Camp NaNoWriMo Day 23 ‘Last Orders Jack’ 4

Day 23 Camp NaNoWriMo

Well what a scorcher of a day here in the UK, sorry but I’m a winter person and this heat is just not helping me one bit. I get hot and cranky and my mind simply does not function hence NO words written for the writing challenge 😦

Teaser ‘Last Orders Jack’

Since I do not have much to share I thought I might show another little teaser from my WIP (work in progress). A story of love and loss. Click the image to open in a new tab for ease of reading.

Jack had been married before. He met and courted Violet, after Lily had left him unable to bear the grief of losing their child.

Jack had not known if Lily had somehow blamed him. He could never have guessed how guilty Lily felt, her body was weak it could not support and protect Jacks child. She felt unworthy of his love, undeserving. A child would have been the making of them but losing the child only tore them apart.

Lily believed she would never be able to give Jack a child. She only wanted the best for him, and by leaving Lily felt he would have a better opportunity of a full family, life with children she could never give him yet which he so very much deserved. Jack lost his soul mate for the second time after the ectopic pregnancy.

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Thank you for visiting

#WIP Seal Mother 30th June 2018

Seal Mother Sneak Peek 4

There is absolutley nothing like the satisfaction you get when you type and print out ‘The End’ on a final draft document, of your up coming book.  The illustrations are all by the young, talented, Hannah Ryan.

The Seal-Maid & children down on the sand.

So you already saw that I have written the end, but editing is not easy and being passed from one person to another means it can take such a long time. But I am almost there now.

In the distance he heard
his family outside.
So quick in the trunk
the skin he did hide.
He locked up the chest
with seconds to spare.
When they all stepped inside
they just stopped to stare.

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Seal Mother Updates

Oh I have just discovered that Hannah’s beautiful illustrations have not translated well into digital. Meaning that the resolution is currently too small to use on the front of a book cover. It looks like I probably will not be able to do a cover reveal for #IndiePrideDay after all.

Hopefully that will be remedied soon. Meanwhile I will think on whether I should allow you a peek of the sketches done for the cover or not. Watch this space.

Thank you for your wonderful comments throughout social media concerning Seal Mother. Drop by tomorrow for #IndiePrideDay celebrating Indie Authors and their books.

 

Happy Reading

#WIP Seal Mother 27th June 2018

Seal Mother Sneak Peek 3

Click the image to enlarge. The illustrations are all by the young, talented, Hannah Ryan.

The Seal-Maid & Fisherman Marry.

So for today’s sneak peek you should already know that the handsome fisherman guided the Selkie home from the beach. Slowly she is adapting to her life on land but she longs for her family in the ocean.

Still no wiser about her missing sealskin, (which is locked in the deep dark, chest in the bedroom). She believes the fisherman to be a kind soul, he does indeed love her dearly and treats her with great kindness. The magical creature has brought light into his mundane life, and one day he asks her to marry him.

It has been many weeks since the Seal-maid’s beautiful pelt disappeared and she is losing hope. She needs protection in this strange world. Fearing humans, she keeps well away from them. However, slowly she grows fond of the fisherman, with his gentle caring ways. Eventually the Seal-maiden gives him a little piece of her heart, and then the pair are joined in wedlock.

On land it was hard for
the Seal-maid to cope.
Of finding her skin,
she was losing all hope.
Then the fisherman said
“You’ve brought light to my life,
I love you most dearly
so please be my wife?”

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Seal Mother Updates

I hope you are enjoying these little insights into my Seal Mother – Selkie Tale in Verse. So the latest news is that Hannah is working on the cover for the book to be in FULL COLOUR, and fingers crossed we may be able to do a cover reveal on Sunday for #IndiePrideDay.

But to tease you a little bit more here is a sketch of one of the seals that could very well be adorning the cover.

 

Watch this space. Thanks for visiting if you enjoyed being here please share with your reader friends.

Happy Reading

#WIP ‘Seal Mother’ 24th June 2018

Old Seal Mother Blog Posts

Oh my goodness I cannot believe how time flies, ‘Seal Mother’ has been a work in progress (WIP) for many years now. I cannot believe that when I just did a blog search it took me back to 2015. Below is a teaser from my original story. Click HERE to go to the earliest post I found.

About Seal Mother and the Selkie Sealfolk

‘Seal Mother’  is finally about to be released. It is the re-telling of a Selkie Tale. Legend has it that on certain times of the year a seal can come onto the land, shed their skin and take on a human form. Sadly if a seal had their skin stolen they would have to remain in human form. It is said fishermen often stole the skin and hid it away so as to get themselves a bride.

Many stories of the Selkie Sealfolk can be found online but my favourite source is Orkneyjar and the Heritage of the Orkney Islands. Click the Selkie image below to visit the website to find out a whole wealth of information on these magical creatures.

2018 Seal Mother Updates Sneak Peek 1

Now I am in the middle of final formatting, and even put my almost completed book into the CreatSpace reviewer for proof reading. I must say I am secretly pleased with how things are turning out. Take a sneak peek at the images below. The illustrations are lovingly created by Hannah Ryan a wonderful young lady currently studying at art college in the US. Click the image to enlarge (opens in a new window).

