Yes Folks – I have just registered 5,500 followers. Thank you all for following me! I am greatly impressed.
My books are beginning to sell and I am receiving some great reviews.
If you are one of the many who have not yet left a review please do. I love to read them and they are so valuable!
If you would like to purchase one of my books – paperback or kindle – they are available
Every day I have to check my Spam folder. It always has something in it and it is usually Spam. Unfortunately every now and then a genuine message gets caught up in there so you have to check.
I’ve looked at these messages. Some are trying to promote a product, some are trying to sell you a service that will instantly transform your blog and most of it is gobble-de-gook.
You have to ask yourself –
a. Do any of those idiots advertising products think you might just buy something off them?
b. If you wanted a service to upgrade your website you would pick one out of the Spam filter?
c. Who enjoys putting chunks of meaningless sentences together to send out to random sites?
Now either I’m simple and naive and there is a sinister motive behind this spam or there are a lot of very daft people out there who are intent on wasting my time. Probably both of those.
So why are they doing it? What is their motive? Are they merely bored mischief makers.
I’m sorry if I am unable to respond to all your likes, comments and posts. I have very limited access to the internet, cannot open emails or documents. It is very frustrating. The engineer won’t be here until Monday. So please bear with me. I’ll do my best!
I’m sorry if I cannot respond! I’ll catch up next week! So please continue posting, liking and commenting. I am receiving them and I really do appreciate you taking the time and putting in the effort.
Thanks – Best wishes – Opher
I live to make the world a better place. Why don’t you join me? Creativity gives a purpose to life. This blog celebrates creativity. I welcome you. Please have a look at my books, art, poems and art.
This is an idealist’s shriek at the absurd, the horrendous and the obscene in the huge optimism that we can make it better.
This is a blog in pursuit of the marvellous.
I ask you to devour all that is wonderful –
and detest all that is cruel, vicious and mean.
You will find lots of life, sex and ideas in this blog – (Ideas such as – there is no god, no purpose, no great scheme, no after-life) – but I do not set out to be offensive, merely to argue my passionately held point of view.
This blog is a celebration of Life – not Death.
What is obscene is not sex.
Obscenity is:
– The destruction of the environment
– War
– The indoctrination of children
– Overpopulation
– Cynical exploitation
– Cruelty to animals and people
– Grotesque disparity of wealth
– Deforestation
– Fanaticism in politics and religion
– Pollution
These are the things I stand against.
These are the obscenities.
This blog celebrates Love, Humour, Kindness and Awe.
It is a howl of creativity – A feast of ideas – A source of controversy.
A thing of beauty –  A delight of wonder – A splurge of passion.
I preach Tolerance – Empathy – Equality – Freedom – Respect –
Responsibility and Passionate Argument.
I will post some of my photos from round the world, examples of my poetry, extracts from my books, my views, ideas and dreams. I will tell you what I stand for and against and argue my case.
It would be great it you told me your views. Perhaps we could have a good argument about it!! There’s nothing better than a good passionate exchange of deeply held views.
This is the marmite of blogs!
One of the aims of my blog was to publicise my writing.
I don’t do a very good job of marketing. I enjoy writing. I love writing novels and other books. I hate editing, marketing and merchandising. It takes up good writing time.
However I can see that it seems fairly pointless writing lots of books if nobody reads them. I see it as the difference between sex and masturbation. But that’s just me.
I naively thought that I’d set up a blog, write about whatever took my fancy, attract in fellow-minded individuals, and they would be turned on enough by my interests, turn of phrase and diverse mental machinations to want to purchase all my books. I would then have an audience.
It hasn’t quite worked that way.
The blog takes up a lot of my time. I write as much on the blog as I do for the books.
The followers are relatively few. The book sales are steady and undramatic and the reviews are verbally brilliant but substantially sparse.
As I am a passionate writer who believes that I have something to say and have an interesting style, some skills and produce very readable, quirky, and original material I live in hope.
If you are interested in what I write and would like to purchase a book I would direct you to Amazon (I know) where my books are all sitting comfortably awaiting new homes. They long to be adopted in either paperback or kindle.
Why not, for a small sum, give a home to an Opher book? You’ll learn to love it.
