My Favorite TV Programs

It's Saturday. It's the weekend. So let's start the day with a lighthearted off topic post :-)

All good blogs need a post about TV programs...  So, here's my most watched / favorite programs sort of in order:

1. Terminator - Sarah Connor Chronicles
2. Doctor Who
3. House
4. Stargate SG-1
5. Spartacus
6. Battlestar Galctica
7. The Dollhouse
8. Bones
9. Two and a Half Men
10. Outsourced

Of course, I probably left some out that I'll remember later and a few of these don't run any more. But apart from that - this is the list. It's tough to find a top 10 and have to leave some programs out. What are your favorite programs? Please comment below...

Off to see the man himself - Ray Guyll

I thought I'd write you all a story today. After all, that's what I am supposed to do from time to time! So here we go...

There was a time long ago (winter 2008), when the weather was harsh and I was idly pottering around the home thinking of things I could do to pass the long winter months. Ever since I was a boy I had had a love of music, and not just of the listening variety. At school I had wanted to learn to play an instrument, but alas it was not to be. I settled for singing, acting and taking music as a school curriculum course. I learned how to read music. I learned how to write music. I even learned how to bash out a tune on the piano and play a few chords. When I was about 15 I bought myself a guitar with my hard earned pocket money and composed a few songs. I still have them in my closet. Maybe they'll see the light of day one day. Anyway, time passed and life took over, but a growing ache occasionally visited me and reminded me that I had never learned to play an instrument. I usually let it rumble by unvisited.

But a funny thing happened in that winter of 2008. As the ache touched me once more I decided, what the heck, I was going to take up an instrument. I had always wanted to play the oboe or clarinet at school but now it was the saxophone. It was still a woodwind instrument, but it was something I felt was a little more versatile to play at home. So I visited the local music store and rented myself a tenor sax. I even bought an instruction book. I took it home, opened it all up and spent the next hour trying to get a noise out of the thing. It wasn't as easy as I had imagined. Still, that wasn't a concern, I knew I could do almost anything I put my mind to if I really wanted to. And I really wanted to.

I also took a slip of paper away with me from the music store that day. The slip of paper contained a name and a phone number. The name said 'Ray Guyll.' He was supposed to be a good teacher according to the guy at the music store. So I gave him a call and ended up speaking to his wife, Barbara, and arranging my first lesson. It was to be late on a Friday evening, after another week at work. Still, it was what was on offer.

I took my shiny tenor sax to the man and opened it up. I even put it together (I had been practicing!). He asked me to play something! I politely declined as all this stuff was decidedly new to me. Still, we persevered and over the next couple of lessons I managed to play one or two tunes in such a way as you could actually recognize them.

During our times together, Ray had spoken to me of times when he had taught music to bands and also played jazz when he was younger. I decided I'd google him and see what kind of person I was dealing with! The results I got from google were a little confusing. Instead of Ray Guyll the jazz player, I just got a page of Ray Guyll the ventriloquist dummy maker. That couldn't be right. Eventually I found a site that had a picture, and lo and behold it was indeed the same man. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser!

The following week I asked him about this dummy business and he told me his story. I also told him about my passion to write. Over the following weeks the sax lessons diminished and the 'dummy talk' increased. The next thing that happened was that somehow I was writing children's stories about his dummy characters, sprinkled in with a measure of my inventiveness too. Gwillville came of age! The rest as they say is history. I never did learn to play the tenor sax and Ray still plays his sax and also now directs the Microsoft Jazz Band.

The Gwillville books that will start to hit the stores over the next few weeks come from a pedigree of inventiveness and creativity that has its roots firmly planted in those fun and innocent days of ages past. A time when children's stories were fun and led to dog-eared books being passed from friend to friend. So as Fergus Fedderfeeny's Food Factory wends its way onto your bookshelf, remember one thing: Never, ever give up on your ideas. One day there will be a spark that will ignite them. Anything can happen in real life, just as it can in fairy tales. It just needs a little magic.

So, anyway. It's time to go and see the man. One of the best and most respected dummy makers in the business - Ray Guyll

The world of the cloud backup - DropBox et al

Slightly different topic for this post. My background is very technology based and so I thought I'd write something today that might be of interest even to you, my readers.

How many of you know what 'backing up to the cloud' is? No, it's nothing to do with the weather or dancing!

Let's approach this a different way. How many of you have music, photos or movies on your computer? Huge show of hands! Now, how many of you keep copies of them somewhere else in case your computer dies or is stolen? Oh dear, a very small show of hands.

So what do the rest of you do? Nothing? Just pray or rely on sorting it out one day?

