31 May 2012

AS MEAT LOVES SALT.

AS MEAT LOVES SALT by MARIA McCANN.


In the seventeenth century, the English Revolution is under way. The nation, seething with religious and political discontent, has erupted into violence and terror. Jacob Cullen and his fellow soldiers dream of rebuilding their lives when the fighting is over. But the shattering events of war will overtake them.
A darkly erotic tale of passion and obsession, As Meat Loves Salt is a gripping portrait of England beset by war. It is also a moving portrait of a man on the brink of madness. Hailed as a masterpiece, this is a first novel by a most original new voice in fiction.

...... GoodReads. (Sorry, there was no product information within the book, only endorsements from various newspapers and magazines)


FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): On the morning we dragged the pond for Patience White, I bent so far down trying to see beneath the surface that my own face peered up at me, twisted and frowning.


MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 60): The Master and Mistress now stepped up to kiss her also, followed by Godfrey, my brothers and Peter's sisters, and then the folk nearest to us rose up to follow suit, so that she was mobbed on all sides as every person there present sought to give and receive good fortune.




MY THOUGHTS: All in all a difficult read for me as I found some aspects of the story deeply harrowing, the main characters, though without a doubt very believable, far from likable individuals.


At over 500 pages this was a bit of a daunting read that could have been much shorter if it weren't for the fact that the author tended to belabour certain events. The battle scenes in particular being overly drawn-out, I could quite understand readers being tempted to skip through lots of this narrative - I know I was.


I also struggled with other aspects of the narrative finding it extremely difficult to follow in places as at times the author used words and phrases no longer in common usage which occasionally  left me puzzled as to exactly what was meant. Authentic to the period perhaps but it did make for difficult reading and even more so given that the usage was not consistent, the author tending to swing between the modern and that of the 17th century.


Not all bad though.


Hoping that I'm not giving too much away here, I applaud the fact  that the author decided to feature a romance between two male characters as opposed to the usual male female one but why anyone would want to include so many sex scenes is beyond me. Oh, on the whole, there was nothing to graphic, nothing to explicit its just that after a while I began to think that yes I got it, these two men were having a physical, if not always loving, relationship.


Their physical relationship aside I did find the relationship between
main characters, Jacob (Cullen) and (Christopher) Ferris interesting. Their passion for each other at times very tender and yet at the same time very destructive. The contrast between the somewhat surly, schizophrenic/psychopathic (?) Jacob who seemed hell-bent on destroying everything positive in his life and the rather idealistic but still unlikable Ferris makes for  quite fascinating reading.


KEEP IT OR NOT?: A reading group read, I shan't be buying a copy of this.






30 May 2012

BOOKWORMS ADOPT THE FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.

I know it has long since been said that dog owners eventually come to look like their pets, something I can kind of believe looking at these pictures taken at this years Crufts Dog Show ......




Click HERE for more.

BUT did you know ............

You are what you read?

'Readers who identify with fictional characters are prone to subconsciously adopt their behaviour, new data shows.'

Hmm, that explains why when reading the Twilight books I had an overwhelming urge to sink my teeth into the necks of unsuspecting passers-by. Why when reading the adventures of Winnie-The-Pooh I went from feeling great melancholy to fighting the desire to eat honey.


'Researchers at Ohio State University say bookworms have been shown to adopt the feelings, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of fictional characters they relate to in an phenomenon called experience-taking.

According to the study published in The Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology "Whey you lose yourself" inside the world of a fictional character while reading a story, you may actually end up changing your own behaviour and thoughts to match those of the character.'
-The Mail Online (2012), click HERE to read full article.

Interesting theory, it begs the question with which fictional character do you identify AND did you end up changing your behaviour to match theirs?

29 May 2012

THE GERMAN BOY.

THE GERMAN BOY by PATRICIA WASTVEDT.


It is 1947. A sixteen-year-old German orphan, Stefan Landau, has come to live with his aunt's family in England. Elizabeth does not know what to make of her sister's son - this dirty, traumatized boy in his shabby Hitler Youth uniform.


For among Stefan's meagre possessions is a portrait of a girl with long copper hair by a painter called Michael Ross. A portrait that brings back memories, both painful and precious, of Elizabeth's life in the years before the war ...... Spanning decades and generations, The German Boy is the moving story of two families entangled by love and friendship, divided by prejudice and war, and of a brief encounter between a man and a woman that touched each of their lives forever.
........ Outer back cover.


FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): At just gone five, the guest in the next room went past Elizabeth's door, his slippers flapping on the linoleum.


MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 48): Her mother told her she was a fool if she thought two faiths and races could make a happy union and normal offspring any more than sheep could marry hens.


MY THOUGHTS: Such a disappointment, here I was expecting a story that was largely about Stefan Landau, The German Boy of the title, when what I actually got was largely the story of Michael Ross and the two women, sisters Elizabeth and Karen, with whom his life became so entwined. 


Concentrating on life between the wars and beyond, potentially this was a very good novel, the passages about the events leading up Kristallnacht (Night Of Broken Glass) being beautifully written and so poignant, it was just a shame that there were so many strands to the story.


Jumping from one incident to another, I confess that at times I did get lost off, something that wasn't helped by the numerous cast of characters, some of whom, not unlike Stefan, seemed to play no real part, their stories left unresolved. 




DISCLAIMER: Read and reviewed on behalf of NEWBOOKS MAGAZINE, I was merely asked for my honest opinion, no financial compensation was asked for nor given. 



28 May 2012

HOW ABOUT SAUTEED TORTOISE WASHED DOWN WITH A NICE BOTTLE OF STOLEN ROSE?

Never mind throwing them out, off with their heads!!!!!


The owner of a royalty-themed tearoom threw out three middle-aged customers who refused to stand when she played the National Anthem.
Every 3pm, Mrs Atkinson asks customers to stand and then lets a young customer tap a helium balloon which then plays the tune of the National Anthem. More


And talking of her majesty .......


Council chiefs have banned Jubilee bunting from town centre lamp posts - over health and safety fears.
Traders in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, planned to hang several hundred feet of flags along the High Street to mark the event.

But Somerset County Council says every lamppost would have to be ‘stress tested’ to ensure they are strong enough to hold the lightweight paper decorations. More

Not the Olympic Torch but a bottle of rosé ......


The streets were packed and there was barely a child without some kind of flag to wave and then it was heard. The pounding of feet along an ancient Truro street in the shadow of the cathedral, right here on the Olympic torch route.
Would it be 32-year-old Lisa Heal, running her stint in a relay that would parade the torch for another 69 days around Britain?
Well no, actually. It was a young brunette shoplifter, holding aloft a bottle of rosé and being pursued down the centre of the street by two assistants from the Co-op store. More


Though I don't in any way condone thieving ....... you have to admit this bandit did have a lot of bottle.*


A brazen shopper was at the centre of a police probe over claims he stole  supermarket booze worth £2,500 - which was loaded into his trolley by unsuspecting staff.
The man told Asda workers he agreed a ‘buy now, pay later’ deal with the store manager to supply drink for his party.
“Unbelievably everyone took his word for it and even worse is the fact staff were summoned to load the booze into trolleys and help take it out to the car park. More




Talk about stating the obvious, would you pick these flowers?




Unsurprisingly , the delicate woodland flowers at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire have remained untouched and untrampled by people for years.
But the attraction's bosses feel the presence of the pride of 12 lions isn't enough of a warning to the visitors.
They have now erected a sign telling them 'Please Do Not Pick the Flowers', though anyone venturing into this particular lions' den is clearly a combination of brave and stupid. More



Yum!!!!!!!


If you're wondering what to whip up for dinner tonight, how about sparrows on toast, live frog pie, or even sauteed tortoise?
These were some of the delights on the menu in the Middle Ages. And for those with a strong stomach can be recreated today, thanks to a new cookbook. More


Who said romance was dead .......




When Bryan Lacey stood up to give his groom's speech at his wedding to Hannah Brown, everyone was expecting the usual list of thank yous  and a tear-jerking recollection of how he met his bride.
But the professional stand-up comedian had other ideas about how to declare his undying love.
The 32-year-old took to the stage to perform an ode to his new wife - in which he promises to love her until she is old and grey, needs a Stannah stairlift, zimmer frame and bladder control pants. More




* To have a lot of bottle = To be courageous.









