Welcome.
I’m Frank Parker and I am a writer. I didn’t used to be. Like many people I always wanted to be. On several occasions during my career as an Engineer I produced stories that I submitted to publishers. I even had a writing job once. It involved talking to small and medium sized businesses and writing up profiles for a regional business magazine. To make any money you had to sell advertising to accompany the articles. Selling is not a skill that comes naturally to me so that job did not last long.
I returned to Engineering, working on chemical plants, refineries and power stations throughout the North and Midlands of England. In 1997 I joined a defence contractor as a project administrator, a job that saw me through until retirement in the autumn of 2006. I came to live in the Irish Midlands so as to be near my son and his family. And, now at last, I have the freedom to write.
Novels
So far I’ve self-published 4 novels and two collections of short stories. You can find out more about them here. My stories have also appeared in anthologies published independently in County Laois.
Politics
I have also pursued a lifelong interest in politics. Between 1985 and 1991 I served as a councilor in North East Lincolnshire. So you should not be surprised to find posts on my blog commenting on current affairs from a broadly Liberal point of view. The environment and the damage we are doing to it, from agri-chemicals and air and water pollution to climate change, has always been a matter of concern to me. As a councilor I argued the case for the local authority to purchase timber products only from sustainable sources.
History
Since 2013 I have been studying Irish history in an attempt to gain a fuller understanding of the turbulent relationship between that country and its near neighbour. It began when I discovered that among the leaders of the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century were a number of individuals with a prior connection to the county in which I was born and grew up, Herefordshire. That discovery lies behind my historical novel Strongbow’s Wife which describes the invasion and its aftermath from the point of the view of the woman who married one of the most powerful of those leaders. You will find articles about some of the people and places involved by clicking the Hereford and Ireland History tab above.
For the past year I have been researching the background to the period in Irish history usually referred to as The Great Irish Famine. This work was prompted by a friend and together we hope to produce a book on the subject. Early drafts of some of the first few chapters will be presented here shortly.. You can read more about me in this interview on Mercedes Fox’s blog, on Chris Graham’s website and on Denzil The Book Owl where he also reviews the famine book. And there’s this at Smashwords.
[…] the water scene from her home page… fun reads to be found from this blogger 6. Frank Parker https://franklparker.com/about/ …. an author and one of the many excellent bloggers willing to inspire those around […]
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Hello,
I saw your ebook on Amazon. From the synopsis it looks like a high quality ebook. If you are looking for some real promotion and exposure for your book (including book reviews), I have a few offers for you. My book promotion packages are extremely affordable and can be customized to your book.
In addition, I can also create professional author trailers as well as video testimonials for your book. I can also help you build a website for your book if you don’t have one already, help you write your book blurb and back cover matter, etc.
I also offer proofreading and writing services. Contact me for details
You can also contact me through my website:
http://votemyreviews.xyz/contact.html
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Thanks for the offer. I’ve looked at your site but, as you do not indicate what fees you charge for each service, I decline.
Good luck in your endeavours,
Frank
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Hi, Frank! Just dropping by to show my support for your writing.
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Thanks for that – and all the likes!
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🙂
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Hi Frank, thanks for stopping by. Your posts are a great read and am looking forward to more! 🙂 – Faye
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Thank you, Faye. My next atoz post is about ‘Outing’.
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Looking forward to it! 🙂
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Great to connect Frank as you’ve retired to my country of origin 🙂
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Thanks Lucnda. Where are yo now? What part of Ireland are you from?
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Hi Frank, I found your smart blog easily enough. Nice Amazon page too! Janet
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Thanks, Janet!
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Hey, good accomplishments. i often wonder myself if i’d have a few titles under my belt in a few years or if i’d end up just a dreamer.
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Thanks for that jina. Having books written and available via Amazon is all very well, but it needs an enormous marketing effort to bring them to the attention of potential readers. That’s something I’m not so good at. Good luck with your own endeavours.
