Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Alethea Kehas interviews Annika Perry on “A Better World of Books” #authorinterview

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from The Light Behind the Story:

Annika Perry is an award-winning author, blogger and book reviewer. She has two books in print and is working on a third. I asked Annika to be a guest for “A Better World of Books” after I learned about the release of her children’s book, Oskar’s Quest. Bette Stevens, a reviewer of the book, had this to say about it, “In this beautifully illustrated children’s book, author Annika Perry captures the importance of caring for others, overcoming fears and making new friends.”

Annika, thank you for being a guest for “A Better World of Books.” Can you tell our readers how you came up with the idea for Oskar’s Quest?

Alethea, I am delighted to be here and thank you so much for inviting me on to your blog. I’m loving your insightful questions and I have enjoyed reflecting over my books, writing and characters.

Initially, Oskar’s Quest was a story I told my son at bedtime many years ago. The story developed over several nights and it became one of his (and my) favourites. For a couple of years, I would tell him the story, embellishing certain elements, removing others.

Continue reading at The Light Behind the Story

Posted in reblog | Tagged A Better World of Books, Annika Perry, author interview, Author Interviews, blog, children's author, childrens book, Empowering books for children, empowering kids through books, indie author reviews, Indie author support, Island Girl, Oskar's Quest, talking animals in books, The Storyteller Speaks, The Whiteout Years | 6 Comments

Daybreak ~ Iain Kelly #writephoto

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Sue Vincent

The sun rose.

The world went on.

As if nothing had happened.

As if everything was as it should have been.

Continue reading at Iain Kelly

Posted in photo prompt, Photography | Tagged #writephoto, creative writing, fiction, short story | Leave a comment

Guest Author: Robbie Cheadle ~ Old Man of the Sea

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Background

In Greek Mythology, the Old Man of the Sea is the term used for several water-gods, purported to have existed since the beginning of time. The water-gods most often referred to in terms of this expression are Nereus, the eldest son of Gaia and her son, Pontus, and Proteus, a prophetic water-god whom was referred to as “Old Man of the Sea” by Homer. Triton, a Greek god of the sea and the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite; Pontus, an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god and the fatherless son of Gaia; Phorcys or Phorcus, a primedial sea god and the son of Pontus and Gaia, and Glaucus, a Greek prophetic sea-god born mortal and turned immortal as a result of eating a magical herb, are also referred to using this expression.

The Old Man of the Sea is the father of Thetis, a figure from Greek mythology who appears mainly as a sea nymph, a goddess of water or one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god, Nereus.

Sinbad the Sailor

I learned about the Old Man of the Sea as a child when reading the book, The seven voyages of Sinbad the sailor. This book describes the seven voyages undertaken by a fictional mariner called Sinbad throughout the seas east of Africa and the south of Asia. During his voyages, Sinbad encounters magical lands, mythical creatures and sees many supernatural phenomena. The stories of Sinbad are Middle Eastern in origin.

Sinbad encounters the Old Man of the Sea in his fifth voyage when he is shipwrecked on an island inhabited by this evil old man. The Old Man of the Sea climbs onto Sinbad’s shoulders and twists his legs around his neck, riding him like a horse, day and night until Sinbad is ready to fall down dead.

Sinbad manages to make wine and trick the wicked creature into drinking some. He falls asleep and Sinbad kills him. He then manages to escape the island.

You can read my review of Quentin Blakes The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3156589899?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

This story and me

All the stories of Sinbad had a big impact on me as a child. I vividly remember the horror of the flesh-eating Cyclops with its one burning eye and the anxiety of Sinbad’s escaping the cannibals and the giant Roc with a sack full of diamonds.

Somehow, of all these frightening creatures and tales, the story of the Old Man of the Sea was the one that burned itself into my memory. When I read a story last year, about an old grandmother who had enslaved her granddaughter, making her work for her and do all the cooking and housework, the two stories linked together in my mind and the idea for my story, The Last of the Lavender, included in Whispers of the Past, edited by Kaye Lynne Booth, was born.

In this story, June is orphaned and goes to live with her overbearing and selfish grandmother. June is a shy and retiring personality and is completely browbeaten by her grandmother who forces her to do all the housework, achieve high marks at school and eventually, selects her high school subjects and chooses her career for her.

