Everything writing related from feathers to soaring
I have just added a review of Sue Barnard’s The Ghostly Father, on Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/859252977.
Sue’s brilliant book has been nominated in the Guardian Not The Booker Prize award and deservedly is through to the longlist. There’s still time to cast your vote for the finalists and this has to be my favourite. Voting closes at midnight (UK time) on Sunday 3 August:
An in-depth interview by an Australian writer colleague that had me delving deep into my brain for memories, motivation and muses. Read more about me at Ashleigh Galvin’s Blog.
This week I interviewed Roland Clarke, Author of ‘Spiral of Hooves’.
Let’s see what he had to say!
Greetings Roland. How long have you been a writer?
Depends on what counts towards being a writer. Although I have a few dim memories of trying to create stories as a child and inventing scenarios with my toys, the only distinct memory is writing my own tale when I was about 7, based on a book called ‘Old Mr Fox’ – I still have the book, but not my story sadly. The first original pieces, excluding composition at school, were some fantasy/sci-fi shorts in my late teens. These included a fantasy novella when aged 18 – The Unicorn & The Prophet – but the draft got lost in Canada, where I lived briefly. Despite such brief forays into fiction writing and thoughts that it would be cool to become a full time…
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This article is excellent and addresses an issue that some dismiss. But living with the MonSter’ s pain, and knowing how others suffer, I have to reblog this.
The Problem of Pain
There is a problem with pain. Other than that it hurts, that is.
The problem is that we each experience pain in a personal and unique way. My pain is not your pain. Pain tolerance and pain thresholds are different for every person.
Not only that, our experiences are different. A man cannot fully understand the pain of a woman in childbirth; a woman cannot fully comprehend the pain of being kicked in the balls. We don’t have comparable parts. Not only that, every birthing experience is different too (for example). I’ve heard of women who have had a pleasurable and even (gasp!) orgasmic birthing experience. I’ve heard of plenty for whom the pain was enough to make them pass out, and scream for days. My own experience of giving birth was one of unimaginable agony. People say you forget the pain when you hold the…
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Second Daughter (The Dharian Affairs #2)
Assassins, skyships, and royal intrigue…
Kindle, Kobo, AllRomance
Second Daughter is the second book in The Dharian Affairs trilogy (Third Daughter, Second Daughter, First Daughter). This steampunk-goes-to-Bollywood (Bollypunk!) romance takes place in an east-Indian-flavored alternate world filled with skyships, assassins, royal romance and intrigue.
ON SALE – 99cents until 7/21
Third Daughter (The Dharian Affairs #1)
Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iTunes, AllRomance
(also available in print)
The Third Daughter of the Queen wants her birthday to arrive so she’ll be free to marry for love, but rumors of a new flying weapon may force her to accept a barbarian prince’s proposal for a peace-brokering marriage. Desperate to marry the charming courtesan she loves, Aniri agrees to the prince’s proposal as a subterfuge in order to spy on him, find the weapon, and hopefully avoid both war and an arranged marriage to a man she does not love.
Tweets to Share:
NEW RELEASE: Second Daughter (Dharian Affairs #2) Assassins, skyships, royal intrigue #steampunk #fantasy #romance http://bit.ly/SDAmazon
Skyships, saber duels, royal romance: Third Daughter (Dharian Affairs#1) ON SALE 99cents http://bit.ly/ThirdDAmaz
Thank you so much for helping me get this book out in the world!
What should I say? Do I remain polite? Or complain?
But it’s good manners to say “Good morning” and ask how someone is, then remark on the weather. People don’t really want to know how I am, any more than they want to learn about my writing.
My wheelchair is invisible and all they see is the smile on my face… the smile that keeps me going, along with my writing. Depression, openly demonstrated, doesn’t sit well with MS, even if it lurks behind me most of the day.
I have real friends that understand, many writers that I met online, some even suffer with invisible illnesses and know the secret of hiding the pain. Yet there are days when the pain gets too much and I scream aloud, my body jerking with uncontrollable spasms. On those days both writing and thinking are jumbled. But I’m not the only sufferer that writes.
Writing is a healer and a distraction. Without writing my brain would have ground into a snail slither. Writing keeps my ‘little grey cells’ devising new ways to kill people, and new motivations for deviousness. Sadly, I can’t write down everything that flickers along the scrambled pathways.
So I’m Fine… on the outside, but I’m suffering inside, struggling to get the words out whether by voice or keyboard. The MS is taking time to emerge because the MS is making my life a daily struggle. But I will win, given enough time.
Yes, I flinch when I read MS. To me it is not a ManuScript, but a MonSter called Multiple Sclerosis.
And others live with their monsters and triumph.
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This is my monthly post in the Insecure Writers Support Group Day and there are many words of wisdom out in cyber-space. I’m only number 180 among 297 other bloggers. If you click here there are links to all of them and you can visit as many as you want. All thanks to Ninja Captain Alex J Cavanaugh and his co-hosts Krista McLaughlin, Kim Van Sickler, Heather Gardner, and Hart Johnson!
No, it isn’t a new kind of deviant game (shame! shame!) It’s a writers’ game and I was delighted to receive this invitation on Facebook, from my author friend, Ailsa Abraham – this links to her post… and more.
WIP-tease: Post any paragraph from your work in progress, then tag three others.
Thanks for naming me, Ailsa, although I was torn between my ‘NIP’ and my ‘WIP’. NIP meant trying to find something from my Novel in Progress – “Fates Maelstrom” – but that needs WORK. So this is from my WIP = World in Progress.
Photo of a cloud illuminated by sunlight. ~ by Ibrahim Iujaz from Rep. Of Maldives
The opening paragraph from the first tale in the “Gossamer Flames” series, provisionally entitled ‘Ghost Light’.
“Darkness should grant Arati the same protection as the others stealthing through the night. Darkness was perfect for keeping unwelcome eyes blind to their activities.But unwelcome eyes were in every shadow, she warned herself. They had always been there, one reason not to go outside after sunset. Besides, without light it was impossible to see the insects. Life was too precious to blunder blindly into the night, even to find seclusion for personal necessities. Someone moved ahead of her and she stiffened. Fellow dissident or police? Or something worse?”
‘Ghost Light’ will be available free, when revised, to all those that subscribe to my newsletter.
I am re-posting this on FB so that my tag-mates are properly invited. They are: Jane Bwye, Ashleigh Galvin, and Awen Thornber.
Writing Wings 