Jo Robinson's Blog, page 32
July 1, 2015
Memories are made of this.. Music from 1965
Join Sal for a musical interlude. :)
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
The Sound of Music
Time for another music memory and the year is 1965. Before I share my story do remember that if you would like to share your own musical memory you can do so on the Saturday round up. Just email me with your memory, the music and I will try to find on YouTube. I will of course need your blog link or Social Media so that people can connect with you.
On with the show…….
We left Cape Town and arrived home to a chilly England and a new posting for my father to HMS Inskip a small farming community a few miles outside Preston in Lancashire.
Originally the station had been called RNAS Inskip (Royal Navy Air Station) and had been used by the Fleet Air Arm. During our stay there it was recommissioned as HMS Inskip. The station’s 600 feet high aerials signified its…
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June 26, 2015
Dayglo Uncooked Green Chilli Sauce – Condiment – Weaponised
Ingredients:
Apple Cider Vinegar (around 2 cups for this batch)
Juice of 2 fat lemons (or more – you can change with vinegar as per your own preference)
1 Whole head of garlic – peeled and chopped
2 Chopped medium onions
About a finger-length chopped Lemongrass (optional)
1 teaspoon Salt (or to taste)
4 to 5 Cups snipped green Chillies
You’ll need a blender for this recipe.
I suggest using empty, unwashed Vodka bottles for storage to begin with.
A funnel
Method:
1. Put the lemon juice, salt, half of the vinegar, the garlic, onions, and lemongrass in the blender.
2. Using scissors, snip the chillies straight into the blender – that way you don’t touch them too much.
3. Have a squiz at the liquid level.
4. Add more vinegar and/or extra lemon juice to top of chillies.
5. Blend until smooth, pulsating, glowing, and bubbling surreally.
6. Pour two thirds of the way up in your alcoholic bottles using a funnel. If it overflows and lands on your toes – it will burn your toes – just saying.
7. Put a couple of tablespoons of yoghurt into a cup (for sticking your tongue into after the next step)
8. Pour some into a teaspoon and taste.
9. Stick your tongue in the cup of yoghurt, wipe your eyes and blow your nose.
10. Adjust seasoning or add liquid as desired.
11. Store in fridge – it just gets better. My two year old vintage is absolute mellow chilli gold.
12. Decant bits into cute and innocuous looking containers to gift to less favoured unsuspecting relatives (if you can stand to share). Tell them it’s a special mild piquant sauce that you made just for them. Put cute bows on them for emphasis on cute.
This sauce can be as hot or as mild as you like. I generally make large batches – some all green and some all red, and then I fiddle with them over the next couple of weeks, mixing them with each other and adjusting the seasonings or adding more liquid. They’re generally hot as Hades for a couple of days when still fresh, but they mellow and develop character over time like the finest of wines. Keep them in the fridge. I like to make loads because they really are at their best six months to a year later – just give the bottles a little shake and a sniff (what sinus issues?) a couple of times a week.
For this innocent looking batch, I used a mixture of Bullet, Jalapeno, New Mexico, and Mozabique Bastardos, so for my taste it’s pretty mild, although those little green Bastardos will blow the teeth out of your face if you eat them alone – I only added fifteen of them to this recipe.
The garlic and the onion form the base for the sauce, and create the flavour to enhance and make the bite all the more pleasurable. Don’t worry about this sauce going bad – there’s not many germs in the universe that could hang around in those bottles and live.
For those among you who are sissies (no insult intended – maybe :D ) you can add a couple of chopped green peppers. This makes for a wonderfully mild sauce, with just a tiny kick. For those masters of heat though, feel free to lob in a Habanero or three, or Scotch Bonnet – but remember – the Ghost Chilli is pretty demonic, and can actually kill you you I think, so tread lightly with that one.
June 25, 2015
Angelic Business 1 – Pink Matters by Olga Núñez Miret – Launch Week Book Tour!
