I have just put the finishing touches to the manuscript before I send it off to an editor. So the sister-novel of Despite the Angels is a step closer. I'm calling it a sister because it is in the same genre, as yet un-named, but is not a sequel. Revisited Sins takes place over six weeks in Dublin, and starts with an appeal to you, the reader, to help the 'angels' to sort out the mess their human characters have got into...
Watch this space......
Showing posts with label Revisited Sins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revisited Sins. Show all posts
Wednesday, 27 August 2014
Saturday, 27 April 2013
X is for...
1) X is a terrible letter when you’ve restricted yourself to writing on
certain topics! I can’t just make up a character called Xenon, or go for an
Xray.... And I do wonder if I have the Xfactor-for-writing....
X is a multiplication sign, so I am hoping that my sales of “Despite the
Angels” will multiply, my good reviews will multiply, and my energy to get on
with publishing “Revisited Sins” will multiply even more! And may the
multiplication angels visit me with myriads of creative ideas, and the time to
trap them on the page...
2) Here is another poem, about love -where we all use lots of xxx!
19 and 15
Nearly six foot of gangle
gets into bed beside me,
and a beautiful woman
brings her duvet and sits on my feet,
and once again a Christmas morning
resounds with laughter
and “look at this!” and “what is it?”
and I sink below another sea of tissue
paper.
An unbroken line of chocolate coins
and a-mandarin-in-the-toe
seems to stretch back through the years
to when they were soft bundles
drowsing milkily against my neck.
But before the past can become more
than a prickle in my eyes,
comes “look at my bubbles!”
and “would you like a marshmallow?”
and the solid happy presence of them
breaks the spell,
and I think, -despite all troubles,
mistakes and failures,
to have raised such kids as these
I have done well.
3) XXX No common homoeopathic remedy
starts with X. Kiss it better!
Saturday, 20 April 2013
R is for...
1) Reincarnation. This features in “Despite the Angels” and my next book
“Revisited Sins”, but both are works of fiction and it is not necessary to
believe that reincarnation happens to enjoy the story. All the same, it is a fun way to look
at the world and for me at the moment, it explains some of the crazy things
that happen. In the ancient world it was a much more accepted idea than it is
now, and there are examples in the Bible, as well as in Jewish and Islamic
writings that show that the writers thought that reincarnation was the case. In
the early Christian church, it was accepted as fact until the Ecumenical
Council meeting in 533AD. This meeting of the church was gerrymandered by the
Roman Emperor Justinian of Constantinople who did not believe in reincarnation
(or at least did not want Christians to, possibly because if your followers
think they have more than one life in which to get it right, they are harder to
control) and who packed the meeting with 159 of his followers from the Eastern
Church, when only 6 of the Western branch of the church were in attendance. Pope
Vigilius was so incensed by this that he refused to attend the meeting (and was
subsequently persecuted by Justinian - imagine if this happened now..) so according
to the Catholic Encyclopaedia this meeting was not genuine and its decisions
are actually null and void - so it is only a fluke that all of us who were
brought up Christian were not taught routinely that we would have future lives!!
2) Reader. I am an avid one, and used to be a very fast one. Going on a
holiday was always a bit nerve-racking, would I bring enough books? I had to
pick carefully, nice thick books, not too frothy, to slow myself down a bit,
books I wouldn’t mind discarding when I had read them, which was very
difficult, books in my family have almost household-god status! Then I got a
Reader and life changed. My first one was a Sony EReader, which was okay, but I
had constant problems getting books off the Waterstone’s site to actually go
onto the device; I haunted the local Sony shop, and a lovely guy Greg there had
almost as much difficulty as me. Then I got a Kindle, and its
one-stop-you-don’t-need-your-pc function is a dream! But my eyes aren’t as good
as they were, (since cataract ops they are full of huge floaters, so just
making the print bigger doesn’t always work) and my reading speed has dropped,
so my kindle is full of books I haven’t read yet. So is my house, of the paper
variety!
3) Rhus Tox This is a good medicine for muscle or joint pain which is
worst after being immobile, but which improves on being worked out.
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
The Next Big Thing
Recently writer Carolann Copland told me about an on-line blogging chain - The Next Big Thing.This is a way for writers to promote their work-in-progress, through answering a series of questions on...well...their Next Big Thing.
Carolann is just finishing her first novel, 'Carousel' and you can read more about it on her own blog, at www.carouselcreates.wordpress.comShe also runs the wonderful Carousel writing centre in the Dublin hills, where she provides courses and workshops for all ages, and one morning a week a 'writers' café', when Carolann provides peace and quiet, buns and coffee, and good conversation with fellow writers. Her website is at www.carousel-creates.com Thank you, Carolann,for all your support, and for having enough faith in my Next Big Thing to include me in this blog chain!
So, here goes:
What is the working title of your book?
"Despite the Angels" is the final title as the cover has been designed, and can be seen below. My second book, in the same genre, is probably "Revisited Sins".
Where did the idea come from for the book?
We are surprised and delighted if we meet people we know while out and about, and say 'it's a small world'. But many times we spend a whole day in town without meeting anyone. I began to daydream about how we all do get to meet, and who might be in charge of making sure we do. This led to imagining our guardian angels working their socks off to get us all to the right places at the right times!
What genre does the book fall under?
Romance, in its broadest sense. This is a story of love found and lost over 4,000 years and four incarnations; not a modern boy-meets-girl love triangle.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
The 'spirit guides', which is the correct term for 'guardian angels' are the main characters in the book. Trynor is Lucy's guide, and I would love Julie Walters in this role. Julian Clary would make a good Jotin, David's guide, as 'angels' have no gender, and he could do the part in a believably androgynous way. The mischievous Roki, Martin's guide, would be a lovely part for Will Smith.
It would be best for the story if all the human parts were played by relatively unknown actors, as there is no main 'star', and as the humans appear in four different lives, this would be a film with many small parts.
What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Two guardian angels work hard over four thousand years to get Lucy and David together for long enough to raise a baby.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Five years, very part-time.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
This is a hard one, as I have never read a book just like this, despite being a voracious reader. I have written the book I would like to read. There may be similarities to some of Jodi Picoult's less distressing books, and I also feel that readers who enjoy Joanna Trollope will find Despite the Angels satisfactory.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
My Dad, Dick Stringer, died far too young, over 20 years ago. When he knew he was dying he told me that one reason he was sad to leave the world was that "I haven't designed a cathedral, or written a novel." (He was a qualified but non-practising architect.) I decided I did not want to be able to say the same thing when my time came, and because i couldn't manage the cathedral, I wrote a book. So this book is dedicated to my dad, as well as to my husband George, who made me get on with it.
What else about your book might pique the readers' interest?
One of the themes in the book is that humans often fail to hear their guides, or angels, when they are offering advice. This led to the title, as humans take action despite the angels having told them not to.... I hope the reader will be led to think about his or her inner wisdom or intuition, and how they might pay it more attention. Some of the parts with frustrated angels are amusing, and this book can be enjoyed by those who have no interest or belief in the existence of invisible spirits.
When and how will it be published?
At the moment Despite the Angels is at the final corrections stage. It should be online for Kindle around Easter 2013, and available online as a paperback shortly afterwards.It will also be available for other e-readers.
I hope Revisited Sins will follow within a year.
And so I pass the baton...
I have chosen to 'tag' three friends who are excellent writers. John Joyce and Kevin Flanagan have already written and published several books, and the only reason Colleen Connolly is still working on her first book is her youth, and her two very small children. She will produce many good works.
John Joyce
John is a marine biologist, and this interest shows up in many of his works.His first books were the Captain Cockle series for children, which featured one of John's other skills - cartooning. Then he wrote The Virtual Trilogy, starting with Virtually Maria. His most recent novel is Fire and Ice, which is about submarines and psychic abilities. His cartoon workbooks are proving very popular, as are his children's cartoon workshops.
Find John on www.byfocal.com/spindrift
Colleen Connolly
Colleen is a young Mum, who is working on the first of a planned trilogy of books for young adults set in a dystopian world in our near future.The first book will be called The Preacher's Boy. She also writes bitesized stories about vampires, and these can be found on her blog www.babyfacedpreacher.wordpress.com
Colleen is on Twitter@BabyFacedPreach
Kevin Flanagan
Kevin has had 10 books published, two of which topped the Irish Times best-seller list. His love of writing led him to set up his content creation agency in 2004: BeCreativeMediaGroup which creates magazines and features for some of the world's top publications including: The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Independant and USA Today.
Kevin has written self-help books Listen to your Angel (similar to Despite the Angels, but not fiction!) and Maximum Points - Minimum Panic as well as the first two parts of a Young Adult series called 'Age of Angels'. The angelic theme continues in his thriller The Angel of New York and his recent supernatural earthy romance Illicit Love.
Kevin has over 16,000 followers on Twitter @AgeOfAngels
He blogs at www.ageofangels.net
Carolann is just finishing her first novel, 'Carousel' and you can read more about it on her own blog, at www.carouselcreates.wordpress.comShe also runs the wonderful Carousel writing centre in the Dublin hills, where she provides courses and workshops for all ages, and one morning a week a 'writers' café', when Carolann provides peace and quiet, buns and coffee, and good conversation with fellow writers. Her website is at www.carousel-creates.com Thank you, Carolann,for all your support, and for having enough faith in my Next Big Thing to include me in this blog chain!
So, here goes:
What is the working title of your book?
"Despite the Angels" is the final title as the cover has been designed, and can be seen below. My second book, in the same genre, is probably "Revisited Sins".
Where did the idea come from for the book?
We are surprised and delighted if we meet people we know while out and about, and say 'it's a small world'. But many times we spend a whole day in town without meeting anyone. I began to daydream about how we all do get to meet, and who might be in charge of making sure we do. This led to imagining our guardian angels working their socks off to get us all to the right places at the right times!
What genre does the book fall under?
Romance, in its broadest sense. This is a story of love found and lost over 4,000 years and four incarnations; not a modern boy-meets-girl love triangle.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
The 'spirit guides', which is the correct term for 'guardian angels' are the main characters in the book. Trynor is Lucy's guide, and I would love Julie Walters in this role. Julian Clary would make a good Jotin, David's guide, as 'angels' have no gender, and he could do the part in a believably androgynous way. The mischievous Roki, Martin's guide, would be a lovely part for Will Smith.
It would be best for the story if all the human parts were played by relatively unknown actors, as there is no main 'star', and as the humans appear in four different lives, this would be a film with many small parts.
What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Two guardian angels work hard over four thousand years to get Lucy and David together for long enough to raise a baby.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Five years, very part-time.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
This is a hard one, as I have never read a book just like this, despite being a voracious reader. I have written the book I would like to read. There may be similarities to some of Jodi Picoult's less distressing books, and I also feel that readers who enjoy Joanna Trollope will find Despite the Angels satisfactory.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
My Dad, Dick Stringer, died far too young, over 20 years ago. When he knew he was dying he told me that one reason he was sad to leave the world was that "I haven't designed a cathedral, or written a novel." (He was a qualified but non-practising architect.) I decided I did not want to be able to say the same thing when my time came, and because i couldn't manage the cathedral, I wrote a book. So this book is dedicated to my dad, as well as to my husband George, who made me get on with it.
What else about your book might pique the readers' interest?
One of the themes in the book is that humans often fail to hear their guides, or angels, when they are offering advice. This led to the title, as humans take action despite the angels having told them not to.... I hope the reader will be led to think about his or her inner wisdom or intuition, and how they might pay it more attention. Some of the parts with frustrated angels are amusing, and this book can be enjoyed by those who have no interest or belief in the existence of invisible spirits.
When and how will it be published?
At the moment Despite the Angels is at the final corrections stage. It should be online for Kindle around Easter 2013, and available online as a paperback shortly afterwards.It will also be available for other e-readers.
I hope Revisited Sins will follow within a year.
And so I pass the baton...
I have chosen to 'tag' three friends who are excellent writers. John Joyce and Kevin Flanagan have already written and published several books, and the only reason Colleen Connolly is still working on her first book is her youth, and her two very small children. She will produce many good works.
John Joyce
John is a marine biologist, and this interest shows up in many of his works.His first books were the Captain Cockle series for children, which featured one of John's other skills - cartooning. Then he wrote The Virtual Trilogy, starting with Virtually Maria. His most recent novel is Fire and Ice, which is about submarines and psychic abilities. His cartoon workbooks are proving very popular, as are his children's cartoon workshops.
Find John on www.byfocal.com/spindrift
Colleen Connolly
Colleen is a young Mum, who is working on the first of a planned trilogy of books for young adults set in a dystopian world in our near future.The first book will be called The Preacher's Boy. She also writes bitesized stories about vampires, and these can be found on her blog www.babyfacedpreacher.wordpress.com
Colleen is on Twitter@BabyFacedPreach
Kevin Flanagan
Kevin has had 10 books published, two of which topped the Irish Times best-seller list. His love of writing led him to set up his content creation agency in 2004: BeCreativeMediaGroup which creates magazines and features for some of the world's top publications including: The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Independant and USA Today.
Kevin has written self-help books Listen to your Angel (similar to Despite the Angels, but not fiction!) and Maximum Points - Minimum Panic as well as the first two parts of a Young Adult series called 'Age of Angels'. The angelic theme continues in his thriller The Angel of New York and his recent supernatural earthy romance Illicit Love.
Kevin has over 16,000 followers on Twitter @AgeOfAngels
He blogs at www.ageofangels.net
Thursday, 20 September 2012
The Words We Use May Tell the Truth
Several years ago now, I attended a course about becoming aware of your own inner energies. The teacher, Ruth, is a healer and very psychic, and can see auras. Actually, during the course she taught us how to see an aura, and I was one of the lucky 50% who achieved it. But I digress.
Ruth explained that it is possible that in the past more people were aware of their own energies, at least subconsciously, and that this affected our language. Have you ever said "I was beside myself with rage"? Ruth said that an angry person's aura, or energy field, will often move to one side, so that they are literally 'beside themselves'. "She is above herself" is another one - a very haughty person may project their energies upwards, presumably to look down on the rest of us. "He is very down" - same thing, his energies have sagged.
My mother often uses the phrase "In my next life I'll be rich/a man/ like your Aunt Ray" or whatever is bugging her this time. But as far as I know she does not actively believe in reincarnation. And Mum is not the only person I have heard using this phrase, probably thinking they are joking. I say it myself, as I did this evening when I bit a profiterole and cream shot everywhere - "In my next life I'll be elegant", and the stranger I was chatting with laughed easily and we chatted on. But is it possible that we are telling more truth than we realise, and that at an unconscious level we are aware that we will get another go? I have a bit of a laugh at this idea in my second novel,'Revisited Sins', which I will put on the conveyor belt to publication once 'Despite the Angels' is out there.
Ruth explained that it is possible that in the past more people were aware of their own energies, at least subconsciously, and that this affected our language. Have you ever said "I was beside myself with rage"? Ruth said that an angry person's aura, or energy field, will often move to one side, so that they are literally 'beside themselves'. "She is above herself" is another one - a very haughty person may project their energies upwards, presumably to look down on the rest of us. "He is very down" - same thing, his energies have sagged.
My mother often uses the phrase "In my next life I'll be rich/a man/ like your Aunt Ray" or whatever is bugging her this time. But as far as I know she does not actively believe in reincarnation. And Mum is not the only person I have heard using this phrase, probably thinking they are joking. I say it myself, as I did this evening when I bit a profiterole and cream shot everywhere - "In my next life I'll be elegant", and the stranger I was chatting with laughed easily and we chatted on. But is it possible that we are telling more truth than we realise, and that at an unconscious level we are aware that we will get another go? I have a bit of a laugh at this idea in my second novel,'Revisited Sins', which I will put on the conveyor belt to publication once 'Despite the Angels' is out there.
Saturday, 12 May 2012
I gave my friend A my second novel to read a little while ago, and she dropped it back this evening. It is called 'Revisited Sins' and will get onto Amazon (and other places) once Despite the Angels is launched. She was very positive about the book, found herself turning the pages, and had one or two useful and constructive criticisms to make. Thanks to all friends who are prepared to help! A bit of re-writing can only make the book better.
On a drama note - I had no idea how difficult it is to make a rosette! (for my revolutionary costume)
On a drama note - I had no idea how difficult it is to make a rosette! (for my revolutionary costume)
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