Why haven't I left Twitter?

 Leaving Twitter

                                                         Two young ladies I chat to

The main reason I stayed on Twitter was to ease the pain of my late wife, after the loss of her son in August, 2024. The family decided to ease her loss by showing her videos of cats, and dogs.

Since my wife passed away in January, 2025, the thought of leaving the site crosses my mind each day, though I have contact with two younger ladies, one in the USA, and the other in the Ukraine. I use Twitter mainly for trying to get sales for my eBay page

The Appeal of Older men

 Personality

Safety

This week on Twitter, as many times before, I have been in conversation with a younger lady who told me she feels safe talking to me.

Over the decades I have been chatting online, I have been told several times by ladies, they feel safe talking to me, why?

A) - Unlike some men, if I see a lady online, all I see is a lady seeking company, NOT a lady looking to hook-up for sex.

B) - I don't force myself on a lady.

C) - I am not the type of man who is all about himself, to the exclusion of the lady.

D) - I am easy to chat to, I have few things I won't chat about. I won't talk about money, that subject usually leads to the ruin of a conversation. I am not against talking about either religion, or politics, but I would rather not, those topics can lead to animosity.

My Golden Rule

I will not direct a chat to sex, but if the lady wishes to discuss it, that is fine with me. If we discussed the subject tonight, I do not assume the lady is open to chatting about tomorrow, unless she chooses.

We older men may not be as energetic as young men, but older people have more to talk about.

The Unfollow Trend

 The Twitter Trend

Nothing New Here

If I cared, which I don't, I may be worried that my followers on Twitter are constantly falling. I am not concerned about the falling figures, I rarely make contact, other than one lady fighting in the Ukraine.

I stayed on Twitter to ease my late wife's sorrows at losing her son in August, 2024. The family decided to cheer her up by showing her videos of cats, and dogs doing odd things; to a small extent it did ease her pain.

As she passed away a few months ago, I stayed on to keep trying to get some eBay sales; and to attempt to get readers for this blog. I will probably leave Twitter soon, I am closing my eBay pages over the next month, unless sales pick up. I get so few readers on Twitter it is not worth writing a post

I don't claim to be knowledgeable about Bollywood

 I do appear to know more than most YouTube uploaders on Twitter 

A little research is all you need

I will not say I am the ultimate fountain of knowledge about Bollywood. I will say I appear to know more about the history of films in India, than the majority of YouTube uploaders, that is because to me, the correct information is more important than getting viewers for a video.

All it would take is a small amount of time to get the correct information, which could be the difference between gaining, or losing viewers.

Some errors are acceptable, especially if you are writing in one language, and being read in another, the best example being UK English, and USA English.
To me, there is no excuse for misspelling names, they can be checked online in seconds. Some uploaders, don't even check to see if the image they show is the correct person. An example of this is a video I watched in the Then and Now series. The video of the older film showed Bindu Desai, in her film role, while the new image showed her cousin Aruna Irani. Other than being the wrong lady, it is easy to see Bindu and Aruna are not alike facially.

Another Bollywood misconception

 Nagin at 70

Vyjayanthimala is the original Nagin

This morning, I had to correct another writer on Bollywood from India.

The point of correction is he wrote that Reena Roy was the original Nagin - snake godess - she may be the first one he can recall, but she is NOT the original. The first lady to play Nagin is Vyjayanthimala in 1954. 

I have the majority of the several films on dvd, including one with Rekha. I can't give my opinion on which I think is the best version, as I have yet to view the two with Sridevi. I can say which is the worst film, as they recently did a seven series story line, in my view the worst is the 1984 version with Rishi Kapoor, and Rekha; this hs nothing to do with my dislike of RK, considering it was made in the mid-80's, the technology is so poor you can't laugh at it.

I do not envy Shraddha Kapoor, in 2017, she took on the role of Nagin, a role her late aunt, Sridevi made her own.

The news is they are doing a remake next year with a man as the new Nagin; lord, save us from the curse of rewrites.

