Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all

Hope all my friends who follow my blog have a great day tomorrow and happy and successful 2016

Don't forget to look out for my book when your having a break hehe

Take Care

James

Garden Palace Deal - Latest Update

Garden Palace Bookstore

** UPDATE ** - This has been postponed to mid- January 2016

Book is still available for purchase at $4.99 USD - appreciate your support

James

I have been monitoring the progress of the eBook sales for Garden Palace and whilst its still slow, given that there has not been any promotion, there is a cool period coming up after Christmas that could change all that.

The current Price is US$4.99 but this will be reduced for a very short period of time between Christmas and New Years Eve.

The idea is to make it more accessible to a broader range of people at a time when many have more spare hours to read :-)

So if you haven't bought a copy - keep monitoring my Garden Palace Store - the link is to the right of this page.

James

December 10th 2015

Friends

In the beginning when I was writing my book I was greatly influenced by the people around me at the time and they contributed to the creation of the characters in differing amounts. Some were loosely based on friends and some were caricatures of people I seemed to encounter from time to time. There were also a couple of characters that were a mix of people all in one and some were just incarnations from my imagination. I am happy to divulge some of those identities but, naturally, not all. Again, they are merely the base for building the character and have no real similarities as far as the plot is concerned, but it often helps to picture these people in order to write about their counterparts.

Nanako 

is based on my good friend and artist/illustrator Nana Sakata. We previously worked together for 6 years and have remained friends ever since. Nana has recently become a mum for the first time!




Abigail

is based on another good friend and fellow singer Ali Manifold. We also had worked together and remained friends even though she is often in the UK with her partner Mike.






Annabella

is based on a friend and former supervisor Angela Magistrale. I haven't caught up with her for a while now but hope to do so in the new year.




Bart


is based on another former colleague and mate Marcus Burton. I haven't seen him for ages but I still get updates through Nana and Facebook occasionally.






Lana

is a bit of a mix of people but I took the name from friend and colleague Alanah Willis.





Ramon

is based on friend and former member of the Australian Ballet - Yosvani Ramos. Yosvani is currently in the US travelling around in The Nutcracker. Luckily he is a big social media user and keeps everyone well informed of his daily adventures.




Ruth is based on my first ever singing teacher, now passed away, Florence Taylor. Florence was a real powerhouse and would teach in Kent street Sydney many long days. She was tough and strict but she cared a lot about her students.

Maggie is based on a few people too as there were many oldies to draw upon for this character :-)

Dimitri is based on Ivan (cant spell his last name) - the best theatre manager I ever worked with.

As for the rest...

Quaaralia is based on...  Frieda is based on.... Wendy is based on... Terrence is based on...

That would be telling :-)

James

December 8th 2015

My company sometimes issues t-shirts and polo shirts to celebrate a launch or a campaign and we are allowed to wear the polo's during the week which makes laundry a very simple thing for me. On Tuesday's a little group of us always wear a blue one and hence our reason for "Bluesday" - I'm sure you feel enlightened now in a massive way.

Has anyone seen the first episode of The Office US and compared it with the original Office UK? I enjoy the US version and last night I watched the UK episode one and I fell asleep twice. I notice that the US version is 22-23 minutes per episode and yet the UK is 29-30 minutes. That extra 7 minutes of waffle is excruciating. I'm sure there's many die hard Ricky Gervais fans out there but it's no contest as to which is funnier.

Looking around my own 'office' I think it would be very easy to do our own version - there's quite a few nut-bags here. Funny how we don't realise how odd we are to others. I guess being a try-hard is in the eye of the beholder. This is a call centre though and that usually requires people who are a bit left of normal.

Today is that little bit extra difficult as I'm getting headaches from this neck issue and treatment - hope it can be all over by Christmas. Anyway I better get back to the coal face.

James

December 7th 2015

Monday morning

I don't know anyone who likes Monday mornings. For me personally I really don't like them, however I do like it when it's lunch time and you know that you have already gotten through half of it.