It’s a great pleasure to have Olga Núñez Miret here with me today for the exciting release of her Angelic Business trilogy. Olga is a truly multi-talented author and fascinating and fabulous friend to have. Now it’s over to Olga!
Hi all:
First of all thank you very much for taking part in my Blog Tour for Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters. Reader, don’t worry, I’m not here forever, just twisting the arm of your favourite blogger and borrowing a bit of space.
Author Olga Núñez MiretMy name is Olga Núñez Miret and I’m a writer, translator, reader, psychiatrist, I love movies, plays, fitness, owls and recently have taken up meditation (mindfulness). (I thought I might as well summarise and not take too much of your time). I’ll leave you some links at the end just in case you want to find out even more about me (I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but hey…do your worst!).
I’ve been writing since I was quite young and I write in whatever style the story I have in my head wants to be written in. So far literary fiction, romance, YA, thriller…and a few unfinished works.
Around five years ago I discovered and read quite a few interesting Young Adult books and had an idea for what I thought could be a series. At the time I wrote the first of the novels and after trying to find an agent or a traditional publisher without much success, I started self-publishing, but decided to publish some of my other books first. Since then I’ve published 12 books (6 original books and their translations, as I write in English and Spanish).
I kept thinking about Angelic Business and a few months later wrote the second novel in the series: Shades of Greg. (No, nothing to do with…)
And last year, as part of NaNoWriMo I wrote the third novel in the series, Pink, Angel or Demon?
As I had written the three, I thought I’d publish them pretty close to each other so people wouldn’t have to wait to know what happened next (at least not too much).
The three books in the Angelic Business collection are now available for pre-order at the special price of $0.99 each. It’s a bargain price and they’ll go up shortly after publication.
Here, a video:
Link:
https://youtu.be/ZKWP_Q89CiQ
Don’t worry. My writing is better than my video-creating skills, but as I’d been taking all those pictures of angels, I thought I might as well.
And here, the series:
Angelic Business 1. Pink MattersAngelic Business 1. Pink Matters
You are Pink, not the prettiest girl, but smart and with plenty of resources. What do you do when your best male friend offers to have sex with you, because he thinks you’re a lost cause? You plot your revenge with your two best female friends, of course!
It seems you’re in luck when a new and mysterious student appears. And, to top it all, he seems interested in you too. He could take part in the plan. But then, he seems to have a plan of his own… He insists he’s not just an ordinary boy. And what seemed so easy to begin with, gets more and more complicated when Heaven and Hell come knocking at Pink’s door.
Pink Matters is the story of Pink, a 17 year old girl, good student, articulate and smart. What she has never been the centre of attention or made the top ten of the most popular and attractive girls at school. When two guys, both claiming to be angels, insist that she is, indeed, ‘special’, fight for her attention and help and tell her she is the key to the future of the universe, she can’t help but ask: Why me?
And a snippet:
“Who are you?” Lorna asked. Before she could say anything else, she froze as if paralysed. And the same happened to Sylvia.
“Oh no, not again” I said.
“Hi Pink. I’m Azrael. I’m…”
“Let me guess…You’re an angel.”
I could say he smiled but it was more like a white light radiating from between his lips. His voice also seemed slightly “otherworldly”. He was nothing like G. Flesh and blood didn’t seem to be his priority.
“Yes. I am.”
“O…K….And…to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? If you are going to make an announcement of some sort…I could have done with some notice.”
The light now seemed to radiate from his whole “body” if that was what it was. Somehow his show was much more believable than G’s. And scarier.
“It’s not an announcement as such. But you should know…G…”
“Yes?”
“I know he told you he’s an angel.”
I looked at him. Maybe he was different to G but he could be as annoying as him. And interfering.
“Yes. I also “know” things…In my case it is because “I” am an angel. He has not been truthful about his identity.”
