Extract from the diary of John Saunders

19 August 2035

I have not written in my diary for two days having experienced a strange black-out of consciousness. I woke up in the emergency barracks deep beneath the earth with no recollection of how I got here or what I have been doing for the past 48 hours. I do remember a strange and sudden change coming over my mind just before my memories stop. I have a strange recollection of my thoughts being slowly obscured by an external force in the same manner as heavy, black clouds might drive across a moon, hiding its bright face for a time.

When I awoke, I found myself dressed in my full combat uniform with my arms, chest and legs covered in  lightweight, heat resistant plates of armour. Dark patches of sweat stained the fabric of the khakis shirt which lay over the armour and the knees of my khakis pants were filthy. Every muscle in my body ached and twitched with recent strain. My military helmet covered my head and face and, when I removed it, my sticky, sweaty hair clung to my head in thick clumps. I had been doing something that required immense physical exertion, that was a fact. The movement of sitting up and pulling off the helmet caused my head to ache so violently, I thought I might vomit, so I quickly lay down again and slipped back into dreamless sleep.

Twenty four hours later I woke up again, I felt much better, but I still couldn’t remember the events of the past few days. I also found that I was locked into my room although someone had come in while I was sleeping and left me food and a pitcher of water.

I suddenly realised that the military must have activated the microchip implanted in my head and taken over my mind for 48 hours. That is the only possible explanation I can think of. Something terrible must have happened for my employers to have taken such drastic measures. It is frightening to know that your physical body has been at someone else’s beck and call for two days even though I did agree to it eight years ago when I  underwent the implant surgery. I remember that day at the hospital clearly and I am going to write it down just in case I never leave these barracks. Maybe someone will find this record and give it to my son, Thomas.

Thomas, oh dear, why did I have to think of my strange and brilliant son and Jen, my beautiful wife. Where are they? What has happened? Why am I locked in this room? I have no answers to any of these questions.

I remember lying in a cot in a general ward in the military hospital with nine of my colleagues. We had received a communication to report to the hospital at 8 A.M. on the morning of the 30th of April 2030. Similar groups of ten men lay in other rooms in the hospital. There were one hundred men having the surgery that day.

Dr Philips had entered the room once we were all settled and had made a brief speech. “It has been decided by the world government that all military personal are to have microchips implanted in their brains. These microchips will give you the ability to log into any data base or computer system regardless of where your are in the world or what your circumstance are. It will also give the government the ability to interact directly with your minds to augment your performance or control your actions if the situation requires it.”

He had spoken for another ten minutes and what he had said amounted to: You have no choice if you want to retain your well paid jobs but do not fear, the microchips will only ever be used to control your minds in the event of a breach of security that jeopardises the future of mankind.

A short while later, a nurse came over to me and set an IV in place in my arm. Next, she crimped the line and injected something into my arm through the drip. The world went black.

When I woke up, I experienced pain at the back of my head. A patch of my hair had been shaved and I could feel the roughness of stitches. Since that day, I have not thought of the government’s ability to control my mind, the possibly of something going drastically wrong in our digitally controlled world seemed so small, despite the increasing social unrest of the past ten years.

I am not so sure I made the right decision now that I am sitting in a locked room, certain that the government has invoked its power and not knowing what I have done.

This story was written for Diana Peach’s monthly write photo prompt. You can join in the fun here: https://mythsofthemirror.com/2019/05/01/may-speculative-fiction-prompt/

 

 

 

It took her thirty minutes longer than usual to get home on that fateful day, even though she left the office at 3 P.M. Everyone who worked in the central business district seemed to be on the move and all the traffic lights were clogged with lines of cars. Dozens of people were milling around the train station. Jen couldn’t know for sure, but she guessed that the train service was in disarray. After witnessing the scenes of devastation on the television shortly before she fled the office, she was not surprised at the great panic around her. People wanted to get out of the city, even though Birmingham had not as yet come under attack.

Only once she had inched her way through the traffic jams on the major roads and maneuvered her car onto the back streets, did she appreciate how quickly people were reacting to the news. Knots of people stood about on the pavements waving their arms about and talking excitedly. Others, were running out of their houses and packing valuables into their cars. I wonder where they plan to go, she thought.

Five minutes later, her own home came into view. After parking her car on the street right in front of her door, she gingerly entered, wondering how much Tom knew and how he was reacting.

