Kyrosmagica Publishing – The Magical Home of Books, Writing, Poetry, Photography and Inspiration
Author: Marje @ Kyrosmagica
Hi.
Welcome to my blog: M J Mallon - Kyrosmagica Publishing. A blog about magic, books, writing, laughter, and much more! I'm a YA fantasy author, poet and reviewer. My first YA fantasy novel The Curse of Time - Book 1 - Bloodstone is set in Cambridge and Book 2 - Golden Healer is now out too. As well as this, I have contributed to several anthologies, created my own with some amazing international writers, bloggers and creatives during the pandemic: This Is Lockdown and written two poetry collections: Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity & Mr. Sagittarius Poetry and Prose. I write book reviews on my blog and on Goodreads, book bub and on my bookstagram. I have a penchant for travel and have relatives in far flung places, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, (my birthplace.) I grew up in in Bonnie Scotland, in Edinburgh, and now live in Cambridge. I love sunny, hot places, particularly Rome, Venice, Portugal, Barcelona, and I forgot to mention the sun drenched beaches of the Caribbean, how could I? I am lucky to have been blessed with two lovely daughters and a husband who I fondly refer to in this blog as my black sheep. Family joke! With my passion for travel, culture, beautiful beaches, good food, books, theatre, writing, and humour, I hope to keep you entertained. I'm loving every minute of this creative journey, please join me.
For the past several weeks, most of the world has been in quarantine due to the COVID-19 virus. An experience that will undoubtedly remain with us for a lifetime. Writers Unite! offered our members the opportunity to put their experience during this pandemic into words.
We asked WU! members to write a short essay answering this question:
In twenty years, what will you tell your children, grandchildren, or other loved ones about your experience during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Several writers chose to write a letter but some chose to write an essay on the experience in another form such as a statement of the current situation or a fictionalized account. Regardless, we felt it important that we document this experience in some manner.
Jordan Haines
Dear You,
So, a reader for the letter? Must mean we made it out the other side eventually. I’m glad. No…
I’m so happy that Willow can join me today. She is an old blogging friend, who I have met in person at several blogging bashes. An old friend in the logging world is referred to as a Blogging Sister!
So welcome Sis! When I mentioned my Writer’s In Isolation series I knew Willow would come up with something really fantastic and she has.
How do writers, creatives, artists and bookish souls cope with isolation? Is their capacity to cope different from the rest of the population? It’s an interesting question and one that fascinates me.
How is Willow coping with this enforced isolation?
Here is Willow’s answer:
I really don’t know if writers, creatives, artists and bookish souls cope any better or worse than the rest of the population. In fact, I don’t think I am coping all that well. I seem to be busier now than ever I was before Covid19 reared its ugly head. I really find it hard to find time – to sit down and work on my blog – and the family even though they are not living at home, they take up most of my time. If it has taught me anything, it has taught me that my blogging time must be managed, as it helps me, so it must have its place.
Marje: Indeed it should Willow. I am so glad that blogging has helped you and continues to help you cope with your current situation. It’s tough and I know you have had your share of problems. The poem which I’d like to feature today originally appeared on your blog in February and it is eerily true to life at the moment.
Willow: “I had no idea then how close to the truth it was, though I do hope the outcome is better than the one I predicted.”
I am the mum of three boys all now grown and flown to live their own lives. Luckily they do keep in touch and visit often. I now have two beautiful grandsons.
When I started this blog I had not long come home from hospital after an accident in which I broke my back, for the second time. I was in hospital for a month and had three operations.
It has taken me a long time to recover, I am still recovering but every day my body is getting stronger. It has taken a huge toll on me mentally I had to retire early on health grounds, I had to come to terms with finding out people I thought were friends were not. I had to make a new life for myself. Things I could do easily have become difficult.
Writing poetry and prose has helped me a great deal. I have made so many wonderful friends through blogging I think it has definitely saved my life.
Marje: You have been through so much Willow. Bless you. You’re such a resilient, and amazing person.
Willow continues to amaze me – here are just some of her wonderful blog posts to give you a tiny flavour of who she is:
Willow loves to share fabulous song videos on her blog. Here’s James Blunt… singing his beautiful heart out.
