Own, rent or timeshare?

Cui bono is a Latin phrase that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for something may not be who it appears at first to be. It can be a useful adage in a modern world where governments and their compliant corporate media seek to control how we think, by spinning the news we read and hear.

International politics, we know, is awash with hypocrisy and double standards; politicians choose which atrocities to condemn and which to ignore, which dictators to demonise, and which to quietly support. Take Tony Blair and Hilary Clinton as a case in point; both condemned Saddam Hussein as a ‘monster’, yet count as a personal friend Hosni Mubarak, who tortured and killed fellow Egyptians over a 30 year despotic dictatorship, while plundering an impoverished country to line his own pockets to an estimated $74 billion. Dwell on that number for a second. How can a man born into poverty, whose only work has been as a government employee, amass a fortune  that King Midas himself could only dream about? And how could that question never occur to Blair or to Clinton as they frolicked with Mubarak on private holidays as his guest at one of his many palaces?

We are, it seems, about to attack Syria, to deliver death and destruction on people in a far off country who have done us no harm. A country which, to all intents and purposes, is defenceless against Western airpower. Whoever it is doing the killing, and certainly those ordering it, will be doing it while at no risk to their own life and limb. What can possibly justify this naked aggression? Oh yes, I forgot, the use of chemical weapons. Syria has crossed a ‘red line’ and the West ‘has a responsibility’ to act.

Napalm attack on Trang Pang village, 1972

Putting aside that the USA is the only country in the history of the world to have used both nuclear and chemical weapons against civilian populations, what is really going on here?  Cui Bono can perhaps help us understand.

The Syrian government is winning, or certainly not losing, a war against an enemy financed, trained, armed and directed by the USA and its allies. The “Free Syrian Army’ is nothing less than a US proxy, part of a long term US strategic goal of ‘regime change’ in Syria. Obama had made it clear that he would intervene militarily if the Syrian government crosses the chemical ‘red line’. And hey presto, just when Assad has the enemy on the run, what does he do? He drops chemical bombs. But not on the rebels, on unarmed civilians that are no threat to him. Well, I ask you, who in their right mind would believe that Assad, formerly an  eye-surgeon in St Mary’s hospital London, would do something so irrational, something that served not his own interests, but those of his enemies?  And therein is our surest guide to who was responsible for using chemical weapons in Syria – Cui Bono !

if you liked this post check out more at www.tombarrywrites.com, and help yourself to a free romantic suspense novel:)

Sir Alex Ferguson is to return to football management with FC Barcelona, in a development that is set to shock world football. The supposedly dramatic stepping down of cancer sufferer Tito Vilanova was in fact discussed with the FC Barcelona board in June. In talks which included major sponsor the Qatar Foundation, Sir Alex agreed to a director of football role at the Nou Camp, on the proviso that his son, Darren Ferguson, currently manager of newly relegated Peterboro FC, was given day to day responsibility for team affairs.

Despite the relegation of Peterboro FC, Darren Ferguson remains well regarded in european football circles, in particular for his ability to secure loan deals for rising stars at Old Trafford. Suggestions that family connections influenced management decisions at the world’s most famous club were hotly denied by CEO Ed Woodward, currently involved in confidential discussions with FC Barcelona for the transfer of ex-Arsenal captain, Cesc Fabregas. But today, bookmaker Paddy Power suspended betting on Fabregas joining Man Utd, citing irregular betting patterns in the Catalan capital, and in Cheshire, UK, home to the Fergusons and many insiders at Old Trafford.

Sir Alex, currently on a family holiday with Darren in Mallorca, Spain, was unavailable for comment, but a spokesman for Peterboro FC confirmed that compensation of £2m had been agreed with UK law firm Clifford Chance, acting for an unknown client.

David Beckham, former star at Man Utd and at FC Barcelona arch rivals Real Madrid, is at present believed to be involved in discussions on a new worldwide sponsorship deal involving “brand Beckham". Asked if Beckham’s latest venture involved the Qatar Foundation, a spokesperson for Beckham dismissed the story. “This is the silly season in the world of football. Any hack desperate for a headline can claim anything, and some fool will print it. Just because it’s made a headline, doesn’t make it true.”

Roll on the start of the footy season!

This post first appeared on my personal website, www.tombarrywrites.com

Are you an avid reader who’d love to grab best selling books for free?  Are you an up and coming author that would like to promote your book, either free or discounted? Then you’ve landed in the right place. This week I’m running a series of posts that highlight the sites to go to and, by default, the sites to avoid. I’ll be covering over 5o of the best sites, the ones where you can trust the content, as well as the price. And it’s wise to be selective, because there’s a great selection of reputable sites offering super book deals.  But as with everywhere else on the web, there’s a flood of dross and, frankly, charlatans who are more interested in capturing your personal data and plundering your wallet than they are in connecting readers with authors.

When the Siren Calls

I’m going to start today with Net Galley, because my post earlier this year reviewing that site caused a bit of a stir, and not just from readers and authors but from the wider eco-system that lives off the back of aspiring authors. If you know about Net Galley already and would like an in depth review, warts and all, then go to my earlier post. For our purposes here all you need to know if you are a reader is that Net Galley is a great source to grab early review copies of books in every genre, from fiction and non-fiction, from independent publishers to the biggest gorillas on the block like Macmillan and Random House, including from their best selling authors. If you are an author all you need to know is that Net Galley is a great place to solicit genuinely independent reviews. It helped When the Siren Calls get over 100 reviews on Amazon and over 200 ratings onGoodreads in six months. (But authors, as Net Galley will be dipping into your wallet, do read my full review before you decide whether the site is for you.)