Her beautiful, fair haired child ran up to her as she closed the front door, flinging his arms about her he declared: “I love you, mummy. I am so glad you are home. Have you seen what is happening on the television?” She nodded, gently pulling herself free from his suffocating embrace. “Yes, I watched some of the footage at work. That’s why I’ve come home. We need to get away from the city.”

“Where are we going to head for, Mum?” Tom asked.

“I don’t know yet. I will think about it while I pack.”

Tom followed her as she headed up the stairs to the bedrooms and starting flinging clothes into a suitcase. “London’s been hit,” he continued amiably, as if they were having a conversation about a visit to the zoo instead of the destruction of mankind. “A lot of the television networks have gone off and if you turn to those channels you only get snow. There are no messages on the communicator either. No instructions as to what we should do.”

Turning to face her son, she asked: “Have you heard from your dad?”

“No messages have come from him, Mum, I checked my iphone and my ipad. It’s strange, as I would have expected him to use his microchip to log in and contact us.”

Tom moved to his wardrobe and selected his favourite tee-shirts from the pile. Handing them to her to pack, he said: “I think we should head for rural Scotland.” His mind had clearly moved on from thoughts of his father who, as senior employee in the military, had a microchip embedded in his brain to facilitate his tapping into any available database, at any time, while on the move.

Oh God, I hope he’s still alive. Inhaling deeply, Jen pushed thoughts of her husband from her mind and focused on what Tom was saying to her.

“… the buildings and houses where the bombs hit will have been completely destroyed. There will be no underground or train services because the tunnels will have collapsed and the trains will have been crushed. We have two things to worry about, Mum. Firstly, will Birmingham be a target and, secondly, the fallout which will already be falling from the sky. Getting away from the city will help with the first problem but we don’t know if all of the bombs exploded on the ground. If any exploded in the air, the radioactive particles caused by these weapons may enter the stratosphere and then they can take months, or even years, to settle. They may also settle anywhere in the world.”

Despite all the chaos and her anxiety, Jen was still amazed by her son’s agile and amazing mind. How does he know these things? 

“What should we do then?”

Tom looked her directly in the eye. “There is nothing we can do about the fallout so there is no point in worrying about it. We can only try to get away from the city so that we are not close enough to suffer from burns and eye injuries if Birmingham comes under attack.”

“Okay, let’s get packed then.” Maybe Tom is a survivor after all. With his PTSD and OCD, I thought he’d fall apart at the threat of radiation sickness, but here he is taking it in his stride. The threat of immediate death obviously outweighs his concerns about future illness and death.

This piece of flash fiction was written as a continuation of my SOCS post from last week called Explosion. Linda’s prompt below tied in neatly with my on-going ideas for this little tale.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fall from the sky.” Write about anything that falls from the sky–real, imagined, or idiomatic. Have fun!

You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/05/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-4-19/

 

 

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I am one of ten authors who have each contributed short stories to a murder mystery anthology due to be released in early July. In advance of the publication of this book, I am running a series of posts to introduce you to some of the other contributing authors.

This week I am introducing you to author Greg Alldredge. Welcome Greg to Roberta Writes.

About Greg Alldredge and his contribution to Death Among Us

I will not bore the readers with the ancient history of past decades; I will simply say I am now retired. My wife and I just started working our way around the world on a small retiree’s pay, planning to take a full two years before we return to the United States.

We are in Vietnam for another few months before working our way south, with the eventual goal of New Zealand, before heading back over the equator.

I still write, completing about one book a month while on the road and researching for other projects along the way.

What drew you to writing short stories in the genre of murder mystery?

My stories are normally a mash-up of different genres with Sci-Fi and Fantasy being the normal starting point. I have written some mystery and adventure in each of my books and short stories, my goal has always been to tell an entertaining story no matter the genre or length I choose to write.

Who is your favourite murder mystery writer?

I tend to be old school when it comes to my mystery. Arthur Conan Doyle or Agatha Christie is my favorite. I would also need to throw in the Sci-Fi writers Dick and Adams.

What is your favourite murder mystery book or series of books and why?

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. If you want to find the face of pure evil reality gives us all the material we need.

What is the overarching theme of your three short stories in Death Among Us?

Artificial Intelligence is in the news every day. The day will come when something designed by a mortal becomes sentient. How that day comes, how both sides behave at the birth of a new kind of intelligence will have huge ramification for the future. I wanted to play with the idea and discover where it took me. The result was my submissions for the book. I hope you enjoy them.

