One down, a sequel on the way and a couple on the back burner.
Welcome to my site
It’s great to have you here.
Please feel free to browse, send messages, register your interest, and generally click on all of the social media icons dotted around the site. Go to their pages, follow, like and do whatever it is you have to do once you’re there but, the most important thing, share or re-tweet. If you like something, the only person who gets to know about it is me. If you share or re-tweet it, there may be someone in your group of friends/followers who is particularly interested. That can only be a good thing, right?
Why the Site?
To advertise my book.
There are a lot of books out there and more coming every day. The hardest part of the self publishing process is the marketing. How do you get people to know your book is out there without spending a fortune?
You get people, friends, family, total strangers if you can, to share and retweet your posts, promote your website and comment on the book.
It's been a while in coming and global exposure through the internet is the way to go. If you'd like to find out more, please contact me.
There's quite a story behind how, and why, the story came about. A chance encounter between two strangers, an offer of assistance and the seed for a book was sown. It took twenty-five years to come to anything though. Click the link above to find out more.
Angie had never heard of CADASIL, but it’s known her since before she was born. It may also know her three sons. There’s no treatment, no cure. Just hope. Her husband, Ben, a bodyguard at the Iranian Embassy in London, is linked to a political killing in the city and flees to Tehran taking the boys with him. One failed attempt to return them to the UK results in her incarceration in the notorious Evin Prison. She won’t be put off and with her dad, and Tony, both retired Royal Marines, they cook up a plan to bring the boys home. During the process, they discover Angie’s diaries may hold the key to solving a number of assassinations across Europe, possibly worldwide.
The prologue sets the scene and hopefully hooks the reader into purchasing the book, if they haven't already done so on reading the back cover blurb. The book will not be for everyone and there are some distressing scenes in it. I did a bit of research, read a couple of books on events similar to what Angie, the protagonist, may have found herself in. "Not without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody" and "Prisoner of Tehran: One Woman's Story of Survival Inside a Torture Jail by Marina Nemat." I have mentioned the first book in mine, only as a reference." Enjoy!
I was told creating an audio was a simple process. It was not. I was also told that I was the best person to read my book. Possibly. I was told it would make me evaluate some of my writing. It did. If you're reading audio for a memoir, self-help book, possibly poetry, where only one character is doing the talking throughout then, yes, it's a simple enough process. However, if you're recording a novel, you have a few other things to consider. Different characters, different sexes, accents, moods and emotion. You need a good grounding in acting skills. I have none of that. Still, I gave it my best shot. Listen if you have to but, be warned, I'm not a professional.
Where it all started. Writing a screenplay is easier than writing a novel. (lim) For a start, 120 pages is about the maximum you want to be aiming at, especially as a newbie. This is because each page is around a minute on screen and producers like to keep the minutes down. I'm not saying it's easy to write a screen play but the requirements to write descriptive prose is not needed (as much). That said, there are idiosyncrasies within that particular industry that can leave a complete novice like myself, totally bemused. I persevered, submitted my offering to a competition, made semi-final. Proud as punch.
I do not collect any marketing or tracking data on my website.
If you agree, this website will only use one cookie and that is to ensure you do not see this form everytime you come onto the site. It will remain for thirty days after which, you will be required to agree once more.
The cookie does not contain tracking or marketing data, it is merely a check to see if you've agreed to store it.
If you do not agree, you will see this form everytime you visit the site or use the Home button.
You can rescind your agreement by using the Cookies Policy link at the foot of the page.
COOKIE POLICY
I do not collect any marketing or tracking data on my website.
If you agree, this website will only use one cookie and that is to ensure you do not see this form everytime you come onto the site. It will remain for thirty days after which, you will be required to agree once more.
The cookie does not contain tracking or marketing data, it is merely a check to see if you've agreed to store it.
If you do not agree, you will see this form everytime you visit the site or use the Home button.
You can rescind your agreement by using the Cookies Policy link at the foot of the page.
Europe Through The Windscreen.
5 years, 25,000 miles, 25 countries, a dog, a wheelchair, my wife and I.
