Kurt Chambers's Blog

 Silent Pain


Disclaimer: I wrote this poem during a very dark period in my life and just for the record, my happiness did return. I dedicate this poem to my legend of a brother, Karl, who recently passed away unexpectedly.
I sit and watch the people around me,They laugh and joke and giggle with glee.I sometimes wonder what is going on inside,Am I the only one with something to hide?
I play along in the game of life,Telling the kids stories and comforting my wife.But deep down inside I find it hard to believe,How people manage to cope with their pain and their grief.
I have come to an age when I have seen too much bad,Heart-breaking things that make me so sad.To lose those you love is the worse thing of all,That silent pain that seems beyond cruel.
I want to be free and play like I should,To see beautiful things, if only I could.I know it's still there and I should really move on,But how do you do that when all good things are gone.
Am I the only one who feels like I do?What do you do when it happens to you?Please teach me because I just don't understand,Knowing I will never see you or feel the touch of your hand.
What did I do to deserve so much pain?How do I manage to be happy again?For now I'll pretend and just do the right things,Just wait and see what else this life brings.
They say that in time all bad things will fade,You will get over the mistakes that you made.But my time here is short, I don't have much left,I want to be happy again before I reach death.

 

Happy New Year to everyone! Wow, 2022. Can you believe it? When I was a kid I used to love the futuristic sci-fi series, Space 1999. Enough said. And we still don't even have a moon base Alpha yet.With the start of a new year, I thought it a great time to write a new post. I do love a good quote. They are like massively inspirational snippets of information neatly packaged in as few words a possible. They make you think about things from a positive and different perspective. They ring true with people because they usually contain the obvious and absolute truth.
Over the years as an author I have written a few random quotes of my own. It wasn't until this week that I realised just how many I have posted over the years. In fact, one of the most successful things I have ever written is a quote that is featured all over the internet and on quote sites along side some of the most famous quotations ever. I have no idea how that happened. 
So, for your enjoyment, here is a list of all the quotes I wrote and published since I started posting as an author from 2009.
Kurt Chambers Quotes

"The innocence of children is what makes them stand out as a shining example to the rest of mankind." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"You have to come to realise at some point in your life, however this may come to pass, that you are perfect exactly how you are. You are an important part of the universe. This universe couldn't even exist without you, it would be something else completely." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"The reason each and every one of you is here is simple. Be kind to all living things. Love as much as your heart will allow. Be grateful for everything." ~ Kurt Chambers
"Everyone in the world has a very special gift. Discover what this is and use it for the benefit of everyone." ~ Kurt Chambers
"Love is everything. Nothing else matters. Never fear it. Never close your heart to it. Without it life is meaningless. Choose love over fear." ~ Kurt Chambers
"People say that when you die, you go to a better place. If I was God, that would tick me off. Have you not seen how beautiful this universe is?" ~ Kurt Chambers 
"The more you acknowledge this amazing universe with an open mind and a loving heart, the more the universe will acknowledge you. Why not give it a go? What could possibly go wrong?" ~ Kurt Chambers 
"Being truly open-minded is to never assume that any of the things you believe in are actually right." ~ Kurt Chambers  
"Truth is in the eye of the beholder." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"I'd rather be old and know what I know than be young and think I know." ~ Kurt Chambers

"Never let other people's actions change you from the person you are. Forgive them and be proud of being your true self." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"Don't shy away from emotions, good or bad. They are a writer's engine." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"Don't spend your life trying to be a success. Realise the success you already are." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"Not knowing is what makes life fun! Never underestimate the value of not knowing. Mystery is the spice of life, it sparks imagination. Imagination is what creates everything." ~ Kurt Chambers 
"There is no one individual person on this earth that is greater than you. There are just different people all unique. Love who you are." ~ Kurt Chambers 

 I was given a gift from God. Straight up! Directly from God, bosh! Have this gift. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. When I say amazing, I mean so profoundly, unimaginably, gobsmackingly amazing, you could have never imagined this in your wildest of wild dreams. 

The thing was though, I didn't even want it. "This is rubbish! What were you even thinking? For real? This?"

God just shrugged with a stupid grin on his face.

"What am I even going to do with it?"

God was still grinning. "I dunno. Whatever you like. But it's yours now."

