Tuesday, December 30, 2014

iBooks Free Series-starter E-books Promotion!

 
iBooks has done it yet again! Just as I recovered from reeling in amazement at their last promo of indie authors – in which I had a taste of the action – they’ve started another multi-genre free series-starter feature and included The Broken World Book One – Children of Another God! I can’t begin to express how much it means to an indie author to see his or her books featured at iBooks, which, in my humble opinion, is the best indie e-book promotor in the world! Go iBooks! We love you! iBooks rocks!

For all of you looking for a great holiday read, you’ll find a wide selection of the best free series-starters at iBooks, so don’t miss out! Grab your free e-books today and discover super series to read in 2015! Thank you iBooks for all the great promotions in 2014, and all those still to come. Thank you Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords.com, for all the support and encouragement. You rock! If you’re an indie author looking for the best place to publish your books, I highly recommend Smashwords.com. Congratulations to all the Smashwords authors who made it into the iBooks feature!

On another note, Demon Lord 9, tentatively titled The Forgotten Lands, is now available on pre-order, and the proposed publication date is June 7, 2015. It might happen sooner, depending on how the writing goes, and I’m hoping it will. This title may also change, subject to what happens in the book, which isn’t finished yet. I have two other books in the works – The Cyber Chronicles 10 and Slave Empire 4, both as yet untitled. I’ll put those on pre-order as well, as soon as I’m comfortable that I’m within striking distance of finishing them. I intend to try to make up for my lack of writing last year – due to illness – and publish at least three new titles in 2015. Lots of adventures still to come!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays!


It’s been an eventful, busy year and I’m looking forward to some relaxation during the upcoming holidays, as I’m sure you are too. This will be my last post for 2014, but readers can expect plenty of new and interesting posts in the New Year.

Today, I thought I’d share three facts about Christmas that you might not know.

Christmas Fact 1

Pagans worshipped trees, sometimes bringing them into their homes and decorating them, and the latter practice was adopted by early Christians.

Christmas Fact 2

Emperors in pre-Christian Rome forced reviled citizens to bring gifts and offerings during the Saturnalia in December, and this evolved into general gift-giving. Later, the Catholic Church adopted the practice, re-rooting it in Saint Nicholas’ alleged gift-giving.

Christmas Fact 3

Santa Claus came into being after Saint Nicholas’ bones were moved from Turkey to Bari, Italy in 1087, where the saint ‘replaced’ the goddess known as Pasqua, who was said to fill children’s stockings with gifts. The cult spread and was adopted by Celtic and German Pagans who worshipped the god Woden – who boasted a long white beard and rode a winged horse through the skies one evening each year. The Catholic Church then adopted the practice too, but changed the gift-giving from 6 December to 25 December.


I hope you’ve enjoyed these facts. Here’s to the best holiday season ever!




Monday, December 8, 2014

Legends and Folklore from Africa

Often called ‘The Cradle of Mankind’, many believe that Africa, my home continent, is the birthplace of mankind. Whether or not this is true, Africa is the source of myriad legends, folklore tales and unbelievable – to most Western minds – beliefs. African folklore includes everything from the origins of the universe and life after death to ancestral spirits, magic and celestial and other beings.

In some African cultures, the Earth is believed to be a goddess who created all living creatures, while other African tribes believe their ancestors live inside the Earth, in homes similar to the ones they lived in before their deaths.

Elephants appear in many African folktales and fables, the latter usually portraying them as wise chiefs who settle disagreements between forest creatures. Elephants are usually depicted as noble, kind and wise. Ghana’s Ashanti people believe that elephants are the spirits of their ancestral chiefs and give dead elephants chiefs’ burials, and Tanzania’s Wachaga folklore says that the first elephant was once a human who was deceived into losing all his limbs other than his right arm, which is now his trunk.


A Southern African tale tells of a girl who became so fat that no man would marry her. Accused of witchcraft, she was exiled. While wandering in the wilderness, she came across an elephant that spoke to her in Zulu. She agreed to stay with him, and he helped her to find food. The girl birthed four human sons, who were the Indhlovu clan’s ancestors.

The Kamba people of Kenya have a tale about how elephants originated. A poor man heard about Ivonya-Ngia, who reportedly fed the poor, and made the long journey to find his mansion. Ivonya-Ngia told his men to give the poor man a hundred cows and a hundred sheep, but the poor man replied that he did not want charity. Instead, he said, he wanted to know the secret to being rich. Ivonya-Ngia gave the poor man a flask of ointment and told him to rub it on his wife’s canine teeth in her upper jaw, wait for them to grow and then sell them. After a few weeks, the teeth started to grow, eventually becoming arm-length tusks. The poor man pulled out his wife’s huge teeth – after some persuasion – and sold them at the market. A few weeks later, his wife’s canine teeth were even bigger than before, but she refused to let her husband pull them out. Her entire body began to grow bigger, and her skin grew thicker and turned grey. Eventually, she went to live in the forest, where she gave birth to a son, who was born an elephant. She went on to have more children, all healthy – and all elephants. According to the story, this is why elephants possess almost human intelligence.

