A Rip-Off & A Promise

Hi All,

As far as this blog is concerned, it is something that has been simmering on the back burner for awhile now and I felt that it was just not my place to go out there and have my say, but then two weeks ago I went out and paid good money for a so called…”BEST SELLER.” In fact I bought three books, each one from a big name author.

Now my first question is this. How the hell can it be called a Best Seller until it has topped the charts…come on guys…on the front cover in big bold words…BEST SELLER…then the authors name takes up most of the cover with the title of the book coming in at a dismal last.

So I ask you just what are the publishers selling…the authors name with scant regard for the title. I had to pick the book up to see the title, but I had no difficulty seeing who was being promoted. To cut a long story short I started the first book because this particular author has always been one of my best reads and I was keen to dig in and be carried away.

After struggling through the first three chapters, without going anywhere I decided to read the reviews for this particular book…you know the ones from Sunday Times, Washington Post, etc, etc and I found myself wondering if these people even bothered to read the book before doing their review, but why should they, after all the author is a big name in the game. The same can be said for the publishers…did they read the manuscript or just see dollar signs in front of their eyes…I reckon they just saw the dollar signs. Hell once the book has been paid for that is it…you can’t return it to the book store and tell the lady behind the counter you want your money back…so you have been ripped off and you are stuck with a book that is worthless to you.

Another two books later, different high profile authors, one or two chapters. The same story…each book not worth the paper it was printed on but rave reviews from across the world…so tell me am I missing something here? You work your butt off putting out really good stuff…writing that captivates and entertains your readers then once you have made it and you find yourself in that upper echelon of authors…readers and your fans no longer matter…all that matters is making more money and your skill and all your hard work at building a fan base goes out the window and all you do is submit junk to your publisher who in turn sells your name and not the book.

I think that I missed the bus here…an author writes for his or her readers but the three books I bought were not written with any regard for me as a reader…in fact they were an insult to my intelligence and put on the shelves of the book store with one objective…rip off the reader and make money.

Now as an author that is the general idea, to make a living but at the same time respect your reader and give them something that is decent, not the C&%P I paid for. The sad part about it all is that these three authors are not the only ones trading on their name to sell their books…I say good luck to them but as far as I am concerned, I will not be spending hard earned money on supporting them in the future…it is just too risky…I will stick to their earlier work while they were putting out good stuff and before their egos took over their bank account.

They have lost all respect for the person who put them in the top echelon…the reader and that sucks BIG TIME, it also seems as if they have lost respect for themselves if they are prepared to shovel out the trash that gets labeled as a …sit back and watch the sales climb because people out there are buying the name…Sorry guys, you can’t return it…once bought it is sold.

Anyway, enough of the BIG GUNS taking advantage of the little people…onto another type of RIP OFF. The Rip Off I am now on about is when the author is a newbie…struggling to make a name for himself/herself and orders and sells printed copies of their work to friends and family. Firstly the author under values themselves, so certain people get the books at half their value which is not the crux of the matter. The crux of the matter is when a “friend” insists on getting signed copies of your book with the promise that all costs would be covered including postage as soon as possible, so because you are a nice person you slip in one book at no charge, pay the insurance and postage and sit back and wait for payment. Well this happened to me, and these books were collected from the post office in February 2016. We are now in September 2016 and this person has shown no inclination in meeting the deal…in fact this person will not even talk to me…so I reckon the next one I kill off in a book will be them…don’t piss off an author, we can kill you over and over again, and I promise you, it will not be a nice way to die. Welcome to my Dark Side.

In my case, I form part of the majority of unemployed whites in this country of ours, and by selling my books I am at least trying to make a living, but when someone withholds what is due to me, it hurts in the pocket…more so as they did not put out any money at all…I paid for everything and entered into this agreement in good faith…looks like I’ve been RIPPED OFF.

I live in hope…I hope he enjoyed the books…after all they are my dreams of a better future.

I am not a BIG GUN author, but I have hopes and aspirations for the future, the same as a lot of other authors out there with dreams to share and the most important people in our lives, after family is you…the reader, so I leave you with this.

Thank you for taking the time to write a review, thank you for enjoying my dreams, thank you for buying my books and I hope that you come back for more.

