Why Do Writers Write?

 

Why do I write?

I was asked this question several times over the last couple of years, often at writing conferences or by other writers online or by those who have read my books. I was thinking about it, and my answer is deceptively simple: I write because I have stories to tell, characters to give life to, and because I love books.

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I believe in the power of words to communicate between the author and the readers as I believe in the connection of human beings. All stories, no matter the genre, speak to that connection. I remain an eternal optimist and see writing as an expression of that hope. I see the journey into the imagination as creating not only places of wonder but possibilities for the growth of empathy and compassion. I see writing as a way to question society as well as to show its strengths. Mostly though, I am able to tell the stories I have within me.

 

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So here is my question to anyone who might wish to answer: why do you write?

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Available on Amazon

Get The Draft Done! is available here: Amazon.com

 

Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.

Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.

An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.

 

Please follow the following links to find my novel:

ebook

Print book

Thank you!

The book trailer:

Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I

My radio interview:

interview

Available on Amazon

Available on Amazon

Quotations on First Drafts

Here are a few quotations about creating first drafts to inspire all of us to keep writing:

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“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” 

                                                               Mark Twain

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“You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page.

   You can’t edit a blank page.”

                                                                 Jodi Picoult

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“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”

                                                                      William Faulkner.

“You can do it. You can write that first draft, so that you can go on to the act of revision. But the first draft must be completed before you can achieve your finished book, and you can do it. ”

(Get The Draft Done: Helping Writers Finish Their First Draft” Charles F. French)

A Ghost And His Gold by Roberta Eaton Cheadle

 

South African Concentration Camps

Background

Following the British defeat of the Boers at Diamond Hill near Pretoria on the 12^th of June 1900, the Transvaal officers (Boers) held a war council meeting at Balmoral where a new policy of guerrilla warfare tactics was accepted.

In response to the new methods introduced by the Boers, Lord Kitchener devised a scorched-earth policy against the Boer commandos and the rural population who supported them. Kitchener’s countertactics involved destroying arms, blockading the countryside, burning farms, and placing the civilian population in concentration camps.

The destruction of the farms left the women and children without shelter, food or protection from individuals and groups who roamed the veld looking for unprotected targets.

The British were forced to build concentration camps to house and feed these refugees.  At least 40 camps were constructed to house approximately 150,000 Boer refugees and another 60 camps to house the 115,000 native Africans who had worked as servants for the Boers.

Most of the inmates of the Boer camps lived in tents and were provided with minimum rations. The families of men who were on commando and still fighting were given less food and no meat while the families of men who had surrendered, called hands-uppers, were given a little more.

The inmates of the native African camps were even worse off being provided only with mielie meal and salt.

Approximately 28,000 Boer civilians, of which 80% were children, died in the concentration camps and 20,000 native Africans.

Picture of a family living in a tent in a Boer concentration camp (Source: https://www.up.ac.za/research-matters/news/post_2944059-concentration-camps-in-the-south-african-war-here-are-the-real-facts

 

A Reading From A Ghost and His Gold

Roberta reads a small portion of her excellent book on YouTube! Please be sure to view this!

 

A Ghost and His Gold is now available for purchase on Amazon! 

Purchase a copy here!

 

Please visit Roberta Eaton Cheadle’s excellent sites: Robbie Cheadle Books/Poems/Reviews and

Robbie’s inspiration.

 

Quotations On Perseverance

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“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”

                                                                  H. G. Wells

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“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”

                                                                  Theodore Roosevelt

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“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

                                                                 Eleanor Roosevelt

A New Review of Maledicus: The Investigative Paranormal Society, Book 1

A Fresh Look At The Good Vs. Evil Story

There will never be a shortage of horror novels, both good and bad. Author Charles F. French enters the fray with his premiere offering, Maledicus, that thankfully falls into the former category. French has concocted a clever and intriguing tale of a very old evil spirit, who once lived life in Ancient Rome as Lucius Antony Caius (aka Maledicus). In present day, a trio of retired friends who have also lost loved ones, have formed a group called the Investigative Paranormal Society (IPS) partly as a way to cope with their grief, and also to stave off the boredom of retirement. Their leader is Roosevelt Franklin, the widower in the group, and as staunchly sound and American as his name implies. While these men investigate paranormal activities as a sort of hobby, their paths inevitably cross with that of the titular Roman spirit in a classic battle of good vs. evil. While this tale has been told innumerable times, French brings some fresh perspective to the subject. One can also see the influence of the master of this genre, Stephen King, but, fortunately, French manages to find his own voice in a straightforward style of the writing that fully engages the reader. He cleverly uses a back-and-forth structure in the chapters as the two adversaries work toward their anticipated confrontation. As a first effort, French has delivered a first-rate thriller, and established himself in the horror genre as a genuinely original storyteller with an excellent command of plotting and narrative. There are two more volumes in the IPS series, and I look forward to reading them both.