I did begin to watch the serial, but I fail to see how you can turn a very good 90 minute film, into a series of over 90 1/2 hour episodes, and retain the quality

Facebook NEWS

 I have NO account

Que Sera

The NEWS from Facebook is I have no account there.

I have had my account deleted, C'est la Vie. The blog readers have gone down drastically since my ban began in January, but as for me; I am not bothered I have no account.

My only contact is with my family on WhatsApp, and a friend fighting on the frontline in Ukraine, she contacts me on Twitter, other than that I have no onlince contact, and no wish for more

The Roving Eye

 True Love

38 years of devotion 

My lovely wife who passed away in January, 2025, and I shared 38 years of devotion to romance.

I am not saying I was a saint, far from it; but Linda, knew I loved her above all else, and though I had my dalliances, we knew it was nothing to worry about.

We shared lots of lovely moments, what made us smile was until our last years together we would get asked out by the opposite sex

How would I liked to have been remembered as a writer?

 Alan Place - Writer of Ghost Stories

Alan Place - Writer of Science Fiction

I was asked many times during my time as a writer, how would you like to be remembered?

My wish was to be remembered as a writer of ghost stories. However, if people do recall my name at some time, it will more like be for my Science Fiction short story series - Forgestriker - which sold over 1,500 eBooks across the seven short story collection

Which is more disconcerting?

 The Dream

                                                The Waking

This morning - Monday, May 26th, 2025 - I had a dream which may have scared many people.

In the dream, I commited suicide, the dream took place in Clevedon, Somerset. You may ask why Clevedon; the answer is I lived there for over 25 years, and apart from having a few friends, I hated the place. I have said several times, Clevedon is the place to go to die.

I set my popular ghost story - Old Chruch Ghosts - in the village.

The special edition above contains the four versions of my short story, including the one I thought I had lost.

Which is more disconcerting?

I am not sure which is more worrying, the fact I had the dream, which was so clear, or that when I woke from the dream, I had no worry over having had the dream?

Automatic sending of email

 Julia Petrakis

My BFF in Seattle has passed away

I realise my BFF in Seattle, Julia Petrakis, could have passed away as long ago as January. I thought  she was alive until last month, as I was getting an email from her via Yahoo, on various book sites.

It was only today, I thought they could have been sent automatically; the last reply I had from Julia was the day after my wife passed away (18th January).

Aid4Ummah

 It is a SCAM

Do Not sign

If you get a knock on the door, and are approached by a person "claiming" to be from Aid4Ummah, ignore them; they are a SCAM.

The orginisation appears to genuine, but the people going door-to-door in the UK are trying to work a SCAM.

If you sign up, they will use your signature to forge documents in your name, and you get a letter from a mystery law firm saying you have been involved in a no win, no fee law suit; but if you win you will still have to pay your costs

What is a Ghost ship?

  Abandoned ships

The Big Difference

What I am about to write will fly in the endless chatter of "ghost ships," but this is my view.

There is to me, a large difference between a ghost ship, and a ship found crewless. In most discussions on the subject, the Marie Celeste comes up as the main vessel, yet to me, she is NOT a ghost ship.

I will cede, the disappearance of her crew is a mystery which we may never solve, yet, I have my theory on the subject.

My theory is she was carrying liquor, and thinking the barrels were leaking in a storm, not unusual for the North Atlantic, the captain ordered everyone to abandon ship thinking she could blow up.

As with other ships, if she was abandoned to the winds, she would remain afloat until she was found, or crashed.

What happened to the crew?

Adrift in the raging Atlantic Ocean in a lifeboat, on a cold November day, they may have lasted a day, or two. The ship was abandoned only two days into the voyage, but with little light, and no idea where you are, the crew had no idea where land was, if they did, 25 miles is a long way for a crew to row.

What do I define as a ghost ship?

