I’ve been anxiously waiting for Renee Scattergood to release Part 3 of her Shadow Stalker books. I read Parts 1 and 2 and am anxious to find out what happens to Auren and to find out how she will defeat the evil Drevin.
Renee Scattergood is an excellent writer with a vivid imagination. Her world is well imagined and feels real. The books are original in their concept and well written.
As soon as this is posted I’m off to Amazon to get it! When I’ve read it I’ll do a review here.
Today is the third Tuesday in the month, and so it’s poetry day.
This poem is about a dragon who you can meet in my next book, yet to be published. Crisalisk and her mate Monarlisk are separated by Monarlisk losing a fight to another male dragon for the attentions of Crisalisk, but this poem refers to a time before that.
Her scales are the red
Of sunset in Autumn,
Her eyes are the gold
Of midsummer sun,
Her horns are as white
As snowfall in winter
And she dances on high
Like the birds do in spring.
Her beauty is evident
To all who do see her.
Her grace in the sky
Is a joy to behold.
With pinions spread wide
She dives then she soars
But beware, if she sees you,
Her flames she’ll release.
She thinks she’s the queen
Of all that surround her.
All other things living
Are there just to serve.
If any refuse her
She roars out her challenge
As Death on wide wings
Dives down from the skies.
But who is it comes
On black wings high soaring?
‘Tis Monalisk who
Is her mate and her love.
For him she will bow down
Her arrogance dwindling
For he is her only
True love in the land.
This is a poem that has no rhymes. Poetry does not need to rhyme, but it has to have either rhyme or rhythm or it’s just prose broken into lines.
Poetry nowadays seems to be that way, I’ve read many so-called poems that have neither rhyme nor rhythm. One had short lines, then suddenly a long line that took up 2 lines of text. Some of the poems I’ve read are incomprehesible too. I may be old fashioned in my ideas, but those things aren’t poetry!
If you have any comments on this poem or on poetry in general, please add them to the comments section.
Today is a day when I address some things about our beautiful, interesting, but strange language.
There are many words in English that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Also there are words pronounced the same, but spelled differently. Then there are words that are the same in spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings, depending on context.
The strangest, in my opinion, are words ending in -ough.
We have:
Though, pronounced ‘tho’
Bough, pronounced ‘bow’. (although that in itself has different pronunciations)
Enough, pronounced ‘enuf’
Thought, pronounced ‘thort’
Through, pronounced ‘threw’
No wonder foreigners have some difficulty with it, although (another one, similar to ‘though’, here) it seems they are able to manage quite well if the number of foreigners who speak the language extremely well is anything to go by.
I was in an Italian restaurant in Germany and was greatly amused to see the German waiter speaking to a French customer in English. This also happened when I was in Croatia. The Croatian receptionist spoke to a visitor I think was Russian in English. These strange inconsistencies seem not to faze them, even if they confuse some native speakers!
I am responding to a post by Clancy Tucker that he posted on his blog, https://clancytucker.blogspot.com/. It was about The Peace Corps set up in 1961 by President Kennedy. The idea was to get young people to go abroad to countries that needed help and give that aid. Someone made the comment that he did not think there would be many volunteers from the current generation as they don’t seem to be into volunteering.
Be that as it may, my thoughts went to people here in the UK, not usually the young, who are against foreign aid. They often quote the Bible, although how many of them know they are doing so I’m not sure.
What they say is ‘Well, Charity begins at home, so we shouldn’t be sending all this money abroad in foreign aid. We should be spending it on our own people.’
They are interpreting this saying as ‘Charity begins (and ends) at home. This is not how I see it at all.
My interpretation is twofold.
I see it as a message to parents to teach their children about kindness and love. If the parents don’t show kindness, love and helpfulness in the home, then the children won’t learn it. Thus, Charity begins at home, and as the children grow up with such a loving and caring background, they will then be able to extend that love to others.
Then there is the other side of the same coin. If you cannot be charitable to those you live with, you cannot be charitable to those outside your immediate family.
That is how I see the saying. Unfortunately, too many disagree with me and rail against the help we send to poor countries.
Please leave any comments below.
Next week, as it’s the first Tuesday of the Month, I’ll be posting the next instalment of Asphodel’s story.