Seal Mother video on YouTube 2016

Thank you to Karan Casey & Friends for permission to use snippets from the beautiful album ‘Seal Maiden: a Celtic Musical’

My favourite ‘The Seasons’ is composed by Ger Wolfe with vocals by Karan. The Silkie Song’ vocals again by Karan Casey

Thank you for visiting, watch this space for further updates and a cover reveal coming soon.

 

WIP ‘One Night in Fabulous Shoes’ teaser

 

One Night in Fabulous Shoes

Generally I am a wallflower, I rarely get asked to dance other than with the elderly gents who seem to take it upon themselves to make sure each lovely lady has at least one dance on the grand ballroom floor, during the special ‘Ladies Night’ event. It is the opportunity for ‘a knees up’ in the old fashioned way with men in their formal attire with black tie and the ladies in elegant ball gowns.

I had been thinking of giving the event a miss this year, but I simply adore the old traditions and all too soon many of them are being lost and forgotten.  So I had an idea, I would set myself one day of shopping and if no ball gown was found, that I loved, then I would decline this year. Well you probably guessed, I did find that gown hence why would I be sitting here playing wallflower?

The shoes came first, the ones that drew me in had centre stage in the store window, high atop a pedestal that looked like it should have been holding scrumptious cakes. The store lighting was harsh but it shone down upon those shoes causing a thousand jewels to glitter and glimmer around all the other displays. For me it was love at first glance. . .

At the Ball

It is very rare for single males to grace the event but there was ‘something in the air tonight’ (“Oh lord”, sorry bit of Genesis popped into my head then) or maybe it was the glass or three of red I had consumed whilst toasting ‘His Worshipful Master’ hic!

Suddenly I had a ‘Westside Story’ moment, the music slowed and the dancefloor cleared. Across the room was a pure vision of gentlemanliness. Yes, tall dark and most certainly handsome, he seemed to be wearing some type of dress uniform; very dapper (I can use that word as we are currently at an old fashioned event and etiquette allows me to use it).

After the Event

As dawn crept across the land the birds were singing outside in the golden autumnal trees, the sun was glinting off my fabulous silver shoes.    All of a sudden the memories flooded back, I closed my eyes and imagined being once again in his arms. . .      but had it simply been a beautiful dream?

So that was a little teaser from just one of my WIPs (work in progress) this was inspired by a big home clear out. I discovered I had 50 pairs of shoes and thought ‘What can I do with that many shoes’ so besides giving many away to charity I began to write some short stories inspired by each pair. The above was inspired by these beauties below

Watch this space for more news and up dates on this WIP. Thanks for dropping by.

I have been checking out other blogs and noticed some people have set Wednesday as their WIP share day and I might just take up this idea myself. Click HERE to check out Bryn’s Blog.

Happy Reading

 

Work In Progress ‘Shoe Shorts’ 02

So as promised a little bit more on my WIP

Today a sneak peek at the first story which is the title of the book too.

‘One Night In Fabulous Shoes’

(Unedited teaser)

OK so here I am, like I said playing wallflower, awaiting my turn to be escorted around the floor by one of the elderly brethren doing his fatherly duty so to speak. These events draw mainly couples and most of them have shared a life-time with each other, very loyal. It is very rare for single males to grace the event but there was ‘something in the air tonight’ (“Oh lord”, sorry bit of Genesis popped into my head then) or maybe it was the glass or three of red I had consumed whilst toasting ‘His Worshipful Master’ Hic!

Suddenly I had a ‘Westside Story’ moment the music slowed and the dance floor cleared. Across the room was a pure vision of gentle-manliness. Yes, tall dark and most certainly handsome, he seemed to be wearing some type of dress uniform; very dapper (I can use that word as we are currently at an old fashioned event and etiquette allows me to use it).

And here are the shoes that inspired the tale

Silver Roland Cartier Shoes, you have to agree they are totally fabulous.

Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek. I am giving away 5 PDF copies of the story during our special ‘Roses & Dreams Christmas Party on Facebook

Why not drop by and say Hi, lots of fun, games and giveaways

To join the party on Sunday 18th December from 15:00hrs GMT click below

Join the Party HERE

Thanks for visiting, love to read your thoughts below.

Work In Progress ‘Shoe Shorts’

Hello, so I thought it was about time I brought you up to date. I did start another website, unfortunately the costs to renew were way too high and they shut me down. As I was posting there and not here you lovely people may have missed out. So please forgive me.

In November I took part in the NaNoWriMo Challenge, to write a 50,000 word story in one month. I just about scraped through but the basis of the project was a collection of short stories based on or inspired by shoes that I own (or did).

The idea came to me after spotting some beautiful tempting book covers by my lovely graphic designer friend JC Clarke. Check out her Etsy Shop by clicking HERE.

The image at the top of the page was just one such cover, I bought a set of 3.

I had it in my head to call the book something like ‘The Life of Shoes’ (or Su’s Shoe Shorts) but then I saw the lovely image above and started writing my first short story, I decided to add the words Fabulous Shoes and there was the title. ‘One Night in Fabulous Shoes’

I came out with some weird and wacky ideas over that month so come back and visit again to see how the work progresses.

Thanks for dropping by. Oh by the way here is just a small selection of my shoes. Enjoy.