Same time, same place… maybe.
#WordlessWednesday The Sun and the Sea… again
Same time, same place… maybe.
#Silentsunday Up and Down the Shard #London
#FridayBookShare ‘Kissing The Enemy’ by #Author Helena Newbury @HelenaAuthor
I’m joining in Shelley’ Wilsons’s Friday Book Share with some suggestions for entertaining books to read for the weekend.
Check out the hashtag #FridayBookShare on Twitter.
You’ll get great ideas for weekend reading.
This week it’s an exciting, steamy romance involving the Italian and Russian mafia, set in New York. The author was kind enough to send me an ARC.
First line of the book:
It was raining, the day she danced into my life and changed it forever.
Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.
THE WOMAN HE CAN’T HAVE
From the first second I see Irina dance, I can’t get her out of my head. She’s perfect. Magical. An ice princess with an accent that makes me crazy and a body that makes me want to do bad things to her.
Then I discover she’s Russian Mafia…and the niece of my greatest enemy.
THE MAN SHE MUST RESIST
From the first moment Angelo looks at me, I’m helpless. He’s so different to any man I’ve known, blood and fire and red-hot lust. I run: he chases me down. I put up ice: he melts right through.
Then I discover he’s an Italian mob boss who runs half of New York.
Being together is unthinkable: I’d be betraying my family; he’d be betraying the mob. But neither of us can fight the attraction. And when our relationship sparks a war that threatens to tear New York apart, we may be the only two people who can stop it.
Introduce the main character using only three words.
Angelo is focused, determined and loyal.
Irina is caring, empathetic, and artistic.
Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).
The cover is the only thing I didn’t like about this book. Angelo has a tattoo, which Irina discovers, well into the second half of the book, but Angelo always wears suits and is smartly dressed, also, it takes place in New York in winter, so he’s always wearing a coat! Angelo is a powerful gangster, but the guy in the picture looks more like a typical crook to me! I suppose this cover will appeal to a certain kind of (younger?) audience.
Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)
It’s an enjoyable modern-day Romeo and Juliet story (with a happy ending), which you can read in an afternoon-evening or two.
The author alternates male and female, first person narration in the novel, which adds interest to the plot and depth to the characters.
If you like New York Mafia stories with some steamy romance and happy endings, then this is for you.
(Be warned, there are a few explicit sex scenes, there’s some violence, and lots of ‘F’ words, but nothing over the top).
Your favourite line/scene. This is one of the Romeo and Juliet scenes when Irina is trying to put an end to their families’ feuding.
He was waiting for me, staring out over the Statue of Liberty. It was snowing, but a bitter wind was whipping across the inky-black Hudson River.
“Is everyone on your side okay?’ I asked as I walked up.
He turned to me. ‘Two hurt. Bullets winged them _ they’ll be okay.’
The relief sluiced through me. And then I slapped his face as hard as I could.
He reeled from the blow, twisting to the side and fingering his reddened cheek. ‘Svoloch!’ I yelled. ‘You promised!’
The guilt was all over his face.
‘How bad was it? I know we hit one guy…’
‘Josef! His name is Josef! He almost died!’
‘I’m sorry. I just couldn’t _ Look, they were going to do the same thing to us!’
‘That’s why I warned you! But why couldn’t you just walk away? Why did you have to get revenge?’
****
It was launched last Sunday so it’s on special offer at the moment at 0.99.
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Want to join in sharing a book you enjoyed?
Anyone can have a go – all you need to do is answer the following questions based on a book you are currently reading/finished reading this week and use the hashtag #FridayBookShare. Grab the banner on Shelley’s blog.
First line of the book.
Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.
Introduce the main character using only three words.
Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).
Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)
Your favourite line/scene.
Happy Weekend Reading!
#WordlessWednesday & #OneLinerWednesday: The Sun & The Moon in Conversation
More scenes from the beach, while I’m on holiday. Last night and this morning; the same yet different…
https://lindaghill.com/2016/08/17/one-liner-wednesday-forgetfulness/
When the sun forgot to shine on the moon she wept, but as he remembered she danced on the waves and grew in the sky.