To me, the term GHOST is vital. This indicates something which is tangible, but unreachable. The classic case for this scenario is The Flying Dutchman. There have many sigthings of her, but nobody has been able to verify her existence beyond a sighting; nobody has seen her, only her image through the misty seas of the Cape of Good Hope. The seas around the cape are some of the worst sailors come across. You have the warm water from the Indian Ocean meeting the icy South Atlantic Ocean, causing the appearance of sea mist as the waters crash on the rocks. 

Yet in the mid-1980's a shipping firm from Russia challenged the Cape, and lost BIG TIME. A firm from France asked a Russian firm to transport some pipes from Sweden to India for a project. The French paid for FOUR tugs to undertake the trip, this would have ensured a relatively safe journey.

From this moment on, the voyage was doomed.

Four tugs would mean a rope at each corner for safety. The Russians decided to pay for THREE tugs, meaning the lead tug would take the strain, and be the guide; if that wasn't bad enough, the tug's captain made what turned out to be a fatal, and very costly error.

With the three tugs, he chose to chance going between a rocky outcrop, and the mainland; the result was catastrophic to say the least. Cutting through the gap, for the sake of about half-an-hour, he lost control of his rope; this meant the ship was yawing to-and-fro, and she was out of control. With the ship rocking, and rolling it was impossible to get a rope to the tug at the head, and she had to be released, to save the other tugs from being wrecked.

The French sued the Russian firm, who went into insovency the year after; the up side of the incident, as the wreck cannot be saved, it has became the most expensive bird sanctuary.

To end, an abandoned ship maybe a mystery, but to me, they are NOT a ghost ship

Why would she want access?

 It is a SCAM

My Google Account

Several months ago, on What'sApp, I was asked to give the password to my Google Account to a lady.

There was NO WAY I was going to give that information to a stranger. Her reason was she wanted to know what I did online, I said, "that is easy, read what I post on Twitter," but she persisted in the foolish notion the more she pestered me, the more likely I was to give in to her pressure,WRONG!

In the end, I blocked her.

Amar Prem

 Another Hindi movie mystery solved

A Hindi Mystery Film

Last night, I found I had doubled my order from eBay of the Rajesh Khanna, and Sharmila Tagore movie, Amar Prem, so I added one of the copies to my page on eBay.

This is where the mystery began.

I had both versions listed as paid for, but could only find one copy. I spent hours searching for the other copy, to no avail. I was sure I hadn't sold it, as I couldn't recall seeing the dvd.

This morning, all became clear, I couldn't find the movie as it hadn't arrived 🤣🤣, it arrived this morning.

Nemesis

 Me and my phone

R.I.P. Linda

A long-standing joke in our family is I call myself the Nemesis of the cellphone.

While it sounds weird, it is true.

My late wife would spend hours playing games on her phone, as she was bedridden for the last two years of her life; she was taken into Southmead Hospital, and diagnosed with pleurisy, and pneumonia; which left her both weak, and struggling to breath. 

I rarely use my cellphone, other than to keep in contact with my children via Whatsapp.

When my writing began

 Book Promoter Scam

                                                                    So many sites

I have to laugh at the number of times I have been approached by book promoters on Twitter.

They don't realise I was promoting my eBook content before many of them were out of college, and I forgot more about promotion than they "claim" to know.

I added my eBooks to so many sites, I forgot the names on most of them; apart from one in Miami, Florida, and one based in Iceland; all they wanted was for me to be a "slush reader," in other words to read, and comment on the works of writers they had published.

The magazine based in Florida was called "Horny Devil," as you can imagine, they wanted sex stories. I didn't accept, not that I don't write sex stories, I didn't like their remit of anything goes; keep it legal. I used to write stories for a lady I was in contact with in London, years ago, she was into violent sex. A little rough sex play can be arousing, but she was into blood letting, and the more the merrier; where, if at all, did she draw the line?

I kept asking myself, did I miss my only opportunity to be published?

My friends kept saying "if you're asking the question, you know your answer." Several years later, I checked if the site was ongoing, it had either closed, or been forced to close.

Writing for a magazine based in Iceland may appear desperate, but the magazine, Abandoned Towers, has a considerable following in the Science Fiction world.

