Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 47
June 20, 2017
No, I do not want to live in Middle Ages
A very strong article to which I am completely aligned. You wrote my thoughts better than I ever could, Lucie. You seem to have a talent for that!
In my eyes, the world we live in is paradoxically a strangely medieval world. Drawbridges being drawn up, not letting enemies in, religion yet again ruling people’s violent actions. Name of a God, Allah, being called by foolish teenagers dying in vain. Politicians talking about their Christian beliefs. “I am a Christian,a Conservative and a Republican, in that order. I am a Christian, a Conservative and a Republican, in that order…”( Mike Pence Vice President of USA)
People talking about threats to our civilisation. Comparing it to Rome and the Barbarians at the gates. Well, those Barbarians brought something, their heritage is part of our European history, too.
I find it scary. I am thinking about the 1930s, the time when my Czech ancestors found out in one month in 1939 that they are not really Czech, they are Jewish. And that being Jewish is something inferior…
I believe in…
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June 18, 2017
#WhenDreamsComeTrue Sarah Hardy Publicist at Bloodhound Books @sarahhardy681 @Bloodhoundbook
Today I have another in my occasional series When Dreams Come True where people within the book world talk about their ambitions and their journey to success. Today it’s the turn of the lovely Sarah Hardy. I’ve know Sarah online for sometime and I first met her in person at the very first TBC Leeds meet up in February 2015. Since then we’ve become good friends (and Harrogate roomies!) and I’ve watched her go from strength to strength firstly with her blogBy The Letter Book Reviewsand now as a publicist forBloodhound Books
Guest post by Sarah Hardy…
Books have always been a big part of my life. I’ve no idea when I started reading but it’s just something I always remembered doing from being a very young age. Due to my dad’s job we moved around a few times, so ended up going to numerous schools. I…
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June 17, 2017
Wow! WaW – What a Week!
This woman, Eloise De Sousa, is a hugely inspirational and wonderful person. I am using that word, inspirational, in its literal sense. You can read her account of her awesome week and find out for yourself that she has inspired the entire staff and student population of her school. They are all brilliant for participating so well, but this author of children’s books and crime fiction has used her creativity and imagination to put together an complete enrichment package which has clearly benefited all.
This world really does need more people like Eloise.
#educatingourchildren
A while back I used to write a post called Saturday Confessions; it was a way of opening up and sharing things I had never shared with anyone else; kind of releasing the inner me onto you, the unsuspecting public!
Well today I have woken up with that same feeling, due to the fact that I’ve achieved another awesome week at work, which I shall go into more detail about in a tick. The other part is due to the incredible amount of work my fellow staff put in to make our school a cut above the rest.
Yesterday, I spent my break time duty walking around a playing field full of happy children, laughing together, singing in groups, challenging teachers on duty to races and encouraging them to play games, which the staff happily obliged in doing. The setting was almost too perfect to my cynical eye for the…
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June 15, 2017
Spotlight: M J Mallon Author
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
~Maya Angelou
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Hello everyone! A warm welcome to The Writer Next Door! I’m excited to spotlight today the lovely and talented, Marjorie Mallon.
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Marje is a writer, poet, photographer, blogger, wife, mother––let’s just say she wears many hats. She keeps busy on her blog, M J Mallon Author, doing Author Interviews, Spotlights, and Book Reviews . She is a very supportive member of the writing/blogging communities. In fact, she founded an organization on Facebook called, Authors/Bloggers Rainbow Support Club to do just that.
What is the Authors/BloggersRainbowSupportClub?
It’s a friendly community of authors/bloggers/book reviewers working together to support each other in a multitude of ways – e.g. by writing or sharing reviews, highlighting author spotlights/book launches/interviews, and posting writing/poetry/blogging tips, or
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June 14, 2017
The Annual Bloggers Bash 2017: The Highlights!
I learned a lot during this wonderful day, not least how to monetise my blog. Thank you for all your suggestions. With so many years of training experience, and with Suzie’s advice, I feel that I cannot fail to earn some pocket money.
Last weekend I attended the third Annual Bloggers Bash in London. The Bash means an awful lot to me – I have been to every single one and have previously been the lucky recipient of the Services to Blogging, Inspirational Blogger and Best Overall awards, and I credit this event with giving me the confidence to take blogging seriously as a viable career path. This year, I was asked to give a presentation and be on a panel, which was an enormous honour.
