I love Henri the French Cat. Here’s a wonderful piece, courtesy of Bluebird.
The Echo series is FREE for three days! (2/1-2/3)
This series is well worth a read. Mind you, if you don’t like swearing or some violence, I suggest this probably isn’t the series for you.
In my opinion, it is one of the best series I’ve read in a long time.
The entire Echo series—Echo 1, 2, 3, 4—is FREE on Kindle for three days! (2/1-2/3) #Kindle #KindleUnlimited #writingcommunity #writer #booktok #writerscommunity #writing
Get A Door into Evermoor here: A Door into Evermoor. Get Kor’Thank here: Kor’Thank: Barbarian Valley Girl. Get Echo Vol. 1 on Kindle here: Vol. 1 on Kindle. Vol. 2 on Kindle here: Vol.2 on Kindle Vol. 3 on Kindle here: Vol. 3 on Kindle Vol.4 on Kindle here: Vol. 4 on Kindle Echo Omnibus here: Echo Omnibus Echo Vol. 1 & 2 Combined Edition here: Combined Edition Musings, Volume 1 is available here: Musings, Volume 1 Here’s the miscellaneous gear that I use to try and become an uber-human: Optimization! 
A Recipe from The Wolves of Vimar Series
These little cakes are a favourite of Carthinal, in The Wolves of Vimar series.
In The Making of a Mage, a Wolves of Vimar prequel, Carthinal becomes apprenticed to Mabryl, an archmage. He was known to sneak into the kitchen where Lillora, Mabryl’s housekeeper, was making the cakes and sneak one or two (or several).
Here’s a bit about the book.
Carthinal is alone in the world. His parents and grandparents have died. Without money and a place to live, he faces an uncertain future. After joining a street gang, Carthinal begins a life of crime. Soon after, he sees a performing magician, and decides he wants to learn the art of magic. But can he break away from his past and find the path to his true destiny?
You can buy the book from your favourite store, in ebook, hardback or paperback, by clicking on its cover in the side-bar, or here.
It is also available as an audio book.
Here is the US link
And this is the UK link
It is also available from The Independent Bookstore, which is Next Chapter’s online store.
Here is the recipe for nectar cakes if you would like to try them for yourself.
They were actually invented by my son, Richard, when he was about 7 years old. He was very fond of honey!
Nectar Cakes
Ingredients
Shortcrust pastry
125g margarine
125g runny honey
125g flour
2 eggs
Method
Roll out the pastry and cut rounds. Place one pastry round in each hole of a bun tin.
Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend on high power until creamy.
Put spoonfuls of the mixture into the pastry cases and bake in the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes.
You can find more recipes in Viv’s Family Recipes, along with some hints and tips garnered from Viv’s family members.
Exciting news
Exciting news.
An illustration of the cover of Jealousy of a Viking is now available as a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
Get yours from : https://litmatter.com/products/jealousy-of-a-viking-1000-piece-jigsaw-puzzle
And don’t forget you can get a mug
https://litmatter.com/products/jealousy-of-a-viking-white-coffee-mug
And a poster :
https://litmatter.com/products/jealousy-of-a-viking-poster
Why not pop over and have a look at them?
My New Year Resolution
A bit late to be talking about this, I know, but the only thing I resolved to do was to write a poem a day. So far, I’ve managed it.
I’m posting today’s poem for you to see. I hope you like it.
I have no idea what prompted me to write this one!
The Local Dog Show.
Big dogs, small dogs,
Running after ball dogs.
Black dogs, white dogs,
Ready for a fight dogs.
Tall dogs, short dogs,
And all kinds of sports dogs.
Good dogs, bad dogs,
Happy and sad dogs.
Short dogs, tall dogs,
Won’t come when you call dogs.
Skinny dogs, fat dogs,
This one and that dog.
All shapes and sizes
Hope to win some prizes.
Add you comments to the comments box. I love to hear from you.
If you would like to receive an exclusive, free short story by me, called The Haunted Table, simply click the link. This will take you to the page where you can download it.
Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for the old cottage they have bought. When they hear strange noises in the night that sound like crying, they worry their house is haunted, but the sounds seem to come from the table.
