Formats available for the Tour: pdf, mobi and epub [sorry, no paperbacks]
Trigger Warning: A dark fantasy with sensitive mention of a character’s previous self-harm, mental health issues and alluding to the potential dangers of sexual attraction with regard to vulnerable teenage girls.
About Bloodstone
I didn’t think my life could get weirder, but I was wrong…
Fifteen-year-old Amelina Scott lives in Cambridge with her dysfunctional family, a mysterious black cat, and an unusual girl who is imprisoned within the mirrors located in her house.
When an unexpected message arrives inviting her to visit the Crystal Cottage, she sets off on a forbidden path where she encounters Ryder: a charismatic, perplexing stranger.
With the help of a magical paint set and some crystal wizard stones, can Amelina discover the truth about her family?
A unique, imaginative mystery full of magic-wielding and dark elements, Bloodstone is a riveting adventure for anyone interested in fantasy, mythology or the world of the paranormal.
The 2nd book in the series, Golden Healer – The Curse of Time Book 2, is coming soon.
My alter ego is MJ – Mary Jane from Spiderman. I love superheros!
M J Mallon was born in Lion city Singapore, a passionate Scorpio with the Chinese Zodiac sign of a lucky rabbit. She spent her early childhood in Hong Kong. During her teen years, she returned to her father’s childhood home, Edinburgh where she spent many happy years, entertained and enthralled by her parents’ vivid stories of living and working abroad. Perhaps it was during these formative years that her love of writing began inspired by their vivid storytelling. She counts herself lucky to have travelled to many far-flung destinations and this early wanderlust has fuelled her present desire to emigrate abroad. Until that wondrous moment, it’s rumoured that she lives in the UK, in the Venice of Cambridge with her six-foot hunk of a rock god husband. Her two enchanting daughters have flown the nest but often return with a cheery, heart-warming smile to greet her.
MJ’s writing credits also include a multi-genre approach: paranormal, best-selling horror, supernatural short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. he has worked with some amazing authors and bloggers compiling an anthology/compilation set during the early stages of COVID-19 entitled This Is Lockdown and later she wrote a spin off poetry collection, Lockdown Innit.
She’s been blogging for many moons at her blog home Kyrosmagica, (which means Crystal Magic,) where she celebrates the spiritual realm,her love of nature, crystals and all things magical, mystical, and mysterious.
MJ’s motto is…
To always do what you Love, stay true to your heart’s desires, and inspire others to do so too, even if it appears that the odds are stacked against you like black hearted shadows.
Her favourite genre to write is
Fantasy/magical realism because life would be dull unless it is sprinkled with a liberal dash of extraordinarily imaginative magic!
One afternoon, Andrew Adler’s average 12-year old life changes forever. He is thrust into a world of excitement and fantasy when his loyal dog Ralph begins to talk and he learns that his dad is in danger. Who are the sinister race of creatures that kidnapped Andrew’s dad? Why do they grow the curious herb, Black Fire? And how can Andrew and Ralph stop the disastrous – and sometimes funny – effect Black Fire is having on the human population? With the clever Ralph as his companion, Andrew discovers the vast and mysterious underground world of Vellistrian, the powerful and ancient race of the Pisal and the most indestructible of fighting opponents. Only then does he recognize true courage within himself.
My review
This was a fun middle grade adventure read for a younger audience. I enjoyed it and particularly liked the growth in the main character Andrew and the close relationship with his talking dog Ralph. Who is super funny and cute. There is something very engaging about books with talking animals in them.
There are many amusing elements in this lovely book to keep younger readers entertained. And older readers would enjoy too. I certainly did.
Imagine a herb having those effects! What could it do? Find out more by reading!
I believe this is the first in the series with more adventures to come. It kind of reminded me of cartoon type adventures. I could imagine this animated for TV.
A recommendation from me. My rating 5 stars.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kim Rigby was born in the island state of Tasmania, Australia but has also lived in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne (her current home). She has enjoyed creating whimsical fairytales since the age of 10. The Black Fire Chronicles – Origins is her first book and the first in a series of many!
Thank you so much to Colleen Chesebro for reviewing my YA fantasy amongst such fabulous company – made my day! Check out these reviews for Mae Clair, Deborah Harkness and yours truly!
At the dawn of World War Two, German-born nurse Emma Taylor sits by the bedside of a Jewish heiress in London as she reminisces over her dear friend, Oscar Wilde.
As the story of Wilde unravels, so does Emma’s past. What really happened to her husband?
She’s taken back to her days in Singapore on the eve of World War One. To her disappointing marriage to a British export agent, her struggle to fit into colonial life and the need to hide her true identity.
Emma is caught up in history, the highs, the lows, the adventures. A deadly mutiny, terrifying rice riots and a confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan bring home, for all migrants, the fragility of belonging.
