Just Books

Home Movie Theatre Systems

Home Movie Theatre Systems

by

Owen Jones

narrated by

Dena Darvish Derakhshan

The information in this audio book on home movie systems and related subjects is organised into 17 sections.

It will help you set up a home movie theatre system, and it may even help you venture out into a new career. The least that it will do is save you hundreds on professional advice.

Home Movie Systems

As an added bonus, I am granting you permission to use the content on your own website or in your own blogs and newsletter, although it is better if you rewrite them in your own words first.

You may also split the book up and resell the articles. In fact, the only right that you do not have is to resell or give away the book as it was delivered to you.

If you use formats other than these (like Kobo), you will find the books on your main retailer's site including apple iTunes.

Amazon ebook     Audible audiobook

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

 

The Ghouls of Calle Goya

International Translations

The Ghouls of Calle Goya

When malice results from good intentions!

by

Owen Jones

When Frank, a staid, middle-aged, confirmed bachelor takes his new, diplomat Thai bride to a friend’s apartment on the Costa del Sol for their dream honeymoon, they are in Nirvana… until the ghouls of a secret Scandinavian society torment the superstitious young woman to the point of seeking death to end her suffering. Frank is way out of his depth... What is he to do to save the first love of his life?

The Ghouls of Calle Goya

This novel, often called just Calle Goya is the perplexing story of how Evil can result from the happiest of circumstances and good intentions, and how madness can be the result.

It is based on a true story and is set in Norway, the UK, Spain and Thailand.

Calle Goya is available in several languages in several ebook formats (Barnes & Noble, GooglePlay, iTunes, Kindle, Kobo), paperback and possibly even audiobook (Amazon/Audible) too.

The cover is an original in crayon by Aliya.

Click a link below to learn more about the availability of the book in the language of your choice:

English   Norsk   Português   Español   Svenska

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

Lock-down

Lock-Down Experiences

Three things happened  to me in the last 24 hours, which I don't think have anything to do with lock-down or cabin fever, because I don't think I suffer from those conditions. I have always spent a lot of time on my own - since leaving home at eighteen anyway.

1) I saw next-door's cat try to leap from our garden up onto the 3' wall and through the railing fence, as it does a dozen times a day, but it fell back into our garden. It tried twice more, but with the same result. Then I noticed that it had a big fish in its mouth - the equivalent of a three-pound carp. I shouted at the cat; it dropped the fish, leaped through the fence and stood there watching me. Neem came over to see what the commotion was about and asked why I had put the fish she was going to cook for our dinner in the flower bed.

2) It is 42c here, so the windows are open and the fan on 24 hours a day. Yesterday evening, a big, 3", green insect landed on the fly screen in front of my desk. When it turned around, it was a mantis. I tried to explain to Neem that we call them Praying Mantises and why, but she said that this was probably not the same one, as they call them Boxing Mantises. When threatened, they sway from side to side a little, and shadow bow with their front 'arms'. It did that at me when I got too close.

3] I dreamed I was walking along a long road heading out of town, when I saw a sign saying 'Free Showers', so I went in. It was empty, but there were bottles of shampoo, and bars of soap, so I got started. I could see the water coming out of the shower head, and I could see the shampoo in my cupped hand, but I wasn't getting wet or soapy. An Arab boy came in, watched what I was doing for a moment and left smirking. A short while later, I woke up with my hands in my hair. I guess that's how I knew I wasn't getting wet despite the fact that my eyes were telling me that I should be. Don't believe everything you see?

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

Luc Wyn - The Belgian in Monterey!

Let's extend a warm welcome to a translator,  whom I have become friends with after working together on several of my books (not that he needed any help from me :-) )

What is your name?

Luc Wyn

Where are you from, Luc?

Originally from Belgium but I am now residing in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

Are you a full-time translator or are you free-lance?

I’m a freelance translator for Babelcube, since I have other occupations as well.

My Babelcube Profile can be found at: https://www.babelcube.com/user/luc-wyn

What made you want to become a translator?

