Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 43
October 29, 2017
Free Book Offer – 3 days only
Here’s a three-day FREEBIE from Auridius O’Conner. Take a look at the reviews on Amazon. Download your Kindle copy of “When Pleasure Blooms”. Enjoy the five short stories, and please post your own review.
Please re-blog, re-post and re-tweet. Spread the word so that all your friends can also take advantage of this free offer. It’s only there until Wednesday!
To celebrate my name launch and to tie in with Halloween, I am offering the Kindle version of When Pleasure Blooms as a FREEBIE for three days, from 30th October to 1st November. Just click on the link during the offer period, and download a copy.
Somewhere, buried within the pages of this anthology, you’ll find a ghost and a monster. Read the book and find them for Halloween!
All that I ask in return for your free book is that you post an honest review on Amazon when you have finished reading it.
Oh! And if you would be so kind as to spread the word by re-blogging, re-posting, re-tweeting and telling all of your friends, he would be most grateful.
Enjoy!
October 27, 2017
Guest Post: Val Penny on Writing
Val Penny
I am delighted to be invited by my friend Lance Greenfield to join his blog today. We share a love of reading and writing: this is a very powerful link.
Both Lance and I believe that to be a good writer you must first develop a love of both reading and telling stories. I remember when my younger sister and I were little girls our Mum used to make time to sit and read us stories on a Sunday afternoon. These were not like bed-time stories. On a Sunday we would get to sit in the ‘good’ living room and she would read us books including ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens, ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ by H. Rider Haggard, ’Swallows Amazons by Arthur Ransome and ‘Emma’ by Jane Austin.
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We loved listening to the stories but, after we were in bed, having heard another story, my sister often could not get to sleep right away, so I would make up my own stories to tell her until she fell asleep. The first book I ever wrote was one of these stories, an adventure entitled ‘The Douglas Family’. I was about 9. I always planned to write a sequel, maybe one day I will.
It is often said that when we are teenagers we rebel and as we grow older we become ourselves again. It was certainly true of me! I have always read voraciously but my writing, for many years was confined to studies, work and journals. However, when I was older, I discovered blogging. It was when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My way of coping during my treatment was to revert to type. I read all I could about the disease and began to blog about my journey at www.survivingbreastcancernow.com. However, I have also always enjoyed good food and loved to travel. It is said I would go to the opening of a paper bag! So I decided to start another blog to encompass these interests. Whenever I go anywhere, or go out to eat, I will share the experience here at http://www.hotelandrestaurantreviews.com. To date it has not resulted in any free meals, but I live in hope!
It was also during the time that I was recovering from cancer that I began my book review site. For almost a year I was too ill, first from the disease and then from the cure, to do very much. However, I could read: and I did, even more than I ever had. It seemed sensible to extend my blogging to include reviews of the books I was reading, so my third blog, www.bookreviewstoday.info, was born. I began to get asked by writers to review their books and I am always happy to do that. I do not make a charge, but I receive many excellent novels and biographies in return for my honest reviews.
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I always enjoy reading books by writers that are new to me, as well as those with whose work I am familiar. I just like to read. I have always found that reading can take you to all kinds of places to meet different people. Perhaps it is my love of travel, this time through the medium of the written word. This was a great way for me to escape, especially from myself, when I was ill.
I particularly enjoy sharing my views on books I have read. I read a lot of book reviews too. When I am reading a book review, I am looking for an honest opinion about the book. I also like to learn a bit about the author, their background and how they came to write the novel. It is also important that any review, like any other piece of writing, holds my interest, but please, please don’t spoil my enjoyment of the story by telling me what happens! That really upsets me.
My own debut crime novel, ‘Hunter’s Chase’ is to be published by Crooked Cats Books in February next year, so I will have to get used to being on the other side of reviews. My goodness, that is a daunting thought.
In ‘Hunter’s Chase’, my story is set in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Setting is very important to me in my writing.Even when I wrote ‘The Douglas Family’ for my sister all those years ago, I could visualise the house the family lived in, each room and the garden in which they had so many of their adventures.
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I did consider creating an imaginary town for my protagonist, DI Hunter Wilson. However, I know the city of Edinburgh well, as I lived there for many years and it has everything a writer could need. It is a diverse city with all different kinds of buildings and people. It is small enough that characters can move around it quickly and large enough for it to be credible that anything I want to happen there, could happen.
Edinburgh is also a beautiful city with a castle, a palace and a cathedral, wealthy homes, horrible slums, fine restaurants, fast food outlets and idiosyncratic pubs. It is home to an Olympic size pool, the National Rugby Team and two famous football teams. It also hosts the Edinburgh International Festivals every August. What more could I or my characters want?
Val Penny
October 26, 2017
Ten Little Astronauts at the Agatha Christie Festival
I met young author, Damon Wakes, at the Andover Writers’ Circle meeting last night. Not only does his forthcoming sci-fi novel, “Ten Little Astronauts”, which has parallels with Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”, intrigue me, but his method of funding and launching its publication makes me think about possibilities for my own future.
Unbound requires further investigation!
I’ve been invited to talk about Ten Little Astronautsat the International Agatha Christie Festival on September 14th! If you’re in the area (or planning to make a trip to Torquay for five straight days of Christie-related goodness), you can catch me at the Platform taking place at 6pm in the Spanish Barn of Torre Abbey. I’ve written a little more about my talk on Unbound, but the main thing to mention about it would be that I’ll be giving an overview of how the book came about – from devising the mystery and researching the setting all the way towards its journey to publication – as well as reading from a couple of sections that won’t have been heard anywhere else (unless you were on my MA course!).
