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Monthly Archives: May 2015

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 7

30 Saturday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 4th June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and an extract from Chapter 2 of The Mind Traveller.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

Extract from CHAPTER 2 

“My little contessa, that was last century.  Instead of witches and ground spirits we now have quantum mechanics, time dilation and inner space.  Call it new age philosophy.”

“With new age flower children,” Rosie said.  “Now that’s cool.”

When they came to the rows of organic tomatoes Uncle Hugo’s shoulders relaxed and he nodded in satisfaction.  Rosie sat on the steps and rested her elbows on her knees, chin in hands.  She loved Haston Manor with its high tower, the woods, the meadows, the lake.  She loved them because her mother grew up here and surely her spirit remained.  Sometimes she became scared she might forget her mother’s face, her smile.  Eight years was a long time without parents.  She had photos, but photos grew old.  They couldn’t give the warmth of a hug or the laugh of Rosie’s father as he hoisted her onto his shoulders.

“Tell me again about my parents,” she said.  “Please, Uncle.”

He looked up then.  “Are you troubled, Rosie?”

She shrugged and screwed up her face.  “No, it’s just one of those times when I think of Mum and Dad.  It happens, creeps up on me, like they’re here, but not here, you know.”   Again she shrugged.  “Ghosts.”

“What’s past is past,” he said.

“But the past always affects the future.  Tell me, please.”

Uncle Hugo shuffled his feet and sighed.   “Your mother was beautiful and when she married your father the whole of society turned out to see the Count and Contessa de Barcelos.  What a magnificent couple, such style, such glamour, such tragedy that they died so young.”  His voice faltered and he sat beside her.  “Speed, it’s all your father thought of.  Planes, cars, boats, motorbikes.  Somehow, one day, it seemed inevitable they should crash.”

“Speed killed my mother,” Rosie said.  “Doing aerobatics in a small plane is dangerous, even if they were over the sea.”

“Your mother had adventure and your father constantly took risks.”

“One too many.  He had no right to do that.   They had no right to leave me, I was only six.”  She took a deep breath, her body rigid.

“Accidents happen when least expected.  People believe they have control.”  He sighed.  “But … no.  Fate controls.”

“So maybe they didn’t die, their bodies were never found.  Maybe instead they escaped by parachute … maybe.”

“Rosie, they are dead.”

The Witch's Shadow

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 6

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 4th June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and an extract from Chapter 2 of The Mind Traveller.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

Extract from CHAPTER 2

“Something spooked Siggy.  I heard footsteps over the floorboards,” she said in half-truth.  “Every school holiday I come home, but I never felt anything spooky before.”

“That’s because Haston Manor is a friendly place.”  He came round the desk.  “A walk you say, let’s pick tomatoes for our pizza.”  He indicated the door as if the subject was closed.  Rosie pressed on.

“So Mum never talked of spirits or voices?”

He laughed in that cuddly bear manner which always hid some truth.  “Rosie, my dear, your mother and grandmother were both hippy flower children of the most flamboyant kind.  Talk to spirits, my goodness, they danced with them in the woods.  Tree spirits, ground spirits, spirits of the natural universe.  Only on the female side of course, Haston men are quite normal.”  He opened the door and Siggy darted ahead.

Rosie drew herself to her full height, her female ancestors were precious, but she shrugged, so was Uncle Hugo.  By his side she crossed the vast entrance hall of Haston Manor, hearing the echoes of her mum and grandma, wild flower children dancing over the flagstone floor.  Yeah, that she liked.

“Come on, Uncle, you’re a country man, you must believe in the spirits of nature.”

“Talking to trees and ground spirits won’t get the roof of this house fixed.”

“But it might get you better organic tomatoes.”

“Humbug,” he said as she watched him collect his Panama hat perched on an old suit of armour.  Siggy darted round their feet until the studded oak door of Haston Manor swung open, then he streaked off, rolling and scampering in the hot summer sun.

“Mad cat, still thinks it has four legs.”  Uncle Hugo clasped hands behind his back.

