Richard Dee's Blog, page 77

The Indie Showcase presents – Janice Spina

A very warm welcome to my guest this week, please tell us your story, Janice.

Thank you, Richard, for this opportunity to be featured on your blog.

Let me tell your readers a little about myself. I have been writing since I was nine years old and dreamed of one day being an author. Well, it took me a long time to realize this dream. I became an author after I retired from employment as an administrative secretary in a school system.

Since
that time I have published 22 books and counting ranging from young children’s
books to 18+. My goal is to encourage children of all ages to read by creating
entertaining and fun books for them to enjoy. My motto is Reading Gives You
Wings to Fly! Soar with Jemsbooks.com! My Logo is Jemsbooks for
all ages! 

My
inspiration has been my five grandchildren. I have written a detectives series
for MG/PT/YA boys, Davey & Derek Junior Detectives Series Books 1-5
which was based somewhat on my two middle grandsons who love to read. This
series has earned seven book awards. My books have received a total of 13
awards and have been finalists in two other contests. 

I have written three novels for 18+ and a short story collection. Here is a sample of one of the short stories from An Angel Among Us which is an eclectic collection of 15 short stories in multi-genres. This book was dedicated to a high school friend who lost her life in 2017 from breast cancer. I wrote one story, An Angel Among us, for her and dedicated the book and title to her.

HAROLD’S
PLAN

“It
just had to work! If it doesn’t what am I going to do? I don’t want to live a
life without love.” Harold couldn’t take it anymore. No one looked at him and
no one seemed to care. He had been in love with this girl, Francesca, since
high school. She was always friendly to him but never showed him any interest
as a boyfriend.

Harold
had been at the top of his class in both high school and college and finished
his doctorate a few years early. He knew everything there was to know about
computers. He had designed his own and started a business to design his own
line of computers and programs. He had been busy putting together the newest
line of computer games and came across an unusual sequence. This sequence would
put the player inside the game. They must not let go of the red button while
the game was running or they would be stuck inside the game forever.

He
wanted to impress Francesca with this new game. He called her and asked, “Hi
Francesca. How are you? Do you want to come over to my office and see my newest
computer game? We could split a pizza and have some colas.” Harold waited for
any response from Francesca.

“Oh,
I don’t know if I can right now, Harold. My car is at the mechanics. That’s
good that you have a new game. You are really good at this stuff. I don’t use
the computer very often unless I have a paper due. Maybe we can do it another
time.”

Francesca
was about to hang up when Harold responded sadly, “Okay, but I can come over to
your house instead if that makes it easier for you. I’ll bring a pizza and colas
over in a jiffy.” A dial tone was heard and Francesca put down the phone and
shook her head. I should have told him ‘no’ more firmly. He is such a nice
young man but I am not interested in him that way.

Harold
ran out the door grabbing the game pack with the special button attached. He
went to his favorite pizza place and ordered a pepperoni pizza and a liter of
diet cola. He knew that was what Francesca drank. Harold was shaking with
excitement and drove a little too fast to get to her house. He had a couple
near misses as he screeched around the corners.

Francesca
was waiting at the front door as Harold came out of his car with the pizza,
cola and game pack. He smiled up at her and his heart skipped a beat or two as
he entered her house. Francesca smiled but not with her eyes. She was just
going through the motions. She knew she had to tell Harold today before he
tried to ask her the question again.

“Hi
Harold. Nice to see you. So what do you have to show me? I think you are on
your way to being famous. Maybe even more famous than other programmers.”

“Well,
I don’t know about that but I do know that I have something that no one else
has right now. I wanted to share it with you first before I show the world.”
Harold beamed at her and reached out to touch her hand.

Francesca
reacted by moving away to put the pizza on the table with plates, forks and
glasses. Harold noticed the slight but didn’t show his emotions. He sat at the
table and they ate in silence for a few moments until he began to explain,
“Francesca, I am excited to show you this program. It is incredible. It can do
amazing things. In fact, I can’t just talk about it. I want you to try it. I
have been the only one to try it out and I need your opinion of it. It will
blow your mind! But first let’s finish our pizza and colas. I got your favorite
pizza and diet cola. Did you notice?” Harold sat back and smiled at her.

“Umm,
yes, I see you did. You are very thoughtful and kind Harold. Thank you.
I…need to talk to you about…”

Harold
pushed away from the table, pulled the game pack out of his jacket and went
over to Francesca’s computer. He set up the game for Francesca to try it out.
He pushed away from the desk and put out his hand in invitation to her.

Francesca
took a quick swallow of her cola and walked over to join Harold at her
computer. He quickly gave her the instructions on how to proceed with the game
and repeated how important it was that she hold onto the red button and not let
go during the game.