Thank you so much for being my beautiful guest Willow.
What a great poem, and a fantastic music video too. Thank you for sharing these with us.
Willow has been a great friend to me – beta reading, reviewing, encouraging, and sharing my blog tour posts like crazy! She’s a truly supportive person and has a wonderful blog.
So this is a Thank You to her for all the wonderful things she does.
I love trees! I swear trees have magic. I live on the edge of a park in Cambridge surrounded by an incredible vista of trees and as a child I was no stranger to the mysterious aspect of the woods which were just a short walk away.
I’m going to share with you various trees which I have photographed some time ago. They have all captured my attention and are special and meaningful to me. I promise a diverse range, and a few giggles along the way.
What better choice to begin with, than this magnificent tree – a deciduous conifer, the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, native to Lichuan county in Hubei province, China.
Local villagers refer to the original tree from which most others derive as Shui-sa, or “water fir”, which is part of a local shrine. Since its rediscovery in 1944, the dawn redwood has become a popular ornamental.
Strawberry Fields is a landscaped section in New York City’s Central Park dedicated to Beatle John Lennon. At the northern end of the lawns are three dawn redwood trees. The trees drop their needles each fall and regrow them each spring, a symbol of eternal renewal. The trees are expected to reach a height of 36 metres (118 ft), making them visible from great distances. Wikipedia
Even the name itself – Dawn Redwood – conjures up spell-binding magic. I discovered the redwood and many other beautiful trees on my lunchtime walks in the Botanical Gardens in Cambridge.
I think you will agree it is a wondrous tree. I love the warm, inviting orange colour in the bark and the beautiful, ferny foliage which was a delicate coppery shade when I photographed it in the autumn.
There is a distinct feeling of energy about this tree. It calls you to come and touch its bark.
And was interested to see what they had to say about Dawn Redwood.
Just some of the words that were mentioned to describe this tree:
Renewal
Awakening
Joyous
Mother Earth
Primal Wisdom
A living fossil
Dates from prehistoric times
Endangered
No wonder the Dawn Redwood captured my attention! I hope it will fascinate you too!
***
I love to write about nature – My poetry, prose and photography collection Mr. Sagittarius is a light-hearted, magical story about fictional characters, twin brothers Harold and William, their sister Annette and the sibling’s connection to the beautiful botanical gardens in Cambridge.
Moreover, it celebrates many aspects of day-to-day life including: sibling relationships, beauty, nature, the seasons of the year, love and ultimately magic.
I love spending time in nature taking photos – my favourite photos in this collection are the robin, trees and the dragonfly that grace this little book.
Photography is in my genes – Both my uncle and grandfather were photographers. My grandfather A.G. Ingram was originally with the photography company Ingram, Gordon & Co in Haddington up until the mid thirties. Then he ventured on his own to form the Scottish Pictorial Press in Edinburgh supplying photos to the press. When war broke out Scottish Pictorial Press became defunct. After the war he started AG Ingram Ltd, Commercial Photographers, at three successive locations in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The photographic images in the book are all my own, apart from two images by Alex Marlowe – a talented photographer.
Thank you for entering my worlds. I hope they bring you a touch of magic. And thank you to all the kind people who read and review my work. I appreciate you.
Please do comment, I’d love to hear about your favourite magical trees and your favourite books!
Welcome to Jackie Carreira, my next guest on my new feature – isolation for writers, creatives, artists and book bloggers. How do writers, creatives, artists and bookish souls cope with isolation? Is their capacity to cope different from the rest of the population? It’s an interesting question and one that fascinates me.
How is award winning author, playwright, world citizen and huge movie fan Jackie Carreira coping with this enforced isolation?
Is she taking a leap of faith?
AN AUTHOR IN ISOLATION – Jackie Carreira
The day the lockdown began in the UK, I posted a comment on Twitter. It said: “I’m a writer. I self-isolate for a living!” In retrospect, that might have been a little trite; even unhelpful to those who are genuinely struggling with isolation, but the statement is true in essence. I’m used to spending days, even weeks sometimes, barely leaving the house. I even enjoy it.
