Marian Wood: Pandemic Poetry #Poetry #COVID19 #Isolation #Writers #Contributing #Author

Welcome to Marian Wood, a contributing writer in the forthcoming collection of diaries, short stories, flash fiction, writings and poetry: This Is Lockdown with her poem and thoughts on COVID19.

This Is Lockdown will feature a wide variety of authors, writers and bloggers from UK, USA, Italy and Canada.

Poetry from Marian Wood

© Marian Wood

The world is quiet, a new strange calm,
People staying indoors, scared of coming to harm.
Cars are now just sitting on drives,
As people now lead different lives.

No longer racing for the morning bus,
Now staying at home, with lap top, no fuss.
The children are now home from school,
And mum is trying to set the rules.

Sitting working, but watching the kids,
A parent can be successful at this.
With the help of a maths app and a cool pc,
The children can be kept calm and busy.

It was March that this change came to the UK,
And now it’s here, it’s not going away.
Never before have people been told to stay at home,
I’m so glad for social media and our telephones.

Our children are growing up right now,
They will forever remember what happened and how.
The Chinese Wet Market in Wuhan,
Was that really where this all began?

The children

The children are now drawing rainbows,
All part of our memories and makes our hearts glow.
All our praises go to our NHS and keyworkers,
They are all working hard in an effort to save us.

So, everyone now please look after your families,
Stay indoors, obey lock down, care for your babies.
Maybe have a picnic in your front room,
Or make the chairs into a rocket and fly to the moon.

Trying to think of ways to pass the day,
Bringing in inventive ways for creativity and play.
Make the most of this time that’s been given to us,
It’s not going soon, this Corona virus is in no rush.

We are not sure when the lock down will end,
But on one thing you really can depend.
The NHS workers are fighting for you,
There’s not enough clapping that we can do.

For they will continue to fight to the finish,
Brave and steadfast, their care won’t diminish.
This corona virus has become our life’s big feature,
However, we need to see the bigger picture.

Our world around us

Whilst the NHS and Keyworkers are caring for us,
Our planet is loving the difference, loving the less rush.
The effects of planes, ships and of the many cars,
Earth’s destruction had gone too far.

Looking up now the sky is deep blue,
It’s beautiful, lock down was a good thing to do.
Throughout this disaster we need to see the positive,
Reflect on the good, no longer on the negative.

So, hug your children and play your games,
Home school and work, we will never live this again.
Keep your scrapbooks and write your diaries,
And look after your families, and try not to worry.

© Marian Wood

Bio:

I am a happily married, working mum to two children aged seven and nine. I write two blogs featuring my children, poetry and short stories. I’m currently working on my first novel. I have reached about 80 000 words and I’m stuck with the ending. I stopped writing it in October 2019 and now I’m struggling to get back into it.

Confidence and COVID 19 are not helping to motivate me.

I’ve learnt If you are writing a novel, don’t stop writing it until it’s finished. If you stop and take a break it might take longer. I’d have completed it if I hadn’t stopped.

For us, COVID 19 has meant isolation. My husband is being shielded so we are all shielding. It is hard not going anywhere and not seeing friends in person.

In March we were both ill and suspected that we had the virus. However, the swab test showed a negative result. This test may not be accurate, so we don’t know if we have had it, but we were ill for weeks.

Tesco are delivering our food, Morrison’s my husband’s prescriptions. I’m working for the NHS from home. It’s nice to roll out of bed and go to work in my pyjamas and I love Microsoft Teams. It’s better than coping with the school run and a stressful drive to the morning meeting.

The environment has loved the relief from the pollution. There are positives to this awful situation. I try not to focus on the state of our economy or the mistakes made. The UK is in a sorry state right now. People are still dying daily, and I fear going to the supermarket. Despite an NHS discount, I prefer to order online where there is no NHS perk. My Amazon shopping has increased as I’m too scared to go to the shops. Plus, we are shielding.

New rules in June in the UK might change the goalposts for shielders. For me, hiding from the world is the better option. However, this is really not fair on my kids who are desperate to get out. As well as working, I am home schooling. The school sends a weekly timetable with web links and information sheets. I do my best to work through them with the children and tick off what we have done.

I work three days a week but due to home-schooling I am working six days. I am exhausted, I’m enjoying it but I’m tired. This week my nine-year-old and I have been learning about the oceans and explorers. It is an interesting subject. So, COVID 19 has brought great change to our lives. Home school, can’t go anywhere and mum no longer gets time alone. It has affected my writing as I’m more stressed and I have less time. I’m struggling to keep up with my blogs.

I’m hoping that the rate of infection in the UK keeps coming down. At the moment the figures are still high and we don’t even know if the children are going back to school in September, or whether it will be a phased return. At the moment, we can only guess.

