It is with great excitement that I’m eagerly awaiting the forthcoming clash with Georgia after we defeated the mighty Gibraltar just a few days.  Such an exciting life.  I tried to watch that game but it proved too painful.  Hopefully the vodka will numb me this time.

To be honest I can see us losing to Georgia.  We just don’t have the talent that we used to like Roy Keane and Damien Duff.

Hopefully we’ll play well.  A 40,000 crowd is expected – poor sods.

 

Well readers for reasons I won’t explain here, I got up particularly early this Saturday morning.  That and the fact that someone is currently on the tv means that I’m already writing part 2, which you’ll find below but first a quick update for anyone out there that might care.  Oh how I can dream…

I wrote 700 words for the Ripper today already.  If I could keep this up, it would be finished in no time.  Maybe I should get up early every Saturday, no that’s just crazy talk.

I have a record number of views for this month, but I have written alot of posts so it’s a record that may last a while.

Remember to scroll down first to read Part 1 if you haven’t already.

Without further adieu

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“Bollocks!”

It wasn’t quite the reaction that Niall had expected after telling Detective O’Callaghan that the husband had a cast iron alibi.  He had been at a business meeting and four colleagues vouched that he was there at the time of the killing.

“Maybe, he got someone else to do it?” he foolishly suggested over his mobile phone.

He was now to discover why O’Callaghan though brilliant, was not the most popular in the station.

“Man, you cannot be serious.  It was a crime with passion, hatred behind it.  You can’t just buy that sort of thing!  Not even on the internet”

Niall explained that there was just no way it was him as he wondered how he had managed to get this liaison job.

“We’ll go there Thursday morning, not too early.  Meet me outside the house round 11am.  Tell the husband to be there.”

With that the line went dead and Niall was left wondering how he would explain to the husband that there were yet more questions to answer.

Quick Update – 16,000 words done in relation to “The Irish Ripper”.  I will get there eventually.  Hopefully I will speed up over the summer when I have some holidays.

So here it is, my first short story.  Note that it will be written in parts as I’m just too busy with the novel and everything to write it in one go.  I haven’t thought of a title yet.  Note that ordinary posts may appear in between the different parts, depending on what’s on my mind.  Please comment with your thoughts and suggestions.

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Niall knew there would be days like this when he was in the Garda Academy but no matter how much you believe you have steeled yourself, there is nothing quite like the reality.

A bloodied corpse of what was a quite beautiful forty year old woman lay in front of him.  Just him and the body as he waited on Detective Sean O’Callaghan to come.

Detective O’Callaghan was a living legend after his run in with “The Ripper” and he was now the go to person when a non gangland murder occurred in the Greater Dublin Region.  The fact he was a wheelchair user didn’t matter.  Fellow gardai would lift him up and over whatever stood in his way.  That wasn’t a problem this time.  This murder had occurred in a large bungalow in an affluent part of the city.

But Garda Niall Griffith had been warned .  O’Callaghan wasn’t exactly pleasant, whatever that was supposed to mean.

There was a loud knock on the door and Niall knew it must be him.   Once he opened the door, a scruffy disheveled man in civilian clothes wheeled himself in without saying a word heading straight to the body in the kitchen.  Niall quickly followed.

“This is a waste of time,” he finally said as he looked at the scene.

“What do you mean?” Niall said almost apologetically.

O’Callaghan then explained that his expertise was with serial killers, not this.  This murder was disorganized, probably a crime of passion.  Almost certainly the husband or someone like that.

“How do you know,” Niall replied, ferociously taking notes for his superior all the time.

Sean continued indignantly that that if you look at what is left of her face, she’s been hit repeatedly with the iron.  This was unplanned rage or else someone with a very low IQ.

After asking to be Niall to keep him updated, he wheeled himself out into the cold night as if he was just after having a cup of tea.

Well at least we won the argument about the roof.  It remained open and that was just about the best thing that could be said about the rugby match with Wales.  In fact maybe they should just have closed it.  We were poor, very poor as they calmly strutted to another Grand Slam.  It was all too easy for them.