I promise…I will never let you down. I take pride in what I write and value you, the reader.

Thank you for reading this blog.

God Bless You.

 

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Flying Free

Hi All,

For the past five weeks my loving wife and I have had to deal with the steady decline of my 86 year old Mom. It all started when she developed a pain in her side that needed to be attended to, which involved an ambulance, casualties, drip, x-rays and pain tablets…then a trip back home.

That is when it started…the decline…not wanting to walk, drink, eat or be active…almost as if she had made up her mind that enough was enough…no matter how hard we tried to get her to eat and drink, it was a major effort all round.

On Wednesday 7/9/2016 Lucie checked up on her and she was all smiles, coherent and asked me for a magazine to do the crossword…we thought that we had turned a corner and Mom was finally going to rejoin the human race…how wrong we were…half an hour later my Mom had left…all that remained behind was a shell that breathed.

We rushed her to hospital…once again a drip, oxygen, take blood, stand by  bed, watch her chest rise and fall etc, etc but then on Friday my brother Mark and I were privileged to be with her when she breathed her last and we were able to say “Good Bye Mom.”

My Father passed away on the 10/9/2009…Mom joined him on the 9/9/2016.

What is the point of all this…well I suppose it is my way of saying goodbye to a person who had a major impact on my life, someone that Lucie and I loved and cherished and someone that we as a couple were very privileged to have in our home for the past seven years.

I helped the hospital staff wash Mom’s body and dress her after she passed and the biggest relief I got that day was removing the brace on her right leg…it felt as if I was setting her free, and now I know that she can fly.

After the funeral the most amazing thing happened…we had a pair of Eagles souring in the clear blue skies above the chapel…they called out to each other as if being reunited, rushed together and then as a pair flew near us and then headed off into the distance.

Mom, we were very blessed to have you with us in your final years…never will a day go by when you will not be in our thoughts. On behalf of your whole family…We love you Mom…fly high in the sky, God Bless you and we will see each other again one day…say Hi to Dad.

Mom supported my writing from the very beginning, and every novel that I have written, she devoured with relish, and I know that she was proud of what I have achieved…my next one will be dedicated to her…she never got to read it in its entirety…but one of the last lucid things she said to me was…”It just gets better and better.”

God Bless you all.

The HIPPOCRATIC OATH…LOL

Hi everyone,

Everything is not always as it seems and right now it seems as if the doctors that live in and around our home which for those of you that do not know is thirty five kilometers away from the nearest town are not what they seem.

Try and get a doctor to call you back on the phone…looks like I will have more luck winning the lotto…now try and get one to travel that huge distance of thirty five kilometers for a house call…more chance of winning Power-ball.

I could just write it off and say this is the new South Africa, but then I ask myself…why go into practice as a doctor if you are not prepared to respond to a call for help when the patient cannot be moved. I have been in contact with one such doctor who just so happens to have a “holiday home” in the area where we live, but has he even picked up the phone and returned my call…come on get real…it is just too much effort, plus it just might mess up his weekend plans.

So we try another approach…call a doctor just to ask for some advise…do I put out a call for an ambulance and rush my mother back to hospital…are her symptoms serious…after all he is the one with the knowledge…all I want is guidance but it is just too much effort once again to pick up the phone…or he is just so busy making money to worry about an elderly person who by the way has medical aid and can pay.

In a nut shell, they make me sick, which is a bad thing…just now I might need one of them.

Below is the modern version of the so called Hippocratic oath, by reading through it I came to the conclusion that it is meaningless to the bunch that practice medicine in this area…reckon I will have better luck with the local witch doctor at least he does house calls.

HIPPOCRATIC OATH: MODERN VERSION

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

—Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today.

 

If I have dented any ego’s out there, tough…it will just be because you fall into the same basket as the rest of the bunch. My dream was always to study medicine, but now that I have seen how it is practiced, I’m damn glad I never went down that road.

Take care out there you never know when you just might need a “Doctor”

Granted there are the exception…there are always the good with the bad…it just seems that in our area we are stuck with the short end of the stick, and I just get the distinct impression that it is not my problem, find someone else.