I have finished A Ghost and His Gold in all is nearly 118 000 words of glory. I have re-read it several times and I have decided not to shorten it as everything is relevant in this tale of three ghosts, all of whom died during or soon after the Second Anglo Boer War in South Africa between Great Britain and the Orange Free State and the South Africa Republic. This war raged between 1899 and 1902 and changed the course of South African history.

My main objective with writing this book has been to delve into the physiology of what was almost a civil war at the time and how it impacted on all the people of South Africa, to the extent such historical information is recorded and available.

This book should be available on Amazon in January 2021.

Here is the blurb:

After Tom and Michelle Cleveland move into their recently built, modern townhouse, their housewarming party is disrupted when a drunken game with an Ouija board goes wrong and a sinister poltergeist, Estelle, who died in 1904, is summoned.

Estelle makes her presence known in a series of terrifying events, culminating in her attacking Tom in his sleep with a knife. But, Estelle isn’t alone. Who are the shadows lurking in the background? – one in an old-fashioned slouch hat and the other, a soldier, carrying a rifle.  Discovering their house has been built on the site of one of the original farms in Irene, Michelle becomes convinced that the answer to her horrifying visions lies in the past. She must unravel the stories of the three phantoms’ lives, and the circumstances surrounding their untimely deaths during the Second Anglo Boer War, in order to understand how they are tied together and why they are trapped in the world of ghosts between life and death. As the reasons behind Estelle’s malevolent behaviour towards Tom unfold, Michelle’s marriage comes under severe pressure and both their lives are threatened.

Here are a few extracts from this book:

Do the extracts and the blurb entice you? Let me know in the comments.

If you would like to Beta read a copy, then please email me at sirchoc[at]outlook[dot]com

Enjoy your weekend.

Robbie

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). 

The Dohány Street Synagogue complex consists of the Great Synagogue, the Heroes’ Temple, the graveyard, the Memorial and the Jewish Museum. Dohány Street has strong Holocaust connotations as it constituted the border of the Budapest Ghetto.

You can learn more about the Dohány Street Synagogue here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doh%C3%A1ny_Street_Synagogue

Even if you knew you would never sell another book, would you keep writing?

An interesting topic this week and one I’ve had to think about. I’ve reflected on this on and off all day as I work towards finalising the editing of my new novel, A Ghost and His Gold. This book has been a huge exercise for me with all the research and effort I’ve put in to try and ensure it ticks all the writing criteria. I’ve checked for filter words, read and re-read the dialogue, tied up a few loose strings that my editor pointed out, checked spelling and punctuation and generally spent many hours perfecting this book. Writing is a real labour of love and one most writers willingly do, even it they know they won’t necessary generate a lot of sales.

But no sales! None at all! Hmmm! I’m not sure if I would continue to write if I had absolutely no encouragement at all. My need in this regard doesn’t necessarily translate into sales, but I would like to believe that at least a few people out there read my work and enjoyed it. I find reviews quite rewarding and would not like to have absolutely none at all. I do believe I would find that disheartening and I’m not sure if I would put so much effort in if this was the case.

I tend to write about topics that one, interest me, and two, I am passionate about so I accept that I am unlikely to ever be traditionally published. I could never write to a formula or curtail my writing to fit a purely commercial mould. That being said, I like to think there is a market for unconventional and different books like mine.

I think I will always write poetry as it is like a pressure valve for me. It is a way for me to release emotional stress and strain that might otherwise result in confrontations or arguments that would serve no real purpose and produce no positive change in my life. Some things are just to big to change and you have to accept them in life.

Would other blog-hoppers still write if they never sold another book?  Click on the link below to find out:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
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Resentment and anger made poor bedfellows . They stole the pleasure from the day, creeping relentlessly across her mind like a slow eclipse of the sun. It was time to take back control of her life. Time to make a change.

She never imagined her life could become this unfulfilling and frustrating. Getting up early every day and trying to behave as if everything was normal.

Outside the walls of her home, the world had turned itself upside down. Masked strangers roamed the streets, ringing on doorbells asking for food to fill empty bellies or trying to sell some unnecessary and unwanted item to the impatient and irritated inhabitants of the houses. There were no jobs and the poor and uneducated were desperate and verging on starvation.

