Welcome - The International Writers Magazine - April 2007

Welcome to Hackwriters: Editorial

Dangerous month April. We shake off the sloth of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and with the slightest hint of sunshine swarm over outside coffee shop tables and shiver with hope. Pretty young girls go buy already dressed for summer and our spirits lift. 17c today but you can see everyone is in a better mood already. Of course the political situation in Iran and Zimbabwe is dire but we hope that miracles will end both problems. Zimbabwe is a local disaster for all Zimbabweans with inflation at 1700 percent. How do you even contemplate a situation where the price of bread goes up three times a day? And Iran, it’s a crazy standoff. A mad fanatic president determined to build nuclear bombs and there’s Jehovah Witness’s at my door happy that rapture is getting nearer by the day. Let’s hope for the safe return of the British marines from Tehran before this war spreads from Iraq to engulf them and us too. It could. Then just to really wipe the smile of your face there’s a looming crisis with maple syrup as global warming means less time to tap the trees before they bud.

Global warming has become this incredible bandwagon for politicians now. Every day they are thinking of ways to tax our guilt. Planning a vacation? Be prepared to pay an air-tax, departure tax, and carbon tax. London’s mayor Ken Livingston is planning to launch a satellite in space to monitor every car coming in and out of London and the Labour government has plans to do the same to every driver in the UK so they can charge us ‘global warming’ taxes for every mile driven. There are plans to tax our homes on the improvements we make to make them more fuel-efficient and tax them if we don’t! Each new green tax proposed reduces our quality of life and massages our guilt. We feel, yes, we should pay these taxes because we have squandered our future on carbon transport and power. They play on this guilt and meanwhile squander everything.

So, OK the world is getting warmer, but this could well be a natural event. Certainly six or seven billion people on this planet leave a massive footprint but we don’t need politicians to tax us to stability, that’s nature’s job. Tsunamis, earthquakes, flood and fire are all natural checks and balances. History is crammed full of them and the tragedies in their wake. The global warming of the fifteenth century and subsequent population explosion gave way to a mini-ice age of the sixteenth when the Thames froze over. There was the added bonus of black plague – so roughly one third of Europe died (No one bothered to count anywhere else apparently). It may seem harsh but it worked. Took two hundred years to build up the population again and then politicians offered their own checks and balances in the shape of two world wars in the 20th Century.

So you might think you’re guilty for thinking of trips to Spain or Greece and deserve to be taxed for even considering it ,but I’m not sure you do. It’s utterly unfashionable to say so, but we don’t actually need green taxes, we don’t need 7000 fixed speed cameras on our roads and another six thousand being planned. We don’t really need one CCTV camera per five people in the UK. When Gordon Brown nee Stalin takes over from Blair he is such a control freak we will probably end up with cameras in our homes and we’ll be stupid enough to consent to it. Through a Scanner Darkly is not just a movie, it’s our future. Philip K Dick was the greatest and bleakest prophet of his time and his paranoid world is here now and we are just rolling over as they tax our movements and erase our collective spirits.

One of my students said to me today ‘Ha, bet your really pissed no one has died of a flu pandemic’. Well, no, I’m not. Had you forked out for my book ‘Another Place to Die’ you would have realised it is due in 2009. It’s all going to schedule, 2007 is the year nothing happened, 2008 is when we get the first real scare and then…
You’d better read it dear reader, arm yourself with survival tips on the coming pandemic before we are all laid waste by a mutated HN51 virus. The beauty of a flu pandemic of course is that it reduces global warming. So when you croak, as you most surely will, think of the service you render to the planet.
Better order it now, you won’t regret it. I know there’s a hospital ward in Swindon where it’s being read with growing realisation and horror as I write this.

This month in Hackwriters is as lively as ever with features from Beijing in China to Sydney, Australia and New Jersey, USA. Eight and a half years now, how did the web ever get so old!
Happy Spring Holidays from Hackwriters and remember, don’t feel guilty. Enjoy yourself, you deserve it.
Sam North
Editor

PS: Buy my book ‘Another Place to Die' .’ Someone who just read it described it as: ‘Thought-provoking, horrifying and moving’ It’s essential reading for anyone who wants to survive the next flu pandemic.You just might want to be prepared. The Government is taking it seriously. Are you? Order the book now. If you want to be prepared for the coming flu pandemic you will need 'Another Place to Die'
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© Sam North Editor April 1st 2007

PS: The MA in Creative Writing is recruiting now for October 2007 entry. 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).

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 stocked or 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 also 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 Great Flu Pandemic of 2009 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 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 Or buy direct from Lulu Press plus delivery charges

If you are looking for a good read Sam North's book Diamonds - The Rush of '72 is available also. $19.95 from Amazon.com in the USA or on special offer from the publishers direct - see box below.

Or buy direct from the publisher from only $12.95 plus shipping

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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