Estelle hears a dry rustling noise in the patch of tall grass and wild daisies near their camp. She looks in the direction of the noise and sees two green lights shining in the dark, near to the ground. Her blood turns to ice and her hair seems to physically stand on end.

“Look, Papa, look,” she screams.

Papa grabs his Mauser and aims it at the eyes, ready to fire. The eyes stop moving forward. They stay still in the dark, looking at them.

Is it a hyena?

Nothing moves in the vast stillness of the African night.

Written for the Carrot Ranch flash fiction challenge hosted by Charli Mills. You can join in here: https://carrotranch.com/2020/02/06/february-6-flash-fiction-challenge/

I visited Sally Cronin at Smorgasbord blog earlier this week with a post about OCD and how interacting with sufferers has influenced my writing. Thank you, Sally for hosting me. If you haven’t visited Sally before, I highly recommend that you do, she has a wonderful blog that is just like an on-line magazine.

Robbie Cheadle has been a frequent guest on Smorgasbord over the last two years, writing about a wide range of subjects. Today Robbie shares the condition OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), her observations in those that suffer from OCD and how it has influenced her writing.

How interacting with OCD sufferers has influenced my writing by Robbie Cheadle

What is OCD?

According to the American Psychiatric Association, obsessive-compulsive disorder (“OCD”) is an anxiety disorder in which time people have recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations (obsessions) that make them feel driven to do something repetitively (compulsions). The repetitive behaviors, such as hand washing, checking on things or cleaning, can significantly interfere with a person’s daily activities and social interactions.
Obsessions are involuntary thoughts, images, or impulses that occur over and over again in your mind. You don’t want to have these ideas, but you can’t stop them. Unfortunately, these obsessive thoughts are often disturbing and distracting.

The cycle of OCD

Compulsions are behaviours or rituals that a person feels compelled to act out again and again. OCD sufferers develop compulsions in an attempt to control obsessive and intrusive thoughts. For example, if an OCD sufferer is afraid of contamination, he/she may develop complicated cleaning rituals. The relief provided by compulsive behaviour, unfortunately, never lasts and usually increases over time, in tandem with increased anxiety by the OCD sufferer as a result of the time-consuming and invasive nature of the rituals.

Carry on reading here: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/smorgasbord-blog-magazine-health-column-guest-post-how-interacting-with-ocd-sufferers-has-influenced-my-writing-by-robbie-cheadle/

Purchase link for Whispers of the past

I have signed up for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2020, hosted by Karen from Books and Chocolate blog.

https://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.com/2020/01/back-to-classics-challenge-2020.html.

Evil under the sun by Agatha Christie is my first read for this challenge in the category of genre classic.

What Amazon says

Set at the Jolly Roger, a posh vacation resort for the rich and famous on the southern coast of England, Evil Under the Sun is one of Agatha Christie’s most intriguing mysteries. When a gorgeous young bride is brutally strangled to death on the beach, only Hercule Poirot can sift through the secrets that shroud each of the guests and unravel the macabre mystery at this playground by the sea.

My review

I am a big Agatha Christie fan and this book was very entertaining. A quick and fast paced read, in this particular murder mystery, we are introduced to the victim in advance of the murder taking place. The victim is a guest at an exclusive hotel in an island just off the English coast which is cut-off from the mainland during high tide. She is holidaying with her husband and step-daughter and having an obvious affair with one of the other guests, Patrick Redfern, who is also holidaying with his quiet and unassuming wife, Christine. Other guests include Hercule Poirot, a minister with a past, an elderly ex-military man, an elderly spinster, called Emily Brewster, and an elderly American couple, Mr and Mrs Gardener. An attractive old friend of the victim’s husband is also resident at the hotel.

The reader gets peeps into each guests activities and thoughts before the murder takes place and this sets the stage for our intuition that a murder is going to occur and suspicions about certain of the guests. A number of the guests appear to have water-tight alibis which Hercule Poirot needs to disprove or prove in order to discover what really happened at the time of the murder.

