Beyond Excited...by Sheila Claydon

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Anyone who reads my books will know that children feature in a great many of them. Not as main characters but as a strong supporting cast, adding depth and normality to a sometimes taut situation. Mostly they add humour too. In Double Fault, however, the two year old twins are the story. Without them their parents wouldn't be struggling to come to terms with the past or to walk the tightrope that is their future. 

My 3 granddaughters, now aged between 8 and 21, have always provided inspiration as I have watched their antics, listened to them and played with them. And this brings me to the fact that I am beyond excited! 

My two eldest granddaughters live close by so the lockdowns of Covid19 didn't affect us too much, especially as one of them has a horse that has to be tended every day. This meant we could meet up outdoors and chat as we filled hay nets, mixed feed or hacked a short distance into the country to keep the horse's muscles supple. My youngest granddaughter lives in Hong Kong, however, so Covid has been a real problem, especially as previously we spent so much time with her both in the UK, Hong Kong and in Australia (where she was born) The only positive was that Covid quarantine, which was dreadful and prolonged in Hong Kong, meant her parents gave her a very early induction into managing Skype by herself, so we have been able to maintain a bi-weekly Internet relationship for nearly 3 years, reading stories online, drawing, playing games. Now, however, she is coming to the UK and the thought of actually seeing her and hugging her is wonderful.

She and her Dad will be with us for 3 months, including Christmas. Her whole UK family can hardly wait and nor can she. On Skype she beams from ear to ear as she counts down the days. Her Mum won't be joining us because of a job change and yet another country change, to Singapore this time, whereas our son works online so can transfer to the UK without too much of a problem! She is, however, a fab daughter-in-law, who thinks Astrid will benefit far more from being with her extended family than being caught up in the chaos of the move, and we agree. What a change it will make to our daily routine though.

No more leisurely starts to the day over coffee and the daily news because she has a full online school schedule from 9 a.m. No more increasingly flexible mealtimes as she apparently has the appetite of a horse! No more quiet evenings because her bedtime is later than it used to be. No more shared crosswords or reading a book as we eat our lunch because table manners must be honoured! 

There's the house too. My older granddaughters saved their toys for their small cousin's visits, so now my daughter's loft is empty and my spare bedroom is full. Lego of every shape and size, Cindy dolls, Barbie dolls, baby dolls, a walking/talking doll plus piles of clothes for all of them, boxes of games, jigsaws, a doll house, Smurfs, the list goes on and on, and I have to find storage room for all of it. Then there are the two shelves of children's books, the baskets of drawing paper, pens, paints, pencils, craft materials, glue, scissors. The hope is, of course, that with so much to do she will be very happily busy for most of the day. And when she isn't, well there is the horse to visit, tennis, baking, music, a walk to the beach, looking for squirrels in the pine woods....

And of course we need to introduce her to some local children too. There are twin girls who live nearby, and friends' grandchildren, and the junior section of the local tennis club. It will all be fine I tell myself as I wonder if my energy levels will hold up. They probably will and her Dad will take up the slack when he's not working...and when she leaves I might even have an idea for another book...one with a child in it!

In my Mapleby Memories trilogy Remembering Rose (Book 1) was inspired by a 6 month stint in Australia looking after Astrid. Loving Ellen (Book 2) is a follow on. 

Music Changes Us by Helen Henderson

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
Click the cover for purchase information

I’ve been recently reminded that life is not always conducive to writing. To get back into the swing of things I’ve resorted to an old tool, music. Music has been the topic of several of my blog posts, usually to present the playlist associated with a given work. This post takes things into a slightly different direction and shares some thoughts on the affects of music.

Music stimulates the part of the brain that produces the dopamine hormone, which affects emotional behavior and mood. Research has shown that music may help improve mental health, reduce depression, enhance mood, and give strength to cope with problems. Research has shown that music can help you sleep better and elevate your mood while driving. Some studies indicate that music can even help you eat less.

The ability of music to jump start creativity has proven an aid an author. It allows us to feel all the emotions that we experience in our lives. Even without lyrics, a tune can evoke emotions that we capture with our own words. I admit I don't always listen to music when writing. Jotting notes in a doctor's office while waiting for your appointment or typing on a tablet in the wee hours of the morning isn't conducive to playing tunes. But that doesn't mean that music is not part of my writing life. Although each book tends to have its own playlist, certain songs trigger a mood or emotion so that the tunes transfer from book to book.