Pink Matters is currently available for pre-order and will be published on the 26th of June 2015 (Amazon time). So, if you’re reading this post after the 26th of June, you’re in luck and can get the book straight away! (I’m also publishing it in other platforms although as their processing speed is different the dates might vary. Do check there or in my website, that I regularly update).
Link:
In case you’re intrigued, I leave you the cover (reveal!) and links to the other two books:
Angelic Business 2. Shapes of GregAngelic Business 2. Shapes of Greg
What more could happen after the death and resurrection of your mother? What could Heaven and Hell toss at Pink to top that? Well, to start with, she gets a new hellish babysitter, who is seriously hot. And although everybody likes him, he only has eyes for her. When she learns what the price was for the ‘miracle’ of saving her mother, she realises that she must be careful, as Hell doesn’t lose gracefully.
One of her friends wants to find the perfect man, the other one gets into a relationship she refuses to talk about, there’s a demon who doesn’t know when to give up and an angel who seems to have his own agenda. What on Earth, Hell or Heaven is going on?
Shapes of Greg is available for pre-order and will be published on the 15th of July.
Link:
And last, but not least:
Angelic Business 3: Pink, Angel or Demon?Angelic Business 3. Pink, Angel or Demon?
OK, OK, OK. Pink gets it. She’s the Elected, whether she likes it or no. Heaven and Hell are closing in, and their envois are closer home than ever. So close she can’t ignore them. And she’ll do everything but.
However long she has, she’s determined to make it count. She’ll sort her friends out, she’ll help her family and, she’ll live a bit. And then, she’ll take charge. Because no one will say that Pink went down without a fight. However big and bad the enemy.
Gender benders, romances, old loves that come to fruition, new challenges, divine interventions, tears, laughter and magic. All of that and more. Because, if you’re gonna go, you might as well go with a bang.
Pink, Angel or Demon? is available for pre-order and will be published on the 30th July.
Link:
As I threatened you before, here are some link:
My website is:
I have a Twitter account:
@OlgaNM7
My blog is:
I also have a Facebook author page
www.facebook.com/OlgaNunezMiret
In Amazon:
My Goodreads author page is:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6562510.Olga_N_ez_Miret
G+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/118443714277719085351
Pinterest : (Don’t miss my board about angels)
Wattpad:
Thanks so much for allowing me to visit and post, thanks so much for reading, and as I always tell them in my blog, if you’ve found it interesting, like, share, comment and CLICK! Oh, and I love reblogs! Ah, and thanks to Lourdes Vidal for her covers.
Memories are made of this.. West Side Story 1964 – ‘Tonight’
This brings back memories of snow fights in the Ceres mountains too. :D We only got television in 1976 in South Africa if my memory’s working properly today – and we still had fun too. Here’s our lovely Sally with happy childhood memories of SA.
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
Welcome to this week’s musical memories post and today a song that brings back memories of the smell of curry and cigarette smoke! As well as an amazing musical that had all the elements that made an 11 year old girl dream of Hollywood stardom.
When we lived in Cape Town we did not have television or a record player but my parents had a wireless in their bedroom and they would listen to music sometimes in the evening and certainly would get the BBC World Service for news from home.
The only source of music for us as children therefore were the musical films that my father would bring home courtesy of his role as Film Officer at HMS Afrikander. Last week I wrote about my first crush for Lt. Joe Cable and the love of the songs from South Pacific and this week I look at 1964 and…
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Is Kindle Unlimited Hurting New Indies?
Originally posted on I was planning on posting the new TOC how to using Calibre this week, but I’m afraid that I haven’t been able to get to my computer to get the screenshots together this week – so next week it will be – promise. Getting back here today though, it seems that the whole writing world is up in arms about Amazon’s announcement that authors will earn by the page read, rather than by the percentage of a book read when a book is borrowed with Kindle Unlimited. Having vivid memories of starting out as a newbie to self-publishing of how easy it was to get totally confused and thrown off course by announcements from some established authors, I’m really glad that this didn’t happen back then.
