Tag Archives: writing

fantasy, interview, novel, Uncategorized

An Interview with Fero from The Wolf Pack

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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.

feroinglade

 

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.

announcement, help, questions, Reblog button, Uncategorized

A Question

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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?

announcement, Uncategorized

My Visit to Another Blog

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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

grammar, Grammar Help, help, spelling, Uncategorized

Words That Don’t Follow Normal Plural Rules

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winter-1142029_1280

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.

 

announcement, help, history, novel, Uncategorized

Help Requested

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bookcover2

 

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

announcement, history, Recipe book, Uncategorized

Update on my writing

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vivs-high-resolution

 

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/

book reviews, fantasy, novel, stories, Uncategorized

The Revenge of Excalibur by Sahara Foley. My Review.

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revengepicture

Today I’m reviewing a book I recently read, It’s the second book in the Excalibur series and it fuly lives up to the first one.

Blurb

After Pamela’s father vanished twenty-seven years ago, her life has been content. That is, until she is visited by disturbing dreams, telling that her father is in danger.

She also receives a mysterious message, telling her that Arthur has been imprisoned on a distant planet, and only she can rescue him. To do so, she must release the evil entity trapped within the famous sword, Excalibur. If she trusts this strange messenger and releases the terrifying Shalit from its confinement, Pamela could be endangering Earth and all the other planets in the universe.

Will she be strong enough to control the Shalit, save her father, and protect everyone she loves? And can she risk destroying all life if she’s not?

 

My Review
This book is the second in the Excalibur series and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first one. This time, instead of following Arthur and Daisy on their adventures out in the Universe, we concentrate on Arthur’s daughter, Pamela. Arthur does not know of the birth of his daughter, nor that she has inherited his gifts.

Pamela feels something of a misfit on Earth as she has to hide her powers from others. If they know what she is capable of, they would fear her. One day she is whisked off to space by mysterious forces that turn out to be intelligences contained in a living spaceship. These two women, granddaughter and grandmother, tell her that her father is in danger and that he and his wife, the alien Daisy, whom he met in The Secret of Excalibur, are imprisoned.

The rescue of Arthur and Daisy involves the releasing of the Shalit from Excalibur, one of the entities known as Planet Eaters.

Pamela has to use her powers and faces great danger. She finds her true love in a most unusal person, and the twist at the end caught me by surprise.

Ms Foley has built complex worlds with strange alien creatures and a politics we can all recognise. Pamela’s change from a timid, self-conscious girl to a confident woman is believable, after what she goes through.

The writing is excellent and I have no hesitation in giving this book 4 stars.

The book is available as both an ebook and in paperback from Amazon.

If you have any comments on this post, or any others, please add them to the comments box. I’d love to hear from you.

 

Poetry, Uncategorized

I Am Earth. A Poem

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earth-1881932_1280

I am Earth.
I am your mother.
I gave you birth.

I gave you a nest.
A wonderful home
On which you can rest.

I gave you food .
Plenty to eat.
You waste all that’s good.

I gave you the seas
And forests and hills,
But you chop down the trees.

You think you’re so cool,
But you pollute the air
By the burning of fuel.

You heat up the air
And care not a jot
For the poor polar bear.

Animals die
Because of your greed.
You hear not their cry.

I teemed with life,
Both great and small.
Yet extinction is rife

Like a cancer you spread
Throughout the whole world.
It won’t end till you’re dead.

But I’ll make you pay
For all you have done.
You’ll be sorry one day.

I’ll shiver my skin.
Your buildings will fall
And bury your kin.

The land I will flood
By raising the seas
And drown all in mud.

My mountains so high
Will belch forth their flames
And you will all die.

I am Earth.
I am your mother.
I gave you birth.

BUT I WILL DESTROY YOU.

Recipe book, Uncategorized

Relaunch of my Recipe Book.

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vivs-high-resolution

I’m adding an extra blog today to announce the imminent relaunch of my recipe book, called Viv’s Family Recipes.

These recipes have been gathered by my family and friends over the 20th century and give an insight into the kind of foods we ate from 1909 to the present.

Some of these recipes we would not do today, either due to their high fat content, or the long time it takes to cook them, but they are interesting, nonetheless.

There are many more modern recipes in the book though, that I use on a regular basis.

I have also given a bit of information about the people who gave me the recipes and there are some old-fashioned Hints and Tips, too.

Watch this space for when it will be available.

 

 

grammar, Grammar Help, help, Uncategorized

Some common Grammar mistakes.

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I apologise for being a few hours late with this week’s blog.

 

Today’s post is from Clancy Tucker’s blog   https://clancytucker.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/18-december-2016-common-grammar-mistakes.html/

I found I couldn’t reblog it as it stands so I copied and pasted it instead. I hope Clancy doesn’t mind. I asked him about reblogging and he said it was fine, but his reblog only goes to Blogger.

Do visit his blog. It’s very interesting. He posts on a variety of things including some of his photography, which is wonderful, information about famous people, historical events, British slang and of course, grammar mistakes.

COMMON GRAMMAR MISTAKES

G’day folks,

None of us are perfect in the English language. I often see mistakes, especially spelling mistakes on advertisements, and on TV. Here are a few that might help, courtesy of Jon Gingerich.

 

Who and Whom

This one opens a big can of worms. “Who” is a subjective — or nominative — pronoun, along with “he,” “she,” “it,” “we,” and “they.” It’s used when the pronoun acts as the subject of a clause. “Whom” is an objective pronoun, along with “him,” “her,” “it”, “us,” and “them.” It’s used when the pronoun acts as the object of a clause. Using “who” or “whom” depends on whether you’re referring to the subject or object of a sentence. When in doubt, substitute “who” with the subjective pronouns “he” or “she,” e.g., Who loves you? cf., He loves me. Similarly, you can also substitute “whom” with the objective pronouns “him” or “her.” e.g., I consulted an attorney whom I met in New York. cf., I consulted him.

Which and That 

This is one of the most common mistakes out there, and understandably so. “That” is a restrictive pronoun. It’s vital to the noun to which it’s referring.  e.g., I don’t trust fruits and vegetables that aren’t organic. Here, I’m referring to all non-organic fruits or vegetables. In other words, I only trust fruits and vegetables that are organic. “Which” introduces a relative clause. It allows qualifiers that may not be essential. e.g., I recommend you eat only organic fruits and vegetables, which are available in area grocery stores. In this case, you don’t have to go to a specific grocery store to obtain organic fruits and vegetables. “Which” qualifies, “that” restricts. “Which” is more ambiguous however, and by virtue of its meaning is flexible enough to be used in many restrictive clauses. e.g., The house, which is burning, is mine. e.g., The house that is burning is mine.

 

 Lay and Lie

This is the crown jewel of all grammatical errors. “Lay” is a transitive verb. It requires a direct subject and one or more objects. Its present tense is “lay” (e.g., I lay the pencil on the table) and its past tense is “laid” (e.g., Yesterday I laid the pencil on the table). “Lie” is an intransitive verb. It needs no object. Its present tense is “lie” (e.g., The Andes mountains lie between Chile and Argentina) and its past tense is “lay” (e.g., The man lay waiting for an ambulance). The most common mistake occurs when the writer uses the past tense of the transitive “lay” (e.g., I laid on the bed) when he/she actually means the intransitive past tense of “lie” (e.g., I lay on the bed).

 

Clancy’s comment: Hope these help.