Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 89
March 27, 2015
Guest Post – Melissa Barker-Simpson
What a lovely, and interesting, introduction. I, for one, will be following Melissa’s blogs(s) and taking a look at her novels.
Originally posted on Thoughts by Mello-Elo:
Earlier this week I mentioned how much I enjoy Melissa’s blog and didn’t go into too much detail about her. It is with great pleasure I hand my blog over to her so that she can tell you more about herself. Please don’t forget to visit her blog page and her author page to view her fantastic collection of books already published and ready for your perusal.
Without further delay, I present Melissa Barker Simpson…
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March 25, 2015
Brevity in writing is very powerful
I love this quote from French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662).
“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”
(Letter 16, 1657)
Painting of Blaise Pascal made by François II Quesnel for Gérard Edelinck in 1691 (from Wiki page)
To condense one’s writing down to, say, one third of its original volume is a very difficult task. There are parts that the author is very reluctant to omit. This is where a strong, yet understanding, editor proves to be invaluable.
The resultant passage of writing can become much more powerful than the original, creating greater impact on the reader.
That is all I have to say on the matter!
Writer’s Quote Wednesday by Silver Threading
Image borrowed from Silver Threading’s blog
Silver Threading is running what looks like a great participation event for writers.
She calls it Writer’s Quote Wednesday.
Follow the link to see more details. I, for one, will be joining in from now on.
Looks like fun!
The Unread Story Is Not A Story . . .
What a great illustration. Doesn’t it make you want to listen to the story of these characters?
I like the quote too. It is so true. But I would take it further and craft a similar quote about the spoken word. Stories passed through generations by word of mouth have such great potency. Even in the modern world, listening to an author speaking her own words, her own stories, has great power, don’t you think?
Originally posted on Vashti Quiroz-Vega's Blog:
Hi everyone! Today I’m participating in Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Check out Colleen’s blog, Silver Threading, for some great quotes, poems, and articles. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite quotes by author Ursula K. Le Guin. I appreciate my readers very much and when I post a story it gives me great pleasure to read their comments. I especially love when they mention my characters by name––it annimates them. The illustration I used for this quote is my concept brought to life by artist George Miltiadis. It’s amazing to see the characters you made up in your head materialize in art.
The above characters are from my Fantasy Angels Series. The 1st book in the series, The Fall of Lilith, will be out later this year.
♦
March 23, 2015
Excerpt from my new historical novel: IN SEARCH OF A REVOLUTION
This looks like an interesting book. I’ll put it on my to-read pile, but it is going to take me some time to reach it.
Originally posted on writerchristophfischer:
Two more weeks until my new novel IN SEARCH OF A REVOLUTION will be released on March 26th. Below is the blurb and an excerpt to whet your appetite (you can already pre-order the book on Amazon)
In 1918 young Zacharias Nielsen boards a ship in Copenhagen to join the Red Guards in the Finnish Civil War. Encouraged by an idolised teacher with communist leanings, he follows the call for help from his Nordic Comrades, despite his privileged background.
His best friend, Ansgar, has opposing political ideals to Zacharias but, for his own personal reasons, finds himself soon stuck in the Scandinavian North with Zacharias and Raisa, a Finnish nurse who helps them in their new life.
Through the years that follow the brotherly war the trio see the political landscape in Finland and Europe change as Communists and Fascists try to make their mark and attempt to change the…
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Kimmy Skota singing Vilja Song
Kimmy Skota
Everything about this performance is beautiful. Flawless!
I had the privilege of seeing her perform live at Wembley Arena. Unfortunately, that experience will never be repeated as she has moved on to serve in the Synagogue Church Of All Nations. Never mind; the memories of that wonderful concert, and evening, will live with me forever. I took my Dad, as his Christmas present, and he told me that it was the best concert that he had ever been to, and the best Christmas present he had ever had.
Listen now and let your heart swell with emotion.
And if you have never been to an André Rieu concert, you really should.
March 22, 2015
Walking On Sunshine Blog Hop Party
I am creating this post in response to Hugh’s Views & News appeal to join his blog party.
Rather than promote a blog that I have been following for sometime, and is really my favourite (Thoughts of Mello-Elo), I have chosen to promote a couple of blogs that I have discovered in the past few days.
Only today, I found The Mission to Mars. In her “About” page she describes that it is all about realizing one’s dreams. Excellent! I suggested to her that she would just love the final line of the epilogue of my debut novel, Eleven Miles. I cannot tell you what that is, as it would be a massive spoiler. Anyway, her blog looks great, and well worth a visit.
