Getting Busy

I’m not quite getting the hang of the whole ‘author’ thing. I like writing, and I like to think I’m good at it, but the whole marketing thing is a whole new world.

It’s an exciting new world, though, and I’m enjoying some of the adventure. I had never heard of ‘Blog Tours’ or ‘Facebook Takeovers’ or ‘Guest Posts’. Now I’m finding out about these wonderful things and, what is even better, enjoying dipping in to other people’s writing.

I’ve signed up to be part of blog tours. This means I’ll will be doing reviews, hosting guest posts and generally interacting with some amazing authors. Watch this space for what is happening. I have also had a story accepted into the ‘Glass and Ashes’ anthology and the blog tours and publicity for that are going to be awesome! I’m feeling overwhelmed, but in a good way.

In other news – the first newsletter will absolutely definitely be out next Friday 5 October, and I absolutely definitely will have worked out how to do it by then. Not only will I do everything to make sure I comply with all regulations, but I will also include any updates on what I am doing, a household hint from Mrs Tuesday’s extensive collection and a short piece of original fiction. You can subscribe to the newsletter here, if you are interested. And I will absolutely, definitely have the next instalment of the White Hart up this Friday.

Thank you for stopping by.

Review: Dangerous Liaisons by Barbara Tyree

This is not an awesome book. It is a frustrating book. There is an awesome book in there, or possibly two awesome books, but this edition doesn’t quite hit the mark.

The story of FBI Agent Sierra Lancaster and her interactions with the people around her is potentially gripping with plenty of twists and turns. There are old flames, FBI agents, partners, sort-of-estranged relatives, shoot-outs, deals, busts and a whole swathe of difficult and challenging interactions. I am a sucker for complex interactions and intricate layers of relationships and this is almost awesome. I found myself muttering as I read because it isn’t quite there, and it could be. I would almost be enjoying a sudden revelation, but the foreshadowing hadn’t quite hit the mark. I would be almost caught up in a character’s development, but it wasn’t quite consistent. I would be almost hooked on the story but some of the details didn’t strike true. I finished this book wanting to kick something because I read a nearly good book.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending this book. If a second edition comes out, however, I recommend grabbing it with both hands. I sort of hope that Ms Tyree makes two separate stories out of it, because there are at least two separately awesome books in there. I shall definitely be watching out for further work from her, as there are some great stories in there and I want to read the awesome ones.

Iron Crown

The legendary Iron Crown was now just rusted metal. He pushed aside the rubbish on the floor and picked it up. It was still surprisingly heavy. He turned it over in his hands and even though it was so decayed he could feel the power in it. It was heavy with more than the physical iron. Centuries of being the loadstar for every ambitious heart had left their mark. Had it been worth it? Had all the scheming and plotting been worth the pain? Had the brief season of rule been worth rending the world apart.

He glanced through the gaps in the ruined castle walls. The sun was getting lower. He had to leave before night fell and the Dark Ones walked.

Haunted

Many walk past his statue. School children sketch it and history teachers wave wildly as they walk its bounds. His name is in legend. But for those who have the sight, his ghost huddles at the foot of the bronze, sobbing inconsolably, his hands shielding his head, as he remembers the blood shed in his wake.

The Door

“Can you see the door?” The guy lounging against the tree seemed to have always been there, but I was sure he hadn’t been there when I stopped to get my water bottle. I needed to pay more attention,

“Of course I can see the door. It’s an art thing, isn’t it?” I took a quick mouthful of water.

“An art thing?” The guy straightened and moved over. He looked skinny under the designer jeans and fancy sweatshirt and his eyes were dark blue and slanted under his thatch of fair hair. He moved like a cat.

“Yeah, an art thing. You know, some installation or thing where they make the world brighter.” I wiped the sweat from my face with my bandana. It was warm even in the shade. “I mean, it’s a steep drop the other side. That’s a door to nowhere.” I leant over the rails and looked down at the steep, bracken strewn slope. The door had a handle the other side and I wondered what was the point of a handle that no-one could reach. Then I wondered what the point of a door was in a fence above a drop.

“A door to nowhere?” The guy beckoned me closer and against my better judgement I followed him to the door.

