Its been a couple of days since I sat and blogged, to be honest not much has happened in the world of an aspiring author, well that is until last night when I drank too much. I know for some of you reading this it might be a shock because I dont actully drink as a rule. Last night was the exception. Two bottles of red wine and a couple of bottles of port between a great friend and myself, its taken its toll. I'm done, beaten, never again... So tonight is a quiet night in the

Well, we are in a process here at Atherton HQ. The process of waiting for the publisher to print the book and there is nothing we can do to make that happen any faster so...... Its national cake day, like we need a day to be set aside to eat cake, but it seems slightly wrong to deny ourselves today of all days so cake it will be. Now I'm more of a fruitcake man myself no icing or marzipan; just cake Now the current Mrs Atherton, she loves cake, any cake so with our evening La

This is a special day for the Scots, the ravenous, the drunkard and the Baird all descriptions of the many friends and indeed, family I know with a Scottish heritage god bless them all. I'm a fool for tradition, I love it, Haggis, Neeps and Taties are the traditional meal for a burns night supper, maybe a tipple of whiskey (please, a fine single malt for me) then dancing and kilts twirling, hair let down and thats just the men! beards set on fire (thats the women) they are a

I love Sundays, normally. This Sunday could be the exception, the weather is dull and wet but there are so many things to get on with. This week coming there are some important things happening in the world of Mike Atherton. A Shot from the Shadows will be born! Printing of said book will commence and my bank balance will look anorexic by Friday. The worry lines in my delicate forehead will deepen with every furrow looking like the San Andreas fault. Oh what fun, so I thought

The reason I became a writer in the first place is the grave on the right. Known unto God but not just God, the guy on the left died with him, he knew him they died on the same day from the same shell along with two mates. Cpl Stanesby, Pte's Atherton, Clarke and Miles all died on the 2nd May 1915 one big bang and it was over, one shell. Tragic. I pretty well dedicated a huge chunk of my life to finding out why my middle name is Charles and who he was and after a lot of work,

Everybody and everything is waiting for the launch of this book, Trust me no one is waiting more than me. So tonight we have taken a huge step forward in its publication, I have signed off the proofs, it is ready. Tomorrow the publisher should start to print the books and as a starter I have ordered 500 copies, as and when we get down to the last 100 I will order another 500 and so on. That way we can make it work. To say I'm excited would be one of the biggest understatement

In yesterdays news, the wreck of a World War One German U-boat has been discovered off the coast of Norfolk. The find occured when scans from windfarm developers showed the submarine lying about 55 miles (90km) east of Caister-on-Sea. The sunken vessel was a U-31, 58 metres long in size, reportedly went missing in January 1915 and there was reason to believe it had been struck a mine in the North Sea and thus sank. On board was a crew of 35 men, all of which died on board. T

Twitter it would appear is down today, its server has crashed and no twits or tweets are being uploaded. Could it be that there is a new user who is so popular that it has crashed the whole shooting match? Sara, (my excellent marketing geek) has opened an account for me on twitting but I'm older than a fossil so new technologies such as Twitter are always going to be a challenge. My friends all tell me it is the way forward and at some stage I will learn all about the finer p

It suddenly occurred to me whilst laying in bed this morning listening to the world complain about how cold it is, (It being winter, what a suprise) That some of you newbies to Mike Atherton wont have read anything I have written, how terribly remis of you. So in my flamboyant Lancastrian way I thought you should have a taster of the last book just to whet your appetite so to speak. Below is an extract from The Long Shot, I just know you will love it. CHAPTER 1 Jack The Somme

Having never been one for keeping a diary this "blog" world is proving to be a bit of a challenge. What do you say to all the people who read it, most I have never met ? So today, I am going to ask a question, please forgive me for its bluntness. Why are all the new people who are 'liking' my page not reading the books? Surely the books are the whole reason that they took the time to read my FB and webpage is because they are interested in the books and the subject matter the