Today I’ve received notification that The Never-Dying Man is now available on Kindle. In the next few days it will be also available in print.
Unfortunately. the link I was sent is not working and I’ve told the publisher and he’ll sort it out.
Today I’m announcing the imminent re-launch of The Never-Dying Man, Book 2 of The Wolves of Vimar Series.
As with The Wolf Pack, there have been a few changes. This is because of the changes I made in The Wolf Pack. I’m afraid some things would not have made sense without them, due to things left out of the first book in the revision.
Anyway, it is now ready for the re-launch. I’ve not been told yet just when it’ll be on sale, but hopefully not too long. I hope not more than a week.
I hope you like the cover. Leave any comments about it under the comments tab please,
Sorry this is a bit late, and rather short, but I’ve had a ‘procedure’ done in hospital and had to stay in overnight, unexpectedly. It should have been a 1 day thing but turned into 2 days. Now I’m laid up with a bad back. I think it’s from lying on a hard surface and being unable to move for a couple of days, firstly during the 2 hour procedure and 1 hour after it, then because I was wired up to a variety of machines.
I hope to be back to normal by next week.
Today is a day when I share some more of my writing. Today it’s another poem.
Hypocrisy
We like our village churches
But we don’t go there.
We love our local pub
But we don’t drink there.
We don’t want them to close
Though no one ever goes.
Our roads, they are congested
With cars for everyone.
The others shouldn’t have them
But we, of course, need one.
It should be other folk
Who give it up and walk.
Aircraft fly above us
Polluting all the air.
We think there should be fewer
But we still fly o’er there.
We need our holiday
No matter come what may
We don’t like highest earners
But want to earn as much.
We eat our meals with wine
But we don’t know too much.
We really like to think
We understand our drink.
We highly praise the classics,
But we don’t read them.
We talk of works of Art
But never see them.
We think we are so highbrow
But brows are really quite low.
We say we all hate rumour
But spread the gossip.
We say we understand things
When we don’t, not one bit.
Hypocrites are we
And we always will be.
I recently read a book in which the author made many mistakes in the word he chose to use. I won’t embarrass him by naming the book or author just in case he ever looks at this post. Suffice it to say that it isn’t the usual genre I read, being horror.
I actually found the storyline quite good and it read with pace, but here are some of the mistakes he made with words.
1. Traverse: Transverse
Traverse is a verb meaning to go across something, like, as in the story, a forest.
Transverse is an adjective meaning something that goes across something else. e.g. a diagonal line crossing a shape, or a piece of wood going across another to form a cross.
The author wrote ‘…the only way to transverse the property…’
2. Disperse: Dispense
Disperse means to scatter. E.g. The crowd dispersed in an orderly manner.
Dispense means to do without. E.g. As the weather was warmer, he dispensed with wearing a coat.
The author wrote ‘…dispersed with human words…’
3. Soul: Sole
This one amused me greatly.
Soul is the spiritual part of a person that carries on after death.
Sole is the base of a shoe, or the only one.
The author wrote ‘…rubber boots, their souls encased in mud…’
4. Boarded: Bordered
Another amusing one.
Boarded means to get onto a ship, coach, aircraft, bus etc
Bordered means to go round the edge of something.
The author wrote ‘Two candles boarded a statue of the Buddha.’
5.Forth: Fourth
Forth is to set off, go or depart.
Fourth is the one after third and before fifth.
The author wrote ‘He dumped the first three cards and was in the process of leading the forth.’
6. Hold: Holed
Hold is to have something in one’s hands.
Holed is to hide away.
The author wrote, ”We hold up in my grandfather’s hunting cabin.’
7. Site: Sight
Site refers to a place. E.g. This is the site of the battle.
Sight refers to seeing.
The author wrote ‘He brought up the front site of the shotgun.
8. Crucifix: Crucifixion.
Crucifix is is the cross on which people were killed in Roman times.
Crucifixion is what happens on the cross.
The author wrote, ‘The priest stood next to the first crucifixion.’
‘A large semicircle with twelve crucifixions…’
‘Strapped to the crucifixions…’
9. Finally: Finale
Finally is an adverb. It means coming at the end.
