Category: Books
Gentle-spirited People
This month’s blog is going to take a quick look at those people who have an inner beauty or gentleness of spirit. It is a rare quality and when you find someone with this trait they should be appreciated and cherished.
Other people will often view these folk as weak and are quick to take advantage of their good nature but the opposite is often the case. They have an underlying inner strength which they are either unaware of or choose not to shout out to the world. They are not boastful and in their gentle, consistent manner they go about their business. Yet when they need to they display strength and courage that should be appreciated and respected, when the chips are down and you need support it is these people who are often the first to offer it. Perceptive people will recognise their qualities but others will try to bulldoze them. I chose this subject today because I have such a character in my book “A Boy from the Streets.”
Christina is a loving Wife and Mother who allows her dominant husband to have his own way mainly because it is easier to do so, not because she is in fear of him because despite his disposition his bark is worse than his bite. She does it to please the man she loves. The one biggest regret she has is that she didn’t assert herself when her husband makes her choose between twin babies despite her protestations that she can look after both. She has lived with this regret her whole life and when the time comes to make amends twelves years later she shows her assertive side and her strength shines forth. Over the years she makes many more decisions in a more self-assured way which doesn’t deter from her beautiful spirit.
If you want to learn more about Christina you can do so here:
Amazon Link: myBook.to/BoyfromStreets
Remember everyone is different and your perception of them is often based on your life experiences which colours your view. As always be nice you don’t know their journey in life.
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My review: The Oak S. L. Dearing
Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/2sapiOb
This is the first book by S L Dearing that I have reading what attracted me to it was the cover which is very striking and unusual.
This is a story about a woman, Keitha, who lives in a forest in France. Keith uses her skills of healing to help the local villagers and harness the power of nature. The characters are likeable except the “baddies”. There is an element of cliche in the stereotyping of good guy, bad guy but I don’t think it detracts from the story at all. It is after all “A Grown Up Fairy Tale.”
The story flows beautifully and the writing is often quite poetic. There are surprises in store in this book and I would recommend reading it.
I will certainly read more by this author.
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Round up of the week 25.6.17
Each week I will be doing a round up of the week which will be a piece of global news, London news, my own week and what I have been up to as an author. It may be news/information you already know or it may be something you haven’t heard – either way I hope you like these little posts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and any news you would like to share in return.
World: A lorry carrying fuel has burst into flames in Pakistan killing at least 140 people. It is thought that the tanker’s tyre blew causing it to crash. Villagers gathered around to collect the spilt fuel, in an attempt to earn some money and it is thought that a bystander dropped a cigarette which sparked the fire.
My thoughts are with the families of the dead and injured.
London: The LondonEye and Waterloo Bridge have been evacuated as reports of an unexploded World War I or II bomb is found in the Thames.
My World: Another normal week for me, work, writing, gym and housework. I live such an exciting life. I did manage to have a few good ride outs on my motorbike this week. Finished reading a great book, Bloodgifted by TM Lacoba. The review will be posted shortly and have started reading Boys and Girls by M.B Feeney.
My Word: The purge of words on my upcoming book ‘Is this Love?’ continues. I now have 1400 words left until I am ready to hand it over to an editor.
I did pick up another beautiful cover by my cover designer, starting to think this might be an addiction.
Don’t forget you if you would like to hear from me occasionally then please add your details to the pop up and then check your junk mail as they often get sent there.
What can you expect from me by signing up?
I’ll keep you informed of any new releases from me, some you might like/love and others you won’t as I can’t stick to writing in one genre, I write anything that is in my head and needs to be released. A sometimes scary prospect. 🙂
Giveaway: Once a month I am planning on doing an author slot from the Indie authors I love which will include one free kindle copy of one of their books going to one of my readers who will be picked at random. More details to follow.
Little snippets of information that I think you might find interesting – forgive me if I get that wrong sometimes – please let me know what you like and what you don’t like and what you’d like to see more of.
As this is new to me it will grow organically and hopefully you will look forward to finding my newsletters once a month in your inbox.
The first author featured will be Rose English aka Su Echo Falls S’ari.
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Each week I will be doing a round up of the week which will be a piece of global news, London news, my own week and what I have been up to as an author. It may be news/information you already know or it may be something you haven’t heard – either way I hope you like these little posts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and any news you would like to share in return.
