Paul Casselle in his own words

I live in Spain with 3 Labradors, 2 children & 1 girlfriend.

Moving to Spain gave me the impetus I needed to finish Conversations with Eric. The warm climate caused me to move the second half of the novel here as well.

I love telling a compelling story that will both intrigue and excite my readers. I want to take you to places that will exhilarate as well as entertain. I’m never shy about sailing near the edge. The unusual is my normal and jaw-dropping, surprising my stock-in-trade.

If you liked Conversations with Eric, watch out, If The Bed Falls In will knock your socks off!

Knowledge or Peace; it’s your choice

Is it better to flood our lives with light by striving to know as much as possible or is it sometimes better to retain a few shadows of ignorance in the pursuit of peace?

It has been reported that when Albert Einstein was asked, ‘How does it feel to be the smartest man alive?’, he responded, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Nikola Tesla.’ I don’t know if this quote is true, but I can’t help digging deeper.

What does ‘smart’ mean anyway?

Is it the accumulation of knowledge, or the speed with which one can recall information, or the freedom with which one can juxtapose such knowledge, or how well one can apply the ‘smarts’? And venturing yet another step down the rabbit hole, what’s so good about being ‘smart’ anyway?

It occurs to me that the more I learn, the more I appreciate just how vast is the amount of stuff that is out there to be learnt. Therefore, the more I know, the more aware I become of how proportionally little I know. Ironically, the more I learn, the less I know I know!

Learning can also be very more-ish.

The harder I look, the greater the gravity of curiosity sucks me in. And it’s a one-way trip. Knowledge can be acquired, but not un-learnt. Once you know something you cannot un-know it. And this may lead to getting stuck with truths that with hindsight you would rather have left hidden in the dark. But that is the situation with the benefit of hindsight. Would it really be more comfortable to believe there are monsters

Would it really be more comfortable to believe there are monsters afoot but choose to remain trembling in ignorance? Isn’t it the uncertainty of what may be crouching in the shadows that

Isn’t it the uncertainty of what may be crouching in the shadows that is [are] the primary cause of that most debilitating emotion; fear? Might it, therefore, be true that our motivation to explore our world is not a hunger for truth, but a desire to allay our fears. Might the most studious of us actually be the most fearful?

Is fear the real motivator of learning rather than curiosity?

I fear this may well be the case with me. I am scared that I will mess-up and get things wrong if I do not possess all available information; that each piece of the jigsaw I acquire affords me more surety that I am making the best decisions. But I do this at what cost?

It is true that the surer I am about something the less mystery persists, therefore, diminishing fear. That by learning as much as I can, I reduce the possibility of being surprised by things that may hurt me, but I also decrease the chance of being surprised by things that may well enthral me. My obsessive quest for knowledge may not only risk finding things out that on reflection I would rather not have

My obsessive quest for knowledge may not only risk finding things out that on reflection I would rather not have known but also dampen down the joy of life taking me by surprise.

My father was a simple man that never wanted to dig too deeply into anything. He would never seek out more knowledge than he needed to get simply from A to B. I have no doubt that he had the intelligence to understand more than he tried to, but he seemed to trade understanding for simplicity, and in so doing lived an uncluttered and rather peaceful existence.

So, might this be the source of my lack of peace? Is it a fear driven desire to know everything that can be known, that leads to an overtaxed mind and a situation where I know more than is good for me?

Is happiness simply an act of will

In my rush to gain knowledge and feel safe am I unwittingly trading peace for security, and in so doing causing my own unhappiness? Is happiness simply an act of will; a refusal to live too complicated a life and dig down beyond what is necessary? Or is it a state of delusion? A burying of one’s head in the sand and refusing to carry-out a risk assessment as one cannot face the real possibility of ‘darkness’ existing in the world.

Is true courage living side by side with uncertainty or is it the unerring pursuit of dispelling it? Does fear drive us to discover more than we need to, and in so doing destroy the awesome mystery of life that would be the greatest source of the elusive peace we all crave so much?