What has changed? The answer is: Everything – but it took me a while to notice. For the first few days, I carried on working on a new novel as well as a couple of precious magazine commissions, but very soon found that I couldn’t write anymore. The planned projects, and even some new ideas, were still up there in my head, but I couldn’t get them out. It was impossible to focus and I didn’t understand why.
My husband is an actor. I’m used to him being at home when he’s ‘resting’ so it hasn’t been difficult having him around all the time since the theatres closed. We’re an unusual married couple, though. We actually enjoy each other’s company for extended periods of time! We have no children so the schools being closed made no difference, and earning an insecure living from the arts, we know how to be frugal and make cutbacks when needed. When most of our income vanished at the end of March, we turned the heating down to 15 degrees, put a big jumper on, and stopped throwing away that last piece of bread in the packet. On the upside, we’re saving a fortune in petrol and socialising, and every day I’m grateful that our lives are not tougher.
So, why couldn’t I write? I couldn’t work out what I was doing with all the extra hours, because I certainly wasn’t using them to sleep. I didn’t spend them cleaning the house either! However, I was speaking to people online and on the phone more, and that was an unexpected bonus. Friends I hadn’t spoken to for years were suddenly back in my life. The excuse of being too busy was gone and it was wonderful to reconnect.
Then a couple of weeks ago, on the first sunny day in ages, I had a breakthrough…
“That’s it!” I thought. “We’re all connected.” Somehow, we all know it but we so rarely get a chance to feel it. In these strange times, with planes grounded and factories closed and the streets eerily quiet, I was able to feel it in a new way. I knew that I had no personal reason to feel as anxious as those who are in far worse situations, and I wasn’t being overwhelmed by the extra responsibility that others now had, but we’re all connected because we’re all part of the human tribe. And, possibly for the first time in history, just about everyone on the planet is going through the same thing at the same time. It’s extraordinary. Maybe some of what I was feeling didn’t belong to me at all. I was simply picking it up from this human web that we’re all sitting on.
Armed with this thought, and being fortunate enough to have a garden, I took a new pad and a fresh cup of coffee and went outside. Perhaps all I had to do was START. After all, that was the only thing I wasn’t doing. I’m a huge movie fan and never tire of watching my favourites over and over. I remembered a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade… if you haven’t seen it, there’s a spoiler coming up! Near the end of the film, Indiana Jones is faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. He’s on one side of a huge chasm, too wide to jump. He must get to the other side to reach the Holy Grail and save his father’s life, but it looks impossible. Suddenly, he understands that it’s a leap of faith. He has to believe or all is lost. So, he closes his eyes, puts out a foot, and takes a big step onto…a bridge made of the same stone as the chasm! It’s totally solid. He leans over and looks from a different angle, realising that the bridge had been there the whole time. He just couldn’t see it from where he first stood. (A dramatic analogy, I must admit, but then I do also write plays for a living!)
Back in the garden, I took my own small leap of faith, hoping that something might come out if I just start. I put the pen to the paper and began writing anything that came into my head. It was just rough notes at first, then the notes turned into prose, then a whole chapter…and before I knew it, I was a writer again. It was such a relief. I’ve since been in contact with other writers to ask how it’s been for them. Some had been writing more, most had been writing less, for a few it had been business as usual. Interestingly, I discovered that many of those who had started off writing less after the lockdown had also had some kind of breakthrough around the exact same time that I did. Did I cause it, or did they? It doesn’t matter. We truly are all connected. I wasn’t alone.
You might be wondering how on earth this helps anyone who’s not a writer. Well, writing isn’t just my job, it’s what I love to do the most. And spending time doing what I love is the best coping mechanism I have. I would recommend it to anybody struggling with this lockdown, not knowing how to lift themselves out of the fog of it all. Switch off the news for a while and pick up something connected to what you love to do: a pen, a baking tray, a trowel, a paintbrush, a book to read to a child, a phone to call your best friend. Whatever it is, just take a leap of faith – find a way to start and then do as much of it as you can, when you can. Inspire yourself and you can inspire another. We truly are all connected. Put a tiny piece of what you love onto that web. It already has enough of everything else.