My wife had a stroke in 2011, by 2014, her condition was such, she constantly required a wheelchair. We had taken two holiday flights in previous years but the hassle of getting the wheelchair and luggage on and off the aircraft was proving too much. In July 2014 we bought an ageing mobile home (Y-2001). It had done only 35,000 miles. Our first trip was to The Lake District and Scotland. (We live in Sussex). The following year, 2015, we took it to France, Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Italy. In 2016 we visited; Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic (or Czechia), Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Luxembourg (Not naming the other countries previously visited.) Then in 2017, the big one, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, San Marino and Monaco. The image on the book (left) is the Dimitrios Shipwreck just north of Gytheio in Greece. In 2018, our final trip was to my Great Neice's wedding in the Dordogne so, because we hadn't been there, we took in Switzerland. I'm pretty sure that's twenty-five, though a couple of them were 'passing' visits. We spent a little over fifteen minutes, for example, in Bosnia. During the pan-European tour, I kept a Facebook log and posted daily. I have 250,000 words burning a hole in my hard-drive, and pictures. Lots of pictures. Another work in progress. Sadly, my wife’s condition, specifically her ability to walk short distances, deteriorated to a point where she could no longer get in and out of the van and in 2018 we had to sell it. Five years and money well spent.
Genre:
Travelogue/Diary
Category:
Non-Fiction
CAITLIN CALLERY
The Bankrupt Viscount
Viscount Will Hadlow inherited his title along with a rundown estate and crippling debts. He refuses to marry until he can support a wife, despite his growing attraction to his neighbour, Ella.
The fortune her grandfather left to her gives Ella an independence most women can only dream of. After a near miss with a fortune hunter she has sworn never to marry at all, and certainly not to a man who needs her money, but her feelings for Will test her resolve.
When a series of accidents and near misses put Ella in danger, Will vows to protect her from her unknown enemy. But who will protect Ella from Will? Or, for that matter, from herself?
1940 Lorna Pashley lived with her mother and younger sister Maddie after fleeing from their abusive father. Life was tough and money short but they felt safer than they had in a long time. She didn't know it but her father would eventually find them but would he be the same man as he was before?
Lorna then met the love of her life Harry but with World War II on the horizon their life together would not be easy and when Harry went missing in action Lorna's life fell apart. This is her story of how she survived not only her early years at the hands of her father who she was yet to meet again but the trials and tribulations of her life with and without Harry.
It is a story of one young girl's spirit to find happiness not only for herself but also for her beloved family.
1697
Rayleigh Edwards accompanies his cousin, Wethersby Thacker Jnr, across South and East Asia.
They are tracking their grandfather’s clues to find a mysterious jade casket full of gems.
But Wethersby’s brothers are in hot pursuit, impatient to trap the hoard for themselves.
With his last breath, their grandfather had whispered a warning, “It is a handsome treasure but
cursed. Never be it grasped by any one man or one woman, for a long haunting death will surely
follow….”
Life revolves around coincidences. In November nineteen-ninety-four, I was a Royal Navy Petty Officer, employed by a predominantly Army unit based at an RAF Station working for JACIG, a Joint Service arms control organisation. I was coming back from a CFE Arms Control inspection in Russia, with the US Military (OSIA). I had spent a couple of weeks as a guest at the US Air Force Base in Frankfurt-am-Maine and was flying back to the UK. It was the day after Thanksgiving. I remember, because I still had a hangover. A chance meeting between strangers at Heathrow airport. It’s late at night and a woman and four young boys, the eldest is about six, need to travel to her father’s home two-hundred miles away. She intends spending the night on a London platform with her children, catching a train early the next morning. I noticed her on the aircraft struggling to dress the boys and get them off the plane so I offered assistance and this she accepted. I'm going home to my wife and two young children after a couple of weeks away. I have a hire car and will be going most of those two-hundred miles. We walk through the airport like a regular family, I carry one child, hold the hand of another. The woman cares for the other two children. I made a decision and offered to drive her to her destination. This, she also accepts. An hour later, driving along a motorway, two children asleep on the back seat top and tail, two asleep in the footwells, she tells me how she has escaped from an abusive relationship in Iran. It was a bit of a shock for my wife when I turned up at our house at one in the morning with a woman and four kids. We left after a comfort break arriving at a dark, foggy bridge at around two o’clock, like in a spy novel. The woman and the children got out of my car and into her father’s, never to be heard from again. A seed was sown.
