I have often said, and by
‘often’ I mean repetitive to the point of boredom, that extinguishing someone else’s
light does not make your light burn any brighter.
Those people who have great
faith and comfort in their beliefs do not need to attack other people’s beliefs
unless they feel insecure; perhaps their own faith is not as strong as they
would like it to be.
We frequently see this
personal attack—an ad hominem, if you
will, launched at people on the Internet by those who are incapable of arguing* a point successfully and so they rely on attacking the belief or the person.
So it is in other fields,
too.
Those who take the trouble to
read this ‘Blog’, and I thank you for your patience and diligence, will know
that I am a very ordinary person.
My field of expertise is in
teaching aviation people about aeroplane systems and what we call ‘Human
Factors in Aviation’.
Writing stories and this
‘Blog’ is a relaxation that gives me enormous pleasure. It allows me to let off
steam and advertise things that need promoting (rather than selling).
Many of the things I write
about are there because I do not understand them and, in putting it down on
‘paper’ there is an attempt to put things in order in my head.
That last is not always
successful. At my age the ‘little grey cells’ (with apologies to M. Hercule
Poirot) are not as active as I should care for them to be.
To return to that original
point about extinguishing people’s lights it has come to my attention that
there are those who write books and stories that do not care to talk about
anyone else’s literary creations.
This puzzles me.
Is it possible that these
writers feel threatened by ‘opposition’?
Surely, someone else who
writes is a colleague and not an enemy.
Usually different writers
select different genres and styles, thus another writer cannot be in
competition.
I have several friends who
write. People buy (I earnestly hope) their books, enjoy them and then, having
been prompted into an urge to read—an enjoyment of turning the page whether on paper or electronically, they may discover my stories.
I have mentioned Ray Owen’s
book ‘The Hole’ before. It is an excellent read. A copy of it is on my desk at
this moment. It is available from Amazon for as little as $10.99 (£9.50 in UK).
‘The Improbable Wonders of
Moojie Littleman’ is a wonderful, award winning, story from Robin Gregory. Robin is a
warm-hearted and down-to-Earth lady with a magnificent imagination that she has
given free rein to in this story. Well constructed and delightful it is also
available on Amazon for a mere £14.00 (£8.98 in UK).
An Australian writer called
R. B. Clague has given us ‘Whitefella Dreaming’. A tale to stir the imagination
based on an unusual situation. From Amazon at only $15.99 (£10.40 in UK).
Just three examples of books
by fellow authors that are really worth buying and reading. Each one will have
taken a great deal of effort and sacrifice to write—sacrifice in terms of time
and family life. Each one is an effort of will to sit down and write it; an
effort to compose, put it in order; an effort to proof-read, correct, edit.
Yet each one comes to you for
less than the price of a good meal or, maybe, a packet of cigarettes but will
entertain you for longer than either the meal or the cigarettes. Certainly they
will be better for your health than the ‘fags’!
They may entertain you for
longer than it takes to read them. I am often haunted by mental images that
come to me after reading a good story—these are no exception to that.
The main thing to note from
this is not the ‘advertisement’ for Robin’s, R. B’s or Ray’s books (strange how
they are all ‘R’s) but that by promoting them they have damaged neither my book
sales nor my reputation.
They are different genres, of
course, but even if they were all science fiction the styles would be
completely different and the stories widely dissimilar but all would be
enjoyable.
Sometimes making other people’s
lights shine brighter makes your own light that little bit extra luminescent.
No comments:
Post a Comment