Stay safe. Stay well.
Jackie’s books:
A SHORT BIOG: Jackie Carreira is an award-winning novelist, playwright, musician, designer, and co-founder of QuirkHouse Theatre Company. She has twice been a winner of the Kenneth Branagh Award for New Writing. Originally a council-house-kid from Hackney, East London, she now lives a million miles away in Suffolk, England, with an actor, two cats, and more books than she can read in four lifetimes. She is currently working on her third novel (due for release in 2021, if a virus doesn’t get her first!) and is a proud patron of Halesworth Library.
What a fascinating interview with Jackie. Her thoughts mirror my own in so many ways.
I am so glad I started this series on Isolation during COVID19, it has given me focus and a sense of purpose to help promote and share fellow writers and authors during this time. And I am discovering new authors to read! Awesome, smiling.
I will be continuing with the series until my YA fantasy is ready to complete. It is currently with final beta readers.
This week’s photo prompt from Colleen is an excellent one. It’s so evocative. Who can this young girl be? And what might her plight be? She looks desperately sad, so I decided to write a poetic haiga in her honour.
Image Credit: Unknown
Abandoned, she slumps down
A blade of grass caresses skin
Her pregnant bump hides.
***
The tree waits
Nature together
Babe in utero.
***
Daughter
Accepted
By tree.
The haiku poem was inspired by the photo of the girl resting by a tree, looking melancholy, a blade of grass reaches upwards towards her chin. It made me wonder what was making the woman so sad.
As it’s a haiku with a tight syllabic count there’s an immediate need to express her plight, so I decided upon an unwanted pregnancy – a girl sitting in nature – leaning against a tree – a symbol of life giving. The tree and nature (the grass,) will not judge her as others might – Daughter accepted by tree. Is the baby the daughter, or is the pregnant woman? Or are all females daughters of nature?
Yes, my mind does work in strange ways and this is only heightened during lockdown.
Via Colleen’s Blog: TheHAIGA IN ENGLISH: 5/7/5, 3/5/3, 2/3/2 syllable structure. Haiga is called observational poetry because it contains an image with either a Haiku or Senryu written on it or near it. There are a few hard and fast rules for creating Haiga. The Haiku is the most important part and must standalone.
And might I suggest some poetic reading? A lovely, heart-warming and magical read suitable for lockdown…
Mr. Sagittarius is a collection of poetry, prose and photographic images inspired by the beautiful botanical gardens in Cambridge.
It’s a light-hearted, magical story about two fictional characters, twin brothers Harold and William, their sister Annette and the sibling’s connection to the beautiful botanical gardens in Cambridge.
Moreover, it celebrates many aspects of day to day life including: humour, sibling relationships, beauty, nature, the seasons of the year, love and ultimately magic.
I love spending time in nature taking photos – my favourite photos in this collection are the robin, trees and the dragonfly that grace this little book.
Photography is in my genes – Both my uncle and grandfather were photographers. My grandfather A.G. Ingram was originally with the photography company Ingram, Gordon & Co in Haddington up until the mid thirties. Then he ventured on his own to form the Scottish Pictorial Press in Edinburgh supplying photos to the press. When war broke out Scottish Pictorial Press became defunct. After the war he started AG Ingram Ltd, Commercial Photographers, at three successive locations in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The photographic images in the book are all my own, apart from two images kindly given by Alex Marlowe – a talented photographer.
To buy this book, please visit Amazon, click on the link below:
Thank you for entering my worlds. I hope they bring you a touch of magic. And thank you to all the kind people who read and review my work. I appreciate you.
An important article from NY Times that might save your life plus what to look for tips from Linda Hill whose son often suffers from pneumonia. #Coronavirus #COVID19
I read this article this morning. It contains a lot of valuable insight on what ER doctors are seeing in Covid-19 patients. But I thought it was missing a few important points that you might look for at home.
Here’s what I wrote on Facebook with the attached article:
Reading this article from The NY Times might save your life.
But …
It doesn’t tell you everything you should know.
