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.

How I look when I have finished the novel.

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.

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 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.

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Once more, wishing you a Happy New Year, don't eat or drink too much

 

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.

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.

The John Terry trial and the infantilization of the UK

I can think of nothing more ridiculous than the present trial of John Terry. It reminds me of the trial of a student demonstrator -  at huge expense to taxpayers. The student was on trial for calling out an insulting remark to a mounted policeman. The student hurled at him  the accusation that he had sex with his horse, or some similar juvenile jeer, and the mounted policeman sued the student for hurt feelings. He wasn’t a two year old baby, for God’s sake, whose whole development was endangered by some nasty insult but a mounted policeman. People are losing their jobs, their homes because of the financial crisis, and this is what the country has money for?

As for John Terry and Anton Ferdinand. If John Terry had tripped Anton Ferdinand and Ferdinand had tripped and broken his foot, and Ferdinand would have been unable to play for six months or more, Terry would have got no worse punishment than a red card, and it oqwuld have been the end of the whole business. But left unhurt, this strong and tough grown man, an athlete, is not ashamed to testify in open Court that he is plunging the administration of justices into a needless expense of tens of thousands of pounds, not to mention the wastet on his own lawyers which must amount to about a hundred thousand. Football is becoming ever more brutal, players get away with more and more infractions of the rules. It would be better for the game, the skill of the players – and for the manners of football-mad hoodies - if the rules of the game were rigorously enforced instead of worrying about the players’ hurt feelings.

I date legal support to enshrine infantile sensitivity in grownup people to the time when Muslim organizations have been pressing for a new law making derisory remarks about anyone’s religion a criminal offence. Much of the argument for a new criminal offense was that religious people’s feelings would be hurt. The House of Lords Committee invited submissions on the issue. In my submission I quoted the rhyme that every child used to learn in school:

Sticks and stones

will break your bones

but words will never hurt you.

This was the drift of the majority of submissions and The House of Lords Committee advised against criminalizing the criticism and insults to believers. No legislation was ever passed, but greedy lawyers managed to create a new offense, bleeding the state, as well as their clients. Now people are convinced that it is their human right not to have their feelings hurt. No wonder we are in all sorts of trouble.

Why Andy Murray lost

I believe that Andy Murray didn't win Wimbledon because he doesn't seem to have been trained in the technique of breathing while playing. He has a magnificent spirit, skill, strength and great determination which justifies all the enthusiasm and admiration he inspires. But tennis players need the right breathing technique just as much as opera singers. I remember the great Italian baritone Titto Gobbi teaching a young singer in a Masterclass how to breathe while singing, telling him that the technique has to be so perfect that he can do it without thinking of it, just like normal breathing. You certainly have never noticed Tito Gobbi breathing. You didn't notice Roger Federer breathing either while he played, while Andy Murray kept grasping for air. Once he learns the technique of breathing during a match, he will be able to beat everybody. I also think that putting all a player's strength into his serves can be overdone. There is no advantage in wasting so much energy hitting the ball (half the time into the net)and then lose easy shots because the player is tired.

Seasonal Greetings and my lecture in Madrid

I am sorry, but I am so keen to finish my new novel I haven't written a blog for a while; but I went to Madrid in November to speak at a conference on writing and the protection of intellectual rights - the protection of the rights of writers. My speech was reported in El Mundo in the 18th November 2011 issue. My Spanish readers, or readers who speak Spanish, can look it up in "News and Reviews" on my website. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all friends! Stephen V