This virus has come and messed with all our lives; I’m hoping that it is soon something in the past. Someday I hope for a vaccine. A time that we will no longer worry about it and the world will feel safe again.

Links:

www.justmuddlingthroughlife.co.uk

Www.marianwood.com

Www.facebook.com/marianwood76/

Www.twitter.com/MarianEWood

Thank you so much to Marian for being a contributing author in the forthcoming anthology and collection of diaries, short stories, flash fiction and poems: This Is Lockdown.

I am so excited how this is all taking shape!!!

Authors Website: https://mjmallon.com
Authors Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-J-Mallon/e/B074CGNK4L
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/m-j-mallon Collaborative Group: https://www.facebook.com/pg/5SpiritualSisters/

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June 20, 2020 13

Writers In Isolation: Katherine Mezzacappa #Isolation #Writers #Authors#Historical #Fiction

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 Katherine Mezzacappa coping with this enforced isolation?

At time of writing, lockdown here in Italy is easing, but I am still wary of emerging into the sunlight. To begin with, it wasn’t isolation per se that was difficult to cope with from a creative point of view, but the fear of all the unknowns around the pandemic – I’ve got a little better at living with them. I had the advantage of having worked from home for years so I was used to not having the routines of a commute and a shared office. However, my job is paused at the moment until later in the year, which meant I had to think about how best to use that time. Time is what writers often complain they don’t have enough of, but when you’re suddenly faced with lots of it, the prospect is daunting, and you feel guilty if you don’t take advantage. I know from my writing network that I’m far from alone in feeling that. I had final edits to do on two books, The Gypsy Bride (Katie Hutton) and The Casanova Papers(Kate Zarrelli) so having the space for them was a boon, though revisiting a book set in Venice when I could see that city on webcams, silent and shuttered, was also heart-breaking. Writing did pick up though, as well as other ‘writery’ activities. I’ve co-presented at a virtual litfest with an old friend from MA days, though we’re thousands of miles apart. I am now an assessor for a writing consultancy and a proofreader for a new Italian publisher. Writing predominantly historical fiction is an advantage in lockdown, as the writer must perforce go in her head into a vanished world, and the less interference from the modern one there is, the better (provided that for research purposes, Google works, and ABEbooks still deliver!). Frustration as a writer lies in not being able to do field visits for future projects – a first world problem, and those places will be waiting for me afterwards. The virtual company of other writers has become more important than ever before. There have been some stellar online opportunities, like the Society of Authors workshops, and the Arvon at Home readings. I hope these persist alongside conventional offerings once the pandemic has passed, as they represent real accessibility and democratisation of the business of writing.

Katherine Mezzacappa is an Irish writer of mainly historical fiction now living in Italy. She also writes as Katie Hutton and as Kate Zarrelli.

Her début historical novel as Katie Hutton, The Gypsy Bride, was published May 2020 on Kindle and Audible by Zaffre Books, with the paperback to follow in June.

A sequel, The Gypsy’s Daughter, is in preparation for June 2021. As Kate Zarrelli, writing for eXtasy Books, she is the author of Tuscan Enchantment (2019) and The Casanova Papers (June 2020). Her short fiction (as Katherine Mezzacappa) has appeared in Ireland’s Own, Erotic Review Magazine, The Copperfield Review, Turnpike, Asymmetry and in anthologies with the Bedford International Writing Competition, Henshaw Press and Severance Publications. She’s a member of the Irish Writers Centre, the Irish Writers Union, the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society, the Historical Writers’ Association and the Romantic Novelists Association. She was awarded a Cill Rialaig residency by the Irish Writers Centre in 2019 for the writing of a Renaissance novel, Giulia of the Albizzi. Katherine regularly reviews for the Historical Novel Society. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from Canterbury Christ Church University in addition to an MLitt in Eng Lit from Durham and a first degree in History of Art from UEA.

You are never alone with a book; that’s as true now as it was when I was a lonely teenager. Historical fiction allows us to escape into a different world, and without being preachy about it, can help us realise that we’ve been through terrible times before without the advances in healthcare and communication that aid us now. I do not believe that writers of historical fiction should offer nostalgia to their readers – more perhaps a realisation that human beings are often more resilient than they realise.

Author Links:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gypsy-Bride-Katie-Hutton/dp/1838770259/
https://www.facebook.com/katherinemezzacappafiction/
https://www.facebook.com/katezarrellibooks/
 @katmezzacappa
 @KatieHuttonAut1

Thank you so much to Katherine for being my guest. It is interesting to hear her thoughts from a historical fiction perspective.

It’s been wonderful featuring such a variety of authors and bloggers in this series. All have shared such interesting and perceptive thoughts on lockdown and isolation for writers.

We truly are living in history at the moment. No doubt future generations will reflect on this time period in their studies to come.

I have to agree with Katherine, the human race will find a solution. It will take time but we will get there.

