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    Thailand Udon Thani 2023   It has been a while since I have written here, as a matter of fact all my writing has suffered. Life was getting in the way. I was back in Thailand, in a northern city called Udon Thani. I had just left Jasmine my Thai girlfriend of three years at Khon Kaen and I was having trouble moving on. I would be here for five days then I was going to Kamala Beach in Phuket. While in Udon, I went into a nearby restaurant with my laptop. I intended to eat, sit alone, and do some work to keep my mind occupied. As I approached the restaurant, I saw a group of girls sitting together. One of them stood up as I approached and followed me to my table, she was young and very beautiful. She smiled at me and took my order. For the next hour she saw to my every need. When my beer ran out, she was quick to get me another. She even came over one time and just asked me if everything was ok. Her smile was disarming. When I finished my meal, she cleaned up and brought
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Corona virus heartache

  CORONA VIRUS HEARTACHE   “I want to come to the airport.” I peered across the table at the beautiful Thai woman sitting before me, a bubbling, smiling tiny girl who I had met under strange circumstances. Tomorrow, I was going home, back to Tasmania. “We can say goodbye here,” I said softly as I peered into her sparkling brown eyes. “I am coming to the airport.”   The corona virus has created a vast plethora of stories, of heartache and separation. My story is just one of millions. It wasn’t that long ago to keep in contact around the world you had to write a letter and await the lengthy reply. I can recall being in New Zealand in my youth and to talk to my girlfriend I had to book time in a phone box. And the letters from my girlfriend were read over and over again, each time you saw something more, read between the lines of her love, of the fact that she was missing you. Now, many years later, I am doing it again, only now I can do it in real time. Not only can I tal
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The White Mouse

  BOOK REVIEW CODE NAME HELENE   By   Ariel Lawhon Code Name Helene is based on the true story of Nancy Wake or the White Mouse as she was known by the Germans during World War Two. This masterly crafted novel by Ariel Lawhon opens with Nancy parachuting into France. Her task is to unite the Maquis, arm them with weapons and prepare them for the invasion of France. In a series of flash backs we learn about the real Nancy and what inspired her to fight for her adopted country of France. Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, she travels to Europe in 1936 and finds herself in Paris where she works as journalist. It is here she witnesses the atrocities of the Germans. She meets the handsome Henry Fiocca, falls in love with him and they are married just as the war begins. Nancy helps the resistance and saves Jews, airman and wanted citizens by secreting them across the border into Spain. Henry becomes aware that they are being watched, their telephone is tapped and their
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Another book review

THE HAJ   By   Leon Uris     Everyone would know the name of Leon Uris because of his book Exodus which was made into a film. The Haj is another great book that follows the life of Ishmael, an Arab boy born in Palestine in 1936. His father, Ibrahim, was the Muktar of Tabah. Ishmael was raised by his grandmother, mother and the women of the family, but when his grandmother died he was just eight years old and his father sent his mother away. It was time for him to move into the room with the men. He had to deal with the trauma of being parted from his mother along with the taunts from other children that his father was going to take another wife. In tears, he spoke to his father about what was happening and was immediately rebuffed and literally pushed aside. His father’s word was law, you did not question him. Ishmael had three older brothers so he was well down in the pecking order. His future, unlike the first born, who was to inherit his father’s title, was to b
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Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS In 2016, I began writing book reviews for a local newsletter in my home town of Ulverstone in Tasmania. It was always something I wanted to do, to voice my opinion because so many books do not come up to scratch and those that do, deserve to be praised. It’s so hard to find a good book unless you have some prior knowledge of the author, some feed-back from another reader or a good review to guide you. I very rarely read book reviews now because most of them don’t do what they are meant to do, and that is to inform the reader of its readability. A synopsis is not a review and I see these all the time in newspapers and magazines. There are also those academic reviews that use adjectives that I have never heard of and leave me perplexed and wondering what in the hell I just read. Then we have those books that have fantastic reviews on the back eg: Fast paced, impossible to put down. I once read a book that had the back page full of marvelous reviews. By the time I
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Corona virus

It has been a while since I have written here and in that time much has happened in the World. The printed book "Tears in Thailand' is at a stand still as Thailand along with much of the world is shut down. I have not been able to get back to Thailand to see to the distribution. Even if I could distribute it, there are limited customers there now. I have some copies with me at home. In the meantime, I have been updating my site on Smashwords.com  I have included a small book on the site with five short stories, which is a preamble to the book "Mountain Pride" a story of a plane crash set in the harsh climate of the central  highlands of Tasmania. I have also submitted a short story of my great great grandfathers journey to Tasmania in a local competition, which later on, I may make part of a personal anthology. I am working on some lengthy novels, but these take time.
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Settling back in Tasmania

The book Tears in Thailand has been printed but I have run into problems with distribution in Thailand. Asia books wanted to change the cover, I didn't. So at the moment the book is only available on smashwords.com as an e-book. I have a lot more work published on this e-book site so feel free to peruse some of the highly acclaimed novels. I will be back in Thailand in May of this year and will be looking at setting up some independent outlets for the book in Phuket. A writers journey is never easy. While back home in Tasmania I have been writing book reviews for a local newsletter and a few small articles. I have also been tinkering with some novels but I am having trouble settling down to actually write. I think I need some motivation, some inspiration. While at home I have sent submissions of my work off to some high profile publishers with no response other than the computer generated reply. Why do they bother having a submissions section if they don't give some sort of f
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