For those in the UK –
PS – If you are one of those beautiful people who have purchased and enjoyed one of my books – please leave a review on Amazon
I have just googled to find out how many countries there are. There are only 196 (including Taiwan). That doesn’t sound too many. 196 countries is far less than the number of different cultures. I bet there are many times the number of those. Within each country there could be a multitude of cultures all with their costumes, religions, customs and histories. That’s quite a narrative.
Of those 196 countries so far this year I am pleased to say that my blog has been accessed from 157. That is almost four fifths!
I find that incredible to imagine that I sit in my little room, surrounded with my books and music, and pour the contents of my mind, heart, creativity and dreams into this machine and people at the other side of the world accesses and respond to my outpourings.
So welcome one and all. We may not have the same likes, beliefs or views but I would like to think that we can find something to share and learn from each other. I’m sure we can find something stimulating. I could be speaking to four fifths of the world! It would be brilliant if you all shared your thoughts with me!
Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate it. I love the likes and the comments even more. We’re all one people living in one world with the rest of life. Let’s learn to get on better and look after this jewel of a planet. That would be good.
I wish you all happiness and tolerance whichever country, race, religion or culture you come from – Opher.
I’ve always been a collector. When I was a young boy I had a museum and collected a wide range of different objects. I had a big cabinet with drawers of my exhibits. I collected butterflies, seashells, fossils, minerals, coins and curios. I went out with friends on fossil hunts and scoured jumble sales for interesting finds.
I collected pets. At one time I had forty guinea pigs, a rabbit, 2000 mice, forty hamsters, stick insects, gerbils and a pit and pond full of slow-worms, frogs, newts, lizards, toads and snakes. It took me all my time to clean them out and feed them but I loved it.
In my teens it developed into records and books. At one point I had twelve thousand vinyl albums. A lot of my time was spent happily scouring second-hand book shops and records shops. I met up with friends to discuss music, play records and put the world to rights.
I still have a sizeable collection of vinyl, CDs and books. It’s a mania.
So is this a healthy way to spend one’s life? An obsessive compulsion that is a symptom of an underlying psychological deficiency? Or merely a hobby that provides an interesting outlet, a way to make friends and a good use of time?
I don’t know. Probably all three of them. I do know that it seems to be a male thing. Maybe it is related to some dormant hunter psychology?
I get a great buzz from hunting around and unearthing a special record that no one else has a clue about, a priceless gem that nobody else knows exists. It requires specialist knowledge to recognise its worth. And its worth is not financial; it is inherent in the scarcity and brilliance of the record. It is something good to discover, own, look at, hold and identify with.
Lately I seem to be collecting my own books! I’ve written around forty six and published twenty three. I have a shelf of my books. I love the look of them, feel of them and get a kick out of thinking that they all came out of my head.
It is very geeky and you become a bit of a nerd. It also creates endless rows about obsessiveness and storage (Books, CDs and vinyl in bulk take up a lot of room). It has a tendency to clutter up your head with lots of useless information. Who really needs to know the significance of Son House and Woody Guthrie? Or whether Roy Harper or Bob Dylan are the greatest song-writers? Or if Slim Harpo is better than Tommy Tucker? Or is Elmore James is as good as Jimi Hendrix?
Well I do.
I enjoy it. I still do.
Weird people – collectors!
So what’s this collecting all about?
I have been blogging for just over a year. That seems a good time to re-evaluate.
So, as it is impossible for me to be objective how about letting me know what you think has worked or not?
I have given full reign to my ideas, thoughts and creativity. The end result is a bit of a dog’s dinner. I wonder if it works?
My philosophy is to communicate, to build a new zeitgeist, to be stimulating, controversial and interesting. I want to be relevant and influential. I want an outlet for my creativity. I want to draw wider attention to my books in the hopes that you might be tempted to buy them, read them and be turned on by them.
Here’s the general themes:
What is it that you enjoy?
What doesn’t work?
Is there too much?
Is it annoying to get so many posts?
Do you want more?
Whatever your views are I’d like to hear from you. I do listen. It’s great to be getting so much response – nearly 3000 followers is incredible.
(A little while ago I was contemplating breaking the blog into different blogs – I was advised not to. So I didn’t)
So drop us a reply! Cheers Opher.