As usual, the answer seems to be more about [a] balance between two points rather than an absolute black or white choice. Moreover, finding the ‘centre of gravity’ on this line is probably also different and personal to each individual.

Unfortunately, this conundrum seems to belong on that over-burdened shelf marked, ‘suck it and see’. Yet again it is down to us as individuals to choose for ourselves where we need to be to find our own equilibrium. Knowledge or peace; the choice is yours.

Connect with Paul Casselle: Website * Facebook * Twitter * Amazon * Goodreads

Giveaway

Enter to win a digital copy of The Unforgiving Minute by Paul Casselle 

Title: If The Bed Falls In (Bedfellows Book 1) by Paul Casselle
Genre: Psychological, Conspiracy Thriller

Synopsis

Not the usual psychological thriller…
Tom Friday, a depressed photographer is plagued with hallucinations. But paranoia turns into reality when he comes face to face with the truth; all his memories are false. Is he really Joseph Miller, a renegade MI6 assassin suffering severe amnesia? And does western society’s survival hinge on him regaining his memory?

What are people saying about If The Bed Falls In…

The storytelling skills of the author are amazing…It is one of those books that left me craving for more…and the end of it brought an acute sense of bereavement. Therefore, totally recommendable!” – Yves TOP 500 Reviewer Amazon.co.uk

If you have never read any books by Paul Casselle, then you should know he ranks up along with the greatest authors of this genre. You just can’t put it down. He is the new “King” of thrillers. I loved it! Janice.” – Amazon Kindle Reader

If The Bed Falls In is a chilling psychological thriller that attaches itself into your subconscious and refuses to leave. Paul Casselle is a story-teller who deftly weaves his tale into a thrill ride of a page turner. He creates multilevel characters that remain with the reader long after the book has been closed. His characters leap off the page and scream to be heard.” – The Hungry Monster Book Review

Click to purchase on Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords

Click to add to your Goodreads shelf.

Guerrillas By Night (Bedfellows Companion Novella) 

**Get your FREE download of Book One inside this novella**

When MI6 agent Tilda Brooker walked into a secret CIA facility in New Mexico, she had no idea that she was initiating a terrifying series of events.

Who was the Russian defector she was there to guard? What was so important about his scientific work? And why was the most powerful family in the world determined to destroy both him and his invention?

For Tilda, this was just another day. For human society, today might be their last!

This is a companion novella to The Bedfellows Thriller Series
**You must read Book One ‘If The Bed Falls In’ before you read this novella – Book One is FREE to download with this companion book**

Click to add to your Goodreads shelf.

Purchase on Amazon

As Mad As Hell (Bedfellows Book 2)

“Don’t start reading unless you can snuggle up with coffee and a big chunk of time. I couldn’t put it down.” – Amazon.com Kindle Reader

As Mad as Hell is the second book in the ‘Bedfellows thriller series’. It picks up the story where If The Bed Falls In left off!

The first book is a psychological thriller that begins the descent into the dark and criminal dealings of the international banks and corrupt national governments. A disgruntled MI6 agent wakes up to how ‘The Few’ are destroying all we hold dear, are accumulating everything of physical value on our planet, and are committed to enslaving humanity in a medieval feudal system.

This second book in the series takes us so much deeper as we follow a rogue MI6 agent using every resource he can to hunt down the culprits behind the New World Order. But he is a man battling with his own internal demons as well as the One Percenters.

With the CIA, MI6 and the most powerful family in the world hot on his heels, he struggles to blow the lid off the 9/11 conspiracy but stumbles across deep and frightening truths that are darker than even the most committed conspiracist would have believed. His carefully laid plans take him to New York, Johannesburg, and London as the intricate plot slowly reveals itself.

WARNING: The faint hearted should turn away now. Only those who really want to dig deep into the lumpy broth of humanity should buy this book.

Add to your Goodreads shelf.

Purchase on Amazon | Smashwords

The third book, A Tale of Three Cities will be released in 2018.