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My Kyrosmagica review of the Cosy Teashop in The Castle

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I won a copy of Caroline Roberts The Cosy Teashop in The Castle via Suze Lavender, @SuzeLavender who blogs at http://www.withloveforbooks.com/

Book enthusiasts tip: Suze is great to follow as she does lots and lots of book giveaways!

My review:

I read this charming novel while  on holiday in Portugal.  More about my trip here: https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/portugal-missing-you/

The Cosy Teashop in The Castle is the perfect read to take away with you for a relaxing break. A light-hearted story set in Northumberland about a young women’s dream to run her own tea shop. Being a big fan of cakes, baking, tearooms, and castles, this really appealed to me. By the way there is the added bonus of a lovely cake recipe at the back of the book : Ellie’s grandmother – Choffee cake. Sounds delicious! There is also a very satisfactory dollop of romance that never goes amiss on a summer read! The only aspect of the novel that surprised me was just how steamy the romance sections were. Boy were they hot, just about as sweltering as the Portugal sun. So do bear that in mind! Obviously all that floury cake baking, combined with the chemistry between Ellie and the manager of the tearoom, Joe, really enabled the spark to light Ellie’s broken-hearted fuse. Phew….Yes, Ellie hasn’t had the best of times as far as men are concerned, making her a bit cautious, and Joe has his reasons to be a bit distant too. But the fuse well and truly does get lit, believe me!

My recommendation –  Read and find out more! 

My rating: 4 stars.

Have you read The Cosy Tea Shop in The Castle? Do let me know your thoughts if you have.

Bye for now, that little tea shop was surprisingly hot!

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Attention #PoetsForPeace Contributors: We are getting published & will need your help!

If you’d like to contribute to #PoetsForPeace and be published in Praxis magazine this is how to. Entries will be open to the 31st August.

forgottenmeadows's avatarforgottenmeadows

Hello Everyone,

This is for all present and future contributors for our collaboration #PoetsForPeace. Michael and I  are so excited to let you know that our friend and fellow blogger Laura M. Kaminski has graciously offered to help us get published in Praxis Magazine Online! Laura herself is an amazing writer and a published poet… I encourage you to check out her blog if you haven’t already done so.

In order to get published we will need  permission from our contributors who would like their piece published with this collaboration. One or all of these fields will need to be included: URL, Name, Location Contributor is writing from. “The standard Praxis copyright page at the beginning will show that copyright for contributed lines is retained by the individual contributors”.- Laura

Michael from the Poetry  Channel, will be contacting individual contributors with details soon; however, we wanted to make sure we…

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New book release

Today is release day for Devastation, second volume of Jane Dougherty’s Pathfinders series. She is offering free Amazon downloads of Abomination, in case (like me) you have some catching up to do. The book covers look amazing….. I can’t resist the pull of a pretty cover!!

Jane Dougherty's avatarJane Dougherty Writes

Today is release day for Devastation, second volume of The Pathfinders series

Devastation

If you have already read Abomination, you can buy Devastation here:

Amazon.com

Amazon. UK

If you haven’t read Abomination yet, you can download a free copy here

Amazon.com

Amazon.UK

Instagram

So you have NO EXCUSE! Obviously, I’d rather you read it too, but just a little download would be nice.

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Blog Pitch Party 3: The Blog Awakens

Austin at The Return Of The Modern Philophiser is having a blog pitch party. Want to join in? ‘Course you do… I did too, so had to press the reblog button. Go on be a devil, I dare you!

Austin's avatarThe Return of the Modern Philosopher

blogs, blogging, bloggers, writing, pitch party, blog share, humor, writing, Modern PhilosopherI realized this morning, Modern Philosophers, that I’m on vacation, need a distraction, and have The House on the Hill all to myself.

Let’s have a party!

It’s been almost a year and a half since my last Blog Pitch Party, so I think today is the perfect day to revive this popular feature.

As some of you know, I’m a screenwriter.  When things are going well, I get invited to pitch meetings where producers ask me to pitch them my latest screenplays.

Basically, I need to come up with two or three sentences to sum up my entire screenplay in a way that intrigues the suits and makes them want to find the time to read it.

Off the top of my head, here’s a pitch I might make for one of my favorite screenplays:  A high school kid travels back to 1955 in a souped up DeLorean…

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Sayonara Hitori by Taemin

Guest Post written  by Natasha Mallon  

Lee Taemin is a Korean idol from one of KPOP’s biggest groups SHINee which debuted in 2008 with ‘Replay’. They have gone from cute-pop bops to synthesizer melodies which have dabbled in house/techno. Currently, they are working on a new comeback after the success of their 2015 album release ‘Odd Eye’ and ‘Married to the Music’.