The other blog that I’d like to bring to your attention is this one: Refractory Ramblings from the Dark Side. The blogger is called CC. She is SOOOOO interesting, and what she has to say to us, her readers, strikes so many chords with me. Like my grandson, she “suffers” from multiple personality disorder. This is hard to cope with, both for the sufferer and for his or her close friends and family.
On top of this, poor CC suffers from fibromyalgia. If you don’t already know what this is, look it up. Briefly, I will explain. Imagine the most excruciating pain you could possible bring into your mind. Multiply it by ten or a hundred. Have you ever had somebody squeeze the gap between your neck and you shoulder blade REALLY HARD. It can put you on you knees. Can you imagine that pain, all over you body, twenty-four hours a day. That is fibromyalgia. My wife has lived with that for more that twenty years. I don’t know how. And I don’t know how long CC has lived with it.
Visit her blog to find out more.
So, in the course of this post, I have deliberately referred to two great blogs, and incidentally referred to two more great blogs. Take some time out to visit them all. You won’t regret it.
March 19, 2015
Lance’s Coach Tour #4
I am finding it very difficult to hide my excitement as my regular tourists board the coach for the fourth tour in the series. This one will be the best yet.
“Better than Stonehenge during its construction?” I hear Sheila ask.
“Stonehenge was great, but there’s no way it was as good as our trip to New Orleans, Sheila,” says Almost Welsh Sarah.
“Well my favourite was the last one,” chips in Brandy. “I’ll never forget the day that I helped Prince Alexander almost-the-Great to solve that damned rope puzzle for Professor Aristotle.”
The only passenger who has an inkling as to when we might be going, and who we might meet, is my old friend, Howard. He and I have corresponded for years about our various time travels. He knows all about the many visits that I’ve made to Syracuse to chat with Archie, as I call him. To show a little more respect to one of the most influential figures in history, you may all know him as Archimedes.
“You’re taking us to meet Archie, aren’t you Lance?”
Archie
“Yes! It is true, folks. Today we are going back to Syracuse in the third century BC to meet a very good friend of mine. Howard referred to him as ‘Archie’, but you all know him as the one and only, the truly great mathematician, scientist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor . . . . . . Archimedes!”
There is an audible intake of breath from many of the already seated tourists, including regulars such as Eloise, Lucie, Wendy Kate, Sally, Tooty Nolan and Dominique.
Some of the newcomers on this tour simply cannot believe what is happening. Nydia, Carrie and Donna chatter amongst themselves, and turn to frequent traveller, Hugh to ask if this could possibly be true.
“Fasten your seat-belts, ladies! We’re off to Syracuse,” confirms Hugh with a huge grin.
To the delight of all, I announce that this is, indeed, going to be the best coach trip yet. I tell them that I have paid many visits to Archie over the years, or over the centuries, and he is very much looking forward to meeting a bus-full of my friends from the twenty-first century.
Krissy already has her notebook out and is furiously scribbling. She promises Howard that she will have a fresh poem about the trip for him to sing to the tune of his Spanish guitar by the time we make our way home. Howard loves the idea. Bec and CC can hardly wait to hear the new song.
Our magical bus eventually comes to rest in the central piazza of Syracuse. It magically adopts the disguise of a stone building, blending perfectly with its surroundings.
As we emerge into the strong Sicilian sunshine, Archimedes, who had been sitting on the wall of the fountain, leaps to his feet.
“Welcome! Welcome! Oh Lance! My friend! You brought all these people from the future to visit me, just as you promised.”
My passengers are even more excited than the great man.
Archimedes’ Screw
The tube that Archimedes had been holding immediately catches Michaela’s eye. Knowing perfectly well what it was, but with her heart pumping hard at the sight of the original, she stammers her inquiry as to its identity.
“It’s simply a large screw inside a tube. Hold that end under the water, and I’ll show how it works.” He turned the handle to raise the water out of the fountain and spill it onto the ground.
“What will you use it for?” asked Jason, expecting the answer to be, “For irrigation,” as he had learned in school.
“I intend to install them in the bilges of the new giant luxury cruise ship that I have designed for the king. It would take all of the crew all of their time to empty the bilge water using the traditional method of using buckets as we would do in smaller ships and boats. My screw device will make the job much easier for them.”
Everybody is fascinated by this revelation.
