In Snow in August, Sam Smith Mystery Series book sixteen, Sam meets a family of otters. Otters often partner for life, their young stay with mom for a least a year, past maturity, and they like holding hands. Cute 🙂
I’m currently writing chapter nineteen of thirty-three and the book will be available early next year 🙂
Very proud of the wonderful authors at Mom’s Favorite Reads for coming together to support our charity of the month Christmas for CAMHS https://www.christmasforcamhs.org.uk Please visit their website and lend your support.
My Amazon top ten for November. Delighted to see that Ann’s War has proved so popular and that Saving Grace is back in the top ten. Also that Sam is represented with books from various stages in the series. Many thanks to all my readers for their interest.
Of course, I want people to read and enjoy my books. But some things are more important…
What have foreigners ever done for us?! Quite a lot actually…
I could do with him in my house…
A new word for the Oxbridge English Dictionary…
A British citizen this week.
“It’s 5pm. I walk out of Soho restaurant. On the cold pavement is a huddled bundle, young enough to be be my granddaughter. Too hopeless even to beg. I get her a coffee, give her my change. Does it make her feel better? Does it make me feel better? No. This is my country, 2019.“
Government sponsored austerity is brutal. It must end.
Delighted to announce my publishing schedule for 2020. It’s an ambitious one with the following books in the pipeline.
Snow in August: Sam Smith Mystery Series Book 16
The Olive Tree: Roots: A Spanish Civil War Saga Book 1
Looking for Rosanna Mee: Sam Smith Mystery Series Book 17
The Olive Tree: Branches: A Spanish Civil War Saga Book 2
Another beautiful translation from Cristina. Available soon 🙂
Recently, I visited a series of caves in west Wales where I learned about the Red Lady of Paviland. The Red Lady of Paviland, pictured, is an Upper Paleolithic partial skeleton dyed in red ochre and buried in the Goat’s Hole Cave 33,000 years ago. William Buckland discovered the skeleton in 1823.
The Red Lady obtained her name because of the red ochre dye and jewellery found at the site. However, later analysis proved that ‘she’ was a man.
This incident will feature in Snow in August, out soon.
The joy of research is it will often lead you to items you were not originally looking for.
While looking for books to place on the Europe by Book website https://europebybook.com I discovered the story of Nancy Wake, a remarkable woman.
“Nancy Wake (30 August 1912 – 7 August 2011) worked for the Pat O’Leary escape line and the Special Operations Executive in France during World War II.
After the fall of France to Nazi Germany in 1940, Wake became a courier for the Pat O’Leary escape network. As a member of the escape network, she helped Allied airmen evade capture by the Germans and escape to neutral Spain.
In 1943, when the Germans became aware of her, she escaped to Spain and codenamed “Helene,” joined the Special Operations Executive.”
I intend to learn more about Nancy Wake and use elements of her story in a novel I’m currently researching.
Struggling to find the right presents for your children this year? Here’s fun for all the family! The aim is to become a tax-dodging millionaire. If you fail, you lose!
In a recent study, Buckets, Trapnell and Paulhus sought to examine the dark personality traits of Internet trolls. The researchers explored trolling in 1,215 participants and compared this to the dark personality triad, which is the dark triad – narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy – plus sadism. They discovered that all forms of dark personality were significantly higher in individuals who troll with sadism the strongest factor.
So many good people do so many wonderful things. Our political leaders pale into insignificance in comparison.
Why do authors write? Apart from the elite 1% there is no money in writing, so unless you are in that 1% or churning out words to order money isn’t a motivation. Fame? Fame is shallow and does more harm than good. Some authors want to be famous, and good luck to them, but fame isn’t for me. Praise? It is rewarding when readers appreciate your books, look forward to them and write nice comments. Kind words mean a lot. That said, writing isn’t the best occupation if you are looking for praise. Even if you are a mega-bestseller the majority of people will ignore you or dislike your work. So, why do writers write? I believe it’s because we are blessed, or cursed, with story ideas and we need to express those ideas to find a level of contentment and peace of mind. We need to release our creative energy through writing. Of course, finding readers is rewarding and satisfying, but the main motivation and enjoyment comes from turning a blank manuscript into a story. There is something magical about creating a story that is unique.