R
****
The glorious summer sun said to the full moon, “You’re so magnificent; I couldn’t live without you, my love.”
“You flatter me, ” replied the moon. “You’re always grand and glowing. I grow smaller and disappear, while you’re always vibrant and loyal. It’s me who can’t live without your light and strength.”
“But my darling, what would I be without my reflexion on your lovely face?”
****
Both sides of the coin:
Sun and moon, night and day, happiness and sorrow, loss and abundance, laughter and tears, good and evil, fire and water, fear and ignorance, love and hate, madness and genius, pleasure and pain, body and soul, life and death…
Can we experience one without knowing the other?
Carrot Ranch #FlashFiction Challenge Transient: An Old Lady and her Suitcase
This post was written in response to Chari Mills’ Flash Fiction Challenge.
August 10, 2016 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about something or someone who is transient. It can be a fleeting moment, a rogue vagabond, or ephemeral like trending hashtags. What is passing by and how can you capture the passing in a flash?
Respond by August 17, 2016 to be included in the weekly compilation. Rules are here. All writers are welcome!
Transient: An Old Lady and her Suitcase
I watched her sipping the takeaway coffee she paid with the coins she’d collected earlier that morning. A suitcase by her side carried all her belongings.
She wheeled them up and down the seafront promenade, alongside the tourists, until lunchtime, when someone bought her a sandwich and a bottle of water.
They told me she slept on a different bench each summer night, and a different doorway each winter evening.
Some say she’s looking for her dead daughter, others say she’s run out of money, or lost her mind.
Maybe they’re all wrong and she only wants to be free.
*****
I read Doris Lessing’s novels and short stories many years ago. Two short stories have remained in my thoughts long after, and one of them is, An Old Woman and her Cat, many years ago, but it’s one of the short stories which has remained with me.
Her short stories are as most of her work, challenging, thought-provoking and perceptive. She places her characters, often marginal or unconventional people, in testing situations. They deal with loss and isolations, often coupled with mental illness.
An Old Woman and her Cat describes the stubborn resistance of an ageing free-spirited vagrant, who refuses to adhere to social conventions, as she descends from a life of capable street-trading and marginal social acceptability into the homelessness of an outcast.
It’s about the loss, isolation and mental breakdown of an old woman, with gipsy blood, who breaks away from society’s stifling conventions when her husband dies, and her children leave home. She embraces a marginal, unconventional existence, accompanied by her faithful cat.
I’m on holiday in a beach town in Malaga, Spain, right now, and there’s a lady like the one in my story. Nobody knows why she lives like this, where she’s from, or where she’s going. Everyone has opinions and theories about an estranged family, poverty or mental illness.
I was thinking about this weeks’ prompt, and I immediately remembered An Old Lady And Her Cat and the mysterious, homeless tourist I see most days with her suitcase, and I came up with this flash.
Why do we always want to find a reason for everything, so we can define everyone and put them into neat compartments. Suppose she has no reason. Suppose she just wants to be free from society’s conventions, like Doris Lessing’s heroine?
Luccia’s #Gapp_Week 15th August @Gapp_Week Meet Manuel!
Here’s my new badge!
Every Monday I’ll be telling you…
- What am I GRATEFUL for?
- What have I ACHIEVED? (Things I’ve done for myself)
- What are am I PROUD of? (Things I’ve done for others)
- What are my PLANS for next week?
Sometimes there are unique and perfect moments in life when everything comes together; I’m grateful, have a sense of achievement, feel proud and have plans for the very same reason.
I’d like to introduce you all to my fourth grandson; Manuel
Just a day ago, he was safely tucked away in his mother’s womb!
Today, I’m grateful for this wonderful experience of having him in my arms, or just watching him sleep.
I feel a sense of achievement because I raised my family, including Manuel’s mother and auntie, in the picture below, to be loving, sensible and sensitive people.
I’m proud of my contribution to making my daughter become the fabulous mother she is.