Me? Oh, didn't I say? I have a system. Like most people I have a lot of music and photos stored electronically (I'm not really a movie downloader - I use Hulu and Netflix). I also ensure I have multiple copies of my 'stuff.' At home I have a couple of local backup systems in place. I run a Windows Home Server system that backs me up daily, and I also have an external 1 TB Hard Drive that has copies of important stuff. Then from time to time I burn it all to a DVD and store it in the bank safe box.

And that system works fine for my music and photos which don't really change that much and I only need access to when I'm at home (apart from those that are also synced to my phone and iPad). But what about documents, spreadsheets, drawings, presentations, and all those other files that keep changing and I'd like access to from wherever I am? For that I use a free service called DropBox. The principle is simple. You sign up for an account (You get 2 GB for free  - which is A LOT for non-music files - you can buy more storage for a small monthly fee) and then create directories where you want to store your files. Then you load a small program on your PC and it automatically syncs those files to the cloud (aka DropBox). Now whenever you change any of those files or put another in one of those designated directories, those files will get synced behind the scenes by DropBox. There is also a DropBox app available for smartphones and iPads. This means I can literally take my files with me anywhere. Don't have a smartphone but need your files on vacation? No problem. Just find an Internet connected PC and log in to your DropBox account. You can access your files online from anywhere in the word and make changes to them as necessary. Then when you get home those changes will be automatically synced up there too. Amazing!

So there we have it. Tip for the day. There's no excuse to be worried over losing important information ever again. Use DropBox  - it may save your digital life!

What is epic fantasy and why do I write it?

I thought I'd start the day with a small blog post on the type of books I (mostly) write - Epic Fantasy. Just what is it? Wikipedia describes epic fantasy as a sub-genre of fantasy and involves a story that takes place in a parallel world to our own. There may or may not be elements that are the same as our world. A good example would be Lord Of The Rings. Sometimes there are ways to travel from the 'real' world to the 'fantasy' world. Think C.S. Lewis' Narnia books.

My Southern Lands series is based on a world of fantasy. That is to say the world is real in that it follows strict rules, but it does not correspond entirely to the world in which we live. The Southern Lands are mostly inhabited by humans and they live in about medieval times, but the world is also inhabited by other lifeforms, some dark and some friendly. There is also an element of magic that also exists.

But, and here's the important thing, anyone that writes about magic has to understand its boundaries and who exactly possesses what magic. You cannot rewrite the rules half-way through the book. The reader would notice! You also can't suddenly introduce a magic that has not been mentioned in the previous 200 pages just to get a character out of danger. If a parallel world is to be believable then the reader needs to understand the rules of the world and to see they are being followed.

I write epic fantasy novels. Why? Quite simply because I enjoy reading them. As a child I read the C.S. Lewis Narnia books and the J.R.R. Tolkien Lord of the Rings trilogy. Nowadays I read books by other authors (I love Robin Hobb - see opposite), but for the most part this is the genre I stick to when reading. I guess it's a sort of escape, but I like to think of it as a way to open your mind to other possibilities. The brain is a remarkable piece of evolution, something that has amazing capacity to imagine and digest information. Well written epic fantasy pushes our brains to the edges of their reasoning. It makes them question all sorts of things. Could other worlds exist and support the sorts of things that happen in these stories? I'd love to believe they could. Millions of readers must agree, judging by the popularity of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I put my heart and soul into my epic fantasy books and I hope one day my Xannu books may be up there somewhere just below the classics.

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Xannu - The Prophecy by Paul Dorset. $0.99 from Smashwords.com

Living out a mundane school life is not the norm for Terry West. After digging up some rune coins near a roman road he has been living in another world inhabited by warlocks, seductresses, priests and prophecy. There Terry is a soldier, Teern Truthbringer, who is tasked with finding the Xannu. Battling un-earthly creatures & witnessing powerful magic are all in a day's work. But some want him dead...  *** READ 20% FOR FREE ***

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Xannu - The Healing by Paul Dorset. $3.99 from Smashwords.com

Continuing on from The Prophecy, this book follows the journeys of two groups of travelers who are both trying to heal their charges. Back in England, Terry West is distraught after the loss of his best friend. But as Teern Truthbringer the soldier, Terry is busy battling un-earthly creatures & witnessing powerful magic on a daily basis. But is he prepared for the perilous journey he has to take to heal his charge; the Xannu.   *** READ 20% FOR FREE ***

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Facebook Marketing - Use what you can get

An extra blog post for the day! In the theme of shameless marketing I'm going to post the reviews of someone who recently bought my two Xannu books and reviewed them on Amazon. The reviews were brief but I did get word she was going to revise them 'when she had time.' That aside, the conciseness of the words speak for themselves. Apparently my books are indeed professionally written, have great plots and are totally non-putdownable...