Man! I've been proper lumbered with this, I don't believe it. It's not like I even ask for it. And this gift turned out to be a proper pain in the backside. It was such an effort, and everything that could go wrong, went wrong. What a nightmare and all because of this stupid gift.

If I tell the truth, we kind of fell out over it. Well, I fell out with God, he just ignored me. Thanks for that. Curse me with this gift and then act like you don't know what I'm talking about. It all got out of hand. I said some things. You know how it goes, and that was that.

This went on for years. Every time things went tits-up I was like, "Yeah, thanks for that! Nice one. You're the funniest person you know, even though you're not even a person. Or funny!"

I probably spent over forty years of my life doing this and things went from bad to worse until they became pretty unmanageable. I mean proper messed up stuff. Things nightmares are made of but I wasn't asleep.

I think at about this point, God realised he had probably underestimated just how stupid a person can really be. "Just have another look at the gift. What harm can it do?"

"Are you having a laugh?"

"No, seriously. I don't mean to be blunt, but stop being a dick about it. Look at it this way round. I'll give you a few pointers."

And hats off to God, he did start giving me some pointers once I got over the bee in my bonnet, and, well, stopped being such a dick. It took me like forever to get my head around it, but slowly I started to see some plus points about this gift. In fact, it came in proper handy on lots of occasions until eventually, I couldn't do without it, I won't lie.

That's when everything changed. Looking back now, I can't even believe I was so unbelievably stupid. I literally couldn't even see this how profoundly, unimaginably, gobsmackingly amazing this gift was even though it was right in front of my face all the time. God knew how stupid I was, but never really made a deal about it. We are best mates again now. 

When I realised what God had given me, I was just utterly speechless. I cried a lot. I couldn't say sorry enough! I didn't feel worthy of such a profound gift. My gratitude overwhelmed me. If I could have just seen this right from the start, I would have saved myself so much pain and heartbreak. Man! I am almost furious with myself.

God found this seriously amusing. "Don't be so hard on yourself. If you hadn't been such a dick, you wouldn't have appreciated my gift as much as you do now."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Of course I am, I'm God, stupid."

Oh, how we laughed!

How lucky am I to have been given such an amazing gift from God? 

My gift was life.

I am excited to announce my brand new Teacher's Information Guide for The World in Johnny's Back Garden. I was inspired to create this free guide after some massively successful author visits to local primary schools. My story created such a buzz in the schools with the pupils and the teachers. It was an amazing and humbling experience. This guide also allowed me to go into much more detail about the events, issues and factual information that I could only touch upon in the story itself.
Free Guide
The idea for this guide is it can be used by parents or teacher's for homeschooling or in a classroom environment. It can also be used to review the contents of the story to see if this is something you or your kids would loved to read. You can even just use it for something really interesting to read without even downloading the book.
I created a free PDF version of this guide for you to view online or download for printing. Please click on the icon below.


This guide will also be available for free on Smashwords in various formats and in all other leading bookstores.
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1032090

Did you know?
I recently became aware that not everyone knows that it is possible to put a PDF file on your Kindle to read like an ebook. It is quite an easy three step process. 
Step 1: Simply plug your Kindle into your computer and then open the files on Windows Explorer.
Step 2: Find the folder that contains all your book folders. Make a new folder and name it the same as the book title.
Step 3: Copy your PDF file and Paste it into your newly named folder then disconnect your Kindle safely from your computer and reboot it.

The World in Johnny's Back Garden
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077YZN7SW
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Johnnys-Back-Garden-ebook/dp/B077YZN7SW/

Authors Links
Amazon Profile: https://www.amazon.com/Kurt-Chambers/e/B00IFFYLAW/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emailmanROCKS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kurt-Chambers-296957780317055/

This week I have been playing with a new toy my wife brought for me as a present. I have always had a basic phone with a rubbish camera. I have no need for anything fancy, I use my phone as a phone, funny enough. Most of everything else I do on my computer. My present came in the form of a set of lenses that attach to my phone. There were lots of different ones, but the one that impressed me the most was the macro lens.
I was sceptical at first, but after a little play I found that it made it possible to take some amazing photos even with my rubbish phone. So my first photo gallery is born. Exciting stuff, eh! I am so very blessed to have a beautiful back garden. We work very hard to keep it nice and I'm always taking pictures of it. But there is SO much stuff that is equally beautiful that you never really see. With my macro lens in hand I set out to change that with this stunning gallery of tiny things. 
Click on picture to enlarge...

