“Pieter stood up and stretched gently, trying not to escalate the ache in his ribs to an unbearable pain. The 30 000 Kruger pounds he’d been given should be safe until he could come back for them.

With a sign of relief, Pieter made his way to the barn which housed his covered wagon. Mosiko and Mhlopi arrived and assisted him with inspanning the oxen in preparation for the trek to his brother’s farm which was quite a distance away from any major cities or towns.

We will be safer there.

The other farmworkers were sent to round up his cattle and goats, a tedious task which would take two to three hours.

Pieter checked the yokes, skeis and strops for each pair of oxen. He did not want his animals to be damaged in any way during the journey. Next he checked the trek chain, wooden wheels and spokes and the iron tyres covering the rims of the wheels. He filled the water barrel and hung it under the wagon with the cages filled with chickens.

When he was satisfied that the wagon was ready for the journey, Pieter spoke to his farmworkers: “The British soldiers are coming. Mosiko and Mhlopi will come with me and lead the oxen. Feile and Kleinbooi will help me to drive the cattle. The rest of you must take your women and children and go back to your villages until the danger has passed.”

As he dismissed his farmworkers and told them to travel safely, bitterness burned in his heart like acid.

My farm is lost to me now. It is time for me to assess the future for me and my family.

The wagon was loaded with farm equipment, seeds, kitchen utensils, bedding and clothing. Lastly, Marta and their two little girls, Renette and Suné, wearing their button-up boots and carrying their rag dolls, climbed into the wagon. Mosiko, who assumed the position of voorloper when the family trekked, took his place at the head of the oxen to lead them. Mhlopi, the driver, would walk next to the oxen. Mhlopi cracked his shambok and the heavily-loaded wagon lurched down the rutted track that lead away into the bush veld.

He smiled down reassuringly at Marta from his position on his horse next to the wagon. “Willem and Sannie will be glad to see us. We can help them around their farm until we decide what to do next.”

An extract from A ghost and his gold which explains the meaning of inspanning a team of oxen in historical South Africa. This post was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly photo challenge which you can participate in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/07/04/thursday-photo-prompt-span-writephoto/ 

What Amazon says

An unpopular teenage girl whose mother is a religious fanatic is tormented and teased to the breaking point by her more popular schoolmates and uses her hidden telekinetic powers to inflict a terrifying revenge.

My review

Carrie, by Stephen King, is one of his shortest novels. It is also the King novel that had the greatest impact on me from a philosophical point of view as King expresses viewpoints about teenagers, and how they form themselves into social groups of different status, which are true and chilling. His unerring ability to strike to the core of teenage human nature and their driving need, as a group, to hunt in packs and to be accepted by one another, as well as their intolerance of difference, is frightening to read.

Carrie has been a social outcast since her first day at primary school when she gets down on her knees, as she has been taught to do, and says prayers before lunch. From that moment, Carrie is labeled “weird” and a “religious freak” and she has no hope of ever redeeming herself, no matter how hard she tries. Carrie is the product of a single parent home and her mother is willing to abuse her daughter, mentally and physically, in order to ensure she complies with her rigid and extreme religious views. Carrie is caught between trying to please a mother she does love, despite her abusive behaviour, and attempting to be accepted by her peers at school. We discover early on in the book that Carrie isn’t an ordinary girl, but possesses some rather extraordinary powers. Her mother has had a taste of her powers in the past and is extremely frightened that they  are gifts from the devil.

When Carrie becomes the victim of a school girl bullying event which involves the majority of her fellow students, one of the student’s, Sue, is so overcome by guilt, she decides to try and make amends for her bad behaviour. Sue convinces her boyfriend, Tommy, to take Carrie to the prom instead of her so that she can have a lovely evening to remember. Surprisingly, Tommy agrees and this starts of chain of events that quickly spiral out of control.

I am a great fan of Stephen King’s older works and I really enjoyed this book and the movie by the same name. I am not quite sure Carrie fits exactly into the horror book mold but it is certainly a gripping and fascinating story.

Purchase Carrie by Stephen King

From the diary of Jennifer Saunders

21 July

John left this morning to return to his work in the MidWest. The flooding and tornadoes have come to an end, but he is needed to help with the first stages of the clean-up operation. The scenes of destruction in Missouri, where he is headed, are too awful. One survivor has lost seven members of his family, including his four young children and his wife. The children were at home with their mother when the tornado hit. All of their bodies were found outside the house, which is no longer there. The images showed pictures of an old schoolbag, a doll and a single shoe scattered about the garden, as well as items of clothing caught among the branches of fallen trees. These things are all that is left of the victims former lives.