I lost this contract through the jealousy of a person who "claimed" to be an editor. I sent my eBook to her for a few tweaks, but she did nothing for me, the rest is history as she trashed the story online, mainly because it earned an award

Those were the days

 Download Centre

Free Computer cafe

All I have become to my son is a free download cafe, well, the new regime plans to end the old times.

Since my wife passed away in January, I only see him IF, he needs to download films for his friends; and I am tiring of him using our fast internet for the use of his friends.

He was "supposed" to help me clear rubbish from the back garden, that never happened, I have seen him twice in the last two months, only because he needed to download films. It isn't all his fault, the "lady" he is with is a bitch.

She got her comeuppance; she kept saying she'd take her children, and go to live with her mother in Morecambe, one night, tired of hearing this threat, my son said "go ahead, we can't stop you."

A month later, they went to Morecambe for a weekend, and her mother told her she wanted nothing to do with her grandchildren.

She'd heard stories of the wonderful lives her single-parent families had, and believed this was for her; she forgot one thing, those friends have friends, and family to help take the strain - she has nobody - after years of bullying my son, our family don't even mention her name.

Our Secret

  Julia Petrakis

The Secrets die with me

Not long after my late friend, Julia Petrakis, who lived in Seattle, made contact with me she took me in her confidence, and told me a secret about a late friend of hers who had just passed away. That was in 2010, to this day nobody knows what I was told; and nobody will know.

Three years earlier, another lady friend told me her secret, Tina was born in Bari, Italy, and took me in her confidence as we'd become close online; that was in 2008, and only I know what I was told.

In the 38 years of our marriage, I only kept one secret from my late wife, that is because I was so desperate to be recognised as a writer, I allowed myself to be the victim of a scam in July 2024.

As far as I am concerned, unless the person concerned tells me I can relate their information, I shall not do so. As Julia died, and my wife died within months of each other this year, and I haven't had contact with Tina for a long time, the secrets are safe with me

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.

A good supporting cast

 It isn't always about the star

                                          Hindi Cinema

If I buy a dvd from eBay, I check the cast list with IMDb, or Wikipedia.

Sometimes, not always, the support cast can sway me. A good case is I enjoy watching films with Shammi, Shobha Khote, Lalita Pawar, and Nirupa Roy in, none of the ladies became big stars in Bollywood, but for an accident Ms Pawar would have been a huge star. Instead, she had a career spanning 60 years as an excellent supporting lady.

There are some cases where no matter how good the support is, I can't watch the film as the leading actor leaves me cold, actors in this category include Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, and Govinda to mention a few

The Book Marketeer Scam

 Why is it a scam?

Money for old rope

On Twitter, rarely a week goes by without me being pestered by people "posing" as book promoters.

Why is it a scam?

In short, you can't prove they have tried to promote the book, even if it doesn't get sales; no more than you can prove they didn't.

Most of the people have no qualifications, other than a laptop. Many of the ones I got hassled from were from Nigeria, and had no sense of writing.

To show what I mean, the top-ranked University in Nigeria is ranked lower than 800 in the world, which is as good as a 5th grade school in the USA.

Why should I pay a person to promote my work when I was doing it for over 15 years? They may know sites I don't, but years ago, I added my eBook content to so many sites I can't recall their names

I get the URGE to write

 Why Bother?

I have many stories I could write

I often get the urge to write some more to the vast selection of stories in my wip - ( Works in Progress) - files.

As soon as the idea comes to mind, I think why bother, nobody cares what you write?

Alan Place - Award Winning Author

 Alan Place - Indie Writer

I didn't believe it

Several times, I have been told I am one of the bestselling Indie Writers some people I used to know had knowledge of.

I never believed that for a minute, my reaction is "If I am a bestseller, Lord help the others," during my heyday (did it happen?) I didn't earn enough for a cup of coffee a week.

Certainly my science fiction series sold over 1,000 eBooks, but at less than $0.70 cent a copy, to use a quote "ain't  worth a hill of beans."