Francesca
frowned and agreed to do exactly as Harold had instructed her. The game was
going well and Francesca seemed to be enjoying herself as she traveled through
several layers of the world with Harold’s help she managed to make it to the
end where she was at a castle covered in gold. Her eyes opened wider as she
entered the castle and saw everything she had always wanted – jewels, clothes
and her favorite foods. She turned to look at Harold and noticed that he was no
longer by her side at the computer but inside the computer. She was so flustered
that she took her hand off the red button and the next moment she appeared next
to Harold in the castle.

“What
just happened Francesca screamed!”

“Nothing,
my dear, but you did take your finger off the button. Now we can be together
for all eternity!”

All
that could be heard was a buzzing as the computer game ended.

The End

Here are all the links you need

Blog: http://Jemsbooks.blog

Website: http://Jemsbooks.com

JANICE’S
PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon.com – US: https://www.amazon.com/Janice-Spina/e/B00HNET4HG

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Janice+Spina

BARNES & NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Janice+Spina?_requestid=354791

BOOK TRAILERS:

HOW FAR IS HEAVEN:  https://youtu.be/pLCjyc9Q9tQ

HUNTING MARIAH: https://youtu.be/JZTu5R-kXhM

MARIAH’S REVENGE: https://youtu.be/2DlawyOX9aw

Social
Links:

FaceBook  http://Facebook.com/Janice.spina.9 http://Facebook.com/janicespina7 http://Facebook.com/jespina77

Goodreads:  http://goodreads.com/user/show/17094469-Janice-spina

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/janice-spina-a0132159

Pinterest:  http://Pinterest.com/janicespina

Twitter: http://twitter.com/janice_spina

Instagram: http://instagram/Janice Spina

My thanks to this weeks guest for a great post. I hope you all enjoyed it.

While you’re here, why not have a look around the site? There are FREE things and a whole lot more, just follow the links at the top of the page.

You might also like to join my team. I’ll send you a bi-monthly newsletter, filled with news, updates and extra content, as well as more about me and my worlds. You’ll also get a free short story and offers on my novels. Subscribe by clicking HERE

If you want to be
featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever
(within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below
and I’ll get back to you.

You can catch up on
previous Showcase posts by clicking HERE

Don’t miss the Saturday Rewind, next Thursdays Showcase post, and my musings every Monday.

Have a good week,

Richard.

The post The Indie Showcase presents – Janice Spina appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

GO BACK!… It’s a Trap. Blog Hopping

Welcome along to another #OpenBook blog hop, let’s take a look at this weeks prompt.

What are common traps for aspiring writers?







Where to begin?

Let’s first consider the whole publishing industry, as seen
by a new writer.

Cast your mind back to Raiders of the Lost Ark, the opening few moments.

Indiana Jones is beset by problem after problem, spiders, bottomless pits, poison darts, a treacherous ‘friend’, and a huge boulder, amongst others. He perseveres; eventually escapes with his life, sadly minus the object of his quest.

That, roughly speaking is how my journey through the publishing
world feels so far. Although to be fair, I still have my grubby hands on the prize
(my work).

Without this turning into some sort of rant, let’s just say that there are some people and organisations out there who, for whatever reason (normally money; although moral superiority is also a factor), seem to take pleasure in all sorts of dubious practices, all designed as traps for the unwary. Promising things and not delivering, attempting to take control of your work, banking on your newbie status; I’ve had them all. People and companies who; in return for just a little bit more than you were prepared to pay, will make you into the next big thing. Some of them will seek you out. Approach these people at your peril. When someone offers you a deal, ask yourself, what’s in it for THEM?

Perhaps I was unlucky, I doubt it. Fortunately, I’ve managed to see through most of their schemes, but it was often a close thing.

Which is why I turned my back on traditional or assisted publishing and embraced the Indie life. What a difference; here I found people who were kind and supportive, who were willing to help, with no other expectation than that I would do the same for others. It’s a great system; if you need to know anything, ask politely and there will always be someone ready to give you sensible advice. I make sure that I always pay it back, or forwards, now that I have a bit more experience to offer.

Then, we come to the marketing trap.

It’s no good thinking that, because you have finished and prepared your book and put it on sale, your problems are over. There is one constant in publishing that is never explained, the need to market your work. That’s not just an Indie thing, even traditionally published writers now have to do most of their own promotional work. And nobody tells you how hard it is. Especially if, like me, you’re introverted and hate the idea of selling. Even now, after six years and eighteen books, I still hesitate to tell people about them, in case I sound boastful, or like some nightmare salesman. Again, there are plenty of ways to waste time, money and effort with little results. And plenty of people who will take your money (see above).