“I wish I could make it true,” Rosie said, crossing the terrace and following him down curving steps into the formal gardens.   She imagined her mother as a girl skipping along these same paving stones, playing here, falling, crying, laughing.

“How did Mum become a flower child?” Rosie asked while opening the door to the walled vegetable garden, seeing Siggy shoot past to hide amongst the cabbages.

“By having a hippy mother.  Of course, as I said, Father and I were far too sensible for such nonsense.”

“Of course.”  Rosie looked up at her uncle with his hat, his grey curly hair and red bowtie; always red, never another colour.  “So, if you become a hippy by having a hippy mother, who also had a hippy mother, then I’m a hippy too.  I wonder if she heard whispering voices, warnings from the ground spirits.”

The_Mind_Traveller_Cover_for_Kindle

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 5

23 Saturday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 4th June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and an extract from Chapter 2 of The Mind Traveller.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

CHAPTER 2

SECRETS FROM THE PAST

When Rosie poked her head round the library door, Siggy did likewise by her feet.  “Hi, Uncle, just thought I’d look in.  Fancy a walk?” she asked and smiled her sweetest.

Uncle Hugo looked up, mumbling and grumbling from where he was shuffling papers on a desk.  “I’ve lost my lecture notes,” he said.  “Proof that a photon can be in two places the same time.”

“How can anything be in two places at once?”

“Find my notes and I’ll tell you.”

“Maybe they decided to reunite in the place you’re not looking.”

“Very logical, my little contessa.  I’m clearly no match for you this morning.”  He tapped his fingers on the desk and shook his head.  Lank and stooped, with a big nose, bushy hair and brows, he reminded Rosie of an old, bemused bear.

“What about ghostly thoughts, are they mine or from outside?” she asked, deciding a head on approach might be the fastest way to uncover secrets.

“Ghosts are the experience of imaginative stimulation.  Thoughts are something else.  Why do you ask about ghosts?”

“Because I think I hear voices.”

He thrust a hand in his pocket, waving the other as if the truth was vague.  “They’ve been building and extending Haston Manor on and off for hundreds of years but I’m aware of no psychic occurrence, even though some of our ancestors were certifiably eccentric, particularly on the female side.”

“Were they mad, did they hear voices?”

“My dear Rosie, believe me, you are not mad if that’s what you’re implying.  I’m a philosopher and scientist and I assure you everything is accountable by rational explanation.”  He looked at her with the long drawn stare he used to give when she was small and over inquisitive.  “Old houses make noises, particularly when heating is installed.  They creak and groan and the ventilation system in the cellar sucks air.  You haven’t been down there, have you?”

The Witch's Shadow

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 4

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 1st June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and an extract from Chapter 1 of The Mind Traveller.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER 1

The footsteps moved to the left, she figured to the library, panicking her thoughts.   Stay away from the servants’ hall, please, please.  She climbed the steps, shushing Siggy away as she locked the cellar door and placed the key back in its hiding place.  Siggy at her heels, she crept down the hall, peeked into the massive kitchen then quickly crossed the floor and went up the rear servants’ staircase to her room at the front of the house.

Inside she puffed out breath and looked down at Siggy who stared back, head to one side.  “OK, cat, so this time we made it, but I still need answers.  I have a lively imagination and was running scared, but voices in my head?”

In the bathroom she brushed cobwebs from her short, dark hair then changed her top.  Washing hands and face she stared into the mirror, her mind churning as Siggy brushed her ankles. “It’s fine for you, Mr Cat, you don’t have divided loyalties.    Uncle Hugo is precious and the last of Mum’s family.  I listen to him and he tells me no diaries until I’m eighteen.  I read my mother’s letter and she says accept your fate.  So what’s the big deal in the diaries?  Which way do I go without upsetting Uncle Hugo, must I sneak behind his back?”  She raised both hands.

“Come to us, Rosie.”   The voice crowded into her mind, rasping and harsh. “Don’t care for others, only for yourself.”

Rosie yelped and ran back to the bedroom while Siggy darted beneath a chair.

“Ghosts,” she whispered.  “Got to be.  Where are they coming from?”

