Jo Robinson's Blog, page 83
July 23, 2014
Warrior
In those old times of war and blight
Faces turned from crimes of day and night
Chose not to see our world die behind lie on lie
When those fiery riders came that final time, to forever shield the light
Falling scales of apathy, too late forced truth to every shuttered eye
It was too late to rebel. Too late to fight
She rose from the ashes after those fire years. That warrior lord
When the Earth could take no more
She allowed no further crime to wound the face of God
She called her hidden armies, so ridiculed before
They came from their secret places, and their places of helpless war
To protect the weak and the voiceless with swords that cut and burned. Words no more
Now we see those wrongs that we unthinking wrought
Those unseen evils of greed, and stolen beauty bought
Shame-filled tears too late for those gone before
Too late for this Earth shrouded in endless night
The warrior lord watches. It is our world no more
Now is time for rebirth. Of the innocent and the wild
The moment of man is done now. Too little, too late, emblazons our shrine,
And the warrior’s sword falls only for the souls of light.
July 22, 2014
I Write Like……… Me
I’m pretty sure that I’ve sent everyone’s books to them from the International Authors Day giveaway, but my WordPress site is still not showing me all my comments, so if I’ve missed anyone please drop me a note from the Contact Me tab above and I’ll send them right along.
I’ve written a good couple of new chunks of my WIPs this week in spite of some serious noise from a couple of guys tearing down a wall in the yard to rebuild. Now I’m catching up with emails, and spotted one of those links that you know you don’t have time to play with, but do anyway.
Because I also want to write like Stephen King, I headed off to I Write Like to be analysed. You just copy and paste a couple of paragraphs of your writing and it lets you know what famous writer’s style you have. You get a badge and all. So I copied a bit of Lesser Being and got given this badge:
I write like
James Fenimore Cooper
I Write Like. Analyze your writing!
Fair enough – fair enough – he did write The Last of the Mohicans after all, but I still wanted to write like Stephen King, and dear James is really old-fashioned – and dead too, so I plonked a bit of African Me & Satellite TV in there instead, and got this badge:
I write like
Anne Rice
I Write Like. Analyze your writing!
Bugger…. I decided to see if Shadow People 1 would get me the Stephen King badge, but I actually got another Anne Rice, which at least shows a bit of conformity, and I did log off totally in between goes just in case. My final desperate attempt for a King badge got me:
I write like
Mary Shelley
I Write Like. Analyze your writing!
Baaah! I give up now – I guess I’m going to have to write a couple of vampire and undead books. Come to think of it – I do have a WIP lurking somewhere along those lines…..
Three Ingredients II – 6: Turnips, Onions, Sauerkraut
Teagan turns turnips into literature brilliantly!
Originally posted on Teagan's Books:
Welcome back everyone! I’m pleased to tell you that today’s ingredients were sent by a reader who hasn’t always been with us here at Teagan’s Books — Jo Robinson.
Jo lives in beautiful South Africa, and has written quite a remarkable collection of stories. She has a wonderful imagination. For instance in her novel “The Shadow People, The Finding” characters are hurled across time and space, and find themselves on Lapillus, a beautiful world made up of precious gems. (If you had any idea what a self-proclaimed “rock geek” I am, you’d understand that is a huge attraction. I have such a thing for semiprecious gems…)
Jo says all creatures feathered and furred inspire her writing, so I’m curious to know which of the “critters” in our serial she likes best.
This week’s ingredients have remarkable health benefits. I never knew that about sauerkraut! Another reader, Sally at “Smorgasbord…
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July 20, 2014
My writing process blog hop
Originally posted on Melanie Toye - Engaging, Creative, Storyteller:
Thank you to the lovely and sweet Jo Robinson who tagged me in the ‘My Writing Process Blog Hop.’ I enjoy reading Jo’s blog as her personality and outlook on life really shines through her work. Be sure to follow Jo’s blog here: http://africolonialstories.wordpress.com/ and buy her books here: http://africolonialstories.wordpress.com/books-international-links/
The idea with this Hop, is to answer a couple of questions about my writing process, and then nominate the blogs of three other writers who inspire me to do the same. If these three choose to Hop along, they would then post their writing process blogs the following week, together with links to this post, and the sites of their three nominees.
The Questions:
What are you working on?