As far back as I can remember, I have always had green fingers. I could plant anything and it would grow. I don't know why, plants just seem to like me. When I was little, about eight-years-old, I found one of those helicopters that you get from a Sycamore tree. Growing out of the bottom was a tiny little root. I found it amazing. Was this what you grow a tree from, I thought? Bear in mind I was only eight.


Full of excitement, I rushed home to my mum to show her what I'd found. She didn't seem as excited as me, and questioned me on where I had found it. "It was in front of the police houses, under one of the miniature trees on the green," I explained.
It was at that point a great idea popped into my head. "Can I plant it? In the garden?"
By the look on her face, it didn't seem like the best suggestion I had ever made, but surprisingly, agreed I could plant it in the corner by the back fence seeing it was only a miniature. How exciting. I went straight outside and found a place to plant my new tree. I stuck it in the mud and poured some water on it. How hard could it be?
For the first few days or so I went out and watered my helicopter, eagerly awaiting for my tree to grow. Being eight, I had absolutely no concept of how long this would take, but I was determined to see it through. And being eight also meant that it wasn't long before I completely forgot about it.
How much time passed I have no idea, but some time later I discovered that my tree was thriving. It wasn't a helicopter any more, it was a tree! A proper tree, perfectly formed and about a foot high. It was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. I started to take really good care of it, clearing the weeds and watering it every day.
My beautiful tree grew and grew at an alarming rate, like Jack and the Beanstalk. It soon became apparent it was not a miniature as we first thought. It must have blown onto the green from the woods. But it was spectacular! It was the greatest thing I had ever done. I loved my tree.


Unfortunately, everyone else, namely all the neighbours, hated my tree. It became their nemesis. It made a mess of their gardens and its roots were digging up the all the fences. But by this time it was too late. By the time I was a teenager, my tree had grown bigger than the house. I loved walking down my road in the summer and seeing the massive canopy of leaves towering over everything in the street.
My tree lived a long and happy life in my mum's garden. When she came to selling the house I was in my thirties with children of my own. That's when I did the most amazing thing. I went into the garden and climbed my tree all the way to the top. That might not seem amazing to you, but to me, I can remember that tree when it was just a helicopter and I had grown it to full size and then climbed it in my lifetime. That is quite amazing.
Sadly, the new owners of the house cut my tree down. It's no longer with us, but it did get to live all the way through my childhood and all the way to when I had children myself. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have stumbled upon that helicopter that day.


These days, I have an even bigger tree in my garden. It is massive. I can't even fit my arms half way around the trunk. And I love it. I'm pretty sure it was fate. It is not hard to see where I got my inspiration to write, The World in Johnny's Back Garden, where a tree is the hero of the story.





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Today I am going to talk about another passion of mine, playing my guitar. I haven't always been an author. I'm a carpenter by trade and worked all my life in the building trade. I didn't start writing until my mid to late thirties when I worked as a volunteer helping to run a local Brownie. It took me fifteen years to write and publish all my books and my playing days took a back seat in this time.
I started playing many years ago at the age of about fifteen. Me and some of my friends started a band together when we were in the last year of secondary school. We were called, The Crew. We did a couple of gigs in front of the whole school. It was unheard of back in those days. We were pretty rubbish but our music teacher had just ordered five, Wasp, synthesizers and he played along with us and made us sound way better than we actually were. On a side note, I saw one of these on the, Antiques Roadshow, a few months ago. Made me feel proper old.

