Welcome - The International Writers Magazine - April 2008 writing from across the globe.
Welcome to the April Edition of Hackwriters:

Disappointed? Get used to it.

Were you waiting for the election result in Zimbabwe? Were you expecting a democratic, honest result from a dictator who as I write this is wondering whether to fire up the escape plane to Malaysia or turn the guns on the ungrateful electorate who don’t seem to understand that 100,000% inflation rate is nothing to what it could be in a years time. A million, two million, who knows? Dictators like old actors never know when to leave the stage and remember ‘Apres moi le déluge’ or whatever tyrants say in dusty Africa. It is already Wednesday April 2- swords are being sharpened I fear. The Death card has been drawn. Pray I am wrong. *

*April 19th has come - still no result. The tyrant wins and South Africa is the clear loser for not taking a stand. A shame on Africa. Listening to the President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki speak in the UN this week you realise just how weak leadership is in Africa. Has no one got the moral guts to take a stand against Mugabe? Morgan Tzvangirai won. Let the result stand for Zimbabwe's sake.

Then there’s Obamba in the USA who stands for hope, a fresh start, honesty in politics, and an articulate, intelligent man. You seriously think the special interests that have grown fat off Bush and Cheney’s war in Iraq and have their hooks well into Bill and Hilary are going to let Obama in the White House? You don’t hand it over to Jimmy Stewart and hope for a wonderful life. See Obama, get Bobby Kennedy and remember what happened to him. But here's praying that he beats Hillary in next weeks primaries. The USA needs him, hell the world needs him to be President.

Similarly in the UK we have local elections happening on May 1st. London has the choice of an incumbent and paranoid Mayor who has been allegedly less than honest with political donations who,may, no doubt, encourage others to stuff the ballot box with truckloads of postal votes all neatly filled in for Labour. (Can I help you with that dear?) I just hope Boris Johnson wins despite this. We need a Mayor with a sense of humour and honesty.

Such is our distrust of this Government that we think there is a warehouse somewhere right now printing off votes for Labour and this is England. We may scoff at Kenya and Zimbabwe, but vote rigging goes on here and if reading this in the USA don’t forget Florida and the chads, which isn’t a sixties pop group.

There has been a huge loss of faith in politics, banking, and statistics since Labour came to power in 1997. Everything that can be massaged has been massaged and corrupted. We can no longer have faith in anything anyone in authority says. Faith in UK stats has plummeted to the bottom of all of Europe behind Romania!
(Source BBC Radio 4 1.4.08)
Education is meddled with to such an extent qualifications are devalued as they chop and change between Btec, HND, GNVQ, BI, Diplomas, A-Levels, GCSE's, all for an ideological class war and mask the utter inadequacies of the school system.

I asked students here yesterday what they believed in. Nothing was the answer. Not God, not anything.
They are all writing sci-fi screenplays for me at present and the themes are very topical and reveal much about what they do care about. A future in the UK with Islam top dog, gays being lynched, women oppressed, a UK where feral kids on council estates are automatically forced into education camps from age of four, schools run by the Mafia, the black economy dominant, drugs rife, pandemics, a whole society run down with almost total break down of road, rail and infrastructure. Their vision of the UK is bleak, corrupt, and unpleasant, you wouldn’t want to live there. They take their cues from corrupt politicians, celebrity culture and what they see happening around them.
Think it can’t happen here? My colleague told me yesterday that in their nice middle class estate in Hampshire the headmaster next door stabbed his partner to death on the weekend. ‘Ruined our whole weekend’ she said.
Disappointed? Get used to it.

Our content comes from all over the world - explore our fiction, travel writing, opinion and lifestyle features and our reviews as well as muse on the future of the 21st Century. Want to contribute?
The May edition will be accepting submissions until April 27th.
Enjoy this month and spread the word. We are based at the University of Portsmouth England.

Sam North: Editor updated April 19th 2008

* The MA in Creative Writing at Portsmouth University started another year this October. Apply now for 2008 entry: The current students have all got their major projects under way now. Novels, screenplays, children's fiction, speculation fiction, crime novels, you name it... If you need support and like a good encouraging peer group, join us. Might do you good to live in Portsmouth for a year, but you don't have to. Students come down from London once a week and further afield. Apply now to avoid being disappointed. You do not have to be published to join us, but you do have to have a portfolio of some interesting writing already to hand. *Hackwriter published writers especially welcome. Come to Sherlock Holmes country (yes this is where it all started on Elm Grove in Southsea).

Meanwhile, you worried about your health this spring? Read my book '‘Another Place to Die'' . If you have the slightest worry about how to survive the coming flu pandemic, you need this book and all the proceeds go to keep Hackwriters going. In the UK newspapers 31.08.07 they were quoting a Home Office paper called: Planning for a possible Influenza Edpidemic and predicting 650,000 'extra' deaths this winter in the UK if it breaks out. There will also be a shortage of coffins, not that you need them in a mass grave. It's all in my book, you don't need this report. Another Place to Die is a guide on how to survive the pandemic. So order now for your autumn reading. (Maybe Amazon will do you a deal on a coffin too!) You will not be disappointed.
See the review from Calvin Hussey
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We at Hacks are self-supporting and if you want to support us, buy Sam's books - All the funds from the sale of the books go back into the site. If you live in New York they can be ordered at the Mysterious Bookshop at 58 Warren Street. These titles are able to be ordered at Amazon who keep stock see below and can be ordered from Waterstones all over the UK and Hatchards in London and for less cost direct from Lulu.com in the UK and USA

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Another Place To Die by Sam North ISBN: 978-1-84753-899-4 The Next Great Flu Pandemic is coming. Are you prepared? Reviews: 'It will keep readers in suspense, laced with gritty-gallows humor' Charlie Dickinson 'Beautiful, plausible, and sickeningly addictive, Another Place to Die will terrify you, thrill you, and make you petrified of anyone who comes near you...'. Roxy Williams - Amazon.co.uk Fascinating, frightening and compelling, Another Place to Die is the ultimate page-turner which I guarantee will result in many late nights under the bedside light with you uttering, ‘just one more chapter!!’ Ian Middleton Read the first chapter on line Order Now direct from Publisher : Another Place To Die

The Curse of the Nibelung - A Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Sam North ISBN 1-4116-3748-8 $19.98 Retail - 300 pages - Lulu Press USA 'Chocolate will never be the same again' - Sunday Express Buy from your favourite on-line retailer Amazon UK Amazon USA Barnes and Noble & Waterstones

Diamonds - The Rush of '72 is also available from the publishers direct

Diamonds - The Rush of '72 By Sam North ISBN: 1-4116-1088-1 Buy now from Amazon.com 'a terrific piece of storytelling' Historical Novel Society Review Also printed in the UK and available from Amazon.co.uk & Waterstones

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