“No ghosts, Rosie.  ’S OK, I’m here too.”  The soft girlish voice floated through her thoughts, the same voice which had declared her not ready.

“Who’s there?” she asked, hands over ears, her thoughts tumbling in confusion.  What was this?  She didn’t do drugs or alcohol, had done nothing wrong, only read her mother’s letter and did what she asked.  She took out her iPhone, Uncle Hugo’s present on her birthday.  Rosie swallowed, switched to photos then silently mouthed the words she read from the top line.

Beware of Hisdrillo, the Dark Angel, beware of his creppins.

She immediately switched off and quickly pushed the phone back into her pocket.  Turning to the tall window overlooking the formal gardens of Haston Manor, she felt the warm sun on her face and drew in the scent of flowers and fresh cut grass, breathing deeply until calm.  Shoulders back, hands pressed in a gesture of meditation she felt at peace until a shadow passed the window and a large black raven glided to a nearby tree.  Flurrying wings the creature settled on a branch where it stared across at her with yellow, beady eyes.

“They’re here, Rosie,” the girl’s voice said.  “Be careful.”

“Who’s here?  Are you ghosts?”  One person would know.  She ran out of the room.

The_Mind_Traveller_Cover_for_Kindle

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 3

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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books, childrens books, crime fiction, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 1st June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and an extract from Chapter 1 of The Mind Traveller.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

Extract from Chapter 1

In the fourth chamber her torch beam flickered over lines of battered cabin trunks stored since the time of steamships and Empire, trunks which would never again see daylight or the grand tours once enjoyed by residents of Haston Manor.  Faced by objects from her family’s past, Rosie moved along the lines, her fingers brushing dust from stencilled names.  Great, great grandparents, great aunties and uncles briefly returned to life as she read aloud “Colonel Haston of the Third Indian Rifles, the Reverend Haston, Dr Haston, Captain and Mrs Haston.”  History, history, she thought.  Who in the family heard voices, who felt a presence there, but not there?  Just me, or all of them?  What mysteries did Colonel Haston bring back from India?

As if in answer, a draught stirred the dust and footsteps creaked on floorboards.  Uncle Hugo had returned early, or was her mind playing tricks again?  She listened to the footsteps fade.  Just noises from an old house … maybe.  No time to waste.  The torch continued over trunks and furniture until landing on a small wicker basket, its brass plate green with mould.  She rubbed it with her sleeve then read the inscription.  “Alice Haston, St Monica’s Boarding School for Girls.”  Using the key found with her mother’s letter she undid the lock and lifted the lid.

A dozen black diaries lay inside with a small leather pouch on top.  Carefully she tipped the contents onto her palm.  A round silver locket fell out and she instantly sensed an energy, like the tickle of a mild electric shock.  In the torchlight her reflection shone on the dull casing.  My mother’s image must have been there once, she thought, and with deft fingers undid the front.  Inside two glass phials, one empty, one full of fine sand, were able to swivel in the manner of an egg timer.  What was this?

“A time locket.”   The girl’s voice sounded in her mind.  “Be warned.   The commitment is forever.”

“Forever,” Rosie repeated.  Why was she thinking these things?  This was so weird.

Somewhere in the house a door slammed and this time definite heavy footsteps sounded over the flagstone floor.  Uncle Hugo.  She closed the lid, opened it, returned the locket, closed it again then opened it a third time.  Taking out her iPhone she hastily photographed random pages from the diaries.  When the footsteps passed directly overhead she again closed and this time locked the basket before hurrying towards the passage.  Ignoring cobwebs and their hairy occupants she focused on the cellar door.  Siggy, still hunched and motionless, sat on the top step, his body silhouetted by light from the hall, his green eyes shining.

“Don’t let me be caught, don’t let me be caught,” she prayed aloud, not wanting to lose her uncle’s trust.  But her mum’s words of instruction could not be ignored … particularly when they reached from the dead.