After playing a massively successful first gig, I knew from this moment that I was destined to be a rock star. I joined several bands after leaving school over a period of some years. It was a great time for me being a cool dude in a band. I played in pubs and clubs. A couple of open air concerts. My very first proper paid gig was someone's wedding where we played a two and a half hour set at the Post Office club, Stevenage. We did, Battle of the Bands and played at Talent Quest 98. Yep, I was going to be a rock star. In fact, I already was in my head. (And still am. lol)

As life continued, I eventually got married to my childhood sweetheart and became a father of three children. Being a rock star and being a dad is not a good mix. I eventually put my self-proclaimed fame behind me and moved on to other adventures. I still tried to dabble with my guitar. My wife is very supportive and even managed to pick me up a 100 watt Vox amp. When all my children left home, I set up a great little man-cave in one of the spare rooms, but it was short lived when my son moved back in. Kids!
The problem I had was, I'm a bass player. You are very limited to what you can do on your own. I had nowhere to set up my stuff and after not playing for so many years, I was more than a little rusty. In fact, I had forgotten how to play almost all of the songs I used to play. But then things changed! My wife bought me a semi-acoustic bass. I love that guitar. I always wanted one. It meant I could just grab it and play. No setting up or anything. Also, accompanying this, a fifty watt blue tooth speaker. I could just turn it on, pick a tune on Youtube on my phone and play to it. Job done. You gotta love technology.
My passion for playing was re-born. These days I play purely for my own pleasure. Being in lock-down meant that I got plenty of time for practice and added a few cool tunes to my ever growing set. My play list has grown to about an hour. The great thing is, I get to choose what I want to play, unlike being in a band. It's great!
My Playlist

Billy Idol - White Wedding.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmSHlutX1xo
This is the latest song I have learned. It is incredibly hard to play which is one reason I chose it for the challenge. Awesome song. I've almost nailed it. I only struggle with the intro, but I'll get there.
Elbow - New York Morning.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSLzZJ9vLfI
This is just a great song. A classic in my book. Quite easy to play. A great song to play on the bass guitar. This is one of my chill out songs.
Tom Walker - Leave a Light On.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqnkBdExjws
Staying on the chill out zone, this is a song I just wanted to learn simply because it is such a great song. It's not the best bass track to play in the world, but I enjoyed putting my own riff to it.
Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pa9x9fZBtY
I love this song! I love playing this song! This is the proper live version from the Alchemy album. I have gigged this song many times and this is the version we played. 
Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8
Now this one is purely for fun. This is funky! I can't listen to this and not have a smile on my face. I just had to learn this. The video is totally awesome too.
Ed Sheeran - Castle On The Hill.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ibBPhiaG0
I learned this song to impress my eldest grandchildren. I know they liked this song, and quite rightly. It is such a brilliant song. It reminds me of my youth. Chloe held her head to my amp and asked, "Are you really playing that, granddad?" I take it they were impressed! It was quite a challenging song to learn. 
One of These Days - Pink Floyd.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_OFriHOEI
I love Pink Floyd. I've seen them five times in concert and they are masters at what they do. Their stage show is like nothing else on earth. I haven't got the effects peddle like them for the bass, but this song is great for practising a constant rhythm. What a top tune!
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hBqKCcpBrA
If you are going to learn a Pink Floyd song, it just has to be this. Enough said.
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMfMUfgjiLg
If you are going to be a rock star, you need to play the ultimate rock song. It took me ages to learn this song little bit at a time, but I just had to do it. What a buzz playing this very loud, as it should be played. 
Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Guns N' Roses.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8OHybVhQwc
I'm not usually a big fan of cover versions, but this one is a great cover. Maybe even as good as the original. We used to play this in a band called, Listen. Classic song. Very easy to play.
Baba O'riley - The Who.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2KRpRMSu4g
Last but not least, I have always been a massive fan of, The Who. I have almost all of their songs on vinyl. I was lucky enough to see them a couple of times in concert. Awesome! 

That's it! My blog post is over. I have some of my stuff here and there online I'll leave you with a few random links. Thanks for visiting my site! Please leave a comment below if you made it this far. I love hearing from my visitors.
Random LinksHere is an old post where you can listen to some of the songs from various bands. Be warned, the quality is very poor and some songs contain swearing. 
https://geniusborderinginsanity.blogspot.com/2011/02/boy-stuff-kurt-chambers.html
Here is a very short clip of a gig we did at Talent Quest 98. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1hvoaCdKQ

Meeting Old Friends

This has been an incredible year for me. After spending the previous year finishing and publishing all of my novels to reach a milestone, I thought things were about to start winding down. But the year began with my first ever visit to a primary school, (see my precious post) which was an amazing and uplifting experience.