Turning to the product,

while it’s not my place to tell you how to write your book, there are plenty of traps here as well. One thing that I’ve been repeatedly been told is that your story has to move along, you should aim to avoid pages and pages of description. Of course, every book needs a setting and it needs to be described but nothing puts me, or any reader, off more than a textbook approach to facts in a novel. I had enough of that at school and college.

Personally, I try to impart description as part of conversation,
as reminiscence between characters or even as a part of the journey. A sidekick
for the hero is another great way to do this, they can describe and update,
even in the middle of the action.

Finally,

the largest potential trap is the conviction that you can edit your own work, you can’t. And nor, in general, can your mum, your sister or your friend from down the pub. Unless they are professional editors. Even then, they may be too close to you to be objective or honest.

One more thing, don’t ever fall for the negative trap. The state of mind that comes from a bad review. You need to understand that criticism is compulsory, it’s all part of the deal. Even the nasty, jealousy fuelled kind. You have to develop a thick skin and tell yourself that it’s all subjective, that there will always be someone who likes your style or content.

The job is finding them, the pleasure comes from giving them what they want.

Food for thought? I hope so. And I hope that I haven’t put you off. It might not have been easy but I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere. One day, it’ll all be worth it.

While you’re here

My dual-time Sci-fi thriller Life and Other Dreams is only 99p for a limited time.

Rick is having a bad day, in his dreams, he’s been framed for murder, in reality, his wife has left him. Or is it the other way around?

One man; two lives, which is which?

You can find it at  http://mybook.to/LifeandOtherDreams

If you want to know more; or ask me anything about self-publishing, please leave a comment below. Don’t forget to check out all the other great blogs on the hop before you go.

I’ll be back on Thursday, with a new Indie Showcase, featuring another talented author, see you then.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

The post GO BACK!… It’s a Trap. Blog Hopping appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

The Saturday rewind; Condensed Milk Bread.

I went through a phase of trying all different sorts of ways of making bread, using ingredients that were not always what you might have thought of. Being a fan of anything sweet, this one seemed like quite a good idea. It’s made with Nestle’s condensed milk and butter, in addition to the normal bits and pieces. And it’s made in the usual way.

You can find the recipe here,

http://frugaldrmom.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/my-most-favorite-bread-recipe.html

Here’s my dough, braided and ready to prove a second time.

30 minutes later, egg washed and ready to go.

and after a while in the oven,

and the crumb.

As well as the depth of the crust, which was crisp and beautifully caramelised, you can just make out the effect that the condensed milk has had on the colour of the crumb. And the most important thing, it tasted delicious.

I’ll be back on Monday, with my writers hat on, have a great weekend.

The post The Saturday rewind; Condensed Milk Bread. appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

The Indie Showcase presents, Erin Casey

Please welcome my latest guest; over to you, Erin.

A Community of Writers

When most people think of writers, they picture solitary creatures hiding away in dark caves and typing to a computer screen’s glow. Alright, so I suppose that’s not too far from the truth–I’m doing that right now–but what many don’t understand is that writers aren’t alone. There’s a community to be found whether online, in person, or just through the simple knowledge that there are others out there going through the same kind of struggles. And that’s a very important realization because while writing allows us to create brilliant worlds and stories, we often have to deal with another obstacle other than loneliness: depression.

I’m
no stranger when it comes to depression and anxiety. I walk with them, hand in
hand, every day of my life, and sometimes I get dragged along, kicking,
screaming, and crying. For writers, it can almost feel tenfold. We put our
hearts on paper and send it off to agents, only to be rejected over and over
again. We publish our books and watch anxiously as reviews come in, telling us
if we’re worthy or not. We attach our self-worth to the number of words we
write or books we’ve sold. On top of that, we deal with people degrading us for
our craft, asking about our “little project,” or insisting we get a “real” job
and stop living in a fantasy world.

Sounds
pretty bleak, right? Well, that’s why finding a writing community is so
important.

While
I was growing up, I didn’t have one. I felt like the weirdo who spent more time
scribbling in a Lisa Frank folder than playing outside with her friends. But
when I hit high school, I was introduced to a writing forum based on the Redwall books
by Brian Jacques. Imagine my shock when I could create characters and write
about them, and people would actually respond. This was the first time I didn’t
feel alone as a writer.

This
kind of online networking still exists today in roleplaying sites or even on
places like Wattpad. Here, writers and readers come
together to share stories, comment, vote, write/read, and message one another.

