TRYING TO COME UP WITH AN IRRESISTIBLE CLICKBAIT TITLE - NEVER MIND, I'LL LEAVE THIS HERE

 

GENRE APPRECIATION: THE WESTERN

 

Write Drunk, Edit Sober

 Write drunk, edit sober - Hemingway said or didn't really but the much repeated quote has long been attributed to the writer and it's a good story. It sums up the public image of ole Papa even if it is actually the opposite of the truth. Hemingway was indeed a man who liked, nay loved a drink but he wrote in the morning, and didn't start drinking until the afternoon . 

Still, when legend becomes fact print the legend.

Image, pop culture and exaggeration have done the business, built the myth and it's easy to visualise a slavering, red eyed, finger-stumbling, Scotch-scarred Hemingway at the keyboard.

Still, as I sit at my screen, three O'clock in the morning and raise a glass of Johnny Walker Black and mouth that salacious quote - 'Write Drunk, Edit Sober' - It is Hemingway I think of.

Cheers mate!

Interview

 I was interviewed over the weekend by Donna Morfett - Donna's become something of an influencer in the crime fiction field, with her reviews gaining a large readership. 

Donna is something of a crime fiction aficionado and she also hosts a vibrant Facebook page, blog, podcast and You Tube Channel - all of which give indie authors some much needed exposure.

You can find the interview embedded below.

 

Down Among the Dead is Available now

The Red Beret by Gary Dobbs

 My latest title for Commando Comics is available in shops now, alongside three other all action stories - current titles are Survive Leningrad, I was a Nazi General, Flying High and my own story Red Beret. Commando have been publishing for 60 years with their first titles appearing way back in 1961.

I never fail to get a kick when I see an issue with my name on it - I've been reading the comic books since I was a snobby nosed kid and so actually being involved with the line feels mighty fine indeed.

My own particular effort which details a dangerous pre-D-Day mission to destroy a vital bridge is drawn by the talented Jaume Forns and housed within a moody cover drawn by Mark Harris.

The tattered red beret sat upon Major John Bell’s head. He and his crack team of paratroopers were on a suicide mission to destroy a bridge to clear the way for D-Day operations. They all knew the risks, they all knew that they might not come back —but they were brave and their determination was like no other!

So why did Bell wear a tattered red beret when his men donned their helmets? As a symbol of survival and luck he hoped would take them to victory!

 

Story: Gary Dobbs

Art: Jaume Forns

All issues are also available in digital editions.

Available now

Armistice

Available now in both print and digital editions.


Looks at the Cardiff Pals and other local regiments who fought in the Great War and how the experience of war impacted on the area, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Cardiff were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. An important place for Coal export this book looks at how the balance between working and fighting was achieved by the Dockyard workers

The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Meanwhile, men serving in the armed forces were scattered far and wide. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.



Amazon, Pen and Sword Books, Waterstones and anywhere books are sold.....

Sunlight a hundred years dead

Watching filmed footage of the First World War one gets an odd sensation - we are aware that what we are witnessing are horrific events, and yet there is so much distance between now and then that it is difficult to fully appreciate the enormity of the situation presented in the grainy film. The movements of the men on the screen seems jerky, almost as if they were created by animation and the explosions are merely puffs of smoke, fleeting and seemingly insubstantial. Photography is basically the capture of light and what we are watching is sunlight a hundred years dead.

Prior to starting work on my book, Cardiff and the Valley's In The Great War (published Feb 28th 2015 by Pen and Sword Books), my knowledge of the so called Great War was limited to a list of dates and major battles. But by the time I finished the book I had a far greater understanding of the conflict. It had been brought closer to me, and now I saw it as a very human story. No longer was it some far distant war, the combatants made up of anonymous names and faces, the devastation lessened by the passing of the years, but something very real, something that I felt on a deeply emotional level. There were times when I was writing that I found tears in my eyes - one such instance was when I detailed the eventual fate of the Cardiff Pals, but there were others too. Writing the book had brought me closer to these soldiers who long before I was born took to the foreign fields to protect a way of life for future generations...for you and me, if you like.

The research for the book was immense and I spent many hours going through old newspapers in Cardiff's excellent Central Library, covered many miles traveling up and down the country visiting graveyards and the offices of military records and on several occasions meeting people who had stories to tell of relatives who had fought in the war.

I am immensely proud of this book. 

I do hope many of you pick up a copy.



Cardiff in The Great War - Looks at the Cardiff Pals and other local regiments who fought in the Great War and how the experience of war impacted on the area, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Cardiff were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. An important place for Coal export this book looks at how the balance between working and fighting was achieved by the Dockyard workers The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Meanwhile, men serving in the armed forces were scattered far and wide. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.