I’m planning to watch Manuel and his brother and sister grow and help him to be the best version of himself possible.
#Silentsunday waiting for the tourists
I love that silent moment in the early morning, before the beach is invaded by holiday makers, avid to dress their bodies in sand and later wash it off in playful waves.
Quiet moments when you can smell the silence and hear the sun’s rays bouncing on the busy waves.
Peaceful moments just before the hustle and bustle whip the silence into a whirlwind of joyous rowdiness.
I love watching the beach while it’s waiting for the tourists, don’t you?
Cash and Serendipity #SoCS #FlashFiction
This post is written in response to Linda Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS) prompt
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “cash.” Use it in your post as a noun or a verb… or a name! Enjoy! Join in, here’s our new badge!
Cash is fast becoming a thing of the past. I mean, who has cash nowadays?
Most people I know never use it and never have it.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have any money. it means they use credit cards instead of cash.
Today at lunch, a friend, who has recently come back from London, told me a true story about how he met someone who became very special to him, while he was on his way to work.
Cash and Serendipity
The waitress who prepared my daily café latte said, ‘1.80,’ as always.
I handed her my card, as usual.
‘It’s not working. Can you pay by cash?’
‘I don’t have any cash. Can I pay you tomorrow?’
The waitress shook her head. ‘There’s a cash machine just outside.’
‘No time, I’m afraid. I’m late to work.’
‘Sorry,’ she said as she took back my coffee and turned to the next customer.
‘I’ll pay for both, mine and hers,’ he said nodding at me.
On our way out, I said, ‘I’ve been coming here every day for months. I can’t believe she wouldn’t let me pay tomorrow. Do you come here often?’
‘Every day, Monday to Saturday, ten past eight sharp, just like you,’ he said.
‘Great. I’ll see you tomorrow then. It’ll be my treat.’
‘Tomorrow’s Sunday, but we can have coffee and take a walk instead of going to work.’
I smiled. ‘Lovely.’
Have you ever had any similar experiences when you were short of cash?
#FridayBookShare ‘Trust me I Lie’ by #Author @LouiseMarley
I’m joining in Shelley’ Wilsons’s Friday Book Share with some suggestions for entertaining books to read for the weekend.
Check out the hashtag #FridayBookShare on Twitter. You’ll get great ideas for weekend reading.
This Friday I’d like to tell you about ‘Trust Me I Lie’ by Louise Marley. I haven’t finished it yet, I’m about half way through and loving it so much that I couldn’t wait to share it with you!
First line of the book.
The rain fell thick and fast and hard. It machine-gunned the roof of Ben’s car and bounced off the road in front of him.
Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.
When Milla Graham arrives in the picture-perfect village of Buckley, she tells everyone she’s investigating the murder of her mother who died eighteen years ago. But there’s already one Milla Graham buried in the churchyard and another about to be found dead in the derelict family mansion.
Obviously she’s lying.
Detective Inspector Ben Taylor has no life outside the police force. Even his own colleagues think he’s a boring stick-in-the-mud. But now he’s met Milla and his safe, comfortable life has been turned upside down. She’s crashed his car, emptied his wallet and is about to get him fired.
He knows she’s a liar because she cheerfully told him so.
Unless she’s lying about that too …
Introduce the main character using only three words.
I’m not sure who the main character is yet! I suppose it’s Milla, but it could be Ben, I love Ben! So I’ll do both:
Milla is fiercely independent, turbulent, and witty. She’s also a liar and a bit of a disaster-area!
Ben is very focused, perceptive and shrewd (career wise), but he’s lonely and lost/drifting in his personal life.
Together, they are perfect! Not a quiet moment in sight!
Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).
The cover’s nice, but for me it doesn’t put across the feel of the book, which has a strong heroine, a crime and a dark family secret, and lots of humour.
Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)
According to actress, Emma Thomson: “Books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.”
I’ve been reading some intense thrillers lately, which I loved, but I needed a break!
