Review of the new edition of When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs

Readers rejoice! SMASHWORDS.com are holding their July e-book sale. All sorts of good reads available free or at bargain prices. Catch my and my colleagues Writer's Choice historical novels on sale there.  SMASHWORDS SALE JULY 1st to JULY31st.


When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Produced as a piece of social commentary and satire at the time the British government were offering this ridiculous booklet of advice for what to do in the case of a nuclear attack, 'When the Wind Blows' is a hard hitting graphic work, one of Raymond Briggs's best.

It is no easy read, especially for those of us who grew up during the Cold War and had bomb shelter practices and the very real threat hanging over our heads.

If there is a new edition out I advise people to read it just to see the sheer futility of the possibility of surviving a nuclear bomb. I'd like the younger generations to be a bit more serious about the dangers and possibilities of a nuclear attack and start a new, loud and noisy Anti-Nuclear Campaign. With dangerous idiots in charge of countries with nuclear capabilities around the world it would be nice if more people yelled 'Ban the Bomb!'

Don't try this one on children, this is a serious adult read and a clever one at that.



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Life moves on....?

September vanished in a flurry of trips and the new novel setting in to its stride. The series of short stories has been out with editors for weeks. The competition stories are safely posted. So September should have been a good month for writing. Instead it's been on to one aircraft, off, then on again.

Australia was destination two, a conference - the Historical Novel Society - and family time. Canada has been and still is destination three. More writing work and talk! I do enjoy conferences even if the flight is 18 hours!

But the first destination was a place of such outstanding peace and soul soothing that I will have to make a yearly trip. I cruised Doubtful Sound in a charming river boat and we glided down that fiord in blissful peace. On the last day we sat for ten mins without engine on, dynamo pumping or cameras clicking and heard the birds singing at us. It had been quiet even with those noises, without them it was a silence you could feel and touch. I sat on deck on the last evening and my new novel, which was off to a bumpy start, simply fell out of the pen and onto the paper.

We all need such places to recharge ourselves. I am still carrying a little kernel of peace within myself and it's a good feeling.

READERS PLEASE NOTE:

1 a.m. Wednesday 11th of October to 1 a.m. Tuesday October 17th all my novels in ebook form: 'Jacob's Justice', 'Tizzie', and 'Bittersweet', will be on sale for 99 pence or cents at Amazon and Smashwords and https://coverblurb.com plus various other book site. Print copies will also be on sale at Amazon.com and .co.uk,

Book Sale coming up!

READERS PLEASE NOTE:

1 a.m. Wednesday 11th of October to 1 a.m. Tuesday October 17th all my novels in ebook form: 'Jacob's Justice', 'Tizzie', and 'Bittersweet', will be on sale for 99 pence or cents at Amazon and Smashwords and https://coverblurb.com plus various other book site. Print copies will also be on sale at Amazon.com and .co.uk,

The Kindle CountDown Sale.

It seems to me that this PR business is nearly as bad as chasing a literary agent! It took a full week to get the Kindle Countdown Sale set up. By the time I had struggled through the first day of setting up adverts I had a headache. Still I did get all the information need for each book advertising site. At least I have it all in a file ready to go. But every site had something unique to fill in as well. AskDavid.com refused to take the blurb as the main selling point, authors had to provide something unique and not seen elsewhere! Sigh!

Anyway around five to seven book promotion sites a day will be promoting our books.

This is an experiment to see if a five day push does boost sales and will I get my expenses back? Should be fun watching what happens.

Thus May 11th, May 12th, May 13th, May 14th and May 15th will be days when my fellow authors and I will be watching the sales and seeing which book news email site provides the best results. There will be much analysising of results and either cheers or sighs!

Let's hope for cheers.