Chapter one of Snow in August, Sam Smith Mystery Series book sixteen is complete. Here’s a clue…
Caerau Hillfort and the ruins of St Mary’s church, pictured, get a mention in chapter two of Snow in August, Sam Smith Mystery Series book sixteen. These landmarks are on the road Sam takes to her office houseboat.
Chapter three of Snow in August, Sam Smith Mystery Series book sixteen, sees Sam at Caswell Bay where she meets her new client.
Five more translations published this week, three in Spanish, one in German and another in Portuguese. Many thanks to my talented team of translators for all their hard work and for sharing my stories with the world.
This week, I completed the first draft of Snow in August, Sam Smith Mystery Series book sixteen. Snow in August is set in a small coastal village in wild West Wales, a new location for Sam.
Readers of the series might be in for a surprise when they start this story. I won‘t give the details away now, but the book will be available for pre-order later this month.
Over the past year I have had the honour of being editor-in-chief of Mom’s Favorite Reads eMagazine. With twelve magazines published I would like to thank our talented group of contributors and the skill and dedication of our editorial staff. I’m very proud of our achievements with Mom’s Favorite Reads and look forward to scaling even great heights in our second year.
Here’s the blurb for the latest issue.
The September issue of our popular eMagazine!
In this Back to School issue:
Young Writers, Humour, Poetry, Travel, Short Stories, Puzzles and Articles including:
Delighted that Sandra, who translated the five books in my Ann’s War series, has offered to translate Saving Grace into German 🙂
A lovely quote from screenwriter Ernest Lehman when discussing writing the script for North By Northwest. I am sure most authors will identify with this.
”Typical of a writer, I was stalling, losing myself in yet more research.”
Sam’s Song is moving towards the top of the Amazon charts again this weekend , but I have mixed feelings about that in light of continued reports of workers being mistreated by the company. There is a brutally about Amazon that makes me feel increasingly uneasy about contributing to its profits.
Books sixteen, seventeen and eighteen in the Sam Smith Mystery Series will be Snow in August, a story about childhood trauma; Looking For Rosanna Mee, a story about how the Powers That Be abuse vulnerable people; Stormy Weather, a story about climate change. The storyboarding of Snow in August is progressing well and I intend to finish it next week.
Another busy week with my translators with three books published, all in Spanish. We also started two new translations taking the total to forty-three books in ten languages.
This week, my Spanish Civil War research focused on Lily Margaret Powell, a remarkable woman, a true heroine who volunteered to nurse in Spain during the war and was the last International Brigades nurse to leave the conflict. You can read Margaret’s remarkable story here
Margaret Powell, second left, and her medical team in Spain
My film of the week is Fallen Angel, a noir movie made in 1945. The movie reunites director Otto Preminger with Dana Andrews, who had worked together on Laura the previous year. The movie also features Alice Faye, Linda Darnell and a host of fine character actors.
While the movie doesn’t quite touch the heights of Laura – few movies do – it’s still an excellent story. Like Laura, it’s a film of two halves. In Laura, the title character didn’t appear until the second half of the film while in Fallen Angel Linda Darnell dominates the first half with a sultry performance as the femme fatale and Alice Faye blossoms in the second half; Dana Andrews links the whole piece together.
Playing a bookish, reserved woman, Alice Faye had the toughest role – noir movies are basically designed around the femme fatale and Linda Darnell shone in this part. Initially, Fallen Angel was intended to showcase Alice Faye’s talents. However, many of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. Some suggest that film producer Darryl F. Zanuck decided to use the film to promote Linda Darnell, his new protégé, instead of Alice Faye. Certainly, Alice Faye’s characterisation suffers from the cuts and she wasn’t pleased about it. Indeed, she retired from movies until 1962 when she made State Fair.
Alice Faye
In 1987, Alice Faye told an interviewer, “When I stopped making pictures, it didn’t bother me because there were so many things I hadn’t done. I had never learned to run a house. I didn’t know how to cook. I didn’t know how to shop. So all these things filled all those gaps.”
Linda Darnell
As a mystery author, usually I unravel a movie plot early on. And while I identified the murderer during the early scenes of Fallen Angel the movie is well crafted and until the closing scenes all the principal characters remain in the frame.
Dana Andrews
Fallen Angel is also worth watching for Alice Faye reciting the following poetic lines:
Hannah Howe 