Electric Press November 2019

“I say to you youngsters, you must most seriously learn of & remember with respect the sufferings and sacrifices of your fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers, in times you cannot ever imagine today with all you have.

The only reason you are free to have all you do is because of them.�

ISSUE 3 EDITION1 NOVEMBER 2019

6, It all started with a bloke called Confucius, an Article on Chinese literature.

14, Falling Free from Paul J Dane’s blog.

22, Confessions from the Wife… Jackie Siefert-Pappas.

28, Things didn’t go as I expected a short story by Patrick M Shanahan.

32, About The 44th Annual Reading for the Love of It conference, Toronto, Canada.

40, Back issues of Electric Press.

42, Our Cover Story.

48, Naked thoughts in New York City as short story by Paul White.

52, An article by Jane Risdon, Research can be fun.

58, About book reviewing, article.

60, Seattle, USA—where bookworms should eat.

68, Coping with Bereavement, an article from Karen J Mossman.

72, Book review, You don’t have to be a Champion to be a Winner.

74, Author interview with Ally Vance by Fiona McVie. 78, Elizabeth Crocket on Japanese photo-haiga.

80, News, Eight books becoming movies in 2020.

85, Kotodama, Shinto and the Messages of Water 88, Karl Lagerfeld had more books than You, a bookaholic article.

92, The LIST 2020. Cover & link.

Neptune and the Pollywogs is an in-depth study of the most traditional of seafaring initiation ceremonies, Crossing of the Line, which is performed when one of Her Majesty’s Ships crosses the equator.

Neptune and the Pollywogs examines the rites historical roots, follows its chronological evolution, formalities and observances, the parts and origin of the characters used in the ceremonies historic and modernday practice.

Published in conjunction with the Royal Navy Research Archives.

This book appeals to seafarers, historians, militarists and the curious alike making it the perfect, unexpected and most welcome of gifts.

A m a z o n : h t t p s : / /a m z n .t o / 2 p B V 0 b f

I am almost certain time becomes faster the older one gets.

You see, it seems only moments ago I welcomed the 2019 New Year in with a hot rum toddy and an out of tune rendition of Auld Lang Sine.

Now, here we are with the November edition of Electric Press, full of wonderful books that make

the perfect gifts and stocking fillers for our loved ones, family and friends at Christmas, which is only a few weeks away.

Now is the time to start buying to ensure delivery without needing to incur express delivery charges. Early ordering also gives you time to sort out any issues, like the wrong product or damaged items, well before the Christmas 'rush' begins.

I particularly love giving books as gifts as they are easily wrapped and even the 'peakiest' people, who may 'feel and shake' every present under the tree, cannot tell which book it might be, at

least not until they get to unwrap it on Christmas day.

Another great thing about books is, they make excellent gifts for sending in the post or even abroad. Amazon, along with many other online bookstores, will deliver direct to your chosen 'recipient' if you wish.

If you prefer to gift wrap, add a card or letter, and post those book personally, it is not expensive.

By their very nature books, paperbacks and hardcovers alike, are resilient to the, let's say, overexuberance of the postal worker or shipping agents handling staff. ( I think I put that nicely!)

This edition of Electric Press contains some wonderful articles, insights, reviews and interviews.

Many of this quarter's features have been written and submitted by our avid readers, thank you.

All goes to making Electric Press a most engaging and entertaining read; one that deserves to be read word by word, cover to cover.

For me, I would like 2020 not to fly past quite so quickly as 2019 has done. In next Novembers Electric Press, I would like to be writing about what a wonderfully slow and long year it has

been‌ Here is hoping.

Keep Happy,

Paul.

Editor, Electric Press magazine.

Well, sort of...

Chinese literature ,

beginning with the

thoughts of Confucius in the 5th century BC, are challenging, complex and inspiring. Which. I

suppose is to be expected after 25 centuries of creative maturation.

between Confucius and his disciples. Believed to have been written during China's Warring States period (475 BC–221 BC), and then finalized during the mid-Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), it is a collection of sayings and ideas that have a foremost position in the history and study of

China has a long and venerable tradition with the

philosophy across the world.

written word. While it is true vernacular literature did not fully take shape as an art form until the 14th-century Yuan dynasty, the history of literature in the Middle Kingdom goes back to far

earlier times and sophisticated poetry was in evidence by the early Tang period (7th century AD).

Confucius is one of our very best thinkers, a model for living a self-aware and virtuous life. "The Complete Confucius: The Analects, The Doctrine Of The Mean, and The Great Learning," brings together the most important Confucian texts with an introduction by Nicholas Tamblyn, and is part of The Essential Series by Golding Books.

