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Sally has a new book out and it’s a tempting one!
Pop over to her blog to find out more and to order a copy: https://wp.me/p3ZnNr-xeP
A competition and chance to be featured in Wordcrafter Paranormal Anthology compiled and edited by Kaye Lynn Booth
Source: Announcing the 2021 WordCrafter Paranormal Short Fiction Contest | Writing to be Read
I’m deep in complicated edits for the second in my YA fantasy series – The Curse of Time #2 Golden Healer, and they are driving me crazy! As it’s Poet’s Choice I’m going to share the opening poem and a short extract, (which still needs a final edit so please bear that in mind.)
The story opens with two dear old friends, Leanne the owner of the magical crystal cottage and Eruterac, the creature, who is the caretaker of the cottage. The below link is to Carolina Russo’s wonderful blog.
Carolina has created two amazing art portraits of my characters which you can see below – Esme the mirror girl and Eruterac the creature at: https://yesterdayafter.com/
© Carolina Russo
The creature is getting impatient! So off we go…
Worms, caviar too,
Two unlikely friends share tea,
And Chit – ter – Chat – ter,
That Chiastolite, oh my!
And Amelina’s bloodstone.
Come with me…
Through a gated door leading to a herb and rose garden where two strange companions Leanne, and Eruterac the creature share a rare moment together.
Today, they marvelled at the beauty and fragility of the rose petals which created a dazzling display of white, yellow, pink, and darkest crimson blooms. The delightful fragrance of roses and herbs filled the air, bursting with sweetness. In the backdrop, a quaint old cottage with shuttered windows rested as if waiting for a passing stranger to dare to cross its threshold. Within, skylights alighted on all manner of crystals as they twinkled, longing for a release from their embedded position on the walls. The ground around the cottage stirred, breaking and settling as if the cottage might be drawn back into its hiding place: the earth.
In the surrounding courtyard, there were cages and feeders for birds which hung from the trees. White doves cooed and preened themselves in bird baths.
The creature Eruterac paid no attention to the antics of these exquisite birds, instead he fidgeted as he tried to rearrange his tall skeletal frame into Leanne’s dainty, wrought iron chairs.
Leanne sat opposite him. Except for the tulle layers of her silken gown, her tiny frame appeared lost in the chair. She tilted her head with an air of grandeur as if she was about to join a garden party frequented by the finest royalty, or perhaps the Gods themselves.
Eruterac had no such attire, except for his knitted rasta cap with sun-cured palm leaves which covered his matted dreadlocks.
His needs were a thing of the past, for now his concerns were reduced to the worms that crawled across his bony frame. He held one such wrigging creature inches from the gap where his mouth used to be and edged forward dangling it in front of Leanne’s nose.
“Dinner,” he joked as he bobbed his skeletal head.
Leanne shuddered. “No worms, thanks, dearest creature. Caviar for me!” She picked up her finest china teapot and poured the liquid into a cup. It flowed slowly, twinkling with a myriad of brilliant colours. When it filled the cup, it turned the colour Leanne expected. She’d thought of green tea and magical green tea it was.
Eruterac choked and spluttered on clods of earth as he laughed. “That’s foul. Green tea, how can you drink such muck?”
“Easy. I do so with a smile, unlike … poor you! I see worms continue to ooze gunk where your dear mouth used to be,” replied Leanne, reaching forward to pat Eruterac on his skeletal shoulder.
They rested for a moment, her gentle hand on his bones.
“I’ll try not to drink such delicacies!” replied Eruterac, cracking his bones for a joke.
“Wise fellow. Forgive me for changing the subject but your new hat is very fetching! I’s so brown and earthy with that Chiastolite death crystal, completed by that black cross embellishing the cap’s centre.”
“Indeed, it’s a dark beauty, like an honourable death,” he said, his skeletal arm reached up to touch the crystal on his hat.
“Take heart, dear Creature, forget about death, and being bound to this cottage. Let us rejoice in the simple pleasures of life which we take for granted…” Leanne pointed at their sublime surroundings.
Eruterac sighed. ”Yes, there are times when amidst such tranquillity and beauty that I forget everything.”