World: Online retail giant Amazon is buying Whole Foods in a £10.7bn deal ($13.7bn). Whole Foods has more than 460 stores in the US, Canada and the UK employing 87,000 people.
It would seem that Amazon are taking over the retail industry in the way that supermarkets took over from the local shop.
London: This week has seen the tragic events unfold at the Grenfell Tower in West London. This twenty-four storey tower block burnt down leaving an empty shell, the latest numbers suggest 58 people dead or missing, leaving a community homeless and devastated.
Londoners and people from surroundings communities have come together in an amazing show of unity to provide practical supplies, giving of their time and money. People from across the globe have started raising funds to help those affected. People from all walks of life have come together in support to show what a great community we have when we work together. My heart goes out to everyone affected.
My World: A fairly normal week for me, work, writing and visits to the gym to try to shift the excess weight that has crept up on me and is clinging like an octopus and refusing to leave. Friday night I combined a social visit with my friend Shirley, we’ve been friends since about the age of ten years old, with a visit to her gym, a swim and jacuzzi. Felt very pampered and chilled afterwards, the perfect way to start the weekend. A relaxing day of sunbathing on Saturday combined with some writing, oh and I was also able to pick the first batch of my homegrown spinach. Today, Sunday, is Father’s Day and very shortly I will be meeting my parents and my sister at a local restaurant. So a nice family day to round off my week.
My Word: I haven’t written very much this week as I’ve been focusing my attention on editing. The first novel I wrote is finally approaching the stage where it will be given to my editor.
I started writing it approximately fifteen years ago and it has gone through numerous edits and lost about 80,000 words in an attempt to make it a tighter, readable book. I put it aside for a number of years as I worked on other books, including the three novelettes and one novel that I’ve published already. I also have a backlog of forty something WIPs (Work in Progresses) in various stages of completion. But I digress, and now you can see why I had to purge 80,000 odd words, LOL.
Anyway I have about 2700 more that I need to remove to get it to 80,000 words and then I will hand it over with trepidation to a new editor and hold my breath (not literally of course) until I receive the red-marked pages back.
I have also taken the plunge and set up an email sign up on my website so that I can email out a monthly newsletter. If you would like to hear from me occasionally then please add your details to the pop up and then check your junk mail as they often get sent there.
What can you expect from me by signing up?
I’ll keep you informed of any new releases from me, some you might like/love and others you won’t as I can’t stick to writing in one genre, I write anything that is in my head and needs to be released. A sometimes scary prospect. 🙂
Giveaway: Once a month I am planning on doing an author slot from the Indie authors I love which will include one free kindle copy of one of their books going to one of my readers who will be picked at random. More details to follow.
Little snippets of information that I think you might find interesting – forgive me if I get that wrong sometimes – please let me know what you like and what you don’t like and what you’d like to see more of.
As this is new to me it will grow organically and hopefully you will look forward to finding my newsletters once a month in your inbox.
Maria x
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My review of: Secrets of the Heart by D.M Miller
This book isn’t full of dramatic events rather a gentle continuation of the last two books in the series – a progression of the lives of Catherine and Abdul with unexpected twists and turns. Two new, main character join us for this book Bahir and Rajab, both of whom add a new dimension to Catherine’s life in particular and enhances the book as a whole. It is always hard when you write a book such as this which has a steady storyline to keep the readers’ interest in the lives of your character – this author seems to do it with ease.
I don’t want to give too much away here but the relationship that forms between Catherine and Rajab right from the start and the hostility between Rajab and Abdul was a pleasure to read. I want to find out what’s in store next for this family and I have heard on the grapevine that there is to be another book in the series.
Once more I commend this author for the storyline and for the strong, consistent characters who have grown as people over the three books. This author is going from strength to strength. I highly recommend you read her books.
An easy five stars from me.
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Jealousy & Envy
I had decided on this blog thinking I was writing about jealousy only with envy being a synonym but after doing some research I discovered something I hadn’t known which is that jealousy and envy are considered to be different.
Dictionary definitions:
Jealousy: feeling or showing an envious resentment of someone or their achievements, possessions, or perceived advantages.
Envy: a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.