Tomorrow, god willing, I’m going to share another 5 sites, including my #1 site for top quality books from the independent sector, where you’ll find some of the freshest and most original writing out there today (and I’m going to let you into the secret of why the independent sector is the best source of quality fiction in the market-place.) And I will be looking at one of the sites that offers readers and writers an alternative to Net Galley, but without some of the drawbacks I discussed in my Net Galley review. So be sure to check back here to discover more of the top sources for free and discounted books. And in the meantime, now’s the time to grab a copy ofWhen the Siren Calls at just 99 cents (70p).  But be quick, because like the steamy love affair in the book, something this good can’t last for long 

 

“If not now, then when?” This question was posted to my website, www.tombarrywrites.com, by Steve Lebel, as a response to my blog on “Our 5 biggest deathbed regrets.” Steve says that forcing himself to answer this question is a marvellous device to keep his bucket list short. And I can see his point. I’ve been a Spanish speaker of sorts for over 30 years, going back to the days when I had a Spanish girlfriend in-between marriages. I’ve always promised myself I’d invest the time to achieve fluency, and by Jove at times I’ve tried. I’ve got more Spanish language CD’s than you can shake a paella at. So I’ve decided it is now or never, and this winter I’m taking myself off, alone, on one of those total immersion courses where you eat, drink and sleep Spanish, living in a homestay with a family that, hopefully, can’t speak a word of English other than “fiesta”.

Steve’s question reminds me that there is a difference between intention and desire, and as we know the road to hell is paved with both. There is no point, like Billy Liar in the classic novel by Keith Waterhouse, of dreaming about what we are going to do, when x,y and z falls into place. Billy spends his life in fantasies and dreams about being a comic writer in the big city.  When opportunity to live out the dream finally comes,  when a beautiful girl is inviting Billy to live out his dream and join her on the train to London, he bottles out. All his good intentions were indeed a pipe dream. The protagonist we know is destined to live and die in the small industrial working class town somewhere in Yorkshire into which he was born (not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

When the Siren Calls

The Billy Liar novel ended with what could have been Billy’s life changing incident. Most novels begin with a life changing incident. The protagonist does something or something happens to them, after which we and they know their life can never be the same again. In romance it’s typically the event that first brings the boy and the girl together. In my romantic suspense novel, When the Siren Calls, it’s when wealthy but neglected Isobel is saved from a fate worse than death at the hands of a Marrakech mob by a handsome but enigmatic stranger. Isobel duly flees to Tuscany in pursuit of passion, risking everything to follow her heart.

In When the Siren Calls the life changing incident happens to Isobel, rather than she causes it to happen. But in reality she was a willing victim, she was waiting for the right person to come into her life, the person that would give her the courage to live a life true to herself, not the one her workaholic husband and fickle friends expect.

The problem with real life is that we can’t rely on life changing incidents to come along at the right time and propel us to pursue some quest, to follow our dream. If it’s ever going to happen, we need to make it happen, and as Steve asks, ‘if not now, then when?”  The problem, of course, is fear. It is fear that holds us back. But as Christina Carson posted to this site, also in response to the blog on deathbed regrets: “It is always worth noting that life is unbelievably short, and to let fear stop you in any way is to die in that moment, even if you’re still standing upright for another 40 years.”

I’m thinking I’ve taken this stream of consciousness as far as I can. I’d like to thank Steve and Christina, and everyone else who takes the time to post comments to the site. As you see, I not only read them, but dwell on them. If you have a technique, like Steve’s, to keep your bucket list short, I’d love for you to share it here in the comments section.

(To grab your copy of When the Siren Calls at a special discounted price of 99c (you save 90% on the regular price), go to http://bookShow.me/B009CFWPUW 

When the Siren Calls

In my romantic suspense novel When the Siren Calls, a woman with high ideals falls in love with a man with low morals. Wealthy but neglected Isobel, feeling trapped in a stagnant marriage, believes that suave and sophisticated Jay can bring the excitement and passion that she yearns for. She pursues him to Tuscany and abandons herself in a passionate affair, as the controlling Jay encourages conservative Isobel to continually push beyond her sexual boundaries.

Isobel does not try to change Jay; she recognises that he has been a lothario in the past, but seems to rely on the idea that by giving herself completely to Jay, he will respond in kind. And isn’t it generally true that we get back in life what we give out, that what we radiate we attract?

Isobel cannot help her feelings for Jay. Although the reader is privy to his dark side in his relationship with his mistress Lucy, when Jay is with Isobel he is warm, attentive, and generous. And, also, he is an accomplished lover in the bedroom. A heady cocktail for a woman starved of emotional fulfilment.

It is easy to dismiss Isobel as naive. Yet something like 50% of us, those of us who have been divorced, presumably stood at the altar (or whatever) very much in love and at the time believed that love could conquer all. I say this because in all likelihood we tied the knot, made a commitment to be bound until death, despite plenty of evidence that ours was not a match made in heaven. Maybe we believed our parents, that marriages were relationships like any other that needed to be nourished and worked on if they were to endure. But despite all the work and all the nourishing, many more marriages fail than succeed, because the divorce rate only measures those broken partnerships that have been legally dissolved.

Does this prove that love cannot conquer all?  I’m afraid so.  But we must not despair; this is why god and authors have given us romance stories with dashing heroes and determined damsels,  where a beauty can come to love a beast, and a handsome millionaire can fall for a street hooker.  So we can all live in hope that one day we too will fall in love with someone who truly deserves us