It’s a fact that any Indie author out there right now with one, or maybe two books published, is not going to be laughing…
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The Afternoon Video – Two cats talking – And three kittens reacting to them.
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
First the original of two cats chatting.. I think they might have been discussing the fat their owner has switched over to skimmed milk instead of full fat and tuna without the olive oil…. but anyway they must have been saying something very interesting because watch the reaction of the very young kittens who are watching the two talking on a laptop..
Now watch the kittens reaction… fascinating.
What do you think they are talking about?
June 20, 2015
Three Day Quote Challenge – And Stuff –
The Three Day Quote Challenge:
Share your favourite quote (even if written by you) and also inspire people.
The Rules:
Thank the person who nominated you. Post your quotes. Pass it on. Do we have to post three quotes, or one quote every day for three days? Not sure – never mind – I’ll just do extra. :D
THANK YOU CHRIS GRAHAM!
First Quote – Actually – It’s an interview with some quotable—. Things—.
Interview With a Vampire
Me: Thank you for being here today Lord Peebles. I must admit that I was more than a little surprised when you asked me to interview you. Never interviewed a creature of the night before. Are you a writer?
LP: Creature of the night?! Well – indeed! As it happens, yes, I am indeed an author. Have been man and boy these past two hundred years. That is not the reason for this interview however. There is a much more urgent motivation.
Me: Really? So what genre do you write?
LP: Various genres. At the moment I’m working on a treatise concerning the need for Ann Rice to—. This is not about writing, my good woman! I am here to lodge our official—.
Me: I see. So you’re an Ann Rice fan? How about horror? Do you like Stephen King?
LP: No. I’m reading The Fault in our Stars right now. It’s—. Would you STOP talking about books now! I wish to address the serious—.
ME: That one’s on my TBR too, although I probably won’t get around to it in a while. What about your scribbling environment? Where do you like to write? Being a South African vampire it must be difficult for you with all the power outages. Can you see in the dark?
LP: Shutup, shutup, shutup!!!
ME: Huh?
LP: I am here today as the representative of the World Federation Against the Abuse of Vampires. The Weremen haven’t decided who to request an interview from yet, although the sins perpetrated on them are just as bad as those on our kind. They are considering asking The Story Reading Ape, but they’re a cowardly lot, and afraid of his temper—. Their leader, Lord TakenByThe, also has a severe banana allergy. I can see his point really, all things considered. So—.
ME: Oh, he’s just a big furry softy. Vampire abuse, you say?
LP: Yes. We can barely go out for a meal anymore without some nubile – or not so nubile as the case may be – lass trying to take liberties. Just the other day an elderly lady tried to handcuff me to her bed, and when I objected, she tossed a vial of glitter in my face and said I wasn’t nearly sparkly enough to be sexy. Took me days to get that stuff off my suit. And she made a very spirited attempt to grasp my unmentionables. Who in their right mind expects little old ladies to keep glitter and handcuffs on their bedside tables?
ME: Well. That doesn’t really sound very abusive to me. You are a vampire after all. Maybe she confused the handcuffs for a stake, and the glitter for holy water or something.
LP: Not abusive? Just because we’re vampires doesn’t mean we don’t have feelings you know! We have rights!!! Well—. Maybe not rights per se, but whatever happened to a bit of common decency? What sort of literature do you people read?! The imaginations of some of your modern scribes are absolutely deviant! Our very foundations have been shaken by your endless perverse assaults! Nobody’s scared of us anymore, and women everywhere just see us as shiny sex toys. It’s very upsetting. I personally see myself as androgynous.
ME: Shame. You should write about it. In fact, this sounds like a genre that could take the world by storm. A memoir maybe. You could call it “Grasped by the Geriatric” – quite catchy for a title I reckon. You could talk about the mental anguish of vampire objectification, as experienced by yourself. Sexually like – you know – that sort of thing sells well these days. Focus on the cuffs maybe.