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Persistence is the key here. Promotion of oneself is hard, and it takes time. I was advised to promote myself, my book, create a fuss around it before I even published – this, of course, was the advice of an agent at the time I was querying around. But then I realized that if I’m doing all the work alone, I might as well go indie.
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[…] Frank Parker guests on The Story Reading Ape with a compelling article about the pros and cons of technology. Splitting the atom brought us from valves to transistors to chips to where virtually (no pun intended) anything is available and achievable through the Internet. Advances in medicine have saved countless lives as well as created innumerable monsters, such as multi-resistant strains of bacteria. Then there’s agriculture and genetically modified organisms . . . Hop over to Chris’ blog to read this eye-opening journey through technological advancements … […]
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Hi Tina. Thanks for that and the Facebook tag.
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Hi Frank, thanks for your kind comments on my blog. Yours looks very interesting – happy to follow and look forward to reading more from you.
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I am looking forward to more from you. Good to meet you!
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how inspiring!
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After you kindly offered to be a part of our team, I thought I would drop in to say Hello… A pleasure to meet you, Frank…
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Not sure how to contact you, Frank. I was in the middle of replying to your comment on WP, when they removed you and the comment! I would love you to read Nine Lives as you gave such a lot of help with Lazy Days, but Nine Lives is a thriller, so not sure if that is your cup of tea. If it is, how would you like it delivered? I am flexible with the deadline, so no worries there.
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Can’t imagine why my comment was deleted! (Who by?) I have e-mailed you/Anita. Just reply to that with an attachment.
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I had this message appear as I was answering your comment, saying something about spam and that it would be deleted. I can only assume it was something I said!
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Frank I probably disagree with you on everything, but very much looking forward to following your writings. Smiles and humor seem to be a way around nasty political disagreements!
Given you’re an engineer with experience in refineries and power plants, maybe you can answer this question I’ve posed everywhere.
It’s been doggone COLD here in the US for the past 2 weeks. I’m not so silly to say this disproves GLobal Warming or Climate Change though. Weather is weather.
However, when it gets this cold, we human beings need heat to keep warm and ultimately stay alive.
THus my question. How do we heat our homes on PV panels alone???
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The same way we did before the discovery of mineral oil – vegetable oil, wood. In other words probably not solar PV. But, bear in mind that by the use of batteries, or other energy storage devices, you can collect the sun’s energy during the long summer days and then use it later.
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You said “The same way we did before the discovery of mineral oil…” man do I ever wish people on your side would be as honest when it comes to the idea of going off of fossil fuels. We’d have to go back to old ways of living.
Whether that’s good or bad, is a value judgement. But the idea that we can live as we do today, with our high levels of consumption, and still be “green” is simply a fallacy.
You simply can not consume say 25kWh/day, if one’s only source of electricity is PV, even with a decent battery bank. No more hair dryers, space heaters, even coffee pot. (which is why I use a French Press for my coffee by the way!) No more any kind of warming appliance. Not with PV, batteries or not.
Which is why I shudder at the ignorance that’s out there about PV, in particularly.
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Our children or grandchildren are going to have to, when we’ve used it all up – that’s if they survive global warming. Isn’t it time we thought about conserving the Earth for those who come after us?
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Again, those who are truly concerned better not fly, take cruises, use warming appliances etc. There are truly few people, in my estimation, who live the concern they claim. By that I mean, going back to an 1800s lifestyle where we consume less than 1000kWh/yr. Which is actually STILL 30% MORE than an average Indian consumes today.
Soooo easy to express fear and concern. So hard to live it in reality though, especially when one is accustomed to the comforts Western Civilization provides.
No idea if this is you or not. Frankly, i don’t care. I just chuckle when I see a “concerned” citizen taking multiple overseas flights, and cruise vacations. Something’s gotta give.
