bristol. How many hundreds of thousands of people used to go to that beach every year? Miners saved up all year round for two weeks’ holiday on Barry Island for decades. The renowned and much-awaited Miners’ Fortnight, when money was no object and people partied for weeks on end. All gone now. It’s not so much that these things have gone, but that there are no modern equivalents!
When they close Cardiff Wales Airport, and the subject is always on the agenda, Barry Wales can just roll over and go to sleep like Rip van Winkel, although it will probably never rise again. The people of Barry have always loved Rhoose Airport, as we still call it.
It is best not to treat the above events as a trustworthy timeline, I don’t remember the exact order, but it isn’t really important, because they happened so quickly – within two decades.
Exile from Barry Wales
At this point, I went to live in Thailand, but still returned every now and again with my Thai wife. We even tried living there between 2018 and 2020, but Priti Patel was too powerful and spitefully made obtaining a residence permit too difficult, so we returned to Thailand just before Covid-19 broke loose. I was more than pleased to get out of Barry, which had become a very sad, pale reflection of what it had been even in my memory, although my wife loved it there. She hadn’t known it before – in its glory days though, and perhaps, nether had I.
We will always return to Barry-Wales, for a holiday, but it is now just a dead, residential suburb of Cardiff, where most of those who have a job go to work, and those with any money go to spend it.
PS: I recently read that Barry wales now has the third largest difference between high and low tide. It’s very sad that it has lost the distinction of first place, but it seems rather apt in a way 🙁
As many of you know, I finished writing Dead Centre II at the end of last month. It was also the first book that I had written solely on a tablet – a Kindle Fire HDX. I had never tried editing a novel on a tablet though, so my next task was to try that.
Editing a novel on a tablet has been a disaster!
I will explain. The Kindle Fire HDX has sixteen gigabytes or memory, so plenty you would think. And, yes, indeed it is! If you only write a couple of thousand words a day and then upload them to the main computer. It works very well if you then just tag them on the end of your novel..
The size of the Kindle (in the photo), compared with my Asus, is tiny, yet it has ten hours of battery life compared with the Asus’ two and a half. It makes it the ideal medium to use when I’m out for the day but still working. That was why I thought I’d try editing a novel on a tablet as well.
Kindle Fire HDX
However, although it can easily read books much larger than the 75,000 words in Dead Centre 2, it is not equipped to hold them in memory for editing. While it can cope with editing an article or a chapter with ease, editing a novel on a tablet like the Kindle Fire is awesomely tedious.
The first problem with editing a novel on a tablet is that the internal gubbins of the tiny machine is so overwhelmed that it sometimes can’t find the time to load the keyboard. If you can persuade it to do that, and there are a few tricks you can play on it, it takes seconds to carry out each command. Usually, between one and sixty, unfortunately, but it can take longer.
So, say in your typing frenzy, you allowed the predictive selection of ‘standardised’ for ‘stand-up’, you would need to backspace seven times and type ‘-up’ (i.e, three characters). That is ten operations, which could easily take five to ten minutes.
Now, I like the app called My Office, I think (a large ‘W’ on a red square), but I’m afraid it can’t cope with editing a novel on a tablet. Writing, yes, but editing, no. When writing on the Kindle Fire, I achieved speeds of 600 words an hour. That is comparable with my speed on my Asus, although I can write faster anually, although I hate typing up.
Dog Root in a Tree Stump
Dog root in a tree stump
A photo for those of you who couldn’t see the root outside my office window. A root-branch transformed itself into the head of a dog overnight! See it, clearly marked? You will probably need to enlarge the image to see it easily. However, she is there looking up to two o’ clock.
My experiment with editing a novel on a tablet has put me back a few days. Mainly because I did stick with it for fourteen of the twenty chapters. However, that means that I have to crack on now.
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.
This article is my own personal experience with the Dere V14 Air Notebook, which I bought a little while ago. I will not be going into all the specifications of this device, because you can find this information on the manufacturer’s website. I will say that it comes with Windows 10 Pro and the Intel core i7 processor though.
