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MarySmith’sPlace #Giant pylons will ruin iconic landscape

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This is from Mary Smith’s blog. She is worried about pylons planned to march across this beautiful part of the world.

From time to time on this blog I have shared some of the glorious countryside we have here in Dumfries & Galloway in South West Scotland.

Unfortunately, a huge area of this is now at risk of being ruined by Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) which has put a planning application in to the Scottish Government to erect 118 giant pylons (up to 39 metres tall) from Glenlee, near New Galloway to Tongland in the south near Kirkcudbright.

Stroan Loch, courtesy PhilMcMenemy

The route goes over or close to iconic Galloway countryside including, the Queens Way (the road from New Galloway to Newton Stewart), Raiders Road, Stroan Loch and the Otter Pool. Laurieston Forest and the Kenick Burn will also be impacted, along with an avenue of beech trees by the burn’s picnic area. The route also goes over the C13 road from Laurieston to Gatehouse of Fleet, a road beloved by everyone – locals and visitors alike.

The amount of traffic on the roads over the five years of construction work will be horrendous. Our narrow roads will become dangerous, noisy and all pleasure in driving will be destroyed – not to mention the huge inconvenience and health issues for the people living in the villages affected.

Continue reading here.

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Now that’s what I call teamwork

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That’s proper synchronised swimming!

Thank you to Bluebird of Bitterness for this.

Now that’s what I call teamwork
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Review of The Ghosts of Koa by Corby R Rice

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Overview.


I read this as part of a collection of books, entitled Magic. It turns out it is the first two books in a trilogy.

Blurb.

Book 1, The Given

For over one hundred years the Civic Order and the Alchemic Order have held a shaky truce, peppered by violence and mistrust. But when Koa, a Civilian-born insurgency, bombs an Alchemist summit, the truce is shattered. Now, Koa is rising. War is coming. And all sixteen-year-old Zeika Anon can do is keep moving as she watches the lords of alchemy slowly overtake her home.

But when clashes between Koa and the Alchemic Order put a final, deadly squeeze on the remaining Civilian territories, Zeika finds herself in the crosshairs of fate. She must walk the line between survival and rebellion against the Alchemists. On one side of the line awaits death. On the other, the betrayal of her civilization, her loyalties, and herself.

Book 2 The Taken

—

If Zeika Anon didn’t know she was screwed before, she definitely knows now. Between Azures, Koa, Sal Morgan, and the delightful demonic “newcomers” to her Demesne, Zeika finds herself pinned, enemies on all sides. And yet a hidden route, one only she can take, may be the only way to escape the insanity and death that awaits her at every turn.

But as her government succumbs to the pressure of the Alchemical Order, a catch-22 kicks off a different journey that Zeika loathes to take. A journey that will force her to expose who she really is, unite with a hated enemy, face deadly adversaries, and abandon the people she loves the most.

The freedom she wants must be TAKEN… and she must do it before the Azures— and a man who fancies himself a god— take her first.

Story

It tells of a dystopian world after something called the Cataclysm has occurred. We are never told what this was and why it produced such a terrible world.
The world is divided into the Haves—the Azures—and the Have-nots—the Civilians. There is also a group called the Alchemists, who have magic, and who come exclusively from the Azure class.
The Ghosts of Koa, in the title, are a group of insurgents who are trying to wreck the current situation.


Characters

The main characters are sixteen-year-old Ezekiel, known as Zeika and her five-year-old sister, Manja. Zeika feels a great responsibility to her sister as their mother is addicted to drugs and their father is away. The child is also unwell.
It is Manja I have the biggest problem with. We learn (later) that her illness is haemophilia. Now that is a sex-linked illness and is VERY rare in females. In fact, it can only be passed to a female if the mother is a carrier and the father a haemophiliac. Since Manja’s father is portrayed as a large, healthy man, working in the mines, I do not think he has this disease.
The other problem I have with Manja is that she does not sound, nor act like a five-year-old. Yes, she’s a genius, but still—even geniuses of five don’t sound quite as grown up as Manja.
I also have a problem with Zeika’s name. As far as I am concerned, Ezekiel is a male name. (Remember the prophet in the Old Testament?)
The other main character is an Azure who takes an interest in Zeika and Manja. He has a mysterious background that we gradually disconer more about in the course of the story.