Of course, in Ms Christie’s usual brilliant way, she has laid lots of red herrings that lead the reader off on an entirely incorrect path about the identity of the killer. I had some suspicions about how the murder transpired and by whom, and the whole case was satisfactorily and neatly wound up for me by the end of the story.

Purchase Evil under the sun

Welcome to another edition of the ‘Open Book Blog Hop’.  This week’s subject is:

‘How do you keep track of all the books you read?’

I read a lot of books. I read a reviewed 150 books last year in a wide variety of genre’s including children’s, poetry, horror, supernatural, cosy mystery, family drama and the odd memoir and thriller.

My preference is to select the books I read and review by which I mean that I rarely read and review books on request by an author or publisher. The reason for this is that I quickly learned that I frequently didn’t enjoy books that I read at the request of someone and this caused a conundrum for me when it came to the review. I don’t post reviews that are less than 3 stars. That is a personal decision I have made as I firmly believe that despite all attempts, I make to read and review books with a fair and unbiased eye, there are some topics or styles of writing I just don’t like and that would reflect negatively in my review. Another reader could have a very different experience of the same book. I know this is true because I have read reviews of books by other readers who have assigned a low rating to a book. I have read and loved the same book and it has been a 5-star read for me. A good example of this is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 13% of the reviews for this amazing book on Amazon are 1 star reviews. I gave it 5 stars.

I digress, however, from the question of how I keep track of the books I have read.

I have entered the Goodreads reading challenge again this year. Goodreads then keeps track of all the books I read and review on my Robbie Cheadle profile. I have, however, recently created a second profile on Goodreads under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle. This is the publishing name I am using for my supernatural, science fiction and adult writing and books. The result of this is that I am now reading and reviewing thrillers, science fiction, romance, adult classics, supernatural, dystopian and horror books on my Roberta Eaton Cheadle profile. I am reading and reviewing children’s and poetry books as well as books I read as part of Rosie Amber’s book club on my Robbie Cheadle profile. I am aiming to read 120 books this year, with at least 60 books under each profile. I have not entered the Goodreads challenge under this new profile, but Goodreads still records all the books I enter as read and reviewed and I can access the list if I want to. I provides the date I entered the book as read.

I post reviews for every single book I rate on Goodreads and Amazon, whether the author died two hundred years ago or not. With regards to my comment about not posting 1 or 2 star reviews, due to my selection techniques, these sorts of reads are very few and far between and it is most unusual for me not to post a review of a book.

Prior to my recording my reads on Goodreads, I never kept a record of books that I read.

Let’s see how other blog hoppers keep track of their reading matter.  Click on the blue button below to find out, or just leave a comment:

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.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

Here is another unedited extract from A ghost and his gold:

“The following day, Robert volunteered to accompany the wagons which were going out to retrieve the bodies of the British troops who had fallen during the skirmish.

At daybreak, the Boers had declared a truce to enable this expedition of recovery and Robert had leaped at the opportunity of escaping the town, albeit for a short time and for such a miserable purpose. Viewed from his hard seat in the back of the wagon, the glorious early morning sky with its fluffy white clouds tinged with varying shades of pink did not bring him the happiness he sought or expected. The journey seemed endless and his trepidation at what he must find at the end of it grew with each jolting rotation of the wooden wheels over the rutted ground. His chin gradually dipped until it rested on his chest as he grappled with his desolate thoughts, ignoring the fresh beauty of the unspoiled countryside.

He was vaguely surprised when a small contingent of Boers met them at the site of the altercation and helped the small party of men seek out the bodies of their comrades.

Once again, the enigma that was the Boers struck him. Their faces were sorrowful and their eyes downcast when they came across the body of a dead soldier, smashed by a bullet and crumpled into a grotesque and twisted shape on the hard ground. Their expressions and words gave no hint of elation or pride at their triumph during the previous day’s warfare.