Most authors hate telling you what they earned from writing, in my case, less than $1.00 a month over 16 years as a writer

Should I attempt to reconnect to Facebook?

 A blog without Facebook

Facebook Ban Again

I won't deny being banned from using Facebook in the last four months has crippled the blog reader figures, to the extent I don't feel inclined to write.

The truth is though FB did enhance the figures, the site did little else for me, or my writing. I got no feedback from the many posts I sent, and some got blocked.

Most of the "followers" I had were from when I started the blogs over 14 years ago, and none made contact since I earned an award, in 2012.

I have to laugh

 Alan Place - Sex Object?

All the young girls

This week, I was approached by another young lady on Twitter who considered me attractive.

That amuses me, I never think of myself as attractive, which could be part of the attraction; I used to be told, when I had lady friends online, they felt safe talking to me. Mainly because I never push myself on them, or consider a lady online who is looking for more than a person to talk to.

The best part of the joke is like many other people, she wanted me to go to Telegram. I gave her my Whatsapp contact, and her reaction was "Okay, if you don't want to give me your email address, don't talk to me."

I had to smile, as before last week, I didn't know she existed; she approached me

My most consistent selling eBook on Amazon

 Nerja

How Ironic

The irony of the only sale this year on my Draft2Digital eBook list is for the short story, Nerja, you may wonder what the irony of the situation is. 

The irony has two parts, other than being the only story to sell this year, Nerja is probably my oldest short on sale (2010); if not the oldest it is the oldest to sell, or still be selling.

The greater irony is that the story though not my Amazon bestseller, it was my most consistent seller on the site for several years, before I took my content offline.

The only short story to outsell Nerja, is Holding Richmond, which was because twice it sold seven copies over a weekend.

Think again

 You thought Stalinism was DEAD

Reform UK

In the 1950's, and 60's the world riled against Josef Stalin, and his one-party Stalinism, yet today people flock to the Reform UK camp, where Nigel Farage is doing the same thing Stalin did.

If you don't believe me, read on.

Rupert Lowe was kicked out of of the party, and Richard Tice has been ordered to tow-the-line or face the same fate; for what?

Both spoke out against some of Farage's policies.

And YOU want this person to be Prime Minister!

If Farage wins the next election, you can say goodbye to free speech, and welcome in George Orwell's 1984.

Years ago, I watched an excellent series called 1990 with Edward Woodward, it was about the blockade of free speech, and the formation of an underground press which challenged the government's strict policies which banned free speech.

Governments forget, if you keep a paper open to be read, they may cause trouble, but you can see what is happening. Once you force it underground, it becomes a a cult, and unseen. There are several instances, the Emile Zola, and  Je Suis Charlie trend in France are ones that come to mind

What did I expect?

 No reply

I am not disappointed

Long before I sent my request to an agent in London, I knew I had little, if any chance to succeed; the odds are over 25,000-1 against success, so I am not disappointed I got rejected; I was expecting it.

The Literary Agent

Well, it is over.

Three months ago, I sent an email to an agent in London, she said if I didn't get a reply in three months to take it for granted, I had failed to get a writing contract.

I would have been extremely surprised if I had earned the contract; everything is against me. I have no formal education qualifications, no money for publicity, and I live in the UK.

The request was always a "hail Mary," a last ditch all-or-nothing attempt for me to gain some little respect as a writer.

I am not disappointed

 The odds were against success

The Lost Years

This short story can either be read as a stand alone romance, or as part of a double romance with Amelia. I didn't intend them to be joined, but that is how they can be read.

The title, The Lost Years, could now relate to my desire to be recognised as a writer.

I am not disappointed I failed to achieve my aim, as I knew I had little, if any opportunity to succeed. I was hindered by many things, living in the UK, having no qualifications, no money for publicity, and the odds of over 24,000 - 1 against gaining a writing contract.

Glacier of Death

 Nerja

Greenland

This little-known short story is the follow up to my acclaimed short story, Nerja, which earned two five-star ratings on Amazon.