Twenty-five years later, in twenty-nineteen, I used that seed to write a screenplay titled, ‘A Million Miles’. It is not the woman’s story; it is a total work of fiction. I submitted the screenplay, my first, to a competition in the USA not expecting anything other than constructive feedback. The screenplay outperformed my wildest dreams, and in June twenty-twenty, I was informed that my submission had reached the semi-final stage. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, it reached no further.
Over the course of the next eighteen months, including lockdown, I novelised the screenplay and the first draft of the book, ‘The Chain Diaries’ was ready in November, twenty-twenty-one. It was sent to several Facebook friends for evaluation, proof-reading and fact checking.
While doing research and adhering to the Author’s Code of ‘What If?’, I asked, “What if her husband wasn’t just a bully and misogynist, what if he was something more?” I ‘tripped’ over The Chain Murders purely by accident, incorporated them into the story, and Ben, Angie's husband, became a master assassin. Another writer’s adage is, “write what you know”. With that in mind, quite a few parts of the book are taken from experiences I've had in the Royal Navy, places I’ve been, including Dubai and the Falklands. Crowborough in East Sussex, my home town, and Ashdown Forest are also featured. I hope, you enjoy the book.
Steve Scarlett
Iran. Human Rights Violations
Iran hit the headlines several times during twenty-twenty-two.
March - Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released from the notorious Evin prison after spending over five years imprisoned on charges of ‘plotting to topple the Iranian Government’. Evin, itself, top of the list when it comes to human rights violations regarding political prisoners.
August - Salman Rushdie was attacked in Chautauqa, New York. Though not directly linked, the attack is connected to a ‘death warrant, a fatwah issued against him in by the Ayatollah Khomeini in early nineteen-eighty-nine because he wrote the book, ‘The Satanic Verses’. The fatwa has never been rescinded by the Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been the supreme leader in Iran since Khomeini’s death in June eighty-nine.
September - Masha Amini’s ‘suspicious’ death, whilst in the hands of Iran’s Morality Police on the sixteenth of September, allegedly for not wearing her hijab correctly, resulted in nation wide riots and the subsequent deaths of over two hundred people. There have also been deaths reported in Evin Prison as a result of the protests.
The Chain Diaries
The Chain Diaries centres around Angie, an English housewife and her husband Ben, an Iranian national working at the Iranian Embassy in London. They live in an affluent area of North-London with their three young boys. While Angie and the boys visit her recently widowed father in Plymouth, Ben is linked to a political killing in the city. He later flees to Iran and, without Angie’s knowledge, takes the boys with him. Angie enlists the help of her father Eddie, and Tony, both ex-Royal Marines and they devise a plan to bring the boys home. During the planning process, they discover that Ben is not all that he seems and may have had a hand in many other murders and disappearances throughout Europe.
In an attempt to retrieve her children, Angie, falls foul of Iran's 'Morality Police' in a similar, though thankfully not fatal, manner to that of Masha Amini. In The Chain Diaries, the morality police are called The Pasdaran, a section of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard responsible for upholding Islamic values. In the book, Angie is also incarcerated in the notorious Evin prison where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was recently held.
In the foreword to The Chain Diaries, I mention Salman Rushdie by name, indicating that he was one of many academics, writers, poets and military personnel for whom a death-sentence-fatwa was issued and, in most cases, carried out between nineteen-eighty-six and nineteen-ninety-eight. These killings are colloquially known as ‘The Chain Murders of Iran’. The fatwa declared on Salman Rushdie was just the tip of the iceberg. In the foreword, it also states that Salman Rushdie was lucky because he survived the fatwa. When I sent the book to print on the fifth of August twenty-twenty-two, I obviously had no idea of the incident that would unfold exactly a week later. In the book’s Amazon release, published on the twenty-fifth of August, I added an addendum to the foreword wishing Sir Salman a speedy recovery.