At the end of the article, the author suggests buying a pulse oximeter (shown in the photo), but not everyone will be able to find one or afford one. As the mother of a cardiac patient who has had numerous pneumonias and RSV, I can tell you what I look for, and what triggers our trip to the ER where, 90% of the time his x-rays show that he needs to be admitted.
Welcome to Catherine Fearns, my next guest on my new feature – Isolation For Writers. How do writers, creatives, artists and bookish souls cope with isolation? Is their capacity to cope different from the rest of the population? It’s an interesting question and one that fascinates me.
How is Catherine coping with this enforced isolation?
Here is her answer:
Hi everyone, I’m Catherine Fearns and I’m a writer. I have published three Amazon best-selling crime thrillers with Crooked Cat Books/Darkstroke, and I also write as a music journalist.
Thank you very much to Marjorie Mallon for hosting me on the blog today to write about my personal experience of writing during coronavirus lockdown…
For many people, coping with isolation has been the hardest challenge of these times. But some of us have had to adapt to the loss of isolation. With four school-age children and a husband who worked long hours and travelled extensively, I was used to spending long days, and long evenings, alone in my own world. And I loved it. Now I have a house full of noisy people, twenty-four hours a day, all needing a lot of attention. Not to mention home-schooling. And it’s wonderful too, so much so that I feel guilty about all the terrible things happening in the outside world when we are safe in our family bubble. But finding time to write is a challenge.
Before corona hit, I was finishing the edits on my fourth novel, and at the exciting stage where I had just come up with the concept for my fifth book and ready to get started. Then I was suddenly thrust into this new and very confined world. It’s difficult to get into the right headspace for novel-writing when you can only snatch a few minutes to yourself here and there – you really need long stretches alone to think. But even for writers without children, concentrating is a challenge at the moment.
Are you finding it hard to focus on reading a book? To tear yourself away from the news, from social media?
Low-level yet constant anxiety has become a way of life for everyone. When you’re living with such uncertainty, worrying about vulnerable family members, friends losing their jobs, wondering when this will be over and what the world will be like afterwards…
I found an experimental strategy to keep myself writing. I decided to start writing my new novel as a serial, and to let readers experience the process in real-time. I post two new chapters every week on my website, bite-size so readers have time to read them, and I have time to write them! Readers can even interact if they wish, by adding comments and suggestions. This concept actually works perfectly for the dystopian theme of the book, and I have been using a variety of media to tell the story, including audio files, images, video and letters.
I do feel a little reckless, posting my unedited work for readers to see, but it has also been liberating and confidence-building. Most importantly, putting that pressure on myself means that I have to get the words down every day. I try and wake up an hour before the kids, and if I still need more time, I suggest that we all have a reading and writing hour after lunch.
I’m aware that none of this makes financial sense. I may be shooting myself in the foot by making a whole book available for free when I could have waited and published traditionally. But I don’t think I would have had the discipline or concentration to write during this period otherwise. And I wanted to offer something, however small, to readers who might just need an extra little activity in their day.
Nobody should feel they have to achieve things during this time of corona. It’s ok to just be – to stay safe, spend time with family, read and relax. But my personal coping strategy has been to create a little something every day. And I have to admit that one of the things I’m looking forward to most when this is over is to spend a day alone!
I’ve really enjoyed finding out more about you and your creative work.
It is so kind of Catherine to offer her serialised novel Virtue for free at this time.
Thank you so much for being my guest, Catherine and wishing you much success, good health and happiness.
Authors/creatives/artists/book bloggers who might be interested in sharing their thoughts on quarantine life, please do get in touch.
Topics such as:
Writing, reading, creativity, productivity/isolation during this time.
Home life, thoughts and fears.
Coping with anxiety and stress.
Hopes for the future during these strange times.
If you are interested in taking part in this new feature on my blog please email me on: marjma2014@gmail.com, or comment below.
Please share any photos you would like, thoughts, reflections, and of course your book links, book descriptions/photos, author bios and the like. All welcome.
Hi all, yesterday was my six year blogging anniversary – I am a bit of a slow coach celebrating but better late than never. So it’s happy six years to me!
And it has been. Happy. The last month maybe less so, but there are positives: spending more time with family, relaxing more, (apart from when I’m feeling anxious,) and having more time for writing which is a big plus.
