What Amazon says

Under one cover for the first time a collection of Crime Shorts from Jane Risdon featuring previously unpublished stories which will have you on the edge of your seat. There is an extract from Jane’s forthcoming novel (series) Ms Birdsong Investigates Murder at Ampney Parva: Operation Matryoshka – with the title of Undercover – for those who’ve been awaiting this series about a former MI5 Intelligence Office, Lavinia Birdsong. There’s something for everyone who enjoys a good yarn and more twists and turns than Spaghetti Junction. Author and former detective Roger A Price says: Undercover: Crime Shorts is the ideal companion for the crime fiction fan’s daily commute. You’ll run out of journey before you run out of book with this cleverly crafted mix of crime fiction short stories. Beware as you might miss your stop! Reader Gloria Clulow says: As with all your stories I find them intriguing and unpredictable, leaving me wanting more; I don’t want them to end. Margot Kinberg, Associate Professor and author says of Undercover: What a gripping story, so well written. You’ve packed so much ‘punch’ into it, loved it. I really felt the rising tension and suspicion! You’ve captured the suspense of it beautifully and it is such a great set-up with good characters. Reader Tina Jaray says of Undercover: Wow, I could hardly breathe while I read this. Glad it was short or I would’ve joined the corpse! Author Dave Michael Prosser says of Murder by Christmas: What a fantastic story. I was glued to the screen and stopped work which means another late night (thanks). Author Jeff Lee says of The Honey Trap: Great story. You completely blind-sided me with your twist at the end. I didn’t see that one coming. Loved it. Jane is an awesome writer and an author of exceptional talent. Author Stacy Margaret Allan says of Undercover: Wow, Jane, this is one of the best stories I have ever read. It doesn’t matter that it is so short, I was right there with her and this blew me away. You are such a good writer!

My review

I take my hat off to this author. Jane Risdon has taken the genre of murder mystery short stories to a new level with this collection of six superbly different and unique stories. Each story is complete and stands alone with a proper story line which I really liked as I have read a number of short stories that feel incomplete, as if they are intended to be part of a larger work. There is also an excellent extract from a forthcoming novel included at the end as a bonus.

My personal favourite story was The Watchers which starts off on a horribly creepy note with the main character, Candice, being stalked telephonically by an unknown someone. The tension as she stands there with the telephone in her hand following the latest call is almost unbearable. “Her heart was making her blouse shake as it thudded faster and faster. Sweat ran down between her breasts and her legs felt as if they were going to give from under her. The constant ringing vibrated through her hand and up her arm.” Wow! I was shaking with Candice. This story certainly is not your standard peeping Tom tale and the twist at the end is clever and unexpected.

It is difficult in a short story to get your reader to really connect with your characters as you have such a short time to do this in. Jane Risdon has done it seamlessly in this collection and I really felt for all her characters. Sweet Sable – also known as the Red Siren, a gorgeous woman with her own agenda and the determination and ruthlessness to achieve it; China, the writer next door, who gets pulled into a very strange situation involving her neighbours and the Russian Mafia; Candice the seemingly innocent victim of a stalker but who has a past; the photographers who both had “the look”; a wealthy deceased woman with an extraordinary sense of justice and humour and a successful British diplomat whose encounter with a prostitute doesn’t go according to plan.

If you enjoy the murder mystery genre and like stories that are fast paced, exciting and unique, you will love this book.

Purchase Undercover: Crime Shorts

The topic of this weeks Open Book Blog hop is write what you know. I have heard this said may time since I started blogging and writing in 2016 and have found that I tend to do this unintentionally.

Some examples of where I have written what I know, outside of my fictional autobiography of my mother’s life, While the Bombs Fell, which is obviously based on the real facts of her life, are as follows:OCD / PTSD

Mental disorders: OCD/PTSD

I have a bit of experience with obsessive control disorder and some of the related conditions including anxiety disorders including panic disorder and social anxiety disorder, trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder), excoriation (skin-picking) disorder and tourette syndrome (tic disorders). I have featured characters with OCD in a few of my short stories including The Willow Tree (Dark Visions anthology) and Missed signs (Whispers of the Past anthology). I also featured a main character with OCD in the trilogy I started writing about climate change and the fourth industrial revolution but which I put on hold to finish A Ghost and His Gold.

