Current state of play with new works! Many new books in the pipeline!

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I have currently written a number of books that are in various states of readiness.

This will give you a flavour:

  1. Nick Harper – The Wilderness Years

All written, edited and ready to go. Unfortunately bogged down in the layout stage. Nick is so busy that I haven’t had time to sit down with him, get it sorted and get it laid out!

2. Roy Harper – Ruminating on Roy Harper

I had this all written in a stream of consciousness, edited and ready to go. It told the story of myself and Roy through the years.  Unfortunately Roy did not like the style of writing. I laid it to one side to gain a bit of objectivity. Maybe it needs a rewrite into an different style? I’ll see. I’ll address it after I’ve got my three Sci-fi books completed and out.

3. Conexion – a Sci-fi Novel

This has been redrafted three times and my editor has just returned it. I will work on the book this week and hope to get it out soon. Maybe by next week! I will bring it out under my Sci-fi pen-name Ron Forsythe.

4. God’s Bolt – A Sci-fi novel

This has been redrafted twice and is currently being edited. When I get that back I will do the corrections and get it out. It should be out in about a month.

5. God’s Bolt – Unfinished business (the Sequel) – a Sci-fi novel.

I completed the second draft yesterday. It will get edited once my editor has finished with the last one. May take a couple of months.

6. 10th Book of Poetry

The 10th book of poetry is written. It now needs editing, laying out and naming. That will have to wait until I have a moment.

The main problem I have is that there are too many ideas and not enough hours in the day, days in the week or weeks in the year. I need to catch up with myself!

In the meantime – thank you all for supporting me! Thank you for buying my books! Thank you for leaving likes and reviews!

If you want to check out my body of work go to your local Amazon – Opher Goodwin or Ron Forsythe. You’ll find them all there!

In the UK:

In the USA:

Loudhailer Electric Company – Psychedelia Unlimited!! Photos.

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Loudhailer Electric Company – are one of the top Psychedelic Bands around! They are sure to break out of the confines of Hull soon. They go on from strength to strength.

Their amazing funky beat was full of energy and Jeff’s guitar playing is sublime. Is Lou the new Grace Slick? I think she might be.

There were all the tricks, with guitar being played behind the head, lots of shapes and a driving sound, swirling lightshow. I thought it was 1967 back in Middle Earth!

I think this was there best performance yet! They have gained in power and stage craft! The new songs of dragons and dark guitars are really strong! It is so rare to be smitten with new songs on first hearing.

I can’t wait for the next album! I also can’t wait to see them again supporting the Hawklords at the Welly on Nov 3rd!

 

Terra Fin at the Kardomah in Hull!

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Terra Fin are an incredible Indie band – a trio of power and substance. What impressed me most was their range, versatility and originality.

On top of that you had a band with bags of personality and musicianship. Such nice people.

I liked the delicate nature of some of the musical passages which then transformed into great powerful statements. The use of the augmenting effects pedals was extremely original and not just used as a gimmick or to hide up a lack of musicianship.

They were great visually too!

I expect to hear a lot more of this band in the future!

Opher Goodwin Interviews Opher Goodwin

Posted on by Opher

‘Good morning Opher, how are you?’

‘I’m fine, thank you, Opher. Good of you to ask.’

‘There are a lot of people out there interested in knowing what makes you tick.’

‘Really?’

‘Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about yourself and your writing?’

‘No. Not at all. Fire away. Opher Goodwin is my favourite topic of conversation.’

‘How long have you been writing?’

‘I’ve been writing for nearly fifty years. I actually started writing seriously in 1969.’

‘So technically that is only 47 years, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, but sometimes I write very fast and pack a couple of years into one.’

‘So how many books have you written?’

‘I’ve actually written 58.’

‘You have 58 books published?’

‘No. I have only published thirty four so far.’

‘Why not the others?’

‘Give me time – I’m getting there.’

‘So why aren’t you on the best sellers lists?’

‘I don’t write blockbusters. I write from the heart. I write with passion and I do not always follow convention. Some of my novels are quite mainstream but some are very unconventional. I tend to write exactly what I like and not tailor it for a market or commercial interests. I’m not writing for money or fame. My books cover many different genres. I’m a maverick alternative writer.’

‘So why do you not take all the good advice and settle for producing a few books in a particular genre and set about properly publishing and marketing them so that you become known and sell a lot more?’