Here’s my latest news of the family, writing, blogging kind… plus a poem about a golden dragon at the end. He is worth the wait as I promise he will take you places…
18th April.
Daughters and I were doing our nails again when I found a very soggy biscuit in my crisps! Ugh. Disgusting.The crisp manufacturer admitted that his was probably a build up of flavouring rather than a biscuit! Perhaps they might give me some free crisps… We’ll see.
Started doing blog posts about Coronavirus and isolation for creatives, Richard Dee is my first guest. I post about this on Book Connectors and receive more interest than I anticipated. In fact, I am somewhat overwhelmed and have to request that I get back to a few people ….
19th April
My 300 word submission to Writers Unite Blog is accepted for publication on next Saturday. Yeah! Spoke to mum and dad on Skype and a little worried to see that my dad is coughing. Apparently, their neighbours have given them a settee which is in their garage. Hope they maintained social distance when they accepted it into their property.
20th April 21, 2020
Mum sent my daughter Tasha a text asking about apps for their local community group. Tasha couldn’t work out what app she meant. Mum mentioned it as if it was the only app in the world! She’s not very up to date with social media so I thought it best to call her which I did. I explained apps, the basics of how they worked and promised to get back to her with more details via Skype. Also, I sense she is getting bored and frustrated being at home, so I suggested that she sews some masks! She has loads of material including elastic. That will keep her occupied. I even said she might want to make some for us. To this end, I sent her a couple of links on how to make them. Who knows she might make loads!
This tells you how to make a face mask without sewing if you want one quick:
Dad is still coughing so I’m worried about him and have asked Mum to check his temperature. He often coughs during the Spring/Summer and all year round for that matter so it is hard to tell whether it is one thing or another. Like me he has Allergic Rhinitis all year round.
Chez moi we did a gym workout in the garden – just my eldest daughter Tasha and I. My youngest daughter Gina is still asleep as she always tends to be until Midday. Boy, Tasha worked me hard but we had some giggles about my dodgy knees which always helps. I forgot to put my head scarf on, so my hair was dangling everywhere,and my glasses were falling off my face in downward dog.
Lol.
In the afternoon we did a bit of Spring cleaning. Cleaning isn’t my favourite pastime but needs must. Unfortunately, I chipped my lovely nail polish which made me cross! To make up for it I made a huge pot of Chilli Con Carne in the evening – comfort food. Everyone enjoyed it and every last drop was gobbled down.
I’m a bit worried about my youngest daughter, she’s been feeling anxious – this enforced stay at home is getting to her and to her boyfriend too. I have to keep an eye on her. Bless her. Her boyfriend lives far away. Apparently, she was telling me that some of her friends’ parents allow them to see their boyfriends. Risky tactic. I can just imagine letting them pitch a tent in the garden to spend ‘private’ time together! Oh my… Not in my house… Staying alive comes before love and kisses right now.
I’ve noticed I have this continuous headache whilst I am in the house, as soon as I go out the door it vanishes, miraculously – obviously a stress headache. When will this end?
I try not to dwell on the death toll, and the Government’s management of the crisis but I am worried. Particularly about the lack of PPE for nurses and doctors. This is unforgiveable. They are our troops at the frontline; they should be protected. Without them, what would we do?
Today I wrote a book review of The Enhanced League by C. S. Boyack:
And I received a new 5 star review for Mr. Sagittarius from Author/Poet Camilla Downs:
“I absolutely adore this book and will be sharing it with my 18 year old daughter. I enjoyed the different styles of poetry and prose mixed together with photography. It flowed beautifully. An uplifting, magical, sweet gem of a book.”
willow willers5.0 out of 5 stars A magical story told in poetry pose and photographyReviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2020What a magical Webb is woven here by author Marjorie Mallon. A tale of two brothers and a sister, botanical gardens, magical creatures and a bench under a Golden Willow Tree. This delightful mix can be either read in one go or enjoyed as momentary fix. I truly cannot recommend Mr Sagittarius enough there is something for everyone inside it’s pages. I shall say no more apart from urge you to read this book and be totally charmed by it.
