picture from A Londoner From Afar

This is the day of course that in 2013 David Bowie made an unexpected comeback with the song ‘Where Are We Now’ after a mysterious ten year exile. For that reason I am always conscious that something special might happen on the occasion of the great man’s birthday. This year something Bowie related was released on his birthday, Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol), my long awaited short story that was conceived while playing on the park with my dog and written down on a cigarette packet (true, I still have it in my archive somewhere). I have been desperate to release this story but have had to wait as I wanted the release date to be his birthday, and despite some problems regarding my Internet connection I managed to stick with it.

I had booked today as ‘holiday’ from Crown Court in order to publicise the release and to be on call if needed. Despite some pre-planning on my behalf no radio or print interviews were booked, which goes to show the struggle that indie artists like me have to contend with. An agent would need paying and I can’t afford to give a commission because all the money I make from my input is based on donations and I want to be able to keep it that way so that I can invest the money in making new projects. The best option I have is the advertising blitz that I undertook this afternoon, more of which in a moment.

My day started badly with me not waking up until eleven because Mandi just left me to sleep when she went to work. I had to take Jack for a walk before heading into town on an errand in relation to my dodgy Internet signal and making a complaint. You have to complain in person because company websites never have a way of registering a complaint online. Once I had sorted that out I was able to get home and pick up my laptop and Jack before going to my dad’s to use his wifi signal. I felt a bit guilty because I had promised Jack we’d go to the park and play with his ball but time simply didn’t allow it, I know he’s a dog but he understands. Besides, it’ll be Saturday soon and we can play all morning.

Bowie Day (assibACC) eventually went on release at teatime, but thanks to Kindle being too slow to upload and update I had to issue a newsletter to say that I would be selling it via the ‘donate’ option. To be honest, this method works better for me because I don’t have to give a hefty slice to Amazon although I will keep it available for Kindle for the time being. Even if I say so myself, this is a story that I am proud of having never written fiction before (not properly anyway – I once attempted to write a dark comedy called What Happened to The Muppets? and I used to make up little stories for Emily when she was younger and I once typed one of them up but didn’t publish it) and it does deserve a big audience. My main advertising assault came from using Twitter to link to the newsletter and tagging in key people for a cheeky retweet, a method that seemed to work although David Bowie himself hasn’t acknowledged it. If he wants to get in touch I am willing to send him a copy, I’ll even hand deliver it if he wants to invite me in for tea and cake.

To receive a copy of Bowie Day (a short story inspired by A Christmas Carol), simply make a donation of one pound or more using the PayPal button above this blog and then emailing me with ‘I paid a pound or more (Bowie)’ in the subject line and a copy will be sent straight away. My email address is steveEoliver@gmail.com

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Details on my audio books and other work for sale and how your donations can help me to create free entertainment can be found on my Shop & Donations page.

This week’s edition of The Sunday Alternative is here.