The dictionary would suggest that both these emotions are the same but some psychologists differentiate between the two emotions:
Jealousy is relationship based and involves a third person. It’s an emotion that makes a person fear for their relationship with another – partner, parent, friend etc… The person sees a threat to their relationship which could be real or perceived.
Example: Your husband has a female friend and you see that friendship in a different light. It could be a simply platonic relationship but it could also be an affair which threatens the fabric of your marriage. Jealously has its roots firmly in both the logical and illogical camps.
Jealousy can be healthy, in that it produces that fear which makes you work at protecting your relationship but equally it can be a destructive force eating away at you from the inside and ruining your relationship.
Finding the right balance is the key.
Envy however is an emotion that is caused between two people only.
Example: You are envious of what your friend has, possessions or life.
Again this emotion can be put to good or bad use. If you use this to better yourself and achieve the goals you have then this has been for the force of good, however if you allow this envy to fester you can become dissatisfied with your lot in life and your friendship will suffer as you become resentful.
Finding the right balance is again key.
I try to avoid the extremes of both of these emotions as they can be so destructive, you should allow them to drive you not to overwhelm you.
I chose this as a subject matter as some of the characters in my books show these emotions which makes for great reading. I have three examples from two of my books – please read on:
A Lifetime or a Season
Amazon link: http://mybook.to/A-lifetime
Diana
Diana is envious of her young daughter Athena, who is pretty and has her whole life ahead of her. Diana is a beautiful, superficial, selfish woman who has men flocking around her and has no shortage of admirers but she knows that the passage of time is upon her so she callously puts down and undermines her daughter so that Athena sees herself as plain. Diana tries to stamp out Athena’s spark of independence wanting her daughter to fawn over her rather than live her own life.
Check out Athena’s short story to see whether Diana was successful or not.
A Boy from the Streets has two examples of jealousy.
Amazon Link: myBook.to/BoyfromStreets
Teo
Teo is a lovely, loyal man who is eaten up with jealousy. He is devoted to his friend Leandro but Leandro has a closer bond with Daniel. Even years of separation doesn’t dim this friendship but as the year go by Teo’s jealousy develops to the point where he places himself and others in danger. Will his jealousy lead him to commit the ultimate betrayal?
Pedro
Pedro is a young boy who is abandoned to the streets of Brasil at the age of one year. His life is harrowing and filled with the horrors that life on the streets brings including being used by the corrupt police force who should be there to protect him.
At the age of twelve he discovers that he has a twin, Jose was adopted into a life of luxury.
Pedro experiences both jealousy and envy during the coming months but despite his life and the trials and tribulations he stays grounded. His own caring nature allows him to rise above these emotions – but when he is pushed to the ultimate level will he be able to keep his head or will it overwhelm him?
If you want to discover how any of my characters cope with these emotions and what the future holds for them you can find out by clicking the links and reading their stories.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
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Support needed for this baby whose mum has cancer
This is a post requesting help but its not asking for a donation for a random stranger with no returns. This is an author asking you to buy his book in order that the proceeds go to fund the cancer treatment that his friend needs.
I’ve bought my copy, hope you do too. Let us see if we as a community can ensure this little baby gets to keep him mum.
This post has been taken from a group I’m in on Facebook by Mark Dawson
Emma Johns is the wife of my son’s godfather and has been battling with breast cancer for five years. In the middle of her gruelling treatment she found out that she was pregnant (the chemotherapy was supposed to make her infertile but, to her surprise, it didn’t).
And then, in December, she gave birth to her own little miracle: baby Phoenix.
Emma’s condition is worsening but there is hope: a trial immunotherapy drug called Pembrolizumab has shown amazing results for women with incurable triple negative breast cancer (like her). But, due to her pregnancy, Emma missed out on being eligible for the only trial available for this drug. Her best option now is to pay for it privately for the eye-watering sum of £40,000.
I’ve written a short story in my John Milton and Beatrix Rose universe – called PHOENIX – and I will be giving all of the proceeds to her and her family. The book is available for preorder right now. For every $2.99 purchase of Phoenix, Emma and her family will receive $2. That might not sound like a lot, but you are one of 65,000 authors on the SPF mailing list.
If even a quarter of the list buys the book, we could fund Emma’s treatment for a whole year.