Available on Amazon

Get The Draft Done! is available here: Amazon.com

 

Gallows Hill can be found here in ebook.

Gallows Hill in paperback can be found here.

An interview about Gallows Hill can be found here.

 

Please follow the following links to find my novel:

ebook

Print book

Thank you!

The book trailer:

Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I

My radio interview:

interview

Available on Amazon

Available on Amazon

A Promotion Post For Chris Hall: Chatting With My Characters

 

Chatting with my characters

My characters often chat with me, usually in that sleepless hour between three and four in the morning, when they worm their way into my consciousness and strike up a conversation. Some of the principal players from my second novel, You’ll Never Walk Alone, are the most insistent. This recent conversation went the way they usually do, starting with a few flattering comments and then… well, you’ll see.

~~~

I’m sitting with Connor and Cynthia in the patch of garden behind Cynthia’s flat. It’s late summer and bees are buzzing lazily around the neglected rosebushes, echoing the hum of the traffic circling Sefton Park.

Connor fills our glasses and places the almost empty bottle on the peeling wrought iron table. He sits back,  takes a large mouthful of wine and beams at me. ‘I believe congratulations are in order, once again, Ms Hall.’

Cynthia winks at me. ‘Connor was rather interested to discover you’d branched out from writing novels to penning poetry.’

‘Being a poet myself, with several slim volumes of published work under my belt, I feel an even greater empathy with you, my dear,’ says Connor. ‘I’m looking forward to reading your contribution, indeed, I’m looking forward to reading all the work in this new anthology. What’s it called again?’

‘It’s called Creation and the Cosmos, isn’t it darling,’ says Cynthia, patting my arm. ‘We saw a picture of the cover. Beautiful! Like you could lose yourself among the stars.’ Cynthia throws out her arms in a theatrical gesture.

‘And hot on the heels of your latest novel, too!’ Connor picks up the wine bottle and tops up his glass. ‘We thought it was rather good, didn’t we, old thing?

Cynthia winces at the sobriquet. She turns to me. ‘Song of the Sea Goddess, such a lovely story, darling. Such colourful characters. I especially liked your Professor and his little monkey, and I do like the way your writing is developing, only…’ she fiddles with the stem of her glass.

Here it comes.

I pick up my glass and take a generous sip to fortify myself, savouring the taste of the cheap but pleasant Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon which, as always, throws me right back into the early 1980s.

Cynthia continues. ‘We know that you’re busy with the sequel to Sea Goddess, but there have been some recent …’ she makes air quotes with her elegant fingers ‘…developments here. Worrying ones.’ She glances over at Connor.

Connor returns his glass to the table and leans forward on his elbows, hands clasped. ‘I really wouldn’t like to say too much, Ms Hall; potential spoilers for your readers and all that. But would it be too much to ask for you to start giving some proper thought to our sequel?’

~~~

Creation and the Cosmos, edited by tara caribou and featuring poetry and artwork by 32 writers and artists will be released on 23^rd March 2021. Available from:

lulu

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Kindle

 

Song of the Sea Goddess is on Amazon: USA – UK – IND – AUS – CAN – ESP – Rest of the World
Or download from kobo

Catch up with Cynthia, Connor and the rest of the gang in You’ll Never Walk Alone through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Youll-Never-Walk-Alone-Chris/dp/1797875809

 

Chris’s other books are also available on Amazon. Find the links via her website, Luna’s online: www.lunasonline.wordpress.com/books/

 

Happy Ostara!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Ostara! This is a holiday on the pagan and pre-Christian Celtic Calendar, and it marks the beginning of Spring and the Spring Equinox. It is a holiday of hope and fertility. And please do not worry, there is nothing Satanic about this celebration of life.

Hope, and a Wish Tree

Please read this wonderful post from Jennie, the excellent teacher!