A white dove landed on Leanne’s slender shoulder, she turned and smiled. But the dove thought better of it and alighted on the Creature’s hat. It pecked away at the worms making the creature smile.
“Cheeky doves, always favouring Eruterac’s sunny hat.”
“They know who provides them with a constant dinner of worms. And who’s boss.”
“Huh! A boss? You? That Chiastolite’s making you big-headed. Oh, my days! The protectors, you, and my dearest doves are all that I and my dear cottage need… But, I mustn’t forget, I have news to impart – the midsummer fly is up to his tricks.”
“Where’s that stinking fly been to this time?” asked Eruterac, leaning forward, sending worms tumbling towards Leanne’s teacup. Her eyes grew wide as she placed a protective hand over the top but a few swift worms landed in the saucer. She swiped them away.
© M J Mallon
More to come, there is a mention of the bloodstone in the latter part of this opening chapter, find out more when the book is complete. It continues to be my most challenging writing project, so it may be a while. Be patient with me dear readers.
Any feedback would be greatly received.
While I am editing book two here is the link to the first book in the YA fantasy series The Curse of Time #1 Bloodstone, the blurb and some review quotes.
Buy Book: myBook.to/TheCurseofTime
The Curse of Time – Book 1 – Bloodstone
Blurb:
Fifteen-year-old Amelina Scott lives in Cambridge with her dysfunctional family, a mysterious black cat, and an unusual girl who’s 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 pathway where she encounters Ryder, a charismatic, but perplexing stranger.
With the help of a magical paint set, and some crystal wizard stones she discovers the truth about a shocking curse that has destroyed her family’s happiness.
“This delightful book will appeal to teens and young adults who love stories filled with magical crystals, dark family curses, and mysteries waiting to be solved around every corner. Each chapter leads you on a journey of discovery where Amelina earns the right to use three wizard stones to reset the balance of time and finally break the curse that holds her family hostage. A captivating tale!” – Colleen M. Chesebro (Editor)
Do you like the opening chapter?
Thank you so much to James Cudney for this lovely review of Mr. Sagittarius it really made my day!
Source: Book Review: Mr. Sagittarius by M.J. Mallon – This Is My Truth Now
Need some insights about book publishing? Check out my latest author interview for some awesome tips.
And the previous author interview link is: https://zuellah.com/author-interview-m-j-mallon-book-writing-mindset/
Due to personal reasons, I decided to bid for No More Knives in the Children in Read auction for Children In Need.
In my parcel I discovered that the author Christina Gabbitas had kindly added a beautifully illustrated book: Share Some Secrets (illustrated by Ric Lumb) complete with audio written and narrated by the author, plus a poem about the importance of our environment ‘save us from plastic.’ Both of these books and poem are about subjects which matter greatly.
So why did I bid for No More Knives?
If you’ve ever had the misfortune to come into contact with gangs, (as my daughter and her boyfriend did,) you will realise how frightening and dangerous it can be. Luckily, they both survived to tell the tale and thankfully, no knives were involved, but I doubt the experience will ever be forgotten.
So, that is why this is so important to me.
Education is key to ensuring that youngsters understand the very real dangers of drugs and how bad friendship choices can lead to crime.
Blurb – No More Knives
Friends, Siobhan, Ellie, Luke, Jamie and Mo, meet in the local park as usual to hang out. There is a new guy in town, Steve, wo offers them money to deliver packages to different areas.
The promises of close freindships and what they thought was easy money, don’t quite work out.
A story of choices and consequences.
Christina was approached to work with the Police & Crime Commissioners Office to help educate and work with children aged 10-16 on the topic of Knife Crime. Christina will be producing and online digital magazine that will be used as a resource for children, teachers and parents. The delivery of the project will be January 2020.
My review of No More Knives – Christina Gabbitas, illustrated by Evie Hurst.
This is a beautifully illustrated book on such an important subject. I love the cover art showing all the children linking arms and smiling.
The youngsters portrayed in the story are from different cultural, family and socio-economic backgrounds. From the first page, we learn that Jamie, Luke, Siobhan, Ellie and Mo rang in age from pre-teens to teenagers – ten to sixteen years old.
When the youngsters meet Steve, who’s involved in a drug gang, they are encouraged to think they can make ‘easy’ money.