Lee Taemin is a vocalist/dancer/visual of SHINee and is their youngest member at the age of 23. In 2014, Taemin released his first ever solo debut with songs like ‘Ace’ and ‘Danger’ which successfully changed his cute image into a whole new persona. In his music video ‘Danger’, Taemin is seen with piercings and heavy eye make-up and array of different outfits. After his 2014 release, Taemin also released his second solo album Press It. Longer in length, Taemin worked with artists such as Bruno Mars to create and produce this ten track album. As well as this, Taemin has released songs in Japanese, his most recent album ‘Sayonara Hitori’ takes on a whole different kind of genre, many of the songs sounding like the OST (Opening Sound Track) of any fantasy anime. The video for ‘Sayonara Hitori’ deals with themes of light and dark, the fear of our own shadow. It is a stunning video, switching from beautiful scenes of mountains and valleys illuminated by a giant full moon to scenes of destruction — of volcanoes and war. The wardrobe changes in the video also reflects this, as Taemin is seen in silk clothing in one scene, and all in black in another. Taemin’s success in Japan is quite evident, and I will be looking forward to the music that he releases in the near (and distant future).

Please check Taemin and SHINee out!

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Hope you liked my eldest daughter’s guest post. She’s absolutely obsessed with Korean K-Pop, and likes to share her love with others. She urged me to watch this video – she said that it reminded her of the themes of dark/light in my manuscript The Curse Of Time. I’m very flattered that she thought so. The video really is stunning. 

Do you like Korean K-Pop? Do comment I’d love to hear from you. 

Happy Friday  – I hope you have a lovely weekend. 

Bye for now, Sayonara!

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My fun (totally not serious but nevertheless 90% true,) author bio on Wattpad – Link below.

Marjorie Mallon was born in Lion City: Singapore. She grew up in a mountainous court in Hong Kong. Her crazy parents dragged her  spotty soul away from her exotic childhood and her much loved dog Topsy to the frozen wastelands of Scotland. There she mastered Scottish country dancing, haggis bashing, bagpipe playing and a whole new Och Aye lingo. 
As a teenager she travelled to many far flung destinations to visit her abacus wielding wayfarer dad. On one such occasion a  barracuda swam by. It stopped to view her  bikini clad body, longing to take a big bite. With dogs' fangs replacing barracudas' teeth, she returned to her mother's birthplace: Kuching, Cat City. There, Blackie, a black-hearted dog sniffed her frightened butt, whimpered and ran away! Shortly after this extraordinary event an angry female Orang-Utan chased her unfit ass out of the Malaysian jungle believing that she was a threat to her babies! She still monkeys about, would love to own a cat, or a replacement Topsy but refuses to entertain  murderous dogs, or over-protective monkeys.
It's rumoured that she lives in the Venice of Cambridge, with her six foot hunk of a Rock God husband, and her two enchanted daughters. 
After such an upbringing her author's mind has taken total leave of its senses. When she's not writing, she eats exotic delicacies while belly dancing, or surfs to the far reaches of the moon. To chill out she practises Tai Chi and Yoga on the crest of a wave. If the mood takes her she goes snorkelling with mermaids, or signs up for idyllic holidays with the Chinese Unicorn, whose magnificent voice sings like a thousand wind chimes. 

She is a child of the light and the dark. Her motto is simply this: Do what you love,  stay true to your heart's desires, remain young at heart, and  inspire others to do so, even if it appears that the odds are stacked like black hearted shadows against you...

 

My Links: 

Wattpad

Goodreads

Instagram

Twitter

Facebook

 

 

 

 

Markets For Writers

This week’s market has an excellent prompt; as soon as I saw it, all sorts of ideas came bursting into my mind. Brilliant Flash Fiction’s prompt is ‘It came in the mail’. He…

Source: Markets For Writers

LGBTQIAP+ Books By and About People who Identify as LGBTQIAP+

This is very obviously a work in progress and a massively incomplete list, but if you’re looking for books both by and about people who openly identify as LGBTQIAP+, writing within their own orient…

Source: LGBTQIAP+ Books By and About People who Identify as LGBTQIAP+

10 Things I wish I’d known before writing a trilogy

Great post from author Dylan Hearn on writing trilogies. As I’ve been told my manuscript has potential to be developed into a series this interested me. A must see reblog.

Dylan Hearn's avatarSuffolk Scribblings

Three Covers

With the publication of Genesis Redux only a handful of days away, I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’ve learned over the past four years of writing the Transcendence Trilogy. Here are my top ten:

1 It’s better if each book works as a stand alone story

There is nothing wrong in writing a trilogy which has to be read in order. Some of my favourite books were written that way. If you tried reading The Two Towers before The Fellowship of the Ring, you’d be totally lost. But as an indie author, you need to maximise the opportunity of each book launch.