For now, this is the last in this series. Thank you to all that have taken part. I am currently working on my COVID19 diaries, flash fiction and poetry collection which I hope to release soon. And I will also be finalising my YA fantasy The Curse of Time #2 Golden Healer.

More about that soon.

Please comment below, I’m sure Katherine would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, stay safe, stay well.

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May 22, 2020 13

Isolation for Writers – Guest Post: Peter Taylor-Gooby #COVID19 #Isolation #Empathy #Imagination #Compassion

Coronavirus: Time to Write, But the Ideas Don’t Seem to Come

Peter Taylor-Gooby

I’m lucky – I live in a small town on the edge of countryside where no-one’s told the Spring about Covid-19 and I have a good-sized garden. It must be very difficult and very hard managing in a small flat trying to home-school children and keep up with the home-working…

As an amateur author everything seems to rest on the ideas coming in my head. I spend many hours remodelling and replotting and rewriting, but it always seems to start out with a vision that appears in my head: people there in great clarity. I can’t hear what they’re saying but I can tell by their body language what their relation is whether it’s conflict or love or compassion that’s driving them. It’s that revelation that forms the starting point and the passion that compels me to write, whatever happens to the words in the slow process of finalising the script is secondary.

Perhaps it’s that nothing measures up to the colossal scale of what it going on about us, perhaps it’s that there is enough drama in everyday life and on TV and on the media now to quieten whatever produces the visions, perhaps it’s just a temporary break, a lockdown of ideas. I try to start out on something, but find it hard to take the words anywhere and look forward to resuming normal life when I hope the writing will come back to me.

On my walks, I spend time thinking about what the world After Coronavirus will be like and how it will differ from the past. We must rebuild and we must rebuild better. The pandemic has brought us face to face with so much that doesn’t quite work in our world and also shown us the neighbourliness and the quiet acts of generosity and of self-sacrifice that all of us value.

One of the objectives of fiction is to help us understand our lives together, through imagination, compassion and empathy, and to visualise how things could be different. My most recent novel “Blood Ties” is set in the under-world of people-trafficking and forced labour. The characters strive to change or ignore or acquiesce in the issues hidden in plain sight all round them.

Here’s an extract:

Nic

Argon Road slants off the North Circular to the trading estate behind Ikea.

‘You’ll wait for us? Ten minutes?’ I hand over an extra £20.

‘Sorry.’

The door locks click and he’s off.

I pull my coat tight and look round. The air’s damp from the river and smells of diesel fumes and tarmac.

Two-storey corrugated iron sheds line the road, each with its compound, behind a three-metre metal fence. Harsh yellow streetlights clustered in fours on forty metre poles cast midnight shadows. I feel like an intruder in a giant’s world. A huge lorry with blank sides like a moving fortress glides past, the driver invisible in the cab. In the background the roar of the A406 is continuous, here there’s the pulse of solitary engines and the occasional shout and clatter of iron crates, but no movement I can see.

I shift closer to Nic but she’s concentrating on the torn packet, holding it out in front of her as if it’s a map and she expects to see landmarks. I shade my eyes to look for numbers on the buildings.

‘That’s it.’

The letters SPM in lime-green neon, superimposed on a golden bullock, shine out from a scaffolding above a one-storey shed at the end of the row.

Nic’s ahead of me, I half run to keep up with her.

I can’t catch my breath.

‘Slow down, we’ve got to keep together.’

‘That’s it,’ she says again. ‘Don’t you see – they outsource. No forced workers actually in your restaurant.’

‘Nic, it’s just a business. Come on, you need to get home. We’ll sort out your pills.’

The windows along the side of the shed are ablaze with light. I smell the sour salt smell of blood and see people moving around inside. The fence is higher than the one for the next compound, and the gates are locked. Nic stands back, checking it where it turns a corner. The air’s chill on my face and I start to shiver inside my overcoat. She doesn’t seem to notice the cold.

She hooks her fingers into the wire mesh above her head and hoists herself up. I grab at her belt.

‘Don’t be a fool. That’s razor-wire on top.’

‘Lend me your coat.’

Her shoes are too broad to get a foothold. I catch her as she slithers down. She stumbles backwards against me and I get my arms round her.

She pauses for a second, leaning back into my chest. She’s so cold. I open my coat and wrap it round her. For a few moments neither of us moves. I could stand there, like that, forever, they’d find us frozen in the morning. She stirs and rattles the fence.

‘Thanks Dad. Let’s go.’

I take her hand.

‘I’ll see if I can get a cab on the main road.’

Peter Taylor-GoobyNew in April 2020: Blood Ties a social policy novel of love and conflict set in the Britain of inequality, populism, Brexit and people-trafficking. Available from all Ebook stores, £1.99, paperback out in August.

Thank you for being my guest Peter. What an interesting extract. Thank you for sharing and for joining us to talk about your experience during this time.

