Yesterday, I had three attempted scams on my finances. The first was someone purporting to be Amazon – an e-mail saying I’d ordered a 76″ TV at a cost of in the region of $1700. If I didn’t order it, go to a website and – you know the score, give them your bank details … More Scams and generosity – the eternal struggle for good over evil.
I suspect most authors have a book that doesn’t sell well. Is it the marketing, the cover, the title, the subject matter, or the book description – the ‘blurb’? Or is it because my main reader base is historical fiction and this novel is anything but – or is it? My ‘livre noir’ is a … More Books that don’t sell.
Holocaust Memorial Day marks the liberation, on January 27th 1945, of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp in Poland, by the Russian 60th Army. While most people have heard of Auschwitz and the horror perpetrated there, many would reasonably believe that liberation put an end to the inmates suffering, that they were rescued and returned to … More The March of Death – Holocaust Memorial Day
You wouldn’t think that was a big ask, would you? George’s hens, along the far side of Chapel Lane, lay the most beautiful eggs, so after a request from my husband for more eggs, I set off with the dog, a carrier bag, and an empty egg box to fetch some. It’s a bitterly cold … More Half a dozen large eggs, please.
I freely admit it. I’m the grumpiest person around when it comes to Christmas. The thing I hate most, apart from the incessant Christmas songs, the hype, and the commercialism, is writing Christmas cards. I moan my way through it evey year, and this year, with Covid and the risk of spreading the virus, I … More The Christmas Grouch.
A woman knocked on my door early this morning. She was holding a blackberry bramble and a pair of secateurs in her hands. Apparently, she was renting our holiday cottage at Crwsyddig and wanted me to clear the footpath close to the cottage. I’d just made myself a cup of tea, so I asked her … More How not to make a cup of tea!
We all do it, whether it’s the simple act of walking down the road, seeing a primrose in early spring, touching the hand of a loved one, having a meal with friends, or listening to music. And we all moan about the weather, the government, the state of the world in general, and few of … More Taking things for granted. Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020.
I never win anything, well hardly ever, and it says something for my determined and optimistic nature that I keep entering things – like book award contests. So it was a huge surprise when a friend e-mailed me this morning to say Touching the Wire had won a GOLD medal in the Readers’ Favorite 2019 … More Now this was a surprise!
After a month or two not sure what I was going to write after publishing my historical novel, Kindred and Affinity, http://mybook.to/KindredandAffinity or even if I was going to write another book, I find myself with two works in progress. The first is an instructional book about painting watercolour seascapes – having been painting the … More Works in progress – painting seascapes and the ‘white slaves’ of Victorian England .
When the sun comes out my spirits soar. Yesterday, it rained all day. Rained cats and dogs, and dog and I got soaked walking. It wasn’t that I didn’t have enough to occupy me indoors so much as that the dreary light sapped my resolve, and my husband and I sat around moaning about how … More When the sun comes out…