The one thing I’d change if I started my trilogy over again is to make each book work as a stand alone novel. As the first book, Second Chance works on its own. I’ve been told Absent Souls works as a stand alone novel, although it…

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My Kyrosmagica Review of Dead Flies And Sherry Trifle

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Goodreads Synopsis:

It’s summer 1976 and hotter than Hades
Harry Spittle, nineteen, is home from university, aiming to earn some money to go on holiday and maybe get laid. He expects he will be bored rigid, but the appearance of old family friend, Charlie Jepson, his psychopathic son, Claude, and predatory wife Monica changes that. As his parents’ marriage implodes, Harry’s problems mount; before he knows it he’s in debt up to his ears and dealing in drugs. Things go from bad to worse when he is stabbed. He needs money fast, but now his job is at risk, his sister is in trouble and he has discovered a family secret that could destroy all he holds dear. The only way out appears to require that Harry joins forces with the local criminal mastermind. Can Harry survive to see out the summer? Can he save his family? Can he regain some credibility and self-respect? Most importantly will he finally get laid?

My review:

Thank you to Geoff LePard for providing me a signed copy of Dead Flies And Sherry Trifle in exchange for an honest review.

I am reviewing this as part of  Make August An Amazon Review Month

This is a laugh… and that pleases me enormously. I love to laugh. It’s a little-hearted, coming of age story which will undoubtedly relate to you – if you’re a teenager – or will take you space hopping back to your teenage years if you’re a bit older….Boing Boing. C’est Moi!

I didn’t work in a hotel as a teenager but I did have a spell where I worked in my local hairdressers. Let’s just say that I met some colourful characters, who took great pleasure in taking me out for a drink at the local pub after work, ha ha!! Vodka, was their tipple. So Harry Spittle’s work colleagues and his University enemy Stephen McNoble, ( who has serious anger issues,) really don’t seem so far from reality for me! Neither does the drug taking… but that’s another story.  The cardboard girlfriend Amanda… well I never! Can’t say I’ve ever come across that kind of companionship before. But, yes, I was quite a wild teenager… the quiet ones are always the ones to watch out for. Don’t show my mum this review!

If you’re female and reading Dead Flies And Sherry Trifle you’ll find yourself crawling into the deepest recesses of a teenage boy’s brain – his name is Harry Spittle –  and the experience will enlighten, amuse, and engulf you with what it means to ‘want to get laid.’ The main character is somewhat obsessed with a certain part of his body! Which probably accounts for about 99% of the male population below the age of 21… and a huge proportion of those above 21 too!! But, like all well rounded characters he does have some redeeming features too.  He does love his Grandmother! And he isn’t too bad a brother to his poor sister when she gets into a spot of bother.

Be prepared for cheeky sexual references… hopeless fails,  madcap behaviour, family life, a mystery, and a few rough diamonds!

I discovered my teenage daughter sneaking a peak at Dead Flies And Sherry Trifle – ahem… Now, I’m worried. She just accepted a part-time waitressing job at Cambridge university… EEK, who will she meet? This book brings on serious anxiety, it should carry a health warning! It’s a fast, easy, entertaining read with a diverse range of characters to keep you interested. Flies do play a tiny part. Buzz buzz. Trifle is my favourite pudding. The title is just about as nutty as the contents.

My only slight bugbear had to be with the revelation about Harry Spittle’s sister. This part of the story seemed to get engulfed by all the other shenanigans and her mother and father didn’t quite respond in the way in which I thought they would.

My recommendation – read if you like to take life and all its weird foibles a trifling unseriously.

Authors Website: https://geofflepard.com/

 

My rating

4 stars.

DISCLAIMER: “As of 13th September 2017 we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”  

My opinions are my own and any reviews on this site have not been swayed or altered in any way by monetary compensation, or by the offer of a free book in exchange for a review. 

Amazon UK kindle buying link: http://amzn.to/2h6btAf

Amazon UK Paperback buying link: http://amzn.to/2jtfDDg

 

Bye for now,

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MAKE AUGUST Write An Amazon Review Month by @TerryTyler4 #AmazonReviews #Amreading

August 2016 is Write An Amazon Review month. Spread the word lots of bloggers are getting involved. This idea to encourage others to write a review originated from Rosie Amber. Terry Tyler joined in encouraging this initiative. So let’s share, reblog, and get reading!! Writing a review doesn’t have to be a chore, write a few words or a lot it’s up to you. But remember to be honest, and fair. The book might appear faceless but there is an author behind each novel who has worked incredibly hard and poured their soul into each and every word. Exposing your love for words is a scary and brave act, authors deserve a little help and admiration for what they do! Get reviewing!!