Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Joel Bresler is the author of Letters to be Read in a Heavily British Accent, Sunderwynde Revisited, Sunderwynde Revisited Again and The Moskowitz Code. His latest humorous novel Bottomless Cups is scheduled for release February 27, 2020.

Indie Book Marketing 101’s first rule is: use social media to promote your books. Thus directed, indie authors excitedly create flashy websites, engaging Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, etcetera, and are then faced with the dilemma of how to ask their friends, family and anybody else who happens to land on one to buy their books.

For something that should be a pretty straightforward proposition, this can be embarrassingly awkward. The direct approach can come off as begging or, worse, like you’re trying to sell something. You are trying to sell something, but you’re desperate not to sound like it. So, rather than come out and ask folks to buy your books, you, as an indie author, post book announcements, updates and cute graphics, which get lots of “likes” but no “buys”.

Indie authors typically then seek the advice of other indie authors who, if they’ve hit on a system that works, are rarely in a hurry to give the most helpful stuff away; and end up pitching their books to a bunch of fellow authors who are all trying to do the exact same thing. Everyone exchanges words of support, none of which results in a single copy ever changing hands.

The world, they say, is full of unrewarded genius. The world of writing is no exception. There are many fantastic writers out there who, through either lack of resources, knowledge or both, find themselves either self-publishing or going through small, independent presses. This is no reflection on the quality of the books they produce. Some are nothing short of brilliant. They’re just harder to find than books published through larger, mainstream houses.

Continue reading at The Story Reading Ape

Posted in reblog | Tagged Amazon, authors, Informative, marketing for indie books, Writing Talent Showcase | 4 Comments

Snow ~ Anita Dawes #writephoto

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Sue Vincent

Snow

Light shining from a thousand different worlds

That our eyes cannot see while we stand

on hard snow frosted ground.

The heart says yes, they are there. One day soon,

lucky heather may give me a glimpse

Of the world hidden within the light

Continue reading at Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie

Posted in photo prompt, Photography, Poetry | 2 Comments

Living Lore: Meon Hill ~ Gary Stocker

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Sue Vincent

Continuing Gary Stocker’s Sunday series of posts on the folklore, ancient sites and legends of Britain. If you have similar stories to share from the area in which you live, please read the footnote and send them in.

Meon Hill, in south Warwickshire, was said to have been caused by the Devil himself. He was watching the construction of Evesham Abbey from Ilmington Hill. In a fit of annoyance, he kicked a huge clod of earth at it to bury it. However, St. Ecguuine saw it incoming, prayed and it fell to the ground and became Meon Hill.

There is a prehistoric camp on top which goes from Neolithic times up until the Iron Age. Tacitus mentions it. There are legends of buried treasure. In 1800 a lot of Celtic currency bars were excavated. There are two legends about ghostly huntsmen. One is of a huntsman who even hunted on the Sabbath. So one Sabbath when he and his entourage were out hunting, the hill opened up, swallowing the whole, godless lot. Although their ghosts are still said to haunt there at midnight on Sundays (this probably had the same root as the Wild Hunt legend).

There is also a legend about a spectral black dog seen going down the hill. Meon Hill gained national notoriety in 1945 on St Valentine’s Day, when an agricultural labourer (Charles Walton) was found murdered there. It seemed to have all the hallmarks of a ritual killing. Charles Walton’s alleged brushes with the supernatural at different times seemed to confirm this. Fabian of the Yard, based at Scotland Yard even got involved. Although he had his suspicions, no one was ever arrested. When he was going up there once a black dog went running past him. A few minutes later a boy approached him. He asked the boy if he had lost his dog. When the boy asked if it was a black dog and Fabian responded yes, the boy ran off terrified. On the BBC TV series Nationwide back in the mid-1970’s, they did a programme about it, the murder in particular. They went to the local pub in nearby Lower Quinton and no one would speak to them. In fact, most finished their drinks and went.

I was in nearby Newbold-on-Stour Sea Scouts in the late 1970’s & early 1980’s. We used to borrow a Ford Transit van from Lower Quinton Community Group. As most kids of that age do, we all used to tell each other friend-of-a-friend stories about Meon Hill (probably all untrue or at best, grossly exaggerated!). A less sinister piece about it is some weather lore: “If Meon Hill be all mist and smoke, Men of Crimscot(e) look for a stroke.” Whatever a stroke is! There is a public footpath which goes around the hill, about halfway up. There is no public access to the summit, however, there is nothing to say that you cannot go up there either! The walks are quite well marked on the Ordnance Survey map and there are various walks encompassing it on the internet.

