THE LONG JOURNEY

September 11, 2016 by rolandclarke

First of all let us take a moment to reflect on what took place on this day, September 11, 2001, and pay our respects to all of those who lost their lives and to give our thanks to the people who never gave up to find all the lost ones. It was truly a very sad day in America, something that I hope I will never see again in my lifetime.

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Today is also a day that puts my forever love, Roland Clarke, and myself one day closer to our long journey, which has been in the works for over a year, across the Atlantic Ocean on the Queen Mary 2. She is a mighty Ocean Liner not a Cruise Ship, that was built to take the storms that occur on her journeys of which she has had many. Her construction started on July 4, 2002 and she was launched…

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#IWSG – Finding Time to Write

September 7, 2016 by rolandclarke

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day, and for the last few months the group have revved up IWSG Day to make it more fun and interactive!

Every month, they’ll announce a question that members can answer in the IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt us to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story.

So on to the September 7th QUESTION:

How do you find the time to write in your busy day?

A very appropriate question during this hectic period when we leave for the US in 12 days. In fact, at this point the answer has to be that “I don’t cope and struggle to find any time”. All the free time is going on sorting things out for the mammoth move from Harlech, North Wales to Boise, Idaho. Our desktops get packed away on September 15^th into a shipping container, along with most of our possessions. Expected transit time is 6-8 weeks including customs clearance, so we won’t see those goods until sometime in November.

We leave September 20^th on the Queen Mary 2, which sails into New York on September 27^th. From there it will be a 2,500-mile cross-country road trip to our new home in Boise. Plus side is that my wife’s kids are all in Boise, ten minutes from our house. And the change from wet Wales to the high desert of the Treasure Valley will be a real health boost.

At the moment, my aching body is suffering with the multiple sclerosis MonSter or MaelStrom, and I struggle to sleep each night or relax during the day. So writing has become a forgotten art.

Maybe when the normal busy days return, then I can attempt to squeeze a few hours in every evening as I used to do. No specific word target, just a few hours to let my creative brain loose on the keyboard. And if I sleep well, then I can wake inspired and scribble some thoughts in a notebook.

Or am I just fantasising that such days will ever return?

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The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group Day. We post our thoughts on our own blogs. We talk about our doubts and the fears we have conquered. We discuss our struggles and triumphs. We offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling.

Please visit others in the group and connect with my fellow writers.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

And be sure to check out our Facebook group –https://www.facebook.com/groups/IWSG13/

Our revved up IWSG Day question may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

The awesome co-hosts for this September 7th posting of the IWSG are C. Lee McKenzie,Rachel Pattison, Elizabeth Seckman, Stephanie Faris, Lori L MacLaughlin, and Elsie Amata!

Immurement – a review

September 1, 2016 by rolandclarke

I must apologise for the lack of any reviews since the beginning of August, in fact a distinct lack of any posts. However, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading. I have and reviews of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Stephen Puleston’s Devil’s Kitchen are in the pipeline. But first I’m going to review the sci-fi dystopian first book in Norma Hinkens’s’ The Undergrounders Series.

Immurement (The Undergrounders #1)

by Norma Hinkens

The Sweepers are coming. They hunt the young. Earth’s end is her beginning.

Sixteen-year-old Derry and her brother live in perpetual fear of capture. They survive underground on a scorched earth overrun by gangs, clones, and mysterious hoverships. When her brother goes missing, Derry’s only hope of finding him is to strike a deal with a group of cutthroat subversives. Desperate to save her brother, she leads a daring raid to uncover the secrets behind the Sweepers’ hoverships, but she soon finds out the world she knows is a lie.

Keeping her brother alive may require trusting her enemy and opening her heart to something she never thought possible.

Immurement is the first book in The Undergrounders Series, a sci-fi dystopian thriller trilogy with a gritty complex heroine and twists you won’t see coming!

REVIEW:

The first requirement of a good book is the ability to keep me turning the pages, and in that Immurement succeeded. It also painted a scary Dystopian world that added to my desire to read Book Two and discover what happen to Derry and the other Undergrounders.

I liked Derry with her insecurities and frustrations, and her courage and spontaneity. She is not a ‘perfect’ heroine who makes reasoned and clever decisions. She makes mistakes like any sixteen-year-old, especially one struggling to save those she loves and herself in the face of terrible danger and untruths.

Who does one trust in that situation? Derry understandably is dependent on what she knows or has been told, so her journey is one of multiple discoveries. She doesn’t become the ‘perfect’ heroine by the end, but she has learnt to demonstrate the qualities that will be needed in the struggles ahead.

She finds support from a cast of secondary characters, all with their own distinctive characteristics and abilities. In some cases, she is forced to trust dubious personalities despite her gut feelings. There are stereotypes, like the subversives, but then the novel is told in 1^st person POV. These are the stereotypes ingrained by others’ prejudices and beliefs. So they evolve as her knowledge broadens, and secrets are revealed.

I enjoyed the outdoor setting, not least as I am about to discover more about the great outdoors in Idaho and the Sawtooth Mountains. The contrast works with the survivalist lifestyle underground and the high-tech nightmare world of the Sweepers – the latter a world that feels too possible.

Don’t expect a tidying up of loose ends. This is Book 1 and it very much sets up Book Two. However, I admit that I like books in a series to leave more settled by the end.