So, anyway here's what was written by this particular customer. She can out herself if she wants to!

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Xannu - The Prophecy:

I have just finished reading this and I've immediately downloaded book two and the brevity of this review reflects my eagerness to get started reading it.

Well done Mr Dorset...I look forward to the remaining books in this series.

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Xannu - The Healing:

Another fabulous tale from the mind of Paul Dorset.....

While this series is aimed at young adults, I've thouroughly enjoyed reading it as an adult.
With well written characters and an interesting plot, I'll be daydreaming about their further adventures until i can get my hands on book 3.

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So, No excuses now - go out and buy one... I'd love to get your feedback too.

Twitter Celebrities I follow

I am very well established on Twitter. I currently have over 53,000 followers and tweet on a very regular basis. Some people have asked me which celebrities I choose to follow? It's a bit of an odd question really, but as I keep all my twitter follows in lists I thought I would list them all out today - just for the fun of it. I even wrote a few comments next to some of them. Enjoy!

PS. If you want to follow all my celebs just follow THIS list.

@MelissaEGilbert - Melissa Gilbert - Of Little House on the Prairie fame
@KevinSpacey - Kevin Spacey
@weathermark - Mark Coleman - Local Seattle weather reporter
@bworley - Becky Worley - Tech writer and journalist
@KimKardashian - Kim Kardashian
@stevezakuani11 - Steve Zakuani - Seattle Sounders soccer player
@JamesRiley7 - James Riley - Seattle Sounders soccer player
@imogenheap - Imogen Heap - wonderful English indie musician
@SteveMartinToGo - Steve Martin
@Lenfunk7 - Lenny Henry - British comedian
@aplusk - Ashton Kutcher
@jayrosen_nyu - Jay Rosen - uber journalist
@JohnCleese - John Cleese - some funny British guy
@SarahPailinUSA - Sarah Palin - some funny American woman
@AmyatQ13Fox - Amy Allen - Local Seattle weather reporter
@StephenAtHome - Stephen Colbert
@amanda_hocking - Amanda Hocking - Author
@ginatrapani - Gina Trapani - Excellent tech blogger and software developer
@landondonovan - Landon Donovan - LA Galaxy soccer player
@mrskutcher - Demi Moore
@Elizadushku - Eliza Dushku - Actress
@rainnwilson - Rainn Wilson - Of The Office fame - very funny tweeter
@neilhimself - Neil Gaiman - Author
@SenJohnMcCain - John McCain
@ladygaga - Lady Gaga
@BillGates - Bill Gates
@IvankaTrump - Ivanka Trump
@stephenfry - Stephen Fry - Wonderful British comedian
@kirstiealley - Kirstie Alley - Every day is a trip...
@katyperry - Katy Perry
@EvaLongoria - Eva Longoria
@BonnieMcKeee - Bonnie McKee - Singer, songwriter
@scobleizer - Robert Scoble - Tech blogger extraordinaire
@EllenPage - Ellen Page - Actress
@Alyssa_Milano - Alyssa Milano - Actress - amazingly interesting tweeter
@SarahKSilverman - Sarah Silverman
@ConanOBrien - Conan O'Brien
@Ginger_Clark - Ginger Clark - Literary agent
@timoreilly - Tm O'Reilly - CEO, Reilly media
@StephenRCovey - Stephen Covey - 7 Habits guy
@charliesheen - Charlie Sheen - Unemployed actor
@Derek_Haines - Derek Haines - Weird author
@DonaldJTrumpJr - Donald Trump Jr - Son of the Donald
@Joan_Rivers - Joan Rivers

So there you have it. An eclectic yet worryingly interesting list.

You can follow me on twitter too. I am @jcx27 - join my band of 53,000 followers!

Unashamed $0.99 Promotion: Xannu - The Prophecy

It's been a busy week! Sales have gone better than expected on the new ebook release of 'Xannu - The Prophecy' and its sister book 'Xannu - The Healing.' I am currently hard at work writing the third in the series, hopefully ready for a release later in the year.

But today I thought I would unashamedly promote the books to you just in case you haven't got your copy yet. It's tough starting out as an author getting established and getting recognized. This is one of the reasons why I am offering the first book in the series at only $0.99!!!



I have come to the realization over the last couple of years that I have a passion to write full-time, hopefully eventually for a professional living. And so I have started to work to realize this passion during 2011.

