Welcome - The International Writers Magazine - January 2008 writing from across the globe.

Many thanks to our writers across the world for making December such a brilliant issue. We will be back in harness in January, building a new issue now.

What will 2008 bring? Recession, most likely, or as they say in finance circles - a correction. So now is a good time to mend your credit, figure out a plan to reduce debt and maybe think about retraining or doing an MA or something so that you will be ready when the next upturn comes. Plan ahead. Start that health regime you wanted to do a year ago but never got around to. Find the person you want to settle down with. That too is a good idea. Or quit whatever your doing that you hate. (Sadly that's around 90% percent of jobs). But at least talk it over with someone first. Sometimes you don't know what you want out of life until you actually talk it out with a pal. That's my tip for 2008. If you are going to make a change, make it the right one. *Hope you got started on this. Stock market is already in meltdown so think hard about what you can do to spend less.

Survival may well be the watchword of the year. I'm still rooting for Obama to save the world. Lets see what happens in South Carolina. The battle between him and Hillary is exciting and it must be great to have a real choice in American politics. Maybe if Obamba doesn't win he'll come here and save us from the glum depressing dictatorship of Gordon Brown.

Kit and I just returned from Belgium and cold nights in a huge Chateau with a moat and everything. People live well in Belgium and the roads are brilliant. Food's pretty good too. If you are looking for an unsual destination for a city break we recommend Namur (Namen) a small city with two rivers and a Castle.

One thing catches you surprise as you drive across the country. The names are strangely familiar. Waterloo for example. No not the station, the battle and you realise that it is here that the perfidious English lie dead under the soil. From the Napoleonic wars onwards, (Check out your Vanity Fair and the battles Becky Sharpe followed, read too about the magic that helped Wellington to victory around here in Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrel.) At every turn there is a reminder about death and each little village seems to have a Chateau with moat and a history of fear and marauding soldiers. History can enliven your journey. Take the Chateau, think of if being overrun by Germans in 1916 and the cellar being raided. (The cellar is bigger than my house) and again in 1941 occupied by the Nazi's, the cellar door kicked in again and totured bodies buried in the woods. They, like the previous invaders, were not interested in the piles of 16th century manuscripts that remarkably remain untouched.

We have been so lucky in the UK never to be 'occupied'. I wonder how we would have coped? The film 'It Happened Here' told that story, as did the novel SS-GB. But I remain happy that it is fiction and we remain untested in that matter.

Now read this months magazine. Growing daily. Travel, Politics, Reviews, new Fiction. Practically the only magazine you need - celebrity free and written by people with real lives. Best of the season to you.

© Sam North - Editor Jan 21st 200

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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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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 Now printed in the UK and available from Amazon.co.uk & Waterstones

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