The Witch's Shadow

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 2

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 1st June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and another extract from Chapter 1.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

Extract from Chapter 1

Torch grasped in fists beneath her chin, elbows pressed in tight, she again moved forward, listening to the flurry of wings stirring from dark vaults.  Too big for a moth, so it had to be … “Please don’t let it be,” she whispered to herself.  The words in her mother’s letter found amongst the belongings she’d received on her fourteenth birthday helped her to scrape raw courage.

Because you are next in line, they will come for you, Rosie, calling, enticing, challenging, daring; the dark ones and the white ones.  The oak knows.

The words baffled her, making her wonder just what her mother had been doing.  But the instructions were clear.

Take the time locket and use it.  Uncle Hugo will hide it with my diaries in the cellar until your eighteenth birthday.  He means well, but he is a non-believer.  Fate calls you, Rosie, as it called me and your grandmothers.  Like us, you have no choice, you must answer.

“Yes, Mum,” she squeaked for encouragement.  “But I can hear bats.  I hate bats more than spiders.”

“Not ready.”  The words again entered her mind as if spoken by some inner spirit, the same voice which had previously given warning, a girl’s voice, slightly breathless.  “They’re watching,” it said, “waiting.”

For what?   Her thoughts in confusion, she peered into the shadows, standing on tiptoe, arms clenched to her body.  Who’s watching?

“Join us, Rosie.”   A second voice flushed and slithered through her thoughts.  “Be Princess of Darkness.”

“Time, Rosie,” the girl’s voice returned.  “Six minutes.”

“No.”  Rosie spoke loud and determined as she dropped back on her heels.  “This is crazy, I’m not mad.  Go away whoever you are, get out of my brain.”  She darted the torch beam, slashing darkness with the sweep of a sabre, marching forward to brush the cobwebs aside thinking, I’m on a mission.  I’m not scared.  I’m not scared of anything, you hear?   Passing chambers racked with wine, chambers where only brave Uncle Hugo, bats and dark things ventured, she kept herself centred.

Fourth vault on the left, her mother’s letter had instructed.  Look for my old school case.  Inside you will find my diaries and the locket.  You can go nowhere without the time locket, collected when our ancestors explored the ancient mysteries of India.

Time locket.  She shook her head.  This is getting extreme.  Just what had her mother been doing with something called a time locket?  Yeah, OK, some kind of game … or something crazy.

 The_Mind_Traveller_Cover_for_Kindle

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 1

09 Saturday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books

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books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle on 1st June.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is a short description and opening of Chapter 1.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Rosie enters Mind Space and the angel wars where Bugala the Dark Angel fights the Knights of Lousã to conquer the Land of Light.

Aided by Elissa of the Special Angel Service and the Dragon Queen, Rosie and her pals must turn the war against the Dark Angel, his monsters and demons or they will cross Mind Space and invade planet Earth.

As sand in the Mind Traveller’s locket runs out, Rosie knows she has little time to complete her mission, or stay trapped in Mind Space forever.

Mind Space, where time future slips to time past through time present, the place of transition where all time must exist yet does not exist except in our minds.

CHAPTER 1 

SECRETS FROM THE PAST

Rosie unlocked and pushed open the cellar door, the sound of creaking hinges prompting a shiver of fear and guilt.  No other movement stirred the house.  She calculated Uncle Hugo’s visit to the garden might last ten minutes.  Ten minutes to unlock her mother’s secrets, ten minutes to discover if her parents were dead or hiding, and if hiding, then from what?

“OK Mum, here I go,” she whispered and descended the steps.

“Don’t.  You’re not ready.”  When the words entered her head she sensed herself murmuring the same, words that bounced into her skull without thoughts of her own.

“What?” she said aloud and banged the heel of her hand against her head.  Looking back to the door she saw Siggy, the three-legged cat, shuffling in retreat, fur bristling.   “So I’m talking to myself, that’s all.  Nerves, nerves,” she repeated.  Siggy froze, his back rigid, his green eyes staring into hers.