Music is an important part of some character’s lives. Ellspeth of the Windmaster Novels favorite relaxing pastime is composing music on her wooden recorder or silver flute. The theme continued in Windmaster Legend where both Iol and Pelra were skilled musicians. 

Bagpipes playing the lilting tune of “Garryowen” creates the image of a cavalcade of horses in a prancing, synchronized parade step. Even the same instrument can pull forth different emotions. Instead of claps accompanying the horses, the echoes of “Amazing Grace” played by a lone piper in a cemetery brings forth tears.

 For Fire and Amulet, an old standby, Celtic music where the lilting voices, flute and harp send my mind to a fantasy world where magic rules and dragon fly. On the player now is "Celtic Twilight" by Gabrielle Angelique. Music for a quest, hopelessness, and loneliness is conveyed by the haunting piano solo played at the end of each episode of The Incredible Hulk. "Twelve O'Clock High" the theme from the television series of the same name brings with it a vision of flight. Not of the B-17 bombers of World War II, but of a rust-colored dragon soaring in the clouds.

Sometimes a scene requires more than one song. Surviving a tornado was just the beginning. Deneas survives unhurt, but Trelleir suffers several broken bones. He cannot travel and Deneas cannot stay. At first I thought only one song fit the bill, Roger Whitaker's "The Last Farewell." Then I heard a few chords of "Unchained Melody" and that also resonated.  In the end, the two songs alternated on the spindle.

Whether you use music to boost your creativity as an author or to evoke emotions in your readers, understanding the music is important to a writer.

To purchase Fire and Amulet: BWL

 ~Until next month, stay safe and read.  

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. 

Transitions by Nancy M Bell

 

To learn more about Nancy's work click on the cover.

The shoulder seasons of the year, spring and fall. Times of transition. Now in the autumn of the year the trees burn gold against the blaze of Alberta blue sky, the fields glow buckskin under the skies dotted with round bales where summer is wrapped up for winter feed. The nights draw in as the light slowly but surely loses its battle with the dark. The moon flares silver in the sable sky while the constellations march across the heavens. Orion leads his hounds and the Pleiades dance to song of star fire. 

Here on the Canadian prairies the sweep of night is wide and deep, often the moon lingers in the morning sky, a white wisp against the strengthening blue, while the sun breaks free of the eastern horizon to flood the landscape with pure gold light, pushing back the last vestiges of the night.

Our lives follow the seasons in a much slower manner. Childhood and spring, youth and prime of life and summer, the slow mellow aging and autumn and then the final dark of the final transition and winter. Leaving this turn of the wheel to walk the starlit skies, the winter skies, the summer stars, our feet sure on the path of the Milky Way. Perhaps that is fanciful, but I truly feel the rhythms and the stages and rightness of it. Everything in its time. In my case, maiden, mother, crone, all in their own time and with their own lessons. Part of a chain that reaches into the far distant past and into the future.

Children carrying the blood of our past and our heritage just as I do and the ones who came before me.

Transitions, always changing, always moving. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow...but always moving. Carrying us with them.

Until next month, stay well,stay happy.    

Coming to the End of a Series by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #fantasy #Series #moon Rising

 

In December Book five of this series Seppal will arrive. I finished this book around the tenth of the month and to my surprise, I began planning the sixth and final book of the series, I usually don't write this way but one doesn't fight with the idea factory. I usually alternate genres. The interesting thing is that I have the book planned and have already rough drafted the first chapter. Now, rough draft are just that, rough. I'm not sure how other people write. Each of us finds our own way. Sometimes I envy those whose idea factory stays with a single genre, That's not my usual way.

Seppal tells the story from two points of view, a bit different from the others in this series but that's the way the story came to me. As always, there are the Three and Three and their talismans, a sword , a staff and a wand. Was interesting to take this story just with two characters. Not to worry. There will be six viewpoint characters in Keltoi but the format is a bit different too.

Does your idea factory make you change your pattern of writing? I find this happens seldom but I always listen. 

Can't wait to see Seppal on line and the cover for this series Moon Rising are always interesting. Must get back to work. Chapter 1 is written but I must type it in, along with little comments as to where I need to explain or make slight changes.