Twitter and Instagram are
both great places for building a writing community as well. Between things like
#pitchwars and #pitchmad (events that allow you to mentor with other writers or
pitch your stories to agents) you get to meet a lot of people. There are also hashtags
people can follow to talk about their experiences, like #writingcommunity. One
of my favorite events is the #chance2connect meetup led by Kim Chance
(@_KimChance). Once a month, she posts questions that writers can answer that
encourage the community to interact and get people to meet one another. I’ve
stayed up late having great conversations with some fantastic writers.

But
what if you don’t want to meet people online? Well, there are writing
conventions like the Pikes Peak Writing Conference. I spent
about four days in Denver, Colorado sitting in on literary lectures and meeting
both new and published authors, agents, editors, etc. We had meals together,
learned from one another, and created friendships that still last today. I
would love to go back! I felt so inspired and encouraged. It helped me realize
that writing is honestly what I want to do with my life, even if I have to deal
with the depression, too.

Of course, not all of us can travel or pay for conferences. So how do you find your community in town? One way is to check Meetup. You might find writing events that are hosted in your local area. There’s National Novel Writing Month where you write 50,000 words in the month of November. Many cities have municipal liaisons who set up writing get-togethers. Check the NaNo site to find your area! If you look in library calendars, or maybe a local literary paper, you might find a group of writers. Or, if you’re in the Iowa area, you’re always welcome to join me at The Writers’ Rooms, a non-profit corporation focused on providing a free, safe environment to writers of all incomes, genders, skillsets, etc. If you’re looking for workshop, then there’s the brilliant Iowa Writers’ House.

This
quest to find the right community was part of the inspiration behind my book The Purple Door District. I wanted my
parahumans to have a place to call home, a group of folks both alike and
different from them who could make them feel wanted and loved. That’s really
the biggest theme behind the first book: community.

You’re
not alone. There are writers out there looking for companionship and the chance
to just sit and brainstorm story ideas. Some of my best work comes out when I’m
with other writers because I’m happy. I know that I’m not the only
one struggling or going through this big process of creating a book. Most of
all, I love to meet people and learn about their journeys. I believe that it’s
important that we, as writers, learn to support each other in our personal
quests. This world is hard enough as it is. I’d rather spend my day encouraging
an author than trying to rise above them.

Maybe
a community can’t take away your insecurities when it comes to rejection or
publishing your work, but it can sure be there to bolster you when you feel
down.

You’re not alone, and you matter.

Biography:

Erin graduated from Cornell College in 2009 with degrees in English and Secondary Education. She decided to expand upon her teaching knowledge by leading writing sessions at first for the Iowa Writers’ House and now for The Writers’ Rooms. 

She attended the Denver Publishing
Institute in 2009 and has been a recruiter ever since. She is the
Communications and Student Relationships Manager at The Iowa Writers’ House and
the Director of The Writers’ Rooms.

She’s also a devoted bird mom. 

When not volunteering and working, she’s querying her LGBT YA fantasy story, posting urban and regular fantasy on Wattpad, and sharing her literary journey on WordPress and Instagram.  

She released her first book, The Purple Door District, in December 2018.  The sequel, Wolf Pit, is set to come out December 2019.

Social Media Links:

Website: www.erincasey.org

Amazon: amazon.com/author/erincaseyauthor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18621381.Erin_Casey

Twitter: twitter.com/erincasey09

Instagram: Instagram.com/erincaseyauthor

Facebook: facebook.com/erincaseyauthor

WordPress: erincaseyauthor.wordpress.com

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/erincasey09

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/erin-casey

Allauthor: https://allauthor.com/author/erincasey/

My thanks to this weeks guest for a great post. I hope you all enjoyed it.

While you’re here, why not have a look around the site? There are FREE things and a whole lot more, just follow the links at the top of the page.

You might also like to join my team. I’ll send you a bi-monthly newsletter, filled with news, updates and extra content, as well as more about me and my worlds. You’ll also get a free short story and offers on my novels. Subscribe by clicking HERE

If you want to be
featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever
(within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below
and I’ll get back to you.

You can catch up on
previous Showcase posts by clicking HERE

Don’t miss the Saturday Rewind, next Thursdays Showcase post, and my musings every Monday.

Have a good week,

Richard.

The post The Indie Showcase presents, Erin Casey appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

The Lost Princess. Arriving soon.

The Balcom Dynasty, how it all began.

Way back in autumn 2014, I was on sick leave from my job. It turned out that I had a bone spur in my shoulder, to spare you all the details, I had surgery, a long recovery and ended up retiring early.

While I was inactive, I took part in NaNoWriMo, where I wrote a science fiction story called Ribbonworld (as you do). It was based on an idea that I had during my stay in a cheap hotel in Portsmouth. My boss had sent me on a training course, before my sick leave. The hotel was his idea of a suitable resting place for his employees. I won’t say too much about it, apart from the fact that it was the sort of hotel where a body in the bathroom would not raise eyebrows! I used that thought as the start of the adventure and tried to put myself in the discoverer’s shoes.

