The International Writers Magazine Editorial August 2019

TRAVEL

COMMENT

LIFESTYLES

REVIEWS

FICTION

Welcome to this August 2019 edition of Hackwriters. 20 years on-line, 7600+ articles - reviews - stories - travel - share any feature you like and pass them on using the links. PS we are mainly in archive mode now with sporadic updates.
Once again celebrating Hello travel.com - Hackwriters Best Travel blog 2018:
This month James Campion celebrates August 1969 with three thoughtful essays taking in the Moon Landing, Charles Manson and Woodstock 69 . He also tackles Trump's Racism and the Rise of the Far Right

Editorial: August "If you know where you want to go - then it doesn't matter which path you take." Alice in Wonderland

Crickey. I guess that's the word for what we're facing now in the UK. Heads down as we prepare for No Deal and divorce from Europe. Already car manufacturers are planning to locate factories to Europe and I guess we must prepare for a million jobs to disappear in making and supplying for the auto industry. However there might be a silver lining. I know it's hard to see it right now, but given that large cities are phasing out the car by making it harder and harder for us to drive into them in our diesels and petrol cars (let alone park there) - there will have to be a major investment in bus and train manufacturing and pray that actually happens within the UK rather than China. Countries that will be happy to take over the task of building what would have been 'British' cars might find that they have nowhere to sell them five years down the road. That said I hope Jaguar/Land-Rover get their *electric cars on the road soon - hard to believe they have resisted it till now, and more than annoying the only electric Jag is made in Austria.

*On that note I was reading about Transition-One a company in Paris that will convert mainly European cars to electric for just 5000 Euros. My little DS3 (which is a great little diesel car as it happens) is not yet on the list. Buying a newly launched electric DS3 from Citroen itself will be plus 25,000 euros. So why not roll this out for all cars? Think of the business potential of mass coverting rather than buying new and the added benefit of a huge environmental score as producing new cars generates a giant carbon cost. ** Slight drawback they can only do 128km on one charge. So BOO. Make it at least 400km on one charge and we will all buy them.

Climate change is real and we will have to plan for new ways of living. Ironically it will mean more concentration of populations in cities as the 'countryside' might be less accessible and less well served. Farm jobs are being automated and so the young will have to leave. I am pretty happy I wasn't in Paris when the temperature reach 42c in July. Here in the UK we have had major rainful in the North this week. Roads and bridges washed away overnight and a whole small town evacuated due to risk of a dam breaking in Whaley Bridge. But this is going to be 'normal' in summers to come and our buildings and roads aren't up to it, nor can the crops in the fields cope. Expect wine to be very expensive in 2020. Expect water to be very expensive in 2025.

Spent this last Friday with friends over from France walking through London. Johanna and Felice perhaps hadn't planned on walking 12 miles, but it's the best way to see the city. From Waterloo we took in the Tate Modern, walked past the Globe to enjoy lunch at Borough Market (They had oysters, mussles and frites of course) and then I walked them to St Pauls and then on a whim to the newly revived Spitalfield Market and then Brick Lane (where a tiny glass of prosecco is £10 a glass even in happy hour). We weren't happy about that. Then by Uber to Covent Garden for supper and a stroll through Soho. Yesterday they took themselves to see 'Comedy about a Bank Robbery' and loved it. So I think they'll fly back exhausted but had fun. Weekend breaks are best I think.

Meanwhile it's hard for any politicians to plan ahead now. Economists can't agree on what the future holds. Ai will automate jobs in manufacturing, but also the medical and legal professions. Kids in schools aren't being taught the right things, but I guess they are at least playing Fortnite and prepared for when 'last one left alive wins' happens in real life. Scary thought. We need to be rethinking education from primary to University. But how does one make it fit for the 21st Century? Do those who will teach it know? I doubt it. Ai I guess will have to take over the prediction industry too!

As you might have noticed Trump is running for 2020 election now on a 'lynch 'em all' campaign. This might be the last hurrah for the KKK and white people in America as demographics change the racial composite of the USA. It will be a very tense and unpleasant time to be anything other than white when he wins. We've just seen the results of mass shooting in El Paso as a direct consequence. Sadly the 101 Democrats that seem to be running for president don't seem to have much of a message yet - one can only hope that this changes as one candidate emerges. Personally I hope it isn't Biden. You need someone young and vigorous against the 'master of evil'. Of course now we've discovered that the Bond market has inverted and this signals a recession. So get ready for the 'Trump Slump of 2020'. Like that butterfly flapping it's wings in Brazil, Trumps economic genius, his tarrifs and tweets that send the stock market up and down at whim - the ripple effect is killing the world economy.

In the UK we now have Boris as PM. The way he's pitched it, he absolutely has to take the UK out of Europe on Oct 31st. People will fight it, some from his own party might even bring his government down with a vote of no confidence in September. But I reckon if they do that - the early October election will produce a very angry pro-Brexit result and Boris will still be standing at the end of it. People understimate him at their peril. August they say is always the 'no news' month but not so far. India vs Pakistan over Kashmir, USA vs China, currency wars looming. If I was a politician I'd never go on vacation in August. Far too risky.

