Fighting my Demons

 The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

                                               Alan's Demons

I often get asked, is your character Mark Johnson based on you?

Yes, he is, many of the ideas in the The Chronicles of Mark Johnson are based on my views.

In the later stories, the witchhunt comes from my reaction to a friendhsip I had with a lady in Ipswich at the time.

I have been asked, several times, could I rewrite the stories? No, I am not in the same mindspace now, I have gone back to my favourite genre - Gothic

The Chronicles of Mark Johnson Review

 An Independent Review

A recent update

As it is not my trend to praise my writing, I shall repost a recent review of my awardwinning short story selection, The Chronicles of Mark Johnson.

The original review was written at the time of the award, 2012, as you see from the post, it has been updated only a few years ago. 

Sadly, the story never sold, an editor I knew at the time said she would correct the few errors it had so it could be serialised in a magazine, but jealousy took over, and instead of helping me succeed, she set about trashing my work online.

This story needs a little tweaking, which is one of the jobs I shall attend to during the next few months.

Rewriting an Award Winner

 The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

Alan Place - Editor

You may ask, why rewrite your award winner?

The answer is not long after the stories earned their award, I took an editorial course, and in reviewing the MS, I can see flaws, both in the style of writing, and the story flow.

My hope is to edit the MS, and release the new version on my Amazon page.

I have nothing to lose, as the book was sabotaged, in 2012, by an editor I used to know, she was jealous I had eared an award, as she kept putting my work down online

The Dark Side of Mark Johnson

 The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

No room for romance

If I write a new version of The Chronicles of Mark Johnson, the new version will have a darker, edgier feel, than the published version on sale, not that anyone bought the original.

The crux of the story is about a man fighting his demons loses control of his reality as he tackles otherworldy entities. One big difference will be a lack of the softer, romantic Mark, the lady I was writing that part for left my life a long time ago

Improving older stories

 My Return to Amazon

The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

My plans to change my eBook content from Draft2Digital to Amazon will involve editing some of my older stock, such as my award winning short story selection, The Chronicles of Mark Johnson, which needs fine tuning. Now I am a better editor, I see flaws in the style I used back in 2010 when the story earned it's award, who knows, we may see a new story emerge, if I can get back in the mindset; even if many things have changed in my life in the time since I wrote the story

Why is it hard it answer a simple question?

 Sex  chat sites

Who was Lana Pawcel?

Last night, I was approached on Twitter by two young ladies, one of which wished me to join her on the ONLY FANS site for intimate chat.

She was not unattractive, and I have nothing against the sites, but it isn't really my thing, especially when I hardly know the lady. Yet again, I stopped her in her tracks with a simple question, which none of the ladies who approach me can answer, what do you find interesting about me?

This young lady thought she could entice me by saying she would have to buy a copy of my eBook - A Sailor'sLove - as it sounds arousing, I don't expect any sales.

LANA PAWCEL

The identity of the writer Lana Pawcel was a mystery for a while, and to me, a time of fun.

The fun came years ago, I was writing for a childrens charity book at the time, so to distance my different genres from being connected to my charity work, I created some pen-names, Al Place (detectives) is an obvious link. P.A. Canella - (mysteries) is another of my aliases, but the fun of writing as erotica writer Lana Pawcel came as much from the reaction of one writer I knew as from the writing.

We had been chatting online for weeks, when he asked, are you male or female, talking about Lana?

Considering he is better educated than me, we'd been chatting for some time, and my sense of humour. I was surprised he didn't catch the joke; Lana Pawcel is an anagram of my name - Alan W. Place.

Another funny moment came when a friend in Texas asked me if  would do an online interview in the guise of my character, Mark Johnson, the lead in my awardwinng eBook - The Chronicles of Mark Johnson - we did the interview, and posted it online, what amused us, everyone who read the interview thought it was me talking, not me talking as Mark Johnson. Mark and I share certain traits, but we are different in many ways, the interview was tounge-in-cheek, yet nobody saw that

I would have given my Award up

  A Writing Contract

                                                  The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

In 2012, my book, The Chronicles of Mark Johnson, earned an award from a non-profit organisation in the USA.

At the time, I thought this was wonderful, even if it took months to accept the concept of me earning praise. In the aftermath, I would have given the award up for the opportunity to have earned a contract to write.

I did get invited to write for a publisher in Miami, Florida, but I didn't like the remit that anything goes, "but keep it legal," it didn't matter as for some reason they were closed down several months later.

The only other offers came from Vanity Publishing companies. This concept is they will publish your book, but you have to pay for the first book; if that succeeds you may get the offer for writing a second book under contract. If you are going to self-publish the first book, why giv the firm the praise for the second, when they had no faith in the first book?

My BFF in Seattle has passed away

 Julia Petrakis

The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

Though I will not be able to prove my theory, I think my BFF, Julia Petrakis, who lived in Seattle passed away in March 20225.

I am led to believe this as I have had no posts forwarded to me, or emails answered since March 15th.

Our initial contact was on a business level, when Julia asked if she could edit my eBook, The Chronicles of Mark Johnson, which in 2012 earned an award.

Julia was the most ardent supporter of my work as a writer, we collaborated on several of my book projects, the last being The Awakening, a story set in India, which came about from a conversation I had with man living in India on the LinkedIn site.

 Julia's wish was for me to have been granted a writing contract, something which would have made me realise my writing had some value, she never knew that my hope for another story, Untold Truths,  which  saw could become a series never got off the ground.

Julia would have been 87 this year.