If you’re reading this post, Peter; look at what you started.

I set it all in the far future, made my hero a journalist. He called himself Miles Goram (which is about as Sci-fi as you can get!). As his character was revealed, it became obvious that he was a man down on his luck. He had been recently released from prison; incarcerated for a crime that he hadn’t committed. He had been the fall guy for a corrupt politician (I’m sure that they will have them in the future).

He was given a job by his ex-girlfriend, as a way of helping him get his life back after his release; when nobody else would help him. “Go and review a hotel for me,” she had said, “it’ll be easy.”

Ribbonworld.

Miles Goram has a problem. All the down-on-his-luck journalist planned on doing was writing a hotel review and now there’s a body in his bathroom. Far from home on a strange planet, Miles must deal with the fact that somebody wants him dead.

Welcome to Reevis, a planet without days or nights where life is only possible under a vast pressure dome. It is on this airless wasteland that Miles finds himself caught up in a mystery involving a huge interplanetary corporation, a powerful man and his ambitious PA, and a beautiful young heiress who has been missing for years.

Crossing the galaxy in search of answers, Miles begins to uncover a web of deceit that stretches further than anyone could have imagined. With his life becoming at greater and greater risk, he realises that there is no one he can trust. Will he discover the truth and finally come to terms with his past? And, if he does, will it be enough to save his future…?

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Buy Ribbonworld

 I loved the characters and the world I’d created. Fortunately so did readers, the story was well received and had some good reviews. I had ideas for more adventures for Miles. There was nothing for it, I had to write a sequel. Jungle Green was set shortly after the events of Ribbonworld.

Jungle Green.

TC is the wonder drug. Manufactured in secrecy on a remote planet at the edge of the galaxy, it makes worlds inhabitable; and Balcom Industrial lots of money. Then, suddenly, the people who need to take it to stay alive start to die!

For Layla Balcom, fresh from wresting control of her father’s inheritance from those who would have destroyed it, the news is devastating. Can the drug be flawed? Or is something else going on?

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Buy Jungle Green

It ended on a sort of cliff, people pestered me to carry on with the story. I had to wait to begin it, as other projects took precedence.

I’m now in the process of writing the third part of the story, as yet untitled. All may be revealed, or not, my characters haven’t really decided what they want yet.

Then I had another idea, to tell the story of what led up to the events in Ribbonworld. How Miles ended up in prison, the corrupt politician and all the rest. A novella, The Lost Princess, is the result.

The Lost Princess.

Where is Layla Balcom? The most famous woman in the Galaxy, heiress to the Balcom empire, has vanished. Has she simply exchanged her celebrity life for peace and quiet or has the unthinkable happened? In the midst of the search, where rumours and speculation are rife, journalist Miles Goram thinks that he’s found the answer.

A girl on the run suggests that Layla could be a hostage, in a club where the rich indulge their fantasies. It’s located on Dalyster, a corrupt and secretive world. A place where his status as a reporter will do him no favours in his efforts to uncover the truth.

With his world falling apart, Miles is caught in the rivalry between politicians and businessmen.

After edits and a lot of positive beta comments, the novella will be released on July 14th, to pre-order, click the button.

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Pre-order The Lost Princess

I’ll be back on Thursday with another Indie Showcase, see you then.

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Blog hopping: What’s in a name?

Welcome to another #OpenBook blog hop, here’s the prompt for this weeks musings.

How do you select the names of your characters?

That’s a very good question. Names are important, they create a first impression and a hint as to the character that wears them. For example, take Josef Stalin, the man of Steel. Somehow Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili just doesn’t have the same ring to it. And that was just the first one that I thought of, there are so many others.

Would Harry Webb have made it as a singer? Maurice Micklewhite or Marion Morrison as actors? (Harry is better known as Cliff Richard, Marion as John Wayne and Maurice as Michael Caine – not a lot of people know that!).

When it comes to fiction, it’s important to give your characters every advantage. Your readers need every hint as to the sort of person you want them to think that they are. Or at least to make them memorable. I remember once reading (but I can’t remember where); that important or significant character names should start with the letter Q or Z. Simply to make you notice them more. While I generally hate stereotypes, I admit that when it comes to characters, they can be useful in reinforcing characteristics and fixing ideas in readers heads.

But what about my Characters?

I’d love to tell you how cleverly I slave over my keyboard to produce the names of the characters in my work, but it wouldn’t be true. As I’ve said before, I don’t plot, don’t work things out in advance. I watch the story in my head and write what I see. It means that my characters come to me fully formed. If I named them, it would be like giving your friends and neighbours a name, you don’t because they already have one. When they appear on the screen in my head and start having adventures, they introduce themselves, just like anyone else you might meet. Luckily, I’ve never had to argue with their choice of name, they seem to fit and do the job.