‘Because I don’t want to. I like writing what I like to write, when I like to write it and how I like to write it. I don’t like constraints. That’s like imprisoning my creativity.’

‘But you’d like to sell a lot more?’

‘I would like my books to be read. There’s a difference.’

‘So what are all these genres?’

‘My main two are Rock Music and the Sixties and Sci-Fi, but I do Beat poetry, experimental novels, antitheist novels, environmental books, education, art, and even travel. A lot of them come straight out of my own experience.’

‘Why aren’t you more successful?‘

‘I think having all these books confuses people. They don’t know which one to go for. They do not know that I have been writing for so long and think I go for quantity and not quality.’

‘So what are the basic themes of your books?

‘The environment runs through most of them. I love animals and science. I’m a biologist. I despair at the destruction of the natural world by our burgeoning population and the lack of interest from our greedy, narrow-minded politicians. Then there is the love of loud Rock music and the ideals of the sixties and fifties. The alternative cultures of the Beats and Hippies. Also the power of education to overcome fascism and fundamentalism.’

‘You seem to have a thing about religion?’

‘Yes I do. I cannot understand why the whole world is in thrall to one of three medieval Middle Eastern cults. I do not deny that there are some great stories and good advice in those old writings but there is also so appalling intolerant and violent garbage. It boggles me that they can be claimed to be the exact word of god. I believe that religion has been used by powerful men to bolster their power; it has been used to create division and hatred. What was it about the writing of three Arab clans from a small area in the Middle East that has created such turmoil and ferment?’

‘But what about all the good religion does?’

‘The evil, intolerance and hatred outweighs all the good – we’d be better off without any of it.’

‘And the environment?’

‘We are trashing it. We are killing everything. In my life-time the teeming herds are being wiped out. The forests cleared and the insects decimated. All in the name of progress. For a fast buck. We have to stop!’

‘You sound like an angry man.’

‘I am angry. I hate what we are doing to the world. I hate the war, poverty and wanton destruction. I hate the cruelty thoughtlessness and greed. I hate the inequality, racism, sexism and disparity between rich and poor. We can solve all the problems overnight if we didn’t keep electing corrupt megalomaniacs to run the show.’

‘Do you think your writing will help solve all that?’

‘It’s all I can do. I write. There are millions of us out there who think like me. Together, through the web, we can make a difference. We can build a better zeitgeist and change the world for the better.’

‘Well thank you for being so candid.’

‘It’s always easy when you know what the questions are and they are tailored to the answers.’

If you would like to purchase this novel (or any of my other books) you can get it from Amazon.

In the UK:
Kindle Edition
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£9.98 1 Used from £9.65 5 New from £7.31


In the USA:
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$3.50 Read with Our Free App
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Palaces of Gold – Leon Rosselson

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This was the second from one of Britain’s great songwriters.

If the ministers in this Tory cabinet had to live in the destitution that they create we’d have a different country. Maybe they’d stop funneling all the wealth to the fat-cats at the top and give ordinary people a fair shake!

Palaces of Gold – Leon Rosselson

If the sons of company directors
And the judges’ private daughters
Had to got to school in a slum school
Dumped by some joker in a damp back alley
Had to herd into classrooms cramped with worry
With a view onto slag heaps and stagnant pools
Had to file through corridors grey with age
And play in a crack-pot concrete cage

Buttons would be pressed
Rules would be broken
Strings would be pulled
And magic words spoken
Invisible fingers would mould
Palaces of gold

If prime ministers and advertising executives
Royal personages and bank managers’ wives
Had to live out their lives in dark rooms
Blinded by smoke and the foul air of sewers
Rot on the walls and rats in the cellars
In rows of dumb houses like mouldering tombs
Had to bring up their children and watch them grow
In a wasteland of dead streets where nothing will grow

Buttons would be pressed
Rules would be broken
Strings would be pulled
And magic words spoken
Invisible fingers would mould
Palaces of gold

I’m not suggesting any sort of plot
Everyone knows, there’s not
But you unborn millions might like to be warned
That if you don’t want to be buried alive by slagheaps
Pitfalls and damp walls and rat traps and dead streets
Arrange to be democratically born
The son of a company director
Or a judge’s private daughter

Buttons will be pressed
Rules will be broken
Strings will be pulled
And magic words spoken
Invisible fingers will mould
Palaces of gold

EU Citizens’ Rights Info Session – HULL

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For those EU citizens in Hull and around who are worried about their future. This meeting might help.