My book sales kept on an even keel and I had a surprise boost that came out of the blue where I had over 2000 copies of my free novel, Truth Teller, downloaded in just one day! I still have absolutely no idea of what caused this sudden boost in sales, but a massive thank you to whoever was responsible.

As a writer, I grew up in a writing group, The Young Adult Novel Workshop, that sadly no longer exists now. But in my time there I made friends with the most amazing people I had ever met. We all grew up together as authors going through all the highs and lows of the publishing industry. Despite being amazing friends for many, many years, I had never met any of them in person. To give you an idea of how awesome my friends are here is an old blog post from 2010 that puts it into perspective.

This year I did get to meet one of my friends from the forum. Tamara Hart Heiner, an accomplished author, mum of four children and a great friend, was travelling to Europe for the first time from central America to attend a writing conference in Edinburgh. An opportunity that just couldn't be missed! I went to Heathrow airport to pick her up and welcome her to England!

We came back to my humble little house where we had prepared a spare room for her to stay. Tamara got to meet some of my family including two of my grandkids, and we all had a traditional English breakfast together, beans on toast, lovingly prepared by me. Then I took Tamara to the train station where we just about managed to get her boarded on the correct train with just minutes to spare.

It was such a great experience to finally talk face to face and compare the many different things after being such good friends for about ten years. We do really live completely different lives on opposite sides of the world. It was a shame that we had such little time together, I hope we get to all meet again! But we did it, girl. We totally pulled it off. Yay us!




Best of All

I had the incredible honour and privilege to be invited to another local primary school where about ninety children in three classes have been doing a project on my latest novel, The World in Johnny's Back Garden. How cool is that!

I received such a massive warm welcome the moment I arrived from everyone. Mr Barlow introduced me to everyone we met, adults and kids alike, saying, "This is the author of the book we have been doing." as though the whole school had read my book. As we made our way to the library, one of the teachers we met said to me, "Not only have you inspired my whole class, but you inspired me too. Everyone is talking about your book." I was actually blown away by that, I didn't even know what to say. I thanked her a lot. What an amazing start, I hadn't even done anything yet.

I was introduced to six children, two from each class, who took me on a tour of the school. It is a lovely school. I loved the way they have recently decorated the canteen with plants on each table. It was like stepping into a cafe. On the way around, we got to see the new staff room. I asked them if any of them had seen inside and went on to tell them the story of how school staff rooms were mysterious places in my school days where no child ever entered! Funny enough, only one of the kids had seen inside so they got proper excited to explore it themselves. I joked about how unfair it was that they had a better room with cooler stuff and quickly pointed out that the coffee machine also made hot chocolate as well as coffee, just for the record.

After the fun tour, we took the children back to their classrooms. I went into each class and told them my story of how I went from being the least likely person in the whole world to even attempt writing a book, to becoming a published author of five novels. It's a great story in itself and one I hope inspires them to do what they love doing, knowing that anything is possible. Then they got to ask me questions on my book. And boy, did they have questions! It was amazing. There were conspiracy theories on whether Maisie was a murderer. What happened to Johnny's special abilities? Do trees really talk to each other? Was the bully really mean or just understood? The conversation just spiralled off in so many directions.

We returned to the library after this where I did a book signing for the kids who had bought copies of my books and did a photo shoot which they wanted for an article in the local newspaper, The Comet. I was limited to the books I had, so we had to do some juggling so that no one went home disappointed. They all made me feel like a real star.

Next, we went into the hall where six children were chosen to read me the alternative endings they had written for my book. They were all so brave and amazingly good at reading and writing. I love their imagination. They had so many question about my book, everyone was eager to find out what happened to Maisie's husband. I told them that even I didn't know and that I would have to write another book to find out myself. In the mean time, you will just have to use your imagination. While I was trying to answer all their questions, one of the teachers passing through the hall stopped and asked, "Are you the author? You have caused such a massive buzz in this school, you wouldn't even believe!"

To finish the day, all three classes were brought into the hall where they were set a task to choose a picture to write about for a project next week, and to take advantage of having an author present who they could ask for advice is they wished. One of the most asked questions was, do I know J.K Rowling? This made me laugh so much and it became apparent that the kids didn't see any difference between me and J.K. We were both authors of books they had done at school, end of! I had loads of kids asking me for an autograph and all the ones who hadn't been chosen wanted to show me the pictures they had draw of my characters. It was such a massively beautiful and humbling experience. It totally touched my heart. I hope and pray that I managed to inspire at least one of those amazing children.