Which is not to say that I don’t take notice of the names they arrive with. Names can tell you a lot. As I’m sure you will have noticed, the names that were popular yesterday are not now, and those that were popular two generations ago are enjoying a comeback. Which all means that, whatever the setting, you have to match the names to the times. Of course, that applies to all genres.

In my Steampunk tales, for example, the names all seem to be vaguely Victorian, which fits the conventional view of the time when they are set. Whilst in the far future, my players still like to use common names like Dave and Rick. They provide a link to the present and help create empathy, everyone knows a Dan or Rick, it helps to make the future so much more believable. In that respect, my characters seem to know what they’re doing.

I’m pretty sure that such names will still crop up among all the exotic and (to our ears) mismatched combinations that the future will bring; as we (hopefully) explore the Galaxy and finally become one species.

I’ve recently noticed some really outlandish character names appearing in my work, ones that I’ve never heard of and have to check out, to see where they came from and how I could possibly have known of them.

For Instance.

An ageing and fading television star had a small but significant part in my novel Jungle Green. She had been the teenage idol of one of my characters, posters of her adorned his bedroom wall (as he guiltily admitted to her). Meeting her in the flesh was quite an experience for him, as I’m sure you can imagine. As did seeing the person she was and had become. When I first met her; well before he did, she told me that her name was Parthenope Parkis. That sounded like the sort of stage-name an actress would have, although I couldn’t have told you where it came from. I’m sure you can imagine my heroes surprise when he found that it was her real name and not just one made up for her on-screen persona. It was about the same as mine was!

Incidentally, Parthenope is a real name. Florence Nightingale’s sister was called Frances Parthenope, as I found when I wondered where this name had come from and did a little research (It’s sometimes spelt Panthenope, just to confuse everyone).

Please leave me a comment below, what is your favourite character name? What picture does it paint in your mind?

I’ll be back tomorrow, with a special post about my next publication. Meanwhile, you can follow the other sites on the blog hop here.

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The Saturday Rewind: Sourdough Doughnuts.

It’s worth remembering that, before the production of dried yeast in the 1860s, all bread and leavened produce was made using a sourdough method. Sourdough doughnuts, croissants and similar items are all as delicious; if a little more time consuming to make, as their modern day equivalents.

Here’s a copy of a post from my baking blog, way back in 2015.

I have made sourdough doughnuts before, but only the basic, non-filled kind. However, I was in a pound shop getting essential supplies (ground coffee in 250g bags) and found a plastic icing syringe which I could use to fill them with jam.

I just couldn’t resist buying it and having a go.

Here is the recipe I use, I found it online ages ago, I follow this lady’s blog and have tried a lot of her recipes, she is a genius when it comes to baking.

Dairy-free Sourdough Doughnuts

Here are some pictures of the process.

I’ll be back on Monday, with another blog hop. Have a great weekend

The post The Saturday Rewind: Sourdough Doughnuts. appeared first on Welcome to my Worlds..

The Indie Showcase presents; Frank Prem.

It’s my pleasure to hand the Showcase over to Frank, another author I’ve come to know through the power of the internet.

Thank you for the opportunity to chat with yourself and your readers. Do you think we might have a cuppa? It’s been a busy couple of months, down here in Australia.

My name is Frank Prem, and I’ve been a
storytelling poet for as long as I can remember. Not always a good, one, but
after forty odd years of doing a thing, you develop skills. I find now that if
I decide I have a thing to write, it gets written, more or less as I first
conceived it in my mind.

I first started writing as an easy way of
dealing with demanding tasks in my English class. The fact that it was easy for
me to rattle off a poem instead of an essay should have given me a clue.

Over the years, writing never strayed far
from me, and when it was distant, I was always a little bereft. Like I’d lost a
part of myself.

Over the years I evolved into more explicit
focus on stories, and to use of free verse poetry as my main, means of expression.

I am of the view that rhyme should be
virtually invisible in a poem (from a reading perspective), and that free verse
should be a song.

I’m not a great one for revision. I
discovered early that all too often, critique, when it was offered, led to the
conclusion that my poem should be rewritten. The problem being that by the time
I’d rewritten it, the wretched thing would demand yet another rewrite.

I concluded that I should take critique on
board and store it up for application on the next piece I came to draft.
Looking for constant improvement, rather than eternal revision.

