More Symi Festival 2016
Tonight, Thursday 4^th August, in the Symi Festival 2016, there is a concert with a traditional orchestra, ‘Menexedes’ (my translator tells me that ΜΕΝΕΞΕΔΕ means purple?). The venue has yet to be announced so listen out for the PA system which will announce the venue and time (usually 9pm going on 10pm) in various languages.

Friday night’s event is the festival of Great Sotiris at the church on the Panormitis road. We’ve attended this in the past. It’s a lovely event, starts late and goes on, there is music and dancing and the church is open. The walk or drive home under the stars up in the hills is pretty amazing too with the whole of the Milky Way on display.

On Saturday there is a concert with Christos Thivaios – again, exact details to be announced on the PA system nearer the time.

And now for something completely different… Sales of ‘Remotely‘ have been going well, but I’ve been advised that the price is an introductory one and it will be going up in the near future. I’m not sure by how much at present but if you haven’t ordered a copy, now’s your chance to do so. I’m not sure what the Kindle price will be though.

On that note, it never fails to surprise me that authors can spend a year or two writing a book, then sell it for a tiny profit (most of the cost of my books is for printing and tax), and publish it in print form, and then go and sell it as a Kindle version for even less profit. I know everyone says that there is no printing involved in Kindle, but there is still formatting to be done, if it’s done properly as my more recent books now are. But it’s still the same amount of work and words that’s gone into it. I’ve seen some authors give theirs away for €0.20 or less, for example, or even for free. Surely it took them just as long to write, just as much time and talent (or not) and just as much effort. And surely they can’t value their work so little as to only take twenty cents for it? Would you do that with your paintings, your songs, the cake you just made, your business? It took just as long to create and publish the electronic version as the printed one so why not make yourself the same meagre income from a sale?

Having said that, I think ‘The Judas Inheritance’ is currently free on Kindle, for a few days anyway – something the publisher does every now and then to boost interest in the author. I always feel it’s unfair on those who paid the full price, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

Anyway, enough about that. The images today are from Neil’s collection. I hope you enjoyed them and don’t forget to grab your ‘Remotely‘ before the price does go up (at no extra profit to me I expect) and if you want to visit and share my Amazon Author Page you can find the link there. Remember: reviews are the new black and every author needs them these days to get more of a push from Amazon itself. Thank you!

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Symi Festival 2016 (and other matters)
It’s good to hear, from up here, the festival events taking place down in Yialos, and there are many more planned over the next two months in various locations around the island. I am trying to get hold of a copy of the listings so I can put some details on the blog. But keep an eye out here and when I learn of events taking place in the Symi Festival 2016, I’ll let you know as soon as possible through the Symi Dream blog.

Side-stepping… I’ve heard of some awful stories coming out of the British press recently and I don’t know if they are true or not. Well, actually, I imagine they are as the people who were telling me of them wouldn’t have made them up as they are far too fantastic to be made up. Maybe, while showing you some random images from my folders, I can expel a couple of myths that seem to be circulating. Remember these are what I’ve been told by people coming over from Britain.

One: Greece is awash with refugees still and it means holidays are being spoiled. In a word, rubbish. No refugees here on Symi for months, most other places are quiet too, and even when there were refugees here, they were not spoiling anyone’s holiday; not unless you were a racist of course.

Two: There is no money in the Greek bank machines. There’s plenty of cash in the machines, you can use your cards, you can exchange currency with no hassles and everything is running normally. No worries on that score.

Three: Turkey is about to invade Greece so the islands are a dangerous place to be. I don’t think so. Turkey is doing its own (in my opinion) very undemocratic thing and has far too much to worry about to cause trouble over here. Anyway, why would it? Get a grip and stop reading those dreadful newspapers. Besides, just about every Greek man between the age of 18 and I don’t know when, has been trained through national service, many are reserves and they all know what they are doing should there be any troubles – which there haven’t been, so stop worrying.

Four: It’s all so expensive. Well, those folk who believed the wrong kind of make-believe and plunged the pound might well say that, but it’s still cheaper over here than it is over there for all you need for a holiday: fresh air, sea, nice pole (who actually like you being in their country), fresh food, water and, with the Symi Festival going on, free entertainment. Fancy a lunch out? Giros, a drink, and a salad for two, £10.00 – cheaper than some fast food places and much more healthy (depending on what you drink).

So, if you hear anyone ‘over there’ or in your own country, moaning on and saying they are not coming to Greece because of 1 – 4 above, please point them in this direction and suggest they ask people who live in this country before they start believing ‘news’ papers whose only job is to sell ‘news’ papers, mainly through deceit.

Thank you very much. And before I forget, don’t you forget that ‘Remotely‘ is still at its introductory price; grab a copy now before that price goes up.

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Symi shrimps, anyone?
Some photos from Sunday night’s Symi Shrimp Festival. The Symi Festival 2016 is now underway and there are many events coming up. You can get hold of a programme when you are here and there are announcements in various languages on the day of events as the venues are often not known until the day. The Shrimp Festival, with island dancing and music, and refreshments, was held in Syllogos Square, Horio – very handy for our house. We spent some time there and at the Rainbow with friends, some of whom had come over from Rhodes for the night – I hope you caught a few hours kip somewhere Amanda & Dave!

Here are some photos Neil took as he was rushing around.

And, if you are on Symi today, Tuesday, there’s a fund-raiser down in Pedi, at Tolis taverna, raising money to help pay for the Symi Festival.

