Tuesday, December 31, 2013

My new book - 3 Wishes



I know I have not been blogging for a while because I have been so busy writing several versions of my new novel,  "3 Wishes". I have finally finished it.  I altogether through the years wrote more than 500,000 words, several versions.

The Spanish translation however was published some years ago at the time the book was over 200,000 words.  I got very good reviews for it all over the Spanish speaking world, including South America. Some critics even called me the new Swift, but I wasn't satisfied with the work and kept doing different versions.  I think I got it right now, this is my final version.


This is when I started the Novel

Now I have finally finished the novel, I think it is great and once it has been through the critics, I hope my dear fans will like my novel "3 wishes" as well.

Happy New Year 2014



:          I want to wish everybody who follows me a Happy New Year, I just finished my new novel, 3 Wishes, which is why I wasn't blogging.  
Here is a a couple of quotes from it:

 “Come on, tell me where are you from.”
            “Why do you want to know?” came the plaintive reply. “I hate prying. You should respect my privacy.”
            “There’s no way I’ll pull you to shore unless you tell me where you come from,” Jim said with the firmness of an immigration officer at a port of entry.
            “It's too far; it wouldn't mean anything to you."
            "Just tell me.”
            "You've never heard of the place!"
            Jim insisted.
            The impatient juvenile finally gave in with a sigh. "Oh, all right... I’m from the Centre of the Universe."
            "The centre of the universe?"
            "You see!” the boy exclaimed triumphantly, “I told you you'd never heard of it!"
            “How come you’re stuck on the seabed?” Jim asked, trying to bring the inveterate liar down to Earth.

 ---------------------------
 Another quote:

“My Dear Virginia, I appreciate that this is alien territory to you, but in the realm of thought, there is no such thing as mainstream.”
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 One more:
“That rich, black-brown cake must have had some flour in it, certainly a pound of butter and a pound of sugar, eight eggs perhaps, but mostly it was pure chocolate, three thousand calories a bite. Jim savoured every mouthful. He could detect the difference between this cake and the cakes he had gorged on in the past when he was Senior Vice President, which had always had a bitter aftertaste of guilt, a layer of awareness that he was doing something unwise, clogging his arteries, weakening his heart and stretching his stomach, that he was a man without will-power, that he was his own worst enemy. But now as the delicious chocolate melted in his mouth and trickled down his throat, he actually felt lighter: there were no alien flavours of guilt in all that rich goodness, only the extra thrill of knowing that he could eat all the cakes in the world and they wouldn't make an ounce of difference. He could be a pig with impunity!
"Young man," Ward Banting called across the empty tables in a shaky voice. His stomach heaved and burned with hunger, but he tried to sound amused and patronizing. "How often do you indulge yourself like that?"
Jim didn't know who Banting was, but he read on his mindscreen curses against fate, the bitter thought that he could have hundreds of millions yet could not afford to touch anything with a four-figure calorie content. "I guess I'll have at least one more of these tonight," Jim said smugly.
Banting's lean but somewhat wrinkled and jowly face registered this brutal remark with a nervous twitch. "How come it doesn't show? You look like you live on lettuce!"
Jim patted his stomach with both hands. " I’ll burn it up."
Seized by a sudden surge of envy, Banting couldn’t breathe. Suddenly all the air was squeezed from his lungs and the restaurant turned dark around him. He jumped up from his chair, pounding his chest to fight whatever was squeezing him. "The bill!" he gasped, and collapsed on the tile floor.
Even before remembering that he might actually be able to help, Jim sprang to his feet. Shocked by the deathly blue of the prostrate man's head and wrinkled neck, he crouched down, tore open Banting's shirt and began to massage his chest, which was also turning blue.
The young woman behind him was screaming hysterically. "Oh, my God, oh my God!"
Working away on the motionless body, Jim wondered whether his taunt about the cake might have had anything to do with the man’s heart attack.
"Should I call an ambulance?" the waitress asked eagerly, quite revived, assuming that Jim liked her.
Still not certain if his hands would do the trick, Jim ignored the question.
"Oh, my God, oh my God!" the young woman sobbed, beside herself with fright. "Oh God, don't let him die!"
Amanda Minton sounded as if she was having a nervous breakdown. When Banting started to breathe Jim glanced back to see whether he could help her. With strands of her long glossy black hair sticking to her tear-stained cheeks, she was down on the tiled floor, sitting on her heels, beating her knees with her fists, sobbing and crying "Oh, my God, oh, my God!" But what Jim read on her mindscreen was: Oh my God, he's going to die and he didn't change his will! Everything will go to that old bat!
Jim let her go on grieving.
 ---------------------
Once more, wishing you a Happy New Year, don't eat or drink too much
 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Learning from experience

I have just recently come across a section in last weeks Big Issue, a magazine that supports homeless peoples issues. I noticed a kind reader quoted me from the book 'The Rules of Chaos'.  The quote is that Ideology is where people go in to avoid learning from experience.  The reader applied my quote to the nature of capitalism.

The truth is if only capitalist would learn from experience, the future might look better. Alas, hardly any body learns from experience.  Of course powerful people are the worst.  The rich and the powerful tend to feel invulnerable and they think that they do not need to learn anything from experience or the past, but everybody holds dear what they believe in and they do not let facts distract them.

So to understand what is happening, we should not leave out considering the flaws of human nature.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Power and Plenty


The problem with banker’s bonuses is not only that it is highway robbery, but that it encourages a sense of invulnerability, irresponsibility and self-indulgence – as the conduct of bankers clearly shows. The banks were run far more efficiently and responsibly l when executives weren't making that kind of money. 


These guys earn enough in a single year to keep them going for life, so what do they care? They have the freedom to indulge themselves in all sorts of costly ways – costly to their shareholders, their customers and the taxpayer. The whole of history demonstrates a basic weakness of human nature: the combination of power and plenty not only corrupts, it makes people stupid. Exceptions prove the rule. Far from motivating bankers to do their best, the government tempts them to do their worst.