Body Jump

In 2004, I sat down to write a novel, my third. Body Jump is a thriller, with a supernatural twist, which if you've read my work, is my trade mark. Murder, mayhem, sex and violence weave a web through the pages of this fast paced human drama. As any author will tell you we love all our stories, but Body Jump has taken me on a ride that is and always will be unforgettable. The characters were back then and are today so real and compelling, especially Susan Claw.

Susan is the main protagonist, who was never in the story to start with. She came to this story when I was wrestling with the first chapter and I had already sorted out my characters, (so I thought). Even back then our first meeting was auspicious. She was not kind or even gracious, but she was certainly tenacious, forthright and extremely complex. My most complex character to date. She turned this story into her own, she is smart, sexy, and street savvy.

Believe it or not I actually conceived this story when I was around four, or five years old. I used to sit on the upper floor of an English double decker bus and look down on the people below walking by. I used to wonder where they were going? What they were doing, or who they were meeting? What if you had that ability, effectively projecting yourself into them? Through line of sight you could Body Jump someone. This means you could use their senses, see, hear, smell, touch, taste. Listen to their thoughts and go through their innermost desires. You could take from them whatever you wanted and they would never even know you were there, dangerous people indeed.

As I got older I asked myself the same questions. Where are they going, what are they doing etc. Until one day I asked myself. (Hey! what if that guy over there, is on his way to commit a murder?) What would you if you was a Body Jumper and you knew what was about to happen? Would you go to the cops? Would you follow him? Or could you go home and forget about it? Well the moral implications are huge and the book Body Jump was born.

I can tell you now it's a lot more complicated than that. These characters are in a league of their own. Even now they fascinate me, each and every one of them. For most of you it will be available on Amazon soon, so keep your eyes open. Let me know what you think, because I can't Body Jump. 

Bluebells

Once again time is a bitch and runs away. December 2011! That was my last post!From December last year till now I've been away from home, more than I have been there. Lots of things have happened but everything is still the same, well apart from time marching up and down my face. I've had very little time for writing or for even attending the Black Sheep writers group meetings. This week however I have written two short pieces one for the group and one for Bravehearts. Bravehearts is a charity run to protect children from sexual abuse. I support this charity and applaud the good work they do. They sent out a call to break the silence and to send them your experiences with regards to sexual abuse. I wrote this piece called Bluebells and I sent it to them.


 Bluebells

Although I live in Australia today and have done for well over forty years now. The one thing that takes me back to the UK in a split second is the mention of, or the sight of Bluebells. Those exquisite flowers that bloom profusely throughout the British countryside in the spring and summer months. The unfortunate thing about the sight of Bluebells is that the images also bring forth the day my innocence was forever taken away from me, amongst those most beautiful of flowers. It's with mixed emotions that I think about them now. It's such a shame they will always be a source of shame and pain instead of conjuring moments of beauty into my life, they will always be synonymous with emotional pain and distress.

I was around four years old when the first incident happened, it was an older family member that led my younger brother and myself through the woods that grew behind our house. We were led to a clearing and I remember a large boulder being there also. I suppose you could liken it to an altar. An altar where innocence is sacrificed and lost amongst the leaf litter on the floor. I truly have no idea what these people are thinking when they commit these truly heinous crimes against their own blood. How on earth can anyone justify these actions? How can they live with the pain they inflict? I know through growing up with a mentally abusive mother that there is no way I would ever pass that cruel pain on to my children. Nothing is more abhorrent to me than seeing children abused, beaten, or sexually assaulted. I know the pain of two of these sins.

 How I hung onto to my sanity back then and today is a source of amazement for people around me who know of my situation. Believe me it's a constant battle, each day is a new challenge. Although these days I'm so much more in control of my own destiny as well as my mind. The pain is duller, but still there. You can never truly be free, but I rest easy in the knowledge that both of my sons will never know that pain, nor fully understand it either. For that I am truly grateful. They are both beautiful human beings who treat others as they wish to be treated. I have to take a small pat on the back for that. You see for me it's all about the quality of my children's lives. Why do I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness when I say this?

 I can't help but feel that if the children were left alone to be children, to be loved and nurtured then a lot of the problems of this society wouldn't exist. As an author I speak publicly on many occasions and I'm honest and open about why my stories are dark. They are dark due to the fact that I grew up in the dark and from having to live in my head for most of my childhood. Because I am open and honest about my past I'm constantly shocked and saddened by the amount of strangers who will come up to me after I have spoken and tell me their stories. I have been asked why I feel I need to tell the world about my story, when it should be private. I respond with this simple message - because someone out there is in pain, and if I can help to shoulder some of that burden and take some of that pain then I will always do that. It's so important for those suffering that they don't feel alone, isolated and afraid. Let them know they are not alone, for God's sake let them know they are able to live a life. Let them know the rent in their heads doesn't have to paid every day. Unfortunately the Bluebells will always be the rent in my head, but I don't have to pay as often these days.

 Kev C Webb © 2012

Too Long

Wow, I just looked over my blog and realised it's been far to long since my last post. Time passes so quick and before you know it another year has gone. Just like this one. I have a lot to look forward to next year. I know that my second novel in the "Dream Raider" series was supposed to be out now, but once again life gets in the way and the unexpected wraps you in it's tendrils, as time slips from your grasp. To those of you waiting for this book I apologise. Sorry for mucking you around. You will be pleased to know however that I will also be releasing my first adult novel next year as well, so keep an eye out for that one. It will be released under the pseudonym K.E.Vee to save problems with regards to the YA novels.