I've always been fascinated by languages and, contrary to sciences, learning them comes natural to me. I guess this process had its early beginnings when I was a small boy and used to play with an Italian boy on holiday. Neither of us knew each other's language but we managed three weeks of communication by exchanging names of certain toys and objects and colours and so on. That's probably when and where 'the fuse was lit'.

What languages do you translate from and into?

Currently most of my translations are either from Spanish or English into my own language, which is Dutch. I do also master German and French though and have on occasion translated from those languages as well.

What is your favourite language to translate?

Being the language aficionado I am, I don’t really have a favourite language, as all of them have their innate specialities and all of them are interesting in one way or another. Some do present a bit more challenge as others however.

What have you translated?

I have translated a number of books in a number of genres, ranging from novels to books about antique tools and engravings on them. The majority consists of novels though.

What made you decide for a career as translator?

The profound love, or even obsession, you might say, for languages and everything connected with them that I’ve had since early childhood. I guess you might say I’ve inherited my mother’s inquisitiveness and express that through my love for languages.

If you could give a beginning translator a piece of advice, what would it be?

Be selective about what you accept. And be perfectionist and thorough once you've accepted it. Reread meticulously what you've translated before you hand it in or upload it.

Have you ever written something of your own, and if so, in what genre?

I did do some short writing when I was young. Those were experiments with short stories inspired by people like Edgar Allen Poe and the likes. Other than that I tend to get into poetry once in a (very long) while.

Tea or coffee?

I like both in their own way with a preference for coffee.

What is your favourite foreign food?

Well, although it's technically not really 'foreign food' any more as such, pizza is among the top 5 here. I also like moussaka a lot, which is a Greek dish, or the tajine and cousocus from North Africa. I'm quite partial to oriental food as well, but steer clear from anything spicy.

Either, depending on the moment

Wine or beer or pop?

Wine with food, but otherwise, beer. Never pop!

Where would you like to visit?

Anywhere I haven't been yet :-)

Favourite musical artist. Do you listen to music when you write? What?

My taste in music is very extensive and depends on the moment. While working I tend to prefer music without lyrics so I can concentrate on what I’m doing. That would mostly be either classical or soundtracks,

A Night in Annwn

A Night in Annwn

and its sequels

Life in Annwn and Leaving Annwn

by

Owen Jones

translated by professionals

In short, A Night in Annwn - International is about the Annwn Series, which relates the story of Welsh sheep farmer Willy Jones' last few weeks on Earth, or on The Surface as he later comes to call it; his subsequent life in Annwn, which is ancient Welsh for Heaven, but it was underground; and his decision to be reborn in order to help mankind.

In A Night in Annwn, Willy Jones is missing his deceased wife and has let himself go, much to the dismay of his daughter. One day, he undergoes a Near-Death Experience (NDE) and wakes up in what he assumes is hospital, except that his nurse seems incredibly familiar. After a time in Heaven, which he is told is known by its ancient Celtic name of Annwn and is underground, he wakes up in a hospital in Cardiff on The Surface. The experience changes his life, but he does eventually die and goes on to live his Life in Annwn.

Willy pairs up with his wife again, and goes about re-leaning life in Annwn, until one day, he, his wife and daughter decide to be reborn as Bodhisattvas to help mankind, This is the theme of the third book in the series Leaving Annwn.

A Night in Annwn has been translated by professional translators into the following languages so far. Life in Annwn has been translated into some of them, and some have even been narrated by professional voice-artists, however the translations and narrations are on-going processes, so you may need to check back to see if your language has been covered yet. If you click on the book covers below, you will be presented with a sample of the text in that language courtesy of Amazon, although the books are also available on iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Scribd, Tolino and Audible in other formats.

English

Spanish

Portuguese

French

Dutch

Swedish

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

Asian Shorts Audiobook

Asian Shorts International

by various authors

translated and narrated

by professionals

collated by

Owen Jones

Asian Shorts International is an anthology of nineteen short stories by nine different authors. Most of them are professional writers but two of them were previously unpublished and one of those went on to write several more books.

The writers live all over the world too, in as much as nine people can, but countries include Cambodia, Canada, England, Thailand, USA, Vietnam and Wales. Their names and brief bios can be found under the list of translations below. free audiobook copies can be obtained in most cases, and other languages are being added as they become available.