Wishing you health, happiness and success with your novel.

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May 12, 2020 0

Isolation for Writers: Chantelle Atkins #Isolation #Writers #COVID19 #YA #Author

Photo by **Rakicevic Nenad** from **Pexels**

Welcome to Chantelle Atkins, 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 Chantelle Atkins coping with this enforced isolation?

Here is her answer:

What’s Changed For Me?
Nothing and Everything

The outbreak of Covid19 and the lockdown that followed has had a huge impact on us all, but as a writer, I feel in a unique position to observe, absorb and reflect on the changes for me personally and on the society around me.

What’s changed for me? Nothing and everything and believe me, that’s as confusing as it sounds. The confusion and anxiety tend to hit me hard in the evening, when my parenting duties are over, and I sit down to write. I’m not ashamed to admit I am often now writing through fits of tears. It’s just such a strange, sad, scary, hopeful and heroic time. You can’t help but be affected by it.

On the surface, lots has changed for me. I have four children aged between 5 and 17 and they were previously all in full-time education. I run a writing-based business called Chasing Driftwood Writing Group and my time is normally spent running after school writing clubs, writing clubs for home educated children and writing clubs for adults. 2020 started off so well for me, with the addition of three new clubs. I really felt like my little business was growing and succeeding.

When the schools closed, so did the libraries, community halls and museums and just like that, I had no work and no income. Luckily for me, my husband had just had a pay rise that almost covered this loss, so we didn’t panic. He works for Iceland and although I worry every day about the risk he is taking being there, I am also extremely grateful that we still have an income and access to food.

I’m now home-schooling my five-year-old son, which isn’t too much of a challenge as I used to be a childminder and I work with children at my clubs. In fact, I’ve been really enjoying it. My older children see to themselves and they’ve been brilliant at playing with their little brother when they take breaks between lessons. We are also lucky to live in a semi-rural location with a huge garden, ducks and chickens and other animals, plus a vegetable plot to keep us all busy. We are fortunate, and I do not take that for granted.

I feel the fear, like all of us. My 17-year-old daughter has just got a job with her dad at Iceland, and although I am proud of her I am also terrified for her. I try to avoid the news in the day and my little boy is a wonderful distraction and a shining light for me daily. His adaptability has inspired us all. But it hits me in the evening, and I can’t help sit and consider everything that has changed and wonder when normality will return.

The things is, I’m not sure how much of the ‘normal’ I want to return. I love schooling my little one and although I think school can provide a better and more rounded education than me, I am going to miss him like hell when this is over. I miss my clubs and the children and adults I work with. I keep meaning to set up online content for them or engage with them via Skype or Zoom but I’ve had to admit at the moment I just don’t have the emotional energy for it by the time my day is over. I don’t miss the stressful day-to-day running around. I spent most of my earnings on petrol I think as we only have one car, so I was pretty much running everyone everywhere all the time. I don’t miss traffic jams and it’s so peaceful now where we
live. And I don’t really miss other people. I’m an introvert who loves to be alone. In fact, I need to be alone to refuel, so lockdown is not a challenge for me the way it is for more sociable people. I’m actually a little bit worried about how I will cope adjusting back to ‘normal’ again. I also think the world was heading in a worrying direction and I really hope that this ‘pause’ in proceedings will make us all think about the kind of society we want when it is all over.

As for writing? There is a bit less time as the kids are here in the day, but most of my writing took place in the evenings anyway and now that I don’t have clubs to prepare for, I’m able to get plenty done. I am tired though as I spend a lot of time attacking my garden! I’m probably blogging more than usual, as I keep thinking about lockdown related things to talk about. I find this as therapeutic and hopeful as gardening.

So, it’s weird. I’m still doing all the things I’ve always done, all the things I love. I’m with my kids and my animals. I’m writing and reading and listening to music. I’m gardening and growing things and spending as much time outdoors as I can. Normal, everyday stress and strain has been replaced with a darker, spikier edge of fear that only comes out at night. I the lockdown and love lockdown. I want normality back and I fear it returning. I’m a very confused writer, but that is probably also normal for me.

Author bio:

Chantelle Atkins was born and raised in Dorset, England and still resides there now with her husband, four children and multiple pets. She is addicted to reading, writing and music and writes for both the young adult and adult genres. Her fiction is described as gritty, edgy and compelling.

Her debut Young Adult novel The Mess Of Me deals with eating disorders, self-harm, fractured families and first love. Her second novel, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side follows the musical journey of a young boy attempting to escape his brutal home life and has now been developed into a 6 book series. She is also the author of This Is Nowhere and award-winning dystopian, The Tree Of Rebels, plus a collection of short stories related to her novels called Bird People and Other Stories.
The award-winning Elliot Pie’s Guide To Human Nature was released through Pict Publishing in October 2018. YA novel A Song For Bill Robinson was released in December 2019 and is the first in a trilogy. Chantelle has had multiple articles about writing published by Author’s Publish magazine.