Due to her grandmother’s dominance, June cannot break free of her and gain her independence but is compelled to remain in her miserable servitude until her grandmother eventually dies at the ripe old age of ninety-six years old.

Now that grandmother is dead and has will her house and other worldly possessions to June, can she finally break free and lead the life she wants to? You’ll have to read the story to find out.

Whispers of the Past edited by Kaye Lynne Booth

Blurb

A paranormal anthology with nine stories from six authors, including the winning story in the 2019 WordCrafter Paranormal Short Fiction Contest, A Peaceful Life I’ve Never Known, by Jeff Bowles.

Contributing authors

Kaye Lynne Booth, Roberta Eaton Cheadle – 2 stories,

Julie Goodwen, Laurel McHargue – 2 stories,

Stevie Turner, Jeff Bowles.

About the author

Robbie, short for Roberta, is an author with five published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with her son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about her mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with her mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton).

All of Robbie’s children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications. Robbie has recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differentiate her children’s books from her adult writing, these will be published under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. Robbie has two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.

Find and follow Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Roberta Writes Blog Amazon Author Page Twitter Facebook

Books by Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Through the Nethergate

Roberta Eaton Cheadle

Lulu.com TSL Publications

Margaret, a girl born with second sight, has the unique ability to bring ghosts trapped between Heaven and Hell back to life. When her parents die suddenly, she goes to live with her beloved grandfather, but the cellar of her grandfather’s ancient inn is haunted by an evil spirit of its own. In the town of Bungay, a black dog wanders the streets, enslaving the ghosts of those who have died unnatural deaths. When Margaret arrives, these phantoms congregate at the inn, hoping she can free them from the clutches of Hugh Bigod, the 12th century ghost who has drawn them away from Heaven’s White Light in his canine guise. With the help of her grandfather and the spirits she has befriended, Margaret sets out to defeat Hugh Bigod, only to discover he wants to use her for his own ends – to take over Hell itself.

While the Bombs Fell

TS L Publications Lulu

What was it like for children growing up in rural Suffolk during World War 2?

Elsie and her family live in a small double-storey cottage in Bungay, Suffolk. Every night she lies awake listening anxiously for the sound of the German bomber planes. Often they come and the air raid siren sounds signalling that the family must leave their beds and venture out to the air raid shelter in the garden.

Despite the war raging across the English channel, daily life continues with its highlights, such as Christmas and the traditional Boxing Day fox hunt, and its wary moments when Elsie learns the stories of Jack Frost and the ghostly and terrifying Black Shuck that haunts the coastline and countryside of East Anglia.

Includes some authentic World War 2 recipes.

Robbie also writes as Robbie Cheadle

Robbie’s Inspiration Blog Goodreads Facebook YouTube

Amazon author page Twitter: @bakeandwrite

Books by Robbie and Michael Cheadle

The Sir Chocolate books are a delightful marriage of story, verse and cookery

… a perfect recipe for sharing with children. Silly Willy goes to Cape Town tells the adventures of two very different brothers…and includes five party cake ideas.

You can purchase the Sir Chocolate books from:

Amazon Lulu.com TSL Books

or you can buy them in South Africa directly from the authors by emailing Robbie Cheadle at sirchoc@outlook.com.

Tell me a story…

If you are a writer, artist or photographer…If you have a poem, story or memoirs to share… If you have a book to promote, a character to introduce, an exhibition or event to publicise… If you have advice for writers, artists or bloggers…

If you would like to be my guest, please read the guidelines and get in touch!

Posted in Guest post | Tagged anthology, author, new book, Quentin Blake, Sinbad | 27 Comments

Daybreak ~ Alethea Kehas #writephoto

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Peace arrives upon the horizon of stillness

and the slow letting go fades into the night

We are creatures of the moon and the sun

howling through the winds and the rain

lashing at fears often unfound

Continue reading at The Light Behind the Story

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | Tagged blog, esoteric poetry, inspirational poetry, love poetry, metaphysical poetry, spiritual poetry, surrender, writephoto | 3 Comments

Hill-of-the-Buried-Sun…

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Sue Vincent

…It was, after all, rather disconcerting to be thus accosted by a total stranger…

“Does this count?” he demanded, ferociously,

and pushed an admittedly intriguing photograph across the bar at us.