I have spent over fifteen years of my life on this writing journey. There was a lot of heartache along the way. I wanted to give up on more occasions than I can count on my fingers. I faced so much rejection and criticism and never made any money out of all my hard work. Then out of nowhere the universe offers me an opportunity like this and all of a sudden it all makes perfect sense. This is why I did it and no amount of money in the world could compare.

On this day I discovered two very exciting developments about my book, but I will save that story for a future post.

This week I was invited to visit a local primary school who have been doing a project on my newest novel, The World in Johnny's Back Garden. They were the perfect age group to review my story being aged between 10 and 11 years old. I had no idea what to expect as this was my first ever author visit.

Mr Barlow, their awesome teacher, made all the arrangements and sent me a rough guide with some ideas of how he planned for the day to go. I was happy to agree with whatever he thought best. You could tell he thinks the world of the class he teaches by the massive effort he put in to make this visit work for the maximum benefit to the kids. They thanked me for coming in, but the real praise should go to Mr Barlow for organising and arranging this event in the first place. Thank you!

The day started first thing where I got to meet the class. I got to tell them my story of how I became an author, talk about how I write books and discuss some of the issues and things that happened in my story. The kids were awesome! They asked the best questions ever. They wanted to know everything about me and my stories. They made me feel like a rock star. And they were so funny. I really enjoyed our discussion.

As part of their project, the class had re-written, The World in Johnny's Back garden, in their own words. Some used my original story, pointing out the parts that stood out to them, others made up their own version with changes to the story, even different endings. One at a time they all read out their own stories to me so I could give them feedback and encouragement. From my perspective it was great to see the different parts of the story that stood out to different children. And the alternative versions were so funny. The kids reading was brilliant. They didn't hesitate in the slightest to read out loud their versions to me. I was very impressed.

Then came the school assembly. I won't lie, that was scary. Mr Barlow is dressed as a Mexican Cowboy. He claimed he was trying to blag his way as a character in one of his books. He introduced me to the school and then it was down to me. I started talking and realised within about ten seconds that how I imagined me telling my inspirational story about becoming an author just wasn't going to work. The kids in the class were the oldest in the school and the crowd in front of me went all the way down to about five-years-old. I started to stumble. I could hear myself starting to waffle. I was trying to wing it and beginning to fair.

Mr Barlow came to the rescue with his back up plan. A board with some post-it notes so I could demonstrate how I put a story together. This was doable, I'm back on track. First we need a scene. I decide to make it interactive and ask the kids. Hands shoot up everywhere. The suggestions come thick and fast and in many varieties. This is going well, we settle on a school, somewhere everyone can relate to. Then we need a character. How could I not choose Mr Barlow, the Mexican Cowboy. Post-it note number three came out as America somehow and post-it four, the ending, was a horse. What can I say? lol

Mr Barlow discreetly mentioned we could start wrapping this up now and turned to the audience and said, "Now this is how the author would turn these ideas into a story." Now call me naive or stupid, but I swear to God I didn't see this coming. I think I replied, "No pressure or anything then." I will try and re-create my off-the-cuff story.

Once upon a time (one of the kids suggestions.)

There was this school in England that was quite unusual. What made it unusual was there was a Mexican Cowboy that used to roam the halls and corridors. Nobody knew who he was or what he was doing there, but every day the Mexican cowboy would always be there wandering around. Everyone was too polite to say anything to him so they never found out who he was.

What they didn't know was their school building had come all the way from America. They do that, you know. Take buildings down brick by brick and ship them to other countries and re-build them. Like London Bridge was taken down and re-built in America. Somehow, the Mexican Cowboy had got packed up with the building and shipped over to England with it. Because he only spoke Mexican he couldn't ask anyone the way home. He didn't know what they were saying.

So he stole a horse and rode off into the sunset to find his home and hopefully lived happily ever after. (Notice the classic ending.)

Yeah, okay, in hindsight I should have gone for borrowed a horse, but I was under pressure. The assembly was over and I could breath a sigh of relief.