Here at the Hawksmoor desk I'm finally writing a new book. It's supposed to be an adult book but somehow still has a kid in it and a dog. I just don't know how this happens. 50,000 words produced and I have no idea if it is any good, but the Calvinist in me means that I have to carry on till the end. If only I knew what that end might be. I broke all my rules. Never start a book until you know how it ends I always tell my students, but after a year and a half of notes and sporadic chapters I just couldn't find the end. So here I am slogging away 'hoping' the characters will discover a conclusion. I guess I could have a flash flood on page 150 and everyone will be swept away and the reader will just have to finish it for me... Or it will be like a TV series you like watching but gets suddenly cancelled and page 151 will just be blank.

Enjoyed Series 3 of Stranger Things this week as a distraction and The Great Hack - which shows how Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have ruined the whole world...

Enjoy your break if heading to the beach. I'm waiting until September to go to France when there is more room on the beach.

© Sam Hawksmoor August 18th 2019
Author of Girl with Cat (Blue) 'funny, scary and full of surprises - a must read' LD

*As ever Hackwriters is supported by sales of our books - so do buy, print or kindle, we aren't picky.
Magenta - A chilling story of kidnapping, burning and strangeness set in the wilds of Lincolnshire
The Sam North Novels - still available to order on Lulu or Amazon
** The Heaviness, also recommended & The Repercussions of Tomas D -'best time travel WW2 story in a long while'

Girl with Cat (Blue) - Shortlisted for the Rubery Book Award 2018 'a funny, bloody, colorful narrative that never fails to surprise the reader. Girl with Cat (Blue) provides great entertainment'.

'This book was amazing! I was hooked from the first few pages and couldn't put the book down.' Judge, 26th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. 2018 - Honorable Mention

J&K 4Ever - Love and Devotion in the Wastelands Sixty years after the end of everything the city of Bluette survives, controlled by a malignant sect.  A place where men rule, girls receive no education and are matched at 16 to the highest bidder.  No one is ever permitted to leave the city and outside is a murderous wasteland of despair. Orphans Kruge and Jeyna have been devoted to each other through all the years of terror in this harsh regime and sworn never to be parted.  But the beautiful Jeyna has been betrayed by the Warden. Kruge has been swiftly banished to the Scraps, under the control of the Keeper. Jeyna is heartbroken; she will not accept her fate and escapes to find Kruge.  She is pursued by ruthless Enforcers on horseback, whose task it is to bring runaways back, dead or alive. 'A genuine romance in a bleak but plausible and terrifying setting'.

J&K 4Ever

MARIKKA- exclusively on Amazon Print and kindle 2 Based on a tragic real life event, Marikka flees from an arson attack on her home to the sea, where she meets Starfish boy – a runaway working for Jackson, a scarred man hiding a sinister secret from the world. Meanwhile her real father searches for her with the aide of Anya, ‘the girl who can read objects’. More about the writing of this book ‘Long after my tears dried, my heart stayed with Marikka, Starfish Boy and the strange girl who reads objects.’ CT You will smile, you will gasp with shock, and you will struggle to read the words through your tears. Gemma Williams - Amazon.co.uk 2015

The new edition of 'ANOTHER PLACE TO DIE: ENDTIME CHRONICLES By Sam Hawksmoor & Sam North Could you live in a world where antibiotics no longer work? Print & Kindle Q&A interview with the authors here A city gripped by fear as a lethal virus approaches from the East. No one knows how many are dying. People are petrified of being thrown into quarantine. Best friends Kira and Liz once parted are scared they will never see each other again. Teen lovers, Chris and Rachel, prepare to escape to the islands. Do you stay and hide, or do you flee? Review from the First Edition: '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 West - Amazon.co.uk

Spy/Romance thriller set during the Blitz in WW2 - Kindle download All proceeds go to keeping Hackwriters going The Repercussions of Tomas D A Hero? Or Englands Greatest Traitor? USA Paperback here 'Disturbing and very poignant YA love story that presents a chilling alternate future for an England that lost the war.' Marcel d'Agneau 'A brilliant imagining of living in the Blitz, well researched.' Amazon UK 'This is Man in the High Castle for teens and scarily plausible with alternative facts ' *download the Kindle version or buy the paperback from Hammer & Tong

'The Heaviness' for any reader who likes to think about such things as betrayal, revenge, relationships and the laws of gravity. An original Genie Magee story Genie & Renée have just 36 hours to save Rian or he dies 'Without a doubt, one of the best YA Sci Fi series out there.' Evie Seo Bookish Kindle & print Thanks to readers who have been buying this title. . * Also published as Rüya by Marti Yayincilik - The Turkish publishers of TOZ & Golge

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