Perhaps the most famous of these ancient works are the thoughts of Confucius (551–479 BC), collected by his disciples into his famous Lunyu (Analects), a work that underpins the Confucian moral code; a long-lasting pillar of Chinese society.

Confucius lived from 551–479 BC. The principles he espoused largely reflected the values and traditions in China at the time. Rather than create a formal theory, Confucius desired that his disciples' study, learning and mastering the classic older texts, and affirmed that the superior person seeks and loves learning for the sake of learning, and righteousness for the sake of righteousness.

A NOTE ON THE ANALECTS. The Analects are a compilation of speeches by and conversations

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Poetry

The earliest existing collection of poems is the Shijing (a book of odes). It is said that more than 3,000 songs were collected, of which Confucius selected 300, cutting out the saucier entries; he then compiled them in the Shijing. The contents of the odes are wideranging: love songs, songs about the land and songs glorifying outstanding personalities or personal qualities.

The writings of Confucius have profoundly

influenced Chinese culture. Confucianism is more a moral code for society than a religious philosophy, though Confucius is sometimes worshipped as a deity.

Poems in the lyrical or epic style play an extremely important part in Chinese literature.

To be able to read and write poetry was part of the elementary education of the higher social classes. Students and civil servants of any rank or age were expected to be able to write a poem for any occasion. Girls and women who knew how to recite poems graciously were ensured the admiration of the opposite sex. The Chuci, another collection of songs, comes from the

south of China: its creation is attributed to the poet Qu Yuan (c. 322–295 BC).

The Tang dynasty (618–907) marked the golden age of Chinese poetry. No other period in history

has produced such a great number of poets and epic works. Quan Tangshi, the vast collection of Tang poetry, contains nearly 50,000 compositions by 2,200 poets. One of the most famous wordsmiths of the time was Li Bai (699– 762), who is said to have written his best-known poems in a state of total inebriation. The poet Du Fu (712–70) was a friend of Li Bai’s, though his style is very different. He held office at the court for just a short time and was forced to flee due to political upheavals. He then led an unsettled, wandering life for a long time,

eventually settling in Chengdu, where one can still visit the straw hut, Du Fu Caotang, that served as his home.

It is hard to say which of the two poets has better survived the passage of time. Li Bai was a natural talent, humorous, devoted to nature and close to the Daoists. Du Fu became a poet mainly through diligence. Bold and serious, his concerns about social issues were closely linked to Confucian ideas.

Fictional classics

The Water Margin is said to have been Mao Zedong’s favourite book, although during the

Every child in China knows the novel Journey to the West (Xiyouji in pinyin) and its famous

time of the Cultural Revolution, it was considered a negative illustration of capitulation.

heroes: the monkey king Sun Wukong; a pig, Zhu

The Water Margin is one of the "Four Great

Bajie; the river demon, Sha; and the Buddhist

Classical Novels" of Chinese literature. Based

pilgrim and monk, Xuanzang. The novel recounts

upon the story of the historical bandit Song Jiang

the adventures of the monkey king, who,

and his companions, this epic tale of a rebellion

together with the other characters, accompanies

against tyranny has been thrilling and inspiring

Xuanzang on a pilgrimage to India, in order to

readers for hundreds of years. A stirring tale of a

collect Buddhist scriptures. The story is closely

band of men left with no choice but to become

tied in with Chinese popular religion and includes

outlaws when faced with a tyrannical and unjust

Daoist and Buddhist deities. Its popularity can be

government, The Water Margin is the Chinese

explained by this familiarity and the fact that it

equivalent of Robin Hood and His Merry Men.

combines exciting adventure with the themes of

First gaining popularity in the West when it was

morality and spiritual purpose.

translated by Pearl S. Buck as All Men Are

The oldest Chinese books were written on strips of bamboo, fixed together like a roller blind. This helps to explain why traditional writing runs from

Brothers, this classic tale is presented here in a detailed translation more faithful to the Chinese original.

top to bottom and from right to left.

The Shuihuzhuan (The Water Margin, also known as Outlaws of the Marsh), whose origins are unclear, is a novel about thieves dating from the Ming period. The story is partly based upon historical facts about the robber Song Jiang and his companions, who wandered through what is now the province of Shandong around the end of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). Just like Robin Hood and his merry men, Song Jiang and his followers fought injustices according to their code of honour. They finally submitted to the imperial doctrine and fought against rebels who were threatening the state system.