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I absolutely agree. I do not take ‘multiple overseas flights’ or ‘cruise vacations’. And, for the record, I grew up in a stone built cottage without electricity, piped water supply or telephone. I think that experience has made me – and most of my post WWII generation – a lot more careful about our use of resources. A pity we failed to pass on those values to our children.
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Man, stone built cottage without electricity, piped water or telephone! Wowza! Yup, you can definitely talk to the talk because you walk the walk
My parents were hippies and lived on an island off the coast of maine. The first house I grew up in I think had an outhouse. I was pretty young. This was the 70s. Also we didn’t have TV until I was probably 8 or something. They tried to make a go of it, ‘back to the land’ et al, but life happens.
However, i’ve always had an appreciation for nature, the beauty of it all. Protect it. Don’t waste, Composting etc.
Looking forward to following your blog. don’t feel a need to comment back.
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Thank you for the comment on my website about my short story. I am not clever with the web and wasn’t sure if I replied on my own site whether you would see it. At least here, I know you will. best wishes.
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Hi Frank
Thank you so much for visiting my blog, hope you come back again soon
Trina
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I can only dream of a date with my favorite writer. He was an Irish man in the 1600’s I’ve not yet been to Ireland though I have ancestors from there. However, the author I speak of did make a Modest Proposal…
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Frank is a retired engineer who now writes about various subjects including the environment and the relationship between Ireland and England. Check out his work here. #HistoricalFiction
#writing #liberal
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Hello Frank. You commented on one of my comments so i wanted to get in touch. I’m retired too (architect) and I share your interest in energy, the environment, etc. but my focus is on the scam and delusion of religion and resurrection. The monotheists don’t give a damn about the earth or life on earth because they believe the world is going to end. And they pray that it will happen during their life time! Good luck with your retiring years and I hope the trip so far has been a good one. GROG
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Thanks Grog! I agree 100% with your views on religion – all religions. I’m well into my retirement now and thoroughly enjoying it, thanks to a combination of good luck and thrift during my working years.
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Hey Frank. That word ‘thrift’, I don’t hear it much any more. It’s all buy bye these days. Cheers. GROG
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Hi Frank,
My name is Isabel and I work for a start up called Buk.io. I recently had the pleasure of reading your Medium article “The Persecution of Strong Women”.
I’m reaching out to you because I think the Medium integrated features on our platform would be a great fit for your style of writing and the subject matter you write about. We make it easy for writers like yourself to directly link parts of literature into your article.
I’d love to talk with you about this further! Please let me know if you’re interested and in the meantime feel free to take a look at this Medium article demonstrating the capabilities (the quotes from the book as well as the wikipedia article are deeplinked to buk.io):
View at Medium.com
And feel free to browse our platform yourself: https://buk.io
Again, it was a pleasure reading your piece and I hope to hear from you soon!
Best,
Isabel Chi
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Thank you, Isabel. Your proposal does look interesting and it’s good to know that my Medium offerings bring people to my site.
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Hello,
I am having issues checking out your site. I cannot find any information pertaining to your book. I hope you can offer me some help. Sorry to bother you.
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Hi Adriana. If you click on the tab “Publications” you will see all my books listed. Clicking the thumbnail book cover image should take you to the appropriate Amazon sales page.
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Hi—
I came to thank you for your “like” of my comment on Gary’s “Shake My Head Hollow” blog. But I am most impressed with all the things you’re doing in your retirement, and I plan to read further. Thus, I shall follow you imminently.
As you mentioned climate change, I have taken the liberty of providing the link to my newest post, which happens to be on this topic. I sense some commonality in world view here, Councilor.
https://annieasksyou.com/2019/08/19/its-here-its-real-and-weve-got-to-talk-about-it-together-2/
Cheers,
Annie
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Just read your article which is excellent. I also like what you are attempting – a rational, fact based, approach to the many problems we face. I will follow your blog with interest. You may notice that lately I have restricted my blogging to a brief autobiography under the ‘Monday Memories’ collective title. My more political pieces I now contribute to Medium where I hope to reach a larger audience.
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