An email popped into his inbox while he was reading the stories. It provided positive feedback from the world government about his application to join the Military and Strategic Task Group. I was happy to see the cloud of sadness, at the misery he’d been viewing, lift. It’s better if he sets off in a positive frame of mind.

“I’m in,” he said, with a huge grin. “I’m going to be at the forefront of maintaining peace in the new society under our new world government’s direction. It’s so exciting.”

I hugged him, thrilled by his obvious pleasure at this success. “I’m delighted for you, darling.”

He kissed me on the top of my head. “It’s going to mean some changes for us. The work programme is structured as four weeks away and two weeks home, which is a little more arduous for you, but the pay is fantastic. We’ll be able to buy a place of our own.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll miss you, but I’ll manage. When are you going to resign?”

I’m going to tell Andrew when I see him tomorrow. I can’t be around him with this knowledge hanging over me, it’ll make me feel like a liar. I’ll hand in my official notice on the 30^th of June. I can only resign on either the 15^th or the 30^th of the month in terms of my employment contract. It’s all worked out well as I will finish at Climate Change Support Organisation on the 30^th of September and start the new job on the 15^th of October. That’ll give me two weeks to spend with you before I get back in the saddle.”

“That’s great. I’m looking forward to it already.”

“I’ve got to be admitted into the military hospital for a few days on the 15^th of October. The world government is introducing identification microchips for all world citizens which will be implanted over a twelve month period starting on that date. I’ll be one of the first to receive mine. Apparently, it is a very simple procedure and they insert it into the back of your hand. I’ll also be having a minor brain surgery where they’ll insert a microchip for mental health observation and maintenance into my brain.”

“Brain surgery,” I whispered. “You didn’t say anything about brain surgery after your interview.”

“It’s nothing,” he said, waving his hand to emphasis his point. “A tiny operation to insert the chip and the benefits are huge. It will monitor my brain functioning and serotonin levels. It will also give the doctors the ability to easily administer any of the new genetic modification procedures to enhance my immunity, longevity and a wide range of genetic diseases as the technology becomes available. I have to undergo the surgery, it’s a requirement of the job.”

“Okay, that helps explain it, but it does sound a bit frightening to be having brain surgery in order to take a job.”

“Its fine, Love, stop worrying,” and with a last farewell kiss, he left to catch his flight.

This post was written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. You can join in the challenge here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/06/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-29-19/

From the handwritten notes of Lisa Robinson

7 July

My job is being made redundant. My boss, Prof Thompson, said the company was retrenching all the executive secretaries and replacing them with new advanced voice recorder and audio editor technology.

“Most of the scientists and researchers elected to implement the new system which will record their work and transcribe it using the speech to text technology,” he said.

Anxiety clutched my heart at his words, but I forced a smile and said: “I understand why this technology is the popular choice, it will give them a lot of flexibility with the recording process. They will have the ability to quickly start and stop their recordings, add individual notes, upload their recordings to Dropbox, GoogleDrive or Onedrive or any other cloud storage provider and download recordings by USB cable or WiFi sync to their laptops. I can see its appeal.” Lisa’s smile trembled slightly at the thought of losing her salary and having to go through the pain of looking for a new job. It was not easy with her existing skill set which were becoming obsolete in the current fast-changing job market.

“Jeff and I were talking about you, Lisa. We have been impressed by your positive attitude to learning new things and developing your career. We would like to recommend you for retraining as a data analyst by the firm if you are prepared to undergo the skills upgrading over the next couple of years. If you are agreeable to this, we thought you continue to work with our team and assist with analysing the results of our findings and collating our conclusions. You will also be responsible for assisting me with the compliance and other reports I have to prepare on a monthly basis.”

My face lit up with pleasure at the compliment. “That would be great, Prof Thompson. I would love to continue to work with Jeff and you and I would welcome an opportunity to learn new skills that will make me more employable, now and going forward.”

“That great news, Lisa. We are looking forward to working with you in your new role. Thia will contact you about enrolling in the first six-month course at the end of August. Until then, you can work as an assistance to Jacques and start learning the ropes.”

I cannot describe in words my relief and pleasure at this turn of events. The words “one door closes and another opens”, a favourite saying of my mother’s, popped into my mind.