Greg Alldredge has written a large number of books which are all available on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Greg-Alldredge/e/B0718VVJ8S/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1. 

I have chosen to feature Lights in the Night: The OStinato Series Book One as I have this one on my TBR.

Lights in the Night: The Ostinato Series Book One

About Lights in the Night: The Ostinato Series Book One

Book One
The Ostinato Series.

Live life on the edge of sanity.

Trevor, an orphan at thirteen, bounced around the Far-east searching for something, trouble was he didn’t understand what. Wracked with insomnia and tired of traveling the world, he’d returned home to be more “normal” and took a job from his older brother, he failed at normal. When world events reignite his pursuit of the inexplicable to a sleepy West Texas town, his world took a turn to the bizarre and unimaginable.

Caught between fantasy and reality, Trevor must face his greatest fears and admit some things can’t be explained. Unseen forces drive him to his destiny. Will Trevor be able to discover what created the Lights in the Night and get the girl, or lose his grip on sanity?

Don’t miss Lights in the Night, the first of the Ostinato series by Greg Alldredge. If you like tales with quirky characters and a metaphysical search for hard to answer questions, then this Speculative Fiction will have you turning the pages! Come check it out!

A recent review for Lights in the Night: The Ostinato Series Book One

A five star review by a Verified Purchaser:

In this quirky romp, Trevor is drawn from London to a small town in Texas. The strange lights that initially caught his attention in a story, are just the beginning of the odd things, or people I should say, that he runs into. The cast really made this enjoyable, from the group that comes with Trevor, to the people in the town. Sergei cracked me up, and his tea…

The plot moved at a deliberate pace and concluded with a surprise. There was a fresh humor that on more than one occasion, had me laughing. The blending of genres will allow for this to be enjoyed by a nice spread of readers, there was even a dash of romance thrown in.

I see the next part will be releasing very soon, and look forward to it.

Purchase Lights in the Night: The Ostinato Series Book One

You can pre-order Death Among Us here:

Thanks to Stevie at Stevie Turner for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger Award. The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award given by bloggers in order to award their blogging peers.  Each blogger nominated is asked to nominate 11 other bloggers that they admire or are inspired by.  It’s an honour to be recognised, and a wonderful opportunity to encourage others to keep doing what they love.

Stevie is an accomplished and talented author which a number of interesting books. She has launched a new book today which you can read about here: https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/new-paranormal-novel-partners-in-time/

Rules
Thank the person who nominated you and provides a link back to their blog so others can find them.
Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.
Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions.
Notify the nominees about it by commenting on one of their blog posts.
List the rules and (optional) display a Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or your blog site.

Here are my answers to Stevie’s questions:

Do you think authors having many social media accounts is a good idea?

I think it depends on the person and whether they can manage the social media accounts they have. I have a number as follows:

Blogs – I have three: https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/ which is the blog I use to share thoughts and ideas about my children’s books series, Sir Chocolate and Friends and my Silly Willy book as well as my poetry and some book reviews. This one, Roberta Writes, which is for my YA and adult writing and https://bakeandwrite.co.za/category/bake-and-write/ which is my flagship paid website. I use that blog to share reviews of my own books, recipes and promotional posts. This blog is linked to my Goodreads and Amazon author accounts.

Twitter – I have two accounts, one linked to Robbiesinspiration and one linked to Roberta Writes.

Pinterest – https://za.pinterest.com/r_cheadle/ – I pin my fondant artwork and cakes, interesting blog posts and interesting books I read or find out about.

Instagram – I use this in much the same way as I use pinterest to share photographs of my artwork and books.

Facebook – I have two author pages, one for each free blog, and three groups for sharing poetry, dark and mysterious short stories and recipes.

MeWe – This is a new social media for me and I have just today established a poetry sharing group there. If you are interested in joining this group, you will find it here: https://mewe.com/group/5cc950af952bc50f1a26205e

Do you submit your work to agents, or are you happy staying self-published?

All my books are published through TSL Publications in the UK except for my poetry book, Open a new door which is published through Moyhill Publishing. I am happier working through a small and caring publisher.

Do you think authors should give away their work for free?

No, I think it ruins the market.

If you have an email (mailing) list, how do you gain more followers for it?

I don’t have an email list. I probably should have one but I don’t have time for anything else as I work full time and write and market and, and, and…

If you had to be confined to one social media account to promote your books, which one would it be?

Definitely my blogs on WordPress. I love blogging, it is more like having friendships that social media for me.

