When Mosiko arrives for work shortly, she will ask him to help her carry the cages from the barn, and assist her in setting them up, one at a time, in front of the chicken coop door. A bit of food sprinkled on the ground would be enough to attract the stupid birds out of their chicken coop and into the cage when she released them from captivity by opening the door. Once safely inside, Mosiko would then help her carry the occupied cages back to the barn, ready to be hung under the wagon before the family trekked.

This piece of 99-word flash fiction was written for Charli Mills’ Flash Fiction Challenge. You can join in here: https://carrotranch.com/2020/01/03/january-2-flash-fiction-challenge/

In South Africa, we refer to a chicken run and a chicken coop rather than a chicken hutch.

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends, I hope you have all had enjoyable festive periods and enjoyed Christmas, if you celebrate.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve celebration at my sister, Hayley’s, house. She is the third daughter of four and has two sons, Ryan and Ben, who are great friends with my two boys. She served a most delicious meal of gammon, beef and roast chicken with some lovely salads. I did some experimenting with breads and made a pumpkin seed and honey wholewheat loaf and a cheese and olive loaf, both of which were delicious. I was off the hook for puddings this year as everyone else had offered to make so I didn’t feel a need to make one.

Christmas day was celebrated at home and we had two of my three sisters over with their families as well as my parents, my aunt and my husband’s grandmother, mother and sister. It was a wonderful day and we all ate well and relaxed. Our Christmas menu was a bit different this year and we had gammon and baked fish served cold with a selection of salads. I did more bread experimenting and made a pumpkin seed and wholewheat yogurt loaf and a cornbread loaf. Everything was delicious.

Our New Year has been very quiet as first Terence and then my son, Greg, went down with a stomach bug. We had to cancel our dinner plans for last night and tea with the family today. Such is life. I have spent a lot of today washing soiled bed linen and towels. At least everything is crisply clean for the new year.

On the writing front, I had a good year, publishing my first full length young adult supernatural fantasy novel, Through the Nethergate, in October. I have had some lovely reviews and am very satisfied with this book as a first novel and plunge into a different genre.

I also participated in three anthologies this year. Death Among Us, edited by Stephen Bentley, came out in June and is now available as an audiobook as well as a paperback and ebook. I have three supernatural murder mystery stories in this anthology.

In October, Nightmareland, edited by Dan Alatorre came out. This horror anthology has reached the number 1 bestseller spot in its genre twice in the past few months. Nightmareland, in which I have three horror short stories, is the sequel to Dark Visions, horror anthology, in which my first two horror short stories were published in 2018.

In November, Whispers of the Past, a paranormal anthology edited by Kaye Lynne Booth, became available as an ebook. I have two short stories in this book.

During the second half of 2019, I wrote the first 40 000 words of the first book in a new series I am planning. The book explores a future world where the population is dealing with the effects of climate change and the fourth industrial revolution. I have put this one aside to finish my historical supernatural novel about the South African War of 1899 to 1902 which I wrote as a short story while Through the Nethergate was with my editor.

It turns out that my three ghosts from this period have an awful lot to say about their experiences in the war and my modern character, Michelle, is also in a pickle and needs a lot of words to get her out of it, so this short story which started at 5 000 words and then grew to 30 000 words is now approximately 55 000 words and still going. I have added 22 000 words to this book over the past few weeks of the year end holiday period. The historical nature of this book has meant a lot of research so it is a bit of a labour of love, but I am enjoying it tremendously. So far, I have used over 20 diaries and thesis’ as well as other internet sources to build up the story line based on actual facts. The book presents both the British and the Afrikaans points of view, in what I hope is a balanced and fair way.

I am hoping to finish this book by the end of February and send it along to Esther Chilton for developmental editing with the aim off sending it to my publisher by the beginning of May. Esther has already looked at the 30 000 word version and given me comments which I have incorporated into my re-write. I got some of the inspiration for the two additional ghosts, Robert the British soldier and Estelle, the Boer girl poltergeist as a result of her comments so developmental editing is definitely worth it for me.

