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

*Hacks welcomes little Layla into this world today: Born 19.03.2008 in Cape Town South Africa to Sabine and Dominic. All good wishes for her future from her great Uncle Sam.

Welcome to Hackwriters: A good issue this month with fiction, reviews, comment and world travel and lifestyles to read.

The people of Ohio and Texas have spoken and they have gone for Hillary. Whether that is because she successfully smeared Obama or they truly think she is the best person for the job of President, we shall see. Personally I hope that Obama stays in front and doesn’t falter. It would be good to see and hear a civilised voice representing the USA next year rather than a strident one and a Hillary candidacy opens the door to McCain and 100 years of war in Iraq we could all do well without. March 12th a week later Obama has won Wyoming and Mississippi by a large margin. He is still ahead. Hillary won't give up but perhaps she should - McCain is consolidating and they are fighting each other in the Democratic party. It most likely doesn't help that Spitzer has been caught with his trousers down. $5000 to get laid. Nice to know what it costs I guess... See Dean Borok's piece on the Governor here

Meanwhile back in the UK we are all living with uncertainty. Jobs, prices, crime, the very fibre and infrastructure of the UK are in question and the confidence of the Blair years has given way to the scary world of paranoid Brown. How it manifests itself is during tutorials with my soon to graduate students who tell me they are planning to emigrate. Not just one, but many. They can’t see a future here because they can’t afford houses, see constant restrictions on freedoms, street crime and personal safety being a big issue. They want to take their degrees and head to Australia, Canada and other places. Says a lot really about 10 years of New Labour.

Anything happy to say? Well the sun came out today and promised better days ahead. I was just at a Mother’s Day event on Sunday at my nephews where there were five mothers. The oldest 96, the youngest a mother to be at 35 and I discovered I am to become a great Uncle. Blimey. I guess that means celebration. It’s a good reminder that one: life goes on: two: no matter how grim things may be, people still plan lives and families. The older mothers gathered were born during and just after the First World War. They have seen world wars and extraordinary changes in their lifetimes. The new baby will see unimaginable things and a world with 10 billion people in it.

I have been thinking a lot about that. Watching ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ on TV the other night Burt Lancaster refers to the 60 million Americans (this in the later 50’s)…well now it is 300 million plus fifty years on. UK is now 60 million and heading for 100 million by the time I am old. So buying stock in peace and quiet will be at a premium. Wonder if Soylent Green is on DVD?

The countryside worldwide is emptying. Everyone is becoming urbanised. Heading to the countryside to live makes sense, but then again, as it becomes depopulated, the hospitals and school are closed, the shops are more expensive, the lattés invisible., there are no police. How romantic will growing old in a place without services be? Worrying and of course leads to more urbanisation.

This is clearly an editorial with no coherency. Sorry. Must stop musing. Meanwhile March Issue rich with fiction, travel and lifestyle issue.We just had a visit from the writer Belinda Hollyer and we have writer Beverley Birch visiting in one week. Read and enjoy. Watch out for the bunnyŠOpen us up and read. We just posted our 4015th feature. Cheers

© Sam North - Editor March 19th 2008
Back in saddle March 26th

* 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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