Is book promotion worth it?  Do you gain sales by your promotion efforts, or is it all just a time suck?

When I published my first book, I didn’t have any social media accounts so I didn’t have many sales. Soft promotion of my books has definitely helped my sales. Being part of anthologies and entering short story competitions has also helped my writing a great deal and I have met a lot of new writers that way.

What’s the best part of a doughnut?  I would say it’s the hole in the middle, but I’d love to hear what you think.

I can’t eat doughnuts as my liver was damaged through illness when I was a young girl. If I did eat one, it would be the jammy kind and not the hole-in-the-middle kind. I love jam.

How would you go about ‘kissing the sky’ like Mr Hendrix did?

I think I do that everyday when I write.

Can you dance the Tango?

I have done so. I have also danced a number of other dances such as the Cha Cha and the Rhumba. My husband and I went for dancing lessons before we got married.

What strange phenomena have you experienced?

Sadly, none in real life. Lots in my imagination and in books.

Do you want to live forever?

Not if I have to lose my health and become old and infirm.

I am not nominating people for this award as it takes me hours to think of people and link to their blogs. I am very grateful to Stevie for thinking of me and my blog for this award.

 

What Amazon says

In March 1978, at the culmination of Operation Julie, 15 defendants, including doctors, research chemists, a writer, and “professional” drug dealers were sentenced to a combined total of 124 years’ imprisonment. Operation Julie is still today the point of reference for all British undercover operations and training. In 2011, the BBC claimed this massive and unique police operation was the start of the war on drugs. Stephen Bentley, was one of four undercover detectives engaged on Operation Julie, one of the world’s largest drug busts.

Together with his undercover partner, Bentley infiltrated the gang producing around 90 percent of the world’s LSD and uncovered a plot to import huge quantities of Bolivian cocaine into the UK. The underworld knew the author as Steve Jackson. How did he successfully infiltrate the two gangs? Did he have to take drugs, and how did living a lie affect him? Discover the answers and get inside the mind of Steve Jackson, undercover detective.

My review

I listened to the audio book of Undercover: Operation Julie. The narrator did a good job of telling this story and had a pleasant and smooth reading style. I would certainly recommend the audio book to people who like to listen to, rather than read, stories.

This book is an autobiography of a period in the author’s life when he was an undercover cop in a historic police investigation that led to the breakup of a huge LSD manufacturing and distribution operation in Great Britain. The story is set during the 1970’s and the author, known by the underworld as Steve Jackson, and his undercover partner need to integrate themselves into the shady and dangerous world of small time drug dealers and work themselves up so that they can find out who the ring leaders are.

Steve Bentley’s depiction of how both cops have to completely sever all ties to their “real” lives and eat, sleep and breath their assumed persona is compelling and quite frightening. To put yourself into a situation where you need to become a hard drinking, drug taking low-life seems inconceivable to me and the author describes how difficult it eventually becomes to separate your actual mind from that of your assumed personality. Over time, and with the help of drugs, they start to merge and you start living your lie.

Of course, both cops manage to keep their eye on the ball and work towards their ultimate goal of uncovering the entire drug smuggling and selling operation. They, together with the other undercover detectives, the police and various other involved parties, are successful in the end and the doctors, chemists, drug dealers and related parties to what became known as Project Julie were brought to justice.

I thought this was a fascinating, first hand account of this amazing story which reads just like an action movie. It was well written and detailed in a way that only a person who lived the story could describe. The last section of the book deals with the impact years of undercover work had on the life of the author. I was surprised at the lack of support and treatment for post traumatic stress disorder that was made available to Steve. I would have expected more from a first world country like Great Britain. Hopefully, this has changed and people in the line of fire doing jobs for the benefit of the citizens of a country get better after treatment after their discharge from the police force.

Purchase Undercover: Operation Julie

The children and their mothers walked through the camp gates.

Their eyes widened in shock as they gazed at the sea of white, bell-shaped tents pitched in straight lines at equal intervals all over the large and dusty field. It had once been veld but the grass had been hacked away leaving barren, exposed earth between the tents and in the cooking area. There was not a single tree in sight to provide welcome relief from the sun which shone down harshly, even during the winter months.

There are so many tents!

A small number of defeated looking men and large numbers of thin and raggedy women and children sat or lay listlessly in the dirt among the tents. Marta could see a few black house servants and farmworkers scatted among them. None of them seemed to have any sort of useful occupation.