Links:
Website/blog : https://chantelleatkins.com/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/chantelleatkinswriter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chanatkins
Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/chantelleatkins/
Email Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/bVVbGD
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chantelleatkinswriter/

Well it’s been lovely to have Chantelle as my guest – another YA author! Yay… Good to know – and we both have written about self-harm – how’s that for a coincidence?

I’m so glad I started these guest author posts it has introduced me to a lot of fascinating authors.

Thanks for being my guest Chantelle.

Social Media Links

Authors Website: https://mjmallon.com
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mjmallonauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/m-j-mallon

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May 4, 2020 4

Isolation For Writers: Guest Author – Jeannie Wycherley #Guest #Author #Isolation #Collaboration #Thoughts #Family #COV19

Photo by **Bruno Scramgnon** from **Pexels**

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to my next guest author Jeannie Wycherley – in my Isolation series in the time of COV19 – I discovered Jeannie via my Facebook post on Book Connectors asking if group members would be interested in writing a post about Isolation during Coronavirus.

Jeannie was one of several who were interested in joining in. She has a fascinating tale to tell.

Welcome Jeannie…

How are coping with this enforced isolation?

Collaboration in the time of Coronavirus Jeannie Wycherley

I was travelling in Sri Lanka when I first heard the word ‘coronavirus’. That probably makes it sound like I’m some sort of global jetsetter, and to be honest, I wish I was. But in truth, my husband and I run a small seaside gift shop in a small town in the south west of England and this was our first holiday in five years. We both have to supplement our income from the shop in other ways. He does so from exam marking (we’re both ex-lecturers) and I do so from my writing.

I don’t think I was concerned at first. I wasn’t paying much attention to the news in any case. But then we stayed in a gorgeous hotel near Dambulla over Chinese New Year and it seemed really odd to see all the Chinese tourists wearing face masks. Fast forward two weeks and I flew home with a scratchy throat. Just 48 hours later I had a respiratory illness that knocked me for six.

By then Coronavirus was becoming more newsworthy. I still don’t know what I had, but I knew enough about the virus that I self-isolated, ‘just in case’, for nearly three weeks. Unable to shake it off, I chose not to visit my parents at all, until suddenly, people over seventy were being asked to self-isolate and I’d lost my chance.

We kept our shop open through the first two weeks of March but increasingly became aware we were fighting a losing battle. Nobody wanted to shop, the streets were deserted, and we felt increasingly uneasy—wary of people ‘touching’ things or coming too close. On the 18 th March we closed our doors. The government announced the lockdown the next day.

I had a really bad few days from the 19 th March. Extreme anxiety, feeling weepy, experiencing nightmares, struggling to breathe at times. I tried to write—in fact I needed to write because I had a pre-order set up on my next Wonky Inn book—but I struggled to focus for longer than a few minutes. With the shop closed, I suddenly had the equivalent to three extra days to write in and be more productive. Instead of that, I found myself constantly checking social media and the news websites, driving myself crazy.

What made it worse, for me, was fear for my elderly parents. My Mum, 74, has been brilliant and remained indoors, crafting and doing puzzles, but my Dad, 75, is a different story. An ex Royal Marine, and prison education manager, he’s been around the block and he gets restless. He has lots of interests though, and one of those is writing although he’s never been published.

It came about that I had picked up a pre-made book cover, a fun science fiction. I spotted it in a sale; it made me chuckle and I parted with some cash. I don’t write sci-fi. I don’t even read a lot of modern sci-fi although I’ve read lots of ‘classics’ in the genre. But I absolutely love sci-fi movies so I’m aware of the tropes. My Dad loves all sci-fi. He grew up with it. When I was a kid and we went on holiday, he would invariably be reading sci-fi books on the beach.

I write horror and paranormal cozies. It occurred to me that a cozy sci-fi would be a lot of fun and there would be some crossover with my fans and I might pick up some new ones. The thing was, I was still struggling to focus enough to finish Wonky Inn Book 9: A Gaggle of Ghastly Grandmamas as well as editing an epic Victorian gothic ghost story, The Municipality of Lost Souls, so where did I think I was going to get time to write anything else?

Link for A Gaggle of Ghastly Grandmamas: http://mybook.to/WW9

At that stage I asked my Dad if he fancied collaborating and I sent him the cover. He loved it and bounced back with an idea. I suggested he create a plot and he came up with just over half (he admits he’s useless at endings). Now, I cannot ‘pants’ to save my life, so I took his plot and painstakingly broke it down into scenes, fleshed it out and finished it off. Between us we tweaked it and divvied out who was writing what and off we went.