Thank you to all those who take the time to read and review. I so appreciate you, x
It’s my six year anniversary! Six years blogging can you imagine? Where did that time go? To celebrate I did some work on my next poetry and photography collection, collating all the poetry, images and placing them in order. I discovered three poems I wrote about dragons six years ago! I loved all three of these and they will be going in my new book.
Here’s a sneak peak of one of them that took me on an adventure…
The Enhanced league is a collection of short stories and anthems centered around a year in a fictional baseball league. It has a slight science fiction background. This league has a lot more pomp than you might be used to, and nobody seems to care if the players use performance enhancing drugs.
Stories involve existing heroes, up and comers, and falling stars. While there are the obvious stories that take place on the field of play, there are also human interest stories that take place around the baseball gyrations. These stories involve scouting, trades, ruthless business decisions, and even relationships.
I enjoyed researching and bringing you The Enhanced League, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
My review
An enjoyable read, and a different one for me. I can’t say that I am a baseball fan but reading The Enhanced League by C.S. Boyack does make you feel as if you are immersed in the world of Baseball. C. S. Boyack achieves this by writing engaging characters, adding a touch of humour and superb descriptions of the intricacies of the game itself, and the characters who live, breathe baseball, plus the use of devices, or drugs to create ‘enhanced’ players.
An interesting concept for a story.
My rating: 4 stars
I recommend this particularly for baseball and sport fans and to those who enjoy well crafted human interest storytelling.
I look forward to reading more from C.S. Boyack. This is the first book I have read from him and I am pleased to say it was an engaging read. I believe to date he has written 17 books.
My week… well, those glasses look just like mine. Thank you Suzy Hazelwood for the lovely free image!
15th April
Not been feeling too good myself today. I had a strange stomach ache and the shivers. But good news a new review today from Willow about my poetry, prose, photography collection Mr. Sagittarius.
I felt a bit better later on in the day and wrote about two swans that my daughter Tasha and I had seen on the river yesterday. I wrote a short haiku poem about the swans for Colleen’s Chesebro’s poetry challenge.
Across the UK, 12,868 people have died, up by 761 on Tuesday.
Such a shocking headline. In my heart I believe if we had locked down earlier the death toll would have been so much smaller. One has to look at Greece to see that their swift decision to lockdown early on resulted in very few deaths.
Sadly, we were not sensible in the UK. We should have paid attention to what was happening around the world.
Now, our lockdown in the UK is to be extended for another three weeks as we flatten the curve.
17th April
I slept badly, which I have been doing a lot. The lockdown is beginning to get to me. So, rather than lie in bed I dragged myself out of bed, started writing and drafted this blog post.
Coronavirus isn’t the first epidemic that the human race have suffered and sadly it won’t be the last. But for many, it is our first real experience of an epidemic and that in itself is frightening. I’ve been thinking about previous epidemics, particularly Polio which has been around for thousands of years. There are interesting comparisons between the two. Both are highly infectious, some Polio patients had no symptoms, most people did recover but a proportion died. Rather than mention all the statistics with regard to the two I’d just like to reiterate we’ve struggled through these trying times before and we will do so again. Most hospitals in the 1950s had limited access to iron lungs for Polio patients unable to breathe without mechanical assistance and now we have amazing advances in medicine but sadly there are shortages of equipment and PPE due to the vast numbers involved in some countries.
Polio struck at the young mainly. Can you imagine? Conversely, Coronavirus seems to be more dangerous for the elderly and those with underlying health issues. Which again is terrifying for people with elderly parents and relatives. One striking difference between the two epidemics is our modern ability to travel, allowing viruses to be transferred to different parts of the world. In the 1940’s outbreak of polio there were no cruise ships, or aircraft to take people to worldwide destinations.
It gives some comfort to know that there will be a solution and it should come quicker. Scientific research and expertise has advanced massively since the Polio epidemics. Intensive care medicine has its origin in the fight against polio.[145]The first polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s by Jonas Salk.[9] (Wikipedia.)
So sit tight, and stay safe. We will get through this. A vaccine will come.
In the meantime do check out this link regarding a breathing technique that helped J K Rowling recover from Coronavirus.
M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 