The Time Bubble

I'm really pleased with the way the sequel to The Time Bubble is coming along, and am delighted to announce that I have scheduled it in for a provisional launch date of Friday 28th November. Amazon are now allowing indie authors to put their books up for pre-order, so it should become visible on the site some time before that date. Watch this space. I have been overwhelmed by the fantastic response I have had to The Time Bubble. At the time of writing I have sold nearly 1,000 copies all over the world via Amazon. Those sales have generated 16 reviews in the UK with an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars, and more good reviews in America. It was always my intention to write a sequel as you know. In fact if this goes well, it may even become a trilogy. Because the book is going to be put on pre-order, I need to do things in a slightly different order, so although I'm still writing the story, I've already sorted out the cover and the "blurb". Here is the blurb: ...

I must apologise for the paucity of blog entries this month but I have been dedicating all of my writing time to the sequel to The Time Bubble. And I'm very happy with what I've got down so far, around 12.000 words of it. The Time Bubble itself has had some excellent reviews both in the UK and the US and is continuing to sell well. One of the comments made on several of the reviews was that the ending seemed a little rushed. However, this was always my intention. You see, the original book took place primarily over the course of a week or so in 2018, with the action then jumping rapidly into the future. My intention was to pick up the tale in parallel with events in those later chapters and flesh out the story of what happened in the missing years. The sequel ties up a lot of the references made in the latter stage of the first book. So what is happening in the new one? Well, the bulk of the action takes place approximately ten years after the main events of the first boo...

My sacks are absolutely bulging at the moment. Bulging that is with the hundreds of items of fan mail arriving every day since the release of The Time Bubble. OK, they are not really, however, I have received some interesting suggestions for sequels from some good friends of mine. And here they are: Dear Jason, I very much enjoyed your new book, "The Time Bubble", and it reminded me of an idea I had many years ago for a Time Travel story. I work as a local DJ in Bicester and my idea is about a time travelling disco that actually transports people back in time according to the music I'm playing. So for example, there I am in the White Hart on a Friday night and I put on an old 80s pop classic. Instantly everyone is transported back in time to the era in question, all their clothes change, the boys suddenly have make up on and everyone's hair goes big. As an added bonus, the beer is now only 50p a pint, you can have a fag without having to go outside and there...

When I asked Ollie what he wanted for his birthday back in July, he had no hesitation in telling me - a party! He also knew exactly what he wanted, having attended a party at the bowling alley for a classmate a few months ago - the exact same thing. I think Bicester Bowl is very underrated. It's great value for money to bowl there compared to the bigger bowling centres you have to travel out of town for. Not only that, you don't get ripped off for food and drink when you are in there. The prices are very reasonable compared to what you would pay in a cinema, for example. So, what about parties for kids? Well, for £8 per child, you get a game of bowling, a meal and an ice cream. Knowing that a lot of people would be on holiday, and wanting a round number of kids (divisible by six), we decided that 12 would be a good number to invite. Why does it have to be divisible by six? Well it doesn't have to be, but it just makes more sense that way as you can have six people on a ...

As you may recall, last month I did my first ever presenting job alongside BBQ champion Andy Annat. The videos are now available to view, and are well worth watching. What was this all about? Well here's a little taster of a picture to whet your appetite: I think I've come across fairly well - I was worried I might sound like an idiot or look excessively fat, but I don't think I've come off to badly on either front but I'll allow you to be the judge of that. There's are some fantastic barbecuing tips in here - I certainly learned a few new things on the day of the filming. So, settle back with a a glass of red and enjoy watching Bicester Blogger - live on TV! Here are the links: Belly Ribs:  http://youtu.be/0gm7sgvpn_k Collar Steaks:  http://youtu.be/H8SGTnF8j24 Loin Steaks:  http://youtu.be/7is7JQXOI_4 Pork Collar:  http://youtu.be/BTxnoTTNsWM Pork Tenderloin:  http://youtu.be/tFcfE5EzT_c Foolproof Ways To Light The Barbecue...

So - we are back from our two weeks in Great Yarmouth. How was it? Well, pretty good, all things considered. When I say that I'm referring mostly to things over which we had no control, predominantly the weather. It is a source of great frustration to me that none of my UK holidays in approximately the past 30 years has ever coincided with the few weeks of hot weather we get each year (if we're lucky). Following many weeks of fine and warm weather things turned distinctly chilly during August. In fact things got so cold during the second week of our holiday that we were frequently turning the fire on in our caravan during the evening. Fortunately despite the chill, it didn't rain that much. Not compared to some previous disasters I recall e.g. Lyme Regis 1983 when an entire month's rainfall fell on the day we were attempting to pitch the tent and Pontins 1993, a Monday to Friday job spent almost entirely in the arcade due to the unrelenting rain. Of course, on the ...

Yes, here we are in Alan Partridge land but haven't managed to find North Norfolk Digital on the radio yet! We are staying at Haven Seashore holiday park in Great Yarmouth and very nice it is too. Despite my many travels I have never had a holiday in this part of the world before. The closest I have been was back in my old Nielsen days when I had two clients I used to visit here, presenting sales data on bog cleaner to Jeyes in Thetford, and several jollies in Bury St Edmunds, home of Greene King brewery. I'd heard good things about this park from friends at school, so rather than our usual trek to the South West, we went east this year. The great thing about this route is that it's A roads all the way - I hate motorways. We made it here in 3 hours, via Milton Keynes, Bedford, Cambridge and Norwich. Very impressed by the park - clean, welcoming and friendly and a spotless caravan. Our first outing on Monday afternoon was to Asda to do a big shop, then we checked out the p...