charles barrow's writing

Please follow the link to Smashwords.com to download your free copy of The Stolen Days of John Mann. This book is the first part of the John Mann trilogy, All the Days of John Mann. You can choose to download the book in an epub, mobi for Kindle, or pdf format. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do then please consider leaving a review, because that would really help me out. Thank you.  https://www.smashwords.com/books

Please follow the link to Smashwords.com to download your free copy of The Stolen Days of John Mann. This book is the first part of the John Mann trilogy, All the Days of John Mann. You can choose to download the book in an epub, mobi for Kindle, or pdf format. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do then please consider leaving a review, because that would really help me out. Thank you.  https://www.smashwords.com/books

I've been pirated. I've had one of my books - The Stolen Days of John Mann - stolen (oh the irony). A website that calls itself an on-line library, has been recruiting 'editors' whose task it is to upload ebooks that will then be available to download from the site. The 'library' doesn't seem to much care where their 'editors' are sourcing their uploads from. Obviously self-published authors are an easy target for this kind of scam because we have no big publishing house behind us to threaten legal action if the uploads aren't removed. Users subscribe to the site and pay a membership fee for access to all the 'free' content. So the website's creators are receiving payment for content that they don't own, and the authors and creators of said content get nothing, no royalties at all.  I found out about this this morning from @BookSpotlight on Twitter. They tweeted about it as several authors had contacted them to highlight what was ...

The Stolen Days of John Mann Chapter One ‘Dear Lord, thank you for the food before us, the fire in the grate, and the roof above our head. Please spare those we love and keep us safe from harm. Amen.’ John Mann opened his eyes and placed his hands in his lap as David and Helen repeated the blessing. The boy turned in his seat to face Mann. ‘You changed the words Father.’ He has his mother’s bright eyes, thought Mann. ‘David.’ This was a rebuke from his mother. ‘The boy is right.’ Said Mann. ‘Why’d you change them?’ Asked David. ‘Prayer doesn’t lose its aim because I change some words.’ ‘God still hears you?’ ‘Always. We should never be afraid of straying from familiar paths to find new ones, even when we’re told there is only one way forward.’ David looked puzzled, ‘But Mrs Ginty says…’ ‘That’s enough son, eat your supper.’ Helen levelled a firm look at Mann. ‘It’s best we don’t have talk that runs counter to David’s schooling.’ ‘Forg...

I was doing a review of character names in The Stolen Days of John Mann and in The Darkening Days of John Mann. I've made that sound like a very complicated admin task involving a database, or at the very least a spreadsheet, but actually I have all my character names written in columns on a sheet of A4, pinned to the wall above my writing desk. Very low-tech. I had just written in a new, young female character, she'll enter stage right, say her few lines and then exit and probably never be heard from again. But still, I wanted to give her a decent name, and more importantly I didn't want to repeat one I may have used for another minor character. I have a cast of thousands now and can't keep track, hence the name list. Anyway, as I scanned through that list I realised, with a jolt, that I haven't used, discarded, or stored away a single name that has more than two syllables in it. And I don't know why that should be either. But it's odd isn't it? I fel...

I started writing this post, in draft, way back in January. After several posts in the closing months of last year detailing the progress of Book 2, The Darkening Days of John Mann, I suddenly leapt to a post declaring it finished and published without me having said anything about the very last part of that process. That is what the bulk of those January scribblings were concerned with, so rather than let them die a quiet death I post them here now.  I published The Darkening Days of John Mann on 26th December 2014. I self-published it in ebook format, on Smashwords.com and was very happy to see it ship quickly to Barnes and Noble. I'm thinking though that I could have chosen a better time of year to launch it, and wonder if its impact wasn't blunted by putting it out at Christmas. At the time I just chose a moment when I had a bit of breathing space in the mad dash that is the festive season. Two weeks prior to launch day I had drawn up a list of some 20 tasks I needed to...

The first part of John Mann's story, The Stolen Days of John Mann is free to download at Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble. 

I just had to write a book blurb, a short summary of the plot of The Darkening Days of John Mann for its download page at Smashwords. I had to summarise the whole story in a nutshell, I hoped for a coconut, I got a pecan. 400 characters was all I was allowed and by the time I had pointed out that this was the second story in a series I had very little room left for manoeuvre. It doesn't help that I insist on such long titles. Thank heaven then for all those precis exercises in English lessons at school. Here is what I arrived at; Part 2 of All The Days of John Mann. Continues the story that began in The Stolen Days of John Mann. Choke survivor John Mann and ally Gunnar continue their search for David through a land ravaged by the fatal virus. While Dr Russell's hunt for Mann bears fruit, an unseen net tightens around them. Danger, betrayal and death are the common coin, Mann's ability to kill or cure is the ultimate prize. A grand total of 399 characters. I might tr...

