Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 15

Book Review: Fatherland by Robert Harris

A friend of mine just asked me what I thought of this book as she is thinking of reading it. I rated it highly. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a great book with which to start the 21st birthday year of the 21st century. Enjoy!

Write to Inspire

Fatherland by Robert Harris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an excellent book!

The version that I read was a twentieth anniversary edition of Robert Harris’s breakthrough novel. In the forward, he explains how the concept of a work of fiction based on a world in which Germany had prevailed as victors in WWII. It came to him, in the eighties, when he was researching for a non-fiction book about Hitler’s forged diaries. Consequently there is a lot of factual basis to the story. But it was written almost by accident.

Fatherland is enacted in the sixties. This is so that many of the principal characters of the Third Reich, including Adolph Hitler himself, could realistically still be living. The crimes which are being investigated by Xavier March, an ex U-boat commander turned detective, occur during the build up to Hitler’s 75th birthday celebrations in Berlin. There is a…

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Book Review: Terrifying Tales to Tell at Night – compiled and edited by Stephen Jones

Terrifying Tales to Tell at Night: 10 Scary Stories to Give You Nightmares! by Stephen Jones

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed all ten of these entertaining, spooky stories.

There are contributions from Ramsey Campbell, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Lynda E. Rucker, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Manly Wade Wellman, Robert Shearman, Lisa Morton, Michael Marshall Smith and Charles L. Grant.

My favourite story was The Man Who Drew Cats by Michael Marshall Smith. Although it is a bit predictable, it is heart-warming and you can’t help feeling fulfilled by the outcome.

What makes this little book even better, elevating it from good to great, is a series of excellent illustrations by Randy Broecker.







Illustration by Randy Broecker

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Book Review: They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen

They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The chapters of this book switch between the stories of the main protagonist, Hannah, her mother, Corinne, and one of the therapists in the The Meadows psychiatric clinic.

From the start, it is apparent that Hannah has done something awful involving her baby, which has resulted in her admission to The Meadows. There is definitely something sinister going on and it seems that Hannah is more of a victim than a perpetrator. Two of her friends have recently died.

Although the verdicts are suicides, Hannah suspects that they have been murdered. Naturally, nobody believes her and that frustrates her.

There is something creepy about Dr Roberts, who is the director of the clinic. However, most of the characters have aspects of their lives which seem to be not quite right.

I thought that the pace was far too slow for the first third of the book but it became very lively after that. The climax came three or four chapters from the end and it was worth the wait.

However, I thought that too much went into the wrapping up and the tying of all the loose ends.
There are a lot of twists and turns and a few unexpected revelations.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller that will make you think as you try to fathom the final outcome.



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My Most Enduring Memory of 2020

During the first UK Coronavirus lockdown in March to May 2020, on Thursday evenings at eight o’clock, huge numbers of people turned out into the streets to clap, bang pots, twirl football rattles and blow horns in appreciation of the NHS Staff and Key Workers who were keeping the country ticking over.

As a delivery driver, pulling up to make a delivery at that time, my heart would fill with pride and joy as I stood on the pavement to join the round of applause for the deserving recipients. I never thought that I was included in their number until, one such evening, I saw a man filming the event with his smartphone. As he turned his phone in my direction, he raised his hand in front of his camera. Pointing directly at me, he shouted, “This is for you, Ocado Man!”

The rest of the people in the street turned in my direction and raised the volume. Despite feeling slightly embarrassed, my heart almost burst out of my chest.

Everybody appreciates being appreciated.

Lance’s Coach Tour #5 – re-blogged

To celebrate the 250th birthday of one of the greatest composers of all time and my own, I am re-blogging my Time Travel Coach Tour which visited the maestro in Vienna. I hope that you find it interesting and entertaining.

Write to Inspire

“Today, ladies and gentlemen, is the most anticipated coach tour of this infamous time-traveling series. We have already seen the building of Stonehenge, enjoyed the jazz of 1920s New Orleans, witnessed the schooling of young Alexander the Great by Aristotle, and, best of all, spent some time with my old friend Archie, known to historians as the greatest inventor of all time, Archimedes. But I promise you that today’s tour promises to surpass them all. This is the one that has been most requested by you, my regular customers.”