27 May 2012

FIVE MORE OF THE BEST FIRST LINES IN FICTION (ACCORDING TO THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER)

Anthony Burgess
Earthly Powers (1980)
“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.” This is one of the supreme show-off first-person openings. Burgess challenges the reader (and himself) to step on to the roller coaster of a very tall tale (loosely based on the life of Somerset Maugham). It is matched by Rose Macaulay’s famous opening to The Towers of Trebizond: “‘Take my camel, dear,’ said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.”



Dodie Smith
I Capture the Castle (1948)
“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” A brilliant beginning to a much-loved English classic, which tells us almost all we need to know about the narrator Cassandra Mortmain. Quirky and high-spirited, Dodie Smith’s novel is really an exercise in nostalgia. Smith (subsequently famous for The Hundred and One Dalmatians) was living in 1940s California, and wrote this story, in a sustained fever of nostalgia, to remind her of home. Perhaps only an English writer could extract so much resonance from that offbeat reference to “the kitchen sink.”



Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar (1963)

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” Postwar American first lines don’t come much more angsty or zeitgeisty than this. Compare Saul Bellow’s Herzog: “If I am out of my mind, it’s all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.” First published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”, this first novel seems to parallel Sylvia Plath’s own descent into suicide. In fact, The Bell Jar was published only a month after its author’s tragic death in the bleak winter of 1963




Donna Tartt
The Secret History (1992)
“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.” In this spooky opening, Tartt plunges the reader into the middle of a crime whose consequences will reverberate throughout the ensuing pages. Like all the best beginnings, the sentence also tells us something about the narrator, Richard Papen. He’s the outsider in a group of worldly students at Hampden College in rural Vermont. He was expecting a break from his bland suburban Californian life, but he doesn’t quite understand what he’s got himself into




Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island (1883)
“Squire Trelawnay, Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17-- and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof.” Among the most brilliant and enthralling opening lines in the English language



So which is your favourite first line amongst today's books or do you still prefer one of the quotes featured in my previous First Lines post which you can click HERE to view?
OR perhaps you have a suggestion of your own, which first line do you think is worthy of a place in the Top 10 Of First Lines?


25 May 2012

HARVEY AND RABBIT.

You may remember me featuring this advert some time ago .....



Well, those clever people over at Thinkbox have been at it again and have come up with another advert starring the lovable Harvey.



24 May 2012

STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS.

STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS by MAGGIE BENNETT.


September, 1340. Ralph de Courcy, a lawyer guilt and grief-stricken by the death of his young wife in childbirth, has undertaken a spiritual journey, which leads him to become a follower of St Francis, a Franciscan friar, with no convent or college to shelter him. Now known as Friar Valerian, his abilities of preaching and healing have made his name known as he travels throughout England.


When, at a jousting tournament, he meets young Cecily Wynstede, the daughter of an impoverished knight, they are immediately and mutually attracted. For Cecily, he is the knight of her early dreams, and for Valerian she is the living embodiment of St Cecilia, his patron saint. However, Cecily's parents have other plans for her .......


Set in Chaucer's England at the time of the Black Death and England's Hundred Years War with France, Strangers And Pilgrims tells a captivating story about the enduring spirit of love.
....... Inner front cover.


FIRST SENTENCE (Prologue): The screaming of agony had ceased, though Master Ralph de Courcy thought the sound of his young wife's unendurable suffering would ring in his ears for the rest of his life.


MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 134): Waldham being some twenty-five miles south-west of Hyam St Ebba, and Keepence constantly occupied with his business, it was not considered necessary for him to visit his bride-to-be again before before she became his wife. (I should point out that this was their first and only meeting before their marriage took place.)


MY THOUGHTS: An ok read which will probably be enjoyed by fans of historical fiction and even more so by fans of historical romances, its just that this doesn't live up to the books of writers such as Philippa Gregory.


Reading a bit differently from lots of other books of this genre, instead of royalty or even the aristocracy, Strangers And Pilgrims takes a look at the lives of 'ordinary' though well connected individuals.


 Chronicling the tender chaste love story between Cecily and Friar Valerian, this is well written in that it does portray wonderfully (and often shockingly) the position of women of that time BUT there does seem to be one or two historical inaccuracies.


And then  there's the matter of the sex scenes which, given the hilarious example below, I think the author should have given a miss.


