Latest Hilary being proof read and cover designed should be ready to go in a week or so.
Got a cold.
Got Delhi Belly again - don't know how or why - doctor may send me for a scan.
Oganising a Sparkle night for Shelterbox to raise money for those hit by disasters.
Re-organised house for autumn.
Meeting a friend for a coffee.
Exhausted.
Can't stop working, writing, delivering books.
Got to go.
Do a better blog when feeling better.
Now 66 days ill up to today.
Must rush.
Monday, 10 October 2016
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Ghosties, goulies and long legged beasties....
Hallowene is around the corner, time for amateurs to scare themselves silly with esoteric magic and spook raising.
I research all my books thoroughly. This murder mystery at Hallowene even scared me during the research! Writing horror is difficult. Writiers have to have experienced the feelings of their characters to certain extent and fill in the rest with imagination.
In this book, there is voodoo magic, zombies, ghosts, necromancing, murder, and an encounter with a sexual ghost or two. One of my readers said she thought I wouldn't be able to get away with this sort of writing but said it made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck - which I took to be a good thing!
As for me, I have never actually seen a ghost materialise. I have seen orbs and photographed them with my ghost camera, it's a strange thing, we bought this little compact camera as ours got broken on holiday, and it often produced photographs of manifestations.
In Cornwall my house was the mine captain's house, built over the tunnels of the Levant Mine. In the 1919s there was a huge collapse inside the mine, killing 31 miners. Periodically they would turn up in our lounge or our next door neighbours. It seemed they didn't realise they had died. One New Years Eve we were all dressed up in Fancy Dress to go to the St Ives New Year Party, and jokingly as I set up the camera I said, "Come on guys, I know you're there - get in the picture." They did - the picture showed hubby, son and me in our best Pirates of the Caribbean outfits with two orbs shining brightly either side of us, and three at knee level as if they were getting into the picture by crouching down in front of us.
Sue next door often saw half a person (legs and cream trousers)climbing her stairs. She also heard knocking under the floor. Both our houses were built on solid granite so work that one out!
The second book Murder at Overdown Manor is the conclusion and a journey back to normality of some sort.
I hope you get to read and enjoy them as much as I enjoyed and scared myself writing them.
On Amazon Kindle now. The Overdown Chronicles with new stories will be out in paperback later this year - hopefully in time for Christmas.
Friday, 30 September 2016
Le Weekend!
Tres bon! at last - quand le Francais? Je ne connais pas. C'est un de ces jours!
This year up to now I have done tons of stuff. Looking at my calendar and updating next years - yes getting booked up already - I was surprised to find that during the year up to now I have been sick/ill/injured for 55 days of it, and it's only the start of October!
Believe me, I know I've been ill and sometimes I have ratted on about at it length in this blog, but 55 days?
Ever since we moved to the Cotswolds we have been ill, even planning to move here and during the move I had a stress heart attack and broke my arm with a fall downstairs.
Perhaps this isn't the place for us.
Square pegs squashed into a round hole. I don't give up. I've given it my best shot, but you know the old saying "when you bang your head against a brick wall, it's nice when you stop."
But this weekend is a rare one we are not delivering books, or at the Sealed Knot, or on a photo shoot at a country house, we are as the Georgians used to say "At Home."
We may even have time to think about what comes next.
I'll keep you posted. Here's a few pretty pictures for you
Ted and Griff on our windowcill - Andy made Griff - he's great at pottery.
Waddesdon Manor my place of work.
Peacock butterfly, ragged and tired poor thing, on our log store.
Have a good weekend everybody.
This year up to now I have done tons of stuff. Looking at my calendar and updating next years - yes getting booked up already - I was surprised to find that during the year up to now I have been sick/ill/injured for 55 days of it, and it's only the start of October!
Believe me, I know I've been ill and sometimes I have ratted on about at it length in this blog, but 55 days?
Ever since we moved to the Cotswolds we have been ill, even planning to move here and during the move I had a stress heart attack and broke my arm with a fall downstairs.
Perhaps this isn't the place for us.
Square pegs squashed into a round hole. I don't give up. I've given it my best shot, but you know the old saying "when you bang your head against a brick wall, it's nice when you stop."
But this weekend is a rare one we are not delivering books, or at the Sealed Knot, or on a photo shoot at a country house, we are as the Georgians used to say "At Home."
We may even have time to think about what comes next.
I'll keep you posted. Here's a few pretty pictures for you
Peacock butterfly, ragged and tired poor thing, on our log store.
Have a good weekend everybody.
Tuesday, 27 September 2016
SEX!
I don't want sex vendors using my blog, or tindr or tumblr or any other mispelt rubbish. I don't want to see people having sex. I'm not 14. I don't want a new partner male or female. I AM NOT A PORN SITE - so take down your links before I get an authority figure to do it for you.
Poldark Series 2 Debbie Horsfield
I steeled myself to watch Debbie Horsfield's adaptation of Poldark's trial. I had tried to watch the series before, but I do not understand why Debbie Horsfield, who had been given such a strong female character has changed the feisty, clever, sexy Demelza from the books into a long string of wet tap water played by Eleanor Tomlinson.
The witty, sparking clever trial, with the manipulation of Jud Payner by Demelza, did not exist in this version. Whereas in the books,although the Judge is not turned by Demelza's discourse on music at the party, he certainly remembered her with kindness at the trial.
With such great material, how does Debbie Horsfield manage to make the scripts so futile?
The costumes are absolutely terrible, having actually studied handled and seen up close and personal clothes of the period, how can they get it so wrong?
Versailles was incredibily costumed and historically incorrect. But history is subjective and guesses are made. So I watch the pretty pictures and research the truth.
Winston Graham wrote a book about a man with a social conscience from the upper classes. His wife was from the gutter, but had street "smarts" and a willingness to learn.
So why the great hype about this "new" programme?
Because the TV reviewers haven't read the books - they don't care. Because the memory of the 1980's Poldark success is still so strong that this is riding on the back of it. Aidan Turner is a big sex symbol and that also pushes the ratings along.
It's a travesty that Mammoth films think they are doing a good job. Money speaks after all and isn't that what it's all about? Winston Graham didn't like the re-writing of the original
series for the BBC and there were huge rows about it.
God knows what he'd think of the half-mangled rubbish churned out in his name.
Read the books in the original form, be transported back to a time where Ross and Demelza joked with each other, celebrated with each other, loved their children, protected their world and lived and loved passionately in Cornwall.
Not I might add Lacock in the Cotswolds! Or in computer generated backdrops!
I would hate anyone to adapt my books as badly as this.
Here is the original Ross and Demelza, Robin Ellis and the late Angarhad Rees
The happy couple Mammoth style
By the way Aidan is staning on a box as Elinor is taller than him!
Oh well, I just hope Dobby has enough tea towels for Demelza to wear in the next series.
The witty, sparking clever trial, with the manipulation of Jud Payner by Demelza, did not exist in this version. Whereas in the books,although the Judge is not turned by Demelza's discourse on music at the party, he certainly remembered her with kindness at the trial.
With such great material, how does Debbie Horsfield manage to make the scripts so futile?
The costumes are absolutely terrible, having actually studied handled and seen up close and personal clothes of the period, how can they get it so wrong?
Versailles was incredibily costumed and historically incorrect. But history is subjective and guesses are made. So I watch the pretty pictures and research the truth.
Winston Graham wrote a book about a man with a social conscience from the upper classes. His wife was from the gutter, but had street "smarts" and a willingness to learn.
So why the great hype about this "new" programme?
Because the TV reviewers haven't read the books - they don't care. Because the memory of the 1980's Poldark success is still so strong that this is riding on the back of it. Aidan Turner is a big sex symbol and that also pushes the ratings along.
It's a travesty that Mammoth films think they are doing a good job. Money speaks after all and isn't that what it's all about? Winston Graham didn't like the re-writing of the original
series for the BBC and there were huge rows about it.
God knows what he'd think of the half-mangled rubbish churned out in his name.
Read the books in the original form, be transported back to a time where Ross and Demelza joked with each other, celebrated with each other, loved their children, protected their world and lived and loved passionately in Cornwall.
Not I might add Lacock in the Cotswolds! Or in computer generated backdrops!
I would hate anyone to adapt my books as badly as this.
Here is the original Ross and Demelza, Robin Ellis and the late Angarhad Rees
The happy couple Mammoth styleBy the way Aidan is staning on a box as Elinor is taller than him!
Oh well, I just hope Dobby has enough tea towels for Demelza to wear in the next series.
Sunday, 25 September 2016
Sunday Sunday - so good for me!!
Sundays in my childhood were always boringly quiet, nothing was open. Sometimes there weren't even buses. It was only years later while doing research for my book, I found this was a hangover from Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate when it was made law and only repealed in 1994 after the 1986 Bill was defeated.
Our Sundays in Shoredtich started with a fried breakfast with fried bread, then we'd go down the "Lane". Petticoat Lane as it was always known to us started in the 17th century, trading on Sundays from 9am till about 3pm. There was the flower market near the Mildmay Hospital, and Club Row, the dog and animal market, and yes it was a cruel as it sounds. Puppies who were weak were just thrown away under the stall.
Characters were the Pearly Kings and Queens raising money for the poor,
and Prince Monolulu
He was a bookie/fortune teller believe it or not.
Then we'd go home and have a roast dinner. Always on did Sunday, followed by tinned pears and cream or if we were really fancy, neopolitan ice cream (four flavours!) if it was Summer our Dad would drive us and our dog Prince a Labrador Alasation cross, (bought in dog lane) to Hampstead Heath for the afternoon. All East End dogs have noble names, like Prince, Tsar, etc. The lower down the social rank you were, the higher up your dog was!
Prince would have a rare old time head butting walkers and children, we always knew where
he was as they fell like nine pins down the hill. He always head butted in the back of the knees so no-one saw it coming!
Back home, bath Prince, bath us, french bread cheese and salad for tea, turn off Songs of Praise, and wait impatiently for Sunday Night at the London Palladium, later as I was the oldest I was allowed to stay up and watch Maigret which scared me silly.
Sundays now are so different, they are whatever you want them to be. Hubby is planting our garlic for next season, I had cereal for lunch as I didn't fancy anything else, and now I'm blogging down memory lane or is it Petticoat Lane?!!
Have a good weekend!
Our Sundays in Shoredtich started with a fried breakfast with fried bread, then we'd go down the "Lane". Petticoat Lane as it was always known to us started in the 17th century, trading on Sundays from 9am till about 3pm. There was the flower market near the Mildmay Hospital, and Club Row, the dog and animal market, and yes it was a cruel as it sounds. Puppies who were weak were just thrown away under the stall.
Characters were the Pearly Kings and Queens raising money for the poor,
and Prince Monolulu
He was a bookie/fortune teller believe it or not.Then we'd go home and have a roast dinner. Always on did Sunday, followed by tinned pears and cream or if we were really fancy, neopolitan ice cream (four flavours!) if it was Summer our Dad would drive us and our dog Prince a Labrador Alasation cross, (bought in dog lane) to Hampstead Heath for the afternoon. All East End dogs have noble names, like Prince, Tsar, etc. The lower down the social rank you were, the higher up your dog was!
Prince would have a rare old time head butting walkers and children, we always knew where
he was as they fell like nine pins down the hill. He always head butted in the back of the knees so no-one saw it coming!
Back home, bath Prince, bath us, french bread cheese and salad for tea, turn off Songs of Praise, and wait impatiently for Sunday Night at the London Palladium, later as I was the oldest I was allowed to stay up and watch Maigret which scared me silly.
Sundays now are so different, they are whatever you want them to be. Hubby is planting our garlic for next season, I had cereal for lunch as I didn't fancy anything else, and now I'm blogging down memory lane or is it Petticoat Lane?!!
Have a good weekend!
Thursday, 22 September 2016
Angels and Demons.
So many people are into Angels at the moment. Trying to communicate with these beings of light and hope.There are courses on how to do it, Angel cards, Angel music, Angel shops. Nothing about God without whom, his messengers, the Angels wouldn't exist.
You can't talk about God because it's too preachy. I used to get God mixed up with Father Christmas, with a lot of please can I have?..... Now the Universe has taken over that role what role has God got to play in our lives?
A lot of people still say OMG without realising in means Oh my God. If something shocking happens, or during sex, a lot of people still invoke God's name. Oh God, Oh God.
I think He must be sitting with pads of thick cotton wool clouds stuffed in his ears! In the 1970s some physicists tried to prove that a God or Creator did exist, as everything was made up of mathematical patterns. It's a physicists try and prove things we can't see exist.
Still with me or have you turned me off like Songs of Praise on Sunday evening? So you see it's hard to write about about God. Any God.
My mother was a Catholic, my father was an aetheist. So I have been conflicted from an early age.
I quite like Saints. Saint Anthony when called on always makes my car keys,earrings,important letters turn up, he's the patron saint of lost items. He also helps with my cats.
