The surrounding trees, robed in the magnificent colours of autumn, reflected within the dark depths of the girl’s eyes as she gazed up at him. She was young, only thirteen years old and her face still had the cherubic look of childhood despite the reddening of her eyes and the unnatural whiteness of her skin.

The unexpected and fast moving flash flood had swept away the light wooden bridge she was crossing. In a tumult of debris she had plunged into the water and her legs had become trapped by fallen poles.

He had come across her hours later and considered it a miracle that she had survived the fall. Without the necessary tools he was unable to pull her free and he watched in horrified desperation as the water crept higher.

She knew she was going to die and had come to terms with it, whispering her goodbyes to her mother and brother in a rasping voice as the water lapped at her chin. She lifted her hand, the skin shriveled and puckered from being submerged in water for so many hours, and waved gently at him. Her strength was fading

The acceptance and lack of expectation of survival in her brown orbs broke his heart. There was nothing he could do to help her.

The water covered her mouth and then her nose. He knew she was dead when the bubbles stopped.

A bright copper leaf fell from a tree and swirled around her crown, before bobbing away like a small boat, free to go where it wanted.

Written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photograph challenge. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/10/03/thursday-photo-prompt-copper-writephoto/

Linda G. Hill has given us the following prompt for her Stream of Consciousness Saturday post this week: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “-tast-.” Find a word that contains “tast” and use it in your post. Enjoy!

During our recent trip to Budapest, I spread my wings a bit food wise and tasted some very tasty dishes. I have blogger extraordinaire, John Rieber, to thank for stretching my food sense of adventure. If you don’t know John, you really should visit his wonderful blog, https://johnrieber.com/. John writes entertaining posts about food, travel, movies and life in Hollywood. Here is his post about Budapest at night: https://johnrieber.com/2019/02/28/budapest-after-dark-tour-their-incredible-ruin-bars-hungary-nightlife-with-a-history/

I had this delicious mozzarella cheese and pesto toasted pita bread at Anna Cafe on Vasi Street, Budapest. Vaci Street is one of the main pedestrian thoroughfares, and possibly the most famous street, in Central Budapest.

This was my breakfast on two of our mornings in Budapest. A giant pretzel with paprika flavoured curd cheese and Hungarian beef sausage flavoured with paprika. So delicious!

For dinner on our second evening in the city, I had traditional Hungarian goulash at a Hungarian restaurant. It was so tasty.

Mr Fox had chicken breast in a paprika sauce. I didn’t taste his, but he says it was delicious.

On night three, we went to an Italian restaurant. Mr Fox had the delicious salmon dish featured above. I had mushroom risotto which was amazing. I couldn’t eat it all as I had a tummy ache after eating far to much curd and goat’s cheese that day. I am lucky I wasn’t sick.

Budapest is an amazing city and food is awesome. I recommend it as a holiday destination.

You can join in Linda’s challenge here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-5-19/

I usually post a book review on a Wednesday. This week, however, I didn’t manage to post my 99-word flash fiction piece for Charli Mills’ prompt yesterday, so I decided to share this today and my book review tomorrow.

You can join in Charli’s prompt – Unremembered, here: https://carrotranch.com/2019/09/27/september-26-flash-fiction-challenge/

The unexpected sight of the frozen tableau inside the shrine caused the team of archaeologists to gasp in shock. The faces of the three Incan children, who had been sacrificed five hundred years earlier, were peaceful. The oldest, a girl they nicknamed the Maiden, had a half smile playing around the corners of her mouth.

Analysis of hair samples from the frozen mummies found entombed in a subterranean chamber, revealed that the children had all been drugged with coca leaves and alcoholic beverages.

This historical discovery ensured that the Maiden, Llullaillaco Boy and Lightning Girl, would not be forgotten.

If you would like to read my vision of the Maiden’s death, you can do so here: https://robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com/2019/09/29/writephoto-harbinger/

If you would like to read more about these mummies, you can do so here: https://www.livescience.com/38504-incan-child-mummies-lives-revealed.html

This week’s topic is easy for me. I have never had writers block. I don’t think I have been writing long enough for it to have struck yet.

