Saturday 17 October 2015

October Madness!

On the publication of my new collection of short stories 'Thirteen', I'm offering four individual stories FREE until 20th October.  If you want more - there are eight previously unpublished stories in my new collection, priced at just £1.99.



£1.99





In the meantime, get your FREE stories here.  There's something for everyone:


'Peaches in the Attic' is a disturbing tale involving a grandmother and her granddaughter.  Forget the usual cosy image of sitting on your grandmother's knee listening to fairy stories.  This time the story is not so sugar sweet.  What's more, it's difficult to know where imagination ends and reality begins.





FREE


'Angels' is a suspenseful and atmospheric story.  A mother is driven to revenge after the death of her daughter, provoked by bullying at school.



FREE



'Strings' is for those who enjoy science fiction, end of the world scenarios. Will anyone believe Maddy's visions?  What do they mean?  And will there be time to take action?



FREE


'Flying' is my newest short story.  Nelly lives at the foot of a mountain and loves to watch the gliders soaring the ridge.  Her parents have divorced and she deals with the emotional fallout in her own magical, childlike way.


FREE



Friday 16 October 2015

My French Life

Woke up early to empty almost dead hoover and ensure it still worked.  Today is cleaning day chez moi.  I have help.  Together, Aline and I move like Jagger might if he knew about spray wax and limescale remover. In French.

My jobs are bathrooms and toilets (under all rims), on the basis that I wouldn't want to clean anybody else's, so why should I ask Aline to clean mine.  My sister says I shouldn't pay a cleaner and then clean myself.  We ain't going to agree on this one.

So, with blue sky, sunshine and military jets zooming by outside, we turned up the volume and danced through the housework.

All fairly routine by now.  Won't bore you with it.  No events to report.

The nice part came at 12.30 when Al (my husband) swept me off my feet with a lunchtime proposition. We popped next door to eat at our local restaurant.  Tuna salad followed by cod with leeks and mushrooms, followed by a café gourmand.

 I couldn't manage all mine due to the fact that I've lost ten kilos and my stomach is now the size of an apple.  Al, my husband, was delighted to 'share'.

Back to work on my latest novel, which is in its umpteenth draft.  I'm approaching 'the trial', which (after hours of research) needs to be re-written because Al says the verdict is unreasonable.  He's right.  I have my laptop, my notes and annotations, and two hours to spare before I have to be somewhere else.  Hence my sudden interest in writing a blog post.  I shall soon be making tea, putting on the washing and nipping to the post office.




 Thought you'd like to see my logs.


Happy Days

Friday 9 October 2015

Welcome to my #FridayFiveChallenge


(Original idea from Rosie Amber  at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com/)




 Me, Christmas 2014, wearing a dress not made to accommodate a Christmas Dinner (random pic)



Why not try out this excellently random way of choosing your next read?



Get yourself a cuppa (or a glass of something) and give yourself 5 minutes. (Use your own pic or copy mine or anything else like a clock/ stopwatch etc)
In today's online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?
AUTHORS - You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?
My Friday Five Challenge is this..... IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES....
1) Go to any online book supplier,
2) Randomly choose a category,
3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,
4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book,
5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,
6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?
(then write a little analysis about your decision)


Here's my selection for this Friday:  Extinct by Ike Hamill




Product description

Channel Two predicted a blanket of snow for Thanksgiving weekend--unusual, but not alarming for the little Maine island. What comes is a blinding blizzard, and a mass disappearance of nearly every person Robby Pierce knows. He and his family flee, trying to escape the snow and the invisible forces stealing people right from the street. 
*** Join the mailing list at http://www.ikehamill.com to receive Ike's next book free. *** 
Miles away, Brad Jenkins battles the same storm. Alone, he attempts to survive as snow envelops his house. When the storm breaks, Brad makes his way south to where the snow ends and the world lies empty. Join Brad, Robby, and the other survivors as they fight to find the truth about the apocalypse and discover how to live in their new world. 

I stuck in 'science fiction'.  Because I like science fiction.  Not very original, but this is my first attempt at the Friday Five Challenge, so I'm playing safe.

The cover was simple and I liked the cheesy 3D effect coupled with cheesy footprints in the snow.  Makes me equally cheesy, I suppose.

The product description - not bad.  I like a disaster as much as the next person.  Not too sure about the alien abduction slant...  Don't know whether I want to sign up to a mailing list.  But - hang on a minute, it's free at the moment.  

Reviews look good 4.2 with 44.  Seems as though more editing is required (from readers' comments).  That's a shame.  But, if the story's as good as it sounds, I'll put up with a few typos.


My verdict for this one: BUY  (Who knows - Mr. Hamill might turn out to be a favourite.)

PS  This took more like fifteen minutes - I'll be quicker next time.