Our half backs were woeful and should have been substituted earlier.  Maybe it’s a blessing that Joe Shmidt will be gone soon.

The biggest surpise of course was Scotland.  I really should have watched the whole match rather than switching over after England were 24 points up.  It was Twitter that much to my disbelief informed me they had come back to draw.  Never seen that one coming, at first I presumed Twitter had been hacked or something.

Of course none of this is good for Irish rugby, even though everyone likes England to do badly as Scotland are in our pool.  The least thing we need is the ignomy of getting knocked out in the first round.

So anyway readers, I’m still writing way.  Over 15,000 words done for the “Irish Ripper”.  Almost finished a particularity gruesome scene.  If I can manage it timewise, I’m going to start writing short stories about a paraplegic Irish detective who appears in the novel to whet peoples’ appetites.  Maybe an odd sci-fi one too.

I watched Deadpool 2 earlier.  Definitely strongly recommend that you watch it.  It’s almost as good as the original but not quite.  If you don’t know what I’m raving on about then lucky you, you get to see them for the first time.

Till next time..

So good news readers, the number of views on my blog for this year has already surpassed last year!  It stands at 218 views and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just me looking at it 218 times although I do have so much free time on my hands these days.

Seemingly I need well over a thousand monthly views to actually make any dosh but still.  If I just multiply and multiply and .. you get the drift.

I could retire early and retire to anywhere but a beach (not wheelchair friendly) and live the good life looking at all you mere peasants.  It would be good.

Don’t worry, I’d make up some problems and pretend not to have the perfect life so people can still relate to me and my writing, up there for thinking as they say.

I could buy the perfect wheelchair with little nails sticking out of my footrest in case I get any hassle and maybe a yacht like all other rich people.

Ah well, back to reality, at least for now 🙂

Reader, I’m just finished watching “Fertility Shock” on RTE and I’ve an urgent message for everyone – we need more babies and fast.  The main reason is we need to think about our pensions.  Like I want the best of holidays in old age.

Despite the panicky tone, there didn’t seem much other reason to be bothered.  It wasn’t like say global warming or nuclear war.  In fact, it’s hard to be concerned at all.

The documentary was unashamedly biased.  Babies are something good.  No mention of sleepless nights, a ruined sex life, puke or poo.  Instead it wanted to force parents to take time off to look after them.  I think the program makers got very confused at some point.

At the end, it implores us to start a conversation but all I could think of is that we need to do the opposite.  That way, people might foolishly continue to have them..

On a side note I see Brexit is still in chaos.  I feel sorry for poor future history students who will have to study this mess.  It would be hilarious, if Ireland wasn’t so affected.

Trigger Warnings, a relatively new phenomenon are now ubiquitous, especially on television.  I can easily remember a time without warnings and you were never quite sure what to expect from a tv series or a film until you actually watched it.

The motive for their introduction was obstensibly to warn people about potentially viewing difficult material and came from the same philosophical underpinnings as “safe spaces” and “micro-aggressions” on American campuses.  For instance and by far the most cited example is if you are a rape victim, you are entitled to be warned about the content of a programme so that you’re not forced to relive the experience.

Many psychologists disagree and this is a matter of some debate.

However, it has nevertheless caught on and trigger warnings  have become mainstream.

That is perhaps because they also serve a further function, a marketing one.  For instance, if I was flicking through the different channels and I get a warning that the following programme contains violence, sex, gore and scenes of horror – I go “yippee” and eagerly await what is about to come.

But recently I’ve noticed that I might be getting falsely warned.  On netflix, specifically the latest episode of Star Trek always “warns” me about upcoming sex, violence and gore.  Quite frankly, we must have completely different ideas of “gore” and sometimes the sex is non existent, unless they are talking about the plants pollinating each other or something.

Even Narcos warns me “about real dead bodies” in every episode.  They all looked quite alive to me in the last one.