“Does that count as what?”

“One of them ‘Black’ places”

“Well, it might do, what is it?”

Continue reading at The Silent Eye

Posted in Ancient sites, Landscape, weekend workshop | Tagged being, consciousness, magic, mystery, perception, psychology, Silent Eye Teachings, spirituality | 1 Comment

Ugly ducklings?

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Sue Vincent

The past few days have been all about fish. The near-constant rain had delayed operations in my son’s garden and the waterfalls were slowing up enough to make cleaning the pond pumps and filter a matter of some urgency. So, thinking about a nice, warm coffee instead of rain, mud and leeches, I got out the hosepipe and did the necessary. After we had lost so many fish to the heat in summer, when one of the pumps had been turned off for the builders, we are a bit overprotective, perhaps, but these creatures are in our care and as such we are bound to do our best for them.

I lost several fish last year too, to age, illness and a disastrous equipment failure. I was reluctant to replace them until I knew the tank was healthy again, but every so often, I would look at fish and mentally repopulate the tank.

So, it was no surprise that my son and I finally had our coffee in front of a screen full of fish. We both fell in love with the brilliant metallic sheen of the laser corydoras. Then there were the pearlescent and opaline tinted tetras, the vivid little neons… the vibrant kribensis… all of which are as expensive as the painted jewels they resemble.

The fish in my tank are not so showy. I am not a fish collector… my acquisition of the tank was ‘accidental’. It was left behind, along with its few occupants, when my younger son moved and the fish that called it home dictated what other fish I could add at first. Unexpected hitchhiking fish and shrimp, brought home with plants, dictated the rest as I built up small groups for those that are happiest as part of a shoal.

Yet, although my fish may not be considered the gems of the aquatic world, they are each beautiful in their own right. The bristlenose pleco, for example, is often called ugly, yet its ‘sail’ and fins are a delicate white lace.

They have personalities all their own too. Some traits, like the constant posturing of the little black phantoms, are inherent in the breed, others belong to the individual and the more you watch them, the easier it becomes to discern their characters.

From screen to aquatic store was the inevitable next move, with my son determined to help repopulate my tank. We looked at all the fancy fish…and I came home with a small group of tiny corydoras. Not the metallic and jewelled lasers…just simple peppered corys that won’t overshadow the other fish.

Within a couple of hours, the little fish had responded to their new environment and, far from being ‘just’ simple fish, had begun to reveal their true colours. In the display tanks at the store, crammed in a sterile and overpopulated area far too small for comfort, the little fish had looked fairly bland. Once given the freedom of space, the shelter of rocks, plants to explore and hide in and a more naturally filtered lighting, they blossomed, showing vivid and iridescent blues and greens with every movement.

I watched them exploring their new home… one diving nose-first into the sand, over and over again, playing with obvious joy in an environment far closer to its natural home than any it had known before. These fish are tank-bred, not wild-caught; they have never seen plants, driftwood, sand and roots and have had to compete with shoals of other fish for the food to survive. Yet something within them recognised an echo of their true home in their new home and responded with joy and exuberance, revealing their true beauty.

And I wondered yet again at how much I realise about the human condition from watching fish. The lifestyle lived by most people in developed countries has taken us so far away from our natural environment. We live in comfortable boxes where our basic needs are provided for… yet there is little in our material lives to feed the soul. Most of us are burdened by worries and/or are obliged to compete for position within the workplace…and it may not be the ‘best’ of us that grabs the most… just the fastest, strongest or perhaps the most ruthless… like fish scrabbling for enough food to survive.

I know that when I go out on the moors, I am free… and home. It is not just a break from worry, constant calls and emails, or even the change of scenery. Something within me responds to the life in the land, releasing the bonds of a humdrum existence. I feel light of heart and fleet of foot, laughter bubbles over and sometimes tears fall in joy as I recognise ‘home’, both within and beyond.

Like my plain, peppered fish, I wonder what we could be if our lives were not so bound by convention and necessity that we could feel that joy more often… and whether, like them, we might reveal a hidden beauty.