Announcement

First off, I would like to thank those who have helped me to build up this blog over the past six months, it has been very much appreciated, especially since the blog has been much more successful than I anticipated.

I have been working on a little project over the last couple of days, though, the creation of an author website with an integrated blog. This is something I’ve been reluctant to do, and very nervous about, because I didn’t feel up to creating one myself and my finances don’t stretch to things like website design at the moment. Fortunately, when you’re meant to have something, the universe will provide, if not necessarily in the way you might imagine.

I have been involved, on the edges, of a new project by a group I am part of on Goodreads, namely the creation of a site www.navigatingindieworld.com I’m more of a suggestions person, but Alexis, who started the site and does some amazing work on it, recently posted the 1st part of a guide to creating a website. After reading through it, and looking at the screenshots, I realised I could do this, and so I have.

If you visit alexrcarver you’ll see the site I have been setting up, which includes a tab for my blog, where you can find the majority of the posts that have already been seen here. Any future posts will go to the new site, so if you wish to continue to follow me, please bookmark alexrcarver and keep an eye on what I’m doing in the future.

Once again, thanks for helping to make this blog better than expected, I hope you will help me to make my new one even better.

An interview with Justin Bienvenue

Today on ARCBookBlog I have Justin Bienvenue, who has agreed to answer a few questions for me, first, though, here’s his bio so you can get to know him

Justin Bienvenue

Unique Writer, Living Poet and Determined Author by day and night, I have always been told I have a way with words and very vivid imagination. I thought If I could take my creativity and combine it with my new love and appreciation for poetry. that the possibilities could be endless. I took a Creative Writing class in high school which was very helpful to my writing.

I am a passionate poet and proud author of five books. When I’m not writing or reading books I’m usually promoting them. I run a blog on Tumblr called IAT: Indie Author Tactics where I feature fellow indies by interview, guest post or cover reveal. I also run a blog on Goodreads on several of the horror groups called “Hundred Year Old Horror” where I talk about classic books and authors of centuries past.

When I’m not doing anything book related my interests usually include watching sports (Football, Baseball and Basketball), learning about History, Ufology, Egyptology, The Wild West as well as the bizarre and things unexplained.

And now it’s on to the interview

Me – What inspired you to write your most recent book?

JB – Well the book is a sequel to my first which is a book of horror poems. I wanted to go back to where it all started, and I wanted to reclaim what the first book never got. I was inspired by the first book’s failures and the fact that I still had a ton of ideas for horror poems. Horror is at an all-time high right now, so between that and the personal aspect and knowing I still had plenty of horror poems left in the tank I’d be foolish not to be so inspired.

Me – Are your characters based on people you know?

JB – No. I don’t base characters off people I know because then I have the memory of that person forever in my character and that’s not always a good case. If any character is based off anyone it’s myself, the sides to me I don’t show or don’t show much. I’m not totally apposed to basing a character off someone I know but as of right now I haven’t done it.

Me – Do you get ideas for books from things you see or experience, or do they just pop into your mind?

JB – Both. I stress this anytime I’m asked. I get ideas from when I’m out and about and from what I take in, see and hear around me. To me, nature and everyday life may seem simple but sometimes you can take the simplest things and they make for some great ideas and concepts. Also my mind is thinking up ideas 24/7, it’s like a part of my brain is a story idea machine pumping in ideas and filtering some out. If it’s a solid idea my brain says, “Hey boss check out this idea, we think you may like this!” So I say okay brain, hmm that sounds good! Then I got over and write it down or make a mental note of it. So yeah, I get inspired by both.

Me – What genres do you write? Are they what you want to write? (I’ve always wanted to write fantasy, but crime and sci-fi are the genres I feel comfortable with, and where my ideas fit)

JB – I write, Horror, Poetry, Westerns and Crime. Yes they are what I want to write. I like to consider myself a genre experimenter, I’ll take a shot at any genre if I have a good enough idea for it. The genres above are the ones I write the most in and am most comfortable in writing but I’d take a shot at a romance novel or Fantasy Dystopia if I came up with a great enough idea. I think it’s good to experiment with ideas because you never know who may like something and you appeal to certain fans of certain genres.

Me – Which of your characters is your favourite?

JB – One of my two bad guys, Javier “Bones” Jones or Shin Shaojin. I can’t really choose. I made them both ruthless cold-hearted bastards and I know that’s odd to like but I feel I made them so evil because I felt like a reader can really appreciate that and it’s what they want. They want a villain they can hate and love at the same time. I enjoyed creating them, giving them their background and making them as gritty and unsophisticated as possible.

Me – Do you know where your stories are going to finish when you start?

JB – Not always. Obviously I have a clear direction in mind and I build off it and if it sounds good I keep at it. Sometimes a finish will pop into mind when I’m writing while other times I get to the end and have no clue how to end it. It really depends on how much idea and thought I’ve put into it and the development to which the story is going. I feel the biggest challenge when not coming up with an idea until the end is I want to have a reasonable, justifiable ending and I don’t want to just end it abruptly without any real thought. I appreciate good endings that make sense so with readers it’s no different, I want to give them the same thing I want in a story, a solid ending everyone can enjoy.

