Swallowing a pram--not a good feeling.

Of course I didn’t swallow a pram! It just feels like it. Don’t you hate it when a tooth cracks, usually the result of an old filling breaking down. In this case it seems to happen to the same tooth every four or five months; one of those back ones that you need for chewing. Then it leaves a sharp jagged edge that cuts ingot your tongue and cheek every time you talk or swallow, making me sound like a demented chipmunk! (Or in NZ’s case –a possum).

The dentist has been gently telling me that I need a crown, but we all know that involves copious amount of cash, so I keep going for the cheap fix. Silly me---I could have paid for it twice over, having gone for the option that inly last a short time, so now that we have the British Royal Family traipsing around NZ at the moment, I thought in honour of their visit I would get my own crown and to hell with the money---Aunty Visa will have to pay for it.

I can think of much better ways to spend my afternoons; you know the feeling: your mouth filled to capacity with dental implements and the dentist chatting away, expecting an answer, which can only come in the form of a grunt or hand movements. I well remember quite wide-ranging chats in the past!

OK, at least I shall have the rough edges rubbed, filed or whatever, off today! Can’t wait to have a smooth-talking mouth again.

Become a follower!

A sign of desperation, you say. NO, not at all. I do want to boost the numbers of readers for my blog and one way to achieve that is to get you to sign on as a ‘follower’, You can always delete that option in the future, If my words get on your nerves. Like dear old Mum used to say---you can always switch channels! So, go do it---no not switch channels---click on the ‘followers option and receive your daily fix of my ‘fix on fixing the world! Too much ‘fixing’ going on here, me thinks.

 www.authorneilcoleman.com

Massive increase in numbers of USA readers. Why?

Hey, I am not complaining--I'm just curious. There has been a huge lift in the number of readers from the USA. You are already, by far, my largest audience, so I am perplexed as to what is happening out there!
Keep it up though and hopefully you can be instrumental in helping me to push my book, ROSKILL, now that it is almost ready to be re-launched. ROSKILL has been 'professionally' edited and re-worked, plus 'future-proofed,' to make it more relevant to teenagers and their parents. Some people have called ROSKILL, mildly therapeutic, a lable that I am not totally comfortable with. I say its a damned good read; one that gives a very firm message----'Dad said, Don't do drugs.' But then he ignored his own advice.
www.authorneilcoleman.com  Out soon---watch this space.

Russia playing games---here we go again!

Putin is playing a very dangerous and transparent game. Any sympathy he may have had re his claim that The Crimea was part of Russia has long since worn thin re his latest move is Eastern Ukraine. It seems that no matter what the Ukraine Government does, re quelling the unrest, much of which has probably being fed by Russian agents. If the Ukraine does not ‘stop the unrest,’ Putin will use that as justification to intervene I order to restore order and to ‘protect’ the Russian speaking minority.

Then again, if the Ukraine sends in troops to stop the rioting and criminal behaviour on the part of a vocal and violent Russian-speaking minority, some of who have been arrested and identified as Russian provocateurs, then Putin will use that as reason to ‘invade’ Ukraine. Putin’s cynical response and statements do nothing to lessen the tension in those volatile regions of Eastern Ukraine. It seems that the Ukraine Government is stymied no matter what it does or does not do.

The EU makes noises and NATO pussy-foots it around. The USA calls for ever increasing sanctions, preferring to avoid the military response that they have so often followed, re other regions. Putin is playing this ‘chaos’ for all he can and he knows that if he holds to his present path he will get what he wants.

 It is not quite that simple, Mr Putin. You are approaching a point whereby your ‘games’ put the whole world at risk and between you and the USA; a new Cold War is being revisited upon an unwilling Europe. Your policies are something that we thought had been left firmly in the past. I guess we were wrong. The nuclear clock is beginning to speed up again; this at a time when there are other issues that face the world---terrorism for one. We need a united world community to face that threat. Is what you are doing in Ukraine and possibly other ‘border areas’, contributing to an answer for that vexing issue?

This feels a bit like a gambling issue---is it? Self publishing.

About 4 years ago I embarked on a journey that has been fraught with potholes, ignorance on my part, defiantly naiveté and certainly mounting debts. I started a self-publishing journey with the release of a group of short stories. Right from the beginning there were editing issues and relationship problems with an initial publisher. I learned, got burned and moved on to me next book. That one is now in its third revision and many thousands of dollars later, it is finally nearing a standard, which I am happy to say, is right up there with the books I peruse in bookstores. It has been extensively edited, proofread, re-designed, digitally managed, proofread again and then ‘future proofed,’ and finally going to print, in eBook format and hard-copy. Yes, ROSKILL is about to hit the shelves, of some bookshops, on Amazon, on Kindle and probably at other to be announced venues.

