The Exorcist

Saw this tonight for the very first time.

What an amazing film.

We watched the Director’s cut. And, what better thing to do, than watch it with my good friends - the Hammer House of Horror connoisseurs - Kevin and Errol.

For years I wouldn’t go anywhere near this film - why was that? Some primeval fear about things we can’t control; things that lie outside the confines of modern psychology?

Truth is, I’ve been building myself up to watch this all week. But, why on earth did I need to ‘build’ myself? Didn’t need to for The Conjuring or Insidious 2. Why has this film lodged so powerfully in our collective global psyche?

It really is an astonishing film. 1973? Come again…1973? Atmosphere, acting, special effects, intensity and…real…palpable…fear. Linda Blair was incredible. I mean…how on earth did she act that?

It’s a subject matter we don’t like to discuss. 

Taboo. 

Modern psychiatry places it emphasis on finding a biological cause for psychopathology, and there has been some progress in establishing the relationship between genetics, chemical imbalances, neuronal pathways and mental disorders. Evil spirits, fallen angels and demoniacs are sooooo sixteenth century.

But, are we so arrogant to think that we have the complete picture? Does science have all the answers? Is it possible that the supernatural  can play a part in our existence and - quite rightly - mess with our rigid, preconceived notions of how this world and universe should work?

My good friend, who regularly takes his anti-psychotic medication, is now living a more fulfilled life. He no longer hears ‘Chukker’ in his head. Hail to the drugs. Seriously.  Biological treatment has worked without treating the cause. But, that doesn’t matter to my friend, and quite rightly so.

But that’s Schizophrenia. 

What about the other ‘stuff’?

What about the case in Indianapolis (Jan 2014) where the boy walked backwards up the wall during an exorcism (witnessed and attested by police officers, a social worker and a psychologist).

What on earth?  

Or to be more accurately rephrased: What not of this earth?

I’m so glad I watched this film, and I’m still not quite sure about what it is that’s impacted me so deeply about it. Is it a girl under deep distress? Is the possibility of true evil? I’m hoping the answers will come in the next week.

The Exorcist makes my TOP 5 films of all time, and without any doubt, is the best Horror movie that has ever been made. Go watch it, or go watch it again.

Peace and sweet dreams

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So proud of my team...

I'm gonna indulge.

You might want to watch this, you might not...

 Liverpool v Boro. Most penalties ever in a competition.


My team helped break a British footballing record on Tuesday evening: The longest ever penalty shoot-out. It's gone round the world, so I thought I'd post.

We lost 14-13. I'm a lifelong Boro fan btw. The atmosphere in the pub was Amazing! I could not speak on Wednesday - cheering 13 penalties kills your throat. Phenomenal night. Proud of the Boro.

It’s been a (little) while.

It’s been a (little) while.

An interesting last 2-3 weeks in terms of book stuff.  I tried the free advertising tools, with marginal impact. And then, grrr, I bit the bullet; I paid for advertising. It was an offer. It was cheap. It’s still ongoing. Once again, this too appears to have had only a marginal impact (so far).

Undeterred, I’m painstakingly focused on my PLAN A.

Plan A is ambitious.

I’m 20,000 words into book 2. I’m going to work on book 3 as well. Hopefully, by July next year, the second and the third will be out. It’s an exciting challenge and I’m not making promises, but I’d like to give it a good go. We’ll see. 

One of the problems I foresee will be sourcing an artist to create two surrealist covers. I want my covers to be in a similar vein to the first. At Uni, I had a wonderful Dominique Appia poster on my wall - Entre les Trous de la memoire. I love this kind of stuff. I was fascinated by some book I read as a young kid where the illustrator drew a man painting on easel. The picture on the easel was an image of the man painting himself.  And so, within this picture, was another perpetuated image of the man painting. So, on and on it went into the distance, each picture of the man painting, getting smaller and smaller. I was five and freaked out! (And, it distracted me from continually defacing my mother’s world atlas with large dinosaurs.)

So, this search for an artist may cost £££, if I'm to get what I want.

It’s been a little while since I last blogged. More coming. I love it.

Big Thanks to Steve Morris for a 5 star review. J

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Ice Bucket challenge with my two little Ninja Assassins.

Behind all the words...
This is a little snippet of me.
The ALS website (which is what this is all about) is here: http://www.alsa.org/
Sadly, just read that a poll for Brits who have taken the IBC, says that only half have actually donated!
53% don't even know why they're doing it/what the cause is!
I apologise on behalf of the apathetic and ignorant people in my homeland. Psychologists - Normative Social Influence being demonstrated to the nth degree.
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Preparing for the rainy day.

Dew on mum’s lawn in North Yorkshire this morning. Sunny, but chilly. 

Blue, cold skies.

‘It’s going to be nice down south this week.’ she said.

A train back to King’s Cross with my daughters.

Back home and a quick check of the met office website for the week.