Marta was shocked at the filthy state of the people. Did they not have soap and water to keep themselves clean?

A tannie [respectful term for an older woman] roused herself and came over to them.

“I’m Mrs De Wet. Come this way”, she said, leading them towards one of the tents. As they walked, Marta noticed a number of tree stumps, like keloid scars on the earth.

“Where have all the trees gone?”

“They were cut down and their wood used for fires to cook food and boil water. There are none left now.”

The woman approached one of the tents. “There is space for you in this one,” she said. “Mrs Odendaal and her son are currently the only people living here.”

She looked at Ardrina and Dorthea. “It will be a tight fit as you have brought your servants with you. No extra rations or blankets are provided for servants,” she said. “Did the Khakis tell you that?”

Sannie nodded that they had.

The front flap of the tent was tightly closed. The tannie opened it and gestured to them to enter. Marta’s first impression was of neatness despite the dim lighting and stuffiness inside the tent. A smell of sickness and impending death hung in the oppressive air.

A women in her thirties knelt on the floor next to a makeshift mattress. Her small son lay on the mattress, weak and frail. His flushed face and the bright, red rash that marred his white skin indicated his illness.

“He can’t bear the light,” the mother said, by way of explanation for keeping the flap closed.

“What is wrong with him?” asked Marta. She already knew but she needed to be sure. Her whole being shrank away from what she already feared.

“He has measles. It is rife here in the camp.”

Marta looked at Sannie, aghast. Their two families and their house servants had always lived a rural life and had little immunity to such illness. It was bad enough to deal with the multitude of biting insects and vermin but how could they deal with this?

Discouragement filled Marta’s heart as she walked around the camp, stopping to speak to the other women. She averted her face in disgust from the few men who had clearly deserted their commandos. She was proud of the fact that her husband was a bittereinder [bitter ender].

She quickly discovered that water was in short supply and some of the pumps were broken and had not been repaired. Animals, both dead and alive, had polluted the scanty water resources. Other prisoners quickly confirmed that all the available fuel had already been stripped from the area inside the camp so making a fire to boil water had become impossible. Very few inmates had utilities to hold the water for boiling even if fuel had been obtainable.

Written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo challenge. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/04/25/thursday-photo-prompt-shade-writephoto/

Linda G Hill’s prompt is as follows: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “xp.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “xp”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

I wrote a bit of a story. An imagining of the beginning of a nuclear war for someone living outside a target city. Here it is:

“Her fingers flew across the keyboard creating new words and sentences, highlighted in red, on her computer screen. The document she was working on had to be submitted to the stock exchange the following morning or the roadshow timetable would not be achieved. That would make all the teams to this initial public offering look incompetent in the eyes of potential investors. She was pushing hard to get all her changes made so she could send the financial sections back to the lawyers before the 6 P.M. deadline. They would turn the changes around overnight and she would check them first thing the following morning. I’m glad the lawyers will have to do the night shift, she thought. I should be finished by 4 P.M. and can get home in time to take Tom to his psychology appointment at 5 P.M.

The murmur of excited voices from the rest area down the passage did not filter through her deep concentration until it escalated to shouts of horror and shock. Looking up, she noticed that her desk was the only occupied one in her section of the office; even her assistant had disappeared. A frown wrinkled her forehead. We won’t finish early if Sue doesn’t get her section done quickly.

“Jen! Come quickly. You’ve got to see this,” Sue’s voice, loud and distraught, broke into her thoughts. A mild feeling of alarm stirred her into action. I’ll go and see what she wants. I could use a trip to the loo anyhow.

A throng of her colleagues was gathered in front of the television. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the large screen television and not a sound or moment disturbed the sudden complete silence as they gawped at the events unfolding in front of them.

Turning her own eyes to the screen, she saw a picture of a man filling the screen. His skin sloughed from his body and his flesh seemed to be running like candle wax as he staggered towards the camera, blinded eyes staring, and arms held out in a gesture of appeal. The scene changed. Jen could almost feel the practically noiseless but blinding explosion, followed by a brilliant fireball that boiled upwards into the blue sky. The sky darkened and the soft, white clouds rippled as shock waves fanned outwards, with a grey cloud of radioactivity surging after them. Oh, my God. What’s happening? Dread clutched her in its tight embrace making breathing difficult. Other cities flashed onto the screen, showing similar scenes of devastation as a frenzy of retribution fell upon the leadership of the world. New York, Washington, London, Sidney, Tokyo, Shanghai, the list when on and on. Nothing here; not yet.

