First Old Mice Killer Review

"Chris , I’ve just read The Old Mice Killer! Thank you so much for the most amazing, escapist, joyride of suspense and belly laughs rolled up with cinematic imagery running throughout!
You really are a man of many talents and The Old Mice Killer harnesses them perfectly! In short ! I think it’s brilliant mate! Please send me a signed copy, payment to follow!" - Andrew Osborne

First Two Copies Sold!

Very pleasantly surprised when two of my English students were keen to purchase a copy each of The Old Mice Killer when I was just showing the little books off to them for the chat :)

First two signed copies sold!

Quite difficult to explain in 30 seconds what the story's about - I need to work on that for future sales and marketing.

"Er, it's about a detective who acts like a dog, whose client is a woman, who, er, acts a bit like a cat, you know, but it's not a kid's story, it's a story for adults, but, there's no sex in it, I mean it's not like that ... anyway, the detective is snooping around like a dog, you know, like a hound on the trail of a scent, and the client is all, like this, you know, with her nose in the air all posh like, kind of arrogant, and wandering off for no reason, and the detective has to find his client's missing boyfriend, and they have these problems communicating, and there's a serial killer involved, you don't have to buy one ..."

Raptor Filmz Ltd, a videography company which I started up in 2012, may actually be on the verge of becoming a publisher, and is looking into buying copies of this in bulk for distribution to book stores, so watch this space :)

Now I have to go and tippex out the F word near the end for my Mum's copy.

You can order a paperback copy of The Old Mice Killer direct from Lulu here for about £7 including postage, or if you can get a hold of Chris Young or Raptor Filmz (raptorfilmz@gmail.com or text 07899 718775) he's selling signed copies for just £3.50 in the Livingston area, West Lothian, Scotland. Alternatively you can purchase the ebook here for instant download on Kindle or Ibooks for just 99p.

First Edition Arrives

At 11:15 am this morning the doorbell went.

I skipped down the stairs like a teenage schoolgirl and opened the front door to find a bearded DPD Driver standing in the snowy cold exterior with a slim package in his hands. A warmth spreading in my stomach I signed my name upside down on his electronic doo-hickey, thanked him very much, and brought the package inside.

Without much ceremony I tore down the dotted line, dug around inside thinking, "Is it ...? Could it be ...? How will it look? Will it be too thin? Would the font be too big? Will there be any major errors?"

And I brought out this.

Not only that but there were two more inside just like it.

There have been quite a few revisions since first ordering these late in the evening of Wed 6th Dec 2017, so I wasn't sure how many improvements (ebook or paperback) behind this version was, so my heart was rattling along at quite a rate as I flicked through the 100 pages. Yes, a spelling mistake here, an old version of the story there, and the 'About the author' page wasn't there yet, but ... yes ... rather nice first edition.

The only piece of fiction I ever had published in book form was a short story in Paperclips - a little heard of collection of stories from writers in Strathclyde, 1993 when I was 18. (Showing my age there). 

The only trouble was, my story, "A Talk With Death" was a story in a story. So the full title should really have been "A Talk With Death by Mark R Cain" By Chris Young. Unfortunately, my lack of experience in publishing at the time did not make me realise that I should probably double check with the publishers that this would be made clear in the book. I thought it was. But when it arrived, I realised it wasn't. So my name appears nowhere in the publication.

Contents page

Main page

So to have this little gem in my hands (even though it's self published) some 24 years later, is sweet indeed.

Very happy with it. 

For all intents and purposes it looks like a real book. It doesn't seem small, it's professionally bound with a glossy paperback cover, it's got page numbers, bar codes, a copyright page, the title and my name on the spine, a picture of a dead mouse on the front cover. It even smells like a new book. Took eight days to arrive - ordering, printing, delivery.

Oh yeah, and it's got a great wee story inside that a lot of nice people contributed towards.

What more could you ask?

You can order a paperback copy of The Old Mice Killer here or an ebook copy here.

Amazingly one used paperback copy of Paperclips Writers from Strathclyde is for sale here!

Oh No Not Another Blog

I've read in many places recently that if you want to be a writer it's a good idea to keep a blog, so here's mine.

The last time I kept a blog was when I lived in Japan, and I have good and bad memories of doing that. Good: Yes, it was nice to connect with people all over the world. Bad: What on earth was I talking about?

Stay tuned to find out.

I've called this blog Chris Young (Author) but I think author is too grandiose a word for what I do. An author is someone who sits around the house in a dressing gown with bits of screwed up paper scattered around a threadbare rug. In front of the bay window on a desk sits an old Underwood typewriter and occasionally the author (who is need of a shave and a haircut) will sit down on the desk chair, crack his knuckles and type literature in short controlled bursts. In between bursts he will stand up, pace around, run his fingers through his unkempt hair, put the kettle on and make a cup of black coffee. He will listen to vinyl. He will flick distractedly through a newspaper. He will stand on the doorstep and talk to the neighbour's cat. He will unplug the telephone. Inspiration will take him and talk through him. He will eat a dictionary for breakfast and a thesaurus for lunch. For dinner he will spit words like bullets upon the virgin page.

Lastly, he'll have published something.

My most recent creation is a 100 page novella called 'The Old Mice Killer.' Technically Old Mice should be in italics, because nowhere in the story do mice actually appear, let alone old ones who get murdered. So in that respect, if those two words are not in italics, the title is misleading. Apart from that, it's dead on. There's a killer.