Dere V14 Air Notebook
My first impression was that the Dere V14 Air Notebook is small and came with unadvertised accessories. I have been using 17 inch laptops for a decade, and didn’t realise how much smaller 14 inches is. That is my fault. I should have done. However, it becomes a real problem when you transfer your spreadsheets across. If they were made to make full use of the larger screen, then there will be data that is not visible without scrolling, and if you resize the spreadsheet, the data will appear very small. You may need (stronger) glasses!
It is very light, but that was not a reason why I bought this device anyway.
Computer Accessories
The screen shows very vivid colours. It is the best screen I have ever worked with without a shadow of a doubt. It is very easy on the eyes. The sound capabilities of the Dere V14 Air Notebook are, however, not in the same league. I listen to the radio a lot when I am working, or not, too, but I can often hardly hear it, which is completely unlike the Asus machines that I have been using for the last seven or eight years.
I will need to buy external speakers.
The Dere V14 Air laptop does not come with a carrying case, which I consider to be a serious fault. Why would a company that is proud of itself not provide a case with its name on it? In fact, this computer doesn’t have its name on it at all.
That is just weird!
And another strange thing is the camera. It is on the hinge with the screen. I don’t know whether it is an Asian/Caucasian thing, but in normal work mode, the camera is focusing just above my head. I suppose that is why they give you a free external camera, which should be unnecessary.
Yet another ‘free accessory’ that should be unnecessary is the USB hub. This device has only ONE measly USB port in this day and age! I am sure that the original specifications stated two ports – one normal and one high-speed. I would never have bought a computer with just one.
The three best features of this $600 laptop are the screen, the Intel core i7 CPU and the solid-state drive (SSD). It is so fast! I didn’t know what I was missing, and will never go back to spinning disks.
My feelings are mixed at the moment, but I think that I just about come down on the side of the Dere V14 Air Notebook.
Dere Air Review Update After Six Months Use
That last paragraph above is wrong. I would never buy another one of Dere’s products!
Pro’s
1] It is very fast
2] It is very light
3] The colours are fantastic
Con’s
1] The mouse pad distorts with the temperature! Sometimes, it distorts so much that it stops working. I think that the keyboard moves too, but I am not quite so sure as I use the black overlay they provide – otherwise the characters on the keys are difficult to read.
2] The sound system is completely inadequate.
3] Having only one USB port is really annoying. Yes, they provided a very cheap USB hub, but the Dere fails to recognise it quite often. I bought an expensive hub, but the problem persists. Perhaps the motherboard is distorting with the mouse pad.
4] It should have come with a mouse and a carrying case.
Review Summary
Now I know why the manufacturer has not written it’s name on this notebook. Basically, the Dere V14 Air Notebook is an embarrassment. It’s a cheap model that has not been designed very well (eg: the camera and speakers), and even has bits missing (eg: extra USB ports, mouse, carrying case, and heat-resistant housing).
The screen and the SSD are the only things it has going for it, and it’s just not enough for me.
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.
The previous one was seven years old and the designers had stopped keeping it up to date several years ago. Therefore, as WordPress developed, certain key features had ceased to work.
The result was that it was becoming tedious to update.
I, and my colleagues and friends chose the new blog theme that you see before you at this moment. The designers have produced it especially for authors and publishers just like me 🙂
We set our new blog theme up quite quickly, although that is not to say that this new theme is without its problems, not the least of which is the slow response from the support desk and the lack of a clear, easily referenceable manual.
Blog Support
In these days of Covid-19, support must be difficult, since call centres are all closed, or should be, I imagine. Either that or they are running at one-third to a quarter capacity. Anyway, the support team does answer eventually, but it can take days, which seems like years, if you are anxious to get a new blog theme up and running!
If they had a comprehensive or even just a decent manual for the theme, I am sure that my friends and I could have sorted it out for ourselves much more quickly. However, the guide, such that it is, is on line and nothing more than a bunch of hyperlinks. After clicking on a few of them, I don’t know where I am any more.