Emma’s Tapestry is an imaginative retelling of the remarkable life of the author’s great-grandmother.
My review
I loved Emma’s Tapestry, a historical tale with an imaginative aspect, from the beginning!
I was attracted to reading this historical novel as it’s set in London, partially in the Far East in Singapore (where I was born) and also in Japan. The main character, Emma, is from Philadelphia but with German origins.
There are so many aspects to this tale to keep you utterly enthralled from mentions of Oscar Wilde’s letter to Adela, (an elderly Jewish heiress with a fascinating life to tell,) the tapestry itself which is cleverly interwoven into the plot, details of Emma’s Mennonite faith, emotional scenes, fears, dangers and insecurities brought on by war, anti-German feeling, mentions of mediums and spiritualism, the sense of the divide between the rich and the poor in Expat countries – Emma’s reaction and empathy for the locals (she is a trained nurse) and the terrible loss of life following WW1 caused by the Spanish influenza.
I admire authors who write historical fiction (as it must involve so much painstaking research to get the details right.)
Throughout it all the main character Emma shines with a can do I won’t be beaten attitude.
I just loved Emma’s wonderful strength of character!
There’s mention of the trials and tribulations throughout the war years of WW1 and WW2, (and coping with Ernest, her merchant hubby, a dire excuse for a husband, ) and the evergrowing anti-German sentiment and fears for her safety and her children’s wellbeing given her German heritage.
I listened to this sweeping historical novel in Audible and loved every minute.
With its wonderful storyline which sweeps back and forth in diverse time periods and believable, well written and engaging characters.
There is a lovely epilogue explaining Isobel Blackthorn’s family background and the mysterious inspiration for writing this story, (a period in her maternal great grandparents lives, ) which is in itself all so fascinating!
I’m pleased to welcome award-winning author; free-lance columnist, blogger, poet and up-and-coming podcaster, Cynthia Morgan to my blog.
Cynthia has a passion for words… Here is what she has to say…
I love words. I admit it. They are my full-blown addiction, plain and simple. Most particularly, I love writing words. Yes, there is quite a difference between reading them and writing them. Oh, please don’t get me wrong, I do also enjoy reading them; however, if someone were to give me the choice between never being able to write again or never being allowed to read again, I would, without a single moment’s pause to contemplate the consequences of such an ultimatum, choose to never read again.
Words move me. They fill my spirit. I wake up creating headlines and spend my day filling page after page (after page). You might ask why, but I would probably respond with a similar question, such as: Why do artists love to paint, or why do musicians live and breathe to write/perform music? It’s in our soul. It’s what makes us who we are and it defines us just as surely as the color of our hair and the clothes we wear.
If you’re familiar with my writing, you may already be aware that my particular penchant for words leans very heavily toward the superfluous end of the scale. Charles Dickens and Jane Austin have nothing on me when it comes to the peculiar joy I find in creating paragraph-long sentences that would make even an English major’s head spin. Why? Again, I’d simply have to say because it’s in my soul. I take sick pleasure in pumping up a simple sentence into an over-indulge, show-stopping extravaganza of linguistic gymnastics…that is grammatically correct.
Many of you have never seen such an exquisite thing of beauty (or outlandishness, depending on your point of view) so I shall provide the following paragraph as an example. I wrote this glorious one-sentence paragraph for an article on my blog (Booknvolume…otherwise known as BnV)
….at long last I am here to fill your next few moments with the tumbling musings of my mind (fair warning!)
Now, since my thoughts are flying in a rather confusing array of directions, at least at the present moment, I thought I would preface this post with the aforementioned disclaimer before I end up lost somewhere in the wilds of Uzbekistan with you sitting there with that particularly enchanting, though perhaps somewhat frustrated (at least for you) and puzzled expression on your face that most people end up having when they sit down and read one of my whirling posts, most particularly on night’s such as this when the words are flowing faster than I can logically keep up with, though often, depending upon the moon’s cycle or how much chocolate and/or caffeine I may have had before sitting down to begin writing, it can be a rather bewildering experience; whereat, being the kindhearted soul that I am, and never wishing to intentionally lead someone into a grammatical quagmire, as I am for all intents and purposes a good soul (though you and I both know that even good souls have halo’s that glow neon red now and again) I generally tend to use this moment of perplexity to point out that I did warn you, my dearest readers, very early on in our relationship (that being the early days of my blog BnV) that I do have the most annoying (or potentially amusing, dependant once again upon the aforementioned phase of the moon or how much chocolate or caffeine You’ve ingested before beginning to read) predilection to run off on wild tangents of verbosity that would make even Charles Dickens’s head ache, but let that go.