Alleries: Bees

I have a strange allergy to the bacteria carried by bees. Whenever I get stung by a bee, I develop blood poisoning within a few hours and have to have strong antibiotics and antihistamines for two to three weeks. Needless to say, I really try to avoid bees. I wrote a short story featuring an MC with a bee allergy called Last of the Lavender (Whispers of the Past anthology).

Countries of origin

My mother’s family originates from a small town called Bungay in Suffolk in the UK. I have visited the UK a number of times during my life and most of my visits have centred around Kent and Suffolk. Frequent visits have ensured that I am fairly familiar with life in Britain and, as my mother and I immigrated to South Africa when I was a child, my upbringing was very English. My book While the Bombs Fell was set in Bungay as that is where my mother grew up and this fictionalised biography is an account of her life as a small girl growing up in a small English town during WWII. The fictionalised element is due to the fact that my mother was only 7 when the war ended so I had to fill the gaps in her memories. Through the Nethergate also centres around a real inn in Bungay which is said to be haunted by over twenty ghosts. I discovered these fascinating ghost stories while I was doing the research for While the Bombs fell and it was these ghost stories that inspired Through the Nethergate. Some of my ghostly characters play significant rolls in the story.

I grew up in South Africa and have lived here all my adult life so it was natural that I would also gravitate to writing about South Africa. My current WIP, A Ghost and His Gold, is set in South Africa and the ghosts are all active participants in the Second Anglo Boer War. I am also writing some short stories that centre around South African history, especially The Great Trek in 1836 and the 1820 settlers from England.

Profession

Many of my readers know I am a chartered accountant by profession. I know a lot about life in the corporate world, especially in the fields of law and finance. As a result, many of my characters are in finance.

The haunted couple in A Ghost and His Gold are both chartered accountants who met while working at a Big Four auditing practice (just like my hubby and me). Tom, the husband, is a corporate finance practitioner in the firm and Michelle, his wife, has left the firm and is doing mornings only work in the accounting line and developing her writing. Just like I want to do. I am going backwards at the moment and my hours are longer than ever but I live in hope.

In my short story The Path to Atonement (Nightmareland anthology), the MC is a chartered accountant working at an auditing firm.

People

The grandfather in Through the Nethergate is a brave, kind and clever man and I did model him deliberately on my dad. The character of Tom was developed using a bad experience I had with an ex-boyfriend although my experiences are not nearly as bad as Tracey’s from my book.

What about you? Do you use real experiences and people in your writing?

Find out what other writers do in this regard here:

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/157d33bced9546739b325eefcac0c718

Thank you, Linda Hill, for being so obliging as to give a topic like check. Now I can do my music post and say “Check out my music thoughts for this week.”

Check out is an Americanism so if you see my Mama, don’t tell her I used it. Does that give you a hint about what is coming?

Don’t tell Mama is my favourite song from Cabaret. My sister and I thought it was absolutely hilarious when we were girls and I still love it. These are my favourite lyrics:

“Mama
Doesn’t even have an inkling
That I’m working in a nightclub
In a pair of lacy pants
So please sir
If you run into my mama
Don’t reveal my indiscretion
Give a working girl
A chance“

My next choice for the week is the song I have told my sons I want played at my funeral. I was rather hoping Gregory would play it on the piano at said funeral, but it has turned out that he wants to be a computer programmer and not a concert piano so that was the end of that and I’ll have to settle for this original:

My favourite lyrics:

“Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver-white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things“

And now … drum roll … Terence’s pick of the week, a pop up rendition of Fur Elise in the airport.

If you would like to join in Linda’s Steam of Consciousness Saturday and read what other people have done with this prompt, you can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/07/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-25-2020/

Thursday Doors is 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 Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). 

You can join in here: https://miscellaneousmusingsofamiddleagedmind.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/thursday-doors-july-23-2020/

We visited the UK during the boys August school holiday in 2018. We chose to make Kent our home base as I love the area and I can visit Canterbury Cathedral over and over again. I also really like the sweet shop in Canterbury.

One of the historical places of interest we visited during this particular visit was Charles Darwin’s house. Charles Darwin, in case you’ve forgotten, was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. 

Below are some pictures of doors that I took while visiting this beautiful museum.

What Amazon says

CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY. WORDS HAVE POWER.

A sheet of black filled his vision as hundreds of birds dived at the cottage, pointed beaks thrust forward. From this angle, he couldn’t see many of them striking it, but the few he did see held nothing back as they hammered into the shutter. The scale of the attack was beyond anything he’d seen or heard of. And bloodied casualties littered the ground: skulls shattered, wings broken, innards spilling from them. The fact that so many of them continued with the onslaught in spite of this filled him with even more dread.