LP: Perhaps. Maybe if the world could see our pain, writers will stop writing books that trivialise us. I’ve had to start going to counselling you know. Lost my appetite entirely. It’s not easy when your meals try and jump you all the time.
ME: I only eat nuts when I’m scribbling really – forget the appetite then. What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you work out? You certainly are very muscley under that cape. What do you wear under it? Anything? Now that you mention it—. You really could do with a bit of sparkle. It would sooo go with your complexion. Hang on a bit, I’m sure I’ve got some—.
Cough. Cough.
I’m tagging the following three lovely ladies – only if they fancy doing this – no pressure. ;)
My gorgeous friend, our much loved Sally Cronin
Tess, over at How the Cookie Crumbles who shares her fascinating travels and photies with us.
Our wonderful, inimitable but friendly Ms M from Ms M’s Bookshelf Reviews
June 18, 2015
Can you Make and Sell an Audiobook if your Book is on KDP Select?
Yes you can. Short books and audiobooks are the in thing right now. Lots of Indies are working with ACX to have their books made into audio to sell with Amazon’s Audible. You can either pay a narrator and keep all your royalties, or you can opt to share the audiobook’s royalties with the narrator, in which case you pay nothing upfront. Unfortunately this service isn’t available to authors anywhere other than the United States and the United Kingdom. I would definitely use this service if it was available to me, and if any of you scribblers haven’t yet explored the possibilities of audio, it looks to be well worth the effort to have a look.
I have seen a few authors who refuse to have any part of Audible, because of their seven year exclusive distribution rights and insistence on the use of DRM though, so not everyone…
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June 16, 2015
When Trolls Wear Princess Dresses
Image: Ryan McGuire
I’ve only been properly knocked for a loop once, where the attacker successfully masked the attack by posing as a little injured puppy, shortly after I joined Facebook years ago. Good luck trying that sort of thing with me now though. I reckon that’s probably the reason why I don’t often go there, and when I do, I still tread very lightly. I’m a very happy bunny on all my other sites though, and so far I’ve generally managed to ignore the couple of tiny trolls that have attempted to get up my nostril. I’m unlikely to swat them with any particular force unless I really lose my temper, which is quite hard to get me to do. I find it much more satisfying to incinerate them legitimately. Occasionally I’ll see them getting up to their nastiness elsewhere, and I’ll shake my head and move on, unless of course they happen to injure a friend of mine. This can result in the awakening of that scary one thing of mine that is a hundred percent Irish – the temper. Luckily my friends are genuinely nice people, and able to rise above such pettiness. It helps to understand what causes this behaviour when you feel an uncalled for shot across your bow. It’s just one of those poor souls who truly believe that insulting someone else is the road to their own coolness, and get to put on their cool happy faces when their followers like them up when they try and make someone better than them look small. Their cool happy face. Like so.
Image: Ryan McGuire
There isn’t much you can do about these things apart from moving right along. Definitely try and do that if you can. Never break your stride for too long because of them, and brush the painful nip of their caustic “wit” away just as quickly as you can. People who get up to these things aren’t worth any of your time. There’s something you have, or are, that will always instil in some strangers along the path of your life the desire to try and bring you down. Don’t ever let them. Ignore the mean-spirited sods and treasure the wonderful friends that you do have. If what you share with the world is genuine, and coming from a good place inside your heart or mind, you’re on the right track. Make sure that those who you take advice from genuinely have your best interests at heart, even if they make a tiny oops along the way – we all do. Beware of those who only want to “help” you to make themselves look good, because often the tools that they give you to use are wrong, and could get you hurt.
Image: Ryan McGuire
There will always be some little ball of envious rage lurking somewhere, outwardly wearing robes of light and a halo, just waiting to pounce on someone who they feel needs “bringing down a peg or two”. The bigger you get in your chosen space, the bigger the apparent benefit to showing you up will be to these people. Well. Pfftt. Never mind them. You just carry on being you, and move past and say good luck to the hindmost trolls, with their clever little humble-brag pokes.
