Thank you so much AJ for inviting me to your Sunday Spotlight at AJ’s Book Nook.

1. What are your pet peeves?

• Rude, intolerant and thoughtless people. When I’m in Portugal I attend a tai chi and qigong class in a beautiful park area. On a few occasions, some noisy people sat on the benches, (they don’t participate,) but make as much rumpus as possible while we are trying to be zen!

• People who are aways on their phones. I am a bit addicted but sometimes people don’t even talk to each other anymore. It’s good to unplug sometimes.

• Litter droppers. Pick up your rubbish! Don’t discard it on that beautiful beach.

• How difficult it seems to be to find a saved draft post on Facebook! What a headache that is. Anyone else find this hard?

• Supermarket shopping! I love food but find the constant restocking a pain. Especially if you have to carry bags to your flat/house. Luckily, hubby always helps if he’s around. I’m a dreamer so not so good at doing practical things quickly!

Readers What are your pet peeves?

2. How much time do you spend writing in an average week? It depends on lots of factors, home life, whether I’m busy doing marketing/promotional posts. I am at the moment. It varies a lot!

By the way, I’m participating in the Indie Visible Summer Extravaganza 6th to 9th June, on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/

The Extravaganza is organised by Hayley https://www.indievisibleevents.com/

At the moment, my writing focus is the 3rd book in my YA fantasy The Curse of Time series. I’m working on chapters and development of the storyline, with the help of early readers’ comments on Scribophile: https://www.scribophile.com/authors/m-j-mallon/works which I’ve found helpful. Fellow Next Chapter author Viv Sang also uses Scribophile too. If there are any other authors using Scribophile please let me know.

In The Shadow Dragon Pearl, (provisional title, still to be decided,) book 3, in The Curse of Time series, there are some exciting new characters:

The Dragon Zhezhou, who is based on the dragon chronophage, (there are three magical clock creatures in this series: The grasshopper, the midsummer fly and the dragon, all of which were invented by Dr John C Taylor, OBE, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Cambridge.)

The above images of the grasshopper, dragon and fly chronophage courtesy of Dr. John C. Taylor, OBE. Do find out more about these wonderful feats of inventive engineering beauty at: https://www.johnctaylor.com/

Other new characters are:

Ryder’s chauvinistic father The King of the Shadowlands. His talking dog! The coffin fairies. A talking squirrel and some creepy stone girls, the latter inspired by my visit to Juniper Artland in Edinburgh.

The third book is set partly in the Shadowlands, and in Arthur’s Seat, in Edinburgh! The Scottish girl in me couldn’t resist that!

I included some mysterious detail about Arthur Seat’s coffin fairies, (the discovery of several miniature coffins with dolls inside,) to the storyline. This headline from the following article will no doubt intrigue you:

In 1836, three Scottish boys discovered a strange cache of miniature coffins concealed on a hillside above Edinburgh. Who put them there—and why?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/edinburghs-mysterious-miniature-coffins-22371426/

All very fascinating and lends itself to fantasy well.

I’m making good progress with the third book but still have a lot of work to do. My moods shift and my writing mojo varies. Sometimes I’m in the mood for writing poetry, other times short, or long fiction. At the moment my focus is my long fiction.

Occasionally, I write cute advent stories for my blog. Like this one I wrote about Chalkie The Dog in Tavira Portugal last Christmas. https://mjmallon.com/category/advent-story/

3. What is your perfect style of house & why?

I used to have a large family house in Cambridge, UK. Nowadays we travel a lot so we have a small flat in Edinburgh, (where my mum, dad, and brother, live.) When we’re abroad, we find somewhere (mainly Portugal.) We downsized massively and got rid of so much clutter. It’s a painful process but liberating too!

We put loads of our possessions in storage but had to donate, give away or get rid of so much stuff. My eldest daughter got most of my furniture as she had an unfurnished flat. In the end, we hardly kept anything. So, if you’re contemplating the same, rethink just how much you need to put into expensive storage

I’d prefer a house with enough space for hubby & I and my two daughters to visit. And a small garden. At the moment, we’re here for a spell in a villa in Portugal, which has that, (some beautiful roses & a fruit tree,) and a lovely pool too.

The fruit is called Nêspera/Loquat, some detail from Destination Eat Drink:

“The small, orange skinned, pear shaped fruit are delicious picked straight off the tree. I peel the skin, cut them in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. They’re juicy, slightly sweet and slightly tart. People often say it tastes a little like a peach or apricot. I say it tastes a bit like an acidic pear. Perhaps this is why the it’s called Nêspera, since the Portuguese word for Pear is Pera.”

I love them!

The pace of life here in Portugal is different from city life in Edinburgh/Cambridge. I enjoy my cultural fix/writing activities/poetry open mics when I am back in Edinburgh. Though there is one poetry/music event in the autumn in Tavira which I’ve been lucky to participate in, too.

4. How do you decide on the cover images for your books?

I publish my novels with Next Chapter and leave the finer nuances to them. The cover images are stunning.

For my self published poetry books it varies. I prefer to create them using images I’ve taken. I enjoy creating covers & graphics. Sometimes I pay for images on canva. As I did with my poetry collection – Shh Purely Poetry.

One of my favourites, The Hedge Witch & The Musical Poet was created and formatted for me by poet, author and cover designer, the lovely Colleen Chesebro. https://colleenchesebro.org/about-2/

5. Which continents have you visited & do you have a favourite?

Currently, Europe as it’s not too far to travel to and has lots to offer. Favourite places to visit: Portugal & Spain. Recently we took a short trip away to Jerez La Frontera, Cadiz & Seville. We visited the zoological botanical gardens in Jerez and enjoyed a day sightseeing in Cadiz. We walk everywhere! I also love Majorca and the balearic islands.

Other than that I love Edinburgh. So much to do there, culturally, lots of poetry events to go to, or participate in. A fantastic city for authors.

Thank you to AJ for inviting me to takeover her Facebook page: AJ’s Book Nook. THE AUTHOR Takeover is now over, giveaway revealed. But do join the group. One of my favourites on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1629584244023081

For reading my blog!