Writing

The writing is not of the best. There are quite a lot of errors, both gramatically and in word usage. One example that annoyed me entensely was that he does not know the difference between ‘to lay’ and ‘to lie’. He uses ‘to lay’ all the way through, even when it should have been ‘to lie’. Stylistically, it is not good in a number of places, although not all through.

Conclusion

Although I enjoyed the story in the main, there were a number of things that Colby R. Rice did not explain. For example, he talks about the Demesnes. Now that’s clear, but he also talks about the Protected. Are these the same as the civic demesnes or just some of them, or something different altogether?
He mentions people he called ‘wolf-moons’, but gives no explanation as to what these people are until nearly the end of the second book, when it just happens that he mentions it almost in passing.
There are one of two other things I found confusing, especially what The Collapse was and how it ended up in such a dystopian world.

I am giving the book 3 stars ***. Although I enjoyed the story, and would like to know how it ends, the confusions and factual errors lose it one star, and the grammar and word usage loses it another.

All three books are available on Amazon.

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a poem about a storm

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I was staying in Germany, near Leipzig a few years ago in order to go to a concert in the Thomaskirke. On our way back to the hotel, there was a tremendous thunderstorm. I was inspired to write the following poem.

The Storm

A lovely day, the sun was warm
It had shone on us since dawn.
The heat oppressed us all the day,
Even as in bed we lay.

We went to Leipzig in the heat.
In Thomaskirke we took our seat
To hear St John by J.S.Bach.
It did not end till after dark.

When we emerged it was in rain.
We rushed to find our car again.
The thunder rolled across the sky,
The lightning flashed, but now we’re dry.

We drove toward Chemnitz and saw
O’er Dresden, flashes like the War.
Was it ’45 again
With bombs falling like the rain?

The lightning flashed, the thunder boomed.
We thought that we were surely doomed’
It must at least be Armageddon,
Such brightness in a sky so leaden.

The storm went on for several hours
Showing nature’s awesome powers
And even though it scared us some
We were impressed. It struck us dumb.

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Free ways to support your favourite author.

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Re-blogged from Yecheilyah Ysrayl’s PBS blog.

Buying books written by Independent Authors is a terrific way to show support, and word of mouth is still a powerful way to make sure other people know of an author’s work without spending money. There are tons of ways to do this online.

Review the book on Amazon – Amazon is still a powerhouse and trusted source of content for readers. It’s easy to send a review via email, DM, or to post about the book on Social Media. While I am confident, the writer will appreciate any form of support, reviewing a book on Amazon will undoubtedly give the author more exposure. Amazon is the third-largest search engine with Google first and YouTube second. But then, “if we exclude YouTube as part of Google, Amazon is technically the second largest search engine in the world.” (E-Commerce SEO). Suffice it to say Amazon reviews are a great way to support your favorite author, boost their exposure, and act as a great social proof form. In short, an honest, legitimate Amazon review will help an Indie Author go far. In the words of Michael LeBoeuf, “a satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.”

Continue reading here

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Get Thee to a Punnery

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Here are some puns, courtesy of Bluebird of Bitterness.

Get thee to a punnery

Click to see more

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Some thoughts on Covid-19

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I generally don’t comment on contraversial topics on this blog, but I’m getting a bit annoyed. This post is about Covod-19.

The virus is spread by droplets. These droplets are in the spittal in your mouth, hence, talking, shouting, singing, whistling, coughing and sneezing will all spread these droplets.

The problem as I see it, is that people in general do not have what is known as ‘common sense.’