PHOENIX is available for preorder at the links below.
And if you think your readers might like it, a share to your mailing list or social media page would be even more amazing. If you are able to send a message to your readers, please forward a copy to mark@selfpublishingformula.com.
We’ll pick one at random to receive both our 101 and Ads for Authors courses (worth more than $1000).
Amazon: myBook.to/BeatrixPhoenix
Apple: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/gb/book/phoenix/id1232396011…
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/phoenix-70
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=X8vKDgAAQBAJ
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/phoenix-mark-da…/1126333708…
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Price Increase
I have decided to increase the kindle price for all my novelettes this weekend from £0.99/$0.99 to £1.99/£$1.99
If you’ve been meaning to pick up a copy and haven’t done so yet then you have the chance to do so before the increase.
The reason I have decided to do this is two-fold.
One is financial, I get very few sales on these and when I do I net a whopping £0.29 per sale and at this rate what I’ve paid for covers and editing has not been recouped, a situation that I know is shared by many fellow authors.
My first novelette As Dreams are Made on has sold 112 kindle copies and 28 print copies in the two years and four months since its release and I still have £29.86 to go to break even. At the rate of £0.29 per sale it will take at least another 100 sales for this to happen. By increasing the price to £1.99/$1.99 I get £0.58 per sale.
The other books:
A Lifetime or a Season, with 36 kindle and 15 print sales in 2 years and 2 months is in the red to the tune of £57.25
The Storm Creature, with 75 kindle and 24 print sales in just over a year needs £26.09 to break even.
The other reason is that while I thought £0.99/$0.99 was a figure that people would be happy to pay for an hour of entertainment/pleasure it would seem that I was wrong. So now I am going to experiment with the idea that people are happier to pay a higher price as they believe that cheap price equals low quality.
I will do a follow up on this in a few months to see whether I was able to attract more readers with the increased price point.
UK Amazon account: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maria-Gibbs/e/B00SDDJV1U/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
US Amazon account: https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Gibbs/e/B00SDDJV1U/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
My new novel will stay the same price which is £2.99 so far since its release a month ago I have sold 47 kindle and 16 print copies. The edit costs for this were significantly higher due to it being a much bigger book but I have approximately £120.00 to go before I break even on this one.
I am bursting at the seams with ideas for books to write and the only thing that stops me is sufficient time and money to pay the initial outlay. This has been my lifelong dream to become an author and I am determined to try anything that I can in order to achieve this at a level where I can support myself from my writing.
Will update anyone who is interested in my progress in a few months.
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Fear
Fear is something each and every one of us has experienced at some point in our lives whether it be a rational fear which is an appropriate response to a real situation or a perceived threat or an irrational fear or phobia.
What triggers fear?
Rational fear can be a natural response to a situation which threatens danger or a response to a horrible experience. The basis of an irrational fear is a lot harder to pinpoint but it could be a learnt behaviour seen by a parent or someone else, it can be a response to a bad dream which has carried over into real life.
What symptoms are produced through fear?
Increased breathing rate or hyperventilation
Muscle tension
Goosebumps
Sweating or dry palms
Nausea or knot in the base of your stomach
What do I fear?
I fear losing those people who are closest to me, my loved ones. I fear for the future of some people I love who fate hasn’t dealt a fair hand to. These fears are all manageable and only affect me when I dwell too much on them.
I regularly feel fear when I ride my motorbike especially in my area where the road users have no idea of road craft and many assume a motorcyclist should ride next to the pavement as a cyclist does. Not a brainy bunch around here! Many road users deem themselves to have more skills than they actually possess or more frighteningly consider my life inconsequential, either way they put me in danger and a number of times it has only been my own forward planning and quick reactions that have saved my life. The fear that comes from that situation is immense. There are particular roads that now cause a reaction of extreme caution in me now because of regular occurrences so fear is adapting the way I tackle certain areas on the road.
Phobia’s, oh yes I have them too. Spiders, cockroaches, rodents and heights – or at least heights where I don’t feel secure. For example I love flying, even loved being in a helicopter looking down but if I’m anywhere where I feel I could fall then the major fear kicks in. Where did they come from? I honestly don’t know!
What made me choose fear as the topic for this blog?
Mia's Novel Creations 