I’ve just published Vengeance of a Slave, my Historical Novel set in Roman Britain, on Amazon. Since it’s a very different genre, I’ve written it under a pen name.
The book is available for pre-order and will be published on April 29th. You can pre-order it as you would an already published book, from Amazon.
If you want to have an idea of the book, then you can read an extract on http://emilynovels1.wordpress.com/ on Saturday of next week.
This ought to have been published in the winter, but I didn’t get round to it, so I’m publishing it today. Anyway, it’s still technically winter! Hope you enjoy it.
Snow covers the ice-hard ground
And ponds and lakes are frozen.
All is muffled, every sound.
The birds are silent in the trees,
No moths or butterflies or bees
Just snowflakes by the dozen.
The moon is full and her pale light
Shines gently through the flakes.
But creatures shiver through the night.
The icy wind makes branches quiver
And every living thing to shiver
In trees and hills and lakes.
Across the field there trots a fox.
An owl flies by on silent wings.
On the frozen lake, some ducks.
As snow falls gently on them all,
And cattle low within their stall
We are waiting for the spring.
I welcome all your comments, so please add yours.
I am quite excited about this release because I started reading the series recently and am looking forward to reading the rest of it.
Debbie has kindly interviewed Miri for my blog. Here is the interview.
What do you miss most from when you were young?
Oh lots of things: my cats – Kitty and Susie; my best friend – Jenny; New York City and in particular the Lower East Side where I grew up; and most of all my omama. I think about her every day – the things she taught me, the stories she told. And I also wonder about the stories she didn’t tell. About her early life in Vienna and how she escaped from the Nazis. Maybe one day I’ll be able to piece all that together.
What scares you the most?
That I could lose my new friends here at P.A.W.S. I’d like to be able to just enjoy my classes and hang out like a normal teen (or at least as normal as a shapeshifter cat girl can be), but bad stuff seems to follow me around, so I guess I should be prepared.
How did you change as you grew older?
I think I’ve become more confident and a little less likely to trip over my own two feet – I think having four paws helps with that and of course having good teachers – Josh and Danny – also does wonders.
What has been the hardest struggle for you?
Believing that I actually have magic. I know Jessamyn says that my whole family had magic, but it does seem hard to believe.
Who do you hope stays in your life?
Well Danny of course (blushes), but I don’t really see how he likes me. And then I hope I’ll always stay close to my friends at P.A.W.S. – Josh, Sandy, Sean and Joey. Joey’s said that in a few years I should visit him in Australia. That would be a lot of fun.
What do you need to be happy in the future?
Good friends, my books and my writing. I hope someday to write my story and delve into my family’s past so that I can write a history of that too.
What is the most important lesson you have learned?
To trust my friends when they say I’m much stronger and more capable than I think I am.
Miri’s story continues in Umbrae (P.A.W.S. 3)
Pick up your copy today!
And connect with Debbie on her blog – Paws 4 Thought
Facebook or Twitter.
We are constantly being told about what we are doing to our world. We are told about all the carbon dioxide we are adding to the air and what it is doing to the climate.
We are also told about methane from grazing animals and how that is also a greenhouse gas.
In this post, I want to bring some things to your attention that we aren’t told about in so many words.
Hydrogen cars. A good thing aren’t they? They are not polluting are they? After all, the hydrogen just burns to water.
Let’s consider this. Water is a greenhouse gas. This we are not told, but why should we need to be? We all know that on a cloudy night the temperature stays higher, but if it’s clear, it’s likely to be cold.
If the world is warming, as it seems to be, on average, there is more energy in the system. More energy, more air movements. I have noticed that there seem to be more windy days than there used to be. anyone else noticed? I’ve not got any statistics, just my own observations. Are hurricanes not stronger than they used to be?
Fossil fuels are finite. They take millions of years to form, yet we are burning them as if they will last for ever. Every person who is old enough to hold a driving license now has to have their own car. Next door to me, until recently, there was a family of six. Six cars were parked outside every day. Their drive would only hold three. Parking in the rest of the street is not easy without blocking someone in. It was a problem.
Should we really be using it to burn? Here are a few things made from oil that we’ll probably have to do without when the oil has gone.
1. plastics (Think of all the things made of plastic you use every day.)
2. cosmetics
3. food colourings
4. paint
5. shoe polish
6. nylon
7. paint
8. ink
9. medicines
10. Vaseline
11. tyres
12. Asphalt
13. insect repellant
14. fertiliser
15. shampoo
There are thousands of products made from oil, yet we burn it willy-nilly.
I could continue with many more, but I just want to finish with what I consider the most worrying thing, but one that is never mentioned. Oxygen levels.
When things burn they use oxygen. That is something everyone who has been to school knows. We are burning oil and releasing the carbon dioxide trapped in there. At the same time, we are using up oxygen.