"I'm there, that's it - Christ - it's a storm, a storm - aah!"


As I said Strangers And Pilgrims does make ok reading but there are so many better historical novels out there.


KEEP IT OR NOT?: Ex-library stock, I won't be keeping this.



23 May 2012

FIVE OF THE TEN BEST FIRST LINES IN FICTION (ACCORDING TO THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER)





James Joyce 
Ulysses (1922)
“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” This is the classic third-person opening to the 20th-century novel that has shaped modern fiction, pro and anti, for almost a hundred years. As a sentence, it is possibly outdone by the strange and lyrical beginning of Joyce’s final and even more experimental novel, Finnegans Wake: “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”



Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The one everyone knows (and quotes). Parodied, spoofed, and misremembered, Austen’s celebrated zinger remains the archetypal First Line for an archetypal tale. Only Dickens comes close, with the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light etc…”



Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre (1847)
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” The polar opposite to Austen and Dickens, this line plunges the reader into the narrative, but in a low-key tone of disappointed expectations that captures Jane Eyre’s dismal circumstances. Brontë nails Jane’s hopeless prospects in 10 words. At the same time, the reader can hardly resist turning the first page. There’s also the intriguing contrast in tone with her sister Emily, who opens Wuthering Heights with: “I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.”



Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
“You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by a Mr Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.” The influence of this opening reverberates throughout the 20th century, and nowhere more so than in JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like… and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”





PG Wodehouse
The Luck of the Bodkins (1935)
“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.” A classic English comic opening, perfectly constructed to deliver the joke in the final phrase, this virtuoso line also illustrates its author’s uncanny ear for the music of English. Contrast the haunting brevity of Daphne du Maurier in Rebecca, partly situated in the south of France, and also published in the 1930s: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”







Ten more of the best first lines in fiction according to the Guardian newspaper.



So which is your favourite first line amongst today's books?
OR perhaps you have a suggestion of your own as to which first line you think is worthy of a place in the Top 10 Of First Lines.



22 May 2012

THURSDAYS IN THE PARK.

THURSDAYS IN THE PARK by HILARY BOYD.


What do you do if you've been married to a man for half your life and out of nowhere he leaves your bed - permanently?


When this happens to Jeanie, she's furious and hurt, and determined to confront George, her husband of thirty years.


Is he in love with someone else? What did she do wrong? He won't tell her.


The brightest day of her week is Thursday, the day Jeanie takes her granddaughter to the park. There, one day, she meets Ray and his grandson. Ray is kind, easy to talk to, and gorgeous - everything George isn't. She starts to live for Thursdays.


But does she have the courage, in the teeth of opposition from all sides, to turn her life upside down for another shot at love?
....... Outer back cover.


FIRST SENTENCE (Chapter 1): 'You shouldn't drink so much.'


MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 40): 'Oh, there is no playground etiquette,' she assured him with a laugh. 'Except always making sure that whatever happens it isn't your child's fault!'


MY THOUGHTS:One of those books that I found myself liking despite myself. Difficult, if not impossible, to discuss why without the possibility of including a fairly big spoiler, lets just say that whilst I didn't like the actions of some of the characters, I did quite like them as individuals.


Funny, moving and with a few twists and turns added for good measure, Thursdays In The Park is a love story in which (hurrah) the 'Romeo and Juliet' of the piece are not beautiful young things but ........ (gasp) grandparents in their 60's.


Very well observed, the author tells a truly modern story of family life (certain aspects of which I'm sure will seem all too familiar to many grandparents), friendship and love.


My only criticism? Once again without giving too much away, the reason why George leaves the marital bed when eventually revealed though unexpected just didn't ring completely true and I felt that given the nature of the reason the author didn't really explore that aspect of the novel as much as I would have liked ...... though then again, to do so would have completely changed the tone of the book so perhaps she was right to have made that decision.


KEEP IT OR NOT?: A readers group read, I won't be purchasing a copy.





21 May 2012

HOPING TO PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE WITH APPLEJACK AND FRIENDS.

Hoping to put smile on rail users faces .............