The authors contributing to Asian Shorts International, in no particular order, are: Mike Lord, Owen Jones, Bernard Foong, Gay Ingram, Jennifer J. Chow, S. R. Mallery, Trevor Aindow and David Collier.

Please support these authors by checking out  and reading their work.

English Edition

German Edition

Portuguese Edition

Afrikaans Edition

Italian Edition

Authors' Bios of Contributors to Asian Shorts International:

Mike Lord

Sinagiri, by Mike Lord – Rajah Kasyapu & the Frescoes at Singiriya, in Sri Lanka.

Smashwords: http://tinyurl.com/mrpafs7 Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/o74846h

Owen Jones

Owen Jones writes in many genre which you can discover on his here: http://owencerijones.com . His flagship series ‘Behind The Smile ~ The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya’ is here: http://behind-the-smile.org

Bernard Foong

Bernard Foong (aka Young) is the author of ‘A Harem Boy's Saga; a memoir’ by Young (seven book series): http://aharemboysaga.com/wp/ The first three books in the series – ‘Initiation’, ‘Unbridled’ and ‘Debauchery’ (published by Solstice publishing) are currently available at all Amazon online stores e.g. http://amzn.to/1FMlHVY

Gay Ingram

Gay Ingram writes historical fiction. Mai Lin: Another New Beginning is her latest release. See all her published books at https://www.amazon.com/author/gayingram. She also contributes a weekly column to http://venturegalleries.com/author/gayingram/.

Jennifer J. Chow

Jennifer J. Chow writes Asian-American fiction with a geriatric twist. She is the author of

Daddy's Hobby Previews

Daddy's Hobby Previews

This blog post, Daddy's Hobby's Previews contains previews on Amazon of BEHIND THE SMILE - The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya" volume 1: Daddy's Hobby in all the languages I currently have available: English, German and Portuguese. In some cases, there will be special offers and free audiobooks, while stocks last.

Lek was born the eldest child of four in a typical rice farming family. She did not expect to do anything any different from the other girls in her class in the northern rice belt of Thailand.

Typically that would be: work in the fields for a few years; have a few babies; give them to mum to take care of and back to work until her kids had their own children and she could stop working to take care of them.

One day a catastrophe occurred out of the blue – her father died young and with huge debts that the family knew nothing about. Lek was twenty and she was the only one who could prevent foreclosure. However, the only way she knew was to go to work in her cousin’s bar in Pattaya.

She went as a waitress-cum-cashier, but when she realised that she was pregnant by her worthless, estranged husband, things had to change. She had the baby, gave it to her mother to look after and went back to work. However, now she needed real money to provide a better life for her child and to make up for spending its whole youth 500 miles away. She drifted into the tourist sex industry.

The book relates some of her ‘adventures’, her dreams and nightmares and her ‘modus operandi’. It tries to show, from Lek’s point of view, what it really is like to be a Thai bar girl – the hopes and frustrations, the hopes and the let-downs, the hopes and the lies and deceit that are part of her every day life.

One day she meets a man she likes and he likes her too. Nothing new there, it had happened hundreds of times, but she feels that it is different. They have a wonderful four weeks together and then he goes home – as they all had, leaving more promises and more hopes.

This one returns, but real life with a real boyfriend is not as easy as she had dreamed it would be. They go through good and bad times, but will they stay together and for how long?

After all she has been through, will she be able to be a regular girlfriend or even a wife again? Will she ever really be able to trust a man enough again either? Or would she be better off giving up her dreams and carrying on working in the bar?

Lek begins to find out that getting what you wish for is not always as good as you thought it would be.

'Behind The Smile' refers to the fact that Thailand is known the world over as 'The Land of Smiles'.

English



German



Portuguese

The Eating Room, Barry

The Eating Room, Barry

Situated at the top of Thompson Street in Barry, The Eating Room offers well over one hundred different British and Chinese dishes seven days a week!

Dean, the chef and proprietor of The Eating Room, a licensed premises, was taught to cook Chinese food first-hand by his partner, a Chinese national.