I started writing in January 2015 and published my first Sir Chocolate book, Sir Chocolate and the strawberry cream berries story and cookbook in August 2016. Since then I have written the following books and WIPS:

• Five further books in the Sir Chocolate series for young children, aged between 3 and 7 years old, with three more written and more or less final;
• One book for middle school children called Silly Willy goes to Cape Town, with another book in this series, Silly Willy goes to London three thirds finished;
• One historical novella for older teens about my mom’s life growing up in WWII in a small English town in Suffolk, England. Book 2 in this series, After the Bombs Fell, is started and I have the first few chapters complete;
• One published historical supernatural novel that will be available on Amazon this month called Through the Nethergate;
• One novella about the Second Anglo Boer War that is also historical supernatural in its content. That went to my editor yesterday;
• Half of the first book in a trilogy about a world dealing with severe climate crisis and the unemployment caused by the Fourth Industrial Revolution;
• Short stories in two published anthologies, Dark Visions (2 stories), edited by Dan Alatorre, and Death Among Us (3 stories), edited by Stephen Bentley; and
• Short stories in two anthologies that will be published this month, Nightmareland (sequel to Dark Visions) (3 stories), edited by Dan Alatorre, and Whispers of the past, a Wordcrafter paranormal anthology (2 stories), edited by Kaye Lynne Booth.

I have ideas for a bunch of new short stories which come to me when I participate in various writing prompts. I have the outline of these stories in my head but need the time to write them down properly.

If and when I ever get writer’s block, I will stop writing and more on to a new obsession. Most of my readers know that I am a creature of obsessions and have had a number in my life from teaching spinning and cycling to running a Sunday School and baking. One day if writing has run its course in my life, I shall simply let it go. That may never happen, of course, writing isn’t something you easily get tired of, it is to versatile and I have always been passionate about reading.

How do other blog-hoppers cope with writer’s block?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or add your own blog or just a comment.

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Sitting cross-legged on the rough stone floor, she sees the world through a gauzy film of unreality. The chunk of dark sky at the end of the stone chamber looks thick, like the canopy of the leaves in the jungle at night, and the stars are larger and brighter than they should be. They move forward and then back, shrouded in shimmering light, that brightens and darkens in rhythm with the movement of their ethereal dance.

Relaxed and happy after consuming large amounts of maize beer and coca, a lump of which remains in her mouth, she half smiles at the shadowy spectral shapes, with no discernible faces, moving around at the entrance of the cave. She can hear their voices, indistinct and rumbling like distant thunder, but she cannot understand what they are saying. It doesn’t occur to her to try and speak to them and, even if it had, she could not have forced her cold lips to form the necessary words.

Neither the icy wetness of her fine clothing, the result of her bladder letting go earlier in the Capacocha Ritual, nor the uncomfortable tightness of the mat of finely braided hair that covers her strangely elongated head, permeate her dreamlike state. The blood in her limbs is slowing down and her eyes are fluttering closed from time to time as hypothermia sets in.

She forces her eyes open and watches one of the faceless shapes metamorphosis into the form of a large raven with spread wings. “Tap, tap, tap,” she fancies its beak goes on the rocky walls surrounding her. Her drug induced dream is ending and this harbinger of her doom has come to escort her into the great darkness of death. A horrid, croaking giggle forces its way out of her slack throat and then she closes her eyes for the last time.

This piece is written for Sue Vincent’s write photograph weekly prompt. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/09/26/thursday-photo-prompt-harbinger-writephoto/

It is every entertaining to go abroad on holiday and see all the amazing historical and natural beauty sites that make other countries and places famous and interesting. We were recently in Budapest, Hungary and these are ten of the great places we visited.

Wall of locks

The monument of Ignác Roskovics – famous Hungarian artist, graphic, “first professional artist in Uzhhorod”.

Me standing outside the Castle of Vajdahunyad on the Széchenyi-island in Városliget

Heroes Square

Jubileumi-park

The Great Synagogue in Dohány Street (also known as Dohány Street Synagogue) is the largest Synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world, capable of accommodating 3,000 people.

The Holocaust Memorial, also known as the Emanuel Tree, is a weeping willow tree (by Imre Varga) with the names of Hungarian Jews killed during the Holocaust inscribed on each leaf. 

St. Stephen’s Basilica is a Roman Catholic basilica in Budapest, Hungary. It is named in honour of Stephen, the first King of Hungary, whose right hand is housed in the reliquary.