I survived the staff Christmas party last Friday and managed to escape around 8pm when the live band karaoke began - genius idea right.

I was happy to get the Christmas tree up yesterday, though it still hasn't been fully trimmed so no photos as yet.

Received an email from Amazon suggesting I should buy my eBook "Garden Palace" based on my recent searches - what a clever website.

Have been restricted to cardio exercises whilst my neck receives physio as its a very slow recovery. Kinda feels more painful and tender whilst undergoing the treatment so still needing the ibuprofen to get through the day.

Only discovered recently that Blueprint Studios has stopped doing headshots for actors - that's a shame - need to look around for a new one now.

Speaking of looking around, it's time to move again so checking out east Sydney for a new place. Not much around - particularly not much good value for the ridiculous rent!

I noticed today that people have been borrowing my eBook to read some pages - cheapskates - just buy it already.

On a happier note - I rediscovered the Sims 3 yesterday on my PC - what a cool game - what a great way to waste time when you should be doing other things :-)

James

December 4th 2015

Christmas begins

It's that time of year for me when the office gets together for its annual Christmas Party.

We all have them and whilst the companies and people may differ, the same silliness seems to follow.

Last year we went to the Establishment in Sydney, a nice upstairs venue, for a cocktail party. Judging by the pics, I had a fair bit to drink. But this is par for the course.

 


After taking a battering from my physiotherapist, dulling the aches and pains sounds like a very good idea.

Trying very hard to get my contract signed and sent to my agent today too but the damn printer here wont work for me - stupid thing. Hopefully some friendly colleagues will help in time to keep my representation.

Don't forget to leave feedback if you enjoy the book. Try not to sound like an advertorial though or the moderators will delete your entry :-)


Have a nice weekend

James

December 3rd 2015

I have started to research the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as part of my next writing project. As you can see it is a beautiful theatre on the inside, but it too had a very unique history.

If you are familiar already with my novel Garden Palace, you may have already seen a possible connection to Moscow and the Bolshoi Theatre. Whilst some of the characters may have a personal connection, there is also a connection between the earlier Moscow Theatres that stood before it, and Sydney's own Garden Palace. Synonymous with the Bolshoi Ballet, the Bolshoi Theatre has seen many performances of ballet and opera, but it has also seen its fair share of drama off the stage as well.

Apart from researching the theatre I have been contuning treatment on my neck, its slow progress but the spasms were quite severe and the spine of course is also affected. But I am in good hands so I just have to do whats necessary to get back to normal.

I was watching a documentary recently on bloggers in Bangladesh and how they risk their lives to report on the oppression that they are expereincing. A list of around 100 names circulated in their country as being anti-government and at least 10% of these people have already been killed, some lucky ones have managed to flee to Europe. It makes you realise just how good this country of Australia reallly is and how lucky we are to live here. These people fear that they will become another Iraq or Pakistan as they are wedged between the two countries and although about 90% of the population follow Islam, the country is still considered secular. The bloggers are protesting how Islam is influencing the government and the violence and oppression is extreme and gruesome. I do hope that those who are living in fear can find a peaceful life one day.

I'm quite disheartened at the amount of noise I hear from the extreme left in Australia who are unfortunately loud and influential. I hear many people call Australia a police state and some women say they are oppressed and dont have a voice in this country. I don't appreciate the way people enjoy the freedom of speech in this country to completely denounce it. If you honestly feel Australia is too oppressed and awful to live in, move to Bangladesh and then see if you have a right to complain.

I enjoy blogging, and I'm glad that I don't have to worry about being hacked to death in front of my family for expressing my views. Doesn't mean it wont happen, as pissing off lefties these days results in a poo-nami of hatred coming at you.

Anyway... back to creativity... thank you to those who have bought the book already. It was never intended to be a best seller but its very rewarding to know that people are taking time to sample your work.

Till next time

James