A sequel to The Quiet Way some of the characters reappear. I could be shifty here and say, 'buy it and find out,' Let's just say the new one is a conspiracy involving the last Gulf War and Nazi monies in the hands of some very prominent people. You've all heard of Good banks and Bad Banks. Well this is almost Good Money, Bad Money, Matter and Antimatter. Complex, but I hope enthralling enough to get people to ask lots of questions. Almost like Enron, ASK WHY?

Nobody else seemed to want me. (I hope there's not a dry eye in the house.)

They are all different, but on analysis, I suppose that they all carry some kind of message. Like don't always accept things at face value. Or, why are we only shown particular things on the news? Is it really so earth shattering that some TV star is having an affair with the plumber? What are we not being told and why.

Independent Author's, the ones that self publish have a big uphill struggle. Getting your work noticed is hard.

Several factors, mainly because of the sheer volume of new books, (I use that word advisedly in the light of recent experience.Pamphlets with 10-20 pages I do not class as books even if they are promoted as such) I estimate that there are about a million or more newtitle a year in English, let alone other languages. So any new book will have to really shine to get noticed.

The new author is between a rock and a hard place. There are too many authors who just bombard the market with junk in the hope someone will buy and read. In this category, I put things like, 'how to be a victorious religious person,' 'Dealing with moody spouses' , 'Talking to houseplants,' etc. Most are poorly written and all but unreadable.(leaving aside one's perception of religion or houseplants). Recent experience shows that social media is full of group pages promoting books and authors. The method of spamming other author websites with a picture of your book cover and requesting likes or offering to exchange reviews, is to my mind pointless. Other authors don't want to buy books. it's simply the wrong market. Complicating the issue, is the fact that there is so much un-proofed and unedited junk out there, which is giving the folk who have made the effort a really bad name. If you read 10 intros to new indie author books online for free and they are rubbish, then you are tempted not to try that market segment again. I must say, I simpathise with agents who get sent hundreds of such 'books' a day.

In a word, negative. Agencies and publishers (if they are accepting unsolicited submissions) expect (rightly so) correctly formatted and grammatically correct manuscripts. The %age of responses is demoralizing. I reckon I had about 5% response rate. To add insult to injury the responses were in part so sloppily written, no punctuation, poor grammar etc that one wonders why you have to spend so much time getting your work 'right'. Then there's the danger of the vanity publishers. The ones who promise the earth and will do everything for you, but at a huge price. I sent an un-proofed manuscript to one as a test. I got a response withing two days. (You can all read 6-700 pages in tow days?) The tenor was, this is best-seller material, we love it. Send us $5,000 and we will print is and put it on the shelf of a major retail outlet. Of course they will, they probably leave a copy on one of the displays in Bed Bath and Beyond, or McDonalds. There's no easy way, and it's made harder by all the junk out there.