Robert’s mind grappled with the unpleasantness of having the faces of these men, his opponents, imprinted in his thoughts. These pictures would overlay his preferred depiction of a faceless and devilish enemy, upon whom he could fire without remorse, a scowl of rage upon his face and his heart wrapped in a protective blanket of British righteousness.”

Published for Sue Vincent’s Thursday write photo prompt. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2020/01/30/thursday-photo-prompt-daybreak-writephoto/  

I am visiting the lovely Sue Vincent‘s blog with a post about the Old Man of the Sea and how I wove this myth into a short paranormal story I wrote. Thank you, Sue, for hosting me.

Background

In Greek Mythology, the Old Man of the Sea is the term used for several water-gods, purported to have existed since the beginning of time. The water-gods most often referred to in terms of this expression are Nereus, the eldest son of Gaia and her son, Pontus, and Proteus, a prophetic water-god whom was referred to as “Old Man of the Sea” by Homer. Triton, a Greek god of the sea and the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite; Pontus, an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god and the fatherless son of Gaia; Phorcys or Phorcus, a primedial sea god and the son of Pontus and Gaia, and Glaucus, a Greek prophetic sea-god born mortal and turned immortal as a result of eating a magical herb, are also referred to using this expression.

The Old Man of the Sea is the father of Thetis, a figure from Greek mythology who appears mainly as a sea nymph, a goddess of water or one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god, Nereus.

Sinbad the Sailor

I learned about the Old Man of the Sea as a child when reading the book, The seven voyages of Sinbad the sailor. This book describes the seven voyages undertaken by a fictional mariner called Sinbad throughout the seas east of Africa and the south of Asia. During his voyages, Sinbad encounters magical lands, mythical creatures and sees many supernatural phenomena. The stories of Sinbad are Middle Eastern in origin.

Sinbad encounters the Old Man of the Sea in his fifth voyage when he is shipwrecked on an island inhabited by this evil old man. The Old Man of the Sea climbs onto Sinbad’s shoulders and twists his legs around his neck, riding him like a horse, day and night until Sinbad is ready to fall down dead.

Carry on reading here: https://scvincent.com/2020/01/31/guestauthor-robbie-cheadle-old-man-of-the-sea/

What Amazon Says

Five tribes. One leader. A treacherous journey across three continents in search of a new home. Written in the spirit of Jean Auel, Survival of the Fittest is an unforgettable saga of hardship and determination, conflict and passion.

Chased by a ruthless enemy, Xhosa leads her People on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands following a path laid out decades before by her father, to be followed only as a last resort. She is joined by other fleeing tribes from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant, all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, tragedy, secrets, and Nature itself, Xhosa is forced to face the reality that her enemy doesn’t want to ruin her People. It wants to ruin her.

The story is set 850,000 years ago, a time in prehistory when man populated most of Eurasia, where ‘survival of the fittest’ was not a slogan. It was a destiny. Xhosa’s People were from a violent species, one fully capable of addressing the many hardships that threatened their lives except for one: future man, a smarter version of themselves, one destined to obliterate all those who came before.

My review

Survival of the Fittest is the second of Jacqui Murray’s prehistoric man books that I have read. The first, Born in a Treacherous time, is the story of a prehistoric woman, Lucy, and her struggle for survival in the harsh conditions of a continuously changing landscape and set of increasing adverse circumstances. Lucy journeys to find a safer home for her loved ones.

Survival of the Fittest is set at a slightly later date and features Xhosa, the unusually adaptable and innovative daughter of the leader of a large group called “the People”. Xhosa has been allowed to learn to use weapons and hunt with the warriors of the group and has a strong relationship with Nightshade, a giant of young warrior, who is her father’s Lead Warrior at the commencement of the story. Early in the story, a hunting group including Xhosa’s father, Xhosa herself and Nightshade are attacked by a savage group of a different people called “the Others” and Xhosa’s father is killed during the resulting skirmish. These leads to a battle for leadership between Xhosa and Nightshade which results in a lot of unresolved issues and conflicts between the pair.