This year the event was truly international, with people attending from the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada and there had been over 6,500 votes cast for its coveted awards. It was held at the Grange Wellington Hotel in Westminster’s Vincent Square. The Bloke and I got an early train in the morning and we were very graciously checked into our hotel room almost immediately at the…
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Change inspired by ABBA 2017
There was so much food for thought at the Annual Bloggers Bash Awards event in London last Saturday, that I came away positively bursting at the seams. My brain became obese.
Of course there was real food too. Ritu and others provided some very tasty cakes which I could not resist. I promise you that I DID try.
Between the presentations and celebrations of the awards, there were very interesting talks by Suzie and Elena on how to monetize our blogs and make good use of Pinterest. With around four decades of training experience, military and technical, Suzie made me realise that there are real opportunities to use that experience to earn myself some cash. And having only used Pinterest to search for nice images, my eyes were suddenly sprung wide open by Elena’s descriptions of the possibilities. Quite amazing!
Then there was a panel discussion and much interaction with the audience. The first question came from committee member Ali Isaacs. Should we write our blog posts from the heart or from the head? My conclusion, prompted by a remark from respected panelist, Christoph Fischer, is that one should keep within the framework of ones blogging objectives and preferred topics, but write with passion. So define with the head then write the content from the heart.
Something which occurred to me as people introduced themselves and their blogs, is that it is rather boring to use your name as the title of your blog. Every time my namesake, L Mitchell, asked a question, she started with, “Lucy Mitchell, BlondeWriteMore.” To the amusement of many, when I asked my first question, I introduced myself with exactly the same words!
The name of my blog was my nom-de-plume, Lance Greenfield. This made a lot of sense to me, as the original objective of my blog was to promote my first novel, Eleven Miles. The longer term objectives were to promote my subsequent novels and to reach a wider audience for my other writing.
I started to think that I need a more interesting title to attract attention. Since both my novels fall into the genre of inspirational fiction, it seemed natural, eventually, that a suitable title could be Write to Inspire. I ran this past my best blogging and writing buddy, Eloise, and she enthusiastically endorsed my decision with the words, “Winner, winner, chicken dinner!” At that point, I almost changed my title to Chicken Dinner, but stuck with the choice that we seemed to agree upon.
I’ve kept the original title and subtitle as the new subtitle.
Hence the reason for the change in my blog title. Do you like it?
My new header photo is clipped from a sunset shot that I recently made from the beach in Naples, Florida.
KCTMO – Playing with fire!
In the wake of the terrible tragedy that is all over the UK news, it is horrific that to know that the Grenfell Action Group have been predicting this for months and that their pleas have been ignored by both the landlords and politicians at local and national levels.
It makes me very angry, and I weep.
It is a truly terrifying thought but the Grenfell Action Group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the KCTMO, and bring an end to the dangerous living conditions and neglect of health and safety legislation that they inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders. We believe that the KCTMO are an evil, unprincipled, mini-mafia who have no business to be charged with the responsibility of looking after the every day management of large scale social housing estates and that their sordid collusion with the RBKC Council is a recipe for a future major disaster.
Unfortunately, the Grenfell Action Group have reached the conclusion that only an incident that results in serious loss of life of KCTMO residents will allow the external scrutiny to occur that will shine a light on the practices that characterise the malign governance of this non-functioning organisation…
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June 13, 2017
All About Hinduism ~ exploring the world’s oldest religion
Re-blogging Anuradha Gupta’s “About” page.
View the original post here.
Lance’s Introduction
I just realized that perhaps I am a Hindu!
For along time, I have believed that there is a universal energy connecting everything through time and space. In my view, there are some people, animals and things who are able to act as lenses to focus that energy in the direction of those who need it. That is why some people are lucky enough to have the “gift” to help others through their pains and traumas. If we find that we have such a gift, we should learn to use it to good effect.
I don’t worship any gods, or pray to them, but I do respect all faiths. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs.
What I don’t like, and cannot tolerate, is when people use their faith or religion to excuse their own selfish or violent acts. That behavior cannot be correct.
We should strive for harmony.
