Tag: Tragedy

Books, Life, Self-publishing, Uncategorized

My review of Seal Mother; A Selkie Tale in Verse by Rose English

gibbsdream
Seal Mother: A Selkie Tale in Verse by [English, Rose ]
*****Five Stars*****

I devoured this short story, so skilfully written by an author who I have the utmost respect for. She doesn’t write for the masses, she doesn’t stray into writing what is popular or in fashion. Rose English writes from the heart about things that capture her vivid imagination and she weaves a story so beautiful that it feels as though she has placed her hands around your heart and is squeezing gently.
Seal Mother is a tragic tale of love, betrayal, loss and heart-breaking decisions.
It’s a children book, but don’t let that stop you from reading it as an adult. Let Rose’s poetical verse sweep you into a maelstrom of emotions as you forget your existence for a while and ride the waves with Seal Mother and her emotional journey.

Books, Life, Self-publishing, Uncategorized

Round-up of the Week

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News from around the world

A Russian passenger plane has crashed after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. The plane vanished just minutes after take-off and crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 50 miles south-east of Moscow. All 71 people on board are thought to have died.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

News from London

Anh Nhu Nguyen, 53 from Beckenham was jailed for 21 months after pretending his family had died in the Grenfell Tower fire. He claimed his wife and son were killed in order to obtain about £12,500 from funds meant for victims. Anh Nhu Nguhen met Prince Charles as he posed as a survivor of the tragedy.

It sickens me how people will play on a tragedy that claimed so many lives in order to make money.

My News

Another busy work week which has impacted on home life, sleep and energy levels. I have made some positive steps this week in redecorating my living room. Started hanging the wallpaper today and already seeing a vast improvement.

Writing News

I’ve only managed to write a few thousand words this week which yet again is disappointing.

Books, Life, Self-publishing, Uncategorized

Round-up of the Week

gibbsdream

Chuckles-3

News from around the world

A French climber stranded on Nanga Parbat, Pakistan’s most deadly mountain nicknamed “Killer Mountain”, has been rescued but her Polish climbing partner is still out there and the search has been called off. They got stuck at 24,280ft on Friday.

News from London

Three teenage boys were killed in West London as an Audi mounted the pavement, hitting a lamppost. The three boys aged 16 and 17 were on their way to a 16th birthday party. One man fled the scene and the other was detained and held until the police arrived, eyewitnesses say that he was assaulted.

My News

I went back to work Monday, the flu not exactly behind me but certainly not wiping me out although residual tiredness, fuzzy brain and sinus pain lingered. There isn’t much to report this week. A busy week at work which left my brain spinning on more than one day! My sister and I have decided to sign up for the Kew/Richmond half marathon later in the year so will start the training shortly. This weekend has been a bit of a wipeout as a leak from the property above me come through both of my floors. So I’ve been washing towels and sheets which luckily took the brunt of the leak.

Writing News

This week I hate to admit has seen no more than a couple of hundred words added to my current WIP as the long work hours and busyness of this week has left me unable to focus on my writing at all. This has to stop. I have too many books that need to be completed this year.

Books, Life, Self-publishing

Round up of the Week

gibbsdream

 Round up of the Week

World

Five rescue helicopters were sent to a mountain range in the Austrian Alps when a group of six climbers appear to have fallen together, five of whom were tragically killed and the other seriously injured. The injured person was flown 80km away to Salzburg hospital.

Me: My thoughts and prayers go out to the survivor and to the families of the deceased.

London

Notting Hill Carnival have released Doves as a tribute to those who died in the Grenfell Tower and the opening ceremony saw the single Bridge Over Troubled Water performed. This is the 51st Notting Hill Carnival and at 15:00 the sound systems were turned off for a minute’s silence.

Me: A beautiful tribute by the community for the tragic loss of so many people.

My World

What a week! I’ve had a lovely week off on annual leave and have managed to get a lot done during that time at home and then on Friday I travelled to Doncaster where I met up with my friend Su (Aka Rose English). Su’s lovely sister Sandra put me up in her beautiful home for the weekend with her two adorable new kittens. Friday night we went for an Italian and then Su and I went to visit her mum Sheila who is real treasure.

On Saturday Su and I drove to Bradford for the second UK Indie Lit Festival which was held in Kala Sangam and I’ve heard that our visitors were in the region of 300 people. This achievement is down to the hard work and tenacity of Dawn Singh who was helped by some other amazing people and an Indie Army. This day wasn’t a fabulous day for me for selling copies of my books but it was an amazing day where I was able to catch up with friends, make new ones and enjoy the buzz created for the day. I later found out that one of our avid readers had our books adorning her nails – shout out to Rainne Atkins.

Later that night Su, Sandra and I settled down to watch Beauty and the Beast film eating Chinese and drinking Rose wine. What a lovely day.

Sunday I caught the 10.36 train from Doncaster and had the pleasure of sitting at a table with a lovely young boy, eight-year-old Thomas and his father Stephen. The plan had been to write but I was swept up by this young boy who was so friendly and delightful – until the sugar rush kicked in – no seriously he was a bright boy and it made my journey so much more pleasurable. After finding out that I write, Thomas asked me if I write for children when I said no he asked me if I would because he wanted to read one of my books. His other option was that he would read A Boy from the Streets when he’s an adult. I wish the world was made up of more charming eight-year-olds.

My Word

As mentioned above I have been to an Indie Book Festival where I sold a couple of books and had a blast. This week has been spent formatting and doing the last proofread for Is this Love? and I have also posted a picture of the new cover which I am incredibly happy with.

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Congratulations to Beverley Ann Hopper who is the winner of the August newsletter e-book prize and will be getting a copy of Crimson Moon by Sherri A Wingler. A fantastic read.

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Speak soon

Maria x

 

Books, Life, Self-publishing, Uncategorized
gibbsdream

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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