Me – What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research or make up for a book?

JB – Well for my book Opium Warfare I needed to do research on opium and I wanted to know all aspects of it so that included how many people use it today and how many people used it back in 1920. It may not seem like weird but it was to me, just looking into how many people did drugs seems a bit weird to me. Also, I looked up a woman who was killed by a serial killer for a horror poem, again it felt weird looking into but I wanted the poem to be as real and accurate as possible.

Me – If your book were to be adapted, would you prefer it to be a film, TV series or stage play?

JB – For my Western and Crime thriller I’d want them to be films. For my Horror Poetry books I’d want them to be series which would be fitting considering there’s many different poems of horror so they could all make for episodes for a television series.

Me – Would you ever permit/license the characters/world you have created for fan-fiction?

JB – I don’t know, I’ve never thought of this at all. I really don’t know.

Me – Do you write series or stand-alone books?

JB – Stand-alone books. I did write a sequel to The Macabre Masterpiece but I don’t consider it a series. I just prefer to write stand-alone books although for my next book I will be starting on my very first series.

Me – And now a couple of slightly more fun questions

Tea/Coffee or Hot Chocolate?

Tea and Hot Chocolate, I’ve never drank coffee in my entire life.

Summer or Winter?

Summer

Lazing by the pool or activity holiday?

Activity holiday

Up early or up late?

Up late

Fast food or fancy restaurant?

Yes lol

Dress up or dress down?

Dress up

Watch a film or read a book?

Watch a film

Classical music or pop?

Classical music

Now the interview is done, here’s Justin’s book

The Macabre Masterpiece: Repressed Carnage

There are some horror’s in this world that have no motive or reason other than to scare. These things tend to be the most horrific of all because they have no agenda, no filter and only wish to inflict as much fear into a person as possible. You’re about to take a trip to five places most do not wish to go but horror lovers dream of experiencing. Make your way down to a crypt where the horror’s may seem old but they’re as fresh as can be. Next make your way out to the cemetery and get a feel of how all that’s supposed to be in eternal slumber is alive and animated. Then go inside to visit the morgue and get to know some of horror’s most vile and sinister anomalies. Next take a journey to an asylum where more than just the insane call home. Finally, make one last stop at a crematorium and witness all that remains and how it does not wish to burn. Be on high alert and make sure to take it all in and remember that the true carnage lies within you…

Buy the book here

 

What IS Autism – From An Autistic’s Perspective

Yet another fantastic post from anonymouslyautistic with some fresh information; I was not aware that my sleep problems could be related to my autism, though I suppose it’s all just one bit interconnected issue for me: autism, problems sleeping, anxiety, depression.
It would be nice if I only had to deal with one problem.

Promo material

The Navigating Indieworld group on Goodreads is coming up with some great collaborative marketing ideas, and Alexis is our queen of graphics, just look at the awesome banner she has done, and then pay attention to the opportunity it’s telling you about. 😀

Basic Accomodations – I’m Not Disabled By My Autism, I’m Disabled By Unacomodating People

This is why I prefer to work at home as a writer, even though I don’t yet make a living from it, I can cater my working environment to my needs, even if it means turning off all sound or light so I don’t get a headache or anything.

An apology

I find myself forced to make an apology to my readers today, not only an apology but also an admission. Despite having been on wordpress for 5 months now, I am still a relative newbie who knows very little about how wordpress works, a result of this is I am still discovering how the comments system works.

Earlier today I found a page I was not previously aware existed, one which shows me all comments posted to this blog, including those that have been deleted and those that have been marked as spam. To my horror there was over 30 messages marked as spam. As you can imagine, I had to quickly go and clear the spam folder out, though not before I had read the messages to be sure they were spam – some were, obviously, but others were not and I’ve had to approve them so they would actually show up on the site.

My sincerest apologies to anyone whose comments were marked as spam by mistake, they should now be visible on the site, and I have liked/commented as appropriate.

Autistic Confessions – I Just Want to Be Alone – The Stigma of Solitude

I can relate to this article so very much, I have never had more than 1 or maybe 2 friends at a time, and most often none, because I simply can’t deal with/don’t understand what is considered normal social behaviour. Small talk is a mystery to me, I just don’t know how people can converse about meaningless things for hours on end.

A history of crime (England) part 2

I have a a website bookmarked, one which lists a variety of crimes that have taken place in England since the 1800s, to help me with this series of articles, and I was looking through it for this week’s post when I came across the story of Fanny Adams (30 April 1859 – 24 August 1867)

Normally I wouldn’t have done an article on the murder of Fanny Adams, as you can see from the dates of her birth and death, she was only 8 when she was killed, and I’m not keen on child murder stories, especially gruesome ones; one of my criteria for selecting what I’m going to write about, though, is if there’s anything interesting connected to the story, and in this case there is – the murder of Fanny Adams resulted in the birth of the English phrase ‘Sweet F.A.’ which means ‘nothing’.