I am feeling somewhat “untriggerred”.  This is surely even more serious surely, than being triggered.

Can I lodge some sort of complaint?  Will they laugh or take me seriously?

But even worse, think of the children!

They’re Mammies see the Warnings and suddenly Star Trek is off limits.

Or even worse –

All those teenage boys who have found out the password to the Netflix and want to watch some sex.  It will all seem so easy until…

What is the world coming to and how I yearn for those simpler times.

 

So I just received my first bit of fan mail for my writing.  My novel “Not the Usual Suspect” in particular .  I’d gotten encouraging emails before, but this was an actual hand written letter, how quaint I know.  It was just the one letter but it’s great to know there’s people out there who enjoy your work.

It gives you that extra push to keep going.

Now I just need a stalker and I’ll be sorted!

“The Irish Ripper” is coming along nicely.  Given I haven’t written much since my last post but that’s not too long ago.  Getting to an interesting part now where I detail how he starts attacking couples.  It doesn’t end too well for them.

Quite enjoying The Walking Dead at the moment.  Maybe it’s getting a tad bit too happy/romantic at the moment but here’s hoping it all leads to a grizzly ending.

Looking forward to Ireland playing France at the weekend.  They are usually good matches and hopefully this will be no different.  Expecting an Irish victory.

Well no prizes for guessing what I was watching today readers.  Yes it was the next film in the Purge franchise albeit, a prequel “The first Purge”.  Sky Movies gave it quite a low rating, only 1.5 out of 5 but I liked it much better than that, maybe a 3 out of 5.

For those new to the “Purge” franchise, the concept is that once every year in a dystopian United States, you will not be criminally liable for any murder or other criminal activity you commit during a twelve hour period.  There are no police during this time.  The idea is that psychologically you get to act out during this period and so will be fine for the rest of the year.

On the plus side it reduces crime for the rest of the year and there is lower unemployment.  On the negative side it turns out to be more about social cleansing and getting rid of the poor/black/brown people.

The racial aspect is most obvious in the latest instalment and it is made abundantly clear that african americans are being targeted.  In fact there are no moral/good/likeable white people in this film, which is fine with me.

The main hero is a leader of one of the drug gangs who decides to protect his community.  This I’m not so sure about, why does he bother when he’s peddling poison to the community the rest of the time?  Is it because they are white aggressors?

The purgers have their masks and the film does have its usual ghoulish quality so I’m definitely glad I saw it.

Still working away on “The Irish Ripper”.  14,000 words done.  Parts of it are hard to write and it’s hard to know if it’s just too violent.  Hopefully I’ll manage to strike the right balance.

To all my readers, remember my novels “Chronicles of Martan”, “Not the Usual Suspect” and “Paradigm” are all available on the Amazon website.

 

 

So it’s late now on a Saturday night and here I am writing to you my dear readers.  I’ve given this particular blog, the title “Narcos” cause that’s what been on my mind recently.  It’s a series on Netflix and I have to say it’s very good.

Watching it makes you think those in the Costra Nostra will go straight to heaven.  The violence and corruption is on a totally different scale altogether.

I do have to say that I think “Narcos Mexico”, which tells the story of the Sinaloa cartel is my favourite.  Perhaps because I was already familiar with the story of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel.

“The Walking Dead” on Fox is also back to its best.  Losing a few characters here and there seems to have done it the world of good along with the introduction of the latest enemy – The Whisperers.

“The Irish Ripper” is coming along slowly.  13,500 words done now.  Only a couple hundred done this week.  But I am writing a difficult part, what happens him psychologically to turn him into a vicious killer.

For the first time I’m thinking there could be sequels using the same fictional dectective.  Maybe a book of short stories, similar to the type of book that propelled Sherlock Homes into the public imagination.  Only time will tell but I have lots of ideas.

Sold two more electronic copies of “Not the Usual Suspect” recently.  It’s by far my best seller to date.  Perhaps I should try to advertise it or something.

Bye for now and remember – The Irish Ripper could be watching you..