The One Chosen: A Diasodz Short story by Yvette M. Calleiro

What Amazon says

Valerie is eager to learn the skills needed to become a Diasodz warrior, but when she meets her new trainer, all she can think about is him.

Nolan is a master trainer who has taught thousands of fledglings throughout his life. He has never had a relationship with a student nor does he plan to.

When Nolan and Valerie are thrust together on a routine mission, nothing goes as planned. If they want to survive, they will need to trust each other. But how do you trust someone who has rejected you? Nolan and Valerie must find a way or lose each other forever.

Note: This short story is related to the Chronicles of the Diasodz series. It takes place in the early 1600s and sets the stage for a major conflict in the series. It can be read alone, but if you enjoy it, I encourage you to read the series.

My review

I have read the first book, The One Discovered, in the greater series to which this short story belongs and enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed this short story even more than the longer book and thought the author did an excellent job of developing an interesting and emotional love story within the short word count of this book.

Valarie has recently experienced her death day and is embarking on her first training camp to become a Diosodz warrior. Her older sister is a trainer at the camp Valarie will be attending and she is unsure whether that is an advantage or not. Two men, Alo and Nolan, comprise the trio of trainers and Valarie is immediately attracted to the handsome but distant Nolan.

During her time spent under Nolan’s tutelage, Valarie can sense Nolan’s interest in her but he is determined to push his attraction to her aside, even when Valarie makes her own interest obvious. Hurt and puzzled by his rebuff, Valarie becomes friendly with Drake, a master trainer who is visiting the camp. Valarie passes her training with flying colours and goes on to attain her first assignment. Valarie is rather taken aback when she is paired with Nolen for her first venture into enemy territory but she undertakes to make the most of it, despite her reservations. Adverse circumstances led to changes in Valarie and Nolan’s relationship that they never anticipated.

I enjoyed the character of Valarie. She is intelligent and determined as well as confident enough to speak her mind. She is also able to cope with rejection and difficult situations, both emotionally and physically.

Nolan is a complex character and his back story is not revealed in this short book so I will have to wait for it to be unpacked in the greater series. He has obviously experience some sort of loss and pain that has resulted in his barricading himself against a potential romance, but his softer and more appealing side is gradually unveiled as the story progresses.

A well written and enjoyable short story.

Purchase The One Chosen by Yvette M. Calleiro

Amazon US

Unhinged: A Micro-Read by John Podlaski

What Amazon says

Two fourteen-year-old boys are offered a great first-time opportunity to watch a movie by themselves at a local drive-in theater. Little did they know that the movie would affect them in ways neither imagined nor will ever forget.

My review

Unhinged is a quick read about two boys who help out cleaning up at the drive in one afternoon and, in return, get provided with a good supply of takeaway food and watch the movie of that evening for free. The movie is a horror movie about zombies and the two teenagers discover how unnerving it is to sit in the near dark watching something designed to scare them silly. Everyone around them is safe and secure in their cars but they are exposed sitting outside on the grass. After the movie the pair walk home and discover something or someone is following them. Is it a murderer or a zombie? Is it real or just their imagination? An entertaining short story that will bring back memories to anyone who ever watched something really scary with a mate in the dark.

Purchase Unhinged: A Micro-Read by John Podlaski

Amazon US

Turn The Light On by Pat Garcia

What Amazon says

Would you ever accept a dinner invitation to meet a stranger who never spoke one word to you during your time together? Would you accept that you could not even sit at the same table with them? How about, you don’t even know their name and you continue this “game” for months?

Meet Della Cartwright. A superstar at what she does professionally, but when the tall, mysterious, Italian stranger, Alessio Terracina, enters her world, she begins to question her judgment and everything about her.

In this short story which takes place over the course of one day, this otherwise savvy businesswoman is led into making decisions that could jeopardize her professional life and maybe even cost her her freedom. But the greatest danger … just might be to her fragile heart.

Shalom aleichem,
Pat Garcia

My review

Della Cartwright is in a mess, someone has been depositing large sums of money into her bank account for months and now she thinks the mysterious man she has been flirting with from afar may be using her to launder money. As Della pours out her anxiety about this strange situation to her boss, she wonders what this is going to mean for her future. Della is a top dealer at her company where she works in Foreign Exchange Settlements. How could she have let this happen?

As with many things in life, this situation is not what it seems and as this fascinating short story unravels the reader gets to understand more about Della’s past life and current circumstances, and how her unusual romance came about. You also get to meet Della’s romantic interest and to understand how he feels about Della and their intriguing relationship.

I really enjoyed this story which is different with both the age group of it’s characters [middle aged] and its story line, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a unique and well written short story that keeps you engaged from beginning to end.