The Others are more advanced that the People and have sharp stone tipped spears which fly much further than the People’s heavier and less innovative weapons. It soon becomes apparent that the People are in grave danger from the threat posed by the Others who covet their land, which is rich and desirable. Xhosa wants to leave and search for a new home for the People, following the cairns left by her father when he made a journey years before. Nightshare wants to stay and fight. Before a decision is made, the dynamics of the People change due to the arrival of another group, led by Pan-do and his young and unusual daughter, Lyta.

This book is well researched and every sentence demonstrates the author’s excellent knowledge of her subject and this time period. The story is similar in some respects to the Earth Children series but I find it more realistic and I don’t have to suspend my belief nearly as much while reading this book.

The characters in this new story are engaging and interesting. Xhosa is an unusual woman of high intellect and great physical strength. Her father has encouraged her to follow a different path from the other women of the tribe and learn to fight and lead like a man. Xhosa is driven by her need to do the best she can for her people and ensure the survival of the tribe. She realises that this goal means she has to be prepared to uproot the group from their current home and strike out in search of a new home. She also knows that the journey will not be easy and that many will be sacrificed along the way. Xhosa is a good leader and is prepared to take the necessary steps to do this.

Nightshade is a conflicted personality. He comes across as loyal, in many ways, to Xhosa but also jealous of her position within the tribe and irritated by her leadership methods and decisions. I never felt comfortable that Nightshade was truly behind Xhosa and felt she should be wary of him which, of course, she isn’t.

Pan-do was my favourite character in the book. He is the perfect leader, binding the group together and providing for distraction and light relief when needed to prevent the group from becoming overwhelmed and despairing. He is also cunning and clever and saves Xhosa, Nightshade and the People from certain death on more than one occasion. Pan-do is open minded and is devoted to his daughter who is a bit of a psychic and has visions. This quality of Pan-do’s extends to other people within the tribe who have unusual insight.

This book will appeal to readers who enjoy a well-researched and believable historical novel with a solid plot and well developed and interesting characters.

Purchase Survival of the Fittest

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The field was difficult to traverse. Great rocky outcrops reared up, creating blockages that she had to go around. Every now and then, the earth tore open and great gushes of scalding steam boiled up in thick clouds, forcing her to leap backwards. She persisted, despite the numerous obstacles that were thrown up in her path.

Now, the entrance was in her line of vision. Only a few more metres to go and she would be there and able to enter.

As she stumbled forwards, an enormous scaly creature appeared in the stone doorway. A torrent of fire and smoke spewed from its mouth and rolled in blazing tendrils across the ground towards her. A cry of despair wrenched itself from her mouth, which had fallen open in dismay.

This was the end. She accepted defeat. The entrance to this man’s heart was to well-guarded for her to ever enter. Turning, she walked away, head held high. From the dark cave behind her a shrill wail ushered forth. The sound went on and on.

This piece was written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2020/01/23/thursday-photo-prompt-entrance-writephoto-2/

At 11p.m. that evening, Robert’s squadron received orders from Lord Edward Cecil. B.P. was planning an attack on Game Tree Fort, a Boer stronghold to the north of Mafeking. The reasons for the proposed attack were two-fold. Firstly, B.P. aimed to capture Creeky [a giant cannon] and stop it wreaking further devastation on the town and, secondly, he wanted to open up the line to the north in order to join forces with the British troops who were reported to be approaching from Gaborone.  In addition, B.P. hoped to gain some additional grazing ground for the town’s cattle as the exiting ground had been devastated by a plague of locusts.

At 3a.m. Robert’s platoon rendezvoused at Dummie Fort to learn the details of the plan. Robert’s fingers tingled with anticipation at the planned offensive attack. It made a difference from the defensive position B.P. had followed to date, and exhilaration at being able to fight upright and out in the open, surged through him. He was tired of firing surreptitiously from a trench like a rat protecting its hole, showing vicious yellow teeth but never getting close enough to bite his tormentor.