Rail bosses have come up with a cunning plan to to cheer commuters - actor Tony Robinson has coached staff to deliver a string of witty announcements.
Among them is: “I’d like to welcome passengers boarding this 7.33am service. If you’ve just bumped into someone you barely know, you now have one hour thirty minutes of awkward small talk. Good luck!”
Another says: “We will shortly be racing the Underground trains. Do please feel free to cheer for our driver.” More


From railway staff to a 130-year-old railway carriage, is this Britain's strangest home?

Retired transport manager, Jim Higgins, 60, has one of the most unique houses in Britain ...... because it is built around a real railway carriage.
The property in Ashton, Cornwall, is a fully functional house but bizarrely has the fully restored 130-year-old Great Western Railway car within its walls. More


How much??????? I think Husband dearest is in the wrong job.


An animal registrar has revealed how some clients spend up to £20,000 marrying their pets (to other pets I should add).
For a £150 fee any small mammal can get wed in Ann Clark's back garden in Desborough.
But she says some besotted owners go to extreme lengths, hiring outside caterers, professional photographers, and even chauffeur driven limousines for their pampered companions. More


Any old excuse! Just some of the daft excuses motorists used when stopped by Dorset police.
  • I'm on my way to an eyesight test and didn't see the speed limit sign - A driver travelling at 50mph in a 40mph zone.
  • "Well I wouldn't have used my mobile if I knew there were policemen in an unmarked car behind me." -  a driver caught using his mobile phone whilst driving.
  • A biker apprehended for speeding thought it was unfair the police positioned themselves at the bottom of a hill because his bike goes faster downhill. More
And staying with the police ....... 

A pair of police officers came a cropper after being caught out by a set of automated bollards.
The elite armed officers smashed their £30,000 patrol car when the electronically operated bollards rose up underneath it.
And the embarrassed cops — both sporting body armour and holstered guns — had to wait for two hours for a tow truck while laughing onlookers took photos with their mobile phones. More


Can't afford the car you've always wanted?


After Chris Smart realised he could not afford the £15million car of his dreams he did what any art student would do and go out his brushes.
The 32-year-old customer support worker spent two weeks sketching and painting the rare Ferrari 250 GTO with weather resistant paint.
And so convincing is the illusion that drivers even slam on their brakes to take a closer look. More


Do the names Applejack, Blossom and Cotton Candy mean anything to you? No? Me neither but ........

They certainly have an effect on Sarah Butler, 29, who has all three in her vast My Little Pony collection that is worth £20,000.
Miss Butler, 29, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, proudly displays more than 1,000 ponies in her spare bedroom or 'The Pony Room' as she refers to it.
Her most expensive purchase, called Reverse Gusty, nicknamed ‘Rusty’, cost her £980, as it is only one of three known in the world to have red hair with a green stripe - as opposed to the normal Gusty which has green hair with a red stripe. More



Surely the most bizarre article of the week: £8 to 'see' the modern art which isn't there ........


A leading gallery is to push the boundaries of visual art with an exhibition of works which cannot be seen.
London's Hayward Gallery will gather 50 'invisible' works by leading figures such as Andy Warhol, Yves Klein and Yoko Ono for its display of works you cannot actually see.
Gallery bosses say the £8 a head exhibition demonstrates how art is about 'firing the imagination' rather than simply viewing objects. More






19 May 2012

AN AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH ........... CHRISTOPHER RUDY.

You remember my reviewing Christopher Rudy's The Last Victim? No? Well what are you waiting for? Click HERE.

Today I bring you an interview with the author himself.



Hello Christopher, Welcome to Pen and Paper.


1. Firstly, can I ask you to tell us a little bit about yourself?




I am 52 years old and was lucky enough to retire at 48. I knew I was to young not to work so I got a job with the United States Marshal Service. I've been involved in law enforcement my entire adult life. I have 2 adult children, a son and daughter. They are living in New York city and chasing their dreams.  My beautiful wife is gainfully employed as a manager in a huge steel company and this leaves me a lot of spare time to mess around with writing. I love to play golf and I'm an avid follower of american football and baseball. 