The book, around one hundred and twenty-eight thousand words, is self-published, and apart from the proofreading, there is no part of the book’s publication process I did not complete myself, from typesetting, ISBN registration, cover design, audio version and author’s website. A writing/publishing/marketing course, Write That Book Masterclass by bestselling author Michael Heppell between November twenty-twenty-one and January twenty-twenty-two helped get the book over the line.
The Chain Diaries is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle format. It is also available on the KOBO website for other ePub readers. There is a limited supply of signed, numbered, hardback books available from me directly and contact should be made through my website: www.stevescarlett.co.uk.
Do not look for The China Dairies, an expose of the Asian Milk Marketing Board. (My brother Jem's little joke.)
Software Development
Visual Basic, C#, MSSQL, VBA, HTML, JavaScript
In January 1998 I started a software and database programming course in Hastings with a company called Brite. The Course lasted about six months. On completion of the course, I worked for the company as a sub-contractor for two years and then took up a position as an instructor.
I sub-contracted to the following companies during my time at Brite;
Nexus Technology - Camberley, Surrey. 1998 - 1999
I worked on a few projects at Nexus, probably the most notable, software that kept track of cultures in a petri dish. At one point, I went to Winchester hospital to install the software and wore a white lab coat and face mask while I was working.
Barclays Bank - London: 1999
Someone had left a mess with one of their staffing databases and I went in to clean it up. First time working in the city and I wasn't keen. The daily fight with commuters to get a seat on the train and living underneath someone's armpit on the tube was not something I wanted to do for long. Lucliky, the contract only lasted three months, but it wouldn't be the last time.
JMC Airlines - Manchester Airport: 2000 - 2001
I was tasked with upgrading an ageing Access database to a more modern MS SQL Server one. The database kept track of onboard profits from drinks and trinket sales for all flights belonging to JMC. Thousands of rows went in daily and the Access database was creaking.
I converted the datebase and when I left, some of the 'report manipulators' were not pleased. When they used to print a report, it normally took thirty minutes or more and they'd go for a smoke or a cuppa. Now, it took thirty seconds.
I flew up to Manchester on a Monday, back on a Friday.
Brite HQ - Hastings: 2001 - 2002
Instructor/trainer, call it what you will.
Everyone says they know where they were when....
I was here when news of the Twin Towers terrorist attacks took place. The whole office sat around, stunned, believeing initially that it was a light aircraft that had crashed.
Internet was down, (too busy), and thirty or so crowded around a small TV.
After Brite, I worked for the following companies.
I was interviewed by Frank, he crops up in the 'book' story and we're still great friends today.
Glass's Car Guide - Crowborough:
The car prices book people. The surprisung aspect of this job was that it was in my home town of Crowborough, just across the road from my brother's house. I could have stayed there for years.
As part of a promotional push, the company treated over 200 staff to a weekend in Zurich for a 'seminar' extolling the virtues of the company and to give everyone an idea as to where the business was going in the future. Two months after we got back, they announced that they were closing the Crowborough office and everyone would move to their office in Weybridge just inside the M25. Not viable for me. Shame, I was only there eighteen months.
Ballard & Chalmers, Software House - East Grinstead:
A number of notable projects being;
Airwave provide secure comms for the emergency services which stops people listening in to their chatter.
They also provided a brand new network for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. As a consequence, employees were aske to volunteer to work at venues around the country. I volunteered for Wembly Stadium.
Special Thank You
I had some help
I had help to get my book over the line, in no particular order;
Jem-Alpha Reader
Beta Readers
Odd Job
Wish
Someone
Someone Else
Frank
Simon Heppell
Break-out Group
One
Two
Three
Four
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
The Early Years
I was a young lad once
Born - 1957
I was born in Jarvis Brook, Crowborough, East Sussex, England on 11th November 1957. I'm the one in the pram and I still see some of the others about.
September 1963 - July 1969: Fermor School
I attended the CofE Primary School and enjoyed everything as long as it was to do with sports. My first teacher, Mrs Tasker, was also one of my mum's teachers.
September 1969 - May 1974
The Crowborough Beacon Comprehensive was my alma mater. Again, I did not cover myself in glory unless it was to do with sports. I believe I held the third year tripple jump record for a while. Great friendships were formed and I regularly see and chat to many from those times.