I observe the looks of excited expectation on all your faces. Some of you have probably guessed already. In fact I am sure that some of you know where and when we are about to go.

“This is the one you have all been waiting for. Today, I am proud to announce that that we are about…

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Book Review: Publication Guaranteed (Well, almost!) by Esther Chilton

Publication Guaranteed (well, almost!): A Helping Hand For Writers by Esther Chilton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This small book is packed with tips, hints, exercises and examples to help writers to get their work published in many different formats. Even if you already have a strong ideas that your natural channel is, say, short stories, you may well decide to give something else a go by the time you are half way through.

Esther is speaking to us with the voice of experience and a writer with many successes. She has proof that she knows what she is writing about.

She covers readers’ letters, fillers, short stories, flash fiction, magazine articles and competition entries. She tells us about the importance of market research and how to do it. She tells us how to target certain markets and is even specific in her suggestions as to a few that we can target.

It gets better! She sends us on a track to coming up with a wide variety of ideas. You will never have total writer’s block after reading this book.

Just when you feel that it can’t get any better than this, it does. She goes on to share some of her competition-winning stories and it is easy to understand why they were winners. They make great reading.

Finally, she wraps up with a treasure trove of useful information and links for aspiring writers.

This is an invaluable little book for any writer who means business. Having read it, you will want to keep it handy for future reference.

Read it now and good luck with your future endeavours.




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Book Review: The Last Correspondent by Soraya M Lane

The Last Correspondent by Soraya M. Lane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The story drew me in right from the start. It is extremely well-written, and it is realistic. There is a lot of violence and gore, which is necessary to give it the realism that it achieves and is very well described.

Each chapter is written, in the third person singular, showing the point of view of one of three strong women, Danni, Ella and Chloe, as they pursue their respective callings. All three have many obstacles to overcome, not least the deep prejudices that existed during the Second World War.
I loved the way that the characters in the book evolved with the story. Events shape changes in their opinions and the way that they act and interact.

Danni is a well-respected photographer who has worked for a long time with her war correspondent partner, Andy. Although not romantically attached, they maintain a strong relationship and mutual understanding. Danni’s determination to always capture the best shots leads the pair of them into some very dangerous situations.

Chloe is a journalist with ambitions that are frowned up by the establishment who believe that female journalists should concentrate their efforts on needlework and home baking rather than the front line.

Both Danni and Chloe do all that they can to overcome the prejudices and get to to where they want to go, both in terms of career and geography.

Ella is different. Prior to the war, she was a top model. Despite the sound advice of her brother, she fails to grasp that the German occupation of France places restrictions on her freedom to travel to Paris to join her lover.

The threads of their stories and those of the secondary characters who surround them are beautifully interwoven into a multi-coloured blanket that will wrap you up from beginning to end. It will touch all of your emotions.

I confidently recommend this book to everyone.




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#WritingTip: should I write a prologue?

Sue Moorcroft blog

I’m always surprised when someone tells me editors, agents and readers don’t like prologues. Many of my books have a prologue. No editor has asked me to remove one and I’ve even been specifically asked to include one. As a reader, I love them. I find them intriguing.

What do I think a prologue is? Typically, three to five pages of introductory material. Its importance often doesn’t become clear until it shows itself as a catalyst or significant background to the main story. It’s often characterised by being distanced from the opening of Chapter One in time or location so wouldn’t flow easily into Chapter One.

Are prologues necessary? I think the easiest litmus test is to take out the prologue and see if a book still makes sense. If it does then I guess it was written to “set the mood”. But if it later proves crucial to the…

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#ChristmasWishes ebook publication day!

Sue Moorcroft’s stories are always enjoyable and worthwhile reads.

Take a look.

Sue Moorcroft blog

Christmas Wishes

Such an exciting day when a book first goes on sale! Thanks to all the lovely NetGalley users who have already given Christmas Wishes so many great reviews.

Christmas Wishes is available for download in the UK now.

Join Hannah in her journeys between beautiful snowy Sweden and cosy Middledip as her life in Stockholm fragments and the village calls her back. Nico’s downshifted to Middledip too as he has two children to care for and an eating disorder to cope with. Will any of their wishes come true?

