Daniel Kemp

Rankings & Awards
THE DESOLATE GARDEN has been ranked alongside THE THIRD MAN, THE 39 STEPS and THE CONSTANT GARDENER. It was awarded a publishers prize for QUALITY OF WORK.
Book Reviews
THE DESOLATE GARDEN.
A recent review of the story.
“THE DESOLATE GARDEN is especially for readers who like a story, largely rendered through dialog because it was the dialog that pulled the work off the page and onto a movie set. This political thriller resonates with charm, deft touches of satire, and romantic entanglement and where the promise of rampant sex is a turn of the page away. As the story unfolds, the relationship between the two, both sexually and intellectually, ricochets back and forth like a train driven by a teenager, stuck in first gear. Lord Harry knows more than he is willing to reveal, and Judith Meadows knows more about his family than Lord Harry does.”

A Review.
At ten past one in the morning, a housekeeper is greeted with a startling sight: her employer, Lord Elliot Paterson, dead by means of a bullet to the head. Lord Elliot had managed, in keeping with family tradition started centuries earlier, a secret Government bank located near Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster.
Just a few years prior to his murder, he had discovered a 1936 bank ledger revealing a questionable Russian address. This discovery led to another: a missing family fortune. As a result of these revelations, Lord Elliot formed a probable and dangerous hypothesis. Were these discoveries what prompted the banker’s death, and if so, who instigated the murder?
That is precisely what the next Lord Paterson is attempting to uncover. But Harry Paterson’s road to the answer is considerably more complicated than he initially anticipated. Not only is it complex, spanning many years of his family’s past as well as international borders, but it is dangerous, and in a different sense than you would expect. Assigned as case officer is an unlikely individual; an enigmatic and captivating young woman, Judith Meadows. Probing, sharp and unsettlingly knowledgeable of his family affairs, Harry becomes increasingly unsure of whether Judith is a nightmare, or a dream. Nonetheless, the two must piece together the puzzle before another meets the late Lord Elliot’s fate.
THE DESOLATE GARDEN by Danny Kemp is a fresh spy mystery providing entertainment, stimulation and insight. Brilliantly constructed, the winding plot, stealthy loopholes and clever humour render this novel one that claims your attention, holding it captive until the final page. What with its vivid descriptions, three-dimensional characters and accessible prose, ‘The Desolate Garden’ can be thoroughly enjoyed by a wide spectrum of readers.
It has been likened, not unnaturally, to some English classics such as The 39 Steps, The Third Man and The Constant Gardener. Like those novels, The Desolate Garden is to be made into a film.
My Amazon Book List

Amazon.

My Barnes & Noble Book List
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-desolate-garden-danny-kemp/1109443000?ean=9781908775924&itm=1&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-Rp3OwQQegjc-_-10:1&
My Kobo Book List
http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=The+Desolate+Garden
or Buy Here
http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/buy-a-signed-copy/
Only months before the murder of Lord Elliot Paterson, and his youngest son Edward, an address in Leningrad is discovered hidden in the ledgers of the family’s Bank in Westminster, dating back to the 1930’s. There is a spy in the family, but on whose side? His eldest son Harry is recruited into the British Secret Service to uncover the traitor. The Desolate Garden is a twisting tale of deceit and intrigue with Harry, and an attractive girl from the Home Office, desperately trying to unravel the mystery, before anyone else meets the same fate.

THE DESOLATE GARDEN is a fresh spy mystery providing entertainment, stimulation and insight. Brilliantly constructed, the winding plot, stealthy loopholes and clever humour render this novel one that claims your attention, holding it captive until the final page. What with its vivid descriptions, three-dimensional characters and accessible prose, ‘The Desolate Garden’ can be thoroughly enjoyed by a wide spectrum of readers.

It has been likened, not unnaturally, to some English classics such as The 39 Steps, The Third Man and The Constant Gardener. Like those novels, The Desolate Garden is to be made into a film.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

Indifference built the walls, that locked creativity in.

Self-interest added the wire, that compounded that sin.

Expression was apprehended as complacency swallowed the keys

There was no public trial, and no-one listened to the pleas.

Innocence was the next to fall, trampled and crushed.

As to the deviance of wickedness all had rushed.

Greed played its hand, and what a hand it held.

Untiringly inviting, ‘til all felt compelled.

Step forward compassion with the purest of heart. “Where do we begin,” it said? “Where do we start?

The battles have been lost that’s true, but the war is yet to end. We must stand together as one and this world we must defend.

This world existed before us and will survive beyond our years. Hide away your diffidence and shed no more tears.

Creativity will be our sword, expression our eloquent speech, And innocence, it will be you, that bursts through the breach.