Old Mice refers to the aftershave he wears.

Which seemed like a really good idea at the time.

Yes, it's only a hundred pages, but rather than pad it out and dilute the awesomeness, I thought to heck with it I'll just give it a whirl as it stands. Make it more of a double espresso than a cafe latte. It's a real page turner, that's for sure. Mostly because each page only has about 165 words on it. Difficult to put down? Yup, because it's so light - just 130g. About the weight of an old mouse, dripping wet.

Here's the blurb:

"Jake Jones, a somewhat dogged detective, after taking on the missing person case of a rather catty client, suddenly finds himself on the trail of an ex serial killer. The question is, can he kill two birds with one stone - avenge his mother and solve the case - in one genius move?"

It's not been made into an ebook yet, but you can order the paperback version of The Old Mice Killer here. 

Paper. The way books were meant to be written.

Or as an ebook here.

Cheaper, faster, and better for the environment.

Either way - enjoy the story :)

Bio

Join Chris on his haphazard journey through his own head as he encounters idiot villains*, talking animal detectivesª, quirky multi-dimensional office staffº, time travelling thugs bent on plagiarism∞, and stories that may or may not mean something†.

He's written a few short stories, novellas and novels over the years, including the story "A Talk With Death' (Paperclips: New Writers from Strathclyde, 1992), the novel 'Tokyomares' (self published, 2003) and his Jake Jones novellas 'The Old Mice Killer' (2017) & 'The Coffee Cup Killer' (2020). He's also written a few film scripts, including 'Tough Gig' (2006), 'Ripped' (2012) and 'Remote Crime Scene' (2020). 

He's even written the scripts to a few amusing Raptor Newz episodes. 

* Thick as Thieves
a The Old Mice Killer
o Multiversal
∞ One Last Tale
† Everything

Scotland Holiday Day 1/11

Today is the first day of our holiday traveling around Scotland. We left home at 11:38am and drove for about an hour slowly northwards and stopped in Dunblane where we were foiled in our attempts at purchasing 3 meal deals in Tesco's due to our choosing the only two sandwiches on the shelves that were not covered. 

   According to the guidebook Dunblane Cathedral was worth visiting so we walked up there and had a look at the impressive old building.

   About another 40 minutes' drive took us to Crieff which seems quite different from how I remember it from when we visited Crieff Hydro with my parents some 30 years ago. The town seems to be slowly closing down, with a lot of shops to let and 50% sales, broken windows and empty churches. Beautiful views and great big detached houses - for sale.

   The B&B is very nice, though, and it should be about £100 per night.

   In saying that though the Italian restaurant in the bank Avanti's was very good albeit noisy with kids' screams echoing off the high stone ceiling. I had a Fabrizio with anchovies and olives, and it was one of the best pizzas I'd had, probably second only to the Four Seasons pizza in the YesBar in Glasgow.

   Lunch £15    Tea £5    Dinner £30     B&B £100    Miles : 58    Fuel £23.

Total cost Day 1 £173

Photos & Text © Chris R Young 2021

Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Day 5

 I found a blog of an independent non-Japanese with a Geiger counter who was taking radiation readings off the roof of his apartment block in Tokyo (which ranged from normal to 22 times normal (still harmless) and posting it online in English. I began following this website closely.

I woke up this morning to a message on the phone from my Dad saying that he'd heard I'd failed to get my family out of the capital yesterday and that I should give them a call as soon as I woke up, no matter if it was the middle of the night there time - if they heard the phone they'd pick up. This didn't put me in the best of moods, as I have a bit of a thing about my parents using words like 'fail' when referring to myself, but I tried to shrug it off, because basically he was right. Then I went into the kitchen and heard about the other explosion at the plant and that rods had been left uncovered in various reactors and must have experienced a partial meltdown. After breakfast I set out to do something, anything, if only just to keep busy until I woke up properly and then at least I'd be in a better position and with more information to think. 

I was the first group in line at the local drugstore and succeeded in getting some eggs and bread which I handed into the flat, and then headed up the 100 yen store to try and get some other stuff only to read that due to the power outages they'd open at 11:00am. So I mosied over to the hardware store (a surprisingly reassuring place to browse around in a crisis) looking for a weathervane, because I'd realised that with the blackouts - no internet - no wind direction information. But after wandering through the aisles looking for one I decided a long stick with a bit of ribbon would probably work just as well. But my eyes paused at the variety of meters they had behind the glass case - voltmeters, lightmeters, sound meters. I wanted to ask if they had any geiger counters, but it was just too damned apocalyptic. Although if they'd had a cheap one that could hang around your neck or something for ￥2000, I would have bought it.

The idea I'd had yesterday about a last ditch way to leave Tokyo, was germinating in my brain and I asked if they had any maps. They didn't, but suggested the 7/11 over the road. I looked into buying a couple of bicycles, one with a front seat for our son to sit in, so that if the worst came to the worst we could cycle south west down to Itami. But in the end I went to Machida bus station and was able to buy a couple of tickets for the overnight bus to Osaka.

At the Fukushima nuclear plant more problems arose, one of which was a fire breaking out at Unit 4 involving spent fuel rods from the reactor, normally kept in a water-filled spent fuel pool to prevent overheating. Radiation levels at the plant rose significantly but subsequently fell back. Radiation equivalent dose rates at Unit 3 were recorded to be 400 millisieverts per hour. People are recommended not to expose themselves to more than 1 millisievert per year.