Why K.E.Vee? Well simple really. I've always liked just being called Kev. K E VEE spells Kev. I promise to visit the blog a bit more regular in the future and keep you posted on the happenings with the book fronts. I'll post again soon, enjoy the holiday period.

Kev. AKA K.E.Vee

Pete's Diary

Hi everyone today I'm going to Blog about Pete's Diary, it's the online companion to Dream Raider, that we have on our Johnny Marsh website. The Idea was first put to me by Anthony, (Ant) my business partner. After getting the website off the ground he was looking for things to fill it up and pad it out. Ant wanted something unique and something that would grab the readers and keep them coming back. He put the idea to me and I loved it, so together we hatched which character should write the diary, what would it's content be and how much of the storyline we could give away without spoiling the book.

I really wanted it to be an authentic looking diary that a teenager would write so it should be scrappy, since no one else is supposed to read it. It doesn't matter about neatness or spelling or punctuation. So it's full or errors and missing words and bad spelling. It's not a stretch for me to write like that believe me. And while we're on the subject, yes I hand write them myself. We thought in the beginning that it was a good Idea and we have been proved right, it is the most popular spot on our website.

Ant also saw the potential and made sure it had a nice home, so he took time to craft a beautiful page for it with Pete's glasses resting at the top of the page, some tea cup rings, and a pen under the diary. Plus he used some scraps of paper to click on to go from page to page. They are also my hand writing. (It's very lucky that my own handwriting is extremely scrappy.)

We now have over twenty entries in the diary and it's growing. Because the story is centered around Johnny Marsh, people are finding it interesting seeing things from Pete's perspective. You get to see another angle of Dream Raider and the fans like that. They like it that Pete talks about a girl he likes, or of his own fears about a certain situation. I guess most of the readers also like Pete and feel he deserves more book time and this is a perfect way to enter his little piece of Dream Raider.

Touching Lives

I remember the excitement of putting my ideas down for the first time and wondering if I really had it in me to finish my first story. Johnny Marsh, Monster Hunter. Yep that was Dream Raiders first title. It started out as a project very much for myself, A hobby, after all it was only going to be about fifteen thousand words long. As I wrote, the characters and the story grew, then ran ahead of me, I was truly unable to catch up at times. It soon became obvious that these characters would demand another story, another book was in the planning stages, long before I had finished the first.

Something happened the day I became a writer. I changed, I had that moment, the moment we all hear about, the moment where you realise that you have just hit a major turning point in your life and you don't ever want to go back. At that stage of my life I was healing, writing it seems was my therapy. Fifteen years have now passed since that day and I had no idea at all about what was in store for me through all that time. I simply thought that I would write my stories, get them published and give up Construction work forever. WRONG!!!

It has been tough, exciting, fun and frustrating, but the one constant that made me push on, was the fact that I was touching lives. Everywhere I go and every chance I get I talk about my work...my real work. I can see the spark light up in peoples eyes when I talk about my books and the journey I'm now on. I can see them searching, looking deep within themselves. Wondering whatever happened to their dreams. Is that you? Do you ever wonder where your dreams went? Perhaps like most people these days they are buried, buried deep under your mortgage. Or more likely, buried under your day job.

I asked myself the other day, how many people have come up to me in the thirty three years I've been in construction, just to say, "The plastering you have done has inspired me to follow my dream."
Yeah Right! But my books are another story all together. I can make a difference, I can touch your very soul with my words. I have been told that Manjucus the soul stealer in Dream Raider is scary, creepy and downright nasty. Some people despise him. I think that is so cool, that a character I made up can evoke strong feelings in my readers. It means I'm touching them. Whether I inspire, or whether I instill mistrust, it means I'm touching lives and my stories will live on, to be discussed well into the future.

To live and work uninspired is a crime. A crime against you very soul.

Edit

Apart from the horrendous natural disasters to hit Queensland this year, things do seem to be looking up. I am talking on a personal level here. The decision to independently publish our next book looks like a winner all round. We have embarked on the editing journey at the moment. With a huge part of the whole journey behind us, now we can look back and see further ahead. (I hope that makes sense) We have made some firm friendships along the way, that enable us to deal with people we know we can trust. That's a big thing when you step out into the big bad world alone.

Everywhere I turn these days I have good people watching my back. I know that if I do fall there will be many hands to help me up again, and even more encouraging words of support. I feel that the next book in the Johnny Marsh series will please the ever expanding group of readers that already have a copy on their bookshelves. I'm getting good vibes off it from people who are reading it in it's current form.

It's strange because it's been a while since I finished it. I remember at the time stressing about it being the follow up in the series and worrying whether it was worthy. I read it today with a confident eye. I must admit there are a couple of places where I think to myself. Wow! Did I write that? I'm not trying to sell anyone the book here and now. I just want you all to know that I write these as much for myself as I do for my readers. That's no lie. It's simply, the truth.

I was a late starter when it came to reading and writing. One of the thing's I remember thinking while reading other peoples novels, was, these books are great, but they're so predictable. I could see closed doors everywhere in the stories and wondered why the authors never opened them. In my stories there are open doors everywhere and I trust my imagination, so watch out for the next Johnny Marsh book, we hope to have it to you real soon. I promise you will be the first to know.

A Brand New Year.

Something about last year still sends a shiver down my spine. I'm glad we've seen the back of it to be honest. There is a certain sense of optimism in the air that wasn't present last year. I hope it lasts and that everybody benefits from that optimism.

I'm about to embark on the next step in my life's journey. We have set the wheels in motion for the next book to be published in the Dream Raider series. It's in the capable hands of my editor as we speak. I have to admit I love the editing part. It's like watching a beautiful flower open. It's not until it's open fully that you see it's true beauty. I can't wait for that moment.