One of the fountains at József nádor tér Square

Statue near St Michael’s Church

Our internet is still giving us trouble as the service provider has not been to fix the cable. I am still having to use the back up wifi which is not as strong or quick. I did manage to get these 10 photographs uploaded which I thought was quite a feat of determination.

This post is for Linda G Hill’s Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt. Linda is away so Dan Antion has graciously hosted the prompt this week. You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/09/27/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-28-19/

This week’s topic is an interesting one for me. I have given it some thought and  concluded that, other than for While the Bombs Fell, I have not deliberately based any of my characters to date on real people. On reflection, however, real people have influenced my characters, as have the fictional characters from the many books I have read.

When I wrote While the Bombs Fell, I imagined my mom as being a little bit like Laura Ingalls in her Little House series and I built a few of Elsie’s characteristics around my idea of Laura based on my reading of this series. Obviously, as this is a fictionalised biography of my mom’s early life, these subtle additions are melded together with her actual personality traits and how she has portrayed her memories of herself and her family.

I have loved the Little House series all my life and I have read the whole series countless times. I wanted to create a book that depicted regular life for a small girl growing up in a country town in England during World War II in a similar manner as Laura did in her books. I always found the details of her everyday life and how her Ma made cheese, butter and even straw hats totally fascinating. The details relating to her Pa such as how he cleaned his gun and smoked meat from the animals he kills also delighted me. Of course, other people would build up their own ideas of Laura so my view of her could be very different from that of someone else.

The character of Sir Chocolate, from my Sir Chocolate series of children’s books, was influenced by my reading of Mr Pink Whistle, the series written by Enid Blyton. I wanted Sir Chocolate to have similar characteristics of kindness and a desire to right the world’s wrongs. Sir Chocolate is the go to person in Chocolate Land when there is a problem in the village. Lady Sweet and he, together with various of their friends, are always able to solve the situation through co-operation and teamwork.

My writing of Through the Nethergate, had a few literary influences too. The character of Katharine, the nun who runs away with her lover, William, reminded me a bit of Tess from Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Like Katharine, Tess’ life also ends in tragedy as a result of her love for a man and his manipulation of her.

Father Merton shares the characteristic of having an open and inquiring mind, despite his extensive book knowledge, with Professor Van Helsing of Dracula fame. Father Merton also takes a practical approach to solving various crisis’s in a manner slightly reminiscent of Ben Mears in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. He also shares some characteristics of two ministers I had a lot of regard for, one of whom died unexpectedly in 2016, in that he is guided by his own sense of what is right and exhibits a common sense approach to the interpretations and dictates of the church.

Grandfather Baker shares a lot of my father’s characteristics. He is innovative and a survivor. He is a big reader of books about specific things that interest him and he uses that knowledge to help the group survive the unusual situations they face in the book. He is also stubborn and a strong leader, just like my Dad.

In my new novella, A ghost and his gold, my main character, Pieter van Zyl, a burgher who fights for his country during the Second Anglo Boer War shares his belief that a better life can be attained for his people with Winston Smith from 1984 by George Orwell. Pieter is a quite and reticent character, with a rare interest in books for his time and situation. He has a much clearer idea of what could happen in the Anglo Boer War than most of his peers.

Of course, my characters develop in their own way in the specific circumstances of my stories, but my admiration for the strong characteristics demonstrated by certain book characters, and for some people who have impressed me during my life, have a subtle influence on how I chose to portray my own characters. I think this comes from having spent far more of my life with my nose in a book than actually socializing with people.

If you’d like to read other blog hoppers’ on the same subject, please click on the blue button below:

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.

What Amazon says

Don’t even think about messing with Brooke.

Two young American tourists are brutally murdered in Cancun. A private investigator in Connecticut is desperate to uncover the truth about a missing coed. At the heart of both matters is Brooke Walton, a young medical student. When her summer internship in a Medical Examiner’s Office exposes a disturbing mystery and her ruthless brilliance, authorities take a closer look. Can Brooke save her own beautiful skin with someone watching her every move? Will one more murder solve her urgent problems, or dig her an even deeper grave?

