Fires In California, UK Radio Interviews And The Rise Of The AfD In Thuringia

Posted in Neem Tree Blog on October 27, 2019

As wind speeds from 30 to 40 miles per hour and gusts of 60 to 80 miles per hour are forecasted, up to 2.3m people will have their power cut off in California as a precautionary measure and at the last count, up to 180,000 people have been asked to evacuate their homes. We have family in the region and are concerned for their safety. Should real estate developers have been allowed to set up developments near forested areas? These developments, cost cutting by running power lines through trees rather than burying them underground and the lack of rain leaving dry, crisp branches has exacerbated the wildfires. So, what’s next? This article notes that, ‘the area burned in California wildfires has increased fivefold from 1972 to 2018’ and suggests that blackouts will become a regular occurrence in an attempt to prevent the spread of these fires: More Blackouts

Keith Carter author of The Umbrella Men has had two radio interviews this week, one with Northern Manchester Radio and with Men’s Radio and one scheduled with Glastonbury FM for Monday evening, all thanks to the team at Literally PR! We’ll load up these interviews as soon as we can. Royal Bank of Scotland remains in the news as Derek Sach, prior head of the Global Restructuring Group (GRG) at RBS, is called as a witness in a case between a property developer and RBS. The case attests that the government asserted pressure on the GRG to ruin small businesses so it could claim their assets and sell them to boost the bank’s profits. That is quite an incendiary allegation. There is a wonderful scene in The Umbrella Men that must resonate with many small business owners who had taken out loans with RBS.

As the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, we note very interesting articles in the press.  A new start-up offers a virtual reality tour that recreates the wall: Berlin Wall In Virtual Reality . One article particularly caught our eye and your views on its conclusion rather depends on which side of the Brexit Wall you sit: Thatcher’s fear of an overmighty Germany lives on in Brexit via @financialtimes. We keep an eye on the rise of the far right in the same region that Anne Richter’s novel is set in, Thuringia. Resentment from downward mobility due to poor economic policies post reunification and influx of refugees is fueling this support. The AfD is expected to make substantial gains in impending elections: Rise of the AfD

We’ve finalized the covers for Book 2 and Book 3 for The Three Hares series, thanks to Mark Ecob and Lee Gibbons for fantastic colours and object designs. Please take note of two impending blog tours for our books, one for Distant Signs by Anne Richter kicking off on November 7th in the US and one for The Jade Dragonball by Scott Lauder and David Ross on November 11th in the UK. Our format issues with Lightning Source are almost resolved. And, of course, we continue to follow up on leads from Frankfurt.

Till next week!