Richard Bown

Learning from the last week: when you pitch a bookshop in person, it really helps if you speak to the owner. #writingcommunity #selfpublishing

Some of these places were where me or my family lived in Sandwich. Some of them made it into “Human Software”

Sitting on Folkestone beach

I've been travelling around South-East Kent today, marvelling at the number of housing developments that have sprung up and being amazed that the road infrastructure hasn't been updated to cope with them. It's a bit of a joke, really. I have some inspiration for Book 2. #writingcommunity #kent

Brilliant day of two halves today. Lovely enthusiastic bookshop owners on the one hand, slightly less welcoming and interested ones on the other. I understand it's tough for independent booksellers, but it's also for authors, so best to be polite just in case. Just sayin' #booksky #writingcommunity

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Brewdog: Bars close and hundreds lose jobs as beer firm sold in £33m deal Beverage and cannabis company Tilray acquires the brewery, the brand and 11 bars after Brewdog went into administration.

Yeah punk as fuck. In that a couple got super rich off the back of a successful grass roots marketing strategy. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’ve not seen some brilliant bands recently

Winners will be announced in one week, and I’ll ship signed copies directly.

Let’s celebrate Kent, tech, and the thrill of corporate intrigue!

Good luck!

How to enter:

❤️ Like this post
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✉️ Send me a DM or email with your name and contact details

You can contact me through the HUMAN SOFTWARE website, where the full T&Cs are listed. Link in the comments.

If you work in IT, tech, or related fields, this is a story you might find uncomfortably familiar — corporate politics, software pressures, and ethical dilemmas collide in a fast-paced data centre thriller.

Human Software bookshot

I'm heading over to the UK this week to tour HUMAN SOFTWARE around some bookshops in the part of the world it's set in - South East Kent. To celebrate, I’m giving away 10 signed copies of my corporate/IT thriller, Human Software.

humansofwarebook.com

#writingcommunity #books #authors

A suitable thread for St David's Day

Great advice for writing

Make that five things because, honestly, I could just write a book about the history of the Admiral Owen and that itself would be pretty staggering. A murder. My mum was convinced there was a ghost. www.dover-kent.com/Admiral-Owen...

What I've found is that I've started about four things in the last month, and all of them have spawned their own things, so right now I have to pick one and get on with it.

Actually, this might be the start of the book *after* the current book. But I do love the tension in this picture.

It would be nice to see a movement that was kind of an adjunct to tech conferences, i.e., a comedy track, and ideas for making that happen. This might encourage me to actually go to a few more.

The starting point of my next book. Fun fact, during the Great Storm of 87, I was in a bedroom on the right of this pub, and a chimney fell through the roof just above my bed. Good job that the beam was there and nice to see another chimney getting some TLC back in 2016.

YES. A very good idea if, as you say, it's sufficiently scummy and not show-tunes and smarmy insider jokes. It needs to be MEAN. This would be the stand-up I would try.

Being horrible people usually works better in the countryside where you can be more spread out. Not all the arseholes are in the countryside but that’s where they hide.

What's a good way to arrange a book giveaway? I have this terrible imposter syndrome that makes me think people won't even want FREE copies of my book. How do I overcome that and have a successful giveaway? #writingcommunity #booksky

I keep going until all 500 of these fuckers are in people's hands whether they pay for them or not!

Commercially I get it and the responses I've got have been very nice "We have limited shelf space" the "overhead for Print On Demand books is too much" etc. etc. However, you have to really work it one bookshop at a time, one reader at a time.

Getting back out on the road next week and will be in South-East Kent - home of "Human Software" visiting bookshops and hoping to get them to stock it. You might think independents would be jumping with joy, but so far this has very much not been the case for this first-time author!

Kubernetes configuration is like I made it up

Was talking last night about a million things - the Detectorists, Pulp bringing about the end of the UK, loneliness and isolation. David Copperfield and not Demon Copperhead. Good times.

It’s time for more hope and to stop with all this nonsense. I’m writing a second book. You can all calm down now.

Mystic beer church

Not this one. I opened the last talk with "It was nice to see AI getting a kicking this morning after that love-fest yesterday."