Post School - Pre Navy
As a Saturday job, many boys from Jarvis Brook worked for a man colloquially known as Ped, Mr Wells to his face. He had a garden nursery at the top of Mottins Hill, Jarvis Brook. He had a contract to mow lawns and tend gardens for the council in and around Crowborough. Grafting roses at Penshurst Place was one task we had, another was to build an amphitheatre for Susannah York, she bought us out squash and biscuits. I also worked for him on leaving school until I joined up. I have fond memories of those times, hoeing lines of roses in all weathers and filling flower pots in the potting shed. The summer of '74.
My Caring Role
A Stroke and CADASIL
It must be love.
I've been told many times that I do a great job looking after my wife. I've been asked quite a few times, how I cope. My reply is and will always be the same. What is the other option?
After Nem's stroke in 2011, I managed to keep working for a couple of years. My last job had a work from home policy anyway which meant I could continue to work and look after her. Unfortunately, I was made redundant in 2013 and haven't had a full time, decent paying job since.
Nem's condition over the last ten plus years has deteriorated to the point where she is practically bed ridden, needs help with feeding and drinking. She cannot speak, read or write and instructions are confusing for her (Global Aphasia). She also has dementia which, to my mind, makes life more bearable for her.
The Royal Navy
Nostris In Manibus Tuti.
I was a very fresh faced, and naive teenager when I joined up, November 12th 1974. Seventeen years and one day.
November 1974 - January 1975: HMS Ganges.
Shotley Gate Ipswich, for basic training. If there was porrige for breakfast, I got up early.
January 1975 - January 1976: HMS Seahawk
RNAS Culdrose, Helston in Cornwall. Part II training including firefighting and Aircraft handling. A notable incident, three lads on course were almost killed in a fire training accident. I also joined my first and only fire station in September.
January 1976 - April 1977: HMS Ark Royal (RO9)
The Ark sailed in February taking a BBC documentary team with her and the 'Sailor' program was created. Visits to Puerto Rico and the States including many visits to Disney World Florida. The bi-Centenial celebrations (1776 - 1976) were one of the highlights.
April 77 - August 77: HMS Daedalus
Lee On Solent, Hampshire. I spent a lot of my shore time at Lee. It was close to Sussex.
August 77 - April 81, HMS Hermes
The best part of four years on this beauty. I loved it. Lots of trips to the States including a trip to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras in 1980. That's a story in itself. We also went to Norway a lot - in the winter.
April 81 - April 82: HMS Daedalus.
Back for a brief spell, NBCD Instructor on the Air Engineering School.
January 1981 and January 1982: RN Cresta Team
I volunteered for the RN Cresta team and took part in the Inter Services Cresta Championships in St Moritz. The Royal Navy won the Prince Phillip Trophey on both ocassions. I won not only my Navy colours but I also joined one of the top five hundred, exclusive clubs in the world. The Shuttlecock Club.
April 1982- July 1982: MV Elk
The MV Elk was the first civilian ship to sail for the Falklands after the Argentines invaded. She carried much of the ammunition and stores for the Royal Marines and Paras who were onboard the Canberra.
August 1982- May 1983: RN Schools Presentation Team
Ostensibly to teach sixth formers current affairs and what the Navy gets up to. Visited schools the length and breadth of Britain.
May 1983 - September 1983: HMS Daedalus
Back at Lee for an even shorter spell. Played foolball for HMS Daedalus in the Inter Command Championships. The manager of the team worked in the Manpower Control Office, he told me about a draft going on HMS Invincible.
September 1983 - September 1985: HMS Invincible
I flew out to Bombay (Mumbai) as Invincible had already sailed for a far east deployment. She visited, Penang, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand. The trip was marred by a propeller shaft that was slightly bent and we spent a lot of time in dry dock in Singapore. Christmas in Sydney was a highlight though they kicked us out on the 30th December because we wouldn't declare whether we had nukes onboard. A trip to Norway followed.