That which those four bearers of evil, has bestowed upon us all. Is now ended, and this will be our rallying call.

We must conquer and divide. We must succeed this day. That is my pledge of allegiance I offer to the God to whom I pray.”

Hope was recalled, where deep in memory it lie. It joined the side of righteousness and raised its banner high.

The skirmish was uneven, as conscience won the day. The forces of evil were vanquished and sent far, far away.

Suddenly I awoke, as the day shone into my room. It was a dream you see, and I was engulfed, in the unchanged GLOOM.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

I am eleven today, yesterday I was only ten but today is my birthday and I will be eleven years of age. Soon I will be as big as my daddy and I will know all what he knows. I can’t wait for that to happen as he knows everything. He is so strong. I saw him lift this massive piece of wood that I could only move slightly if I pushed really hard.

Hang on a minute though, the other night daddy was crying and his tears woke me. I heard him say to mummy that he had killed a man in a thing called a war. He was really sad and mummy started to cry too. I don’t want to cry when I get older, perhaps there won’t be wars when I’m daddy’s age.

I will grow big and become as tall as my granddad is. He is a huge man with no hair, but he always comes with bags of food for us. He rubs his big fat hands through my hair and picks me up onto his wide shoulders, then pretends to drop me. He is fun to be around, but I think he misses Nan who  died last year. He was very sad that day.

Hang on a minute, granddad is not very well so mummy said, and that’s why I haven’t seen him for a while. I overheard mummy saying to the next door neighbour that he is a shadow of what he was, and that he is not expected to live long and will be joining Nan in heaven soon.

I don’t want to kill people and I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be eleven and live a life that is only a lie.

Life is for living not fading away. Life is for living and not regretting a single day.

I DON’T WANT TO GROW-UP.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

I saw the face of death once, in the centre of a dazzling light.
“I know your name” it said. “ But I will not ask for it tonight.

No need to worry my friend, your time has not come around.
When it does, I will come silently. I will not make a sound.

There is no need to fear me, as you cannot escape my name.
You were born, you lived, it’s not me, but life that you must blame!”

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

Her thighs were the first that I did see.
Long and lithe standing before me.
Her breasts were next that my eyes fell upon.
They lingered for a while but did not stay too long.
It was on her face that my sight did dwell.
And into a stricken sense of love is where I fell.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

The struggles of an aspiring author are widely known, it is a tough, uncompromising industry to break into. You have to get used to rejection, and constantly strive to improve your own work in order to reach an extremely high level of perfection. Many on this journey experience dramatic highs and lows with some giving up because of this and the loneliness of it all.

It does not have to be that way anymore.

Before the digital age, a writer’s only entrance into publication, and the readership they sought, was through the old and trusted method offered by traditional publishing houses, who had a shared monopoly of the market. That’s all changed, and dramatically so.

Nowadays many options are available.

That old way is still there of course but it has adapted to the modern world and the competition that self-publishing and print on demand, having moved on and developed to such an extent, as now to be challenging its position. The days of colossal advances are over. There are few now between a derisory amount, and the astronomical figures that hit the headline press. It is a dream of course to be offered a rich sum of money and thereby, be able to indulge in the love of crafting stories for the rest of one’s life.

The reality for the vast majority is that; it is only a dream.

The insult that was thrown at those who wanted to be read, but were not willing play the game of waiting to be selected, of being vain, has now vanished from the uneven playing field, and is only mentioned as a way of defence, from those threatened by the rise in popularity of eBooks and Amazon as the way into publication.

By now you may have gathered that I’m self-published, and I paid to be. I had written a novel that found an agent, but never enticed a traditional publisher to invest their money into its publication. Here is the first lesson to be learned by those waiting for that knock on their door. Writing and publishing are different.

Writing is a love. Publishing is a business.

You may have written the most grammatically correct, literary masterpiece in the history of the printed word, but if it won’t sell, don’t wait for that knock on the door. It won’t come.

I was sixty-two, at the time of first venturing into telling stories by writing them down. I had no academic qualifications, no literary profile but I was blessed with impatience and a business mind. I use ‘blessed’ intentionally. How many people do you know who say, “I’ll write a bestseller one day,” but find excuses not to try? Write the story and get it out there was my goal.

That agent of mine suggested that I write another novel and then publish it myself. I wrote that other book, The Desolate Garden, and decided that was the best and only route for me. I’m now extremely pleased that I did.

I was completely computer illiterate at that time. I didn’t even know how to paste and copy. That’s the truth. I preferred to pay someone else to take the strain out of learning how to upload onto kindle direct and sort out delivery of physical books to Amazon and bookshops. These things you, as an unpublished writer, can do for yourself. I simply didn’t want to.