The book can be purchased now from any bookshop and there is also a Kindle version available.

This November will see the publication of a companion volume that looks at the second world war.

Keep Calm and Read On

Following the success of my book, Cardiff and the Valleys in the Great War , the publishers commissioned a follow up to be entitled Cardiff at War 1939 - 1945. As you can imagine the book requires a lot of careful research and recently while going through news archives I found a newspaper article from January 1940 that I'd like to share here.

It seems that during the early years of the war there was a spike in reading - I'm not sure if this was nationwide but Cardiff library found itself incredibly busy. So much so in fact that the library collected together its data and told the South Wales Echo of its most popular titles.

Black Out Makes Cardiff Read More, the newspaper headlined. which means there must have been a lot of candles burning behind those black out curtains. Though as of yet I've not found an article on the spike in candle sales  - Escapist fiction was understandable extremely popular, as was Richard Llewellyn's beautiful How Green was my Valley - apparently people who saw the hardships of the coal mining industry first hand also enjoyed reading about them. The public were also very keen to educate themselves on the background of the crisis in Europe and books about Germany and Hitler in particular were hired out often. Hitler' s Mein Kampf was eagerly read, as was Hitler Speaks which reproduced a lot of the mad little Charley Chaplin impersonator's speeches.


There was also a revival in classic literature and Wuthering Heights was particularly popular.

As a book lover myself, a constant reader I took great pleasure from reading the article, and it's nice to think of all those people hunched over a book in the dimness of the black out - I wonder what they would have thought of the Kindle Paperwhite?

Cardiff and the Valleys in the Great War (Pen and Sword Books) is available now in both print and electronic formats. Check it out by CLICKING HERE

Cardiff at War 1939 - 1945 is scheduled to be published December 2018.

Where the Dead things are.....

Available now in print and eBook -my new crime/mystery thriller.

1940 – France has fallen and Britain stands alone against the might of the German war machine; a fierce battle for supremacy of the air rages in the skies as the Battle of Britain hits full stride.

For Chief Inspector Frank Parade, and his much depleted team there are many challenges to policing the small Welsh mining village of Gilfach Goch, for whilst miles away from the theatres of war the Home Front faces unique challenges of its own. The wartime demands thrown on the country mean that each officer in Parade’s team must do the work of two men – three even.

Soon the already overwhelming workload is increased when not one but two bodies turn up, and Parade finds himself having to investigate two murders as well as cope with everything else thrown his way.

‘Chief Inspector Frank Parade is going to become the new superstar cop. An excellent book.’ *****

'The wartime setting is authentic, the suspense well handled. Highly recommended.' ****

Available from Amazon, iBooks, Playstore

How Cardiff and the surrounding valleys faced the dreaded might of the Nazis.

Today I got the first proof of my forthcoming book, Cardiff and the Valleys At War 1939 - 1945. It's due to be published this November from Pen and Sword Books.

 I love this stage of the book production - of course the indexing can be a bit of a slog, but I enjoy the polishing. It is at this stage that I get to see how the work is going to look as a finished book, and I get to tease out any edits that may have escaped the proofreading team. Though, believe me the proofreaders know the business, and without fail they kick my humble scribblings into shape.

The JPG left shows the PDF proof currently on my desktop - I'm reading through it at the moment, have taken a few minutes to bash out this blog post. I may also have a coffee and some chocolate chip cookies before getting back to the grindstone. Hey, that's the writing life!

My association with Pen and Sword Books is something I'm very proud of - my two previous titles for the company - Cardiff and the Valleys During the Great War and the true crime study, Dark Valleys are doing well for me, and only this week I signed a contract to write another title for 2019 publication; this one will be another true crime study - entitled, A Date with the Hangman it looks at the history of capital punishment in the UK.

Not bad for a snobby nosed kid with little if any formal education!

Check out Dark Valleys

Check out Cardiff and the Valleys in the Great War


Cardiff and the Valleys at War 1939 - 45, looks at the Home Front during the dark years of WWII,

and once again I was left feeling amazed at the way ordinary people faced up to the hardships of war, at the way they stood firm against everything the enemy threw at them - this was a time when death could and frequently did come without warning. The blitz was something that spread terror not just in Wales but across the UK - These ordinary people faced all that and in return stuck two fingers up to Adolf Hitler.

Of course the book also contains stories of incredible humour, of people pulling together - there are darker stories of the black market but even so there are heart warming tales within these pages. I was left feeling humbled and deeply proud to do my little bit to preserve these stories for future generations.

The people who lived through this war have often been called the greatest generation, and after researching this book I am inclined to agree with that assessment.