I have learned much on this journey and anyone contemplating going down the road of self-publishing, could well gain from having a bit of a chat. There are so many pitfalls you can avoid. I have learned to be more patient. Getting a book ‘out there,’ in a rush is NOT the way to go. That approach only leads to frustration, further expense and embarrassment as you see the errors, which you did not see when you ‘carefully’ went over the script for the ‘last time.’ NEVER assume that you can do it yourself. Your eyes will not see what those of others do.

I have met some wonderful people on this journey and now I feel I have a ‘team,’ who I can TRUST. Yes, it costs a lot of money, but I have reached the point that if I stopped now, I would be throwing away all that money. It feels like I need to dip into my pocket for one last time and hope that all the work begins to pay off. I have learned of new resources as per job descriptions that I didn’t know existed, like ‘digital designer,’ just to name one. The editing processes are far more complicated than I thought and the addition of good proof-reading (everyone thinks they can do it!) along with publicists are an essential part of getting a book out there.

Now, I wait for the first hard-copies of the new enhanced and much improved ROSKILL to arrive, most of which will go out to distributors and bookshops. The eBook version will be uploaded any day now and hopefully you will download it from my website. Please keep a look out for it and share the link with your friends. It is time for me to try to get back some of the many thousands of dollars that this project has whipped out of my bank-account.

What to do if Roskill gets any traction?—Why---do the same with TALK TO ME and SONS OF ORPHEUS of course. That will be a mission! My website?  www.authorneilcoleman.com  Check it out and let me know once you have downloaded successfully or purchased online. I would love some feedback. Share, share and share again.

Yes, this really does feel like an addiction, but I am sure there are far worse ones!

China---You are reading my blogs, now try my books

I am happy to see that more people in China are reading my blogs. Now that ROSKILL is about to be re-launched, on Kindle and in hard-copy form, I hope that you either download the eBook from my website ---   www.authorneilcoleman.com  or buy the actual book, via Amazon. If you are curious about New Zealand, ROSKILL portrays     NZ teenage culture in a manner that is close to the real thing. You will be able to read my book very soon, because today it went to the printer (hard-copy) and will be available in a week or two as an eBook. Please give me ‘feedback’ re my blogs and my books.

Regards

Neil

Bare-bottoms draw international attention to the royal visit to New Zealand.

This blog is not actually about bare-bottoms, but it did serve to get you reading. I leave you to ponder the reason why it attracted your attention! What I really want to discuss, albeit in a pretty perfunctory manner is the subject of New Zealand becoming a ‘Republic.’ It seems that not a year goes by whereby this touchy subject comes up and it is the present royal visit, where two future Kings are gracing us with their presence, that the discussion has been reignited.

If the polls are correct, there has not been a huge movement within NZ re New Zealanders favouring a new ‘Republican’ status for us within the Commonwealth of Nations. For those less familiar with our history, we may seem to be some quaint South Pacific throwback to colonial times. Many New Zealanders still hold the British Royal family in high regard, especially the younger versions; although that does not mean that the ‘older gracious lady’ does not have support too. Of course there is also a section of New Zealand society that has never loved the royal family and if one listens to talkback radio, those ‘voices’ are not shy in putting their case for a dissociation from the said family.

For me, the debate is one of interest from a historical perspective rather than emotional linkage to the British Crown. I most certainly do not adhere to the old adage that ‘where Britain goes, so shall we,’ because we have seen that Britain is no longer capable of doing a great deal to defend our shores, if the chips were down again. Britain’s last great adventure in the Falklands (Malvinas) represented the last gasp of that colonial vestige.

New Zealand is a member of various alliances, most of them more attune to the geographical area in which we live and even those relationships come with a few hooks. In this new age of a ‘global economy’ and many trade arrangements, with more to come, it is assumed that war is a ‘no-brainer,’ although tell that to the people of Afghanistan, the Middle-East and parts of Africa and they would say we live on a different planet!

There is of course a different way of looking at NZ’s links with the ‘Crown’ and that can be found in our ‘founding document,’ The Treaty of Waitangi.’ There is a special relationship between the Tangata Whenua (the Maori People of NZ) and the British Crown and many NZers underestimate the importance of that arrangement. If New Zealand became a Republic, the Treaty would or could be assigned to a place where most Maori would feel very uncomfortable. The Treaty is not something that can be cast aside and the ties between the British Royal family and Maori are sacrosanct.  Any debate that does not take that into account is doomed to propelling NZ into a place where we do not want to go. For New Zealand to move forward, the debate about Republicanism must be wide-ranging and not hurried. Politicians and New Zealand as a whole must embrace this question in a sensitive, yet pragmatic manner. The answer is there, but we need to ‘talk to one another as equals, if we are to find the answer and still be ‘one nation and many people.’

The world media is in New Zealand; something that tell us that more than just the British follow the journey of British Royals, so bare-bottoms may feature, but there is much more to the relationship between the people of NZ and the ‘Family.’