In the cellar tunnel Rosie suppressed a tremor, drew back her shoulders and moved into the brick bowels of Haston Manor.  Torch beam poking pathetically at pitch blackness, she went forward with determination, that is until something brushed over her face and hair.  Startled by her squeal, a creature fluttered in panic.  Rosie moved back a pace and lifted her torch to the lace of hanging cobwebs.  Small bodies crept from the light while large ones stayed motionless, encrusted with the dust of ages.

Spiders, she hated spiders.  She checked her watch.  Only nine minutes remained, only nine minutes to find secrets from the past.

The_Mind_Traveller_Cover_for_Kindle

Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

MEDITATIONS FROM A BAR STOOL 12

06 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Childrens' books, Meditations

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books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

At eighteen I was a paratrooper in an elite and specialist unit.  I expected the girls to throw themselves at me.  They did not.  Instead I spent most of my time sleeping in woods or out on Salisbury Plain with four or six smelly and soggy wet Paras.  Other times we slept rough on the East/West German borders, the warm beds of welcoming girls only a figment of imagination.

True, back at base camp and the locals pubs, the girls did cluster round but before I had a chance to get close I was sent off on another sortie.  I began to suspect that’s why the girls liked us.  We never stayed long enough to get intimate, we were safe.

When posted to the Royal College of Military Engineering for six months, I at last had an opportunity to form a relationship.  I also discovered the Saturday night dance.  In those days, every town, every village had a Saturday night dance and every girl went to one.  Another girlfriend came and left, too respectable for a wild Para.  For some virginity still remained a virtue, lost only on the marriage night.

Fortunately some girls thought differently.  One night stands after a beer soaked night at the Saturday night dance gave what I assumed to be the ultimate goal, but in the end nothing more than a brief moment of pleasure.  Like most young males, I experienced lust and the drive of animal instinct while having no understanding of sex embraced by love and compassion.

When posted to the Gulf and the Oman, women became a distant dream.  Again I wrote stories, all eagerly devoured by my fellow soldiers.  I would sometimes spend the night laying out in the surrounding desert, staring up at the stars, a great place if trying to understand the purpose of existence.  One thing I did decide was that sex without love held no more than a brief moment of self-gratification, sex seemed ninety-nine percent mental and one percent physical.

Jim in the Oman

Back from the desert I felt a wiser person and soon after I left the army.  London in the swinging 60s held hedonistic joy.  Sex in every deviation seemed there for the taking and the Saturday night party gave ample opportunities to mix and enjoy.  But then I fell in love.  The world changed, sex changed and in the bond of marriage, I found true and ultimate pleasure in the unity of man and woman, the creation of a child.  At last I had arrived.

Time for another beer.  The bar maid’s called time so this is my last meditation from this bar stool for some time.

Next I will write about my book The Mind Traveller, an action adventure story for young adults and older readers.  Click here to go to my Mind Traveller page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/njld54r

I’ll start with extracts from Chapter 1 so you can get in the mood to read the whole book and my new book, The Witch’s Shadow, which will be out 1st June.

MEDITATIONS FROM A BAR STOOL 11

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by James Mckenna in Meditations

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books, crime fiction, crime thriller, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

At the early age of seventeen and a half  the British Army declared me a man and sent me off for my adult military training.  Having done 2 years in the draconian and authoritative Boys’ Service, this was a doddle.  While doing this training for “man’s service” I frequently witnessed a group of soldiers who shared the outer reaches of our barracks.

These guys drove their cars across the parade ground, the greatest sin any soldier could commit.  On top of that, in those days, no ordinary solider had a car.  These guys only saluted their own officers, they walked to the front of every queue, had long hair and generally did whatever they wanted.  Better still, when they went to the pubs in Aldershot, the girls flocked round them.  I wanted in.  I wanted to wear the same maroon beret they did.  It took me 6 months of test and rigorous selection, and then close to my eighteenth birthday, I joined the 9th Independent Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers.  I thought I had arrived but the road ahead would still be long and mind stretching.

Paratroopers

Time for another beer, memories of the past and my discovery of real sex.

Read Global Raider http://tinyurl.com/l9cefsv

Go to my website at http://www.crimefiction-jamesmckenna.co.uk

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