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Genre novels

revolution. His satirical novella The True Story of Ah Q is considered to be a masterpiece of modern Chinese literature. Ding Ling was one

The epitome of the genre novel is Jinpingmei

of a large group of women writers that

(The Plum Blossom in a Golden Vase), written

emerged during the May Fourth Movement. In

in the Ming dynasty. Jinpingmei portrays

Miss Sophia’s Diary, she evokes the lifestyle of

people as individual characters, realistically

her female contemporaries through the

describing the many amorous adventures of its

observations of an unhappy young woman.

hero, Ximen. This novel conveys a very precise portrayal of social conditions in the 16th

Ding Ling, formerly Romanised as Ting Ling,

century. In 1687, Emperor Kangxi banned the

was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi, one of the

book, yet it continued to be read, and in 1708

most celebrated 20th-century Chinese authors.

it was even translated into Manchurian. It was

She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin

again censored in 1789 and once more in 1949.

second prize for Literature in 1951.

Hongloumeng (Dream of the Red Mansions), written by Cao Xueqin in the 18th century, is considered to be the most complete genre novel. Its central character is Jia Baoyu, the amorous and sentimental son of a high-ranking official. The novel relates the rise and fall of the house of Jia, a distinguished Manchu family, in intricate detail.

P o s t - i m p e r i a l l i t e r at u r e The political and cultural May Fourth Movement of 1919 heralded drastic social changes. Among other things, it aimed at reforming the use of classical language in literature, and prose literature became increasingly regarded as a means for social change. The leading proponent of this new vernacular prose was the writer Lu Xun, who believed China needed to modernise through

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The 1920s and 1930s were a period of literary

in the 1960s and early 70s, and at this time

productivity in China. One of the most prominent

Chinese Opera was deemed the only acceptable

writers of the time was Ba Jin. His best-known

form of cultural expression.

work, The Family, written in the tradition of Hongloumeng, relates the decline of a civil

The first comprehensive study of the lifework of

servant’s family at the beginning of the 20th

Guo Moruo (1892–1978) in English, this book

century.

explores the dynamics of translation, revolution,

Another key figure to emerge during the period

and historical imagination in twentieth-century

was Guo Moruo (1892–1978), one of the

Chinese culture. Guo was a romantic writer who

founders of the Creation Society, which

eventually became Mao Zedong’s last poetic

championed a romantic style of writing. A

interlocutor; a Marxist historian who evolved into

dedicated Marxist, Guo went on to become an

the inaugural president of China’s Academy of

influential figure in the rise of communism in

Sciences; and a leftist politician who devoted

China – he was one of many writers of the early

almost three decades to translating Goethe’s

20th century sympathetic to the cause. After

Faust. His career, embedded in China’s

Mao Zedong’s speech on art and literature, in

revolutionary century, has generated more

Yan’an in 1942, Social Realism was established as

controversy than admiration. Recent scholarship

the only legitimate art form.

has scarcely treated his oeuvre as a whole, much

Literary endeavours across China were disrupted

less touched upon his role as a translator.

h t t p s : / /a m z n .t o / 3 1 J 0 n n t

Leaping between different genres of Guo’s

Today, popular genres include officialdom

works, and engaging many other writers’

novels that give a behind-the-doors glimpse at

texts, The Translatability of Revolution

the life of cadres, chuanye, in which a

confronts two issues of revolutionary cultural

protagonist travels back to past dynasties –

politics: translation and historical

often for romantic encounters – and science

interpretation. Part 1 focuses on the

fiction works in which China has risen to global

translingual making of China’s revolutionary

dominance.

culture, especially Guo’s translation of Faust as a “development of Zeitgeist.” Part 2 deals

A biography of the celebrated Chinese writer

with Guo’s rewritings of antiquity in lyrical,

of the 20th century, Lu Xun. It seeks to set

dramatic, and historiographical-paleographical

aside all the propaganda that has accrued

forms, including his vernacular translation of

over the decades since his death, and present

classical Chinese poetry. Interrogating the

him as a credible human being, neither

relationship between translation and historical

aggrandized nor belittled. Brief sketches of Lu

imagination―within revolutionary cultural

Xun's work are appended.

practice―this book finds a transcoding of different historical conjunctures into “nowtime,” saturated with possibilities and tensions.

A new age The end of the Maoist era in 1976 marked a resurgence of writing, focusing on the traumas caused by the Cultural Revolution. Lu Xinghua’s work Scar gave the term “literature of the wounded” to this new literary form, itself part of the so-called New Realism, which typically looked at society’s imperfections and the abuses of power. The 1980s saw a burst of literary creativity in new writing techniques.

Around 2,000 novels were published between 1979 and the early 1990s (compared with a total of 320 between 1949 and 1966).

h t t p s : / /a m z n .t o / 2 o R 0 k a E

The story of F1 sponsorship legend Brian Sims, who left school in 1963 with just 5 GCE O-Levels and a shattered dream of following in his father’s footsteps as a Royal Air Force pilot.