I am also planning to submit two short stories to Kaye Lynne Booth’s 2020 WordCrafter short story competition. I already have my ideas for these two stories, both of which will be about the days of the settlers in South Africa. If you want to enter, you will find the details here: https://kayelynnebooth.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/announcing-the-2020-wordcrafter-short-fiction-contest/

I have my work long leave of an extra 22 days coming due in May this year so I hope to take two weeks off in June to start working on the second book in my mother’s fictionalised biography which will be called After the Bombs Fell.

What are your goals for 2020? Let me know in the comments.

Look carefully at

any offer made to you

the base may not be

as reliable as you

would have thought or expected

by Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Written for Colleen Chesebro’s weekly poetry challenge which you can join in here: https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/12/17/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-158-photoprompt/

What Amazon says

Lynn Hill left a difficult childhood behind when she turned eighteen. The 1980s were going to be the beginning of a great life. Then what started as an ordinary evening out with her best friend, Stacy, turns into a nightmare. Lynn hears warnings: “Go!” “Leave!” Believing she is hearing things after partying too much, she goes back for one more drink before going home. That decision sets off a chain of events that nothing could have prepared her for. While humans and not-so-human beings are attempting to either help or harm her, Lynn risks everything to find the only person she trusts, Stacy. Who can help her? The stepbrother who shows up right when she needs him or the attractive, helpful bartender who gives her his phone number? Lynn must learn to trust again. Her survival depends on it in this paranormal thriller.

My review

Lynn has grown up in an abusive family with a mother who drinks heavily and a step-father who is physically and verbally abusive towards both Lynn and his biological son, Warren. She escaped home as quickly as she could and is living on with her best friend, Staci, and working as an assistant hairdresser.

Unknown to her, Lynn has a pair of guardian angels who have been watching over her for years. The angels are aware that terrible events lie in Lynn’s immediate life path and they are tasked with trying to help her avert the worst outcome. The angels can only guide and are unable to overtly change the course of Lynn’s life; she has to make her own choices from her own free will.

One evening Lynn goes out partying with her friend, Staci, and things get wildly out of hand with alcohol and drugs. Lynn wakes up in a strange house next to the body of a dead young man. Staci has disappeared subsequent to leaving the bar with an unknown but gorgeous stranger. Lynn decides against reporting the death to the police and this decision sets in motion a series of events which may or may not have turned out differently had she made a different choice. Lynn is pulled into a frightening struggle to find her friend and save both their lives with a little bit of help from her angels.

I enjoyed Lynn’s character and how she stepped up as the plot unfolded, learning to rely more on her instincts or the guiding voices she hears and learning to first love and secondly forgive. The book has quite a significant family drama side story and I enjoyed discovering bits and pieces of information about her family and seeing it all come together neatly at the end.

Kent, Lynn’s friend, cum boyfriend, is a lovely character. Patient and kind he evolves as the perfect soulmate for Lynn and it is pleasant to watch their romance coming into fruition.

The supernatural elements are clever and well written, making the story quite believable. Aside form the angels, there is also the evildwel that takes possession of “host” humans whom it can manipulate into fulfilling its evil desires. The descriptions of the evildwel were deliciously creepy, especially the glimpses of it that Lynn catches in the eyes of its current host who is stalking her.

All in, a fast moving and entertaining story which lovers of paranormal thrillers will enjoy.

Purchase The Button by D.L. Finn

From a distance the numerous lights on the tree blend together, creating an interconnected and continuous display of light that shimmers in the darkness of the dim room. A series of interesting kaboom sounds simultaneously fills the room.

Janet smiles as her twin sons, Shane and Ryan, gasp with delight when the lights flare up even brighter than before. In the large tank next to the Christmas tree, the electric eel is feeding. He chases through the dark water emitting high voltage shocks as he tries to stun the pieces of food before consuming them.