This I did do some research about. It seems that at the time of the dinosaurs, the oxygen level was around 33%. When we learn about oxygen content of the atmosphere in school, we learn it’s around 21%. However, it is declining, and declining faster than it did before. There are 150 areas in the sea that are dead zones. So little oxygen that no life can survive, and in some cities the oxygen level is down to 17%
Why is this not a topic for discussion? Why are we only told to think about carbon dioxide and climate change? Is this not potentially more serious? maybe it won’t be a problem for us, or our children, but in the future, perhaps the very existence of humanity might be in danger.
Here’s a website you might like to visit to find out more.
Please leave a comment on this blog in the space below.
I would just like to tell you that the next installment of Asphodel’s back story will be on March 14th as Debbie Manber Kupfer is visiting my blog on the 7th, so rather than leave it for another month, I’ve substituted if for one of my grammar posts.
Thanks for reading.
It’s been a while since I interviewed a character from my books, so I decided to track down Fero and ask him a few questions.
Me: Thank you for agreeing to talk a bit about yourself,
Fero. I know you don’t talk much about where you came
from, but please fill me in. You were born beyond the
Three Seas, I believe.
Fero: Yes. I was born in the land of Beridon. That is not only
beyond the Three Seas, but also beyond the Great Desert.
Me: Tell me about your family.
Fero: My father was a sandalmaker in the village where I
was born and grew up. I was the eldest son. I have three
sisters older than me. My parents were delighted to have
a son at last as in Beridon, girls are deemed to be of little
worth.
Me: That is shocking.
Fero: Yes. I now realize how bad that is. How much talent
is being wasted in that country I can hardly begin to
contemplate. It wasn’t until I came to Grosmer that I really
learned the value of women.
Me: I suppose, growing up with that way of thought you
wouldn’t think it unusual.
Fero: No, but I am ashamed now for my past, my family and my countrymen.
Me: What was life like in Beridon?
Fero: It was hard. We were not actually in the Great Desert, but in the summer there was usually a drought. Frequently our animals and crops died and we went hungry. However, in the past, we had learned about irrigation and so it was not as bad as it had once been. Only in really bad drought years were we in very bad conditions.
Me: Tell me about your family.
Fero: I haven’t seen them for many years. I hated sandal making but my father thought that, as the eldest son, I should follow him and take over the family business. I would then marry a girl of their choice and look after them in their old age. I hated that idea and was something of a rebel. I took every opportunity to go out into the wilds and it was on one of those forrays that I met an old druid.
Me: Did you decide to bevome a druid yourself?
Fero: Oh, no. I am not a very religeous man, although I do revere Grillon, the god of nature and wild things. The old man taught me much, but even he could see that I was not cut out to be a druid, so he sent me to a ranger friend of his.
Me: What did your family think of this?
Fero: My mother would have been quite happy with this. I had two brothers now and they were both happy to go into sandalmaking. My father was completely opposed and forbade me from going. Mother couldn’yt go against him as he would have beaten her and it would still have made no difference to his thoughts. He beat me too, and tried to lock me in my room.
Here Fero laughs.
Fero: He should have realized that he couldn’t really do that as my brothers had to come in and out!
Me: What did you do?
Fero: Well, I escaped, of course. I gathered my things and went to tell mother that I was going. Father came in at that moment, just as I was going out of the door. Mother called ‘Goodbye Fero. Don’t forget us.’ Father pushed her back indoors and I heard him say ‘Go in, woman, we have no son called Fero.’
Me: That must have been very hard. What did you do then?
Fero: I went to join my new master. She was very good and understanding and taught me well, until one day she deemed my apprenticehip was ended and I was to go out and make my own way in the world.
Me: Where did you go?
Fero: Firstly I wandered Beridon, then decided to go and look at the Great Desert. I almost died of thirst then. I was completely lost, but a tribe of nomads found me and saved me. I was sunburned, blisters all over me. They tended me and then took me travelling with them. I learned to wear the long enveloping robes they wear and to keep out of the direct sun as much as possible. They wandered eventually to the seaport of Candor on the Inner Sea. I had never seen a large expanse of water and it fascinated me. I got passage on a ship crossing to Grosmer. I worked my passage, of course, and eventually came to Bluehaven. Here I abandoned my new career as a seaman and wandered around the south of Grosmer for many years, doing jobs here and there. Sometimes I would pick fruit, grapes or peaches or oranges. At other times I was scouting for caravans. Then one day I was with a group of young men who decided to go to Eribore. I joined them, intending to cross the Western Mountains and see the Horselords on the plains.
Me: Did you see them? The are supposed to be quite a sight when they ride their horses.
Fero: No. I have wondered and wondered why I took that path towards Hambara, but I can’t tell you why. Just a sudden impulse came upon me and I left my companions and turned east instead of west. If I had not done that, I would not have met Carthinal and the others. I wonder what the outcome of their quest would have been if they were not 8 questors as the prophecy had said? Would they still have found the Sword or would the quest have failed? Also, I would not have met Randa either.
Me: Thank you for your time.
I don’t usually use WordPress as a means of asking a question, but I’ve just realised I don’t have a reblog button on my site.
I’ve made sure that the reblog button is checked on the setup page, but it’s still not there, and I suspect, never has been.
The forums are no help. The only ones that talk about it are people whose wordpress account is hosted by someone else. (Why would you do that?) WordPress does not add a reblog button for those, but my account is not hosted by someone else.
I can’t find anywhere on the forums to ask a question either, and you cannot contact anyone from WordPress directly. That is bad!
Does anyone out there know why I’ve not got this button even though the tick box is checked, and how I can get one?
Today I’m visiting Auden Johnson’s blog to talk about how I came to write The Wolf Pack. Pay her a visit and read about it. Who knows, you might find something else you enjoy there.
Here’s the link.
http://audenstreasury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/guest-post-how-dungeons-dragons.html
Today I’m going to discuss a few words that don’t form the plural by adding the letter ‘s’. These words come mainly from foreign ‘imports’, although a lot are very old. Some people are confused by these words and use the plural as a singular.
So here we go.
Singular: Bacterium Plural: Bacteria
Singular: Phenomenon Plural: Phenomena
Singular: Medium Plural: Media
Singular: Datum Plural: Data
Singular: Criterion Plural: Criteria
Singular: Cactus Plural: Cacti
Singular: Fungus Plural: Fungi
Singular: Stadium Plural: Stadia
Singular: Nucleus Plural: Nuclei
Singular: Syllabus Plural: Syllabi
Singular: Focus Plural: Foci
Singular: Thesis Plural: Theses
Singular: Crisis Plural: Crises
Singular: Index Plural: Indices
Singular: Appendix Plural: Appendices
It is becoming more acceptable to hear ‘stadiums’, ‘syllabuses’ and ‘indexes’, although they grate on me, personally, but my least favourites are when I hear ‘criteria’, ‘bacteria’, ‘fungi’ and ‘phenomena’ used as singular nouns. Grrrrr!
Now for some that don’t change for the plural.
sheep
deer
fish (although the word ‘fishes’ can be used if referring to a number of different types of the creatures. e.g. There was a great variety of fishes swimming around on the reef.)
aircraft
moose
offspring
species
salmon
trout
Now what about those that are completely different in the plural? Here we have the following:
Singular: Child Plural: Children
Singular: Man Plural: Men
Singular: Woman Plural: Women
Singular: Mouse Plural: Mice
Singular: Goose Plural: Geese (N.B. The plural of ‘mongoose’ is not ‘mongeese’, but ‘mongooses’. Wierd, I know, but that’s the English language for you.)
Singular: Die Plural: Dice
Singular: Foot Plural: Feet
Singular: Louse Plural: Lice
Singular: Ox Plural: Oxen
Singular: Person Plural: People
Singular: Tooth Plural: Teeth
I hope this has helped some of you, at least. I would like to know if there are any I’ve forgotten, or about any that personally grate on you when you hear them misused.
I’ve written a book under the pen name of Emily Littler.
It’s a historical novel set in the time of Roman Britain. I decided to put it up on Kindle Scout. Kindle Scout is exactly what it says. Kindle scouting for authors who they then publish (rather than the author self-publishing.) They act just like the mainstream publishers in that they give an advance, (although small!) and do all the formatting and marketing as well as producing an audio version and foreign language translations.
In order to select the books, they hold a ballot. The book (s) with the most recommends will be accepted. All you need to do is click on the link below and then click on the button to nominate or recommend my book.
You can read extracts from it before you click, so you’re not nominating something you’ve not seen.
Please find a few seconds to help me. The link is below.
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/UZ8KQW66M6H8/
Thanks
Viv Sang
Well, yesterday I heard that Viv’s Family Recipes is now available in a paperback edition. You can buy it from Amazon. http://www.amazo.com/ http://amazon.co.uk/ or your local amazon site.
I sent the manuscript of Elemental Worlds off to the editor, so things are beginning to move on that one. I think it’s the best one yet. No ideas as to when it will be availabe though. I’ll keep you in touch. We need to agree a cover, too. As soon as we pick one, I’ll reveal it to you all for comments.
On February 10th you can get The Wolf Pack free from Creativia, and on February 14th, Viv’s Family Recipes is also free. Take advantage of these offers and many more from 1st to 14th February. You can see the books at Sahara Foley’s website. http://saharafoley.com/creativia-publishing-free-books-from-february-1st-thru-the-14th-2017-creativia/
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 