I wonder how much of this surprising offer is Jeff’s doing. I have always known he really likes me, even though I am married. My mother would say he is sweet on me. Prof Thompson is a lovely man, but he is so ditzy, I can’t see him thinking up this scheme on his own.

This post was written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo prompt. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/06/27/thursday-photo-prompt-open-writephoto/

What Amazon says

When swallowed, some souls gift insights, wisdom, a path to understanding. Others unleash power, proficiency with a sword, and indifference to death. One soul assimilates with ease. But swallow a host of the dead and risk a descent into madness.

Estranged from his family over the murder of his wife, young Raze Anvrell wields his fists to vent his rage. Then a chance at a new life beckons, and he retreats to the foothills of the Ravenwood, the haunt of unbound ghosts. He and his mentor build a freehold, a life of physical labor and the satisfaction of realizing a dream. They raise horses and whittle by the fire until the old man dies, and Raze swallows his first soul.

When his brother reaches out, open wounds begin to scar. But the tenuous peace won’t last. While those who rule the Vales yield to the lure of their ambitions, slavers of Ezar roam the countryside, hunting for human chattel. While one man manipulates the law, another heeds the souls of violence howling in his head.

Raze too listens to his soul’s whispers, and as danger intrudes on his quiet life, he has no choice but to return to his father’s world and join the fight.

***
In this completed series, epic fantasy blends with the wisdom of old souls to create a unique coming of age story of courage and honor in the midst of evil. Slavery is pitted against freedom, anger against forgiveness, and a desire to live peacefully against the necessity to take up the sword.

It’s a story of bitter estrangement and broken hearts, of deception and unfettered ambition. For Raze Anvrell it’s a journey of violence, redemption, and his soul’s growth as he transforms from a reckless youth into a man with a rich legacy of souls.

Magic, politics, love, and madness collide in this fantasy adventure. For lovers of beauty and battle, and complex characters willing to risk everything in the fight for their souls.

My review

I was attracted to this book by its unusual title. Soul Swallowers, what could that mean? I was amazed and delighted to discover that its meaning is quite literal and one of the themes of this book is the ability of the people in the author’s beautifully constructed fantasy world to physically swallow the souls of others, friends or foes, and acquire their characteristics, skills and abilities. I enjoyed how the author explored this aspect of the book and illustrated through her characters how the swallowing of souls impacted on the swallower, changing their personality if the soul was a contradiction to their own nature and causing internal turmoil. If the soul was a good fit, the swallower would benefit hugely from this process and the two souls would eventually meld and become completely harmonious. I found this concept unique and compelling.

The author has created a world in conflict and explores the possibilities for good and evil when one culture is consumed by another. Ideas and cultural policies that work well with a conqueror in this case the Ezar, are often badly transposed and their implementation manipulated for personal gain by the representatives of the conquerors and by the leaders of the conquered, who want to retain their positions of power under the new regime. The concept of slavery depicted in the Soul Swallowers and how its initial implementation by the Ezar is twisted in the Vales to the advantage of ruthless and unruly slavers clearly demonstrates this abuse of power. The uncaring attitude of the Vale leadership highlights the distrustful and back stabbing environment that emerges in such situations. As with other brilliant works of fantasy that draw analogies with real life happenings, the influences of Tolkien’s experiences in World War 1 and their influence on his series Lord of the Rings come to mind, the author has done an excellent job of creating a world which shares interesting ideas and thoughts on problems and issue that we are currently facing with integrating cultures in our current global world.

The main character, Raze Anvrell, is the son of one of the Vale leaders who rails against his father’s wishes for him to marry the daughter of a neighbouring Vale leader and bring about an alliance of their two families. When Raze discloses that he is already married, which results in the murder of his young wife, he turns his back on his family and disappears, building himself a life on a rural farm in the Vales. The growth of Raze’s character is intriguing to experience as he goes from being a bereaved, but rather spoiled young man, to developing into a kind and compassionate man who cares for the welfare of others. Raze’s path leads him to discover that you cannot always walk away from a bad system and sometimes you have to take a stand against it.

A fascinating and well written book and one I would recommend to readers of fantasy.

Purchase Soul Swallowers

Winner of last weeks giveaway for Double Blind by Dan Alatorre

Thank you to all of you who participated last week and wrote a comment. I put all your names in a hat and Greg drew out Marjorie Mallon of Kyrosmagica. Congratulations, Marje, I will be in contact with you to send you your prize.

I have been over at Sue Vincent’s fascinating blog, Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo, with a post about climbing boys and my short story featuring them in the forthcoming murder mystery anthology, Death Among Us. Thank you, Sue, for having me over.