The children soon realise that nothing is easy, friendly or safe about this at all.
I’d recommend this book to help educate young people about the dangers of crime, drug taking, and the very real threat of knives and violence, which sadly are becoming all too prevalent in our society.
The simple but effective illustrations in a comic graphic strip style will appeal to young people. These convey with ease how young people can end up in dangerous situations.
A fantastic book and a lovely project for Christina Gabbitas to be part of.
My recommendation: Highly recommended, particularly as an educational tool to use in schools.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/no-more-knives/christina-gabbitas/evie-hurst/9781916254299
https://www.christinagabbitas.com/no-more-knives/
Author Bio:
Christina Gabbitas is an award winning children’s author, poet and voice artist. A successful author and businesswoman, and unrecognisable from her younger self. At school she was a pupil who preferred to sit at the back of the classroom and blend in with the furniture, scared of people and anything that moved. She was a quiet, shy character who nearly lost her first job, as she found it difficult to converse with people. Over a period of time she had to teach herself not to be so self-conscious and gradually she flourished with an abundance of energy, ideas and passion to achieve. Christina not only writes but stages storytellling sessions, engaging with primary age children, encouraging imagination through writing. Christina equally enjoys inspiring older children to believe in themselves, as she talks eloquently about her journey from wallflower to author, poet, voice artist and director.
Christina has made her dreams become a reality and feels privileged to be able to pass on her experience to others.
Social media links:
https://www.christinagabbitas.com
https://www.facebook.com/ChristinaGabbitasAuthor
https://www.instagram.com/christinagabbitas
https://www.poemsandpicturespublishing.org/
Please feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
clouds cover the moon,
beyond dawn’s pale horizon
sun rises unseen
©2020 Sue Vincent
I’m going to attempt to write a crapsey cinquain – never done one of these before, so I used Colleen’s handy poetry cheat guide: https://wordcraftpoetry.com/tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-cheat-sheet/
The Crapsey cinquain is a five-line, non-rhyming poem featuring a syllable structure of 2/4/6/8/2. Choose words that create drama which builds into the fourth line. Remember, the turn occurs on line five, the most important line. This is where you change your focus away from the drama in some interesting way. Surprise your readers!
The World in Stardust
The moon
Caressed by hands
Fairy stardust twinkling
Kind eyes flutter open to see
The world!
© M J Mallon
I enjoyed writing this poem.
All of my books under my Kyrosmagica Publishing imprint include poetry, do check them out. I’d love it if you’d read one of my works: https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-J-Mallon/e/B074CGNK4L
Happy Sunday all,
Goodreads Synopsis
How well do you know your loved ones?
A girl struggling to cope with the murders of her mother and five-year-old brother.
A journalist chasing the ghost of a potential serial killer.
A thirteen-year-old girl who slaughtered her parents.
And a revenge-driven psychopath who is about to destroy everyone’s life.
After 9 years, a young writer is still coping with the brutal murders of her mother and five-year-old brother, as she moves into a house of horrors, to start a new life with her lover. Will friends and family be able to redeem Ally out of the impending doom in time? Will her infallible love become the key to the destruction of her already fragile world? Will madness prevail over love; true love over revenge?
Deceived is a gripping psychological thriller that mazes through the deepest, darkest emotions of human mind through the story of a vulnerable girl who treads in the mist of deception bred from a long unforgiven betrayal.
My review
Deceived by Heena Rathore P.
My rating: 4 .5 of 5 stars
Disclaimer – I received a free ebook copy of Deceived. My review of this book has in no way been influenced by this kind offer.
An excellent debut by Heena Rathore Pardesi. Just what you would expect from a book blogger who loves to read and studies the craft of writing extensively.
I have to admit that there were times especially towards the end of the book where I went, ugh, that is so horrible, Heena! So, be prepared for that. Heena is a huge fan of horror and this comes across in her writing. She is not afraid to shock the reader.
In Deceived we read of Elizabeth’s story, a sad tale of sexual abuse perpetrated by her stepfather that led her already fragile, disturbed mind towards a need to commit violent acts herself.
Ally ‘s mum and young brother were murdered making her a vulnerable character longing for stability and love. She has suffered so much and I longed for her to be happier and free from anxiety.
