From the Poetic to the Factual: Two Book Reviews ~ Annika Perry

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Children’s author Annika Perry reviews books by Bette A. Stevens and Mary Smith:

After a lifetime of New Year’s resolutions … and often failing to keep them, these last years I’ve steered away from making any.

However, one aspect of blogging weighs heavily upon me, my failure to review as many books as I would like, particularly indie-published ones. If my TBR pile was a real heap of books they would fill a room, I fear; luckily many are kept safe on my Kindle, hidden from immediate sight but never forgotten. I’m determined to share these books with you on my blog, a couple every month and I am happy to start with the two below.

Continue reading at Annika Perry’s Writing Blog

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Voices in the Mist (1) ~ Steve Tanham

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent
We had never been to the First World War monuments and graves in northern France. As a young man, I considered them part of a national mindset that glorified war. But, over the decades, that view was moderated and I realised that such places are the result of something much deeper in the national psyche. And not just national. Like a vast whirlpool, WW1 drew in polarising forces from across the world as the British Commonwealth and its allies faced the might of the armies of Wilhelm, the last Kaiser and Emperor of Prussia. The opening picture is from the deeply moving Canadian monument at Vimy Ridge – to which the second post in this series will be dedicated. But the first part of our journey was the road up the hill from the small town of Amblain St. Nazaire to the French monument of Notre Dame de Lorette. As we climbed the hill the mist thickened. It was fitting weather to come face to face with a part of France that has been the focus of such intense emotion and international remembrance.

Continue reading at The Silent Eye

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Thursday Photo Prompt- Day Break #WritePhoto

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent

First in this week…

Sadje/ Sadie's avatarKeep it alive

Sue Vincentis the host of Thursday Photo Prompt

Welcome to this week’s writephoto prompt.#writephoto

This week’s prompt ~ Daybreak

(For visually challenged writers, theimage shows a morning sky aflame above dark landscape, whose horizon is marked only by trees…)

~*~

The sky is ablaze with breaking dawn

I get up early to catch this daily miracle

It sets the tone for the rest of my day

A scene so full of hope, light, and optimism

Can only lead to good things happening

And the days I don’t see the sun breaking out of the east

I recall these amazing images to give

My positivity a boost, my mind a reminder

That though Icannot see the light today

The sun is still behind those grey clouds

~*~

#Keepitalive

#WritePhoto

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Thursday photo prompt: Daybreak #writephoto

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Welcome to this week’s writephoto prompt.#writephoto

You can find all last week’s entries in the weekly round-up, which was published earlier today.

Throughout the week, I will feature as many of the responses here on the Daily Echo as time and space allows, usually in the order in which they are submitted. Please be aware that I tend to schedule reblogs in advance and these spaces fill quickly so an early submission is more likely to be reblogged.

All posts will be featured in the weekly round-up on Thursday, 6th February at 10am GMT, linking back to the original posts of contributors.

Use the image below as inspiration to create a post on your own blog… poetry, prose, humour… light or dark, whatever you choose, as long as it is fairly family-friendly.

Submit your link by noon (GMT)  Wednesday 5th February.

Link back to this post with a pingback (Hugh has an excellent tutorial here)  and/or leave a link in the comments below, to be included in the round-up.

Use the #writephoto hashtag in your title so your posts can be found.

There is no word limit and no style requirements, except that your post must take inspiration from the image and/or the prompt word in the title of the post.

Feel free to use #writephoto logo or include the prompt photo in your post if you wish, or you may replace it with one of your own to illustrate your work.

By participating in the #writephoto challenge, please be aware that your post may be featured as a reblog on this blog and I will link to your post for the round-up each week.

Regular contributors are also welcome to come over as my guest and introduce themselves (click here for details).

Please note: As I do not share my political opinions on this blog, please do not use the challenge as a platform from which to share yours. Party political or racially offensive posts will not be reblogged.

This week’s prompt ~ Daybreak

 

For visually challenged writers, the image shows a morning sky aflame above dark landscape, whose horizon is marked only by trees…

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Photo prompt round-up: Entrance #writephoto

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent

*

Bewitched and entranced

Accept the journey within

Embracing shadow

Light and darkness meet and meld

One step beyond the threshold

*

The photo for this week’s prompt was taken in the hills above Castleton in Derbyshire, at Odin’s Mine. Named for the Norse god, the lead mine was first worked it is thought, during the Roman Occupation. Fortunes were made and lost here in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

We came across the old mine workings by accident, at a time when Odin had made an unexpected, yet central appearance in our book, Doomsday: The Ætheling Thing. Today, there is just a cave, the sheep… and a strange, amorphous occupant, caught on camera…

Thank you to everyone who took part, visited or reblogged the posts or left comments for their authors.