“It’s just a junk door.” I glanced up and down the path. There was no-one else around and I started to feel uneasy.

“It’s the door to fairyland.” The guy grinned mockingly and bowed before pulling the door open.

“What the…” I couldn’t guess what I was going to say. The door opened onto a level path that cut across a clearing in spring woods towards a stream that gurgled in sparkling sunlight. I moved back and looked to the side of the door. The steep drop remained in the late summer shade and the bracken was looking tired. I stepped back in front of the door and I could feel a fresh breeze on my face and the scent of spring woods and violets wafted past.

“Welcome to fairyland.” I felt a sharp shove to the small of my back and I staggered forward through the door and into the spring clearing. I heard a door slam behind me and I whirled around. There was nothing. The woods continued into the deeper thickets. The door was gone.

Free Books!

There are a lot of free ebooks out there. Some are legitimate free ebooks which are released on Amazon, Smashwords and similar places to tempt readers into buying other books from the same author. Others are curiosities. Perhaps someone wants to share their knowledge of making chainmail or crochet or gas metal arc welding and for whatever reason don’t feel it right putting a price on it.

There are other legitimate sites where the books are free. You can visit your local library (some lend ebooks as well), or read books that would otherwise have a cost through subscription schemes like Amazon Prime or Scribd. You can even share books around. There are a lot of book exchanges, some more official than others. I found a load listed on Wikipedia here.

Some free ebooks deal with health matters. Sometimes those who have struggled down dark paths of addiction, disordered eating or chronic illness want to share their experience and how they made it through. They can be a valuable resource to people lost in bad places. Please always check advice from these sources against reputable medical advice. It’s not that all of the books would mislead you, but some are safer than others. You are precious and worth doing due diligence.

Then there are places out there that tout that they supply free ebooks, but perhaps aren’t the safest places to find a good read. If you are not familiar with a site, it’s worth double checking or skipping altogether. The last thing anyone needs is to find themselves downloading the latest virus instead of the most recent blockbuster.

These are all modern books dealing with new fiction or current techniques. But did you know that there are a lot more books out there that may have passed under your radar? For example, did you know about ‘Internet Sacred Text Archive‘? This is a collection of free texts on folklore, esoteria, religion and mythology. You can donate or subscribe to read without ads, but if you do neither you can still read such works as ‘Four Ancient Books of Wales’ which is a translation made in 1868 of some of the older works in the Welsh tradition. I am sure that fantasy writers of all types would have a gleam in their eye at the thought of dipping into the legends of the saints, the Vikings, the Celts, Alchemy, the Pacific, or even UFOs.

You can also have a rummage around the kindle bookstore on Amazon. Did you know that there are a lot of free classics on there? I have no longer have an excuse to avoid Moby Dick – free on Amazon. I ought to be dipping in to Immanuel Kant, or Dickens, or Kafka – all with editions of their work free on Amazon. I won’t, though. I’m currently listening to the free Audio book, The Children of Odin. This channel, like many others on YouTube, has a collection of out of copyright books read by individuals and while some are less than perfect, others rival professional audio books.

If you are looking for a really good site for free, obscure, out of copyright books, then check out Project Gutenberg. There are currently over 57,000 free books, including ‘Memoires de Garibaldi’ by Dumas, Dracula by Bram Stoker (seriously worth reading the original if you haven’t already and if you want to pay for an audio version the one with Brian Cox rocks), and Persuasion by Jane Austen.

And after going back to all these great places, I think I may spend some time dipping in to a chapter or two. I may be gone some time.

Is It Art

I went into Leeds today. I had a few errands to run, the sun was shining and I thought I would make the most of it. I got off the bus in City Square and saw this.

It’s a statue of some legs, in case you haven’t guessed. It’s been done very well, and someone has gone to a lot of trouble and effort and it’s bright and colourful and contemporary. I wasn’t sure about it, though. I’m not educated in Art, and I think if you have a fine arts background and you know more about context then it’s probably a really great piece. For a philistine like me, it just looked like some colourful legs. There’s some more about it here.

A little later, in Briggate, I took this picture.