Purchase Turn The Light On by Pat Garcia

Amazon US

My blogging friend Rebecca Budd is currently participating in a #KaramazovReadalong, you can read about it here: https://ontheroadbookclub.com/2021/07/27/karamazovreadalong-day-1-who-is-fyodor/.

The reading group are reading one chapter a day of this book and it inspired me to tackle Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri in the same manner. I must say that reading a chapter a day does make this book a lot easier to read. I have both the audio book and the unabridged translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Before I started the unabridged version, I listed to an excellent abridged BBC version so that I knew the basic outline of the story. I have read Inferno before, but a long time ago, so I needed the refresher.

Sharing a Chapter or Canto a day on Facebook isn’t working for me so I’ve decided to share a Canto a week on my blog.

Canto 1 finds Dante, a 35 year old man, lost in a dark wood. Dante’s inability to find the ‘straight path’ means that he has lost his way in life. This does not mean that Dante had committed any dreadful sin, but rather that he has strayed from his own ideas of righteousness and morality.

Dante sees the sun shining on a nearby hilltop and he starts to climb the hill, but he is confronted by three wild beasts. First, a leopard blocks his way and he has to evade it, then a lion appears, and lastly a fearful she-wolf who drives Dante back into the valley below.

Dante is despairing, but, just then, a figure approaches who Dante soon discovers is the spirit of Virgil the famous poet. Virgil was a pagan who lived in the time of false gods. Virgil tells Dante that he has been instructed by the spirit of the beautiful and blessed Beatrice, a gentlewoman from his youth who died at the age of 24, to undertake a journey through the 9 circles of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Virgil will accompany Dante through Hell and Purgatory and another guide will take him through Paradise, due to Virgil’s status as a pagan.

One of my favourite extracts from Canto 1:

“Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;

Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,

For she doth make my veins and pluses tremble.”

“Thee it behoves to take another road,”

Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,

“If from this savage place though wouldst escape;

Because this beast, at which thou criest out,

Suffers not any one to pass her way,

But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;”

Welcome to Thursday Doors, 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 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

During our recent mini break to Magaliesberg Mountains, we visited the Bush Babies Monkey Sanctuary. It was a wonderful visit. The monkeys have a very large enclosure to roam and are safe and well fed. They have all sorts of small monkeys and lemurs which are very brazen and come right up to you. One was so enthusiastic he wee’d on my head. My family thought it was hilarious.

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I also took a few short videos of the monkeys.

This first one is the monkeys being fed:

This one is a greedy little fellow trying to grab as much as possible.

This one was just so adorable:

I really adored visiting the monkeys and I could have stayed there all day. They have the cutest little hands and feet and I am glad they are in a safe environment where they can flourish. Unfortunately, there isn’t much room left for the animals with human expansion and intervention so this is the most viable solution for these little guys.

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/08/26/pittsburgh-leftovers/

We are going on adventure. See you next week Tuesday.

What Amazon says

PenCraft 2019 Best Book of the Year Award

A Celtic warrior princess is torn between her forbidden love for the enemy and duty to her people. 

AWARD-WINNING APOLLO’S RAVEN sweeps you into an epic Celtic tale of forbidden love, mythological adventure, and political intrigue in Ancient Rome and Britannia. In 24 AD British kings hand-picked by Rome to rule are fighting each other for power. King Amren’s former queen, a powerful Druid, has cast a curse that Blood Wolf and the Raven will rise and destroy him. The king’s daughter, Catrin, learns to her dismay that she is the Raven and her banished half-brother is Blood Wolf. Trained as a warrior, Catrin must find a way to break the curse, but she is torn between her forbidden love for her father’s enemy, Marcellus, and loyalty to her people. She must summon the magic of the Ancient Druids to alter the dark prophecy that threatens the fates of everyone in her kingdom.

Will Catrin overcome and eradicate the ancient curse. Will she be able to embrace her forbidden love for Marcellus? Will she cease the war between Blood Wolf and King Amren and save her kingdom?

My review

Apollo’s Raven is a beautifully written book about life in the time of the Celtic kings and the Roman conquerors. I am a huge fan of historical books and this is not a time period I know a lot about. Ms Tanner’s research was excellent and I appreciated her attention to detail with regards the everyday lives of her characters.

The history is interwoven with a mystical element that suits the storyline and the time period as it includes druid magic, shape shifting, visions and curses, as well as the ability to change the future.

The story opens with Catrin, the youngest daughter of King Amren, melding with the spirit of her pet raven and watching the arrival of a party of Romans through its eyes. Princess Catrin intuitively knows that the arrival of these Romans means trouble for her father and her people especially since her brother, Marrock, is with them. Marrock was cast out by her father years before after his mother, the Queen, was beheaded by King Amren for plotting against him.