“From the delightfully creative mind of Jenifer Ruff, The Intern delivers chills, suspense, and an ending that was completely unpredictable.”– -Allison Maruska, author of The Fourth Descendant
“Brooke Walton is a top-of-her-class medical student and destined for success as a surgeon. But, the bodies . . . they keep piling up. A nail biter and a compelling psychological portrait.” – Reita Pendry, author of China White
“This book grabbed me from the first page and held on tight to the end. Impossible to put down, both terrifying and fiendishly amusing, this is a winner.” – Amazon Reviewer
“I liked the first two books in this series a lot. But I LOVED this one! I couldn’t stop reading and when I had to, I couldn’t wait to pick it back up again. I stayed up past my bedtime, but it was so worth it.!!”- Amazon Reviewer

From Amazon bestselling author Jenifer Ruff–a dark suspense thriller featuring a fascinating, twisted protagonist. Brooke Walton will make you wonder just how well you know your friends, neighbors, and classmates. Fans of James Patterson, Karin Slaughter, Hannibal Lecter, the Dexter series, and Gone Girl will be hooked.

My review

The Intern is book 3 in the Brooke Walton series, but can easily be read as a stand alone book.

This book starts off with Brooke participating in a rather horrific event in Cancun, Mexico. As always, Brooke feels perfectly justified in her response to the attempted attack on her, but she does make a rather unfortunate mistake this time around which has an impact on future events in the story.

Brooke is as focused and perfectionist as ever and has managed to get a great job as an intern at the local medical examiners office. She is hoping to have opportunities to participate in autopsies and learn more about the functioning of the human body as well as find out about the effects of diseases and unnatural death. Brooke quickly discovers two things at the medical examiners office. The first is that the doctor in charge, Dr Gold, does not seem to like her and relegates her initially to data entry and the second is that someone has been making some serious mistakes and entering certain bodies as having being autopsied when they have not. Brooke feels she must bring these errors to the attention of Dr Gold and, by doing so, sets in motion a series of events that results in her being out of control of her own life for the first time ever.

This book was a bit different from the first two books in the series and redirected the path of Brooke’s life to a certain extent. This needed to happen if the series was to continue and it added a lot of new thrills, excitement and some interesting new insights into Brooke’s fascinating physiology. As always, despite Brooke being a serial killer, I found my self routing for her and hoping for a good outcome to the story as far as she was concerned. The outcome certainly takes a must unexpected turn, but this added greatly to the story and the series as a whole. I will definitely be reading Book 4 when it comes out.

Purchase The Intern: A Dark Thriller

During the brief interlude between their visit to the burned-out farm and re-joining their commando, Pieter’s hair and beard became streaked with grey and new lines creased his skin burned brown by the sun. A shadow of desolation filmed his once bright eyes and his mouth curved down at the sides. They speculated that their families had been taken to the Mafeking concentration camp, but they could not be sure. They did not even know if they were still alive. Terrible stories about the poor conditions at the camps circulated among the various commandoes as they traversed the countryside.

The above 99-word piece of flash fiction is for Charli Mills’ Carrot Ranch challenge. You can join in here: https://carrotranch.com/2019/09/20/september-19-flash-fiction-challenge/

She sits on the hard wooden chair, murmuring softly to herself. She has been dried and dressed in warm clothes, but she hasn’t noticed. A bruise, shockingly dark against her alabaster skin, runs along her cheekbone where one of the nurses hit her with a broom handle.

She had clung to her sanity for weeks. Mentally steeling herself against the pain and humiliation when they beat her with the broom handle and jumped on her body. Fortifying her mind against the horror of being restrained using a straight jacket and left in a dark isolated cell for up to forty eight hours. She had even manage to preserve her sanity by cushioning her mind with happy memories from the past when they had tied her hands and feet, thrown a sheet over her head, twisting it tightly around her throat to prevent her screaming, and submerged her in a bathtub filled with cold water for hours.

It was their administration of the drug, metrazol, that had done it. Her frail body had twisted and jerked with seizure-like convulsions that had fractured her vertebrae and her mind.  All conscious thought had receded into deep crevices in her mind, away from the pain and the constant torment.

A nurse enters the room and sits down opposite her, a bowl of coarse bread and milk on her lap. She fills a spoon and pokes it towards the girl’s slack mouth, which opens like the beak of a baby bird.

After she is fed she sits on the hard wooden chair, murmuring softly to herself.

This piece was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo prompt. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/09/19/thursday-photo-prompt-murmur-writephoto/