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Another Symi weekend
Kalo Mina! And what a pleasant weekend it was. We were invited out for dinner on Friday night by some friends who were leaving on Saturday. Georgio’s taverna was supplying live Greek music as a background to our conversation and mild feast which included, chops, chicken in cream, prawn starters, homemade humus and various other dishes; all very nice. It was a later night than we are used to, but a memorable one. Thank you to our hosts!

On Saturday I was able to get a little work done before we had to head into Yialos to get some shopping. Mainly cat food as, as you may know, we have a very fussy and rather spoiled animal. I took photos of various Yialos shops, at random, to use on the blog and there are a lot of shops to choose from. We bought our vegetables this weekend from Lucas’ store in the side street beside Taxas Supermarket. Apart from the fact that they were plentiful and fresh, the shop is again using paper bags, much more biodegradable.

After that we treated ourselves to lunch as we tend to do once a week and got chatting to a Greek man and his son at the next table. That always makes for an interesting time, discussing life on Rhodes and his family who were from Symi. Neil asked the son, Yiannis aged 13, if he knew what he wanted to do when he left school. No, he said, not yet. You don’t have any idea at all? Neil persisted. Well, I want to be a marine biologist, he said. Sounds to me like he knows exactly what he wants to do.

Back in the village we chatted to one of our neighbours for some time before finally making it home for a film. I saw some of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’ which I would highly recommend. Favourite quote? The part where some asks, “How do you know?” and gets the answer, “Telephone, television, tell a Greek.” I think this sequel is actually, somehow, better than the first.

And on Sunday I was able to finish checking through the first draft of ‘The Saddling’, my next novel. It’s been a bit of a productive year, though this one is far from finished. And that leads me on to remind you that you can now get the comedy, ‘Remotely’ on order from Amazon. (Kindle versions in a few weeks.) If you like the occasional times when I am mildly amusing in my blog, you will appreciate some of the funny moments (with a hint of pathos) in this body swap comedy that takes a sideways swipe at all those TV talent shows like X Factor and so forth. You can order a copy of Remotely here.

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‘Remotely’ hits the shelves
The news today is all about ‘Remotely‘, my latest offering to world of novel comedy which is now available at Amazon. I know I’ve been banging on about it for over a year now as I wrote it, some of it was written on Tilos, the rest was written on Symi, and it’s all set in a place not unlike Littlestone-on-Sea, on the south coast of Kent. A place I have called Middlestone-on-Sea because just along the coast from Littlestone is Greatstone, and my fictional community live somewhere in between. There’s also a theatre in it that I borrowed from Folkestone, the Leas Pavilion Theatre which I once worked in, and which was used for filming of the French/British TV series, ‘The Tunnel.’

That’s the setting, what’s the story? I’ll put the blurb here in a moment so you can read it if you want to. First though, I’ve already had people ask about the Kindle version and yes, there will be one as I know many people these days use that format. The text has to be reformatted for Kindle and that’s going to take them a couple of weeks, but I will let you know when it’s ready. Meanwhile, if you’d like to support a struggling writer please feel free to order an Amazon copy, or pass the link on tor friends and family who might like to read it and, if at all possible, please put up a review on Amazon when you’ve read it.

The first person to be seen reading a print copy on Symi wins a drink!

We now have to do some publicity work, starting with the newspapers local to the area where the book is set – newspapers I appeared in when I was younger and doing lots of Am-Dram. (I wonder if they still have the photo of me as Ali Hakim in Oklahoma!) Any other ideas for publicity would be welcome as would as many shares and reviews you feel able to do on Twitter and Facebook and all those kind of places. Thank you!

The book is not going to be for everyone, not every book is, and it’s not really suitable for under 18s due to the language some characters use, but it is fun and if, like me, you are fed up with the banality of ‘reality talent shows’ and the like, then you might like some of the pops that some of the characters take at that genre of mass-appeal TV.

Anyway, here’s the ‘Remotely‘ blurb (most of it is also on the back cover) and the link to where you an order a copy from Amazon.co.uk – it should filter into worldwide Amazon stores before long.

‘Remotely‘ pokes fun at British reality television.

Britain’s newest and most pointless TV talent competition is coming to Middlestone-On-Sea. ‘So You Think We’re Remotely Interested?’ has taken Friday night viewers by storm as it streams live variety shows from remote, provincial theatres across Britain. The theatre with the most audience votes wins regeneration and revival, and lord knows, Middlestone-on-Sea needs both.

The dying seaside backwater rests its hopes on the performance of two ex-best friends, gay Gary and straight Stag. The visiting celebrity judge, the mysterious and timeless Miss P, knows that for all to be well, they must mend their broken friendship. But there is no success without trial. She magically swaps Gary and Stag into each other’s bodies.

Secrets are learned, comedy ensues, and yet the community remains divided. Rifts must be healed, differences accepted, and bodies swapped back before the season grand finale in four days’ time otherwise Middlestone will lose everything.

“Once you start on James Collins’ coming of age, body-swap comedy, you won’t be remotely interested in putting it down.” G. J. Mugwatch MP

Some Amazon reviews for James Collins:

“Brilliantly observed and a wicket wit.”

“Lots of laughs and loads of page turning moments. Yes, it was hard to put down.”

“Another unputdownable book that had me engrossed from beginning to end, and chuckling.”

“Finished this book yesterday and oh so amusing, would love to see it as a film.”

“More, I want more! I truly could not put this book down.”

Order ‘Remotely’ here and have a good laugh.

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