Burning Mirrors
“Did you get any of you friends to bring mirrors, as I asked Lance?”
Immediately, at least a dozen passengers produce mirrors from their pockets and purses.
Archimedes enlists the help of Sassy, Amber, Steve and Allison to line the mirrors up so that they focus the powerful rays of the sun on to a pile of twigs that he had prepared in advance of our arrival. Within seconds, they burst into flames.
“We will arrange huge mirrors on the cliff tops in exactly the same way. The Roman Navy are in for a hotter welcome that they could ever expect,” he chortled.
For the rest of the day, the crowd of trippers explore the town and the surrounding areas. It thrills us all to see the famous giant catapults being hauled up the hill to add to the preparations for the reception party for the mainland invaders. Some of the tourists stay in the square to chat with Archie.
As the sun starts to set, I round up my passengers and shepherd them on board the awaiting coach.
Oh no! There are two empty seats. We can’t possibly head home until I find the missing passenger. Imagine what the Health and Safety Time Police would have to say if I left anybody over two thousand years behind my coach!
I run around the square, dodging in and out of the buildings, until I find Vonita and Julz pouring over some complex diagrams in a dark and dingy little house.
“Come on! We must leave immediately. Everybody else is waiting on the bus for us.”
“Just look at these, Lance. Do you understand what these are. They are the foundations of integral calculus. He is calculating the area inside a segment of a circle and under a parabola. It’s amazing!”
“Yes. I know. He’s explained it to me many times. But, I am sorry, we need to go right now!”
“Aw. Just a few more minutes, Lance. PLEEEEEZE!”
“No. Sorry. Let’s take our memories and head back. We could miss our window and end up in entirely the wrong century.”
So we make our way back to the bus. Waving a cheery farewell to our distinguished host, we depart on our way back to Victoria Coach Terminus and the twenty-first century.
By the time we arrive, everybody has learned the lyrics of the new “Song for Archie”, written by CC and Howard, and we are singing along with great gusto. It is bound to be a big hit!
Don’t forget to vote on our next destination. See you all again soon.
March 18, 2015
Review: The Angel’s Game
The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dark and sinister
This is the macabre and sinister tale of David Martín, a journalist who turns to writing books. Initially, these are regularly churned out, trashy stories, written purely for income. I won’t tell where he progresses to, or describe any of the weird events that ensue, for fear of spoiling this wonderfully intriguing story for you. Suffice to say that this book is packed with action and mystery.
If you build an affinity with a strongly crafted character, then you are in danger of becoming quite depressed as you follow the exploits of unfortunate David Martín. He lives out his life in dull sepia. If anything could ever go wrong for the poor chap, it did. If he went to Heaven, St Peter would show him to the worst suite in the place and show him a bed of nails on which he may rest.
Despite all this, Martín’s tale is so compelling that you cannot leave it until you have read to the last sentence of the book.
Although the events described in The Angel’s Game precede those of Shadow of the Wind, there are clear connections between the characters and places which are featured in both books. The magical writing of Zafón is, once more, captivating. However, if I were to rank the two books against each other, I would say that Shadow would slightly edge it. There were times in this book when a discomforting feeling of boredom started to impinge on my enjoyment. Overall. It is a wonderful book and deserves five stars.
March 16, 2015
Is Work A Four Letter Word?
When I start to build a new team, one of the earliest tasks is to list our team objectives. Before any other suggestions make it on to the list, I write down number one:
1. To have fun
Over the years, I have been challenged by some senior executives on this. They seem to think that I cannot be taking the business seriously. On the contrary, I am VERY serious. If we are having fun in our work, we deliver better, with better quality. Our customers appreciate this, and we will gain more business. If we were miserable, we would deliver badly, or, at best, in a mediocre way. This would not be good for future business.
So, take it to the work place and have fun!
Originally posted on Running with Buddha:
When people said, “I enjoy my work,” I usually do a double-take on them. I want to see if they are saying it as if they meant it or were just being politically correct.
If indeed truly meant it, these people are the lucky few. According to the Gallup poll, reported by the Washington Post, only 13% people fall into that category worldwide.
In fact, the article went to say that majority of the folks surveyed (63%) are not motivated about their work and 24% are truly unhappy and unproductive. That is a pretty convincing 87% if you ask me.
What is wrong with that picture? Here are a few of my thoughts:
unhappy work creates unproductive people
root causes in education, recruitment, or both
wastes and inefficiencies equate lost of profit
definitely rooms for improvements
What do you think?