If you are wondering about the image, it is from my photo collection. I shot the photo in 2009 flying across Greenland, on my way to Canada.

This part of Greenland no longer exists, in 2011 there was a huge volcanic explosion which grounded aircraft for weeks, this is part of the country which blew up

Death of a news hound

 Now is the "Telling Time."

                                                          Alan Place - Indie Writer

This short story, written 13 years ago will take a new meaning by the end of this month.

The story was written after I almost died in my sleep one night. The week prior to the night in question had been strenuous, and tiring for me, as I got little sleep. By Friday, I was beat, I'd had two incidents of choking, and then fell into a dead sleep.

By the end of this month, if I don't get a reply from the literary agent I contacted in London, it will be the end of all my hope to be recognised as a writer

DVD Bundle

 Hindi DVDs

Hindi DVDs for sale on eBay

I still have a varied selection of Hindi DVDs for sale on eBay. As I am selling around 80 DVDs, I am grouping them in DVD Bundles from now on.

If you wish to combine DVDs to your taste, ls ask, I am willing to make a DVD Bundle to please the buyer

Veterans before Immigrants

 Look after your people 

Those who serve

An oft asked question in Twitter posts is who should come first, veterans or immigrants?

My answer has nothing to do with being a veteran; the answer is why do you ask the question?

Of course veterans, or people who live in the country should be ahead of immigrants, after all, they have contributed to the running of the country, whereas immigrants have done nothing; in the case of illegal immigrants, they should be sent back. If they can afford to pay to get here, they can come legally

Was it coincidence?

  Was it fate?

                                                                               R.I.P. Linda

My wife had been ill for several months, before she passed in January of 2025.

From the moment I met her, her son Matthew, was determined to separate us. What he could not achieve in life, he did with his death the previous August from a drug overdose.

She had said she was waiting for the knock on the door, though she was ill, his death destroyed her health, and my happiness; her son won his battle, even if he never knew about it.

The Trend of the Widow

 WhatsApp

Twitter

Not for the first time, and I doubt it will be the last time.

I oft get approached by young ladies on either Twitter, or WhatsApp asking how I am doing?

When I say I am trying to cope with the loss of my wife, their reply is "I am 30 with one child, I'm a widow, I lost my husband, I lost my husband three years ago in a car crash." I put this in " marks, as it is a word-for-word quote.

I had to laugh at the attempted scam last year, one lady went from having one child who was hungry, and crying for food, to having two children, one with cancer, in less than two weeks. 

I don't joke about cancer. I have lost loved ones to the disease, both human, and furry friends, so I know the horror of the disease at first hand

Science and Technology

 The Modern Age

The IT world

People tell you the greatness of the internet, and how emails are sent so quick, here is the other side of the IT world.

Many years ago, I was on a chat site chatting to some ladies I knew. I sent a message that October saying I was going on a date with FIVE young ladies. This caused confusion as they knew I was not seeking a date online, at the time.

When I returned from our date in Cheltenham, I sent an email explaining what happened.

I had gone on a date with the young ladies, it was a date to meet at the Folk Festival. Four of the ladies were in the group - The Witches of Elswick - and the other young lady was Nancy Kerr, who was there with her husband, James Fagan. As a footnote, Nancy's mother, Susan, is the voice on Bagpuss.

A final note on the topic, when we left the site the following February, one of my friends had not received my original note. I've noted this happens a lot, even today on Twitter

The Curse of online shopping

 eBay Refund Policy

Who do you trust?

Time after time, I come back to the Curse of online shopping, who do you trust?

Again, I have lost track of the "claims" of goods not arriving, I am asked to refund a buyer on eBay.

I have no proof the DVDs did not arrive, and they have no proof I sent them, using a tracking code is useless as was recently proved when Yodel lost track of one of my orders.

eBay has a buyer protection policy, but what about seller protection?

The policy is rife for people to use as a SCAM. What happens if the goods arrive after I send the refund, the buyer has NO WAY of sending my money to me