My biggest mistake with the new blog theme was to impose it directly on top of the old one. I advise you to open a fresh instance of WordPress somewhere, and practise there until perfect. That way, you won’t lose your blog for a couple of days, like I did.
What a panic that was, I can tell you!
The new theme is huge though. My blog is quite large anyway for a one-man band, Owen Jones, the former owner, had created nearly three thousand entries. Two thousand of them were posts and pages! Still, I was stunned to find that the blog had swollen to 4.4 GB after applying the new theme!
Theme Features
To be honest, I have only set up the barest blog from the resources available in this theme. I am aware of what else it can do, but time has so far prevented me from learning how to implement more. Features, such as the direct sale of books (without paying Amazon, Apple or anyone else); the rental of blog space to advertisers such as authors, publishers or just about anyone; and so much more.
In fact, I have just decided that the next feature I want to implement is ‘the shop’. I am going to call it ‘Megan’s Market’, where I intend to sell readers’ and writers’ paraphernalia. It will also be able to handle the sale of ebooks, my own and those of others.
I hope that you will support me in these ventures, especially the direct sale of ebooks. If you are a regular visitor, you will notice me adding these extra features to our new blog theme over the coming month(s) 🙂
On the other hand, if you would like to purchase your own copy of this theme, called ‘Publisher’, or one like it but geared in a different direction, the owners are currently, as I write, offering a discount of 45%!
When Frank, a staid, middle-aged, confirmed bachelor takes his new, diplomat Thai bride to a friend’s apartment on the Costa del Sol for their dream honeymoon, they are in Nirvana… until the ghouls of a secret Scandinavian society torment the superstitious young woman to the point of seeking death to end her suffering. Frank is way out of his depth… What is he to do to save the first love of his life?
The Ghouls of Calle Goya is the perplexing story of how Evil can result from the happiest of circumstances and good intentions, and how madness can be the result.
It is based on a true story and is set in Norway, the UK, Spain and Thailand.
The Ghouls of Calle Goya is available in several languages in several ebook formats (Barnes & Noble, GooglePlay, iTunes, Kindle, Kobo), paperback and possibly even audiobook (Amazon/Audible) too.
The cover is an original in crayon by Aliya.
Click a link below to learn more about the availability of the book in the language of your choice:
We had only been back in Barry, my home town for six months, but it didn’t take that long to realise that there were street problems that were unusual. At least, I wasn’t used to them, but then of the previous fifteen years, I had spent thirteen in Thailand and two in Spain. One of the first things that my wife and I noticed was the lack of a police presence on the streets. The second was the deserted streets after dark – a sign that suggested to us that the unsavoury ruled the streets during that period.
One afternoon, a friend, who seems to know a lot, told me that the night before, there had been only two police cars on duty in Barry – a town of 60,000 inhabitants. The lack of a visible police presence was beginning to make sense.
A few days later, a man, whom I also know well, told me that he had spent the last hour with an elderly lady, who had fallen over and cracked her head. My friend had phoned the emergency services, but it still took an hour for them to arrive.
And then, just before Christmas, I was sitting in a pub opposite a local supermarket, when a woman started to beat a young boy. He was six, seven, eight years of age. One of the men in the pub sprinted out, but the mother had already disappeared inside to do her shopping, leaving the boy crying in a huddle in a corner.
He phoned the police, comforted the boy and came back inside. When the boy ran off, the caller got cold feet and left, but the police never arrived, and the woman emerged from the shop and called a taxi. The police did not show up at all.
That is my experience of modern Barry – it has changed so much since I last lived here.
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More details coming soon – he has promised me an interview at noon on Monday 30th September in the Butterfly Bar, Barry, but in the meantime, here are a couple of his poems.
There is good news for avid readers of Welsh writer from Barry, Owen Jones, that are also audiobook fans who prefer to use the ubiquitous service of Apple’s iTunes!
iTunes – Apple – now stocks not only the ebook novels of Owen Jones, but also the audiobook versions, AND, they are all on one page, which makes it easier to identify series and stand-alones.