C Squadron would lead the attack from their position near the railway line to the west of Game Tree Fort, and Robert’s D Squadron would support them. The armoured train was planned to offer additional support with its small breech loading cannon called a Hotchkiss, and a Maxim. The right flank of the attacking parties would be protected by the Bechuanaland Rifles under Captain Cowan. One troop of A Squadron men, with three seven-pounder guns and one cavalry Maxim, would attack from the left, supported by another two troops from the same squadron.

The stench of sweat and tension hung in the air as the camp waited silently and watchfully in the cold. Robert’s taut nerves made him certain that vengeful eyes were watching them from the cover of the surrounding vegetation. He twisted his head this way and that, looking for any signs of movement in the heavy darkness. He saw nothing. The only sounds were the heavy breathing of his comrades and the crunch of hard ground as they shuffled their feet.

At 4.30a.m. the bark of the first gun rent the cold early morning air. It was still dark and the flash shone brightly, momentarily dazzling them all. Shells from the seven-pounders followed, soaring through the air and exploding around the target in brilliant flaming balls. “The railway line’s been pulled up about half a mile from here,” the message traveled along the lines, just as the men prepared to charge forward. “The armoured train isn’t coming.”

The attackers surged forward as a mass, each focusing on his steps, knowing that if he fell, he would be trampled by those coming afterwards. This is it, thought Robert. There is no flight option left. Now we must fight to win or be slaughtered like pigs.

As Robert ran, legs pumping and his bayonet held at the ready, the guns of the supporting artillery and the Maxim roared to life, intensifying the din which swirled around him like mist. He was conscious of the men of D Squadron around him, as well as those of the C Squadron about three hundred yards ahead of him. A great surge of comradery surged through him as these men, his brotherhood, charged forward through the smoke, directly into a hail of bullets from the Boer musketry.  Death seemed certain, but, at this precise moment, this did not matter to Robert, over whose mind a cloud of red anger and lust for blood had descended. The anger prevented fear and grew in its intensity as the occasional figure, including that of Captain Fitzclarence, dropped around him in small explosions of red.

C Squadron reached the fort, which was hidden by bushes, and the guns roared; the sound growing and swelling into a terrific and discordant orchestra. Robert and his men slowed their forward momentum as they watched more ghostly forms falling, to lie in ghastly bleeding piles on the ground. The few men still standing started to fall back, shouting at D Squadron to follow suit. “The walls are too high… Impossible to mount without scaling ladders,” the shouts filled the air, mingling with the gunfire and moans, groans and cries of the wounded.

Robert and another man, William, picked up their captain as they slowly and deliberately retraced their steps. The blood lust had faded from their eyes and their moods had turned sullen. Expressions of dejection had settled on some faces. The Boers stopped their fire as soon as the retreat commenced, and the resultant silence felt heavy on Robert, like a shroud. These Boers are decent men. They could pick a lot more of us off now if they kept shooting.

Moving backwards, lugging the heavy body, was immeasurably hard. His overtaxed leg and back muscles trembled, and his sweat slicked hands slipped and slid under the captain’s arms.  Robert expelled a sigh of relief when he and William were finally able to lay their burden down at a designated spot near to the stranded armoured train. His legs refused to hold him up any longer and he sank to his knees. That was when he noticed  the blood. A bullet had grazed his chest and he hadn’t even noticed. Blood had stained his shirt and run down into his pants. He pulled his lips back into a grimace as pain seared his side. It was like being slammed with a club.

This extract from my WIP is shared for Didi Oviatt’s monthly challenge as follows:

So, for January 2020, the first month of this year, not only do I challenge you to write your characters in a dire FIGHT OR FLIGHT scene, but I dare you to. This isn’t an easy challenge, so naturally I expect only those who are truly ready for a challenge to step up to the task!

You can join in here: https://didioviatt.wordpress.com/2020/01/04/jan-wip-writing-challenge-fight-or-flight/