“How does it work?” Shane asks the man in attendance, his voice shrill with excitement.

“Whenever the eel discharges electricity, sensors in the water deliver the charge to a set of speakers”, the man says. “The speakers convert the charge into the sounds you can hear and the flashing Christmas lights. The sounds are loudest and the lights brightest when he is eating or excited.”

“Wow, Mom, this has got to be the bet Christmas tree ever,” says Shane.

“Yes,” says Ryan, “the next step is to harness the charges from all the eels in the aquarium to power the lights and the other fish tanks. It’ll be the most innovative and environmentally friendly system in the world.”

This post was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo challenge. You can join in here:  https://scvincent.com/2019/12/05/thursday-photo-prompt-shimmer-writephoto/

This is the last post in my series about the Brontë family which Sue Vincent has kindly shared on her fabulous blog, Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo. Anne is the least well known of the three sisters and died the youngest, but her books are also enduring and ahead of their time. Thank you, Sue, for hosting me.

The Brontë family

Charlotte Brontë’s amethyst hair bracelet, Photo credit: Brontë Parsonage Museum, J14, © The Bronte Society

Anne Brontë

Background

Anne Bronté was the youngest of the six Bronté siblings and she was only one year old when her mother died. Anne’s two novels, Agnes Grey, based on her experiences as a governess, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, are both classics along with the works of her two sisters, Charlotte and Emily.

Following the death of her sister, Emily, in December 1848, Anne, who was particularly close to Emily, was grief stricken. This is believed to have undermined her health to such an extent that when she caught influenza over Christmas, she just didn’t rally. In early January, a doctor diagnosed her condition as consumption or tuberculosis and gave her a poor prospect of recovery. Anne expressed frustration at her diagnosis to her friend Ellen Nussey by saying:

“I have no horror of death: if I thought it inevitable I think I could quietly resign myself to the prospect … But I wish it would please God to spare me not only for Papa’s and Charlotte’s sakes but because I long to do some good in the world before I leave it. I have many schemes in my head for future practice –humble and limited indeed – but still I should not like them all to come to nothing, and myself to have lived to so little purpose. But God’s will be done.”

It was during her last days that she wrote the poem, A dreadful darkness closes in, the first three stanzas of which are as follows:

A dreadful darkness closes in

On my bewildered mind;

O let me suffer and not sin,

Be tortured yet resigned.

Through all this world of whelming mist

Still let me look to Thee,

And give me courage to resist

The Tempter till he flee.

Weary I am — O give me strength

And leave me not to faint;

Say Thou wilt comfort me at length

And pity my complaint.

Carry on reading here: https://scvincent.com/2019/12/06/guest-author-robbie-cheadle-anne-bronte/

Open, Shut: A Short Story by Nonnie Jules

What Amazon says

Darcy Lynn has a few problems. Her sister, Lola, killed by a drunk driver, leaves her with an eerie message right before her death; her parents are atheists; her father drinks a little too much, and her brother, Bud, is just annoying. But, her most pressing issue is that things are mysteriously opening and closing around her and she hasn’t a clue as to why…or how.

In this short “sad but uplifting story with a wonderful message,” as one reader tags it, Author, Nonnie Jules flexes her writing chops once again, by introducing her readers to a normal, every day family, whose lives are altered, not once, but twice by unexpected and unusual circumstances.

If you came into this story only believing in things seen with your own two eyes, you walk away with a new and refreshing added sense…the ability and the courage to change, based on where your heart leads you.

My review

This is the first book I have read by Nonnie Jules and I enjoyed it a great deal. Darcy Lynn and her younger brother are the admiring younger siblings of Lola. A bright and vivid personality with an ever ready smile, Lola is the heart of their family. She is an extraordinary girl with a real sense of family and lots of time for her younger siblings.

One dark and dreary morning, the three siblings are walking to school when a terrible car accident claims Lola’s life and her family are left to deal with the fallout. Darcy’s parents are atheists so they do not have Faith to turn to during this time of trouble.

