REVIVING A LOST SKILL

Have you ever looked back to a time when a once-honed skill had produced a satisfying feeling of fulfillment in your life? Maybe a hobby or a pursuit that you “just loved” doing in a bygone day—something that, at the time, brought you a feeling of industriousness and creativity? Enough with all the questions! Having read these few lines, perhaps, vivid scenes are already crowding your mind with nostalgic, but aging memories.

After my retirement from industry (last year) I came home with ideas of just taking it easy and catching my breath, hoping to lead a quiet and peaceful existence by reading books, watching TV and going for coffee with a few of my cronies. What a misconception! I soon found that although I enjoyed reading, it just did not feel feasible to be sitting on the couch, reading the whole day away, and as much as I enjoyed relaxing in front of the box, it quickly became boring. My old cronies had their own lives and coffee meetings were few and far between—besides, how much coffee can one drink in a day?

It was a no-brainer that some soul-searching in the area of viable hobbies had to be undertaken but everything I looked at either cost too much money or would take too long for me to master. It was then that I revisited my past. At the age of four years my parents recognized that I was good at arts and crafts. My older brother, Robert, was also an excellent sketcher in his younger days, so my father decided to send both of us to a Saturday art class in the big city. I spent three years of Saturdays doing all sorts of painting, drawing, sketching and clay modelling, which served me well in my primary school years. I loved doing it and often would be found sketching when I should have been doing school homework.

It was the teenage years that killed the dream. Life, with all its excitement and temptation, got hold of me and it was not long that art was totally on the back-burner, despite taking it as a subject in high school.  By the time I was a young adult that back-burner had all but extinguished itself. I can honestly say that I never put brush to canvas or pencil to paper, the latter being my real forte, until last year, when my career-years suddenly and finally came to an end. After those soul-searching moments I surrendered to the nostalgic emotions of my youth by tentatively purchasing some water colour paints, pencils and ink-sketching pens, to start the process. An out-of-touch talent was immediately invigorated and after several attempts the old skill began to revive, returning with a hesitant intimacy. Check out my paintings and sketches below

AND FINALLY.....

THE TWO BOOKS THAT I CURRENTLY HAVE FOR SALE. 
THESE TWO EXCITING SAGAS ARE AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS ON AMAZON.COM, BARNES & NOBLE, ITUNES, FOUNDRY PAGE AND MORE.....

PLEASE GO TO ANY OF THE ABOVE OUTLETS FOR  PURCHASE - READ  ON ANY DEVICE

 The Helium-3 Conspiracy has its setting in 2026 CE during the Presidency of Richard Baker, 46th President of the United States. A down-on-his luck PI with a cocaine problem is pitted against a powerfully connected senator in this suspenseful drama involving the transition from fossil fuels to the new energy, helium-3, found in the moon's regolith. The Oil Liberation Front, a powerful lobbying group, are determined to undermine this transition and bring the G8 countries, signatories to the new energy accord, to its end. The President has to deal with a hijacked weapon of mass destruction and a possible coup in his administration. A final twist in the story will provide the reader with that "wow" feeling - all is not what it seems until the end.

Subduction zone is a suspenseful and fast moving, action story that will have you turning the pages to see what happens next. The backdrop to this saga is the highest recorded megathrust earthquake which takes place in the Cascadia subduction zone, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Paul Brinkworth, a seismologist with the Geoscience Centre in Victoria discovers a drug cartel's illegal operation in close proximity to his seismic monitoring station in the rain-forest. He unwittingly becomes the cartel's target and together with the beautiful Angeline Summers, a local reporter, must fight for their lives against the most extreme odds. Murder, blackmail and illicit love converge, each spawning its own brand of disaster in the aftermath of the huge shaker.

It would be most appreciated that if you should decide to purchase, please be so kind as to follow up with a review on the site you bought it from. Thank you.