We all have to start somewhere. That somewhere for me is to reach out to everyone to plead and to beg if necessary and ask a small favor that will help me realize my dream.

My first book is priced at just $0.99 for nearly 400 pages of epic fantasy; or about 1c for every 4 pages, or for every 1,300 words. Now however you look at it, that's a great deal. The deal is made even sweeter by the fact the book is also a thrilling read!

You don't have a kindle or other e-reader? That's not a problem. The books can also be downloaded from either Amazon or SmashWords and read on your PC (see previous blog post).



The reason I want your purchase is not for the $0.99; trust me, my share of that will not make me rich! But if you buy my book and then honestly review it for me on the site where you bought it, those words of yours will help me more than any other action could as I become established.

I have a dream. I have a passion and I'd like to thank you in advance for your support. The remainder of this blog post gives links to the books (you can click either of the pictures to the right to be taken straight to Amazon, or scroll further to click through to SmashWords). Please click and help me take that first step into this new profession I am entering.

Did you know this week was 'buy an e-book' week? Well, now you do. So, try it - buy my book and become embroiled in a land of magic, intrigue and fantasy that others have already journeyed to. Then, you too, can wait with baited breath for the next installment!

Before the rest of the promotional links, let me remind you a little of just what this book is about:

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Xannu - The Prophecy (Book 1 of 'The Southern Lands' saga)

“Listen to the teachings of a wise man. You may not understand all he says but you will surely have nourishment for the future. Be positive and plan for success. Failure to plan is to plan for failure. Worry not at what came before but only prepare yourselves for that which is ahead.” (Pika’Al 10:1-5, The Scriptures of Al’Zaneed)

Living out a mundane school life is not the norm for Terry West. After digging up some rune coins near a roman road, he has been living in another world inhabited by warlocks, seductresses, priests and prophecy. There Terry is a soldier, Teern Truthbringer, who is tasked with finding the Xannu - 'he who will lead the people into deliverance.'

Journeying far and wide to fulfill his destiny, Teern will meet many others. Some who will help him and some who will want him dead. Visiting strange lands, battling un-earthly creatures and witnessing powerful magic are all in a day’s work.

But remaining an integral part of his circle of friends back at school leads to many dilemmas. How will he balance the two lives he leads, solve two sets of problems, and understand the lessons he receives from both? Only time will tell. But time is something Terry doesn't have too much of, as everything is unfolding in ways he could never have imagined!

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Xannu - The Prophecy by Paul Dorset. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Living out a mundane school life is not the norm for Terry West. After digging up some rune coins near a roman road he has been living in another world inhabited by warlocks, seductresses, priests and prophecy. There Terry is a soldier, Teern Truthbringer, who is tasked with finding the Xannu. Battling un-earthly creatures & witnessing powerful magic are all in a day's work. But some want him dead...

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Xannu - The Healing by Paul Dorset. $3.99 from Smashwords.com
Continuing on from The Prophecy, this book follows the journeys of two groups of people who are both trying to heal their charges. Back in England, Terry West is distraught after the loss of his best friend. But as Teern Truthbringer the soldier, Terry is busy battling un-earthly creatures & witnessing powerful magic on a daily basis. But is he prepared for the perilous journey he has to take to heal his charge; the Xannu.

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Books I want to write

I write the books I want to write... Mostly!

There just aren't enough hours in the day to write all the books I want to write. The problem is actually not so much the hours as organizing all the material and keeping four stories straight in your head at any one time. It's that that I have a problem with.

So, as you already know I am currently writing the latest in my Young Adult fantasy series - Xannu - The Portal. That takes up a lot of my time. Then there's the Gwillville books that I am just getting ready for publication. These are Middle Grade comic adventures (think Nancy Drew / Enid Blyton in a modern day setting). Then I have a project management reference book that is in its final stages of editing. And lastly I have a Sci-Fi story with a difference already started and waiting for some prime time exposure.

What else do I want to write? Well, I do keep promising to write my life story. Not for any other reason than I think it will make a good read. I have been fortunate to have journeyed across much of the world, have had several children, have lived in different countries, have been kidnapped (did I say kidnapped? Oh yes...), have been shot at, have escaped a war while on vacation. The list goes on! You have to smile through life when these sorts of things happen along the way. So, if I could only get another parallel set of days up and running (or a good secretary), I could get my life story written too. But in the meantime I'll just continue writing whatever I can. If I can get enough fans and start to do this as a full-time job then maybe, just maybe I'll write that 'life experiences' book. Until then you'll just have to make do with the epic fantasy and adventures stories. After all, I wouldn't want you to think real life is ever as exciting as in the books!