A few years later, Darcy is feeling despondent, the effects of the loss of her wonderful older sister still hang heavily over her family with her father having found solace in alcohol and her mother maintaining her sister’s old bedroom as a shrine. Darcy goes into her dead sister’s bedroom and finds and reads her diary. This action hugely impacts on her life and that of her family, allowing them to re-discover their lost Faith and move forward along life’s path in a positive way.

I liked the style of writing of this book and the inclusion of the diary entries which are read by Darcy during her time in her sister’s bedroom. The ending is rolled out cleverly with the positive outcomes highlighted in a clever and natural way.

Purchase Open, Shut: A Short Story

Jewel by Jan Sikes

What Amazon says

For almost eighteen years, Jewel has known little beyond hopelessness and hunger. Barely existing in a ramshackle cabin, on the edge of a Louisiana swamp with her little sister and their mother, she sees no way to stop the downward spiral. When her mother falls gravely ill, Jewel learns that her life is about to take a drastic turn. But will it lead to joy or more devastation?

Take a heart-warming journey with Jewel as she struggles to rise from the clutches of poverty and shame.

My review

This is an enjoyable short story about a young girl, Jewel, whose family experiences extremely hard times following a work accident by her father. He finds solace in drinking and his family slides further and further into poverty as his ability to support them declines. Their circumstances take a turn for the worse when he suddenly disappears, never to return.

Jewel realises that her mother is very ill as she has a hacking cough and knows that something has to be done to save her younger sister, her mother and herself. She persuades her mother to go into the town and see a doctor. Her mother, however, returns with finery for her beautiful daughter, Jewel, instead of the expected medicine and the two girls soon realise that their mother, who is dying, has given them away to the best takers she can find.

Jewel goes to work for a Madam in a brothel and her younger sister is put into foster care. Interestingly, Jewel doesn’t fight against her fate, seeming to quickly accept that she has no other options for the time being.

Jewel becomes an object of interest for one of the brothel’s wealthy clients. Will she find happiness or will she become just another mistress to be cast aside when her admirer looses interest? You will have to read the book to find out.

Purchase Jewel

Charli Mills has given us the word winners this week for the 99-word flash fiction challenge. Here is my piece:

“He shuddered at the sight that beheld his desolate eyes. Stiff bodies ending in bloody stumps where their heads had been blown to pieces. Others, in which the pulse of life still beat, despite their shattered limbs lying in parts all over the field, spurted blood in bright sprays. There was also the noise; the screams and shrieks of pain from those who could muster the energy to expel such sounds from their desperate throats. These combined with the underlying low pitched moans and relentless whining of the dying, to form a symphony of despair. War had no winners.”

You can join in Charli’s challenge here: https://carrotranch.com/2019/11/28/november-28-flash-fiction-challenge/

What Amazon says

This book contains a collection of beautiful art, plus the personal stories of the 23 multi-talented contributors. The common thread through their lives is that each woman has overcome physical and other challenges to become a successful artist in the textile medium.

My review

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I purchased this book about the artwork created by twenty three physically challenged artists, and it really exceeded any expectations I might have had. Each of the twenty three contributors to this anthology has provided some background to their particular disability and how it effects them in their daily lives. The disabilities are far ranging and most people will have come across at least one, if not more, of them in their daily interactions.

Some of the artists are blind or deaf, some were born disabled or became disabled through diseases like polio or cancer, one woman was shot at close range and another had an accident at work. They all have one thing in common, they have all evolved into fulfilled and happy people through the therapy offered by their fiber artwork. It is incredible to read these stories and understand how someone who has had to learn to cope with a fairly difficult change to their lifestyle, is able to gain so much benefit from their artwork and create such beautiful and meaningful works for other people to enjoy.

There are photographs of each ladies artwork and these are stunning. I have never seen such beautiful quilts. There are contact details for each of the ladies so that readers can contact them should they wish too.

Purchase Artful Alchemy: Physically Challenged Fiber Artists Creating