If you’d prefer to await the paperback or audio versions then they’ll be coming along on November 12th 2020.

Download Christmas Wishes on Amazon UK

Download Christmas Wishes on Apple UK

Download Christmas Wishes on Kobo UK

To double the excitement, today’s also publication day in Italy for La vacanza che cambiò la mia vita – which was

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Knitting CAN Walk!

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NaNoWriMo – Get in the mood!

As writers around the world approach the start line for the annual fifty-thousand word challenge, I offer you the prologue to one of my previous efforts, which became a self-published novel with many great reviews from readers. I hope that it fires you up to get off to a roaring start.

My only advice, take it or leave it, is to just keep on writing until you are done.
Never look back on yesterday’s work. You’ll never finish.
You’ll have plenty of time to review and revise at a later date.

An Appeal

Please read the whole post rather than blithely ‘liking’ it without a second glance.
Then . . .

. . . if you are inspired by this piece of writing, either to participate in NaNoWriMo 2020 or to grab a copy of Knitting Can Walk! for yourself so that you can continue to read the rest of the book, PLEASE SHARE this post on your personal blog, your Facebook page, your Twitter or Instagram channel, or any other means.

Thank you!

Prologue to Knitting Can Walk!



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Panchali Masih was full of admiration as she stared across her desk at the smartly turned-out man in front of her. She had already made her decision. Calum McDougal was perfect. She would definitely offer him the role of Global Customer Services Director at Summit Software. From the moment he walked through the door that morning, he had impressed everyone that he encountered. People had been running into the CEO’s office all day to tell her that they would love to welcome Calum to the senior management team of the company.

Indeed, Calum had gained Panchali’s immediate respect during that first breakfast meeting in the Savoy Hotel in London back in December. She’d had no hesitation in inviting him to New Jersey for a round of second and final interviews. The shortlist had been down to only two candidates, but his rival for the post had been almost a standard, stereotypical senior manager. Calum was something special.

However, she felt compelled to interview him. She doubted if he would blow his chances at this late stage, but it could happen. She had a feeling that she was about to enjoy the experience.

Calum sat comfortably and smiled back at Panchali. It was obvious that he would not speak until he had been spoken to. She glanced down at the CV and notes in front of her.

“It’s been a long day for you. You’ve met with all my senior managers and a lot of the staff. And you gave a great presentation this morning.” She paused. “So, after all that, what do you think of my company?”

Calum considered his answer carefully before responding. He didn’t want to upset the owner of this company, because he really wanted the job. It had been a wonderful day once the shock of the initial encounter with the VP of Human Resources had worn off. He had met Licia in the car park shortly before eight o’clock. She had asked him how he would like to set up his presentation. “It will be in the boardroom, of course. We have a projector and a screen if you have slides on your laptop to show. We even have an old-fashioned overhead projector if you’ve brought some transparencies!” She’d laughed as she made this last remark.

“What do you mean by MY presentation, Licia?”

“Your presentation on ‘How Summit Software will gain a beach-head in Europe,’ of course.”

A look of shocked realisation had broken across Calum’s face. “Oh no! I’m sorry. I looked at your agenda and was expecting to watch one of your executives presenting that case for my benefit.”

“Oh dear. There’s obviously been a misunderstanding, Calum. I do apologise. It must be my fault. The agenda is ambiguous. I should have written the owners’ names against each agenda item. I’d better tell Panchali about my mistake immediately. She’s expecting you to brief us on how you’d get the business going across the pond. We’ll have to cancel that session.” Licia was obviously distressed by her error. “Oh dear. She’s not going to be too happy with me for this.”

Thinking quickly, Calum saw that all was not lost. He might even turn it to his advantage.

“It’s alright, Licia. If you could explain the situation to Panchali and ask her if I can have until nine to prepare, I am sure that I can come up with something in that time. It’s an hour-long session, so I only need four or five slides as background to my talk. I’ll just tell everyone about my ideas on the matter and open up a general discussion. I could benefit from the vast experience in the room, and I am not going to be running alone in Europe. I’m sure that I’ll have plenty of advice and support from the leadership team.”

