In The Works: Part 1

The main task for the start of this year is to complete the final edit of Palindrome. My aim remains to publish this prequel to Six Dead Men in the Summer. Once this is done there are several projects I could be working on for next year and beyond. But which one should be my main focus for 2019?

Help me out dear readers! Please vote for the book you’d most like me to work on for publication in 2019. The hopeful contenders are:

The Witch Adoption Project

When Rainbows Dare

This week’s post will state the case for The Witch Adoption Project. It is the sequel to The Lonely Dragon [TLD] and continues the tale of Clarissa, Bruberon & Kastaspella. While TLD was set mainly in Bruberon’s homeland, this story centres on Clarissa’s life now that Jocasta Spellatrix (aka Kastaspella) has become a member of Clarissa's family. It is a coming of age story which also focuses on the trials and tribulations of a young girl forced into the care system by tragic circumstances. But first you will need to know how The Lonely Dragon ended.

Extract from The Lonely Dragon

Clarissa had tidied the bathroom after using it. Jocasta made sure she left everything as messy as possible and giggled to herself before going to the kitchen.

Horatio Henry turned round from the cooker as he heard Jocasta's usual rumble through the house and down the stairs. “Jocasta Spellatrix, you go back up to that bathroom this minute and clean it up!”

Jocasta stood in the doorway pouting and balling her hands into fists. Her face began to look like a tomato.

“Kas.” Mr Henry's voice dropped a level as he walked towards her, spatula in one hand. With a gentle hand on her shoulder he swivelled her round to face the stairs. “It's a simple equation. One messy bathroom equals no pancakes for you.” Then he kissed the top of her head and gave her a gentle shove.

Kas walked back up the stairs as though she was under a spell. She touched the top of her head. Then looked at her hand. She could swear that she saw a golden glow sitting there from the kiss. Jinx swished passed her.

Back in the kitchen Clarissa jumped out of her chair. She hugged her apron wearing dad hard. “I love you dad!”

He hugged her back. “Love you too kiddo.” Then went back to making pancakes. “We're going to keep her no matter how hard she tries to makes us hate her right?”

“Right!” said Clarissa as she spooned more blueberry sauce over a pancake.

Jinx did some cat yoga in a patch of sunlight on the kitchen floor then flopped down contentedly. Clarissa winked at him and he winked back. Snookie, her mixed breed terrier, came in through the dog flap and flopped down back to back with Jinx in the patch of sunlight.

Clarissa stabbed a bit of pancake, swivelled it round her plate to mop up blueberry juice and popped it into her mouth. She closed her eyes as she chewed and smiled contentedly.

Next week I’ll present the case for When Rainbows Dare then the voting can begin.

Guest Post: Creative Recharge

Lindsay Bamfield started writing fiction about 10 years ago. She has written a number of short stories and flash fiction pieces and has been published in Greenacre Writers Anthology , Voices from the Web 2012, The Best of Café Lit 2012, Mslexia, Writers’ News and Writing Magazine. She has won prizes in Writers’ News , Writing Magazine and Words with Jam competitions and has been shortlisted in others. She is currently re-working her first novel with advice from an editor and has a second novel on the back-burner. How do I recharge my writing batteries? I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer this as my batteries are still somewhat depleted after illness and debilitating treatment, but my writing activity, although still less than ideal has bounced back to some extent. It was only after being ill that I understood just how much energy writing requires. Exhaustion does not engender creativity. After a frustrating dry-spell when I wanted to writ...

Why I love living in Herne Hill

While chatting about current reads with my friend Bev, she mentioned how much she enjoyed reading Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling . And how too it had made her think about the reasons she loves living in the UK. So, considering it a blog worthy idea, I asked her to write a guest post (to feature later this month). Now however, it’s my turn. My residency in the UK was totally unplanned. Back in 1987 my parents and I were all set to move to Canada where two aunts and an uncle live. But the Canadians decided not to grant us entry so hey presto, lucky old Britain got us instead. After our arrival we lived in a variety of areas: Edgware, Arsenal, Fulham and finally Herne Hill. But it is most definitely Herne Hill where I find I want to stay. When I’m on my travels it’s the place I get homesick for if things are not going according to plan on my journey. And why exactly is that? ONE I have 4, yes 4 parks in my...

#Amreading

So, it’s six months into this crazy Goodreads 100 book challenge I set myself and I’m happy to report that I'm now two books ahead. This is largely due to the fact I’ve also been reading children’s books at breakfast. Without this saving grace I believe I’d be whimpering in shame at this point. “But is this reading of children’s books thing allowed?” I hear you all asking. The simple answer to that is: YES As I work with children, primarily instructing them on how to improve their creative writing, it is only fitting that I check out the books deemed to be totally read WORTHY by the kids and also by those who reckon they’re in the know. It will come as no great shock to you that I have disagreed with the Know-It-Alls from time to time but NEVER with the kids. However, this post is not about that. What I would like to do now is give you a run down of the 5 books I’ve found most enjoyable thus far. You would assume there’d be at ...

Rae of Light

Search This Blog