Salin has always wanted an adventure and, when the opportunity presents itself, he grabs it with both hands, taking his friends along for the ride – whether they want to or not.

With strange lands come strange creatures that stand between them and their goal. And that goal is the same for someone else, a man who believes the prize is worth every sacrifice – especially when the sacrifices are made by others.

The future is about to change. But who for?

My review

Carrion is the second book I’ve read by Graeme Cumming and is quite a different read to his debut novel, Raven’s Gathering. The book is written from a couple of perspectives, including Carrion, the evil sorcerer, Salin, the son of a retired member of the Order and his group of three friends as well as four members of the Order who are on an important journey.

This book followed a more traditional fantasy story with its central theme of good versus evil and the main protagonist on a quest to save the world from an power hungry and ruthless sorcerer who has learned to use his power in the pursuit of self serving interest rather than for the benefit of mankind as they were intended. There is lots of intrigue with groups of birds who act as spies for the sorcerer as well as some well known and awe inspiring mythical creatures. The story of the journey reminded me of Frodo Baggin’s journey through Mordor in the third Lord of the Rings book. The story is face paced and enjoyable and, although it wasn’t particularly original for me, it is a good read.

The character of Carrion is well described and his back story is provided which gives the reader insight into his past and the circumstances which have resulted in his horribly flawed psychic. The reader is quick to learn to despite and hate Carrion as is intended.

Salin is a bit immature and impatient but he is assisted by more sensible and practical friends and the group is able to progress their quest. Salin’s personality flaws, together with his loyalty and bravery, make him a believable character who the reader quickly becomes attached to. I enjoyed the female character, Willow, who always managed to keep the group focused and on track.

All in this book is an excellent read which will not disappoint lovers of fantasy and thrilling adventures.

Purchase Carrion by Graeme Cumming

Last week I shared a few of the songs which make me smile, especially right now when my days can get a bit overwhelming as a result of the economic catastrophe caused by C-19. Accountant’s are also front line workers, picking up the pieces, albeit different ones to the medical fraternity.

This week Linda’s theme is links and I have decided to share more links to my favourite songs. You can all blame yourselves for this choice as last week’s post was so well received I felt it was my duty not to disappoint you this week and to provide you with more of the same sort of entertainment [wink!]. I’m even sharing another of Terence’s choices which are always very different from mine.

First up is Bosom Buddies from the Broadway show, Mame. Mame is one of my favourite favourites, a bit like the purple Quality Street. My sister, Catherine and I used to sing this together and have been know to dance the cancan to it in the parking lot outside the theatre.

A few are my favourite lyrics from this song are as follows:

“We’ll always be bosom buddies,
Friends, sisters and pals;
We’ll always be bosom buddies,
If life should reject you,
There’s me to protect you.
If I say that your tongue is vicious,
If I call you uncouth;
It’s simply that who else but a bosom buddy
Will sit down and tell you the truth.

Tho’ now and again I’m aware that my candid opinion may sting,
Tho’ often my frank observation might scald;
I’ve been meaning to tell you for years
You should keep your hair natural like mine.
If I kept my hair natural like yours, I’d be bald.
Do you have a quart of a John? But darling,

We’ll always be dear companions,
My crony, My mate;
We’ll always be harmonizing,
Orphan Annie and Sandy,
Like Amos and Andy.
If I say that your sense of style’s as far as off as your youth;
It’s simply that who else but a bosom buddy
Will tell you the whole stinking truth.”

Next up is one of my favourite songs by Flanders and Swann called Madeira M’Dear.

“She was young, she was pure,
She was new, she was nice,
She was fair, she was sweet seventeen.

He was old, he was vile,
And no stranger to vice,
He was base, he was bad, he was mean.

He had slyly inviegled her up to his flat,
To view his collection of stamps;
And he said as he hastened to put out the cat,
The wine, his cigar, and the lamps:”

I must be honest that I do find all the songs by this duo hilarious and, if you give me enough encouragement in the comments, I may share some more.

And lastly, here is Terence’s contribution for this week:

The pop up concert he chose, is actually pretty amazing, so I hope you watch and enjoy it.