Or rather off he went! Like a rocket. This is a man who struggled to write 300 words per day. Now I can’t stop him. I juggle my editing of Lost Souls and Wonky 9, with writing my scenes and editing what he’s written so that I can oversee a consistent voice throughout the story. It’s hard to keep up with him! The side effect is that I’ve had to focus because I’m doing so much. It will pay off in the long run.

And do you know? We’re producing a great little sci-fi story set on Dartmoor here in Devon, with a nod to H G Wells and those wonderful old 1950s serials like Quatermass and the Pit, but with a little humour and some quirky characters. We use Google Docs so that we can both see what the other is doing, and we catch up every few days so I can check that’s he’s happy and iron out any plot holes that have come up. It’s a fun project that we will both be proud of. When we’re both happy with it, I’ll send it to my editor. At some stage later this year, I am confident we can launch our collaboration and be justifiably proud of it.

If nothing else, this pandemic will have allowed us to work together in a way we might never have considered doing before. I’ll always be grateful for that, and for my parents remaining indoors and staying safe.

Link to my amazon page: http://author.to/jeanniewycherley

Website: http://jeanniewycherley.co.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeanniewycherley/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thecushionlady

Bio

Jeannie Wycherley is a genre-hopping introvert and word witch living somewhere between the forest and the sea in East Devon, UK. She is the author of Crone (2017), Beyond the Veil (2018), the Spellbound Hound books (2020), and the Amazon bestselling Wonky Inn series. She draws literary inspiration from the landscape … and cake.

Well, that was a fascinating post from Jeannie. I love how she is collaborating with her dad. There are positives that we can take out of this awful experience and it gives me great joy to share them.

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.

Together we are stronger. Stay safe and well.

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May 3, 2020 1

Isolation for Writers – Guest post: Lynn Fraser #COV1D19 #Isolation #Writers #Anxiety #Concentration #Introspection

Photo by **Peter Fazekas** from **Pexels**

Welcome to Lynn Fraser, my next guest on my new feature – Isolation for Writers.

How is Lynn Fraser coping with this enforced isolation?

Huddled in a circle of light I’m Lynn, writer, reader, mum, drinker of tea.

In many ways, my life in lockdown is not so different in its physical aspects to normal life. I work at home, health issues mean I don’t go out often, and me and mine are not the most sociable types. The main difference is in my head. I am more anxious and introspective.

I feel I’ve become like the ancients, huddled with my little family around the fire in a small circle of light. Awareness of the beasts, that paw and roar in the surrounding darkness, is causing heightened anxiety. When Himself goes to do the weekly supermarket shop, I fret while he’s away as though he’s gone off with his spear into the red of tooth and claw wilderness. Life seems fragile. Chaos rules.

The anxiety has affected my concentration. I’m struggling to read, fiction, in particular. I can’t seem to relax sufficiently to allow myself to be lost in story. Instead, I constantly scroll through news and social media for real life stories that, frankly, only heighten my anxiety. My heart races and I wave my flaming stick at the monsters in the dark.

For the first couple of weeks, I was finding it hard to write as well. This has hifted, but the introspection – looking inwards at my fire – has changed what I’m writing.

Firstly, I’m back to random journal writing – random describes the timing and content. I’m taking my pen for a walk and writing, not to record what’s in my head, but to find out what’s in my head. I’m not writing every day, it’s not a scheduled thing, like Morning Pages. I carry around my notebook and pen and write when I feel I need to.

My handwriting is appalling, so I’m not expecting future historians to be turning to me for an account of life in a time of corona. Secondly, I’m finding writing my official work in progress like wading through waist-high treacle. And, worse, it’s sucking me down. This week I reached the point where, without Lassie arriving with help in the form of a horseman in possession of a handy rope to pull me out (I’m thinking Paul Newman in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’, but I digress – I do that a lot just now), I was pretty sure I was going under. The book I’m supposed to be writing is a sequel to my ‘laugh-out-loud’ story about school gates politics and a mum who will do anything for her kids. The wit is dark (think Fay Weldon) but the emphasis is on humour – and I seem to have lost my sense of humour. (I blame the nightly press conferences from Number 10 and the newspaper headlines and the people dying and the people stockpiling loo roll in garden sheds and the fact that I haven’t had a glass of wine since this whole thing started in case it compromises my immune system and home schooling and Himself’s taste in music and having to wash down my shopping with Zoflora – yeah that’s still on the shelves because why would you want anti-viral cleaner when you can get antibacterial – but, yes, you’ve got it, I digress.) I’m struggling to raise a snark, let alone a full on laugh-out-loud. I’ve lost my comedy mojo.

So, finally (I may digress but I have not totally lost my way), I’m writing something different, differently. I have a story that has been sneaking around the back corridors of my head for a while. It’s about a woman who finds herself and home in the place from which she ran away. It’s about true self and re-learning to trust and believe; it’s introspective. And there are witches. I’m releasing my hold on real,out there life and letting my imagination take control.