A new prompt will be published later today. As always, I will reblog as many contributions as space and time allows as they come in… and all of them will be featured in the round-up next Thursday.

All the posts are listed below, so please click on the links below to read them and leave a comment for the author!

Pingbacks do not always come through… if you have written a post for this challenge and it does not appear in the round-up, please leave a link to your post in the comments and I will add it to the list.

An invitation to writephoto writers…

As there are usually too many contributions to reblog all of them every week, and so that we can get to know their writers, I would like to invite all writephoto writers to come and introduce themselves on the blog as my guest! Click here for details.

Come and join in!

Thank you to all Contributors!

Please click the links to read and comment on the author’s site.

Kittysverses

Roberta Eaton at Roberta Writes

M. K. Lee at Telling Tales

Hayley R. Hardman at The Story Files

Geoff Le Pard at TanGental

The Indishe

Artie & Stu

Deborah at A Wise Woman’s Journey

Honoré Dupuis at Of Glass and Paper

Neel Anil Panicker

Reena Saxena

Dorinda Duclos at Night Owl Poetry

Brian F Kirkham at The Inkwell

Vandana Bhasin at My Feelings My Freedom

Jane Dougherty Writes

Anita from Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie

Daisybala at freshdaisiesdotme

Ritu Bhathal at But I Smile Anyway

Na’ama Yehuda

Cheryl at The Bag Lady

Annette Rochelle Aben

Kathy Lauren Miller at A View to a Book

Willow Willers at willowdot21

Goff James at Art, Photography and Poetry

Observations of The Urban Spaceman

Trent P. McDonald at Trent’s World

Alethea Kehas at The Light Behind the Story

Di at pensitivity101

Iain Kelly

Sadje at Keep it Alive

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Lifecycle

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent


Within each seed a birth
From every birth a passing
Light born from shadows
In self-sustained perfection
A frugal Mother’s design

*

For Colleen’s poetry challenge
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Entrance ~ Hayley R. Hardman #writephoto

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent

The return journey home was a long one but finally after all these years they had been gained back the country of their great-grandfathers. The land was war torn and reclaimed by nature but they didn’t care about that. They could start again and live as their ancestors had once done.

Stopping to make camp as they did every night, the hundreds of people who had banded together to travel in safety, began the normal bustle and rushing to get things done. Horses, ponies, dogs and other animals needed to be sheltered, feed and watered. Watches for bandits and monster attacks need to be arrange. Lanterns lit, fires to be started, food prepared and cooked. Then finally, shelters and beds to be made.

Continue reading at The Story Files

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Gold #midnighthaiku

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Lost in the darkness

Floundering and seeking light

Friendship parts the clouds

*

 

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Afghan adventures #19 ~ Mary Smith #Health #Leprosy

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Reblogged from MarySmith’sPlace:

Malestan clinic – this was taken the previous year

Malestan clinic – this was taken the previous year

Mubarak’s clinic was a shambles. The premises, rented from a local farmer, consisted of several dreary rooms round a central courtyard. I suspected if just one of the posters Mubarak had stuck on the walls to brighten the place up was removed, not only the plaster, but the whole wall would crumble.

IMG_0022 (Custom)

Mubarak in his consulting room

Peeping through a doorway into the medicine store, my heart sank. Medicines were heaped on narrow shelves in total disarray. The floor was almost entirely covered by cardboard boxes, some of which had been torn open allowing plastic drip bottles and crepe bandages to spill onto the dusty floor.

Continue reading at MarySmith’sPlace

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Career Options ~ Geoff Le Pard #writephoto

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Sue Vincent

Cynthia Der Ella pulled off her rubber gloves and took a step back. Running a cleaning company in any magical realm was a challenge but in Fairyland… well, no one had yet written the book, had they? From composting bean husks, to sweeping up gingerbread debris through clearing up after rufus-related wind damage and oat-caked orsines, the stories may differ but the consequent messes were a constant.

Continue reading at  TanGental

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