Cardiff and the Valleys at War will be available from December 2019
Find Pen and Sword Books HERE

Rest in Peace Sweet Lady - how one woman became a cultural icon

I spent the best part of last year working on the book, Cardiff and the Valleys at War 1939-1945, which will be published later this year from Pen and Sword Books. The book, like the previous volume Cardiff and the Valleys During the Great War, concentrates on the Home Front during those dark wartime years.

WWII was very much a people's war - with both Britain and Germany waging total war - in other words every man, woman and child did their bit for the war effort. Those not serving in the military carried out essential war work, raised funds for the war effort. And make no mistake about it - World War II was indeed a total war - The conduct of WWII by both sides provides many examples of mass mobilization of industry and civilians into the war effort, and the deliberate infliction of civilian casualties, targeted destruction of civilian property, infrastructure, food, supplies, etc.

Now in one section of the book I look at the way the government used posters to encourage not only recruitment into the armed services but also into many of the civilian organisations needed to ensure the country was able to sustain itself during the long war. There are many examples of these posters in the book, but one that is now particular poignant is an American poster, designed to urge women into the factories during the conflict.

Known as Rose the Riveter, it became a cultural icon of the war years and continues to be so into the modern day. The reason for its poignancy is that the woman who inspired the poster, a California waitress named Naomi Parker Fraley, passed away in January of this year at the age of 96.

Rosie the Riveter became the subject and title of a song and a Hollywood movie during WWII.

Over the years, a welter of American women have been wrongly identified as the model for Rosie, the war worker of 1940s popular culture who became a feminist touchstone in the late 20th century, but it was Mrs. Fraley who staked the most legitimate claim of all. But because her claim was eclipsed by another woman’s, she went unrecognized for more than 70 years. And it wasn't until 2016 that she was officialy recognised as the woman behind the iconic image.

“I didn’t want fame or fortune,” Mrs. Fraley told People magazine in 2016, when her connection to Rosie first became public. “But I did want my own identity.”

Mrs. Fraley, right, in September 2016 with her younger sister, Ada Wyn Parker Loy

The article, published in the People magazine,  brought journalists to Mrs. Fraley’s door at long last.

“The women of this country these days need some icons,” Mrs. Fraley said in the People magazine interview. “If they think I’m one, I’m happy.”

Interviewing Mrs. Fraley in 2016, The World-Herald asked her how it felt to be known publicly as Rosie the Riveter.

“Victory!” she cried. “Victory! Victory!”

Victory indeed for even today the poster continues to inspire and is reproduced over and over- used to promote cause after cause - maybe feminism being the most obvious, but it is heartening to think that in these days of instant fame, quite often underserved, that people like Naomi will eventually be recognised for the role they played. The cultural importance of Rose the Riveter can not be overstated.


THE STORY OF THE SEARCH FOR THE REAL ROSE

Below are more iconic wartime posters.

 

Not banned by Amazon...well, not yet

Available in print and eBook

The eBook version can be read on eReaders, Tablets, Laptops, Smart Phones

Gary M. Dobbs Interview

There's an interview with your truly over at the blog of the noir-master Paul D Brazil - find it HERE

Down Among the Dead is available now in both print and eBook.

The Reluctant Terrorist is about to go live

Get ready for the end of the month when the Reluctant Terrorist is set free. Chaos will ensue.

Set deep within the picturesque Welsh valleys lies the quiet village of Gilfach. Nothing ever happened in the village until - the peacefulness is shattered by a confusion of killer clowns and a full-scale terrorist hunt.


John Smith is an everyday sort of man with everyday concerns. He spends his time working at the local supermarket, walking his dog and arguing with his domineering wife, Rose. However, John Smith, thanks to a bizarre series of events, most of which were beyond his control, finds himself with the tag of Britain’s most wanted.






John Smith is the reluctant terrorist.

Both in print and eBook.

For Kindle and other electronic reading devices.

More than a century of murder.

AVAILABLE NOW ANYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD.....

Get ready

Gilfach was a quiet Welsh village set deep within the picturesque valleys – Was, being the operative word since the peacefulness is shattered by a spate of killer clowns and a full scale terrorist hunt.
John Smith is an everyday sort of man with everyday concerns. He spends his time working at the local supermarket, walking his dog and arguing with his domineering wife, Rose.

Soon however John Smith through a series of events completely beyond his control finds himself with the tag of Britain’s most wanted.

John Smith is the reluctant terrorist.

The real Jack Martin

To celebrate the forthcoming release of my  western Wild Bill Williams in digital format - published this November from Piccadilly Publishing  and available for pre-order NOW, I thought I'd post a little something about the man who gave me my pen name.