Owen Jones now has more than three hundred ebooks on iTunes, a hundred and fifty of which are in languages other than English, and about seventy of them have been narrated by professionals to create audiobooks of excellent quality.
ACX – an arm of Amazon and Audible – has overseen production and Quality Control throughout, so you know that you are getting a great product.
Many Locations
Owen Jones writes in the general genre of Fiction>Psychological, often including references from Spiritualism, Buddhism, or even just ‘traditional religions’ – references such as intuition, dreams, Auras, Astral Travelling and the like. His books are also set in many locations, including Wales, naturally, Thailand, various countries in Europe, Russia and the USA. One series, Dead Centre visits seven countries in just one of the two volumes!
When asked about the new collection of his audiobooks on Apple iTunes, Owen said:
“I am very proud to have my audiobooks for sale on such a prestigious platform as Apple’s iTunes. So many hundreds of millions of people around the world use an iPhone, iPad or Mac several times a day, and now they all have direct access to my audiobooks as well as my ebooks. I don’t have one myself, but I checked some trivia just for my own information, and I was surprised to see that Apple uses 131 different URL’s to allow direct access to its products. That probably means 131 different countries! Not bad for a local Barry boy, eh?”
You can find Owen Jones’ audiobooks by following this link:
Everyone should listen to this short YouTube video about the real reason why the Tories want Brexit or to leave the European Union. The biggest question, though, is: Why haven’t the Remainers made anything of it? Please SHARE it with Remainers and Brexiteers alike.
I am giving away four of my most popular audiobooks in Spanish completely free of charge on a first come, first served basis.
All I ask is that you leave a short review in Spanish when you have finished.
and then enter the free code for the book you would like to listen to. If it has already gone, please try another. Please note, the books for the UK market are marked with ‘UK’, but that is NOT part of the code, so please don’t enter it into the box.
and enter the free code for the book you would like to listen to. If it has already gone, please try another:
46UQLW5B3SKKY (Una noche en Annwn) UK
7KWPYN8247QW4 (Una noche en Annwn) US
32WP8DU26P5HH (El malentendido) UK
3GE5MNXWAC7YR (El malentendido) US
7AMZUQG3YZ3F4 (Cambiar el Destino) UK
42GNF3GL48PM3 (Cambiar el Destino) US
2CYZD2XPC7365 (Autoria) UK
2GM8U3CSDFHZF (Autoria) US
2Y6GTP488WPC9 (Cómo Dar a tu Perro una Verdadera Vida de Perros) UK
2KLFKFE7B6L6B (Cómo Dar a tu Perro una Verdadera Vida de Perros) US
I am a Remainer. My main reason for not wanting Brexit is that I don’t trust our politicians. I don’t trust any politicians, not only British ones, but it seems to me that we have more chance of justice, if we have a couple of layers of them. Yes, that is more expensive, but at least we ordinary folk might get a fairer crack of the whip.
Just look at the things our British politicians have been caught doing over the last decade, and they have been getting away with it forever! I should imagine that the continental politicians are corrupt too – I can’t see why they shouldn’t be, but then the whole shebang should be reformed. Calling Brexit and retreating into our caves won’t help.
Anyway, another reason for being anti-Brexit crossed my mind the other day. I have always popped over to the Continent for a few days on the spur of the moment every now and then, time and money permitting. This will no longer be possible, will it, if we will require visas to go over there?
I used to fly to Cork – thirty minutes away, but that might not be possible either, because they will be EU and we will be… what? British? Just British… stuck on our own little island with almost all our boats and bridges burned, unless we plan our once-a-year fortnight’s holiday abroad.
How pathetic, how limiting, is that? Everyone else in Europe can just get on a plane or a ferry, and Brits have to queue for a visa!
No wonder rich people are buying EU citizenship in Malta so they don’t get left behind the rest of the world like we will be!
Brexit is a step back into the Dark Ages… voted for in haste and fuelled by liars who only want more power as British politicians – but you can bet your life that they will still have the right to spur-of-the-moment travel – it’s always the bloody same:
One rule for them and another for the rest of us!