I mentioned a while back that a cover redesign was in the works. Jess has worked hard on it and I'm thrilled with the results. Please welcome the new cover for The Stolen Days of John Mann.

I'm happy to announce that I published The Stolen Days of John Mann on 9th January 2014. It is currently available at Smashwords and Barnes and Noble in an ebook format. Click on the book cover image to the right and you'll be taken to the Smashwords site where you'll be able to download the book in the format of your choice. If you enjoy my story please take a few minutes to leave a review.

‘Dear Lord, Thank you for the food before us, the fire in the grate, and the roof above our head. Please spare those we love and keep us safe from harm. Amen.’ Mann opened his eyes and placed his hands in his lap as David and Helen repeated the blessing. The boy turned in his seat to face Mann. ‘You changed the words Father.’ He has his Mother’s bright eyes, thought Mann. ‘David.’ This was a rebuke from his Mother. ‘The boy is right.’ Said Mann ‘Why’d you change them?’ asked David. ‘Prayer doesn’t lose its aim because I change some words.’ ‘God still hears you?’ ‘Always. We should never be afraid of straying from familiar paths to find new ones, even when we’re told there is only one way forward.’ David looked puzzled, ‘But Mrs Ginty says…’ ‘That’s enough son, eat your supper.’ Helen leveled a firm look at Mann. ‘It’s best we don’t have talk that runs counter to David’s schooling.’ ‘Forgive me, I meant no complication. It’s the hunger addled my t...

All Hallows was their favourite celebration, and as the oldest group amongst the youngsters it had fallen to John and his friends to organize the party. He, Tom and the other boys had spent all day carving Jack O’Lanterns and moving hay bales while the girls had been preparing food, and Jonas Pike’s cousin had promised to secretly source three bottles of Barb wine that he said lived up to the name this year. The barn on Tom’s father’s farm was the chosen venue, after pledges were made to keep naked flames and hay bales a goodly distance apart, and lectures about improper behaviour, keeping masks on and strangers out had been endured. The parents would be gathering in the farmhouse nearby and would know immediately if things were getting out of hand. Two hours into the party and masks were down. Tom and he had been conniving to get Anna Thomas and Gillian Hand to dance with them. Neither lad cared to dance but both cared very much about getting their arms around some pretty girls....

Mann woke with a cry wrenched from deep inside his chest. He kicked to be free of the sodden sheets that wrapped him tight. The bedroom door flew open and Keen appeared holding a lighted lamp. ‘The dream?’ Mann nodded and fought to catch his breath. Keen moved to the bed and Mann stopped her with a raised hand. ‘I’m wet with sweat.’ ‘I’m not afraid of you.’ Keen placed the lamp on the nightstand. ‘You should be.’ ‘It’s hard to be scared of a man when you’ve cleaned his rump.’ Mann grimaced and Keen laughed. ‘Where’s my undershirt?’ he said. ‘Still drying, we laundered your clothes.’ He lifted pleading eyes to hers and with a sigh she left the room. Mann sat breathing deeply, calming himself. When Keen returned she handed him the vest. ‘You still panic without it.’ Mann struggled to pull on the stiff, rough garment, remembering the punch of the dart it had baffled. He saw Keen eyeing the raw skin across his shoulders and chest. ‘It keeps my...

Mann stood in the wooded palace gardens, the smoke from the fire barrels stung his eyes, and the stench of burning fish oil turned his stomach. He had hoped to find an easy entry to the palace, but that seemed unlikely on this side of the building.   Suddenly, the cold, insistent pressure of a gun barrel pressed behind his ear forced him to step sideways away from the tree that he thought had him hidden. He had been so lost in thought he had heard no one approach and been caught as easily as a kit. He waited a moment, expecting either a command or a bullet but since neither came he chanced to edge slowly around to see his assailant. The one called Barge, Helen’s executioner. He was muffled this time but Mann could still see the grimace on his face and a certain vacant light mixing with the sudden fear in his eyes as he recognized Mann. Was he dull witted? Mann cast back to the big man’s behaviour in Helen’s kitchen, perhaps so. The idea gave Mann a moment, but only a moment,...