Things I miss:
My friends and the accompanying chat, wine/tea (and occasional bad singing)
Tea in a cafe
The sea (trip to the coast in May cancelled)
Having the house to myself
Taking life/flour for granted.
Things I’m grateful for:
My menfolk (and cats) with whom I huddle in the light
The people out there working to keep us safe and take care of us
Social media to keep me connected
My garden and my writing shed
To still be here
The words.

If you can still accept distraction, my novel is called ‘The Busy Mum’s Guide To Getting Away With It’, it’s digitally published by Orion and you can find it on Amazon, currently at the bargain price of 99p. https://amzn.to/2Y4B7ZB

You can find me on Twitter as @LynnAFraser and on Instagram (expect cat pictures) as @lynnfraserwriter.

It’s been lovely getting to know you Lynn. Thank you so much for being my guest on this new series. Witch stories… that really got my attention, as did The Busy Mum’s Guide To Getting Away With It! What a title…

Wishing you happy writing days, health and happiness.

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April 29, 2020 3

Guest Author: K. M. McFarland – Ghostly Writes Anthology 2018

It is my great pleasure to welcome K. M. McFarland to my blog today. Fellow author, and contributing participant in this year’s Ghostly Writes Anthology:

The Thinning Veil (A short story by K. M. McFarland from Ghostly Writes Anthology 2018.)

When you make a deal with Papa, he always keeps his end of the bargain,
but you better be damn sure you’re willing to pay the price.

MEET THE AUTHOR: K. M. McFarland made her way to the Big Easy in middle school by way of Nashville, Tennessee, and the Florida beaches. She immediately became intrigued by its ambiance. Stories of Voodoo, vampires, ghosts and haunted houses have been her inspiration as well as her fascination with New Orleans’ colorful history. When she isn’t writing or roaming the French Quarter researching her next book, you will find her spending time with her family, shopping online, or marathoning a good TV series. Photography, music, art, traveling, reading, coffee, and wine are among her favorite things.

Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr by K. M. McFarland
Series: The Bloodline Series, Book 1
Release Date: January 3, 2017

K. M. McFarland, Author
Act4Publishing
New Orleans, Louisiana
act4pub@gmail.com

Website: www.kmmcfarland.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kmmvampire/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kmmvampire
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vampyralley/
Amazon Author Page: http://bit.ly/KMbooks

Rock stars, vampires, nightlife, romance, and chaos set the tone for this intriguing vampire family saga in New Orleans’ French Quarter…

When West Side’s frontman, Quinn Forrester, mysteriously vanished in 1989, the band’s lead guitarist, Jeff West, suspected foul play. With no evidence, Jeff was never able to convince the authorities. It never occurred to Jeff that Quinn was turned into a vampire that night and hid away in the dark shadows of New Orleans.
Years later, Quinn and his daughter formed a local nightclub act. Finding himself back in the public eye, ageless and immortal, Quinn reinvented himself as his son.
Twenty-five years after Quinn’s sudden departure from the band, the opening of an art gallery brings Jeff to New Orleans. A beautiful artist, Quinn’s lookalike son, a vampire tour, romance, mayhem, and a series of events lead Jeff to Quinn. Finally, face-to-face with his long lost best friend, will Jeff uncover the shocking truth in this fast-paced character driven story?

Praises for Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr:
“K.M. McFarland may have just made a big contribution to the massive amount of vampire lore and books that have been created in the wake of Anne Rice.” —Ray Simmons -Readers’ Favorite
“The title says it all…set in New Orleans, an immortal character itself.” — Bookworks
“The New Orleans setting is exciting and filled with mystery.” —Jack Magnus -Readers’ Favorite
“A horror book in the way of Twilight. McFarland does a great job in bringing the reader to a whole new area of vampires and the location she picks is perfect.” —Blood Moon Rising Magazine

Purchase Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2nPYEIG
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2nl751R
Other Books by K. M. McFarland:

Song of the Vampire (The Vampyr Series, Book 1):

Purchase Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2nPYEIG
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2nl751R

Rock Star Quinn Forrester mysteriously vanished in 1989. His now grown up daughter, Nadia Forrester is playing a deadly game with alcohol, promiscuity, and an abusive relationship. When you’re living on the edge, reconnecting with your long lost father and discovering he is an immortal may not be such a bad thing.

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/2meK3d9

Under a Bourbon Street Moon (The Vampyr Series, Book 2):

Country singer Amber Rose arrives in New Orleans from Nashville hoping to reconnect with former rock star Quinn Forrester whom she has learned is her biological father. But there are a lot of things she doesn’t know about her father, and she soon finds herself caught up in a world of vampires, ghosts, and Voodoo.