“Are you sure? You’ve already got less than an hour to prepare.”

“Yes. No problem. Just tell me where I can sit in peace for a while, and point me to the coffee machine.”

“You can sit in the boardroom. Nobody will disturb you. And the coffee’s right here,” she said, pointing to the open kitchen door.

At five to nine, people had started coming into the boardroom, introducing themselves briefly as they took their seats. By the time Panchali had joined the assembly, there were twenty-two men and women sitting expectantly around the large table. The CEO took control and asked Calum to launch straight into his presentation, as they were already running half an hour behind schedule.

The audience listened respectfully as Calum talked to them about the likely target organisational structure in Europe, which would initially be run out of the United Kingdom, developing the small existing customer base, the creation of likely partners and their enablement, training for staff, customers and partners and the support that he would expect from the much larger team in the USA.

As he had expected, there were a lot of questions, which he thought he fielded quite well, and much discussion. There was a very friendly, receptive atmosphere in the room. He could tell that his well-tested ploy of switching from “I would…” to “we will…” half way through the presentation had paid off handsomely. They were already speaking to him as if he were part of the team.

Throughout the discussion, Panchali had remained silent and relaxed at the far end of the table. She was keenly observing every move and every word.

Finally, she asked a question. “Say I were to give you the job right now. What would be your first action, back in London, next Monday?”

Calum didn’t even have to think about his answer for one second. He already knew.

“The job title says it all. I would be the first appointed Global Customer Services Director at Summit Software. Naturally, my job would be founded upon the services that our customers require, or believe they require. I would plan, and embark upon, a whistle-stop tour of ALL of our existing customers, worldwide. In advance, I would make sure that the most appropriate senior contacts within each of our customers could make themselves available to spend some time with me during my visits. I’d need some assistance to do that. I would ask them all to lay it on the line for me: the good, the bad and the ugly of their interactions with Summit Software. I would listen very carefully to their perceptions of us. I would be asking them what more we could do for them, and doing my best to spot opportunities to deliver more services and better services to them all. I’d need some admin support to plan all of this, but I would aggressively drive my own timescales so that I could get back to London and plan our next moves as soon as possible. My guess is that, within six to eight weeks, we’d have a very good idea of what would be required, and we could then prioritise, taking into account our current capabilities and budgets.”

The room was silent. Calum wondered for a moment if he had got it completely wrong. Most of the management team were turning to look at their CEO.

Panchali leaned forward and applauded. She actually applauded! The rest of the audience joined her.

“Calum. I have to tell you that I could not have heard a better answer to that question if I had written it myself!”

Once everybody except Licia and Calum had left the room, Licia beamed broadly and offered her congratulations on a great performance. She then offered to take Calum to his first one-to-one meeting, which would be with Kumar, the Chief Technology Officer. “I was really worried for you this morning, when we discovered the misunderstanding about the presentation. I’m amazed that you pulled it off so well.”

“Thanks Licia. I actually work best when I present on the fly. Months of preparation for a presentation makes it go kind of flat, don’t you think?”

For the rest of the day, Calum had enjoyed a succession of thirty-minute meetings with all of the senior managers. What he had most enjoyed was the informality of the lunch break. He had sat with the developers, support team and administrators as they shared their lunch boxes that they’d all prepared and brought in to work. He loved this culture. Most amusing was the short cricket match that followed lunch. The American colleagues were obviously quite bemused by the strange game that the Indians were playing outside on the grass. Calum tried to explain it away as “a bit like baseball, but with only two bases and two batters.” That had confused the locals even more.

At last, he had reached the final interview of the day; of the whole process. He knew that answering Panchali’s question regarding his thoughts on her company honestly could carry a potentially huge risk, but being straightforward and truthful, despite the risks involved, had usually paid enormous dividends. He decided to go for it.

“To be honest, I love your company, its products and its people, and I feel that I could really fit in here, but I think that your trademark is actually worth more than your entire company. If Bill Gates or Larry Ellison or any other IT giant wanted to print those three little words on any of their boxes, they would have to pay Summit Software an absolute fortune for the privilege.”