We went to the staff room for a tea and Mr Barlow introduced me to some people including the head. We made our way back to the classroom for the final part of the day, the creative writing workshop. The kids had to choose a picture from a board of very inspirational pictures and write an opening line for a story whilst we guided and encouraged them with ideas. They wrote an opening line and I gave them ideas on how they could make it into a great hook to draw the reader in. They really took on board my suggestions and totally got everything I explained to them.

We all had cake that Mr Barlow had made himself and the conversation went on into the afternoon covering everything you could think of, most of which wasn't even writing related. By the time lunch time came around I gave a final summery and said goodbye to everyone.

It was such a brilliant day. I have to say a super special thank you to the kids for all their hard work and for making me feel so welcome in their class. You rock! And thank you, Mr Barlow, for being such an awesome teacher.


The World in Johnny's Back Garden
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This week is a very challenging week for me. Life can be pretty crazy sometimes as I'm sure you all know too well. So to cheer myself up I decided to write a post about all the achievements I managed to pull off this year so far to help put things into a much better perspective. Despite having to deal with some pretty horrific scenarios, this year has actually been a very good year in so many ways.


January 1st 2018


Yes, New Years Day is a day I will never forget. The birth of another beautiful granddaughter, Athena. What an amazing start to the New Year! She is the most beautiful, cutest kid you could ever meet. Admittedly, I may be a little bias being her granddad, but she really is. I have this amazing connection with her, like she can sense all the unconditional love just pouring out of me.

I love all my grandchildren so much, they are like little gifts from God for all the hard work we put in as parents. And now my youngest daughter is expecting and is due at around March next year. I can't wait!



Home Improvements

I made some massive improvements to my home this year. We had a new roof fitted earlier in the year and one of the scaffolders dropped a pole onto my patio door causing some irreparable damage. So as compensation, they fitted a brand new unit and paid us £500. It's a great improvement and really brings the garden into my living room.



I was also given some massively expensive metal artwork that we took out of some posh flats in Harrow. We had to remove them as they were deemed a fire hazard. So I used them to replace the tatty old trellis in my garden. They came out awesome and were a big hit with the plants!



This year we also managed to purchase a brand new set of sofas. My old ones were second hand and about at the end of their life. It has been over 20 years since I was able to buy a brand new sofa. I also redecorated my living room changing it completely. New curtains, lights and carpet throughout the whole downstairs and the upstairs landing. I love new carpet. That too is something I haven't been able to do for many years.



Holidays

I have had two amazing holidays this year. In June we went to visit Wales for the first time. The weather was spectacular! The site was awesome. It had everything you could ever want and it was within walking distance to the beach. We went to visit some awesome castles. It was just a great holiday.


Our second holiday was in the beautiful county of Devon. I love that part of the country and have been there many times. It is a spectacular part of the world. I love the fact that going on holiday twice a year is the norm for us now. I hope it continues.


There was one small downfall. We had to borrow a car because my car was having a problem with the lights, so we simply swapped cars. We were almost at our destination, about 10 minutes away from Dawlish when we got a phone call saying..."I am so sorry! We crashed your car and have written it off!" What a way to start your holiday!



But this tale does have a happy ending! I was given the money to buy a new car to replace this one. And i am so happy with my new car! It's the most beautiful thing I have ever owned in my life, sad as that sounds. I got a big reaction when I bought it. "It's a girls car! It's a hair dressers car! Are you having a mid-life crisis?" haha!! I just say, It's just so me! I love it.



Book Stuff
And lasts but not least, I have had such a brilliant reaction to my newest novel, The World in Johnny's Back Garden. It all started when it was featured at a book club in a local junior school. Here is an article I wrote about it. https://geniusborderinginsanity.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-world-in-johnnys-back-garden-book.html Since then it was picked up by another teacher who wanted to use it at his school and ordered a host of paperback copies fro his class. He wants to arrange for me to come in for an author visit and mentor the children in his class. On top of that a lady from the council was so overwhelmed by the story she sent it to her brother who runs a book bus tour each years on the Isle of White and said they will probably want me to go over during to tour on another author visit. I'm excited to see how this will all pan out!


Despite all the bad things that have happened this year, it has also been a year full of amazing things and some really big achievements. What an exciting year! I wonder what else it has in store for me?