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/2n0Reop

Masquerade (The Vampyr Series, Book 3):

Quinn Forrester has his hands full dealing with a new romance, his vampire daughter, his mortal daughter who sees dead people, his spiritually connected vampire ex-girlfriend who is her mentor and his not so dearly departed ex-wife that just won’t stay dead. Is his mansion big enough? Being undead can get complicated.
Buy Link: http://amzn.to/2nPUAYS

Author Q & A:
What made you choose to write in the paranormal genre?
I live in New Orleans and I have always been fascinated with the New Orleans legends of vampires and ghosts. Our city was built on a swamp, so we don’t bury our dead. Instead, they are interred above ground so we won’t meet up with them in the next hard rain. Our cemeteries are tourist attractions, but there’s something romantic about them. Voodoo is also a part of our culture whether we believe or not. Our history is colorful and intriguing. If you walk down Bourbon Street on any day/night of the week, you can see how easily vampires could blend in. But in this age of technology, vampires would have to be able to blend in with humans and play nice with them. That idea was the beginning of the Vampyr series.
What is your favorite paranormal creature and why?
I would have to say vampires. I started reading Anne Rice novels when The Vampire Lestat was first published, and Lestat is responsible for my obsession with vampires. My vampire novels also feature ghost stories so vampires followed by ghosts.
Anything specific you want to tell your readers?
Yes. Thank you for your support. Thank you for reading. Your kind reviews and words make it all worthwhile. I write to entertain, so when someone reads my work and feels entertained, it makes me happy. Thank you.

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release:
A New Orleans author’s new book receives a warm literary welcome.
Readers’ Favorite announces the review of the Fiction – Paranormal book “Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr” by K. M. McFarland, currently available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQPJ9TS.
Readers’ Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the “Best Websites for Authors” and “Honoring Excellence” awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies.
“Reviewed By Ray Simmons for Readers’ Favorite
Some time in 1975 or 1976, Ila Bosarge gave me a copy of Interview With The Vampire, written by some author I had never heard of called Anne Rice. I wasn’t too keen on reading it because I’m not into horror so much. But I was into Ila. She was and is one of the great friends of my life and she was a very smart girl so I read the book. It changed my perspective on vampires. I think it changed the world’s perception of vampires. Bram Stoker might have written the book on vampires, but Anne Rice rewrote it. K.M. McFarland may have just made a big contribution to the massive amount of vampire lore and books that have been created in the wake of Anne Rice. Some of these I have read, some of them I just can’t get into. I got into Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr. I look forward to seeing more of The Bloodline Trilogy series.
I love that Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr takes place in New Orleans. It is the perfect setting for a vampire story and, since I grew up a two-hour drive away, I am intimately familiar with the city. I like K.M. McFarland’s take on vampire lore. Every writer has a different approach and I like hers. I like her characters. Lestat might have been a very interesting vampire, but he was sometimes difficult to like. I like Quinn. I like his family. Family is something Lestat could never get right. It seems to me that without a functional family, being immortal would become a chore. The writing is good. The plot works, and the vampires are fashionable and friendly. If you are in the market for a new vampire book, try this one.”
You can learn more about K. M. McFarland and “Sex, Blood, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and Vampyr” at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/sex-blood-rock-n-roll-and-vampyr where you can read reviews and the author’s biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages.
Readers’ Favorite LLC
Media Relations
Louisville, KY 40202
800-RF-REVIEW
support@readersfavorite.com
https://readersfavorite.com

I’m so thrilled to be discovering new and exciting authors via this anthology. I love vampire stories!

Please support all the amazing authors involved in the Ghostly Writes Anthology. More about that here: https://mjmallon.com/2018/10/27/ghostly-writes-anthology-2018/

Halloween is fast approaching. Enjoy! There are a fair few Halloween blog parties going on… Why not visit Donna at Yadadarcyyada and Sally Cronin…

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2018/10/22/smorgasbord-invites-you-to-a-halloween-fancy-dress-party-on-wednesday-31st-october/

https://yadadarcyyada.com/2018/10/26/the-more-the-scarier/

The Ghostly Goodbye by M J Mallon
The Ghostly Goodbye is a paranormal love story about a young woman called Iris who can’t get over her husband’s death. She is mourning him so much that she feels dead inside. Her husband Ed sends her a ghostly message from beyond the grave via an old forgotten garment in her wardrobe. She responds by dragging herself from her tomb-like bed and he draws back the curtain of death to visit her in a most unusual way.

Buy Book: myBook.to/TheCurseofTime

Social Media Links:
Authors Media Kit: https://mjmallon.com/2018/02/13/media-kit/
Collaborative Blog: https://sistersofthefey.wordpress.com
Twitter: @Marjorie_Mallon and @curseof_time
#ABRSC: Authors Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1829166787333493/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17064826.M_J_Mallon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mjmallonauthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mjmallonauthor/

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October 29, 2018 1