About climbing boys

During the 1700s and 1800s, mainly male children often performed an occupation known as a climbing boy or chimney sweep. Many of the climbing boys were orphans, and in Great Britain many came from workhouses, and some were as young as 3 years old. As the child needed to be quite small to climb up the chimneys of the time, most climbing boys outgrew this occupation by the time they were nine or ten years old, although due to poor diet, some worked until they were as old as fourteen years.

The life of a climbing boys was dangerous as they climbed hot flues that could be a mere 7 inches square, although 14 inches by 9 inches was a common standard, and they could get jammed in the flue, suffocate or burn to death. The children developed raw, red skinless patches on their bodies from climbing up and down the stacks. These only went away when the climber developed calluses or the skin was hardened by their master applying an application of strong brine, which was placed on them in front of a hot fire.

The boys also frequently fell, and this resulted in deformed ankles, broken legs and twisted spines. Eye and respiratory problems also plagued climbing boys. The deadliest condition that affected climbing boys was called chimney sweeps’ carcinoma which was caused by the fact that soot is carcinogenic, and the boys slept under the soot sacks and were rarely washed. Chimney sweeps’ carcinoma is a cancer that results from squamous cells which form on the surface of the skin and the lining of hollow organs in the body and line the respiratory and digestive tracts. Warts on the skin of the scrotum, caused by the irritation from soot particles, developed into scrotal cancer which ultimately invaded the abdomen and killed the sufferer.

You can read the rest of this article here: https://scvincent.com/2019/06/24/guest-author-robbie-cheadle-climbing-boys/

I have been a little less active on my blog this weekend. The reason for this is that I am now proof reading Though the Nethergate. It is a bit more of an effort than I expected as a lot of the thoughts of my characters throughout the book are not in italics as they need to be. I expect it went wrong somehow in the copy and paste process. I am being meticulous in checking that I catch them all as part of my changes. It is a time consuming process and I have spent a good few hours doing it this weekend. I still have 150 pages to go over the next week.

As I go along, I have been creating a few new picture advertisements to help advertise this new book. Let me know what you think of these two:

From the diary of Jennifer Saunders

14 June

It has been an incredible few weeks. John arrived home for three weeks of annual leave on 30 May, just in time to participate in the global reference and vote in favour of the implementation of a new world government. The atmosphere at the polling stations was festive with everyone exciting about the prospect of change and action finally being taken on a global basis for the climate change and other issues facing our planet.

My spirits were high as we both joined in the singing and jubilation while we waited in the queue. One enthusiastic chap was attempting to compose a new world government national anthem, picking out chords on his guitar and singing lustily.

The voting process went fairly quickly with the on-line voting going off without a hitch. The only hiccup was having to have our identity documents physically checked by volunteers. This will be the last time this process is performed physically. The world government has plans to insert identification microchips into all citizens hands so you’ll just wave your hand over the scanner and the rest of the process will be automated. Isn’t progress great?

When the results of the poll were announced on 5 June and humanity was advised that the new world government would be implement, the partying went on all night in the usual British tradition of huge street parties. John and I spent a bit of time celebrating with our neighbours but at 12 P.M. we both faded and retired inside to bed. John is a light sleeper so I was worried that the on-going noise would keep him awake. The fact that he fell into a deep sleep within minutes indicates how exhausted he still is even after a week of being on holiday.

His most recent assignment was in MidWest of the USA which is suffering multiple tornadoes and flooding. There have even been a few instances of snow.

He showed me the most poignant picture of a man and his dog in a canoe, paddling down Highway 61 in Missouri. The bottom of the canoe was packed with sandbags which he was using to try and hold back floodwaters from the Mississippi River. The sight of man and his best friend in this struggle against the forces of nature brought tears to my eyes.

I have taken a similar amount of time off work and am also delighted to have the break. My hours have been extremely long again and my latest assignment didn’t run smoothly at all.

Despite the heavy rains and flooding that is currently taking place in the UK, we have being having a wonderful time exploring some historical sites that are new to us and taking long rambling walks in St James Park.

It is strange to me why John isn’t stationed in the UK to help deal with our own flooding emergencies. The flooding here has caused widespread disruption with roads, railways and hospitals being flooded. There was a bit of flooding here in London with some railway lines into the city being closed as authorities struggled to cope with a month’s worth of rain in a single day.