Within the walls of her familiar home, her own life had become a nightmare of relentless stress as her working days grew longer and longer. More and more demands were made on her until one day she’d awoken to the unexpected realisation that exploitation and abuse of human rights comes in many forms. The shocking understanding dawned that she was a pathetic pawn in the corporate game where no-one mattered and no employee ever won.

Pressing the send button, her resignation letter left her email box.

To late she learned

That undue quickness of mind

Mixed with compassion

Creates the perfect cocktail

For endless exploitation

This haibun was written for Colleen Chesebro’s poetry challenge. You can join in here: https://colleenchesebro.com/2020/09/01/colleens-2020-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-193-poetschoice/

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). 

This week, I’m featuring St Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest.

The church is named after Saint Stephen I of Hungary, the first King of Hungary (c. 975–1038), whose “incorruptible” right hand is housed in the reliquary.

My great blogging friend, John Rieber, has also shared a Thursday Doors post about Budapest and a journey on the Orient Express: https://johnrieber.com/2020/09/03/open-these-thursdaydoors-and-take-an-amazing-trip-to-budapest-on-the-orient-express/. He did some interesting things in Budapest that we didn’t have time for so do pop over and have a look at this post. He has many other great ones too.

What Amazon says

In this compelling, richly researched novel, author Andrew Joyce tells a story of determination and grit as the Mahoney clan fights to gain a foothold in America. From the first page to the last, fans of Edward Rutherfurd and W. Michael Gear will enjoy this riveting, historically accurate tale of adventure, endurance, and hope.

In the second year of an Gorta Mhór—the Great Famine—nineteen-year-old Devin Mahoney lies on the dirt floor of his small, dark cabin. He has not eaten in five days. His only hope of survival is to get to America, the land of milk and honey. After surviving disease and storms at sea that decimate crew and passengers alike, Devin’s ship limps into New York Harbor three days before Christmas, 1849. Thus starts an epic journey that will take him and his descendants through one hundred and fourteen years of American history, including the Civil War, the Wild West, and the Great Depression.

My review

I listened to the audio book of Mahoney, narrated by Michael R.L. Kern. The narrator did a great job with this book and had the right voice and inflections of tone for this particular story.

Mahoney is a fascinating story of the lives of Devin Mahoney, a poverty stricken farming tenant in Ireland who travels to America during the famine, and his son and grandson.

This book is well researched and shares intricate details relating to a variety of contraversial topics including: the lives of the tenant farmers in Ireland during the family and the shocking treatment they received at the hands of their English overlords, the journey by sea of Irish immigrants to America on board the “death ships”, life for the Irish immigrants on their arrival in the “promised land”, the circumstances of the civil war in America, life in the wild west of America for a young man from the East and his journey to becoming a marshal and an incredible fast gun, the life of the wealthy in New York before the Great Depression, the plight of the poor during the Great Depression and the circumstances of African Americans living in the south during the late 1930s and 1940s.

The list above gives a taste of the insights and depth and breath of this wonderful book which I enjoyed tremendously. Although I had some knowledge of most of these periods in history, the level of detail shared in this book, and the way the author wove the history seamlessly into the story, resulted in a great learning experience for me, together with a fantastic and engaging story.

Mahoney is divided into three parts with each part devoted to the development of one generation of the Mahoney family. There are elements of high adventure and romance in each character’s specific tale.

My favourite character was Devin because he was so spirited and determined. He overcame incredible difficulties to travel to America and start a new life there. The revelations about life on board the ships used to transport Irish immigrants to America were an eye opener, as was Devin’s positive attitude and determination to do whatever it took to succeed. He worked hard labouring jobs in order to establish his reputation as a solid and reliable worker and I found that very admirable. I also loved his love interest, Mary, who aside from being beautiful, was also resourceful and hard working. Their romance was sweet and made me feel good.

Dillon also has an amazing life but there were some things about his character that were a bit unfortunate in the long run. This didn’t make him less interesting and enjoyable as a main character but it did set the scene for his son, the third generation.

It is often said the the first generation builds everything and the third generation destroys it and, initially, this would seem to be the case in this book. David Mahoney, however, evolves into a most unusual and dedicated man and his story is also unusual and revealing about certain aspects of life in America.

This book is well written and highly entertaining. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys history and books about human drama, with a touch of romance thrown in for good measure.

Purchase Mahoney by Andrew Joyce