Affection, reflection, peace, quiet and understanding

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
~ Lao Tau

Another variation on my favourite Taoist belief, the principle of Wu Wei

“The Tao does nothing, yet nothing remains undone.”
~ Lao Tzu

If you know anything about taoism, you’ll understand this.  If you don’t I cannot explain it to you, because it cannot be explained, even The Tao Te Ching (the book of Tao, or the Dow-Day-Jing if you want to impress your friends by knowing) by Lao Tzu says the same, the tao, is a true belief, it is no doctrine that you must follow, no action that you must take, it is a simple way of life you must become at one with.

Everyone should read the Tao Te Ching once in their life, if you cannot, or if you wish for a more ‘universal’ solution, then I recommend you read the following two books by Benjamin Hoff.  The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, take the much loved and well known, characters of A.A.Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, and use this ‘bear of little brain’ and his friends, to allow you to understand the taoist beliefs.  Yes, something so childish and simple is a perfect demonstration of something else so simple, it’s a shame more people don’t understand.

Whatever your religion, race, creed, colour, choice of ‘label’, I guarantee you will find something of value in any of the above books.  Take the time, let me now what you think…

Reviewing the Reviewer – 11 The Hard Way by Graham Smith

“Never ASSUME, it makes an ASS out of U and ME”

It is also the one thing you cannot do with this book.

Featuring snipers, home invasions, race crime and more, 11 The Hard Way, repeatedly gives you that same pit of the stomach feeling of dread, that comes from being alone in a strange, noisy house late at night.

Each story guides you carefully towards an inevitable conclusion, before sneakily pulling the rug out from under your feet.

Whether you like to enjoy your books as an all in one read or in delightful bite sized chunks, 11 The Hard Way ensures one size fits all. It’s a fantastic debut from Graham, and I’m looking forward to more.

11 The Hard Way is available for you Kindle right now.

11 Hard boiled stories of murder, misconception and mayhem. Nothing ends as expected. Everything can change in an instant. Tense, thrilling and funny. You’ll be cheering on, laughing at and crying for the characters.

Take a walk in the woods with Annie as a camping trip goes horribly wrong, slug some bourbon in Bobby’s Bar with gumshoe Leonard Peters or join Nicholas and Christine as their honeymoon trip takes a frightening turn.

Attend a night class with the girl who fears a stalker, escape killers with Jason and his sons, join Cook & Barnes as they hunt a twisted killer, look through a telescopic sight with an assassin and recoil in horror as terrorists attack.

Why has Garry been stood up at the altar? What happens to Susie?

All the answers you need are in 11 The Hard Way.

Made me smile :)

I’ve just finished reading The Herring On The Nile by LC Tyler. It’s book four in his series featuring author Ethelred Tressider and his enigmatic (if a little quirky) literary agent Elsie Thirkettle.

I think it’s a great series, superbly written, and it’s tremendously funny. I’m often grinning and giggling away to myself when I’m reading them, but for some reason the following little part really stuck with me. Maybe it’s because I dislike Dan Brown, or maybe it’s just because it’s a joke about Dan Brown I’d not heard before.

To set the scene, author Ethelred is currently filling in responses to an interview he has been sent to complete for a small newspaper.

Q. Which contemporary writer do you think people will still be reading in 100 years time?

A. Dan Brown. I bought a copy of the Da Vinci Code last year and I’m still only on page 7.

*smile*

Politically incorrect

I wish I had bought this book when I saw it so I I could read it and see what all the fuss was about, but just by going on the title, I doubt very much whether you’d manage to get this book published now given the desire to be politically correct.

Daisy at 14

I found an old notebook with the first two chapters of the book that I started writing when I was 14.  I thought I would share Chapter One with you all.

Note – This is a literal copy, exactly the same as the handwritten version, right down to the shoddy grammar!

CHAPTER ONE…

“Come on Miles,” Kaitlin said, she was having an argument with her neighbour. Kaitlin had been working from home for a couple of days and Miles had popped round to give her a break from her computer, which had annoyed her, because she was behind in her office paperwork and had found that she could work better from home. Miles was trying to talk Kaitlin into going out for lunch but she wouldn’t listen to any of his arguments. “It’s time you took a break and I’m just the person to make you take it!” Miles said. “I guess I’m not going to get out of it then am I?” Kaitlin replied.

“Well, have you had an interesting day so far Miles?” Kaitlin asked. “As it happens I have,” he answered “my cleaning lady resigned, I got the Blazen advertising contract, and I got offered the chance to buy into a chain of fast food restaurants.”

Was it just pure chance that it was this particular fast food chain that he had lost his cleaning lady to only a few hours before? and why did he hate so strongly this particular restaurant chain?

These questions were palying on Miles’ mind as Kaitlin told him of what she called typical boring day in an accountants life. “By the way,” Miles asked “who was that weirdo I saw leaving your flat this morning?”
“He’s the man whose accounts I am doing at the moment” replied Kaitlin, “his names Hinton, Douglas Hinton, swears his accountant’s been doning some creative accountancy. I suppose he’s fairly interesting, he owns Channel 10 and Channel 14.”
“Oh,” mumbled Miles
“Yes, He’s hired me to sort out his books, funny though, I haven’t found anything wrong, not a single penny missing.”

“He owns Channel 10 you say?” Miles asked,
“Yes” Kaitlin replied, “Why?”
“It’s just we do all the advertising for Channel 10 and we always deal with the boss,”
“Go on,” Kaitlin said
“Well we negotiated a new deal last week and we dealt with a man called Andrew Shackleton,”