When Catrin arrives back at her village the Romans are already there. They have come to investigate claims by Marrock that he is the rightful heir to King Amren’s thrown. It’s quickly revealed that a neighbouring rival king is backing Marrocks claim in order to diminish King Amren’s power and authority in the region. The leader of the Roman’s has brought his young son, Marcellus with him, and when negotiations between King Ameron and the Roman leader turn sour, it is agreed that hostages will be traded until an agreement between King Ameron and his Celtic rival is reached. Catrin’s sister goes with the Roman’s and Marcellus is left with the Celts.

There is a strong attraction between Catrin and Marcellus and romance soon starts to blossom.

Catrin was a wonderful and strong female character who could not be intimidated or broken, but who knew her duty and where her loyalties had to lie for the good of her family and people. She is an interesting mixture of soft and strong, reflective and determined, and is loyal and trustworthy. It was an eye opener to learn the different attitudes towards women demonstrated by the Romans and the Celts. King Ameron treats his wife as his equal which shocks and dismays the Roman leader.

This book will appeal to lovers of historical romance who appreciate reliable and solid research and good writing.

Purchase Apollo’s Raven

Amazon US

Amazon UK

The Challenge by Herman Charles Bosman

Written on 29 September 1927

Sometimes I hear, from dreaming awoken,

A faint sound which the night wind blows;

It brings me, what I’ve often heard spoken,

The Challenge – “Halt! Who goes!”

Nor knowing how, our hearts beat fleeter,

Our blood with fiercer fervor flows,

When on the way we chance to meet her,

And Life says, “Halt! Who goes!”

Nor knowing why, there softly lingers,

The fragrance of the perfumed rose,

When first we glimpse her beckoning fingers,

And Love says, “Halt! Who goes!”

But that dread hour – how will we take it?

When stripped of panoplies and shows,

We tongueless face him coldly naked,

And Death says, “Halt! Who goes!”

By Herman Charles Bosman

About Herman Charles Bosman

Herman Charles Bosman (February 3, 1905–October 14, 1951) was born at Kuilsrivier, near Cape Town, and is considered the greatest short story writer from South Africa. Although he wrote in English, he became famous for capturing the rhythms of backveld Afrikaans speech, as evidenced in his Oom Schalk Lourens (oom means “uncle” in Afrikaans) stories and the Voorkamer sketches. Only three of his books were published during his lifetime: Mafeking Road, inspired by his trips to London; Jacaranda in the Night; and Cold Stone Jug, based on his years spent in jail for shooting his stepbrother during an argument.

This is a fun YouTube video I found about Herman Charles Bosman’s famous peach brandy or Mampoer as it is called locally:

Here is an extract from one of Herman Charles Bosman’s short stories: Starlight on the Veld:

“IT WAS A COLD NIGHT (Oom Schalk Lourens said), the stars shone with that frosty sort of light that you see on the wet grass some mornings, when you forget that it is winter, and you get up early, by mistake. The wind was like a girl sobbing out her story of betrayal to the stars.

Jan Ockerse and I had been to Derdepoort by donkey-cart. We came back in the evening. And Jan Ockerse told me of a road round the foot of a koppie that would be a short cut back to Drogevlei. Thus it was that we were sitting on the veld, close to the fire, waiting for the morning. We would then be able to ask a [passerby] to tell us a short cut back to the foot of that koppie.

“But I know that it was the right road,” Jan Ockerse insisted, flinging another armful of wood on the fire.

“Then it must have been the wrong koppie,” I answered, “or the wrong donkey-cart. Unless you also want me to believe that I am at this moment sitting at home, in my voorkamer.”

The light from the flames danced frostily on the spokes of a cartwheel, and I was glad to think that Jan Ockerse must be feeling as cold as I was.

“It is a funny sort of night,” Jan Ockerse said, “and I am very miserable and hungry.”

I was glad of that, too. I had begun to fear that he was enjoying himself.

“Do you know how high up the stars are?” Jan asked me next.

“No, not from here,” I said, “but I worked it all out once, when I had a pencil. That was on the Highveld, though. But from where we are now, in the Lowveld, the stars are further away. You can see that they look smaller, too.”