When I think over the major influences on
my writing, I hark back to the early Australian writers – AB (The Banjo)
Patterson, and Henry Lawson. I see these writers as great communicators through
the medium of galloping rhyme poetry and in Lawson’s case, short stories that
dealt with the experiences that every reader or listener could relate to.

In my mind’s eye I visualise a number of
illiterate bushmen gathered around one person who could read and who owned a
copy of The Bulletin, reading it out to the gathering aloud. I see their lips
move as they actively memorised these wonderful stories, for later recitation
around campfires and out on the droving track.

My favourite poems from Patterson are
perhaps Clancy of the Overflow, and almost certainly, The Man from Ironbark.
Lawson was a bittersweet writer and his story of The Drover’s Wife will still
break your heart. The favourite, for me, though, is a piece that has had me
laughing since I first read it in primary school – The Loaded Dog.

Many other short story writers have been
influential, and I single out H. E.Bates (The Darling Buds of May, Uncle Silas)
and Damon Runyan (Guys and Dolls, Runyon On Broadway).

The current publication Small Town Kid is a progressive series of – perhaps archetypal – stories and anecdotes of growing up in the 1960s and 70s in a small town in rural Victoria (Australia). The town was a quite insular place in those days and only grudgingly welcoming of tourist visitors and migrant families coming to settle there.

Beechworth was an institution town – Old
Persons Home, Lunatic Asylum, Her Majesty’s Prison – as well as having goldrush
roots and Bushranger associations.

It was said of Beechworth that if a dollar
found its way into the town, it would not be seen again.

Against this background, however, a young
person had extensive and wonderful freedoms in a time before television, and
computers and social media. It was a time also before the civilising effects of
sewerage and indoor toilets.

A boy and his dog could roam after rabbits,
or cycle 14 miles to spend half an hour with a girl. Later on, that young boy
could indulge in under-age drinking, and watch helplessly as his friends died
in the car accidents that were rampantly fatal on poorly formed country roads.
In the early 1960s over 1,000 people died on the road in a single year.

By the time I had small children (had them
young, as was also the lot of many Small Town Kids) the childhood that I had
known was gone. My children would look at me as though I were teaching myths
and legends (on a good day) or outright fibs (more often), and it became
apparent that if my young days were not to disappear as exemplars of a life
that was once commonplace, they had to be written down. Everyone knows, after
all, that if it is written it must be true.

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L6114KS – Small Town Kid is listed in all Amazon markets as ebook and paperback (via Ingrams).https://www.facebook.com/frankprem2/videos/2206229552928830/ – This little video features some local settings that are part and parcel of the poems in the book.https://frankprem.com – my author pagehttps://www.facebook.com/frankprem2/ – Small Town Kid Facebook page.

Here’s one of my Beechworth poems. This one isn’t in the book, but always gives me a sense of the old town.

It should be read a column at a time.

Arthur and Alice: feature on ford street.

arthur and alice found each other

one day back in fifty-nine

he was a young man

with hair slicked

and tongue tied

no aspiration greater

than a seat at the flicks

with a girl as beautiful

as…

alice was a slender reed

hardly of an age to say

yes to next saturday night

if her mother could talk

to her father

and if arthur came for her

freshly scrubbed and standing tall

to shake her dad’s hand

then an easy walk

to see the movie

with a newsreel

and a serial thriller thrown in

as shown on the billboard

wired to the elm tree

at the corner

of camp street and ford

a bag of chips

from the dolphin café

to share at intermission

as thrilling as the main feature

arthur and alice

walk in the town every day

the old man stands tall

with his hair slicked

speaks quietly to alice

her little frame at risk

of an unauthorized journey

from the tug

of the gentle breeze

slow steps and hand-in-hand

theirs is a small world

made only for two

arthur is anchor

alice is home

together they’ve featured

in a day to day serial

not made for the newsreel

or the billboard wired to the tree

at the corner of camp street

and ford

but playing privately

in a small house

an easy walk from town

Update.

Since he wrote the above post for me, Frank has published a book of free verse, recounting the events of the Black Saturday bush fires in Victoria in 2009.

I had the pleasure of an advance copy, here is my review,

I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of poetry, I think you can probably blame it on school, the poems we had to read and ‘appreciate’ were never the sort of thing that stirred me. I could never see the meanings that well-meaning teachers ascribed to the words. As for rhyme…

However, times change. I have read Frank Prem’s book, Devil in the Wind through older eyes, without a teacher breathing down my neck, explaining what it all ‘means’. Having family in Australia no doubt also helps; as the subject matter is one that I’m now slightly more familiar with (we don’t get that many devastating bush fires in Devon, which is a good job).