She shifted her eyes to the large windows. Outside the room nothing had changed and inside, only the terrible astonishment and horror of the small audience, bunched around the television, blighted the normalcy of her surrounds.

Suddenly, fear hit her. She needed to get home to Tom. Around her, the other watchers were stirring, expressions of panic on their white faces. The group suddenly splintered in all directions as people ran towards their desks, grabbed their bags and keys, and stampeding towards the elevators and stairwells. Jen made her way down the stairs, weeping silent and horrified tears at this unexpected turn of events.”

You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/04/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-27-19/

Those of you who follow this blog will know that I am one of eleven authors who have each contributed three short stories to a murder mystery anthology due to be released in early July. In advance of the publication of this book, I am running a series of posts to introduce you to some of the other contributing authors.

This week I am introducing you to author Kelly Artieri. Welcome Kelly to Roberta Writes.

About Kelly Artieri and her contribution to Death Among Us

Kelly Artieri is a professional illustrator with degrees in Medical & Scientific Illustration. She is also an award winning author of her personal memoir A Spot in My Heart. Living on the south shore of Lake Ontario in the Buffalo, NY area, she is a passionate storyteller about real life.

Awarded the Grand Prize of the 2017 TCK Publishing Readers’ Choice, her book not only won top honors overall, but was also voted the winner in the memoir genre. Kelly began journaling after the loss of a beloved pet, she and her family had adopted due to his special needs. Her journals became Vinnie’s story, an award winning memoir. It is not a dog book; it is a powerful memoir with a dog in it.

When I was invited to participate in the Anthology, I was a bit nervous. I had never written Murder Mystery before. I did some research on what should be included, read a few other authors’ works and gave it a go! I fell in love almost immediately.

Though not Murder Mystery per se, I am more of a Mystery Thriller reader. My favorite Author is Stephen King followed closely by James Patterson.

My Theme for Death Among Us:  Three Murder Mystery stories written with a Memoir writer’s hand  . . .  The Lake.

As an avid boater on Lake Ontario, I chose to write about life on the lake. The beauty and siren-like draw of the water . . . mask the dangers that lurk within.

You can find Kelly here:

Website: https://www.kellyartieri.com

Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/2DqrSqE

Spot in my Heart:  https://amzn.to/2rwS8Zk

Twitter: @spotinmyheart

FaceBook: Kelly Artieri

A Spot in My Heart: Loving a special needs dog

What Amazon says

Grand Prize People’s Choice Award Winner

Often reviewed to have fond similarities of  stories like Marley & Me . . .  this is a heartwarming memoir of life with a bi-laterally deaf Dalmatian. Kelly and her family chose to accept the challenge of raising a deaf dog even though they had no experience before. They learned as they went.  Kelly’s story has become an award winning memoir. It is not a dog book; it is a powerful tale of a family with a dog in it.  Vinnie was full of life and ready to experience everything there was for him to learn and know.

Acceptance and learning to communicate without hearing can be a challenge, but it engendered many stories both funny and sad; his reactions to training and limitations are sometimes hilarious.

 Vinnie allowed us to live in his world. This is a book about his time with my family, and his spot in my heart.

A review of A Spot in My Heart

A five star review on Amazon by a verified purchaser:

“I almost don’t know where to begin with this brief but beautiful memoir.

Kelly Artieri, like me, loves Dalmatians. Like me, she’s had more than one. And, like me, one of those dogs had special needs: Vinnie was bilaterally deaf.

Artieri and her family fall in love with Vinnie long before his puppy BAER test reveals his hearing impairment; the breeder tells the family that they are going to have the pup euthanized, but Artieri says they will adopt him anyway.

The challenges of training a deaf dog are brought to light in this book as we see Vinnie’s high spirits and need for extra attention running rampant through the house and hearts of his new family. Training with hand signals, while still talking to the dog, is something that came in handy when my own dogs lost their hearing due to age, but it was more of a convenience for me. For Artieri, it was a necessity.

Vinnie also developed OCD (it can happen to any dog, but is common in dogs with hearing impairments) and pica (eating things that aren’t food), both of which caused their own set of difficulties.

This is a beautiful, loving book about a handsome dog (there are lots of color plates to enjoy) and a family who clearly adored him. Artieri makes a point that she is not an animal expert, “just a dog mom,” but wanted to share her insights and resources with other people who have special needs pets. Nicely done indeed.”

