I am delighted to announce that I have been featured in November issue of Portugal’s Tomorrow Magazine. Many thanks to Dan Costinas for interviewing me about my poetry prose memoir collection Do What You Love.

Do What You Love is a personal poetry collection celebrating how the fates may have a part in all that we do. With special poems and short reflective moments inspired by family, flowers and nature, love, scrumptious morsels, places I’ve visited, lived and intend to live in, the friendships and hopes I have for the future.

The overarching theme is to live a life well lived… And to do what you love.
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BKLC9DYY/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/What-You-love-Fragility-Photography-ebook/dp/B0BKLC9DYY/

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/What-You-love-Fragility-Photography-ebook/dp/B0BKLC9DYY/

Here is the Tomorrow magazine link, I am on page 46, and Dan Costinas is on page 52.

Also Dan has released a book too… which is also featured in this issue.

More about that and a special giveaway for Dan’s book mentioned on Facebook, I’ve added the link below the review!

I’ve finished Dan Costinas’s new release ! The Last Folio.

My review:

One gets a sense of Dan Costinas’s great love of Shakespeare’s dramas, comedies and tragedies in this 400th anniversary work of essays to commemorate the publication of Shakespeare’s first folio.

Costinas reminises about his first introduction to Shakespeare:

“I clearly remember, like it happened yesterday, my first contact with the Plays: I was ten years old and I was completely captivated almost three hours watching Ariel, Ceres, Iris, Juno, Caliban, and their magical story on the stage.”

Costinas writes with flair, knowledge, humour, and enthusiasm bringing Shakespeare’s undoubted dramatic skill to the modern reader. So many Shakespearean topics are still pertinent today: fortune hunters, love, hatred, jealousy, seduction, the war of the sexes, adultery, absurd foolishness, mankind’s flaws, power, the common man, battles, court life, etc.

Costinas also discusses (within the Shakespearean context,) topics such as racism, homophobia, misogyny, and antisemitism and his opinion on how Shakespeare viewed women. A debate I found particularly interesting.

This book is for those who enjoy Shakespeare, literature, philosophical discussion and history. And it is evident, his intention to encourage Shakespeare to be read and enjoyed by future generations, with this easily understood insight into the bard and his remarkable works.

Highly recommended. Well done, Mr. Costinas. 5 stars

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Folio-p…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/RH0FPS1T51Q8Q/

GIVEAWAY – DAN COSTINAS

I believe that Dan is offering free deluxe hardcover copies for the first reviews, up to 50 free copies in total. More about this via this FB link which states:

The first 50 reviewers will be granted one deluxe-illustrated-signed hardcover copy of the book in the 26th of April 2024. See below for details of the giveaway as this is via Authors for Hispania, contact Dan Costinas for more information, via FB.

Giveaway: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7012396018786814/permalink/7722542564438819/?mibextid=oMANbw

If you are interested in all things Shakespeare, (in an accessible and entertaining way,) here is the link to buy a copy:

Thank you so much to Kaye Lynn Booth for her wonderful review of Bloodstone.

Source: Book Review: Bloodstone | Writing to be Read

About the Book

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.

TRIGGER WARNING: this book contains mention of self-harm, mental health issues and alludes to the potential dangers of sexual attraction, which may trigger younger/sensitive readers.INSPIRED BY: The World Famous Corpus Christi Chronophage Clock, created by Dr. John C Taylor, OBE, and artist Anya Gallaccio’s Crystal Grotto, in Juniper Artland, Scotland.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Bloodstone-Paranormal-Fantasy-Adventure-Curse-ebook/dp/B097QZBKNY

Kaye Lynn Booth’s Review

Bloodstone is Book 1 in M.J. Mallon’s The Curse of Time series. I’m not sure what I expected when Ipicked up this book. I’m a sucker for time-travel stories, and the subject of time and parallel worlds perplex me, so I suppose I expected something along those lines given the clock on the cover and the series title. But that is not at all what this book is. But, Bloodstone may be just as enchanting.This tale is a young adult novel dealing with the issues of a fifteen-year-old girl who has a very strange life. While her home life may be disfunctional, other parts of her life are magical in this delightful tale of magical realism. Things happen which may seem odd or unusual, but they seem to be everyday occurances in the fantastical world which Mallon has created.The result is a paranormal fantasy that deals with real adolecent issues like friends and boyfriends, peer pressure, depression, self-harm, and betrayal, in a manor that raises awareness, and still entertains.Another unexpected touch the author offers up in this story is a syllabic poem as the heading of each chapter, which offers a hint to the events in the chapter to come. I found this to be a clever way to clue readers in and creative way to add to the magicalfeel of the story.A refreshing surprise, Bloodstone captured my attention and my heart. I give it five quills.

___________________________________________________________________Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.