Six short stories offering a surprising range of topics, this little group sets out to make the reader think a little. They range from deliberate rumour-spreading, the tale of a 1960s pop band, the interesting world of a vicar's wife and her sisters and a sporting tale. Add in a couple of other very short works and the whole becomes worthy of its description – 'thought-provoking'.Tea, Drums And Speed is just one of a set of short stories; it tells of a 1960s pop band metamorphosing. Elsewhere, there's a story speculating on how those bizarre rumours about 'celebrities' actually start, another about what flashes through the mind in the moments before a car accident and the tale of an Olympic athlete.These and others contribute to a whole that has been described in flattering terms – challenging, thought-provoking and enjoyable are just some of the terms that have already been used.The author would be very pleased to share these interesting little tales with you!

This little book is being offered free because it shows how, with a little bit of luck, a writer can become very, very rich.It's also being offered free because it shows how, with a little bit of poor research, a writer can suffer all sorts of very, very expensive bad things.Call it a cautionary tale that's fun to read.Martin Harrison wrote a book. It wasn't very good, but it got published. Somebody read it, somebody in the film industry, and he decided to make a movie based on the book. The sale of the film rights made Martin a rich man.His money got him a nice house, exotic cars and a young, blond wife.Somebody saw the movie and didn't like it.He didn't like it because Martin hadn't done his research properly and that failure led to a court action for libel and all sorts of other seriously bad things.If you're a writer you really should read this (it's free, so why not?) so you don't make the same mistakes that poor old Martin Harrison made.

The world has been devastated by a chemical war; humanity survives only in isolated pockets of civilisation. With a poisonous atmosphere closing in on one such pocket the community must decide what to do. The problem is that there is nowhere else on Earth they can go.Their destination must be somewhere that is not on the planet and they think they've found it.Maybe, just maybe, they have.After a global chemical war most of humanity has perished. Those who remain exist in isolated communities, not knowing if any other such communities survive. But the situation is getting worse: in one community its leaders know that if they don't leave they'll all be dead in a few years.There is a planet eleven light years away that might support life. If they can build a ship to get there, and if it is sufficiently Earth-like, and if there isn't a hostile civilisation living there already, they might just have a chance of a future.The decision is made to go. But the consequences of that decision are so much more dramatic than any of the travellers could ever have dreamt.This is the first novel in the author's 'First Contact' science fiction series. All are very different but have that common theme; man's first contact with alien life.

Wales – a bit of Great Britain that has punched above its weight globally but which has a population of not a lot more than two million people. So how much government does it need? The answer would seem to be 'a lot', qualified, sadly, by 'but not necessarily good government'. That and financial services regulation are the themes explored here.There are three essays in this work: a commentary on the Welsh Government's economic development strategy, another on elections to that Government and a third, unrelated, on the position of financial services providers in Britain generally.It is easy to be critical, but these essays offer constructive alternatives to the status quo drawn from years of practical, day-to-day experience.