The Agatha Christie Birthday Celebrations last year were well worth the trip, so I’m really looking forward to getting…
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RIP Fats Domino – your music lives on
Legendary rock and roll musician, Fats Domino, has died. I loved his music and felt that he epitomised everything I feel about his home city of New Orleans. Luckily for us, he leaves a legacy of great recorded music which we can still enjoy. RIP Fats!
Here’s the link to the BBC article on his death, which includes embedded videos. They say it so much better than I.
Fats Domino: Rock and roll legend dies aged 89
October 23, 2017
Book Review: The Accidental Detective by Michael RN Jones
The Accidental Detective by Michael R.N. Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Everything about this story is ridiculously unbelievable, and that is what makes it so comical and readable. The characters could never exist in real life, especially Victor Locke. [The following is not a spoiler as it all comes out in the first few pages] He is a convicted, jobless criminal, with mental issues, who is smarter than the British constabulary, MI6 and the FBI. None of the storylines are at all credible. As I said, the whole story is ridiculously unbelievable.
The author is clearly taking the mickey out of so many detective stories. There are obvious parallels to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, and it is no coincidence that the good doctor in this book is named Doyle. However, I would draw comparisons to Tom Holt and Christopher Moore, both of whom I admire greatly.
Finally, I extracted this excerpt, with which I fully agree. I have often told my wife that I believe that Poirot and Marple are serial killers!
“… Ever since we started dicking around with all this shit, it’s got worse. There was never this type of crime round here before we started taking an interest. It’s like Missus flaming Marple. As soon as she shuffles up, you better run like fuck because as sure as hell some poor sod gets his head stoved in with a handy piece of lead piping. It’s gotta be her doing all the murders. I’m not too sure about that fucking Poirot either. The little French twat. If we do nothing, perhaps it will just stop. Go back to being how it was. Car theft, the odd bag of weed and the occasional drunken punch up.”
“And that’s just you,” I remarked.
“Ha, nice one,” chirped Locke.
“By the way, Poirot’s Belgian.”
“Yeah, I know. He manages to mention that in every episode.”
You should read this book. It is hilarious.
October 22, 2017
Launch of Auridius O’Conner
I have some very exciting news to share with you all, especially those of you who enjoy my writing. I have decided to split my pen personality. For most of my writing, I shall continue to write as Lance Greenfield. But I want my erotica writing to be distinct and separate from the rest. So I am launching a new nom-de-plume for that genre.
Auridius O’Conner!
I have already created a FaceBook page and a new WordPress Blog. I have re-branded my anthology, When Pleasure Blooms, and I intend to publish all of my future erotica under my new name.
Don’t ask me where the name came from. I’ll reveal that on a late night TV chat show when I am a best-selling author of erotica!
[image error]And now for the most exciting news of all. To celebrate his name launch, and to tie in with Halloween, Auridius will be offering the Kindle version of When Pleasure Blooms as a FREEBIE for three days, from 30th October to 1st November. Just click on the link during the offer period, and download a copy. There is a ghost and a monster buried in the pages of this anthology. Find them for Halloween!
All that Auridius asks in return is that you post an honest review on Amazon when you have finished reading it.
Oh! And if you would be so kind as to spread the word by re-blogging, re-posting, re-tweeting and telling all of your friends, he would be most grateful.
Eugene (based on a true story)
This story has been sitting around, waiting for me to read it, for a while. It brightened my Sunday morning. You should read it too.
1.
Let me make things clear right from the get-go. I’m not a believer.
I don’t believe in supernatural geezers with unkempt beards and such, even though I deeply respect religious liberty. Even if you’re a passionate parishioner of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and wear a colander instead of a hat, I promise that as long as you don’t try to hang spaghetti from my ears, I’m completely tolerant.
Well… actually, I don’t know why I started with this declaration. I wanted to tell you something quite different. I wanted to tell you about Eugene.
2.
I noticed him when I was going to my yoga class. I normally wouldn’t have paid attention to yet another beggar on the street if he hadn’t been busy with a pretty unusual thing.
Now, you could say, “Tati, what’s so unusual about needlework? Embroidery is no big deal.” Yes…
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October 21, 2017
Book Review: A Grain of Rice by Helena Clare Pittman
A Grain of Rice by Helena Clare Pittman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Excellent!
This book is such a simple variation on the old grains on a chessboard example of exponential growth. The story is charming, but not exceptional. It is the almost familiar story of a peasant who wishes to marry the princess and uses his brain to achieve his goal.
I’d recommend it to anyone with bright young children or grandchildren to read it to. And you are bound to enjoy it yourself too.
October 13, 2017
Book Review: My Kind of Poetry by Janice Carter
My Kind of Poetry by Janice Carter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This delightful collection of poems, which are written straight from the poet’s heart and mind, are beautifully illustrated by sketches drawn by herself. All of the poems are so enchanting and personal. There is a good mix of places that Janice has visited, famous people she’s met and admired, less famous friends, family and acquaintances and milkmen and snooker players. You’ll discover what a Scotsman wears under his kilt; perhaps. You’ll even gain an insight into Janice’s attachment to pop socks. Many were written for people on their birthdays or on the occasion of their retirement, or to celebrate the birth of their first child.
Most of the poems are amusing, but some are tinged with sadness. The finale is a poem to the memory of the poet’s dear parents, whom she misses greatly.
All in all, a charming little book of very personal rhymes which will appeal to many. I thoroughly recommend it.