Purchase A Spot in My Heart

You can pre-order Death Among Us here:

What Amazon says

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke) Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Franklin attempts to make it through life day by day. Roosevelt is a widower, who lost his beloved wife to cancer and a retired history professor, and he has not stopped grieving. He and his two closest friends, also retired and who have also lost loved ones, form a paranormal investigation group. They hope to find an answer to the question: is there life after death? When asked by a local teacher to investigate a possible haunting of her house, the group discovers an evil beyond anything they could have imagined. This is no mere ghost. Maledicus, who was in life a pimp, torturer, and murderer during Caligula’s reign in Rome, in death has become a sociopathic demon that attacks the weak and the innocent. Maledicus threatens a five year old child’s life and soul. Terrified by what they have discovered, Roosevelt and his friends must choose to either walk away from this threat , or to do battle with this ancient creature at the potential loss of their sanities, their lives, and their souls.

My review

Maledicus is the right hand man to Caligula, Emperor of the Roman Empire, and they are equally despicable, inhumane and outright evil. Maledicus has plans, great plans, whereby he will ascend to the top position of Emperor but he underestimates the incumbent, Caligula, and his many eyes and ears. Maledicus never achieves his aspirations and is dispatched to the afterlife in an unpleasant and painful way.

In the non world between Heaven and Hell, Maledicus lurks. He is not reconciled to his unnatural death and believes his chance to aspire to greatness will come. He sets about manipulating events and circumstances to achieve his ultimate goals of greatness.

Meanwhile, time has moved on and in the 21st century, three elderly and retired men, Roosevelt, Sam and Jeremy, have formed a ghost-investigating group, with the occasional help and support from Roosevelt’s nephew, ex-US Marine, Patrick. They have all suffered personal losses and this is a great way for them to keep themselves mental and physically active and to indulge in an interest in ghosts and the supernatural. When their Investigative Paranormal Society (“IPS”) gets its first really legitimate case, they find themselves up against an on-going evil that refuses to die. Can the IPS go up against an ancient and expanding evil and expect anything other than untimely deaths?

I enjoyed the characters of Roosevelt, Sam, Jeremy and Patrick and learning about their individual losses and life experiences, all of which weave together into the fabric of this well planned story.

The idea behind this book is fresh and clever and the ending was superb. I was really impressed by the author’s unique and thrilling ending.

Purchase Maledicus by Charles F. French

I am visiting Smorgasbord Blog Magazine today with a post about baby farming in the late-Victorian Era Britain and Amelia Dyer. Thank you, Sally, for hosting me today on you lovely blog. You can read more of Sally’s amazing posts and articles here: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/

They were not really the good old days, especially for women and children, particularly the babies. Robbie Cheadle shares the truly terrible tale of Amelia Dyer……

Baby farming in the late-Victorian Era Britain and Amelia Dyer by Robbie Cheadle

What is baby farming?

Baby farming during late-Victorian Era Britain was the practice whereby individuals acted as adoption or fostering agents for children and infants in return for either an up-front payment or monthly payments from the mother.

Although baby farmers were supposed to provide care for the children they took into their custody, the name developed due to the fact this was rarely the case and improper treatment of the children frequently occurred.

A related business was the practice of taking in young expectant women and caring for them until they gave birth. Many of these women subsequently left their unwanted babies after the birth to be looked after as “nurse children”.

Unscrupulous baby farmers often starved the babies in their care, either to save money or to hasten their deaths. Alcohol and/or opiates, particularly Godfrey’s Cordial also known as Mother’s Friend, was administered to noisy and troublesome babies in order to sedate them. Such babies usually died of starvation and severe malnutrition as the opium made them disinclined for food.

Why did the practice of baby farming come about?

In 1834 the poor Law Amendment Act was introduced in Britain which removed any financial obligation from the fathers of illegitimate children. This left unmarried mothers in a dire financial position as single parenthood and illegitimacy were stigmatized by the society of the time.

Amelia Dyer

Continue reading this post at Smorgasbord Blog Magazine here: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/smorgasbord-blog-magazine-guest-writer-baby-farming-in-the-late-victorian-era-britain-and-amelia-dyer-by-robbie-cheadle/https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/smorgasbord-blog-magazine-guest-writer-baby-farming-in-the-late-victorian-era-britain-and-amelia-dyer-by-robbie-cheadle/