The fabulous news is that The Eating Room is soon to become the only restaurant in Barry to serve authentic Thai food prepared by the latest addition to Dean's kitchen staff, Neem, a Thai national. Neem is from Phichai in the northern province of Uttaradit, which used to be the heart of the kingdom called Lanna - The Land of a Million Rice Fields.

The Eating Room in Barry is the only place where you can sit down to an authentic Thai meal in Barry. However, if you would rather stay in, you can also order any of Dean's meals by phone or through 'Just Eat' on the Internet.

The Eating Room is open from 9:00 am until 14:00 and 17:30 till 22:00 Tuesday to Saturday; 12:30 until 17:30 on Sunday, and 9:00 till 14:00 on Mondays.

Dean says: "The eating room located in central Barry is small and friendly café by day and bistro at night with a wide range of dishes available, such as:

Classical English food

Steaks

Homemade burgers

Salads

Chinese

Thai

Sunday Roast

Licensed Bar

We cater for allergies and much of our food is gluten free".

Bookings for Christmas parties and even Christmas dinner are being taken now, and can even be delivered too!

Ring Dean now on 01446 679734 or contact him on Facebook by clicking this link: The Eating Room

Please mention that you read about The Eating Room on my blog, Megan Publishing Services, and I am Owen Jones the Barry writer.

Holton Road, Barry

Street Problems in Barry

We had only been back in Barry, my home town for six months, but it didn't take that long to realise that there were street problems that were unusual. At least, I wasn't used to them, but then of the previous fifteen years, I had spent thirteen in Thailand and two in Spain. One of the first things that my wife and I noticed was the lack of a police presence on the streets. The second was the deserted streets after dark - a sign that suggested to us that the unsavoury ruled the streets during that period.

One afternoon, a friend, who seems to know a lot, told me that the night before, there had been only two police cars on duty in Barry - a town of 60,000 inhabitants. The lack of a visible police presence was beginning to make sense.

A few days later, a man, whom I also know well, told me that he had spent the last hour with an elderly lady, who had fallen over and cracked her head. My friend had phoned the emergency services, but it still took an hour for them to arrive.

And then, just before Christmas, I was sitting in a pub opposite a local supermarket, when a woman started to beat a young boy. He was six, seven, eight years of age. One of the men in the pub sprinted out, but the mother had already disappeared inside to do her shopping, leaving the boy crying in a huddle in a corner.

He phoned the police, comforted the boy and came back inside. When the boy ran off, the caller got cold feet and left, but the police never arrived, and the woman emerged from the shop and called a taxi. The police did not show up at all.

That is my experience of modern Barry - it has changed so much since I last lived here.

Please LIKE and SHARE this article using the buttons below and visit our bookshop

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Street Problems in Barry

Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya

Our sister blog: The Amiable Dragon

Holton Road, Barry

Street Problems in Barry

We had only been back in Barry, my home town for six months, but it didn't take that long to realise that there were street problems that were unusual. At least, I wasn't used to them, but then of the previous fifteen years, I had spent thirteen in Thailand and two in Spain. One of the first things that my wife and I noticed was the lack of a police presence on the streets. The second was the deserted streets after dark - a sign that suggested to us that the unsavoury ruled the streets during that period.

One afternoon, a friend, who seems to know a lot, told me that the night before, there had been only two police cars on duty in Barry - a town of 60,000 inhabitants. The lack of a visible police presence was beginning to make sense.

A few days later, a man, whom I also know well, told me that he had spent the last hour with an elderly lady, who had fallen over and cracked her head. My friend had phoned the emergency services, but it still took an hour for them to arrive.

And then, just before Christmas, I was sitting in a pub opposite a local supermarket, when a woman started to beat a young boy. He was six, seven, eight years of age. One of the men in the pub sprinted out, but the mother had already disappeared inside to do her shopping, leaving the boy crying in a huddle in a corner.

He phoned the police, comforted the boy and came back inside. When the boy ran off, the caller got cold feet and left, but the police never arrived, and the woman emerged from the shop and called a taxi. The police did not show up at all.

That is my experience of modern Barry - it has changed so much since I last lived here.

Please LIKE and SHARE this article using the buttons below and visit our bookshop

All the best,

Owen

Podcast: Street Problems in Barry