As you can tell, I’m not brilliant when it comes to pictures. This is a statue of Minerva, apparently, and I think was sculpted more recently. As I said, I’m completely uneducated, but I love the way that the solid metal is made to look like fabric folds. According to a snippet here, Minerva was the goddess of weaving and commerce which is absolutely perfect for Leeds which was built on textiles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and I love the owl mask, as owls are on the Leeds coat of arms. I understand this as much as I understand anything. It tells me stories in the way that the Legs don’t.

The question is – are they both ‘Art’? Of course they are, and some people will prefer one and some the other. In both cases someone took an idea and translated it into something solid using skill and passion. The problem isn’t in the sculpture, the problem is in the question. The question is poison.

In Leeds Art Gallery there is a huge canvas painted blue. That’s it – just a vast, flat, blue rectangle. My instinctive reaction is – someone had a sale on blue paint. However I have been told that there is a lot of skill in getting an even tone and texture over such a large canvas and that those who paint will really appreciate it. I know that whoever painted it did a better job than I could ever do. Who am I to say that they are wrong?

That question – is it art? – is poison to writing as well. You can be caught up writing the most exciting, challenging, thrilling story. You can see the action, hear the voices, even smell the smoke and flowers but there is always a little doubt. There’s always a little niggle. Are the characters deep enough? What about extended metaphors? Have I let an adverb sneak in? Should I have included this character? Should I have cut that character? I need to edit more.

I think that the questions you should ask are things like, are the characters believable? Are they consistent? Do they have the same eye colour from one chapter to the next (it happens!)? Does the story make sense? Does it have variations in pace? How about the descriptive passages? How does the dialogue sound? All these are valid questions. You should never stop unless you can say that you are proud of it. But if you find yourself asking, is it art? then I think you need to step away from the writing and do grocery shopping or cleaning or something that ties you back to the mundane. From my experience, chasing Great Art is bad for the mental health.

I don’t agree with everything that Rudyard Kipling wrote, but darn it, he could work rhythm and I was reminded of his poem when I saw the Legs this morning – The Conundrum of the Workshops

As It Should Be

Tell me again, about the fight

And how you fought it to the damnation

See me writing how you fought the fight

And I look on and nod in admiration.

Hey, look at you, I lean in closer

You fought the fight and here I am admiring

You are the destiny, I just cook the meals

You come home to a hero’s welcome

And as I scurry round to find the feast

And wonder whether the wine will last the night

Tell me again about the fight

And I’ll make sure an audience awaits.

I do a thousand thousand tiny works,

I find your shield and shirt and sword

And lay in preparations for your feast

And wonder if I’ve done enough

So here you are, hero and warrior wild

And I am grateful that you stoop to me.

You are the centre of the bardic tales

And I, peripheral, will worship thee

Originally posted February 2nd 2018

Sea God Calling

He stood between the land and sea.

He cocked his head and beckoned me.

I shook my head, ‘You let me be.

You’ll get no power over me.’

His hair waved dark, his eyes sparked blue.

He raised his hand and the cold wind blew.

‘I will not bow nor bend the knee,

You’ll get no power over me’

Strong he stood, the clouds hung low.

I wanted him but dare not go.

‘A mortal woman’s not for thee,

You’ll get no power over me.’

The waves dashed high where the sea god stood.

I bit my lip and I tasted blood.

I wanted him, ‘You let me be,

I’ll give no power over me.’

He beckoned me, I felt the call,

The sun shone warm on the sea god tall.

I whispered, ‘Do not call to me,

I daren’t give power over me.’

He strode across the warming sand

And knelt to gently kiss my hand.

‘Lady, at your whim I be

You have love’s power over me.’

Originally published May 8th 2016

Harbour

Image from WikiCommons, taken by Rev Dave and used under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

I have a dream where the dusk is falling

And I can hear the sound of the sea birds calling.

The wind is soft and the air is warm,

The storm has passed and the sea is calm.

The fishers are home on the turning tide,

Their boats tied tight to the harbour side.

The steps lead down to the quay below,

Clean and safe in the lamp’s soft glow.

Just step, I know, on the wide, stone stair.

Just step, in the soft and dreamy air.

A gentle path to a solid quay.

And a harbour safe waits there for me.

Originally posted December 2nd 2015