About the author

Gary Stocker graduated from Coventry Polytechnic in 1991 with a degree in combined engineering. He worked in civil engineering for nearly twenty years. For the last six years he has worked in materials science and currently works as a test engineer. His hobbies and interests include voluntary work, conservation work and blacksmithing. He is also interested in history, mythology and folklore and he says, “most things”.

How did your granny predict the weather? What did your great uncle Albert tell you about the little green men he saw in the woods that night? What strange creature stalks the woods in your area?

So many of these old stories are slipping away for want of being recorded. legendary creatures, odd bits of folklore, folk remedies and charms, and all the old stories that brought our landscape to life…

Tell me a story, share memories of the old ways that are being forgotten, share the folklore of your home. I am not looking for fiction with this feature, but for genuine bits of folklore, old wives tales, folk magic and local legends. Why not share what you know and preserve it for the future?

Email me at findme@scvincent.com and put ‘Living Lore’ in the subject line. All I need is your article, bio and links, along with any of your own images you would like me to include and I’ll do the rest.

Posted in Photography | Tagged black dog, folklore, legends, Meon Hill, murder, superstition, warwickshire | Leave a comment

Keys to Heaven: Sobriety… Stuart France

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Sue Vincent

Image result for odin's cross

With our third term, ‘sobriety’, we start to rise…

By accepting the control we attempted to impose on the

world in our ‘planning’ and singularly failed to exert upon ourself in ‘gluttony’.

Roads of excess can lead to places of wisdom insists the Blake-Man,

and in our countless excesses may we hope that this is so…

Continue reading at The Silent Eye

Posted in The Silent Eye | Tagged consciousness, landscape, perception, psychology, spirituality, weekend workshop | Leave a comment

Ani’s Advent 2019! Simple things… and a letter from Anita and Jaye

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Sue Vincent

Hey Santa!

Well, the countdown is on now and I still have loads of Christmas letters to share! It is lovely how many friends have got in touch, both four-legses and two, to stop me having to wear those horrid antlers this year!

And it doesn’t take much… just a Christmas wish, a letter…anything to say that friends are thinking of me.

Considering I was never really what you’d call a cat lover…or at least, not in the way most two-legses would approve of, it is surprising how many cats have gathered round too. And that has taught me something. It isn’t how many legs or whether you bury bones or climb trees that matters. And it’s not how big or small you are… just how big your heart is.

I had a letter the other year from a cat called Merlin who looks after Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie. He’s the same colour as me and likes tennis balls… he’s not bad for a cat 😉 And he’d probably have liked my special tree too.

This year, I had a lovely letter from his two-legses…you can see where he gets his big heart from.

Pop an extra tennis ball in your sleigh for Merlin, please? He can have one of mine if you like.

Much love, Ani xxx

Dear Ani

We would love to wish you and your family
a very Merry Christmas, and the best New Year ever!
2020 sounds as if it will be very special, don’t you agree?

I hope Santa doesn’t forget to fill your stocking with all your favourite treats,
enough to last the year, but no peeking before Christmas Day!

Happy dreaming, Ani, and big Christmas hugs

From Anita, Jaye and Merlin…

About Jaye

Jaye Marie is affectionately known as the giant redwood, probably because she is very tall, but also because of her love for trees. Most afternoons she can be found repotting or taking care of her bonsai collection, but her love of detective mysteries soon brings her back indoors. She has written three fiction novels in this genre, Nine Lives, Out of Time and Crossfire and is looking forward to publishing Silent Payback, her fourth book.

She spends any free time learning everything she can about self-publishing, and despite all the obstacles, she never gives up on anything and is as stubborn as a mule. She also shares a website with Anita Dawes…

Find and Follow Jaye

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Pinterest Instagram Medium

Find all Jaye’s books on her Amazon Author Page

About Anita

Hi, my name is Anita and although I am 71, I am by no means a ‘silver surfer’. I have been writing fiction novels for a while now, but never managed to be picked up by any of the mainstream publishers. They all said they loved what I wrote, but found it hard to slot them into a category! It came tantalisingly close, but no cigar, as they say.

I realised I would have to try something else. I saved all of the rejection letters, because most of them had very encouraging comments. If my mother had slapped me as gently when I was a child, it wouldn’t have hurt half as much!

I even wrote to James Herbert once in desperation and he was so kind and supportive, it gave me the inspiration to continue writing.