October 1985 - June 1988: HMS Daedalus
I got married in September and then had the longest spell at a Naval shore station. The stability suited a new marriage. I was the ship's NBCDI for most of that time.
June 1988 - December 1988: RFA Dilligence
I jumped at the chance to go on the 'Dill' as she was in the Gulf, based in Dubai. Flew out to Bahrain on a C130, finished the trip to Dubai, first class on an Emirates flight. (Ask me about it some time). In the six months I was out there, it rained on the final day. Flight Deck Officer, Transport Manager and Postie kept me busy.
January 1989 - August 1990: HMS Daedalus
After six months in the Gulf, Lee on Solent in winter bought me back to earth. I spent eighteen months in the MACCO (Manpower Office) and the only good thing I can say about it is that I took the phone call that got me my next draft. Drafty phoned to ask, "Have you any PO Met men who speak Russian?" I said, "We haven't any that speak English, will a chockhead do?" Six months later, my wife and I packed our bags, including a five month old baby, and moved to Lincoln.
August 1990 - January 1995: JACIG
The Joint (Service) Arms Control Implementation Group was formed in August 1990 with a remit to monitor, by way of inspections, conventional weapons arsenals in the Warsaw Pact countries. It was also our responsibility to host visiting inspection teams. I will not lie, some vodka was consumed. The 'wall' came down in 1989 and there were too many tanks out there. JACIG was based at RAF Scampton, home of the Red Arrows. Pre-season displays were a regular occurance.
January 1995 - June 1996: RFA Argus
The Royal Navy reclaimed me for a spell and the Argus was just the ticket. A flight deck training ship teaching baby pilots and occasionally baby sailors about flightdecks. Trips to the States, Spain Gib and Norway were on the cards. (Why is it always Norway?)
July 1997 - September 1997:
I didn't have long left in the Navy when I left the Argus, so rather than go to Culdrose in Cornwall, I chose to go back to JACIG. They had moved from Scampton to Henlow, a lot closer to London and my home in East Sussex. A trip to Kazakhstan one of the highlights.
September 1997 - November 1997: Release
My last official day in the Navy was 10th November 1997. I was a forty year old Chief Petty Officer and the following day I had to start paying for dental.
We Came, We Saw, We Counted
A lighthearted look at arms control in the ninties.
Between August 1990 and November 1997, I worked for JACIG , a joint service arms control organisation. This book would be a series of anecdotes supplied by friends and colleagues who were also involved. We inspected nations across Eastern Europe and hosted those same nations in the UK, Germany, and other places we had troops. I will not lie, some vodka was consumed. It is a work in progress and my name will not be the only one to be credited.
I will point out, in light of recent events, that the remit of the Arms Control Agreements implemented at that time were to ensure that a single nation, or as a whole, the Warsaw Pact Alliance (WPA) would not be able to mount an attack on NATO forces or vise versa. It was never envisioned that a country from within the WPA would attack one of its former members.
Project Name
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur.
Use this area to describe your project. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Est blanditiis dolorem culpa incidunt minus dignissimos deserunt repellat aperiam quasi sunt officia expedita beatae cupiditate, maiores repudiandae, nostrum, reiciendis facere nemo!
Client:
Lines
Category:
Branding
We Came, We Saw, We Counted
A lighthearted look at arms control in the ninties.
Between August 1990 and November 1997, I worked for JACIG , a joint service arms control organisation. This book would be a series of anecdotes supplied by friends and colleagues who were also involved. We inspected nations across Eastern Europe and hosted those same nations in the UK, Germany, and other places we had troops. I will not lie, some vodka was consumed. It is a work in progress and my name will not be the only one to be credited.
I will point out, in light of recent events, that the remit of the Arms Control Agreements implemented at that time were to ensure that a single nation, or as a whole, the Warsaw Pact Alliance (WPA) would not be able to mount an attack on NATO forces or vise versa. It was never envisioned that a country from within the WPA would attack one of its former members.
Project Name
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur.
Use this area to describe your project. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Est blanditiis dolorem culpa incidunt minus dignissimos deserunt repellat aperiam quasi sunt officia expedita beatae cupiditate, maiores repudiandae, nostrum, reiciendis facere nemo!
