Exposure exposed!

A poem is a page, if that. A stolen five minutes away from the crowd, the office, the computer, the phone, the expectations and the obligations. It’s like a quick and passionate kiss with a love – exciting, reassuring, rebellious and true. It pierces the heart of the wider world but strangely is pointed directly at you.

Visitors to Tom's blog are the very first to get a glimpse at the front cover of the soon-to-be published collection of poems, ditties and dittologies 36 Exposures.

Published by eBookPartnership, the launch date will hopefully be set for the 14^th October – and in later posts I’ll tell you why!  

You’ve Helped!

I’m delighted to announce that thanks to royalties from the sale of The Kingdom of Emptiness and Amazir in eBook format, I’ve now been able to honour the commitment made upon publication – that a percentage of proceeds would be donated to charity. Tying in with one of the main themes running through The Kingdom, a contribution of €120 was made to PLAN International in support of girls and young women’s education in western Africa. I believe (and have seen through experience both in developed and developing countries) that learning has an incredibly positive impact, perhaps more so than anything else we can do, in preparing children to better master their destinies, open their minds to others, relay their skills, and pave the way for progress on a lasting and truly long-term scale. A BIG THANKS and why not CONGRATS to all of you who bought the book (and hopefully enjoyed it!). Needless to say, spreading the word means that with a bit of luck and merit, a further contribution for children’s education will be able to see the light for Christmas! That would make a nice presie, wouldn’t it? Meanwhile, have a peep at the PLAN website (in English/French) and why not read The Kingdom and help things move forwards! Poetry news coming soon… ;-)

Free limited download of the Kingdom of Emptiness now closed! Next steps...

All good things come to an end... and a new beginning! I hope all those who downloaded KoE are now enjoying the read. Stats indicate that most of the lucky ones come from France, followed by the USA and in third postion, Ukraine - where hopefully you're all taking good care of yourselves in these difficult times.

Next steps (hence the photo of yours truly on a hike - thanks Keo): A collection of poems that brings together some of my old work and quite a lot of new, will be appearing early to mid-October, God willing. The title: 36 Exposures. There's lots in there for everyone to steal away from the rush of life for 5 minutes and cherry pick a moment of reflection. Paul Raine, Editor of Poetic Review stated that "His poetry (Tom's) lifts you up and slams you down with just as much enthusiasm. This is accomplished work." So if your imagination and emotions are looking for thrills and spills, tender moments, witty moments and savage moments too, then keep an eye out for the release of 36 Exposures in October!

Strange Roads, the third novel: previous posts mentioned spending the summer finishing the story. An archeological dig in southern France (!) and work commitments(!!) alas meant that the date has been pushed back to December. Still, watch this space for updates and associated articles on Squidoo giving tips and tools for your writing. Take care now and kind regards. Tom ;-)