Rain all day tomorrow.

February 23rd saw weekend temperatures of 19.5 degrees, and here we are in August with a max of about 16. I really don’t like this unseasonable weather. I have seasonal affective disorder, just like my main character.

I could be getting ready for the Burning Man festival right now.

Still, always look on the bright side of life. I can do a bit of promotion for the book. The KDP select knock-on effect has somewhat dwindled. Time to think outside the box.

Where, oh where, do you go now with a $0.99 ebook? I think this will be a particularly interesting two weeks in terms of raising profile. I’ve scoured the internet for sites to advertise MMMSC as a $0.99 ebook. But, in the long term (in keeping with ‘thinking’ outside the box), I might try some avenues outside of the mighty Internet. Shall I try the traditional pen and paper route?

My problem (or, redemptive quality?) is that I’m flat out refusing to spend any money on advertising. After spending over £500 on a proof reader (worth it, worth it, worth it), and £60 on cover options, I can’t justify spending more money on premium advertising options for a ninety-nine center! Not sure if I’m in the minority on this front.  As always, I’ll report the results back in a couple of weeks.

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So, it's on to write down the sequel...

So, it’s on to write down the sequel.

I’m getting to grips with Scrivener, and I’m thinking this piece of software could be the golden ticket to pure writing pleasure. Not that I don’t experience writing pleasure in other forms…I definitely do. I love it.

For the first book, I created hundreds of post-it notes with detailed, hand-drawn scenes, character profile pics, and pieces of plot ideas. They’re all rammed into a portfolio busting at the seams. Good days. Awkward to spread out in confined spaces.

Scrivener is going to address this paper parody in a positive way - Here’s hoping.

Nothing was incidental in the first book; nothing at all. Throw away scenes and comments…not so much…

I’m excited about the first chapter. I’m finding that flow again. Writing little and often is the remit. 4,026 words in (not that I particularly care for word count - but it helps I suppose, in terms of ‘measurable’ progression).Tentatively placed a July 2015 release date on the website, but, possibly (probably) sooner.

 

Don’t want to be too eager. Don’t want to be over-zealous.

Want to be faithful to the original. Want to be imaginative and colourful.

Time will tell. Time will indeed tell.

Got the titles for the third and fourth. ‘Umming’ and ‘Ahhing’ over the title for this one.

Can’t wait to develop characters…

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KDP Select Results/Analysis

KDP select run-through.

So, I decided to use the KDP select feature and use 4 of my 5 free days from the beginning.

Overall, I think this has been worthwhile venture. 

I’ll go through what I did (with my thoughts) a day at a time.

Day 1: 55 downloads.

In the run up to the first day, I advertised my ebook on about 20-25 Free ebook websites. I purposefully didn’t pay for any premium advertising. I actually had a list of about 50-55 sites where I intended to promote, but some of these required 7-14 days notice. (I had five days to spare.) Others seemed to be free sites, but when I finalised the registration process and was at the stage of confirming my book on their page, I was suddenly directed to payment options. Certain sites required a certain quota of amazon book reviews before the book could be considered for promotion.  All in all, my options were reduced from 50/55 to 20/25.

I would have been happy for 50-60 downloads over the course of four days and to get that figure on the first day felt great. I finally opened that bottle of champagne.

Day 2: 38 downloads.

I managed to get my ebook promotion on two ‘on the day’ sites.  Downloads came down a bit, but I was still encouraged.  The drop could be because my ebook was no longer on the main/first page of some of the sites, and those who distributed free book emails tended to do it for a certain day eg free books for Tues etc.

Day 3: 22 downloads.

No promotion on this day. This was my ‘learning’ day. 22 downloads is great, don’t get me wrong, but I learned that it’s probably best to intensify the promotion over 2/3 days, rather than 4. I didn’t promote at all, because I wanted to check if copies would shift without my hand.

Day 4: 44 downloads.

I advertised across seven ‘on the day’ facebook pages that promoted free ebooks. I worded my message carefully, so that people knew it was the final day. This worked. Some people shared and thumbs-upped my msg.

Overall, the 159 downloads exceeded my expectations. It didn’t have thousands and thousands of downloads like some authors have experienced, but that didn’t matter.  I hoped that the free ebook might translate into reviews and a raise in profile. It did the latter. On the ‘people who viewed your page, also viewed’ section of Amazon, it was clear that people were now looking at my book.

I did have a five star review on.com which was great. (I had one review on .co.uk prior to this.) This, I think, was someone who purchased the book just prior to the promotion.  I was very grateful for this review.  It made a big difference.

In terms of the knock on effect on sales - which authors seem to report - this did happen/is happening. Not much, marginal maybe, but noticeable enough.

Just want to say a big thank-you for the support, downloads, page-views and a big mention to the sites that give you the platform for promoting you work. As always, if anybody has any questions, ask away.

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