There was a long pause as Panchali stared at him, looking very serious. He wondered if he’d made a big mistake. Eventually, she smiled.

Calum was very relieved when Panchali’s smile broadened into a grin. She laughed.

“That is very perceptive of you, Calum. And you are very brave to say it to my face. Others may have thought it in the past, but nobody has ever been bold enough to say that to me before. It is my turn to be honest with you now. What you just told me is precisely the reason that the trademark is registered in my own personal name rather than in the company’s name.”

Panchali lowered her gaze to Calum’s CV once more.

“I see that you are interested in mathematical puzzles. Does that include the ones made of blocks of wood, pieces of string and wires?”

“Yes. They’re great fun.”

She reached down to pick up a large wooden box from the side of her desk. Tipping the contents noisily onto the surface she challenged, “Good! I love them too. Have a go at some of these while we speak.”

Calum scanned the puzzles before him. There were several with which he was already very familiar. He quickly grabbed one of his favourites and started to take it apart. As he did so, he informed Panchali that some of his favourite books when he was a youngster had been Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions series.

She chuckled. “Me too!”

Calum nimbly finished the first puzzle and picked up another.

The questioning moved on to much more business-focused concepts, especially back onto the morning’s topic of how Calum saw the business running in Europe and how he expected to develop the services team and business worldwide. All the time that they were speaking, he continued to dismantle the puzzles. Panchali could see what he was doing and selected one that she knew was unique. It had been designed and crafted by her grandfather, just for her, when she’d been about ten years old.

Calum struggled with it, eventually daring to pass it back to the CEO with a request that she show him the trick. She was delighted to do so, and even more delighted when Calum had no trouble in repeating the solution a few seconds later.

“You are a very open and honest person Calum, and I like that. All of my executives, and all of the junior staff that I have spoken to during the day like you very much. I want to be equally open and honest with you now. For the last half an hour I have been observing you. You already had the job when you walked in this morning. I just wanted to go through the interview with you as confirmation of my initial thoughts. Have you enjoyed the day and the whole process?”

“I have, Panchali, very much. But does this mean that you are offering me the job?”

“Yes it does. I want you to work here at Summit Software. Licia has already drafted an offer letter for you, which I’d like you to take away with you. I am sure that you will find the terms to be very appealing to you, but I am open to negotiation if you wish to discuss any of the details. You can tell me your answer tomorrow morning before you depart for the airport, or you can take it back to England and call me next week. Perhaps you’d like time to discuss it with your family?”

“No. That won’t be necessary. I wouldn’t have made the trip here if my wife hadn’t been as enthusiastic as I am about the job and this company. Today has just reinforced my feelings. I’ll read the offer, but I am almost certain that I will be in here to accept first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Great! However, before we finish for the day, there is one more question that I always like to ask every interviewee. I am afraid that it is somewhat of an interview cliché, but I am keen to discover what your answer will be. I have a feeling I might hear something new from you.” She paused. Calum frowned. “What would you say has been the greatest achievement of your life so far?”

“That is very easy for me to answer, Panchali. There is no doubt whatsoever that the greatest achievement of my life so far, and I know that I will never surpass this if I live to be a hundred, is that I taught a little girl to walk after the clinical experts had declared that she would never be able to walk.”

For once in her life, Panchali was genuinely stunned. She was speechless as she tried to absorb Calum’s statement. Her mouth actually hung open.

“Say that again!”

“I taught a little girl, a six-year-old Chinese orphan girl, to walk, despite the advice from top clinical experts in Hong Kong that it would never be possible for her to walk on her own.”

“If you are telling me what I think I just heard, then this is truly amazing. Almost incredible. Please tell me more.”

“Do you want to hear the short version or the long version?”

Panchali considered this for a few moments.

“Calum. If you don’t have any plans for this evening, my family and I would be delighted if you would dine with us and tell us all about this little girl who learned to walk. Would you please join us?”

“Yes. I’d love to accept your generous invitation. I was only going to sit in my hotel room and flick through the two-hundred channels available on US TV.”

“Great. I’ll send a car to pick you up from your hotel at seven. See you later. I look forward to hearing this story. It sounds fascinating.”

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