They set about trying to find what is causing the disturbances. The answer is stranger than either of them had thought.
(Clicking the link will add your email address to my email list, but don’t worry, you can unsubscribe immediately if you wish. Nor will you get any spam. I only send out an email each quarter, or if I have any exciting news–like a new release.)
The Misery House. Pre Order Now!
I am pleased to tell you about this new book by David Kummer. David is a talented young writer who has been publishing books since he was in High School.
I have been telling people about him for a few years, now. I’ve not yet read this book, but if his others are anything to go by, it will be well worth a read. I especially enjoyed She and the sequel, She Waits.
Other books by David include Everything Somewhere and Until We Burn.
I suggest investigating his books on Amazon.
A French Chateau in the English Countryside
Just before Christmas we visited Waddesdon Manor, near Oxford. It is an amazing place. It is certainly a French Chateau in the English Countryside.
It was pouring with rain when we arrived, and we had a long walk from the carpark up to the house. The path wound its way through silhouettes of soldiers, sailors and airmen to mark remembrance day.
The house belonged to the Rothschild Family and was donated to the National Trust in 1957, and it is run by them and the Rothschild Foundation.
Built between 1874 and 1889 by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild as a weekend home for entertaining, it contains many treasures. Baron Ferdinand bought the estate from the Duke of Marlborough, but it had no house, park or garden, being an agricultural estate.
Baron Ferdinand wanted to build a house similar to the chateaux in France. I think he succeeded.
On Baron Ferdinand’s death, the estate passed to his sister, Alice, who continued to add to the treasures to be found there.
You can see from these pictures I took, that the rain did stop and the sun came out!
Sadly, the pictures I took inside are not good. Many are blurred for some reason, so I’m not going to post them, but trust me, it’s an amazing place. If you are ever near to it, I suggest you visit.
The Rothschild family was originally from Frankfurt and rose to prominence first in the 18th century. They managed to establish a successful banking business that was continued through Mayer Amschel Rothschild‘s five sons who went on to establish businesses in England, Italy, Germany, Austria and Germany.
On their coat of arms, in two quarters, are fists holding five arrows. This is symbolic of the five sons, we were told at Waddesdon. They, like five arrows fired from a bow, went on to establish their banks in the five different countries, mentioned above.
In the village of Waddesdon is an inn called The Five Arrows. We stayed there and found it excellent, with wonderful food. I would recommend it to anyone.
Do feel free to share this post, or any others. Just refer back to this website if you do.
If you would like to receive an exclusive, free short story by me, called The Haunted Table, simply click the link. This will take you to the page where you can download it.
Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for the old cottage they have bought. When they hear strange noises in the night that sound like crying, they worry their house is haunted, but the sounds seem to come from the table.
They set about trying to find what is causing the disturbances. The answer is stranger than either of them had thought.
(Clicking the link will add your email address to my email list, but don’t worry, you can unsubscribe immediately if you wish. Nor will you get any spam. I only send out an email each quarter, or if I have any exciting news–like a new release.)
Review of Return of the Dragons by R.S.Williams
As you will have noticed, I took the festive season off. Now I’m back!
Happy New Year to you all.
Today I’m posting a book review. I finished reading this book a while ago, but have only just got around to reviewing it.
Overview.
This book is the second part of the Kane Saga. It continues where the first book left off.
Story
Elijah, the prince who was believed to be dead, has returned and is now betrothed to Princess Sienna.
The dragons, hidden in human form, are making themselves known.
But Elijah has to go on a quest and leave his beloved behind. The dragons tell him that two things are needed to defeat the Master. One is a staff and the other a time.
He sets off with his trusty friend, Salah, a grumpy dragon called Maelor and a feisty elf.
Needless to say, all does not go according to plan.
The plot is interesting and gripping. But sadly, it does not resolve the problems but leaves you hanging in the air, waiting for the next book. I don’t like series that do this. It’s a serial, not a series. Although in all fairness, Ms Williams calls it a Saga, not a series.
Blurb
Having grown up in Rheanydd, all Elijah wanted to focus on was entering the annual Hollom horse race. A year later, he’s one of Princess Sienna’s Elite bodyguards in Adelith, where he learns more about his hazy past every day.