I was in Lancaster in August when I saw a man wearing a face-mask in the street. He removed it to cough!

One of my neighbours died of Covid-19 early on in the pandemic. He was taken ill just before lockdown. He played in a jazz band, blowing a musical instrument.

People seem to have forgotten all about social distancing except where they have to, like in queues. Yesterday, I stepped into a gate to allow an elderly lady to pass on a footpath of just under 1 metre. She paused to have a few words, and in the meantime, three people passed her. None of them stepped off the footpath, thus coming well within 1 meter of her.

Fewer people are using the hand-sanitizers at the entrance to shops. too. At first, people were queueing up to use them. Now not at all.

People have been crowding onto beaches and in country parks. My nephew who lives in North Wales said that at one point you couldn’t find anywhere to park in Snowdonia. The same in the Lake District.

And at the end of August we walked a bit of the Pennine Way in Derbyshire. This bit, at the beginning of the footpath, was paved with stones of about 3/4 metre wide at the most. The path was busy with people going in both directions. No one moved off this narrow path when passing someone else.

I sympathise with the viewpoint, that locking down is not the best way, and that people should have the consequences explained to them. and would heartily agree if I had confidence that people would have enough sense to just be sensible!

Sadly, though, the evidence is the opposite, and so people have to be told what to do.

And why is it always ‘Granny’ that is mentioned? I’ve never heard the people on the radio talk about how you could be killing Grandpa. Always Granny.

The mistake was made at the very beginning of the pandemic when the virus was likened to ’flu. Yes, ’flu is a coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean that Covid-`19 is like ’flu when you get it. In fact, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 is called SARS-COV-2. People may remember something about SARS. It was never touted as being ’flu-like.

In fact, Covid-19 is more like pneumonia. Maybe if it had been likened to these two diseases rather than ’flu, people would have been more careful. And Donald Trump saying it’s nothing to be afraid of, just like bad ’flu didn’t help, either.

Saying it was only the elderly and people with underlying health issues who would die was again a mistake. Hence all the young people gathering in restaurants and pubs, and having parties might bnot have been so prevelent. They think they are immune, or that if they get it they won’t be too ill, and certainly won’t die.

OK, my rant about the pandemic has ended.
If you have anything to add, please do so in the comments.

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The Garden, September 2020, The Round Up

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A look at Geoff’s garden. It’s looking wonderful.

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an excerpt from elemental worlds book 2, ignis.

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As ebook version of The Stones of Fire and Water is FREE at the moment (for 3 more days, until 8th October) I thought you might like to have a read of part of one of the chapters.

Here is a bit about what has happened already.


Pettic is the best friend of the vanished Crown Prince of Ponderia. He has resolved to enter the 4 planes of existence relating to the 4 elements in order to find the gems that will release his friend.

In Book 1, The Stones of Earth and Air, Pettic found an emerald, the stone of Terra, corresponding to the element of earth, and a diamond, the stone of Aeris, corresponding to air.Now he must enter the worlds of fire and water to find a ruby and a sapphire. Here he enters the world of air and meets one of its denizens

ELEMENTAL WORLDS BOOK 2


CHAPTER 2


IGNIS.

As before, a mist rose in front of Pettic and he walked into it with a little more confidence than he had the first time. The mist soon gave way to a view halfway up a mountain. It was night here too.

He looked back but could only see the cliff that he had exited. This was more difficult than the previous journey. There, he exited in a cave and there could be no mistake in the place to return through. Here there was the whole side of a cliff.

He looked around for some landmarks to indicate where he had come out. He spotted a rock just ahead that looked like a dog’s head. That he committed to memory and began to walk down the mountainside.

This was a range of large mountains from what he could see. The moon was full here, too, and lending a silvery light to the scene. He could see a valley below, but not any details. Whether there was a village or town he could not make out. He tripped on a rock he had not noticed. Perhaps he should stay here on the mountain until daylight when he could see better where he was going.

It was not cold here, but there was an unpleasant smell. It was a bit like rotten eggs, he thought. He sat down and Cledo lay down next to him. The smell was not good, but a broken leg would be worse, so he lay down next to his dog to sleep.

He woke to hear the sound of creaking leather. He sat up rubbing his eyes and coughing against the smell. He thought perhaps some people had come up in leather armour and slowly opened his eyes.

What he saw astounded him. In front of him, black scales gleaming in the sun, was an enormous beast. It had two black horns protruding from its head and a mane of leathery fronds around its long neck. Its eyes were green and slit vertically, and on its back, now neatly folded, was a pair of leathery wings. It had been the sound of these wings that had woken him.
All the way from its head to the tip of its tail was a double row of spines of varying length, longer on its thorax tapering to small ones at the tip of its tail. The sound of the wings folding away had woken him.

Then the beast spoke. ‘What have we here on my mountain? A little human it would seem.’

‘Yes, I’m a human,’ said Pettic, his voice trembling, but he felt he should say something, ‘but not small by human standards.’

The beast looked startled. ‘You speak dragonish? How come you speak dragonish. Humans have never been able to speak our language before.’
‘Actually, I’m speaking my own language and we can understand each other because of this magic amulet I’m wearing.’

‘How intriguing. We dragons have magic, but no magic that can do such a thing. What kind of magician are you that can make such a thing?’

‘Actually, I’m not a magician. This was given to me by a magician on my home world.’

‘What do you mean, “your home world”?’

Pettic wondered if he should be talking to this creature. Dragons were mythological creatures on his world, like unicorns and griffins but did not actually exist. There people considered them to be evil beasts. Were these myths based on fact and were dragons evil? If so, perhaps he should not be telling this creature too much.

‘I think I may have fallen and taken a blow to the head. I really don’t know where I am,’ Pettic told the dragon. ‘Please tell me.’

‘You are on the side of my volcano, near the sacrifice stone.’ replied the dragon. ‘This valley and the one beyond are my territory. No one comes here except to sacrifice. Perhaps that’s why you’re here. Are you the sacrifice, or is it this beast with you?’

Pettic gulped. Sacrifice? This creature wanted a sacrifice and thought that he or Cledo were it. How was he going to talk his way out of this one? It would have to be talk because there was no way he and Cledo could fight this creature and win.

‘When I fell,’ he began, ‘the sacrifice must have escaped. I apologise and will go and find it.’

He turned, but the dragon said, ‘Not so fast, human. Do you think I’m stupid? As soon as you get away from the range of my fire, you’ll run and try to return to your people. It will do you no avail, though, because I can fly and toast you from the air. If the other sacrifice has escaped, then you and your dog will have to do instead.’

He reared up on his hind legs and took Pettic in one claw and Cledo in the other, then with a powerful thrust of his hind legs he leaped in the air and flew towards the summit of the mountain.

The air rushed around Pettic as the dragon flew to its lair. Its claws dug into him and he felt he could scarcely breathe. As they flew higher, the sulphurous air grew thicker and that added to his problems. By the time the dragon settled down before a cave high on the side of the volcano, Pettic was coughing and so was Cledo. He could scarcely breathe. The dragon, however, seemed quite at ease.

‘You seem to be having some difficulty,’ the dragon said, making a sound a bit like laughing. ‘It seems your kind can’t tolerate the volcanic gases. Never mind. You won’t be alive for long enough to worry about it. Usually the people kill the sacrifice before I bring them up here. They seem to like to do the blood shedding themselves.’

The huge creature shook its head before continuing. ‘Their priests, or whatever they are, come up here and make a big ceremony of it. They think it will keep me from killing their cattle and sometimes them. It doesn’t, of course. I do what I like.’

Pettic could believe that easily.