You’ll love ‘Trust me I Lie’ if you like ‘cosy’ crime fiction with an English/British setting. A crime in the English countryside, including dark family secrets, an abandoned country house, a feisty heroine, a cantankerous grandmother, a tormented young man, a dark villain, and an adorable hero who says he’s not interested in playing the part, but the author has other plans!
Your favourite line/scene.
Two short scenes: one humorous and one more serious.
An amusing one at the beginning of the novel, when Ben literally runs into Milla in the middle of the road on a stormy night and takes her home:
“You’ll need to get out of those wet clothes.”
Well, that was incredibly fast work.
“The bathroom is upstairs,” he added. “You can use it first. If you leave your clothes on the landing I’ll put them in the washer-dryer and they’ll be ready for you to wear again by morning. There are fresh towels in the cupboard and a robe hanging on the door. I’ll heat up some soup.”
She sincerely hoped her mouth hadn’t dropped open.
“Will you marry me?” she said.
But instead of returning her banter he smiled tightly and disappeared into the kitchen.
Play nice, she told herself firmly, as she climbed the stairs. Or find yourself right back outside in the storm.
****
A serious one related to the family secret/crime:
“Who the fuck are you?” He spoke so softly, so cordially, that at first the obscenity didn’t register.
“You know who I am,” she said carefully. “You were the one who contacted me.”
“You say you are Camilla Graham and no doubt you have the documents to prove it, or you wouldn’t be sitting here, but who are you really? You’re not my little sister, because she’s been dead for years _ and I know that for certain, because I watched her die.”
****
Trust me I Lie is entertaining, delightful, humorous, and well written, and it’s only 0.99. Just get it and read it asap!
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lie-Louise-Marley-ebook/dp/B01HDYDJZ8
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trust-Me-Lie-Louise-Marley-ebook/dp/B01HDYDJZ8
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Want to join in sharing a book you enjoyed?
Anyone can have a go – all you need to do is answer the following questions based on a book you are currently reading/finished reading this week and use the hashtag #FridayBookShare. Grab the banner on Shelley’s blog.
First line of the book.
Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.
Introduce the main character using only three words.
Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).
Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)
Your favourite line/scene.
****
#WordlessWednesday & #1LinerWeds on Life and Coffee
I’ve just discovered via Twitter, that there’s a Blog called Create With Joy which hosts, among other events, #WordlessWednesday. There’s a badge and a linky at the end of Joy’s the post and there’s a Facebook and Twitter connection, too. So, I’ll be joining in. The only rule seems to be ‘sharing family-friendly photos’. Sounds fun and easy. Most entries have some text, too, but I’ll be keeping it to the minimum.
This week, I’ve been looking over my holiday photos, and I was thinking how the basic, simple things in life bring us the greatest pleasure. Water. Looking at pure, clean, fresh water has a calming effect.
These pictures were taken standing at the edge of one of the largest dams in Spain ‘El Pantano del Ebro’ in Cantabria. There’s a little beach ‘Playa de Arija‘, where people can swim, too, and there’s a camping site. Well worth a visit if you’re ever in the north of Spain.
As usual, I’m going to be linking #WordlessWednesday to #1LinerWeds on Linda G. Hill’s blog, which I’ve been taking part in on and off.
I’m joining both this week. Lind’s 1-liner is C is for Coffee.
I love Jim Carey. He’s funny, he’s intelligent, he’s caring and I love the things he says in his inspirational talks.
I love this quote, which has some relation to coffee 🙂 but it’s really about not taking anything or anyone for granted and remembering there’s a time limit to everything.
I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, ‘Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it.’
While I’m working, one of the best moments in my mornings is my coffee break, when I chat to my colleagues and sometimes my students (I teach adults, so we often have a coffee and a chat during the break). The reason’s not because I don’t like my job (I love it), but because I love speaking and listening to people informally.
I enjoy those brief moments (20-30 minute break) of relaxed and real conversation, which inspire me as a writer. No wonder those 18th century coffee shops contributed to the Enlightenment and the rise of the novel…
Anyone else for coffee?
Rereading Jane Eyre 