Vote for a second referendum! How can it be undemocratic to ask a more informed people what they want? It is the only way that we will move forward.
Use #FBPE (Follow Back, Pro EU) in your social media messages to show you support remain or a second referendum!
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Londoner Frank marries Joy, a beautiful young Thai, who works in town. She has always dreamed of going to the Costa del Sol, so they head to an apartment in Fuengirola on Calle Goya loaned by Frank’s boss for their dream honeymoon.
Things start to go wrong when Joy fears that the apartment is haunted. Fear leads to depression and deepens into terror. Frank has no idea what to do, except take her back to her family in Thailand, but that brings its own misfortune.
Life finally looks brighter because of the intervention of a secret Scandinavian society.
This is the story of how Evil can result from good intentions.
When I was young, there was a period of my life when I couldn’t wait to open a Post Office Savings Account and also buy Premium Bonds. I can’t remember how old one had to be, but let’s say fourteen for the savings account and sixteen for the Premium Bonds, the top prize for playing which every month was a million pounds.
At roughly the same time, I started buying coins for my collection from around the country and selling my duplicates too, which usually involved transferring money using Postal Orders. It made me feel independent and that made me feel ever so grown up.
At eighteen years of age, I abandoned the Post Office in favour of the bank, and postal orders for the more convenient cheque.
Well, now, forty-five years later, we seem to have come full-circle, since my bank no longer issues cheques. I had to send £65 to the Home Office last week, and I had to pay the Post Office £8.50 for the expensive privilege!
£8.50 to send £65 within the country!
Daylight Robbery
That is not only 13%, it is daylight robbery and a kick in the teeth to all the people who use this crappy ‘service’. They get my money for three or four days, and I give them 13% for the privilege! Is the dreaded and very expensive, Western Union cheaper?
It really wouldn’t surprise me.
However, the nightmare doesn’t end there. I had to send irreplaceable documents, which the counter staff cheerfully told me are not covered by their normal insurance, and so had to pay £11.50 postage and insurance.
At least this was a reduction. The first time I sent exactly the same package, they charged me £18.50!
You couldn’t make it up, could you, but I think the Post Office is… as they go along!
There has to be a better way, and, for me at least, the Post Office will be my last option next time, not the first port of call.
Stuff ’em – they don’t care about us!
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I was given a copy of The Eyes of Death by Donald L. Vasicek in return for an honest review.
The Eyes of Death is a difficult story to classify because it concerns psychic powers, which, probably, most people in the world believe to be real, although most people in the West think of as imaginary. Therefore, it could be classed as either Non-Fiction>Body Mind and spirit or Fiction>Fantasy. However, The Eyes of Death is a novella written in the third-person singular, the main character of which is Hannah Powers, who lives in the ‘preppy-type’ city of Evanstown north of Chicago.
The general atmosphere of the novel is tense, as if something is always just about to happen. And it does too, the an early example of which is an armed robbery on a small shop and the tragic consequences of it. Hannah also becomes aware of her psychic powers, but is to some extent confused and disappointed by them, because she cannot help the people who are the subject of her Second Sight.
In fact, she begins to think that she must be mentally ill, or at least, mentally damaged, but there is no medical evidence for this. Hannah seems to find her new life with psychic powers both frightening, lonely and very sad, because she can do nothing to help the people, whose future she has foreseen.
Psychic Abilities
The Eyes of Death is an interesting novel to me, because I believe in psychic ability and have some personal experience since most of my relatives are Spiritualists – mainly psychics and Healers. I grew up with these beliefs from being a small child, and I have never found anything, anyone or any argument to persuade me that humans are not psychic. I also understand the loneliness that is concomitant with those beliefs. It would be much worse for someone who had their psychic abilities ‘switched on’ suddenly one day.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Eyes of Death. and recommend it to anyone who likes ‘psychic dramas’. The sometimes ‘experimental’ style of writing and the cover both compliment the subject matter.
I give The Eyes of Death by Donald L. Vasicek five out of five stars.
You can read our exclusive interview with Donald L. Vasicek on this blog Megan Publishing Services here:
