Book Feature: ACHING HEART by Vida Li Sik

Available on Amazon

Nursing sister Hannah Dervain functions best by following a set routine. That leaves her little time to drown her sorrows in alcohol over what she has lost.

Her orderly life is turned upside down when her annual check-up reveals she has cancer. Now Hannah has to fight for her health and to heal her relationship with her estranged daughter, Savanna, who is in jail.

Hannah’s bombshell tugs at her daughter’s heartstrings. Overturning Savanna's ban on visiting her in prison is the easy part. Their past disappointments, hurts and pain rear up once more. They are tougher to tackle as Savanna confronts challenges of her own.

Her daughter’s latest ill-conceived scheme threatens the progress they are making. Can Hannah find the courage to take a stand and be the mother she longs to be?

Until tomorrow, when Vida joins us again with a question...

See you then!

Linzé

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: U is for...unbelievable

I chose unbelievable for my word today, because that is how I felt when I saw the list. Yesterday, I posted my 750th post to this blog. It's true, even though I am not sure quite how all that happened.

Number of posts
per year

I suppose it happened the usual way - one at a time! 😉
Thank you for reading and here is to the next 750. May I continue to strive to not bore you to tears 😂 Cheers! 🍸

💜 Linzé

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: T is for...thank you

Today's post is for saying thank you. I decided to make a list, because this kind of post requires a list.

Thank you to you:

• If you have read one of my books;
• My writers group members for your continued support of each other;
• My online friends and followers for allowing me to be part your lives;
• Friends, family, colleagues, every book lover and fellow artist - you make my world alive with life, creative expression, contentment and happiness.

Thank you!

💜 Linzé

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: S is for...special mention

And the award goes to Francois! Ha, I thought to make this post a dedication to my husband, Francois.
He is a terrific photographer in several genres. Here is a picture of him holding the award for portrait photographer of the year for 2018. The award was made last week.
Well done!

Francois holding his award and certificate

A-toZ Blog Challenge: R is for... - a guest post by Mari Reiza

Welcome to my guest
 - Mari Reiza

… Reflection - Rejection - Remorse - Revolution. Reiza's Ritual.

It’s upon Reflection that you become a writer. Your life is boring. You yearn for prime shakers replacing the herd around you. Characters who drive, the car, the boat even, a Super Tritone, and know where they're headed in the weekend, Capri. That’s amore! Take stunningest, cleverest Ivanka, in Opera, a no-nonsense prima donna who abhors losers and always gets her way. You love her instantly. You’ll never again wonder aimless, unshaven and unshowered up-and-down the corridors of a second-rated mall in a sorry town on Sunday, as she takes control of your life.

After a bit though there’s Remorse, the realisation you should have dug deeper. Why? You have aimed for paradise, likeable perfection. Guilty as charged. It’s not real. Perhaps men and women with only enough good in them so you can live in their company for the duration of the story are best. When you start observing their evil you like it. Take cute Marie, in the Retreat, with a sexy gap, a secret passage between her upper incisors; like Ivanka she's headed somewhere, hellish, and it's magnetising to watch, an accident you can't look away from. We should embrace flawed humans, especially women. Who on earth wants Barbie! It’s my personal objective to put such ladies forward, not for tête-à-tête martinis but it’s entertaining to see them wreck the world from afar.

Alas. Regardless of your hard work comes Rejection, claims your hero is as boring as chewed cardboard. And your narrator over-judges him/her when inner life should be hush-hush rather than clumsily revealed. Or readers don’t even get who’s the protag, like it’s not clear to them, not out of the gate not mid-novel not ever. ‘Who’s this novel about?’ Take Physical; you think it’s about Kiki, anarchic with curly hair and thick-rimmed glasses, and snap, it's about Fátima, straightforward, rational and practical. Sacré bleu! Readers advise against it but beware most advice is overrated: remain as deaf as to random tips on how to make lust last.

Okay so I'll rewrite my character as per my critics. Nonsense I will not. I resort to Revolution. Let the bloody things do as they please, anything, act upon their world. Soon Ivanka miscalculates. Marie as anticipated goes into butcher frenzy. Fátima who was totally stuck burns her kitchen. Ass kicking moment. You like her now? And Kiki becomes a lesbian after falling on a cow dung as she's being dumped with child; the shit she's landed in changes her fate. Whilst the comatose wife in Room 11 wakes up. I bet you didn’t expect that cause neither did I. But the rule is if the hero does not change the world, the world changes them. See the wife's nurse who lacks courage, she stays poor and alone, doomed for years to foreign cornflakes for breakfast. Good. Prod your hero! Have them crash, cause if you've done it right you’ll finally get to your reader. The fun can start!

R for the ritual. R for Regards to the Reader.

Cheerio. Mari.

Read more about Mari  👈👈👈

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: Q is for...quignogs

Welcome to the first playful post for the month. Q is such a problematic letter sometimes so when I came across this Q-word, I couldn't resist.

😄😄 Quignogs is an old Cornish word for pipedreams, or ridiculous thoughts or ideas.

Do you like searching for or finding words that you didn't know?

  

💁Linzé

Book feature: PEACH COBBLER POISON by Diana DuMont

Today is a book feature in one of my favourite genres 💜

P is for Peach Cobbler Poison Check it out on
Amazon

See you tomorrow for the letter Q!

💜 Linzé

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: O is for...obfuscate

Today's word is well-known to the NaNoWriMo community. When uploading a novel the website to verify the word count, obfuscation of the text may be used to prevent anyone else seeing what you wrote (even though the text is not saved on the website). And if you're not familiar with this technique, I will demonstrate with a simple sentence.

Sample sentence: I love my sketchbook and pencil.

Obfuscated text: o oooo oo oooooooooo ooo oooooo.

The text is then hidden away by replacing every letter with the letter O (or any other letter of the alphabet). The word counting software will then count the words because with NaNoWriMo it is not about the contents, but about the number of words.

  

Keep writing!

😁Linzé

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: N is for...newsletter

This is a tiny post to remind you that if you sign up for my newsletter in April, you can win one of my latest ebooks. Nothing more complicated than that.

My newsletter is called Grains of Sand for a reason: it is very short, and drops into your inbox once a month. What can be more easy than that?

And that is that for today.

And a few special mentions again for you to click and visit:

@The Flat Footed Hiker 

@Collecting Trees 

@Amore Natura 

@Charles Heath

Until O!

Book feature: MURDER MISUNDERSTOOD by Susan Bernhardt

M is for Murder!
A book in a favourite genre of mine. Check it out on Amazon

See you tomorrow for the post of the letter N!

💜 Linzé

Guest post: L is for Love + ... + ... + ... by Leenna Naidoo

L is for Leenna's
Love post 💖

You would think writing about love is easy. Everyone knows it. It’s a universal feeling—akin to occasionally choking on water or tearing when dust gets in your eye. You just can’t go through life without having some dramatic and automatic response to it: first love, love at first sight, love/hate, second chance at love, puppy-love, mature love... The range, range within ranges, and unpredictable twisting into new forms and equations, that’s where it gets complicated—just like all love relationships, no matter how simple they seem. Why?

Because Love + Two Hearts = Messy Stuff where Messy Stuff = misunderstandings + wild hopes + irrational thoughts and behaviour + jealousy + adoration + gooey feelings + outside intervention + ... + ... + ...

So, when writing a story, all plots and intentions for a love relationship (or what loved crazed, infatuated, manipulative individuals will do) tends to go out the window. Characters (good guys and villains) want their stories told, their behaviours explained, and their happy-ending—no matter the cost. They are all in pursuit of True Love (or its most durable facsimile) just like you. And unlike you, they can break the rules (and sometimes the law, or even the laws of physics) to do it. Why?

Because Fiction.

But a writer of romance, suspense, and sci-fi/fantasy with romantic bits, needs to write believable love fiction. Why?

Because Love is a process. If you don’t show or allude to the process and its stage, the story implodes leaving you and the reader with >0 (or less than zero).

I admit, I don’t always get the equations right, but when I do, it is hugely satisfying! I got close to getting it right in my first season of Quest For The Wholly Pale. I had not anticipated Silverbirch stealing Emrys’ heart while swigging beer in the student Ref. But she did, changing the path of the story. Lucky for me, that was in Episode 3 and I thought I foreshadowed their hidden feelings well. Sadly, not all readers picked up the clues. Why?

Because Subtlety-in-Love can = Invisibility to persons-concerned where: persons-concerned are oblivious or misunderstand or disbelieving. And Emrys and Silverbirch were very subtle, being friends first.

I got closer to getting it right in the series Settle Down Now. InUnsettled-The Prequel, I tried the following:

Falling in Love+Break-up = competition + attraction + misunderstanding + deception + jealousy + fear

I tried perfecting it in Settle Down Now (the novel) with the following:

Reconciled Love = maturity + proximity + danger + jealousy + sincere love + teamwork + communication

I think I got it right, but Love (as I said before) is messy with endless permutations. Then again, I was never good at Maths. Why?

Because Mathematics = Not Fiction (with the exception of Unreal Numbers).

Fortunately, Love is Real, even when it is fiction. No prior mathematical knowledge needed.

See if I got close to your right equation in Settle Down Now the series, No Distance To Run, and Quest For The Wholly Pale.

And let me know what is your equation for Love, in fiction and real life. Why?

Because: everyone loves a good Love story, even ones with strange equations.

About the Author

Leenna writes cross-genre suspense, romance and dabbles in sci-fi/fantasy. Her episodic fiction includes Quest For The Wholly Pale.

Her short stories have appeared in The Mad Scientist Journal, SciPhi Journal and Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores.

Her novels include No Distance To Run and Settle Down Now.

She blogs on www.leennanaidoo.wordpress.com and

www.leennascreativebox.wordpress.com.

Leenna’s most unnerving experiences include: looking a red kangaroo in the eye, flipping pancakes for the first time ever in front of her class, interviewing Alan Dean Foster by email, and teaching a hellhound how to share a biscuit. Sometimes she writes about these and other less nerve-wracking things; sometimes she doesn’t.

See you tomorrow for another post in the A to Z challenge!

💜 Linzé

A-to-Z Blog Challenge: K if for...kindle

As a bibliophile I love reading, but I only have so much space at home to store the paperbacks I read. To this end, I have decided to keep buying the paperback editions of the series (several of them!) I am busy reading. But if I find a new author or an author I like brings out a new series, to buy their book in e-format instead. And it's not just about space and saving a few rands, but also doing a little bit for the environment too.

My kindle - almost
10 years old too!

But today I am celebrating my kindle - I bought it on 22 January 2010, and while it is perhaps not the fastest device on the market these days, it still works perfectly. With 656 books uploaded, it better be because there are more coming!

Whether you love a paper copy or an ebook, I am sure that you will agree that nothing is as satisfying as a hot cup of coffee (or tea) and a good story to relax with for a few hours.

Want to see how many bloggers are taking part in the A to Z Challenge? Click here and be prepared to hang on to your chair!

A special guest post coming tomorrow 💟 until then!