An interesting Yoruba belief that sounds quite New Age to me is that a person’s success depends on what choices he or she made in Heaven before his/her human birth. According to this belief, poor people should be patient, because, if they chose the right life when in Heaven, it will still manifest as earthly wealth.

Many Africans believe that every large tree has at least one spirit, whose voice one can hear if one listens carefully with a knowledge of the spirits’ language. Hence, trees are often revered. When cutting down trees to make boats or drums, for example, drum- and boat-makers try to preserve the tree spirit so that it can protect or bless the object/s made from its wood. A tree in Namibia is reported to eat people, and it’s believed that only a woodpecker can rescue them.

In Central Zaire, dwarf-like beings called Biloko are believed to reside in rainforests, protecting the forest and its inhabitants. Biloko are restless ancestral spirits who have grudges against the living, and are known to bewitch and eat humans.

Then there’s the West African trickster god, Anansi, who is usually depicted as a spider, human or spider-human who tricks humans into performing immoral acts that he gains something from. These tricks usually fail, thus teaching valuable life lessons. For example, one story says that Anansi wanted all the knowledge in the world for himself. He eventually got the knowledge in a pot, which he tried to hide in a tree. When he tried to climb the tree, he kept slipping, so his son eventually asked him why he didn’t tie the pot to his back rather than his front, as that would make climbing easier. Just then, the pot became untied and fell, causing the world’s wisdom to fall out. A flash rainstorm washed the wisdom into a river that fed into the ocean; hence, everyone in the world now has some knowledge. Some stories also depict Anansi as the messenger between the ‘supreme god’, the sky god Nyame, and this world.

Perhaps the East African good spirit called the Malaika is where the ‘devil and angel on your shoulder’ originated – at least, in Africa. Folklore says the Malaika were sent from Heaven to help humans, and they sit on a human’s right shoulder and whisper to them what they should or shouldn’t do.

According to the Akan people of Ghana and Ivory Coast, humans once lived deep inside the Earth. One day, five women, seven men, a dog and a leopard crawled out of a massive hole made by a large worm. They became frantic with terror, but the first man to set foot on the surface, Adu Ogyinae, calmed them and took charge of co-ordination the construction of their first shelters.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I’d love to hear about myths in your home country!

Monday, December 1, 2014

How to Recognise Real Life Assassins

In my fantasy series, The Queen’s Blade, the assassin Blade takes up the trade only because he has to eat. He doesn’t enjoy the work, but doesn’t particularly dislike it either. To him, it’s just a job, and one he’s able to do due to his horrific past.

What motivates real life assassins? What goes through the mind of someone who is able to plan and commit the murder of what is often a complete stranger? Not many assassins are lunatics who are obsessed with the target….

Here are the facts, courtesy of a Secret Service study in which 83 assassins and would-be assassins (over a period of 50 years) were interviewed and analysed.

* Assassins or would-be assassins rarely act on impulse – attempts are usually well planned.
* Less than 50% of assassins have or show signs of mental illness.
* 43% have a history of being delusional.
* A third of assassins value the assassination act more than the target’s identity.
* 0% send death threats. (Some studies, however, show that 4% sent death threats.)
* There doesn’t seem to be a set psychological profile that all assassins fit into. However, there is usually an obvious behavioural pattern.
* 86% are men.
* 77% are white.
* Known assassins’ ages range from 16 to 73.
* Around 50% are single.
* About a third have children.
* Almost 50% had attended college.
* 25% had a full-time job at the time of the assassination or attempt.
* Four fifths have never been arrested for a violent offence.
* 44% have histories of chronic depression.
* 54% have a history of harassment.
* 41% have threatened suicide at some point.
* Almost all the assassins analysed had experienced a recent traumatic event, such as the loss of good health, a job, a spouse or other loved one.

Reasoning

* Most assassins said the reason for their assassination attempt was to gain fame.
* A handful said they wanted political change.
* Only a few had co-conspirators.
* Some wanted to gain attention for a cause.
* Some wanted to get revenge for a perceived wrong.
* Some wanted to end their suffering by being killed during the assassination attempt.
* Some claimed they wanted a ‘special relationship’ with their target.
* A handful said that voices told them to assassinate the target.


So it seems that, like my fictional assassin, Blade, most real life assassins also embark upon assassinations due to trauma in their lives. Traumatic events often change people, and most assassins were once (and still are) ordinary people like you and I who were simply pushed too far – or who perceived themselves to be pushed too far.