John had an exciting piece of news which he shared with me after swearing me to secrecy. “I’ve been invited to go for an interview to be part of the new world government military and strategic rescue task force,” he said. “If I get the job, I’ll be trained in military technologies. I think it will be a great extension of my current skills as a rescue operations team leader.”

“What does that mean, John?” I asked.

“There has been a concern among governments for quite a while that with the potential increase in world-wide unemployment due to increasing automation, combined with the economic and societal impact of climate change, will lead to fragmentation, segregation and social unrest in an increasingly hyper-connected world. Just think about it,” his voice rose with enthusiasm for his topic, “social media platforms can be used by trouble makers to share controversial and anti-establishment views among like-minded groups of people. It can effectively be used to narrow people’s sources of news to those that share similar interests and viewpoints creating increased polarisation.

The new leadership recognises this threat and is of the view that future conflicts are likely to come from non-government sources and will definitely include a cyber-dimension. It makes sense because no modern opponent will pass up the opportunity to disrupt, confuse or destroy their enemy’s sensors, communications and decision-making capabilities. They are planning to form a group of elite military teams to help deal with any potential conflicts as they arise. There are going to be different areas of specialisation including threats posed by drones, autonomous weapons, nanomaterial’s, biological and biochemical weapons, wearable devices and distributed energy sources.”

I gazed at him. I had never thought about modern technology posing a threat in this way before. “Which area are you interested in?”

“If I get selected, I’ll ask to focus on lethal autonomous weapons. I’ve always been interested in robotic weapons and this may be my opportunity to develop that interest. “

“When is your interview?”

“Early next week. I hope to hear the outcome before I leave to re-join my team. I have to give three months’ notice and the world government expects to have formed its primary structures by October and will be announcing its plans for significant changes by the end of this year. They want the military forces in place before the announcements go out in case there are any adverse reactions that need to be dealt with.”

Why did he bring up his leaving? It’s going to be hard for me when he goes again. I assume he’ll be going back to the MidWest as that situation is not yet over. I’m not going to think about his leaving now. I’m just going to enjoy the next few precious days we have together.

This post was written for Linda G. Hill’s weekly SoCS prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “leaves.” Use it as a noun or a verb. Have fun! You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/06/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-22-19/

Thank you to James Cudney, prolific drama and cozy mystery author, for this amazing review of Death Among Us, an anthology of murder mystery short stories by ten authors, including me. If you enjoy books, do visit Jay’s lovely book, he writes reviews daily of all the amazing books he reads and has a great selection of his own books too.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My favorite book genre is mysteries. With so many wonderful authors and series, it’s often difficult to decide what to read next, especially when you’re looking to expand your horizons with something new. That’s often why I’ll turn to an anthology of short stories, as collections allow you to sample a dozen or so writers who hold a vast array of experiences and styles. This month, I took a chance on one called ‘Death Among Us,’ published in July of 2019 and edited by Stephen Bentley. In this fantastic collection, readers are exposed to ~10 authors who have each contributed 3 stories. What’s even better is that the three stories are generally connected to one another, so it’s almost like reading a mini novella several times over.

Prior to each author’s stories, there’s a lively and informative intro about what readers are getting themselves into. The writer will tell us if the stories are connected by the same character or a similar murder plot, a continuation of the previous tale but with a twist, or something even more dastardly and thrilling. I enjoyed this aspect of the anthology, as often in these types of books, each author only has a single story. With three, we get a better feel for their voice, style, and tone. The collection kicks off with the award-winning editor’s ‘The Rose Slayer’ stories, where homicide cops trace a killer who leaves behind a calling card. It spoke to me for many reasons, but to watch the transition from the first to the second and the last story, I felt like I could understand the motivation and operating procedures / boundaries of the heroes (and possibly the serial killer too!).

Another favorite is Robbie Cheadle, an author who’s participated in another short story collection that I’ve read as well as written many children’s books with her sons. What a vastly different style across her entire inventory of books and stories… to kick off with, in ‘Justice is Never Served,’ we have a woman who murders babies! Then there are the chimney sweeping killers (not what you’re thinking either!)… Cheadle delivers just the right amount of gore and thrills without going over the top, as the topic could be quite difficult to swallow. The best parts of her three stories are how they are all based on some sort of true story… which makes the tale even more horrific. She’s definitely cultivated her talents in these three tales, and I hope to see a full-length horror novel from her one day.

Carry on reading here: https://thisismytruthnow.com/2019/06/21/book-review-death-among-us-by-stephen-bentley-editor-of-the-anthology/