Both Elizabeth and Ally are damaged people. There is a sense that anything can and will happen.
I liked the creepy journal entries which add an insight into a murder’s crazy psyche and these are interspersed with Ally (Allison Stone’s) and Elizabeth Lawson’s story.
There are obvious parallels between Ally and Elizabeth. They are both looking for love. Ally hopes to find happiness with her boyfriend Danny. Elizabeth imagines the love she thinks she deserves. Will either of them find happiness, or will there be more tragedy?
Right from the start it is clear that Ally’s best friend Sam doesn’t trust Danny. I would have liked Sam to be more determined and vocal about Ally escaping from Danny’s clutches. Especially, when it becomes obvious that Allie’s mental health is slipping due to weird discoveries in Danny’s creepy house and the ‘voodoo’ house next door. Also, it would have served as a strong contrast to the ending of the book. But, no spoilers.
Ally’s journalist cousin Steve doesn’t come across as a very trustworthy character at the beginning of the book. And yet Steve doesn’t trust Donny, (who is helping him in his murder investigations,) and is obsessional about Allie. But are Steve’s instincts right? Is Donny strange too?
Ally’s dog Max is such a sweetheart, always wanting to be beside Ally to protect her from harm. But with a killer on the prowl even Max is in danger.
And Elizabeth, what a tale that is!
There are numerous clues throughout the book to keep the reader engaged and turning the pages.
Heena Rathmore uses an unusual technique in some dialogues whilst speaking on the phone – only showing one person’s speech, which I found somewhat unusual until I got used to this style. Perhaps the author did this to maintain the pace of the story, and add an air of mystery.
This novel certainly brings a fair few questions… very cleverly done.
My recommendation: Read this! An engaging psychological page turner. The ending will stay with me for a long time… Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
About Heena R. Pardeshi
Heena Rathore Pardeshi is a published fiction author, manuscript critic and the Editor-In-Chief at a local publishing house. She is also a fiction writing coach and conducts regular webinars, workshops and lectures on Creative Writing and Fiction Writing.
She has a Bachelor Degree in English Literature from University of Pune. She has also studied 3D Animation Film Making from Reliance Big Animation, Modern Masterpieces of World Literature from Harvard University and Introduction To Psychology from Yale University.
She has seven years of extensive knowledge in blogging and content creation and continues to create content for her YouTube Channel. She is also an animal activist and participates in regular Neuter-And-Release and animal foster activities in her city. She loves music and is currently learning Piano from a tutor of Trinity College of Music, London. She is a book aficionado and reads more than a hundred books every year. She loves travelling, but prefers a lifestyle that suits her introvert nature. She lives in Pune with her husband and 6 cats in a house full of love, chuckles and books.
Social media links:
Website: https://crazycatwriter.com
Blog: https://crazycatwriter.com/blog/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15799129.Heena_Rathore_P_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crazycatwriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crazycatwriter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crazycatwriter/
Book Links:
Amazon (India): https://www.amazon.in/Deceived-Heena-Rathore-P/dp/8193344901/
Amazon (.com): https://www.amazon.com/Deceived-Well-Really-Know-Loved-ebook/dp/B07XKVRKS5/
Thank you to Huma for this author interview.
Pop over to her blog to discover my answers to these five engaging questions:
#1 Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
#2 Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
#3 What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?
#4 Does writing energize or exhaust you?
#5 What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
How could I not take part with such an evocative image chosen by Diana?
This challenge explores Ekphrastic writing inspired by visual art (photographs). Diana Peach from last month’s challenge has provided the photo for this month’s challenge.
ETHEREE: The Etheree poem consists of ten lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. An Etheree can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Double Etheree
Stare
Downwards
Beyond life
A darkness grows
To infinity
Seeping into water
My long blonde hair stays behind
Exposing my poor nakedness
A child lost in a time with no kindness
Cold skin, white against teeming cruel shadows
Black heart whispering melancholy words
Stay still, forever no one will care
Who will remember you strange child?
Mother, father, sister, none.
Death is your only friend
Come! In the water
Reflect and be
Still. Death’s friend
Holding
Hands
Ooh, that was creepy!
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