This is raw stuff, not the immaculately stilted lines of
classical poetry, with its rhythm and rhyme, this is brutal and freestyle, I
can imagine it spoken, with energy and feeling, it jolts and shocks you, conveying
in a few short sentences the destruction of so much. The words go straight to
the heart of the terrible events of 2009, that form the basis for these poems.
They evoke images of the destruction, the sense of hopelessness in the face of
nature and the indominable resilience of the human spirit. It all starts with the
prologue, a powerful piece in its own right which sets the scene.

I can’t really single out one of the poems that follow as
better than the rest, they all have their own energy. The titles carry as much emotion
as the poems themselves. Through the gauntlet, The Strength of a Truckie,
Portrait in Green and Gold. Even the strangely named Snorkel North.

They flow, one into another, making one vivid picture, a
tragic event as seen from all sides.

As you can guess, I really liked it. Thanks to YouTube, I don’t even have to imagine what one would sound like, as Frank reads one for us (opens in new window).

The Strength of a Truckie

Five stars from me, thank you, Frank; for introducing me to your freestyle poetry.

My thanks to this weeks guest for a great post. I hope you all enjoyed it.

While you’re here, why not have a look around the site? There are FREE things and a whole lot more, just follow the links at the top of the page.

You might also like to join my team. I’ll send you a bi-monthly newsletter, filled with news, updates and extra content, as well as more about me and my worlds. You’ll also get a free short story and offers on my novels. Subscribe by clicking HERE

If you want to be
featured in a future Showcase, where you can write about whatever
(within reason) you want, then please let me know. Use the comment box below
and I’ll get back to you.

You can catch up on
previous Showcase posts by clicking HERE

Don’t miss the Saturday Rewind, next Thursdays Showcase post, and my musings every Monday.

Have a good week,

Richard.

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The power of words; Blog Hopping

Welcome to another blog hop. Here’s this weeks prompt –

What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

It’s funny, probably the greatest of illustrations of the power of words comes when we hear something that we weren’t supposed to; at a time in our lives when we may feel that we have little power of our own.

It can mean the end of a relationship, the shattering of
illusions and can also lead to a life of misery. It doesn’t matter what happens
afterwards, if a person is too frightened to repeat what they heard, or it’s
never publicly admitted; there will be no apology or explanation. Nothing can
erase the knowledge that someone thought what they did, nor can any passing
time dull its impact.

You may be wondering why I’ve said that, or perhaps you
understand straight away.

In those circumstances, you have a choice; you can let it
define you. Or you can use the power of the words to drive you. For example, if
someone says, you’ll never be any good, prove them wrong. If you hear lies,
tell the truth. Rise above it. Believe that you’re better.

Oh yes: words have power, an infinite amount, after all,

Words can inspire or frighten. They can persuade, indoctrinate and stir every emotion. When it comes right down to it, the deeds of the sword are only remembered by the words that come after them, told by the survivors, in whatever form they might be recorded. And the unfortunate thing is, they don’t have to be true.

That’s well beyond the scope of this post, I’ve digressed enough (as I tend to) already.

A writer; anyone who uses words in public, they are in a fortunate position, they can create a world, start a revolution. That’s the real power of words. You only have to think about how much people will try to suppress them to understand that.

Ultimately, words will never die, just consider the lessons of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the attempts to destroy books by various regimes in history. They all failed, now with the internet, it would be a lot harder to try.

I tell stories, I know how to use the power of words to create emotion in my readers. Before that, I must create the emotions in my characters, make them so real that readers will emphasise with their lives, their triumphs and tragedies. More than that, the reader needs to CARE about them. It goes without saying that, as a writer of fiction, I’m lying with every word I type. I’m creating an illusion but for benign purposes only, not to take over the world. At least, not yet!

Another important thing that life’s experiences gives you is the ability to create stories based on what’s happened to YOU. That’s a great tool and a valuable part of turning negative comments into a positive outcome.

A final thought for you. Words are like most weapons, they can point in both directions.

If this post has got you interested in any of my novels, you can get more details by clicking the Portfolio link. Or, to receive a free short story, The Orbital Livestock Company, just join my team of subscribers by clicking here.

I’ll be back on Thursday with another Showcase post, featuring an Indie Author with something to say. Please leave a comment below, then click the links to see the other great blogs on this hop.

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Click here to enter

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The Saturday Rewind, a day in the life.

For this week’s rewind, I’d like to take you back to 2013, and a day in my working life. As some of you might know, before I was a full-time writer, I was a Thames Pilot, guiding ships of all sizes up and down the river. I did that for twenty years, this blog post describes a days work.

I put that there!

To see the post, just click on this link,

https://goingmyownway-moontide.blogspot.com/2013/10/an-old-haunt-revisited.html

I’ll be back on Monday with another blog hop post.

Have a great weekend.

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