I have spoken before in these blogs of the lessons to be learned about the many dangers of creation – take a bow the Monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, sketch a smart salute HAL from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bastard children, the pair of them. I have also spoken before about my own personal cross to bear – the shameless, ill-tempered, evil-minded, deeply ungrateful Jim Mullaney… and now I’m going to do it again.
This particular child of my mind never misses a chance to use his own blog to give me a metaphorical kick in the pants. He attacks me constantly over my quite natural desire to get on with my own writing rather than pandering to his bloody excesses. He calls me names, insults my modest talents, accuses me of incompetence. There is no end to his fiendish taunts. And you know, I wouldn’t mind quite so much if I didn’t give him so much attention anyway. I even gave him his own space right here on my personal website!
I have recently completed and published his second collection of short horror stories, with 8 long-ish short stories I would have been happy to put my own name to, let alone his. Moreover, I tried to drum up a little boost for his sales and ranking by putting the new book up for pre-order – and it worked (sorta). For a very brief moment in time immediately following publication he was up to a ranking of 22nd in his category, up there with the Stephen King’s of the world. I’ve also espoused his cause on Facebook and Twitter, I’ve posted here, there, and everywhere, I almost sold my soul to the… Well, I did a lot, and all for him.
And is he grateful? Take a look at this link and decide for yourself…