2. The Last Victim is your first book, would you like to let us know what it's about?


 The Last Victim is the story of convicted serial rapist William Edward Griffith, Jr. The story unfolds chronologically. The lady who was his last victim, Melissa Brown, called me in March of 2009 and asked me to go with her to Griffith's parole hearing.  I readily accepted and was really blown away but what I saw and heard.  Griffith wasn't there. The hearing for an offender such as him in the state of Ohio, are held separately so the victims don't have to see the offender. There were a dozen or more women that testified about Griffiths crimes against them and each one underwent a complete change right before my eyes as they got into their story.  It was kind of spooky. The parole board went through a lot of tissues that day.  


3. An interesting title, how did it come about?


When Melissa was testifying the lady running the hearing stopped her and said, "honey I'm sorry but I can't keep all of you straight, which one are you?" Melissa said, "I'm the last one, mine is the case that put him in prison."  Molly from the parole board responded, "oh, okay, your the last victim." It was like a light went off over my head and I thought, 'I outta write a story about this and that is a great title."


4. You mention you have been involved with law enforcement your entire life, how did you go from that to writing a book?


I've always been an avid reader of true crime and some fiction of police stories, primarily Joseph Wambaugh. Pretty much the circumstances of question #2 answer this one also. I have sooooo many stories written down about cases and incidents over the years that I don't know if I'd be better off trying to put together short stories to submit to someone or try linking them together to form a novel. I don't know that I want to do non-fiction or go with a series of fictional stories centered on those cases. I'm so new and such a novice in this industry that I'm not sure where to go.


5. So, you don't know that you want to do non-fiction or go with a series of fictional stories centred on those cases, what would you think about the possibility of writing a book that isn't crime based?


That would be a possibility. I've always heard, "write what you know". There are other things I know how to do but I don't know if they'd be as interesting.


6. Co-written with George Davis, was he also involved in law enforcement?


No, George worked for 32 years as a crime beat reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal.  He covered my police jurisdiction all those years and was the person I turned to when I started gathering all the information for the book. I sat down and tried to get started and thought, I need help! The biggest thing I last wrote was a project paper in college.  I called George and asked him if he could help me write a book about William Griffith and he agreed. From there we wrote up a legal agreement and started out interviewing 24 different people for the book and and serve public records requests on numerous agencies.


7. In the epilogue you state 'In my humble opinion, William E. Griffith Jr. is the most dangerous criminal ever encountered in Stark County, Ohio'. Given all of the cases you must have investigated over the years is this the reason you chose to write about this one?


Yes, that is one of the reasons along with how moved I was by the various victims testimony at the victim impact portion of the parole hearing.


8. Where can we purchase The Last Victim?


The Last Victim is available for sale online at Amazon.com and other outlets.


9. Any tips to aspiring writers?


If I were to talk to anyone wishing to write a book, I'd tell them to do it.  Don't let anyone discourage you or tell you you can't.  Also, have plenty of patience and enjoy the process along the way.


10. And finally, one last question....... which book would you loved to have written?


If I could have written a book I would say unequivocally, it would be Joseph Wambaugh's, 'The Choirboys'.  This book is filled with stories I was talking about in an earlier question.  The book is hilarious in my eyes.  Policeman are known for their 'gallows' sense of humor, humor that other people consider morbid or twisted.  That's me.  I see humor in a lot of everyday happenings that others don't.  I believe it helped me throughout my career to make it through the crap that the world throws at you.  The cast of characters in 'The Choirboys' are lovable louts in my eyes, I can relate to everyone of them.  The best stories come from old time coppers. Their hilarious. 


11. Thanks very much Chris, is there anything else you'd like to add? 


BUY THE BOOK. I just think it would be sooooo cool to have a sale in Europe. I could tell people I'm international!





18 May 2012

WHATEVER NEXT?

Vibrating magnetic tattoos may one day be used to alert mobile phone users to phone calls and text messages if Nokia follow up a patent application.

Describing tattooing, stamping or spraying "ferromagnetic" material onto a user's skin and then pairing it with a mobile device, it suggests a magnetic marking could be attached to either a user's arm, abdominal area, finger or fingernail with different vibrations being used to create a range of alerts to indicate a low battery, received message, received call, etc, etc.
- BBC News (March 2012) Click HERE to read full article


Good idea? What would your tattoo look like? How about .......



Or





Equally extreme .......

A tattoo artist has invented a bizarre way to stay with his iPod at all times - having surgery to implant magnets under his skin.
- Yahoo News (May 2012) Click HERE for full story.