This post was written for Linda Hill’s SoCS prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “link.” Use it as a noun or a verb; use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

If you want to join in the fun, you can do so here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/07/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-18-2020/

Last year, we toured Yorkshire and Scotland and one of the places we visited in the city of York was the famous Clifford Tower. After our visit, I researched its history and wrote an article about it here: https://scvincent.com/2019/11/02/guest-author-roberta-eaton-cheadle-cliffords-tower-york/

I thought I would share a few pictures of its heavy wooden door and narrow windows for this Thursday Doors post which I have been itching to participate in for months but have never gotten around to before.

Thursday Doors is 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 Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). You can join in here: https://miscellaneousmusingsofamiddleagedmind.wordpress.com/2020/07/16/thursday-doors-july-16-2020/

I found Norm’s blog through Dan Antion’s lovely blog, No Facilities. You can read his Thursday Doors post here: https://nofacilities.com/2020/07/16/the-unique-doors-of-osv-thursdaydoors/

I am desperately trying to get the edits for my new book, A Ghost and His Gold completed by the end of this week. As a result, I haven’t been on-line as much this week and expect that to continue over the next few days. I should be back to normal blogging sometime next week.

What Amazon says

Imagining Violet Married continues Violet’s story as she and her new husband, Frank Welsman, embark on married life at the turn of the 20th century. Like Part One, the story begins with a journey, their voyage from Liverpool to Canada. Then Violet writes to friends and family about the challenges of living with her in-laws, her first pregnancy and the growth of Frank’s career as a concert pianist. During these years, the family spends summers on an island in Muskoka. It’s gentle domestic drama with elements of social and musical history within the context of Toronto’s development as a musical centre in North America

My review

This is the second book in the Imagining Violet series I have read and enjoyed. Imagining Violet Married picks up with Violet marrying her sweetheart, musician Frank Welsman, and moving from England to Toronto where he plans to build his music career. The author describes Violet’s journey across the ocean by ship and the newly married couples arrival in Toronto where they move in with Frank’s parents and his sister, Alice. His older sister, Olive is married and expecting her first child.

Learning to live with Frank’s parents and adapting to the more conservative social life of the wealthy in Toronto at the end of the 19th century takes a bit of time for Violet, but she does start to become involved in the music world and meet a few people. She realises she is pregnant quite soon after their arrival in Canada and I found it interesting to read about the rather strange life of an expectant mother from the privileged class at that time. Violet gives birth to a healthy son, Teddy, and she and Frank soon decide to move into their own home.

This series is reminiscent for me of the Little House series of books for children by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It tells the story of the life of Violet during the late Victorian era and vividly depicts life at the time when the conventions of society ruled and a married woman had to comply with them in all aspects of her life from entertaining on behalf of her husband to not appearing in public during her pregnancy. The book touches on the involvement of England and Canada in the Second Anglo Boer War and I was surprised at how supportive the wealthy class was of the English monarchy in Canada. The tribulations of life are also detailed included two of Violet’s four children contracting diphtheria and becoming very ill. Ill health was common at the time and there were few medical aids for illness and poor health.

I enjoyed the character of Violet and her growth as she evolves from a young newly married woman to a mother of four children and the wife of a prominent musician in the city. I also enjoyed meeting her in-laws, including Frank’s sister, Alice, who is a lovely young lady and quite supportive of Violet during the early days of arrival in Canada.

This is a slow and languid read that shares lots of intriguing detail about life during this period and I would recommend it to people who enjoy historical fiction along the lines of a fictionalised memoir.

Purchase Imagining Violet Married

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “song.” First, find a picture–the closest one to you. Your prompt is the title and/or the lyrics of the first song that comes to mind when you look at the picture. Have fun!”

This week, Linda’s stream of consciousness challenge played right into my hands because I wanted to write a post about songs that make me laugh by tickling my wicked sense of humour in some way or another. I also wanted to share my husband’s favourite song which he asked me to do. I didn’t want to – I told him to create his own blog but he looked so sad I capitulated.

I am going to cheat and not look at a picture, I’m just going to share my favourite lines for these songs that make me giggle.

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I am highly competitive, especially with my husband who is a very clever man [he keeps me on my toes]. I found this song, Anything you can do I can do better – Annie Get Your Gun – Betty Hutton and Howard Keel, a few weeks ago and thought the lyrics were hilarious and captured how I am amazingly well. Even some of my expressions when I’m on a competitive streak are very similar to Betty’s in this video.