Anu: thanks for inspiring me, through your blog, to write my thoughts as my intro to your much more interesting “About” page.
All About Hinduism
~ exploring the world’s oldest religion
by Anuradha Gupta
Born into a Hindu home, I grew up in India where religion was everywhere. Like the air we breathed, it permeated everything. Yet, I was never taught what it meant to be a Hindu. I suppose that’s because no one ever paused to ponder over it. Besides, where would one really begin? Hinduism is as vast as it is old.
As a family we celebrated the various festivals all year round, I occasionally visited a temple with my parents and sometimes prayed to all the gods and goddesses in our own little temple at home. Particularly on the day of my exams.
I had it on good authority, from the fabulous Amar Chitra Katha comics, that Ganesha would destroy any obstacles that stood in the way of me cracking my exams while Saraswati was the goddess of learning and hence no academic success was possible without her blessings
And as I went to a Convent School, I often stopped at the chapel to put in a quick request to Mother Mary for an easy paper. Made sense to cover all my bases.
It was only when I was well into my 30s that I began to wonder about Hinduism. What do Hindus really believe in?. What’s with the gods and goddesses? Do the festivals and rituals have a deeper meaning ? What makes a Hindu? And so on.[image error]
The answers I discovered were fascinating, fun and surprisingly relevant even in the 21st century. The idea that the entire Universe is made up of the same energy no matter whether you call it and that we are all part of the same whole, was one I could happily subscribe to.
I liked the fact that there were no rules. I could worship all the Gods, choose one or not pray to anyone at all. I do now have a favourite and choose to pray, but that was the whole point. I chose. I warmed to the Hindu belief that all faiths are equally valid. As is not having any faith !!!
Here on this blog I am continuing my journey of discovery. And in the process I hope I can introduce or re-introduce to you this wonderful ancient religion and way of life, by demystifying it a bit and simplifying it a lot.
Namaste !
If you enjoyed this post and would like to read more, you can find me on Twitter @lancegmitchell and Facebook. Please also take a look at the reviews of my novels on Amazon: Eleven Miles and Knitting Can Walk!. Visit my Amazon Author Page to see more.
June 12, 2017
Why I Love the #BloggersBash and Why You Should Attend #MondayBlogs
Great summary of a wonderful day. It was also my second Bloggers Bash and I’ll definitely be back for more next year.
I agree with Shelley; it is initially quite nerve-racking for first-timers, but the atmosphere is so warm and friendly and everybody is very welcoming, you soon get swept along and become part of it all. You leave with a full heart and wishing that the day could be longer so that you could get the chance to speak with absolutely everyone.
Brilliant day! If you haven’t been to an ABBA event before now, come along next year and make it even more brillianter with your added presence!
On a beautiful sunny day in June, Westminster was invaded by a gaggle of bloggers (or should that be a brace of bloggers??).
A room full of introverts shrugged off their fears and embraced the nature of the Bloggers Bash with fun, frolics, and cake-a-plenty!
As I stuffed my face with a full English breakfast in my hotel on Sunday morning, I noticed an influx of blog posts from attendees and the nominees/winners of awards arriving in my notifications. Fast work guys! I loved reading their thoughts on the event and the positive moments they took from the day. Bloggers from across the globe got involved with live streaming, and posts of gratitude. Suzanne from Global Housesitter scooped the runner-up prize for Best Newcomer Blog, and she posted her thoughts HERE.
The lovely Ellen Best won the prize for her ‘Connections’ story submitted for the short story competition which you…
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June 10, 2017
Review – New Moon Rising
New Moon Rising by Anuradha Gupta
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Sparkling Words and Beautiful Paintings
Almost forty years ago, I lay on my back on a hill-top in Northern Kenya in the middle of the night. For a while, I was oblivious of the nocturnal scorpions and spiders and the other potentially nasty creatures which populated that hill. I was totally captivated by the night sky and the billions of stars in our universe. I was drawn in by light which had taken millions of years to get to me. My immediate surroundings became irrelevant as I was confronted by that awesome universal beauty.
Reading this book reminded me of that experience. Each word of Anu’s poems became a twinkling star in my universe. She has taken great rouble to lay them out on the paper so that they convey her feelings from within her heart and the memories…
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