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Books of the Week

How is Everyone dealing with Covid Lockdown.

Running out of ideas to keep your mind interested.

Puzzles and can only take you so far. Wouldn’t you agree.

If you’re a Reader, then you’ll definitely agree.

Books take us to new worlds, introduce us to new people, and cultures, catapult us to the heavens, and pull us back again.

A good book is like a rich red wine, full of body, fragrance, and taste.

Today I’m going share some of the books I’ve been reading.

Just to spread the love a bit.

Here we go read on…

Gulliver’s Wife by Lauren Chater

#laurenchater

This is the extraordinary tale of Lauren Chater’s Mary Gulliver, a midwife, herbalist, and a quietly
courageous woman of her times.

Chater eloquently weaves the wonders, terrors and deprivations of woman of the 18^th Century through her story.

She unravels the fears, the secrets and the darkness surrounding the love of her daughter, and succinctly reaches a reconciliation, that will bring tears to your eyes.

The intrigue and struggle to keep control of her own body and identity, remains relevant still in our modern day.

Gilliver’s Wife is the first novel I’ve read of Lauren Chater, but you can be sure it won’t be my last.

When The Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain

If you are someone who loves thrilling detective novels, then this book is for you.

#paulamclain

An incredibly powerful novel, with a heart pounding ending.

Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective, whose life is totally burnt out, bridges and all.

She decides to travel back to the town where she has felt most happy in life, brought up by foster parents, yet even with their love, she could not put away the pain of her early childhood.

This haunting story will pull you under the covers, and keep you up until late into the night.

The Time Traveller’sWife by Audrey Niffenegger

This story is a rare thing, a truly original story line, not that love stories are new, the telling of this one
certainly is different. An amazing love story, that takes place over time.

#audreyniffenegger

The prose is beautifully executed, such a pleasure to read.

Henry journeys back and forward through time to meet up with the love of his life, Clare.

Clare narrates her childhood and teenage meetings with Henry, where some would say she was underage for such connections

Speculation of moral aspects occur despite the plot, and yet the story still remains intact.

Inventive, sensitive, original in the telling, a love story to last a lifetime, many lifetimes.

Niffenegger has shown amazing skill in making the ordinary, and the impossible seem probable, believable.

Finishing this book brought sadness, as the end was so sweet, I never wanted it to end.

Feel free to add your own book choices in the comments below.

Spring has Sprung

‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Spring has arrived the last hurrah of Winter, and our spirits awaken, from a long Winter’s slumber.

Branches that were days ago bare start to bud with new growth, and birds sing with new purpose.

Even in the times we’re experiencing, we feel the stirrings of hope, and renewal.

Over the long Winter season, we sowed soulful seeds of gratitude, order, simplicity, and harmony into our lives.

Now its time to harvest an authentic gathering of contentment, and abundance.

‘Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul.’

– Oscar Wilde

 

Karen Gribbin 
https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

We can now interpret, and experience the world through our senses. Our ability to smell, taste, hear and touch.

More and more we need to look after ourselves. Go for the walk, eat a good breakfast, stop rushing around, take time to think and rejoice in the small things.

For the next two weeks, I’m asking you the pause a moment each day and marvel at the natural gifts given to us.

Today, I ask that you look at the blue sky, hear the birds sing their love songs, and let the fruits of the earth linger on your tongue, reach out and embrace those you love, or if this is not possible in person, given them a call or send them a message.

Ask the Spirit to awaken your awareness to the sacredness of your sensory perceptions.

Don’t be too busy.

Don’t put it off.

'To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exit, that is all.'  - Oscar Wilde

If we can’t give ourselves even an hour per day to ourselves, then we need to rethink what we are doing to ourselves and our relationships.

Karen Gribbin https://www.instagram.com/studiocone10/

Take time to have coffee with friends, cooked breakfast on Sundays, curl up and read a book. Care for yourselves. 

Live, don't just exist. 

Murder She Wrote

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been busy adding a few 100 words to my own murder mystery. 

It started as a short story about missing children, because what reader would not show empathy for a lost child, and contempt for the perpetrator. 

The Orphanage

Standing alone on the outskirts of Campbelltown, I understand why the rents’ so low. I can just make out the back of an industrial estate in the distance. 

I turn towards the house, and in that moment curtains sway, as if just falling back in to place, for a second I think the agent must already be inside, until a red Ford Festiva pulls into the curb. 

The Plot Thickens

As I discussed previously in ‘Digging Your Plot’ I brushed across thinking of Plot in terms of conflict.

Steampunk Watson

Victoria Sterling flinched at the knock on the door, but kept on typing. She wanted to get this article finished before the steam ran out of her typing machine.

Magic Mykonos

The three colours of Mykonos, grey, blue, and white. 

Reading: Pleasure or Addiction

I was affronted the other day when a friend asked if my Reading addiction interfered with my productive life...

Welcome to 2021

Here we are in 2021. How many of you doubted we'd ever see the back of 2020, yet here we are, with panting breath, waiting for whatever 2021 throws at us. 

Because we are all feeling the New Year fibes, all starting over shiny as new pennies.  I thought I’d talk a bit about finding time to write. 

Happy Ever After

The air rippled in a tiny square and the most unlikely people walked forward into the space, both dressed out of context with their surroundings. Yolanda was adorned in a beautiful orange organza dress that reached down to her ankles, her feet in leather sandals, and her flaming red hair was loose in the fashion of an unmarried maiden. 

The sign read ‘The Show of Evil’. It had been on every lamp post as Jeff walked home from school, and now there was one on the post outside his house.

What You Know

When I conduct Creative Writing Workshops I never use the phrase

'write what you know.' 

Believe me when facing 10-15 students the last thing they want to hear is 'write what you know.' 

Ripples

Skin blisters under the sun, lips swell to twice their size. He can see every ripple as the waves come ever closer.

Digging Your Plot

Not a plot... The Plot is not just simply what happens in a work of fiction. It is an understanding between you and your characters of how events will play out. 

The Plot comes in many disguises. 

The Simple Truth

Janis Joplin 

Janis Joplin stares down from over the fire place as Rita wakes in a narcotic fog that could close an airport. She pushes herself back up onto the lounge using the coffee table as a lever, her hand upends the cereal bowl, and it skittles across the floor, settling itself against pillows, plates, books and other floorboard debris.

Characters - Good or Bad we need them

 

When most people talk about character they mean the subtle inherent differences between us all, the good, the bad, the caring, and our personality traits.

 

Slip of the Tongue

 The studio door crashes back against the wall and standing in front of her is enthusiasm incarnate.
      Jackson’s, eyes crinkle in all the right places, and his tanned masculine body stands panting from his run up the stairs, his dark hair array, and a smile that could light the night sky.

Delicious Delectable Description

The last thing you want your Readers doing is skipping great tracks of your story because your ‘description’ is long and boring, and likewise, if you use description to pad out your word count, then it will be a foregone conclusion; your Readers, will get plenty of exercise, skipping pages.

 

The Last Egg

    Kira squats behind the bins in the alley, she pulls her head back as a cloud of flies rise up from the surrounding garbage. The smell penetrates her conciseness.  She’s never been in the Dead Zone, until a month ago, she didn’t even know it existed.  
In the Clean Zone where she lives its always  sterile, like a science lab, surprising herself, she realises the decay is welcoming, enfolding, in keeping with her mission, reminding her of the lies everyone in AI are living under.