Finale is a noun and it refers to the last act.
The author wrote, ‘The grand finally…’
10. Wetting: Whetting
Wetting means to put water on something.
Whetting means to sharpen something. E.g. a stone used to sharpen a knife is called a whetstone.
The author wrote, ‘…wetting their appetite…’
Those were the main ones I noted down, as well as some common ones like were and where, choose and chose and the inevitable loose and lose.
Now I’m prepared to be generous and say some of these might, just might, be typos, but even in that case, it was poor. The manuscript should have been edited better.
It’s things like this that give self-published authors a bad name. It’s easier to get a bad name than a good one, and very difficult to get rid of a bad name once it’s been established. Unfortunately, in many people’s eyes, self-published authors are poor and produce poor books, and it’s things like this that reinforce this opinion.
So please, please, please, if you are a self-publishing author, or are thinking of self-publishing, get your manuscripts edited and all corrections made before going to press with it. At least read through it properly and get someone else (as many someone elses as you can, preferably) to do so as well if you can’t afford a professional editor. I’ve never heard anyone say they couldn’t finish a book because it had no errors, but I’ve heard many say the opposite.
Please tell me what you thought about this blog. I’m always pleased to hear what you think.
I’ve just read a disturbing post from soulfultroubadourdotcom. It deals with the case of two boys who were badly beaten for wanting to leave the church. So badly beaten, in fact, that one of them died. I think most people would consider this a dreadful crime. Unfortunately, the people whod did this must have felt they were fully justified.
This is what’s scary. These people thought, and I suppose continue to think, they were fully justified in what they did. This did not happen in Syria, or Iraq, or Libya or any of those countries that we think of as being barbaric, but in the USA. These people were not extremist Muslims, but Fundamental Christians.
By what right they think they have to call themselves Christian I really do not know. Nothing they did is what I understand to be following the teachings of Christ. These extremist ‘Christians’ are just as bad as the extremist ‘Muslims’, and yet we in the west seem to ignore them.
OK, they don’t go round bombing people (yet), thinking you can force people into believing as you do, but are they really much better? Beating young men because they don’t like the message you are preaching is just as bad in my eyes.
Extremism is dangerous, whether it’s religious or political, whether Muslim of Christian, Right or Left. People ignore these folk because they call themselves Christian, and that is the religion of the west. Of us, even if we are non-believers.
So we tar all Muslims with the same brush. They are all wicked people who chop of the heads of non-Muslims, but we ignore those Christians who think to force people to their religion by other acts of brutality.
Jesus said (Matthew 7:5) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
I have written a poem about hypocrisy. I’ll post it later next month, possibly.
I would love to hear what you think about this. If you would like more details, go to https://soulfultroubadourdotcom.wordpress.com/2016/10/
There are some questions that require thinking about.
Does God Exist?
Why are we here?
Are we alone in the universe?
Such questions are difficult to answer, but the ones below are some that I would like to know the answers to. To me, they are as difficult to answer as the above.
Why do young people think it’s cool to walk around in torn jeans? It makes them look scruffy and as though they don’t care about their appearance.
Why do people find the use of the apostrophe so hard? Is it because they’ve been taught poorly? It didn’t used to be the case that we found apostrophes lurking before every ‘s’.
Why do some people think it’s acceptable to drop litter? Don’t they have any pride in their town/village/country? Do they drop their litter in the living-room at home?
Why can’t people choose to use inclusive language? There is no need to use the word ‘man.’ (Its capital letter to denote it was being used as the collective has disappeared.) There are plenty alternatives that do not invoke gender. For ‘man-made’, ‘artificial’ or ‘synthetic’ can be used. For the generic, ‘Man’ we can use ‘human’, ‘humanity’ or ‘people.’
When people pick up their doggy poo and put it in a bag, why do some of them then hang the bag on the nearest bush? Do they think it looks pretty.
Why do people walk around in dark clothes at night? Even in areas of street lighting there are many shadows, and it’s often difficult to see them. Especially cyclists. There used to be an advert on TV that said ‘Wear something white at night.’
On the subject of dark clothes, why are winter clothes always dark? Surely we need cheering up in the dark days of winter?
Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 