“Anything you can be I can be greater
Sooner or later I’m greater than you”

This song “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man” also makes me laugh and laugh. It so beautifully demonstrates exactly why I can never ask my husband to do anything to help me [It will always be wrong – haha]. I always tell people that when I married Terence I got all his hair and all his words. When my three sisters and I get together, we talk so much and so loudly [especially as the bottles of wine start to empty] that our menfolk all slink away after about 30 minutes to sit in the lounge and quietly recover while watching rugby or cricket. They are quite unable to take the noise and raucous laughter. PS If you are a fanatical women’s libber, you may not find this as amusing as I do.

“Would you be slighted if I didn’t speak for hours?

COLONEL PICKERING:
Of course not.

PROFESSOR HIGGINS:
Would you be livid if I had a drink or two?

COLONEL PICKERING:
Nonsense.

PROFESSOR HIGGINS:
Would you be wounded if I never sent you flowers?

COLONEL PICKERING:
Never.

PROFESSOR HIGGINS:
Well, why can’t a woman be like you?”

Maybe my hubby and I get on so well because I often don’t speak to him for hours. Writing and blogging takes up a lot of my time and attention. Hubby doesn’t drink, but I’ve been know to dibble – every day! But only one [wink!] and I know I’ve given him very strict instructions to NEVER, EVER give me flowers. Such a bother having to look after them. I don’t like chocolates either. Actually, I just told him not to buy me anything, I prefer to get my own gifts [giggle!]

Because my husband is such a saint to put up with me and all my projects and obsessions, I’m going to share his favourite song with you. It’s called Baba Yetu and its sung by the Stellenbosch University Choir in South Africa.

If this prompt tickles your fancy as much as it did mine, you can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2020/07/10/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-11-2020/

What Amazon says

When my father died in 2005, I assumed my mother would need more support and someone to help with decisions she previously shared with her husband. What I didn’t realise was the role she had in mind for me: a sort of Desmond 2.0. Over the five years until her death, I played the role of apprentice, learning more about her and her relationship with my father than I had gleaned in my previous 50 years. We laughed, we cried and, occasionally we disagreed, and throughout she manipulated me as, I learnt, she had my father. Neither of us minded much; we were both her so willing fools, for she was an extraordinary woman and we both knew we were in the presence of someone very special.

My review

Apprenticed to My Mother is a delightful memoir written by a devoted son and depicts his younger years, growing up under the guidance of his parents, and his later years when the tables turn and his parents rely on him for certain things.

There are lots of things I loved about this book. I enjoyed the author’s description of his mother who is everything I admire: hard working, strong willed, devoted to her family and an excellent cook and baker. I love baking and am always pleased to read about other women who enjoy it too. A lot of family life revolves around food and eating, so a mother that cooks is always nice for children.

I enjoyed the anecdotes to the author’s younger years and some of the mischief he got up to with his brother. They both were very bright boys and quite typical, getting themselves into messes and injuring themselves. I liked that the boys had to help around the family home as I believe that instills good habits in children and the knowledge that you have to work if you want to achieve in life, whether it is planting a garden, building a career or moving house.

The author’s father sounds like a great chap. He was clearly devoted to his wife and sons and there are some delightful poems which he wrote for her and for various family events included in the book. Mr Le Pard senior was a gifted poet and most romantic too.

This book takes the reader on an entertaining journey of life growing up in an English town and a family enjoying, and making the most of, the ordinary things that comprise everyday life. It was interesting to see how the lives of both the parents and the sons changed over the years and how their roles also changed, with the parents becoming more reliant on guidance from the author as they aged. It felt, to me, that this book described the best things about being English and life in England.

I hope that one day when I am elderly, my sons will treat me with as much love and respect as the author demonstrated for his parents and, in particular, his mother to whom he becomes “apprenticed” after the death of his father.

My favourite poem in the book is called A Paratrooper’s Prayer, and these are the last three stanzas:
“And if it be Thy Will, God
Part of Thine Own Great Plan
That my life should stop, then on that last long drop
Oh God, let me die a man!

While I’m waiting to emplane, God
And I’m checking my jumping kit
Thugh I laugh and jeer I’m full of fear
But, God don’t let me quit.

When the kite begins to move, God
And take off time is near
Then my heart grows cold – God, make me bold
And drive away my fear.”

This poem reminds me of my favourite poem, IF by Rudyard Kipling.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy reading memoirs and books about families and their lives as well as delightful poetry.

Purchase Apprenticed to My Mother by Geoff Le Pard