The publisher I went with, did all this and more. One of things that came in my ‘package’ was the services of a book selling agent. Again, you can arrange this yourself. The bookseller opened doors for me by using his huge network of contacts in major bookshops, and I opened them further. Persistence is your only weapon.

As I’ve said above, all what I paid for can be done by yourself, but, and here comes a crunch. It takes time. A huge amount.

Let’s say you decide to wait for that lucrative traditional deal. Who does the promotional work in marketing your work? If you believe that your publisher will do it all, think again. The average spend, in promotion by a traditional publisher, on a new writer is less than £350.00p per year. That figure includes their time. Either way  in getting your work out and read, will involve you in the marketing.

Not all cases, but in many, a traditional house will want the ownership of your work. In self-publishing you own your work. I was paid £1,000.00p for a twelve month film option on mine.

The filming is costing $30,000,000. When the filming starts I get $300,000, with no-one sharing that money. I doubt that would have been the case if I had a traditional deal, one reason being is that I arranged that deal, and not someone else.

This incidentally I believe, was the beginning of the end for me and my literary agent. He believed, and suggested, that I had a moral obligation to give him a cut. We are no longer together.

I have a good understanding with my publisher, with whom I now have that traditional deal, in so much as I will not pay to be published again. He has done a webpage for me, arranged publicity on a national level, and has helped in supporting all my own efforts. One reason was because I was so active in the initial marketing of my work. If you do everything yourself, you will be on your own completely.

Everything necessary in getting your book read can be done by you. The first step of course is to write that story, a daunting task in itself, but it’s the easiest of the whole process, and pit falls, that lie in wait. Investigate all avenues carefully, paying particular attention to those claiming to offer their services in one way or another. Editors being just one. Look into all things to do with advertising. Many want to charge you for this, and before you consider paying for that, ask how it is of benefit.

If I can offer one piece of advice it would be this; Believe in yourself. Don’t ask why someone doesn’t help you, instead praise yourself for all your own endeavours.

I have a silly saying: To try is a worthy thing. To wait a wasteful thing. Those who try stand to fall, while those who wait gain nothing at all……….Just a thought.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

A laugh is infectious.

A tear, shed alone.

A love never offered.

Is a fear never shown.

To love is a blessing.

To never; a shame.

To have your heart-broken.

Is a necessary pain.

To rise from the broken.

To love someone new.

To taste what’s forgotten.

Is to find the real you.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

Per la Rinascita del Romanticism
(For the Rebirth of Romanticism)

A whisper of love spoke to me.
As beside it nestled; silently.
Enticing words that gnawed and chewed.
Without my resolve being renewed.

I tried to resist, I knew I should.
I told myself it would be no good.
But did I listen, did I hell.
Into the trap headfirst I fell.

The promise faded, as all must.
When built on feelings of simple lust.
Passion is fickle in the extreme.
Always searching for another dream.

Time casts a shadow on all eyes.
That only a fool will try to deny.
Love consumes. It take its toll.
It takes away your very soul.

I paid to have my debut book, The Desolate Garden, published. There was a time when I was too embarrassed to have said that, but not now. Given the circumstances when I had finished my novel I saw little other choice than to take that route, but I knew nothing about the publishing business, and the snobbery within.

The first time I heard that word ‘vanity’ it struck me that I was one of those so bracketed in that derogative term, hence my reluctance to come clean. My book, as a lot people know, is to be made into a film this year costing $30,000,00, but it’s not that fact that now allows me to face those critics, it is the realization that my decision was right.

I have now a so-called ‘traditional agreement’ with my publisher, but that doesn’t mean there is money to blaze on the razzamatazz of publicity and marketing, but I get on well with them, and what they give I’ll deal with. From what I read on the internet, and from the people I meet at speaking engagements, I believe the world of publishing has been turned on its head, and now the word ‘vanity’ could be replaced by ‘insanity’ and aimed at those that are still in the past, waiting for something that will never arrive.

The days of money being thrown at an unknown author are virtually dead, or if not, just breathing, reserved for the young with potential to make the business of publication as profitable as it can be. I, in my innocence, would label those that wait for the ‘pot of gold’ to be ‘vain’ and those that were once so labelled, as the innovators of a new real world.

http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/

A great site to have all your details displayed.