Word Count: 259 Sentences: 1 Passive Sentences: 0 Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 52.2 …. YES!!!!!!!!!!! (My work here is done, thank you)
It is moments such as these that give me the oddest, yet greatest pleasure and were during my high school years, amusingly, opportunities for me to stretch my writing skills to such degrees that my English professor (a very good soul indeed who loved words nearly as much as I do) resorted to noting that my fondness for crafting compound-complex sentences on the backs of my test papers during the remaining time I had in class (because I often finished the tests early, being rather good in English class, perhaps not entirely surprisingly) and then diagramming them for the sheer delight of doing so was, in his opinion, a very strong indicator that I had, either, some form of mental derangement not yet diagnosed, or, I was a word-smith in the making. (oooo Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 53.8! Marvelous! )
You may at this moment tend to agree and I would not argue the fact, but before I leave you with a beautifully muddled expression and echoes of words ringing in your mind like the bells of St. Pauls, please allow me Bestow this final thought, which should, if nothing else, answer the original question.
To Write; To Paint with Words as an Artist Bedecks his canvas with hues and shades and layers of pigmentation; To Sing a Melody upon which the gaze may Linger and over which the Heart may Muse again and again: To Create visual Splendor with grammar and language that is, perhaps, fundamentally underutilized or neglected (and to use Capitalization in the most maddening, although explainable manner), to me, is the most Beguiling form of Intoxication in which I could ever take Pleasure and, for you, Dear Intrepid Reader, to Undertake the Journey; to Brave the Frontier of Superfluous Verbosity and reach the shore with a Smile (though, perchance, also to some extent exhausted), is far more Rewarding an Endeavor than any other I shall ever undertake.
. ~Morgan~
Cynthia A. Morgan is an award-winning author and Inspiration Coach. Morgan’s captivating stories and lyrical poetry promote positivity and Being The Change we want to see in the world. Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, poetry or essays, Morgan’s writing inspires change, encourages harmonious perspectives, and promotes belief in the power of one. She is the founder of Booknvolume.com where over 20K readers across 90+ countries find her inspirational poetry, daily meditations, prompts for positivity, book reviews and more.
Award-winning YA Fantasy Dark Fey Trilogy explores our perspectives on ‘Good and Evil’ and resonates with the message: The Only Way to Achieve Peace is by Becoming Peace.
Amazon Best Seller and IAN Book of the Year Winner The Mercy Series follows the Archangel Tzadkiel on his search for a single merciful human being in a medieval dystopian future where justice and mercy are ancient history. It’s powerful axiom ‘Show Thankfulness through Kindness and Appreciate Blessings through Generosity’ is woven into a powerful, Speculative Fantasy.
Whispers in Verse- Morgan’s first book of published poetry has been compared to Shakespeare by Readers Favorite and has received outstanding accolades from reviewers: “Whispers in Verse reads as if written on the wings of angels….If I could give this book a 10, I wouldn’t hesitate.” and “Whispers in Verse is a treasure of quiet, subtle poems, leading us into a place of contemplation and calmness, evoking lovely images, and leaving the reader with a sense of calm….This author has touched my very soul.”
You can Morgan through social media in the following places:
I’m thrilled to be a participating author in this lovely collection of poetry compiled by Colleen Chesebro and edited by Jules Paige. My review relates to the other authors in the journal.
It begins with an introduction by Jules Paige in which she discusses the choice of theme in this particular collection.
There are haiku, senryu, tanka, tanka prose and many more forms, all of which are fabulous with so many favourites…
dancing in moonlight in the autumn of our years still chasing blue skies
Pat Raffington.
the empress rises summer and winter curtsy nature holds its breath while the symphony begins fireflies dance in the moonlight
Gwen M. Piano
Other highlights include D. L. Finn’s Moon’s Magic which I loved – about a lone black cat on the edge of the world, under the harvest moon and her “Harvest Moon,” Butterly Cinquain.
The collection concluded with a Best of Issue Poetry with favourites chosen by Jules and Colleen. The chosen poems were by D. L. Finn, Merril D. Smith and Ken Gierke. All excellent.
D. Wallace Peach’s “Moon-spun” tanka prose idyll – so magical and enchanting and her “Revolutions” Butterfly Cinquain.
Merril D. Smith’s Crapsey cinquain entitled “October Night,” her shadorma sequence “Harvest Moon,” and her abhanga “Through the Leaves.”
A new poet to me Sujata Khanna wrote a lovely double inverted etheree entitled “A Viaduct.”
And I particularly enjoyed Bill Engleson’s nonet, “Her Winged Way,” and his diatelle “Above Campbell Bay on a Hot August Night.”
Loved Colleen Chesebro’s Luna’s Soft Glow.
Shadorma took me to a “Moon Dance” with Ruth Klein’s contribution.
There was a “Meeting of Minds,” with a Badger’s hexastich written by Susmita Ramani and her “Autumn Half-Dream” “Prom-ises.”
A Triple Abhanga by Annette Rochelle Aben was lovely too.
I could go on and on. Do read this wonderful collection you won’t be disappointed.