The creature continued talking. ‘What they don’t realise is that I don’t need to eat like they do. One large meal will suffice me for quite some time. So I go and steal a few cows, or some of them, they come up here and sacrifice. I take the sacrifice and eat it when I need to, thus I don’t need to raid their cattle. Sometimes I eat the wild animals too. Then they think their sacrifice has appeased me. When I need more food I start again.’

He laughed at the thought of the ease with which he fooled the people.

To read more, get your FREE copy of The Stones of Fire and Water, click on the link, or on the cover in the sidebar.

The Stones of Fire and Water is also available in the following formats.
Paperback
Large Print
Pocketbook
Audio UK

Audio US

You can also get The Stones of Earth and Air, by following the links below.

ebook
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Audio US
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The Elements of the ancients and how I came to write elemental worlds.

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The idea of the elements was widespread over the Ancient world. The Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Indians and Japanese all had the idea of four or five elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Ether. Ether, or Spirit was added later. Aristotle could not conceive that the stars were made of the same substances as Earth and decided there must be a fifth, which he called Aether

The idea of minute indivisible ‘pieces’ of the elements going to make up the whole was conceived. The thoughts behind this ‘science’ was more philosophical than truly scientific as experimental science, so well-known to us nowadays, did not exist.

Image by Mária Endrész from Pixabay

In ancient Greece, Empedocles suggested that the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water joined together to form everything we see around us. Which elements combined, and in what proportions, deemed the nature of the substance formed. This idea was around for 2,000 years.

Even humans were not exempt, and the differing types of character were attributed to these elements, and sickness was considered due to an imbalance in the elements in the body.

Each element was composed of a combination of 4 things, hot, dry, cold and moist. Hot and dry produced Fire, Hot and moist, Air, Cold and dry, Earth, while cold and wet produced Water.

Oddly, the four elements can be thought to align with the four states of matter know to science today Earth (solid) Water (liquid) Air (gas) and Fire (plasma).

When I started writing the story of Pettic, and how he had to rescue his friend, Torren, the Crown Prince of Ponderia, I had to think of where Torren was being kept, and then how Pettic would be able to find him.

This could not be an easy task. I wondered about Torren being imprisoned on another world. That would be hard for Pettic to get to, unless magic were involved. Of course, these two books being Fantasy, Magic could easily be used.

Then again, if Pettic could just ‘snap his fingers’ and magic himself to Torren’s prison, that would be no story. So I figured I had to make it hard for him. Then the idea of a magic portal to the other world came, but that was still too easy. Find the portal, go through and free his friend.

What if Pettic had to find keys in order to get into where Torren was imprisoned? Where would someone hide keys? The kidnapper was a magician, so it would be somewhere magical. Aha! Another plane of existence!

Gradually, the idea of four worlds associated with the four ancient elements came to me. Torren was not imprisoned on one of them, but the keys to his prison were. They could not be regular keys, though.

Image by Please Don’t sell My Artwork AS IS from Pixabay

On this world, magic is used through gemstones, so Pettic had to find the gem associated with world he visited. He got to the worlds through an arch in a stone circle outside the city when the full moon shone through it.

Pettic visited the worlds of Terra (Earth) and Aeris (Air) in the first book. On each world he had to perform a dangerous task in order to find the gem.

Emerald for Earth

Image by Thomas Wolter from Pixabay

and Diamond for Air.

Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay

This was how my mind worked in order to get the outline of the story. Then I had to think about what those worlds were like, and what Pettic could do to help them out of a predicament.

If you would like to read about Pettic’s adventures on Terra and Aeris, The ebook version of The Stones of Earth and Air is FREE from tomorrow, October 4th, until Thursday, October 8th.

If you decide to get your copy, I would be grateful if you could post a short, honest review saying if you liked it or not, and why.

It is also available in audio format, US or UK

Or if you prefer, Paperback, Large print, or Pocket book.

Please leave a comment in the comments box.

There are dragons and magic in the world if only you look for them… V.M. Sang