Now I am retired and with the help of my sister-in-law Jaye, (who has learnt to be a ‘surfer’) we decided to dust off some of my manuscripts and try to achieve the impossible with a second chance to find out if anyone out there likes the kind of books I write…

How do I write?

I am a paper and pencil girl. You could chain me to a computer for years and nothing would happen! Jaye, on the other hand is managing to cope with all the editing and marketing, but then she has far more patience than I do. (And she is as stubborn as a mule which helps a lot!)

They say you are never too old to learn, but in my case never is another word for infinity!

What made me want to write?

I love music, especially country music. It always seems to take me to where my own hurt lives. Songs about heartache help my pen run along the paper, almost as though the pain writes the words.

How do I find my characters?

They tend to find me. I was listening to ‘Ruby, don’t take your love to town’ sung by Kenny Rogers and a few days later the characters for Bad Moon popped into my head and just took over. I seem to have an affinity with West Virginia and the people who live there. Just hearing the way they talk makes a connection in my head, maybe I lived there once in another life.

It was the same with The Scarlet Ribbon. The words of that song put the characters in my head and they pulled me in.

Not so sure where the idea for Simple came from, even though it is a similar story to Bad Moon, but there was a girl at school when I was eleven who had a bad stammer, and I often wonder what became of her.

The books I like to read…

I love the stories of Merlin and Arthur, but my reading list covers a wide range of genres. One of my all-time favourites is ‘River God’ by Wilbur Smith, the character of Taita really spoke to me.

Find and follow Anita

Website Twitter Facebook Goodreads

Anita’s Author Page/Amazon Link

Click to go to Anita’s Amazon page for all her books

Posted in Ani's Advent 2019 | Tagged caring, Christmas, friendship, love, thinking of you | 33 Comments

Backdrop ~ Na’ama Yehuda #writephoto

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Sue Vincent

They were cold to the bone, but it did not matter once the light broke out to illuminate the edge of clouds.

“We’ll be home soon,” he breathed into her neck.

“I know,” she whispered, her teeth no longer chattering. She’d stopped feeling her toes so long ago she almost forgot she had ones.

It would have worried her, in the past. The risk of frostbite. Amputation. Loss of the ability to walk.

Not anymore.

Continue reading at Na’ama Yehuda

Posted in photo prompt, Photography | Tagged creative writing, fantasy, Final moments, flash fiction, freezing, going home, leaving, micro fiction, relationships, science Fiction, writephoto | 2 Comments

Whitby Weekend: Inside the church at Lythe…

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Sue Vincent

Stuart and I had been to Lythe before, some years ago, early in our travels, sent to the little church by a friend. The church is dedicated to St Oswald, a figure we have come upon again and again in recent years. Born around 604, he was king of Northumbria from 634, a reign of a mere eight years… or nine, according to some chroniclers of the time, who assign the one year reign of the previous incumbent to Oswald because he was not a Christian king, whereas Oswald was accounted a saint, even during his lifetime.

It was his kindliness and concern for the poor, as well as his devotion to his faith and his association with St Aidan that had earned him such veneration. Curiously, Steve had begun his Northumbrian workshop at Oswald’s stronghold at Bamburgh, where Stuart and I had also visited the shrine of St Aidan in the church beside the castle. Later, we had all gone on to Lindisfarne, the Holy Island Oswald had given to Aidan who had come to Northumbria to bring his faith to the land. And after Steve’s last workshop in Scotland, Stuart and I had been sidetracked by the wonderful holy well dedicated to the saint in Kirkoswald.

There is something about this saint and his story that keeps drawing us back. Perhaps it has to do with the raven who stole the dead king’s severed arm and dropped it, causing a healing well to spring up from the ground. Perhaps it has to do with the unified land he ruled and served… or the notion of holiness and rulership combined, as in the priest-kings of old. Doubtless, an explanation with come in good time.

For now, though, it was enough to be back in the peaceful little church on the cliffs, with time to spare to explore the building and its treasures. The church itself is a simple one… you get the impression of a ‘no-nonsense’ place, very much in keeping with the character of the local folk. But there is beauty in the solid forms of the structure and in the delicate stained glass of the windows. There has been a place of Christian worship on the site for at least eleven hundred years, and who knows how much longer? He current church is Norman, but so much altered and remodelled in Victorian times that little remains to tell of its age except the ‘feel’ of the place… that quiet but unmistakable aura of sanctity that infuses the very stones of these ancient places of prayer.

Continue reading at The Silent Eye