Talking of which, Saint Francis of Assissi helps with animals,who are lost, in pain, or needing help.
I call on my parking Angel to help me find a good parking place, and he/she is amazing and has never let me down. My agnostic husband now calls on the parking Angel when desperate!
I have been bending the ear of Archangel Raphael recently. Asking him to shine his green healing light on me, and throughout all my illnesses, he has been a steadying influence.
We all need to believe in something and that's where I come to the dark side.
Demons.
I saw a 14 year old girl in the supermarket wearing a black tee shirt with Satan Worshipper on it. I'd have preferred Sun worshipper, but that is not good for you either, bad for the skin.
Joking apart, I have in my life met a lovely woman, wife of a minister of the church who
took it upon herself to break up Satanic circles and was good at it. I have met a health visitor who was trying to take a baby away from a young girl, not just because it was her father's child, but because it was to be a sacrifice.
In the USA Satanism is now to be declared a religion and some people want it taught in schools.
You only have to look in the dead eyes of any murderer whose photograph appears in the papers to see a Demon.
Evil can be charming, irresistable, persuasive, I worked in the BBC with such a person, who was also a murderer, but had got away with it.
I have told you all before I believe in all creatures, mermaids, the Loch Ness monster, dragons. Probably we know them now as manetees, brachiosaurs, helia monsters. But they existed.
Why did Hitler spend so much time and money looking into the dark side of the estoteric?
My mother used to say "The Devil looks after his own."
For every good thing there is a bad thing. While we're at it, I think the quote attributed to G.K.Chesterton "If a man doesn't believe in God, he'll believe anything."
In the end the thing that God has given us as humans is choice. We can be good or bad,
kind or nasty. Angels or Demons, and that's a very big expensive gift.
Sermon over, leave your change in the dish as you leave!
You can't talk about God because it's too preachy. I used to get God mixed up with Father Christmas, with a lot of please can I have?..... Now the Universe has taken over that role what role has God got to play in our lives?
A lot of people still say OMG without realising in means Oh my God. If something shocking happens, or during sex, a lot of people still invoke God's name. Oh God, Oh God.
I think He must be sitting with pads of thick cotton wool clouds stuffed in his ears! In the 1970s some physicists tried to prove that a God or Creator did exist, as everything was made up of mathematical patterns. It's a physicists try and prove things we can't see exist.
Still with me or have you turned me off like Songs of Praise on Sunday evening? So you see it's hard to write about about God. Any God.
My mother was a Catholic, my father was an aetheist. So I have been conflicted from an early age.
I quite like Saints. Saint Anthony when called on always makes my car keys,earrings,important letters turn up, he's the patron saint of lost items. He also helps with my cats.
Talking of which, Saint Francis of Assissi helps with animals,who are lost, in pain, or needing help.
I call on my parking Angel to help me find a good parking place, and he/she is amazing and has never let me down. My agnostic husband now calls on the parking Angel when desperate!
I have been bending the ear of Archangel Raphael recently. Asking him to shine his green healing light on me, and throughout all my illnesses, he has been a steadying influence.
We all need to believe in something and that's where I come to the dark side.
Demons.
I saw a 14 year old girl in the supermarket wearing a black tee shirt with Satan Worshipper on it. I'd have preferred Sun worshipper, but that is not good for you either, bad for the skin.
Joking apart, I have in my life met a lovely woman, wife of a minister of the church who
took it upon herself to break up Satanic circles and was good at it. I have met a health visitor who was trying to take a baby away from a young girl, not just because it was her father's child, but because it was to be a sacrifice.
In the USA Satanism is now to be declared a religion and some people want it taught in schools.
You only have to look in the dead eyes of any murderer whose photograph appears in the papers to see a Demon.
Evil can be charming, irresistable, persuasive, I worked in the BBC with such a person, who was also a murderer, but had got away with it.
I have told you all before I believe in all creatures, mermaids, the Loch Ness monster, dragons. Probably we know them now as manetees, brachiosaurs, helia monsters. But they existed.
Why did Hitler spend so much time and money looking into the dark side of the estoteric?
My mother used to say "The Devil looks after his own."
For every good thing there is a bad thing. While we're at it, I think the quote attributed to G.K.Chesterton "If a man doesn't believe in God, he'll believe anything."
In the end the thing that God has given us as humans is choice. We can be good or bad,
kind or nasty. Angels or Demons, and that's a very big expensive gift.
Sermon over, leave your change in the dish as you leave!
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