 

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A Bright Darkness, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

A Bright Darkness
Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

Next month, the final book in The Twisted Climb series will be published. I have to tell you that writing and researching this book has been an epic journey. When I was in school, Native Indian history was largely ignored. What a shame. It's my hope that A Bright Darkness will provide the reader with a glimpse into their phenomenal energies. 

A Bright Darkness speaks to the history of the Ojibwe people and their long tradition of balance and respect for all things - human, animal, nature. The book also describes the Seven Fires Prophecies which were foretold thousands of years ago. Details of these prophecies were reverently intertwined into A Bright Darkness and I applied creative interpretation to justify the characters' involvement in fulfilling the Sixth Fire Prophecy. 

Also included in A Bright Darkness is The Seven Grandfather Teachings, a code that the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe Elders instilled in their children. Like the 10 Commandments, the Grandfather Teachings were espoused as basic principles in life:

Love

Wisdom

Respect

Honesty

Courage

Humility

Truth

Below is an excerpt... Enjoy!

And make sure to order your copy from your favourite retailer.

Chapter 1

Patty pressed her body against the dream world’s cold rock wall, her hands searching for outcroppings and niches. She was close to the top. The ghostly rays from the moon illuminated more footholds on the rock wall above her and she climbed higher. Though the cliff wall was about 40 metres tall, the many ledges and footholds made it an easy climb. Within moments, Patty’s fingers touched the smooth flat surface at the top and she peered cautiously over the edge. It has to be a surprise attack.

There they were – her teenaged daughter, Jayden; the handsome dark-haired fellow; the carrot-haired guy, and a young child. They were at the opposite edge but close – just a stone’s throw away. The flat rock surface at the top of the cliff spanned a mere five metres across to the other side. Beyond that, a yawning blackness dropped into a steam-filled volcano vent.

Ah, and there... there was the boy she followed so relentlessly. “Dick” they called him. The boy with the thick red scar etched across the top of his sickly, bald head. She was going to get rid of Dick once and for all. She lowered her head slowly, remaining out of sight.

It was almost time.

She waited, panting with excitement, hands and feet braced, heart racing.

Now. Patty slowly raised her head and then gasped in astonishment. The carrot-haired boy and the child were gone. Had they jumped into the volcano? Dick was standing at the edge, his long, scarecrow-like arms dangling by his sides. At his feet lay the cable cutters that he carried as his personal weapon. Maybe he pushed the kids into the abyss?

Her gaze shot over to Jayden and the handsome guy. Jayden was whispering and emphatically gesturing toward Dick. Before Patty could pull herself over the top, her daughter and the young man clasped hands. She watched as they sprinted forward and picked up the scarred boy in an arm-tackle manoeuvre, much like the ‘red-rover’ game she used to play as a child. Dick struggled but he was helpless to untangle himself from their grasp. The duo leapt off the cliff, taking Dick with them.

Patty scrambled onto the rock surface. All was quiet. White wisps of steam floated up from the hot volcano vent. She was alone.

“Fools!”

Walking to where the kids had jumped, she picked up the long-handled cable cutters. Holding the tool up to the light of the full moon, she shook it angrily. A primal howl erupted from deep within her, the high pitch gaining intensity until she could hold it no more. Before she could take another breath, a pack of wolves began a matching chorus of howls. Their voices echoed eerily across the valley.

Patty smiled – a cold, soul-less, unholy display of emotion. She manifested neither joy nor love, not even sadness for the fate that must have befallen her daughter and the others. Instead, her green eyes were dark and malignant, their gaze excreting a menacing hatred. She slapped the cutters across the palm of one hand and stepped toward the volcano’s edge. Steam and an orange glow came from below. She peered into the depths and the pupils of her eyes reflected the hellish glow swirling beneath.

“Fools!” she repeated. “Dick was mine to destroy.”

* * * 

Ancient depiction of Mishibeshu,
the mythological Sea Monster / Underwater Panther
of the Anishinaabe tribes.
Photo from the National Museum of the American Indian.

The mythological Thunderbird, 
crest of the Anishinaabe tribes

Until next time, stay safe everyone :)

J.C. Kavanagh, author of 

The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) 

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada 

AND 

The Twisted Climb, 

voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll 

Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2022 

Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart 

Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com 

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www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh 

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