Following the uncertainty created by Brexit, EU citizens across the UK need information regarding their rights and their status in the UK over the coming years.

This event, which is co-hosted by “The3million”(https://www.the3million.org.uk/), aims to provide information about EU citizens’ rights in the UK during Brexit, about the ‘settled status’ scheme, and to offer a Q&A session.

The information will be introduced by “Hull and East Yorkshire for Europe” and delivered by a lawyer, made available through the EU Rights project. The lawyer is offered for free by the European Commission Representation in the UK.

Here’s a couple of links:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eu-citizens-rights-info-session-hull-tickets-51253486558

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk

 

Writing – Writing through the 90s and into the 00s.

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Writing – Writing through the 90s and into the 00s.

I’d had my fill of rejection slips, nibbles, promises and cheques that never arrived. It was too much effort being turned down, messed around and let down.
I continued to write. The ideas kept coming. Meanwhile the teaching career took off. I had a car and my friends and I headed off to Roy Harper gigs, Nick Harper gigs and others.
Late at night and into the early hours I would type my books into my new Amstrad computer. At regular intervals disasters would occur.
Computers have a malicious side to them. Late one night at three o clock, following a particularly productive five hour session on a novel I had high hopes for, I accidentally pressed the wrong button and had to sit and listen while the old Amstrad, chuntering to itself, erased the nineteen pages I had typed.
The books built up. There were Rock books, Sci-fi, novels, biographical works. I was utterly free. I would write them and print them off. My collection of A4 bound tomes was filling a shelf or two. My wife and children paid little heed, friends stopped being interested. But the ideas flowed and the books appeared. I no longer bothered sending them off.
Occasionally someone would read one and say how good they found it.
I had no constraints. I wasn’t producing material that was aimed at a market or for a publisher. I had a career and we were no longer poor. My dream of subsistence living as a creative writer was long gone.
I wasn’t the writer I thought of myself as; I was a Headteacher. Only in my head was I a writer.

Writing – The Roy Harper biography

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Writing – The Roy Harper biography.

After having produced a series of Sci-fi novels and my Rock Music failures I had this idea of doing a Roy Harper biography. I’d been friends with Roy since 1967 and been to hundreds of his concerts. When living in London I used to catch two or three gigs a week, was at his recording sessions at Abbey Road and regularly popped round to his flat.
Since then we’d both moved. Roy had moved from Kilburn to Brixton and I’d moved to Hull. We saw a lot less of each other but I still hitch-hiked to gigs of his in York, Leeds and Liverpool. At that time we couldn’t afford a car.
I met up with Roy and shared my enthusiasm. I hit him at the right time and he was keen. He agreed.
I was ecstatic.
I organised what I was going to do. Roy came to stay a number of times and I recorded our interviews on a grotty old tape deck. It was appalling sound. We had a great time doing them. He was completely outspoken and honest.
I then made transcripts of the tapes and began organising the book.
I’d promised Roy that I would be completely up front and open; if there was anything he did not like I would omit it.
I showed him the raw transcripts and I could see he was not happy. He was not so keen. It had personal information about his mother and family that he was not sure he wanted putting out while people were still alive.
I put the biography idea to one side. We decided a book focused around the songs would be in order. I set off again.
Writing – The Roy Harper lyric book in Four Volumes.
Over the course of the next twenty years I worked on and off on the Roy Harper Lyric Book. My idea was to feature the Harper lyrics on one page and opposite have photos, explanation, anecdotes and gig talk to illustrate.
A lot of the lyrics were autobiographical so the story could come out through the songs.
I went to visit in Brixton and then in Spilsby in Lincolnshire, where he had moved to in order to escape the traffic congestion of the city, and finally to Ireland where he had set himself up with a house and studio.
We recorded tape after tape and I have thirty C90 tapes full.
Making the transcripts was slow and painful. I had to press play, type with my one finger, and rewind. It took forever.
I started patching things together and the project grew into four volumes. I had the finished article and gave it to Roy. He was happy with it. He called me up on stage and presented me with it, introducing me to the crowd and telling them it would soon be out. I released extracts from the book in the Roy Harper magazine Hors D’ Oeuvres.
It was going well. There was a final visit to Ireland to tidy up ends. We had a few disagreements about including some of the lesser songs and flow charts.
Then it went wrong. Roy decided it wasn’t right. He pulled it and produced his own book of lyrics.
I was stunned. I’d had twenty years working on it. I had hopes of it being a springboard to get my other writing out there.
I threw it in my crowded bottom drawer and moved on.