King Roderick’s solution to Eli being revealed as the missing crown heir is to marry Eli to Princess Sienna and combine their two bloodlines. But when a body is found with a blood-splattered message and the queen reveals a secret about Eli’s magic, a wedding is the last thing on everyone’s mind.
Eli starts to doubt the Dragon Elders’ motives when their answers only come in the form of cryptic messages. Yet he can’t help but feel a connection between the dragons and himself. So, he agrees to fulfil their task to get the relics before The Master’s Agents of Cyran.
But the agreement between the dragons and his father is due to end soon, setting the dragons free from their human forms and able to rebuild their race. Unless The Master gains control of them.
Can Eli and the dragons work together to stop The Master from getting the relics, or will he gain control over the dragons to rebuild the world and become a god?
Characters.
I enjoyed the characters in this book. They are all different, with their own characteristics. Maelor is always grumpy. Salah is always loyal.
They are all well-drawn.
Writing.
Sadly, like the first book, this is riddled with errors. I found a number on every page. Grammar, wrongly used words, typos, syntax. Also, I understand that the author is from Somerset, England, yet at least once she uses the American, ‘gotten’. While not wrong in an American book, it struck a harsh chord here.
There were other things not strictly wrong, but that gave me a strange picture. Like ‘Eli dropped his eyes to the ground.’ Too many superfluous words, mainly prepositions, too.
Punctuation also left a lot to be desired, too. Often there were commas where there should have been a full stop, and missing commas when someone was named. And there were a few places where I had to go back and read a sentence or paragraph more than once to make sense of it
This is such a pity, because the story is good, but because of my experience with the writing in the first two books, I am wondering if I can manage to read the next one.
A child’s reaction to seeing a Christmas tree.
My mother told me of my reaction to seeing a Christmas tree at my Grandmother’s house. Here is a little poem about it. Of course, I don’t remember it!
A little girl, not yet quite three
Saw her very first Christmas tree.
The shining baubles, tinsel around
The branches, from the top right to the ground.
Her eyes did gleam, emotions fizz.
She said, in wonder, “What it is?”
If you like my poem, please laeve a comment in the comments box, and feel free to share it with your friends, but please acknowledge my authorship.
The Littlest Christmas Tree
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
As it gets nearer to Christmas, Christmas trees are going up everywhere. Yes, I know some have been up since November! Here’s a poem about one.
The Littlest Christmas Tree.
The other trees looked oh so tall
To he, who was so very small.
And now it is the time of year
When everyone is filled with cheer.
Some men came for the tallest tree.
They took him with them, full of glee.
He was going into town.
In Market Square he’d wear a crown.
The littlest tree watched on as folk
Bought others. He was full of hope
That soon he would be picked to go
To a home where he’d put on a show.
But people passed him by and said,
“That one’s too small. Take another instead.”
His branches drooped. He was so sad,
Until a man came, with a lad.
Most other trees had long been sold.
The little tree stood in the cold.
“Look, there’s a small one,” said the lad
As he turned towards his dad
.
“It will just fit in our hall.
We can’t have one that is too tall.”
And so they came with spade and dug
Around his roots, all in the mud.
The littlest tree went home with them.
The lights and baubles gleamed like a gem.
He was so happy in that home
With all the love around him shown.
But Christmas passes soon away.
Then there came that dreaded day.
They took away the lights and balls.
“What happens now?” was all his thoughts.
He saw the tall trees passing by
On lorries, going off to die.
Their needles withering and brown
On their proud branches, drooping down.
Fear now filled the littlest tree.
“Is that what’s going to happen to me?”
But then the Dad came with a spade.
“I’ll not throw that for which we’ve paid.”
He dug a deep hole for the roots
And tamped it down with his big boots.
“We’ll let him grow, and then next year
We’ll bring him in again. Don’t fear.
And so the littlest tree was glad
That he’d been bought by this kind dad.
For now he has naught to fear.
He’s decorated every year.
I hope you enjoyed reading my poem.
If you would like to read more of my poetry, I have a poetry book recently published. It’s called Miscellaneous Thoughts and can be bought from your favourite store by clicking here where you can buy it from your favourite store. Or click on the book cover in the sidebar.
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 