Sweet Fanny Adams

The murder of Fanny Adams was a relatively simple affair; on 24 August 1867 the young girl was out with her sister and a friend when they encountered Frederick Baker, who worked as a clerk in a solicitor’s office.

Baker gave Fanny’s companions money to go and spend, while he gave Fanny some money to come with him. Fanny took the money but then refused to go with him, Baker’s response to that was to carry Fanny into a nearby field, out of sight of her friends.

When Fanny’s sister and friend returned home around 5, their neighbour, Mrs Gardiner, asked where Fanny was, at which time they told her what had happened. Mrs Gardiner immediately told the story to Harriet Adams, Fanny’s mother, and together they took the girls and returned to where Fanny had last been seen to look for her. They encountered Baker as he returned but because of his position and seeming respectability they accepted his story that Fanny had left to rejoin her friends and he regular gave kids money to buy sweets.

With Fanny still missing at 7 p.m. a further search was made, this time involving more people, and her dismembered body was discovered in a hop field a short distance from where she had last been seen. Harriet immediately ran to find her husband, who was playing cricket, he in turn hurried home to get his shotgun and went in search of his daughter’s killer, but was stopped by his neighbours.

Baker was arrested that evening at his place of his work, blood was found on his clothes and two small blood-stained knife were discovered on his person. A search of the office where Baker worked, which took place in the days following his arrest, led to the discovery of his diary in which the police found this entry

24th August, Saturday – killed a young girl. It was fine and hot

On 27th August the coroner determined that Fanny Adams had been wilfully murdered, her head having been bashed in with a rock found in the field and then dismembered. Following the verdict the police found themselves hard-pressed to protect Baker, who was committed for trial at the Winchester County Assizes, from the mob who were outraged by what had happened.

When it came to the trial, which took place early in December, the defense tried many tactics: they contested the identification of Baker, claimed the knives found on Baker were too small to have been used in the crime, and even tried to claim insanity based on his family history (he had attempted suicide, his sister had died of a brain fever, a cousin had been committed to an asylum, and his father had been violent). The defense also attempted to claim that the phrasing of Baker’s diary entry meant it could not be considered a confession.

In summing up the case the judge, Justice Mellor, said this

‘If you come to the conclusion he murdered the child, you must consider whether it was under such circumstances as would render him not responsible on the grounds of insanity. This must not be used as a means of escape, and you must exercise the greatest care before you give effect to such a plea as that’¹

The jury did not entertain the insanity defence presented by Baker’s counsel and in no more than 15 minutes they found him guilty.

So notorious had the case become that 5,000 people are estimated to have attended the hanging.

Results of the case

In terms of crime prevention and investigation, even of prosecution and defence, the case is unspectaculae. The murder of Fanny Adams, though gruesome and notorious in its time, would no doubt have become little more than an historic footnote in the annals of crime, were it not for an incident that occurred some 2 years after the event.

In 1869 new rations of tinned mutton were introduced for British seaman and, for reasons that are now unknown, the seaman, who were unimpressed by the rations, suggested that the mutton might in fact be the butchered remains of Fanny Adams. Fanny Adams then became slang in the navy, and then elsewhere, for mutton, and then stew, before coming to be slang for anything that was considered worthless, with the phrase eventually becoming Sweet Fanny Adams, or Sweet F.A. intended to mean ‘nothing at all’.

I can’t say that I have used the phrase Sweet F.A. in some time, nor have I heard anyone else using it, but now that I know the origins of the phrase, you can be sure I won’t be using it again.

¹https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:5792882$1i

Details of this article have been sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Adams and the Harvard library linked above.

 

Fun and Freaky Facts About Friday the 13th

As a fan of trivia, fun facts, and superstitions, this was interesting. I knew some of them already, but others were new, nice post.

C.A. Greyson

Curious about how it all began? Here’s some little known fun facts about the freaky date.

View original post

Anti-social vs social media.

I was going to title this post Autism vs Social Media, but that seems unfair to the people who are anti or unsocial but don’t have autism or mental health problems as a reason (some people simply prefer to avoid people).

I have encountered a number of discussions on Goodreads recently about the need for and the usefulness of Facebook author pages and other social media, and every time I am left with the same set of conflicted feelings. On the one hand, I know that social media can be a very powerful tool in this globally connected age for enabling a writer to find readers, build a fanbase, connect with fans, etc; on the other, this only works if you are able to use social media effectively.

If, like me, you have difficulty dealing with people on any level (in my case the reason for that is I have autism and a number of other mental health problems, but people have many reasons for this problem) then social media can be a real struggle; unfortunately this means that no matter how good your book is, and I’m not about to claim a Dickens level of writing ability here, but I do believe I am above average as an author, it will be difficult to get people to discover the books you release.

There are sites that will provide authors with a quick boost of promotion, but long-term success will only come as a result of good quality, consistent use of social media. What the solution is, I don’t know, but if anyone out there can come up with a suggestion for how I can market my books effectively, and long-term, without spending a fortune, and without burning myself out trying and failing with social media, I’d love to hear from you.