Writing – The Big Breakthrough!

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Writing – The Big Breakthrough!

By the eighties I was not making any impression on publishers. I had two bites at the bait. One of my Sci-fi books was considered, professionally read and ummed over. They decided not to go ahead.
I had been running a History of Rock Music course as an adult Education class. Times were tough. Teaching was poorly paid. The kids were on free school meals and we could not make ends meet. I moonlighted at a Youth Club and teaching evening classes in A Level Biology and Rock Music. It brought some money in.
I had a big collection of vinyl albums that I added to substantially in the process of teaching that course. Instead of bringing money in I was spending more than I was bringing in. Not a good idea.
I decided to write a book on what I knew best – Rock Music. I launched myself in with gusto, using my notes from the Rock Class, producing charts of influences, track lists and descriptions of genres and artists and liberally sprinkling anecdotes. By the time I had finished I had produced a four volume definitive history of some one thousand two hundred pages. I called it ‘Rock Strata’.
I sent it off and a Literary Agent was highly interested. Within a week he had got a publisher interested. I went to London for a meeting. The Publisher loved it. They wanted to publish.
I was delighted.
The only problem was that he was not willing to produce four volumes and one thousand two hundred pages. He thought it was too risky and would cost too much. He wanted me to base the book around the flow diagrams and cut it down to two hundred pages.
I was dismayed. What he was talking about was a different book altogether.
I went home and spent the entire summer holiday writing the new book. I got it down to two hundred and twenty five pages with twenty flow diagrams. I called it ‘Rock Streams’ and sent it off.
He was delighted. He loved the writing, concept and knowledge. He loved the flow charts. We talked technical issues concerning designing and producing the flow diagrams. He was worried about the cost. We sorted it.
I went down to Portsmouth to their publishing house and negotiated the deal. I was to receive an advance of £200. That was a substantial sum to me and solved all my financial worries.
I went back home and started writing a follow-up which I called ‘Under the Covers’. It was a great idea and one that I will rewrite one day.
It was just before Christmas and the cheque was due to arrive in late November. We rushed out and bought the kids Christmas presents – mountain bikes and gear. The cheque never arrived.
I rang and it was always in the post.
In January, after many awkward conversations with my bank manager, the publisher admitted that the book had been pulled. The board had considered the cost of the flow diagrams was too much. They also thought that it might be competing with Pete Frame’s Rock Family Trees – though the concept and execution were completely different. There was not going o be a cheque or a book.
My Literary Agent was apologetic. He thought it had been an unprecedented piece of bad management and I had been let down badly.
I went home and threw the manuscript in the bottom drawer along with the follow-up. I did not continue with the Literary Agent and just let everything lapse.

Writing – The early days – writing through the seventies.

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Writing – The early days – writing through the seventies.

Over the ensuing years the pattern continued. I felt the urge, had brainstorms of ideas and out would pop another novel. I would send it off and garnish the rejection slips.
I got used to it. At regular intervals I would start another project. My mind would fill like the memory cache of a computer, and it would splurge out of my one finger (I am a one-finger typist) until there was a great wadge of typed sheets with one that simply said – ‘The End’.
I started taking them in and using a machine at school to punch holes in the sheets. I purchased some spines and designed my own cardboard covers and made them into my own A4 books. They were rough and ready but I had a collection of my own work. I could see the end product of my hours of work.
I worked out that each one, with rewrites, notes and associated effort, took about a thousand hours of work. I’ve got a lot quicker since then.
My wife and friends stopped seeing me as a potential author. It was accepted that this was now a hobby and I would never achieve my aim of publishing and having a living off my creativity.
But for me the ideas refused to stop coming and I was still as enthusiastic about every venture. It was an obsession.
Sleep became my enemy and tiredness my limitation. I could happily work through the night. When the ideas were flowing it carried me along on a torrent and I could not stop. I did not get tired. But I had to limit myself. I made a deadline of three o clock. At that time I would stop and get some sleep. I knew that I would not function in the classroom without at least four hours sleep. If I had not been at work I would happily have continued writing until I dropped from exhaustion. I found it exhilarating.
The books piled up and the rejection slips sat in a file.