And so I present the real Jack Martin

Jack Martin. The man whom I looked up to as a kid, he seemed ten feet tall, and the man whose name I use for my western fiction.

Jack Martin was a coal miner in the South Wales coal fields - indeed it was the dust from this environment that eventually killed him - pneumoconiosis, black lung disease,was common among a certain age group in the village I was raised in. The  sound of chesty coughs would accompany the dawn chorus across the village and sticky mementoes of the coal mines would fill handkerchiefs held in the scarred hands of the old colliers.

The original

 Coal mining, given the then primitive conditions was a  arduous job, and in those days there was only basic safety equipment. Lives were often lost in explosions and one time the level where my grandfather was working flooded and over 20 men were drowned. That was all before I was born. I learned much of this from my grandmother and Gramp never really talked about it.

I was born in 1965 and Gramps had retired by the time I was five so I can't really remember him working, though he was never idle and his garden gave us the best tomatoes around . He was a tall man, always dressed immaculately, even when doing the garden he wore a shirt and tie, as people of his generation did. He grew incredible tasty vegtables  and my first ever paid job was collecting horse manure from the mountain for his garden. I think he gave me something like 10p a bucket which was good money in those far off days when the world was black and white and the sun always shone.

My Grandmother often referred to him as Father Christmas and although they would argue as people did in those days, about anything really - leaving the door open, not wiping your feet and trampling garden over the mat, their relationship was a strong and loving one. They both spoiled me rotten and I always got the latest comics and would go on the annual British Legion day trip to Porthcawl with them. Though often only me and my nan went. Gramps stayed home and probably went for a sneaky pint down the legion. He did so like a sneaky pint or two.

Hey, sorry about the ancient history but I feel almost old enough to remember black and white radio.

My nan and grandfather, possibly the 1930's

Gramps loved the westerns and was always reading a western novel. When there was a western on TV I would watch it with him and he would tell me stories of when he was in the wild west (completely invented, of course. The furthest West he ever went was Tonypandy) and in these stories he would be teamed up with John Wayne or Gary Cooper but never Clint Eastwood - he never really liked him and would refer to him as an unshaven hooligan. As a young boy I believed every word of these wild stories:

That he had been a one legged fighter pilot in the war, that
he had been there when Custer arm-wrestled Wyatt Earp for the price of a drink, that he had smoked the peace pipe with both Geronimo and Sitting Bull.

Jack Martin MK 2

Gramps was a natural storyteller.

Jack Martin - it was his  love of westerns that was passed onto me and apart from the fact that Eastwood is my all time fave, our tastes are very much the same - John Wayne is still the ultimate man's man, and the cowboy creed is a  design for life.

When I published my first western novel, Tarnished Star with Robert Hale LTD (now available as LawMaster)  I was proud that it contained the byline - by Jack Martin. When trying to decide on a pen name to keep my western fiction separate from my other stuff it was only natural to use Gramp's name.

He's been gone now for longer than I care to remember,  and I still miss him but I guess he's still here, inside me - his ideals, his ways, his humour and every one of my westerns that has seen print  is as much his work as mine. For without him I would never have developed my interest and love for the American West.

So saddle up and check out Jack Martin's western page HERE

Bill's back

The lady's got a way with murder

Granny Smith Investigates, originally published in 2012, was the book that introduced the world to Granny Smith - that senior sleuth, that pipe puffing, heavy metal loving force of nature. The book has and continues to be very successful, several times appearing in the top ten listings on various eBooks charts, and receiving some glowing reviews across the untamed wilderness of the world-wide web.
This month saw the publication of the fourth book in the series, Murder Plot but also saw the first Granny Smith launched in an audiobook edition.
The audio book version has been narrated by talented voice actor, Fiona Thraille, and is currently out there for sale at Audible, Amazon and iTunes. Ain't technology wonderful! Now I'm not exactly a Luddite it terms of tech, particularly as it relates to the modern writer, but I find myself amazed at how the Kindle eBook version synchs with the audiobook version. If you own both the eBook and audiobook - and read say 10 pages of the eBook then as soon as you press play on the audiobook it will start from where you have left off in the eBook. This works in reverse too with the eBook synching to the last position in the audiobook. I find that quite amazing! Spooky even - it's witchcraft!

"The story then follows Granny Alice Mary Smith into various stages of the mystery in a humorous but intense way. The book is beautifully written and is a pleasure to read. The Miss Marple references are not only in our mind but the author has made them too, calling Granny Smith as “Miss Marple on steroids”

It is a cozy and wonderful murder mystery, the likes of which, I have not read for a long time. Agatha Christie story lovers must catch this book. It brings back many memories of age old murder mystery classics." Goodreads five star review for Granny Smith Investigates