Category: WRITER

Sneak preview of The Synchronicity Code

Here is the second preview of The Synchronicity Code, the third and final book in the series. I hope you like it. Please comment because your feedback is valuable to me.

The Synchronicity Code

We reached the street above the Street of the Salt Sellers and turned into it. Some way along it, Guillaume pointed to a small outcrop of rocks to the left.

“That courtyard. The entrance should be in there.”

Two Roman guards stood guard outside a heavy iron grill in a courtyard.

“Now what?” Hugo asked. Continue reading “Sneak preview of The Synchronicity Code” →

Memories of the 1960s – School

Prepare to have all the myths of how school was Heaven in the 60s blasted away and for myths that it was Hell to be destroyed. This is what it was like for me.

Take a guided tour of my school.

I spent my school years, until the age of fourteen, in our county. Now, I am not saying our true-blue ultra-conservative county was backward, but the last time I looked at the council’s website it had chains running down each side! That was back in the 90s. In the 60s, they were just about as blue as you can get, and they certainly believed in giving every child’s sanity a run for its money.

The county’s model of education was simple: your kid had to pass their special Twelve-Plus exam to get a proper education. (All counties had the Eleven Plus, but we had the Twelve-Plus for grammar school applications and our school didn’t do the Eleven-Plus.) Anything else was failure and rewarded with being sent to a ‘secondary-modern,’ which in our county meant a school for dunces. There you would never get the chance to do O-Levels or A-Levels and you would certainly never go to University. So every day of your school life, you were having the message ‘Success is everything’ rammed down your throat. Unfortunately, the flip-side of this philosophy was the message that ‘your humanity is nothing.’ It was only many years later that we would all discover Hans Eysenick’s IQ-based formula for the eleven-plus and twelve-plus exams was all based on fake research. Continue reading “Memories of the 1960s – School” →

What is 1st Century Jerusalem really like?

This week; Sneak Preview returns and a brief discussion about getting historical accuracy in novels: What was 1st Century Jerusalem really like?

Sneak Preview

Today, I have a little treat for you, the first sneak preview of Ordo Lupus III:

Ordo Lupus III
Copyright © 2014 by Lazlo Ferran
All Rights Reserved.

As we climbed up the sloping streets, myself wearing a black kudra, few even glanced at us.
“Are there usually this many soldiers?” John asked, glancing at a centurion.
“No. There are more than usual, even for Passover. The City has been tense for days now.”
We walked towards Herod’s Palace in the north-west corner of the City. Every pavement and street corner was crammed full of busy traders, customers and stalls, selling food, wine, beer from Egypt, every type of cloth and garment.
“What’s that?” John asked, pointing to a tower, topped with a four-sided pyramid.
“King David’s tomb.” Continue reading “What is 1st Century Jerusalem really like?” →

Is the UK Film Industry becoming puerile?

News
This week’s post will be brief. I have only just completed a big promo for Ordo Lupus and the Temple Gate. Sales were satisfying but now I need time to write. Whisper it: I have just started work on Ordo Lupus III. So:

DO NOT DISTURB!

The Devil’s Own Dice: FREE in Exchange for Review
Today is the last day you can download occult thriller The Devil’s Own Dice for free on (Link no longer available) in exchange for a review. Here is what some people are saying about it: “Amazing tale” “Richly satisfying” “Highly recommended” Make sure you make the most of this unique opportunity and grab a copy NOW! Continue reading “Is the UK Film Industry becoming puerile?” →

The Ice Boat FREE this weekend!

FREE! @ Amazon 14/6-16/6 The Ice Boat http://bit.ly/OqGsCT

The only reason anyone went out was to buy drinks in town. The tide of cans was always in on the studio floor.

With plenty of drugs, sex and rock and roll; The Ice Boat is a modern pop-culture odyssey. But more than this, it’s a serious book that doesn’t avoid the messy subjects of identity, sex and eroticism.

“I was absolutely engaged” “Surreal and engrossing story telling style.”

GRAB YOURS TODAY!

Memories of the 1960s – TV

This week Memories of the 1960s – Toys, Books Available on Wattpad, Free Giveaway and Honorary Cliff Robertson Documentary

Memories of the 1960s – TV

Elevator vehicle under Fireflash from Thunderbirds

I had several nice comments about Issue I so here is another:

TV programmes
Most people will remember the two most prominent aspects of 1960s TV; no colour and the dreaded test cards!

Colour television didn’t arrive in the UK until 1967 (BBC2) and late 1969 (BBC1 and ITV). There were some early test programmes on BBC2 and I think I remember one featuring a carnival. My father designed television cameras for a living so we were the first family I knew to have a TV set that could receive and display colour. I remember the riot of ultra-vivid colour blasting out of the screen. It seemed to completely transform the world. There were of course hiccups. Many people turned the colour button up to full, which made greens and red so bright that you would quickly get a headache. Paul McCartney had been assured that the Magical Mystery Tour would be broadcast in colour on Boxing Day 1967. But BBC1 still had not made the transition to colour so he was to be disappointed. Continue reading “Memories of the 1960s – TV” →

Inchoate available in Egypt and it’s FREE!