“Yes, I expect so,” Jan Ockerse answered, “but a school-teacher told me a different thing in the bar at Zeerust. He said that the stargazers work out how far away a star is by the number of years that it takes them to find it in their telescopes. This school-teacher dipped his finger in the brandy and drew a lot of pictures and things on the bar counter, to show me how it was done. But one part of his drawings always dried up on the counter before he had finished doing the other part with his finger. He said that was the worst of that dry sort of brandy. Yet he didn’t finish his explanations, because the barmaid came and wiped it all off with a rag. Then the school-teacher told me to come with him and he would use the blackboard in the other classroom. But the barmaid wouldn’t allow us to take our glasses into the private bar, and the school-teacher fell down just about then, too.”

“He seems to be one of that new kind of school-teacher,” I said, “the kind that teaches the children that the earth turns round the sun. I am surprised they didn’t sack him.”

“Yes,” Jan Ockerse answered, “they did.”

I was glad to hear that also.

It seemed that there was a waterhole near where we were out-spanned. For a couple of jackals started howling mournfully. Jan Ockerse jumped up and piled more wood on the fire.”

I have read and enjoyed many of this authors short stories.

Welcome to Thursday Doors, 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 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

For some reason or other, my wedding was on my mind this week. I thought about it so much that I pulled out my wedding album and looked through it for the first time in quite a while. There were no digital photographs in 2001 so our pictures were the traditional kind with negatives. The photographer never gave us the negatives so we only have the pictures and album we purchased at the time.

I took pictures of the pictures for this post and didn’t think they came out to badly. Terence and I got married at a wedding venue called Toadbury Hall. It was very pretty and the name reminded me of my favourite book, Wind in the Willows. We got married on a Friday because it was a lot cheaper and we paid for our own wedding.

There are two lovely pictures with doors that I thought I would share today.

This is me coming out of the front door of my parent’s home.

This is Terence and I outside the church after the service.

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We had sunflowers against a dark blue background. I spend three months talking Terence into sunflowers and dark blue. I then waivered a bit and that was when I discovered that once I’d talked hubby into something, I would never change his mind again.

Our menu and seating plan. I actually forgot to do one and had to be asked for it by the venue. Haha, this was the first event I ever organised in my life.

This was our wedding cake. A basket of sunflowers. I still love it!

This last picture shows the main doors of the venue.

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/08/12/to-the-north-shore/

This poem, The child is not dead, by South African poet, Ingrid Jonker, is deeply moving. Reading the About Ingrid Jonker section below before reading the poem will give context to the poet and this poem.

The child is not dead

The child is not dead
The child lifts his fists against his mother
Who shouts Afrika ! shouts the breath
Of freedom and the veld
In the locations of the cordoned heart

The child lifts his fists against his father
in the march of the generations
who shouts Afrika ! shout the breath
of righteousness and blood
in the streets of his embattled pride

The child is not dead not at Langa nor at Nyanga
not at Orlando nor at Sharpeville
nor at the police station at Philippi
where he lies with a bullet through his brain

The child is the dark shadow of the soldiers
on guard with rifles Saracens and batons
the child is present at all assemblies and law-givings
the child peers through the windows of houses and into the hearts of mothers
this child who just wanted to play in the sun at Nyanga is everywhere
the child grown to a man treks through all Africa.

About Ingrid Jonker

From SA History Organisation

On 19 July 1965, Ingrid Jonker, a South African poet, committed suicide by walking into the sea. Jonker was 31 Years old.

The advanced ideas inherent in Ingrid Jonker’s poems have made her a recognized literary figure internationally, with her poems being studied, translated and published in many languages including English, German, French, Dutch, Polish, Hindi and Zulu.

The collected works of Jonker, including several short stories and a play, were published in 1975 and re-issued in 1983 and 1994. Much of Jonker’s early writing related to the episodes and trauma of her early life. Yet as a mature poet, Jonker never failed to express compassion for her fellow human beings, reflecting a refreshing innocence devoid of pernicious social prejudice and hatred.

This seminal Afrikaans language poet sensitively engaged with the cause of the poor and the lot of black South Africans from the position of a common humanity.

Jonker’s work was condemned by her father, then a leading member of the National Party and the chairperson of the parliamentary committee responsible for the apartheid system of censorship.

In April 2004, Jonker was posthumously awarded the Order of Ikhamanga by the South African government for “her excellent contribution to literature and a commitment to the struggle for human rights and democracy in South Africa”.

On 24 May 1994, in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament in Cape Town, President Nelson Mandela read this poem by Ingrid Jonker.

You can listen to Nelson Mandela reading this poem here:

You can read more about Ingrid Jonker here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Jonker

Welcome to Thursday Doors, 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 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

Pashley Manor is a Grade 1 listed house in East Sussex, England. It is known for its wonderful English country garden and craft market. My mom and I visited it specifically to tour the 11 acres of beautiful gardens.

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You can join in Thursday doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/08/05/random-pittsburgh-doors/