Image Credit: Pixabay
June 14, 2015
Food in Fiction with Charles Yallowitz
It’s a big pleasure to have the author of the wonderful Legends of Windemere series, Charles Yallowitz, here with me today to talk about one of my favourite pastimes – munchies. I love his dry wit, and the fact that he is always so down to earth and friendly with everyone, no matter how busy his life must be. Thanks for joining me Charles.
Thank you to Jo for offering to host a promo/guest blog. Now to get the introduction and promo stuff out of the way. My name is Charles E. Yallowitz and I’m the author behind the Legends of Windemere epic fantasy series where the latest one is Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue. I also just released a 27-page short story for 99 cents called Ichabod Brooks & the City of Beasts, so you can get a quick, cheap taste of me . . . whatever. Let’s move on to the fun!
The Avengers post-credits scene
I think many authors overlook the versatile uses that food can have in a story. It doesn’t have to be the central focus like in the manga ‘Toriko’ where the entire story revolves around discovering new foods and recipes. (Great series by the way.) Now that series is an extreme use that doesn’t have to be added to every story. Like in the above scene that occurred after the credits of ‘The Avengers’, you can make a food scene mild and simple. Though, I have yet to figure out what shawarma is or even try it. Staying on topic, here are a few non-central uses for food in fiction:
Cultural Depth– Every region and culture has its own culinary identity. Think of any group and you’ll probably touch on an associated food within the first minute or two. I just thought of Jews and Matzoh Ball soup and Russians and vodka. Yes, these tend to be stereotypical in our world, but it makes the point. In a fictional world, you can create local cuisine that is unique and strange. This can relate to the type of land that the culture comes from too. For example, in Allure of the Gypsies you learn that Luke Callindor’s hometown is a big supplier of honey-based products because it is in an area that is perfect for raising bees. Bor’daruk has a lot of flat breads and giant scorpion meat is a local delicacy. So think of implementing a food scene when characters reach a new location.
Dialogues– This is one of my big uses for eating scenes. Characters need to talk about events and they commonly do so over either a meal or drinks. This allows me to have them do something while talking. Otherwise, it’s a back and forth chat where you get an image of the characters standing like mannequins. Also, I’ve found that how people eat tells a little about their personalities and you can see it when compared to each other. For example, in my series Timoran Wrath eats piles of food and takes his time. Sari snatches food off people’s plates. Delvin is rather simple and casual. Fizzle sits in the apple basket. All of this in one scene paints a bigger picture.
Conflict– Nothing to declare war on, but characters can fight over food in some situations. This can bring in some amusement and development. Yes, I know this sounds odd. Just imagine your heroes ordering a pizza or anything where you can pick toppings. You can go the simple routes with everyone getting their own pie, they decide to order a plain pizza, or have a group of people unrealistically agree on toppings. That last one is severe fiction. Now you can also take a little time to have them argue over what to get. Again, this can demonstrate personalities and roles within the group. It can even lead to some pent up aggression coming to the surface. Maybe that warrior is still angry about his favorite sword being lost by the caster’s clumsiness. Well, they fight over the dipping sauces for the chicken and the rage bubbles into a real problem. Sounds strange, but this happens in real life.
Threats and Villainy– Ever see a movie or read a book where the villain is eating something strange? Maybe all their threats involve eating organs. This relates to one of my favorite parts of a Spider-Man story is in a novel called ‘The Venom Factor’. I don’t remember it exactly and the book is buried in my library, but the gist is Venom threatened to eat Spidey’s spleen. After years of being threatened with brain eating, Spider-Man says he doubts Venom even knows where the spleen is. The villain’s retort, “We can find out. It might be fun.” This may be a minor use of food and a stretch of the topic, but you can also have villains physically eating disgusting things. Vampires are a good one where they’re draining a person while talking.