Short Stories Series (all use same cover)

Egypt or any part of Africa through Kobobooks.com, I am told. I need somebody in Egypt to test this.
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-gb/Search?Query=lazlo+ferran
nb: you will have to convert the book to .mobi using a free software programme called Calibra if you want to read them using a Kindle device.
If you have problems let me know by commenting or emailing me so that I can send you a workaround.

You can always find details of availability and updates on the Catalogue page of this website.

If you live in Egypt please can you test the Kobobooks source and get back to me?

Cliff Robertson Honorary Documentary

My all-time favourite film, set during wartime, is 633 Squadron (1964), starring Academy Award Winner Cliff Robertson. You may know him better as Peter Parker’s uncle in Spider Man.

633 Squadron is also one of my favourite movies of all time. The editing is tight and the action is the edge-of-your-seat stuff of legend. Here’s some trivia for you: did you know 633 Squadron was George Lucas’s inspiration for the Death Star attack in Star Wars IV – A New Hope? A great deal of the credit for the film’s taught style and human depth can be attributed to Cliff Robertson, who had enough influence in Hollywood at this time to ask for rewrites of film scripts. Cliff was at the very pinnacle of Hollywood’s acting elite and is still, to my knowledge the only actor to win a Grammy each for film, theatre and advertising. His Oscar for Charly was well-deserved and if you haven’t seen that, PT 109 (where Cliff played John F Kennedy) or 633 Squadron, see them.

Cliff was one of my childhood heroes and I was lucky enough to correspond with with Cliff at the end of his life. Along with many other fans, I always wondered what happened to his character, Roy Grant, at the end of the film. He is badly wounded but we can’t be sure whether he survives or not. After a heated discussion on youtube, I decided to try and contact Cliff to find out. With the help of Stephen Thompson, Cliff’s Press Agent, I was able to write a letter with a set of questions and get these to Cliff. Continue reading “Cliff Robertson Honorary Documentary” →

Banned: Infinite Blue Heaven

Infinite Blue Heaven has been banned by Amazon. It is my first book available from me directly: https://payhip.com/b/yth1. Read on to find out more:

Cover of Infinite Blue Heaven - A King and A Queen — Cover of Infinite Blue Heaven – A King and A Queen

Infinite Blue Heaven – A King and A Queen The eBook has recently been banned by Amazon although they do not specify why. Despite repeated requests by me for the reason, they refuse to be drawn. If it is because of the incest, then there are books on Amazon which peddle this theme as pornography. There are also writers like Vladimir Nabokov and Thomas Pynchon who treat this subject more sensitively. If this is the reason, I really don’t understand it; I have always used the word ‘incest’ in the description and the book has been on Amazon since 2009. I have made no changes to it in that time. I also treat the subject sensitively and include it because incest was not rare in royal circles of the 17th Century. Let’s be plain, it existed and Amazon can’t simply wipe out the bits of history they don’t like.

Buy Infinite Blue Heaven on Payhip here: https://payhip.com/b/yth1

The paperback continues to be available on Amazon through their subdivision CreateSpace. But you can now purchase it directly from me using Payhip. Just click on ‘Lazlo in Your Country‘ in the main menu above to find this book from now on.

Monica Bellucci Naked: Profound or Banal?

This week: Two Poems and: Is Monica Bellucci, Naked, Profound or Banal?

I apologise for the belated post this week; Amazon managed to revert all my book descriptions to old versions so that I have had to spend the last three days rewriting them. Like a fool, I trusted Amazon to keep them current so I didn’t keep copies myself. I have also had Infinite Blue Heaven – A Kind and A Queen banned. I don’t know the reason why but it might be something to do with the word ‘incest’, which has been in the project description on Amazon since 2009 and on Lulu since 2006. If Nabokov, in Ada, and Thomas Pynchon, in Gravity’s Rainbow, can mention incest, why can’t I? I have emailed them to ask what the problem is and to ask for it to be reinstated so I will keep you posted.

Is Monica Bellucci, Naked, Profound or Banal?
Okay, so I have your attention! In fact the question is slightly tongue-in-cheek but there is a point to it, as we shall see.

It is often said by wiser men than I that the beauty of a woman is profound. Some would say that nothing in the Universe can be more beautiful.

In the Hollywood movie Malèna, starring Monica Bellucci, we see a beautiful woman through the eyes of a teenage boy. Continue reading “Monica Bellucci Naked: Profound or Banal?” →