A Teacher's Reflections

This is a year of Hope.  Children need it.   Adults need it.  When they find Hope, it carries them along.  Far.  Wish Trees are beacons of hope, where people give their most important and sacred wishes.  They have been all over the world for centuries.

We’re planning a Wish Tree at school in the spring.  It will help children.  They need Hope and Wishes.

Have you ever seen a Wish Tree?

Walking with friends along a Cape Cod beach, we rounded a bend where the sand meets the water.  This was a remote stretch of the beach, quite a distance from the usual spot where people set up their chairs and umbrellas. The walk was long.

And there it was.  An old felled tree.  It was covered with shells, each one placed carefully. The shells were a multitude of types and sizes.  The enormity of what was right in…

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The Work of Cendrine Marrouat and David Ellis

Here is a post to celebrate and promote the work of Cendrine Marrouat and David Ellis!

Rhythm Flourishing: A Collection of Kindku and Sixku
Authors: Cendrine Marrouat & David Ellis
Genre: Multimedia – Poetry with some photography (non-fiction)
Release date: September 3, 2020

Synopsis:

‘Rhythm Flourishing: A Collection of Kindku and Sixku’ showcases two unique, brand-new poetry forms created by Cendrine Marrouat and David Ellis, the co-founders of Auroras & Blossoms, a platform celebrating positivity and inspiration in art.

By taking elements of found poetry and Japanese poetry forms, Cendrine and David have developed a style of poetry known as the Kindku. The collection also features a selection of gorgeous images and poems from Cendrine’s own visual poetry form — the Sixku.

Enjoy a divine series of poems inspired by a variety of well-known poets including Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Emma Lazarus, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, William Butler Yeats, Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Maya Angelou, Sara Teasdale, Pablo Neruda and many others.

Learn how to write your very own Kindku and Sixku by reading this book and when you are done, consider submitting them to Auroras & Blossoms for publication.”

Relevant links: https://www.cendrinemedia.com/Rhythm-flourishing (Amazon, B&N, etc.) – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54741107-rhythm-flourishing.

Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography
Authors: Cendrine Marrouat, David Ellis & Hadiya Ali
Genre: Multimedia – Photography with some poetry (non-fiction)
Release date: March 16, 2021

Synopsis:

‘Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography’ is a unique collection of artistic styles that bring together different innovative concepts of both gripping writing and stunning visual imagery.

In the first part of the book, photographer and painter Ali introduces us to two of her favorite photographers by reimagining and recreating images in the nature of her photographic idols — Irving Penn and Karl Blossfeldt.

In the second part, photographer, poet, and author Marrouat shares a selection of her reminigrams, a digital style that she personally created to honor and pay homage to the early days of photography.

Author and poet Ellis rounds things off with a series of pareiku poems (the poetry form he co-created with Marrouat), offering fresh outlooks for his sincere, heartfelt adoration of photography of the past.

A fascinating and compelling book, ‘Seizing the Bygone Light: A Tribute to Early Photography’ will leave you with a deep sense of appreciation and a greater understanding of photography.
PoArtMo Collective is a gathering of inspirational artists, writers and photographers that combine their talents to produce positive, mixed media projects that stimulate the minds of the people who delve into them.”

Relevant link: https://abpoetryjournal.com/seizing-bygone-light/ (Amazon, B&N, etc.) – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57127979-seizing-the-bygone-light.

A follow-up interview with Cendrine Marrouat and David Ellis will appear on this blog in the not too distant future!

Blooming Holler ~

Please enjoy these beautiful photographs from Cindy Knoke!

The Holler spring bloom is on, and I am home to photograph it for a change, so I am going to post a series on Holler spring flowers, starting with these beauties. The Cup of Gold flowering vine grows prolifically, and the blooms are humongous, about eight inches in diameter.

Hong Kong Orchid Trees have stunning blossoms that blanket the trees in spring.

Matilija Poppies are one of my favorite flowers and are Southern California natives, with huge fried-egg blossoms, about eight inches in diameter.

Reliable African Iris propagate beautifully at The Holler.

Wild Stinging Lupine cover bare areas, are beautiful to look at, but not nice to touch.

The Californian Fuchsia is native to Southern California but I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was in the fuchsia family but was stumped with identification. So my talented blogging friend Eliza Waters, who has a degree in horticulture…

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