I am always working on various writing projects. I am a freelance writer and write regularly blogs and articles for businesses, as well as updating their website content. It is fun and has me…
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…Authors on Kindle… to promo? or not to promo? that is the question… here’s my tuppence WURTH on it … #TBSU…
Here’s a wee freebie from the wonderful Seumas Gallacher :)
Originally posted on Seumas Gallacher:
…the Sherlocks amongst yeez will prob’ly have noticed by now that I’m Scottish… as in, ‘no sh*t, Sherlock?’… by derivation, my ancestral DNA rails against giving stuff away for NUTHIN… (just try to find emb’dy out-of-doors during a street charity collection in any town North of Hadrian’s Wall)… comes then the question, ‘why would this ol’ Jurassic even think about indulging the Amazon Kindle Free Promo Program?’… handing over virtual copies of my wee crime thriller masterpiece babies for zilch, nowt, nada, rien, zero, nil?… well, as with most things, it isn’t quite as straightforward as that, Mabel… over the past few years, I’ve dabbled with the various Promo mechanisms on the Great God Amazon, and have found a rythym that suits me… let me tick off for yeez, the various points…stay awake at the back, there…
1. What are yeez actually ‘giving away’?
…virtual copies…
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A reclusive life
Originally posted on Have We Had Help?:
Whether we live in a loving family environment, or lead a solitary existance is all down to circumstance. In my own case these days I exist hidden away from society and the world, behind securely locked front and back doors. Why? Because like countless other across the planet, life has dealt me more than one cruel blow during my lifetime.
When I was nineteen I was deliriously happy, married for a brief eighteen months to a beautiful Montagnard girl named Mai. When we wed in a magical Buddhist ceremony, Mai was seventeen and I was eighteen. We later had a sweet baby boy – John. Without going into gruesome details, suffice it to say that because of a cruel act of war, both Mai and John were killed by friendly fire. John was just four months old at the time.
From that terrible day until this, I simply could never…
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The Sunday Show – Part Two – The Egokiller release 52 singles in a year for charity.
Absolutely fabulous interview with Sally and Egokiller, and free music downloads from this awesome band too!
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
This is part two of The Sunday Show with The Egokiller – a band who put their music and daily lives on the line to produce 52 singles in a year – one a week – to raise awareness of social issues such as homelessness. If you missed part one the link is below and I will hand over to Greg to continue the story.
You will find a link below that will enable you to download some tracks for free exclusive to the Sunday Show and thanks guys for that – happy to be part of the endeavour is a small way.
If you feel that you would like to help out too, please share and pass onto music lovers who would like to make a difference to those that are in circumstances that we can only be thankful we ourselves are not experiencing.
Hello again, you are back!…
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July 19, 2014
International Authors Day July 18th
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
My friend Jo Robinson posted her tribute to authors yesterday and it got me to thinking about how I ended up here at age 61, a writer. You can read her eloquent post on the subject on her blog, which I suggest you might like to follow anyway.
I am going to pinch her intro since it is why the International Authors Day is being celebrated and will then add my contribution to the day.
When self-confessed super book addict and reviewer Debdatta Dasgupta Sahay found out that there was no International Authors Day she decided to remedy that sorry fact.
She said :
“ I was shocked to realize that there’s isn’t an International Authors’ Day that we can all celebrate to show our appreciation for the hours of hard work that authors put into their books… So I decided to do something about it!
I am going…
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Mihran Kalaydjian Playing Cherished Moments
Originally posted on mihran Kalaydjian:
Mihran Kalaydjian Playing Cherished Moments
I walk on the sand, Colored corals crunch under my bare feet,
the waves crash in distance and the wind whistles your name,
I think of you, I think of our times, when you were so close to me,
when our passion lit a hot bonfire of never ending flames.
I think of your voice, your whispers through my lonely nights,
I think of the many times you told me ,that you’ll always be here,
You will never go away and I still remember your honeyed Words
to cherish what we have, I still think of the time, you whispered
Passion is not forever, and I replied in my soft voice ,’OUR PASSION NEVER DIES’.
How wrong I was, and how right you were, Now I Know, that you
were right,Now,that you are gone, Now, that you are not here with me.
Readers / Reviewers – When is a spelling mistake REALLY a spelling mistake?
Excellent points here!
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:
On a recent post I published HERE , author Sally Cronin made a valid point in the comments box “..a note on the UK/US markets – someone bought one of my books in the US in E-version and mentioned that there were some spelling mistakes….. using an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’ in certain words. Such as ostracise and ostracize. Now that we are promoting our books online further afield it is just a small thing to consider…”.
So, to all Readers and Reviewers on BOTH sides of the North Atlantic Ocean :D
DO NOT think all spelling ‘mistakes’ are ACTUAL spelling mistakes.
There is a recognisable difference in certain word spellings between British English and North American English – they are a fact of life AND BOTH ARE VALID, so PLEASE make allowance for them.
I do not intend to give examples because there are far too many.
There…
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