AUTHOR DETAILS
Author Name
Danny Kemp
Website
http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/
Twitter

Facebook Account
http://www.facebook.com/dannyandpatkemp
Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/dannyandpatkemp
Good Reads
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14577486-the-desolate-garden
LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-kemp/45/463/434
Where I Live
Kent, England.
Bio
Danny Kemp is a 63-year-old man, but just change the numbers around to find his real personality. He is quick witted with a devilish sense of humour, socially interacting across all generations. His writing comes from years of diverse experiences encompassing the Metropolitan Police, the tenancy of three Public Houses, where once he was arrested for attempted murder, and the Licensed Taxi Trade in London. His interests now are divided between his work, his family, especially his three Grandchildren, and his new found love of writing.
His second novel, THE DESOLATE GARDEN but first to be published, followed on quickly from his first, Look Both Ways, Then Look Behind, and a third Mitzy Collins is well underway. He hopes it to be the beginning of a new career. He is a member of The International Thrillers Writers.
His novel THE DESOLATE GARDEN is being made into a Film.
Book Reviews
THE DESOLATE GARDEN.
A recent review of the story.
“THE DESOLATE GARDEN is especially for readers who like a story, largely rendered through dialog because it was the dialog that pulled the work off the page and onto a movie set. This political thriller resonates with charm, deft touches of satire, and romantic entanglement and where the promise of rampant sex is a turn of the page away. As the story unfolds, the relationship between the two, both sexually and intellectually, ricochets back and forth like a train driven by a teenager, stuck in first gear. Lord Harry knows more than he is willing to reveal, and Judith Meadows knows more about his family than Lord Harry does.”

A Review.
At ten past one in the morning, a housekeeper is greeted with a startling sight: her employer, Lord Elliot Paterson, dead by means of a bullet to the head. Lord Elliot had managed, in keeping with family tradition started centuries earlier, a secret Government bank located near Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster.
Just a few years prior to his murder, he had discovered a 1936 bank ledger revealing a questionable Russian address. This discovery led to another: a missing family fortune. As a result of these revelations, Lord Elliot formed a probable and dangerous hypothesis. Were these discoveries what prompted the banker’s death, and if so, who instigated the murder?
That is precisely what the next Lord Paterson is attempting to uncover. But Harry Paterson’s road to the answer is considerably more complicated than he initially anticipated. Not only is it complex, spanning many years of his family’s past as well as international borders, but it is dangerous, and in a different sense than you would expect. Assigned as case officer is an unlikely individual; an enigmatic and captivating young woman, Judith Meadows. Probing, sharp and unsettling knowledgeable of his family affairs, Harry becomes increasingly unsure of whether Judith is a nightmare, or a dream. Nonetheless, the two must piece together the puzzle before another meets the late Lord Elliot’s fate.
THE DESOLATE GARDEN by Danny Kemp is a fresh spy mystery providing entertainment, stimulation and insight. Brilliantly constructed, the winding plot, stealthy loopholes and clever humour render this novel one that claims your attention, holding it captive until the final page. What with its vivid descriptions, three-dimensional characters and accessible prose, ‘The Desolate Garden’ can be thoroughly enjoyed by a wide spectrum of readers.
It has been likened, not unnaturally, to some English classics such as The 39 Steps, The Third Man and The Constant Gardener. Like those novels, The Desolate Garden is to be made into a film.
Rankings & Awards
THE DESOLATE GARDEN has been ranked alongside THE THIRD MAN, THE 39 STEPS and THE CONSTANT GARDENER. It was awarded a publishers prize for QUALITY OF WORK.
Buy on Amazon

Buy on Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-desolate-garden-danny-kemp/1109443000?ean=9781908775924&itm=1&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-Rp3OwQQegjc-_-10:1&
Buy on Kobo
http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=The+Desolate+Garden
or Buy Here
http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/buy-a-signed-copy/
GENRE
Type
Fiction
Fiction Categories
Thrillers
Only months before the murder of Lord Elliot Paterson, and his youngest son Edward, an address in Leningrad is discovered hidden in the ledgers of the family’s Bank in Westminster, dating back to the 1930’s. There is a spy in the family, but on whose side? His eldest son Harry is recruited into the British Secret Service to uncover the traitor. The Desolate Garden is a twisting tale of deceit and intrigue with Harry, and an attractive girl from the Home Office, desperately trying to unravel the mystery, before anyone else meets the same fate.

THE DESOLATE GARDEN is a fresh spy mystery providing entertainment, stimulation and insight. Brilliantly constructed, the winding plot, stealthy loopholes and clever humour render this novel one that claims your attention, holding it captive until the final page. What with its vivid descriptions, three-dimensional characters and accessible prose, ‘The Desolate Garden’ can be thoroughly enjoyed by a wide spectrum of readers.

It has been likened, not unnaturally, to some English classics such as The 39 Steps, The Third Man and The Constant Gardener. Like those novels, The Desolate Garden is to be made into a film.

http://www.authorsdb.com/index.php/component/content/article/8-authors/52-danny-kemp

All the links mentioned in the main article can be found here.  http://www-thedesolategarden-com.co.uk/