From fitting wheels to barrows in a

A chance meeting on a plane with Max

builders’ merchant, Brian rapidly climbed

Mosley offered him the chance of

the business ladder and became a Xerox

managing one of the most famous F1

salesman. He was unaware that the

Grand Prix circuits. This, in turn, led to

professional selling skills he was learning

the heady heights of a works drive for

would one day propel him into the

Mercedes and the establishment of

glamorous and overtly commercial world

South Africa’s first racing driver school. It

of F1.

was only a matter of time before Brian’s

A disastrous debut at a racing driver

exceptional sponsorship acquisition skills

school was the spark that lit his passion

took him to F1, where he quickly made a

for motor racing. Aware of the need for

name for himself by securing multi-

some serious financial backing to be able

million-pound deals with three of the

to take part, Brian embarked on a variety

most sought-after global corporations.

of highly innovative and often extremely

However, Brian’s greatest achievement in

entertaining ways of securing

motorsport was to establish the

sponsorship, including working with the

Motorsport Industry Association in 1994,

cast of a top 1970’s BBC sit-com as well

in a bid to secure Government

as with John Cleese, of Monty Python

recognition of the industry. Once again,

fame.

Brian’s sales skills played a key role.

Born in Chiswick in 1946, the son of a

motorsport presenter, A Guest Lecturer

wartime RAF pilot, Brian was educated

for the World Academy of Sport and the

at Hounslow College.

author of two highly acclaimed

A few years later, as a Xerox salesman,

sponsorship books.

his exceptional selling skills helped him

Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2018

acquire the sponsorship necessary to

by Birmingham City University, in

embark on what was to become a

recognition of his outstanding

professional motorsport driving career.

contribution to the motorsport industry.

These same skills eventually took him to

Brian has also spent the last few years in

Formula 1, as the Marketing Director of

the Academic world as an F1 and

the Lola Ferrari and the Benetton Grand

motorsport industry consultant to both

Prix teams. In a fascinating career, Brian

Oxford Brookes and Wolverhampton

also becomes the Founder of the

universities. He is also a regular

prestigious Motorsport Industry

columnist for the prestigious Paddock

Association, Manager of the Kyalami F1

Magazine and now lives in Shrewsbury

Circuit in South Africa, a Sky TV

with his South African born wife, Liz.

You Don’t Have to Be a Champion... to Be a Winner! by Brian Sims is published by Austin Macauley Publishers and is available on Austinmacauley.com, Amazon and all good booksellers.

mybook.to/champion

Graciously, Paul J. Dane authorised Electric Press to reprint his articles from his WordPress blog, Falling Free as Paul's blog begins at the end, the end seemed a good place to start and we printed Pauls first post in the August 2019 edition of Electric Press.

This, therefore, is the second post (chronologically) from Falling Free.

So… we are in a different place now.

to its content.

The deep internal work of the past

But now I am starting to turn my mind

weeks has reached a natural pause

to how best to work with this forum

and whilst I will continue to spend

going forward. For sure I have much

much time in reflection, step by step I to share about ‘life the universe and am starting to build my new life.

everything’ which I hope others will

I have been speculating about what

find useful or at least thought-

kind of content to share here going

provoking. Most likely that deeper

forward. Writing this blog has been

content will be the bones of my next

and remains an integral part of my

book once the second edition of

healing process; a chance to express

Weaving with Light is published.

(as in push out) all those thoughts

As I will be travelling soon I thought

that have caused me so much

that might make interesting content

suffering over the years. I hope too

too.

that it has and will continue to prove

But it is in my mind to ask YOU what

worthwhile to all who find their way

you want to read about…

One of the joys of writing is that the

My fear in disclosing my story ‘warts and

writer has complete creative freedom and all’ was that I would be judged and control, everything is pushed out and

rejected by everyone who read it. I was

released for others to take or leave. You

afraid that all those loving people who

can talk about what you want when you

have come out of the woodwork with

want, and no one can stop you. But I am

words of great kindness would simply

wondering how it might be if we use this

turn their backs in disgust and walk away.

forum in a more interactive way?

That is showing the worst of me, the

Going forward, if any of my readers want

kindness of those who have gathered

me to write about a specific subject or

around me would turn to condemnation.

experience then why don’t you just drop

That again I would feel abandoned and

me a note with your ideas on and I will do unworthy… my best to roll that into future blog

But that has not happened… Or at least if

posts… could be fun…?

it has I am not aware… Instead, the flow

Back to the journey…

of past colleagues, acquaintances and

The past few days have been busy with some interesting discoveries. I felt extraordinarily vulnerable writing and rereading the ‘Two stories’ post. And realise now that it was the end of a specific process; allowing myself to hide no more.

That post was the place I was trying to get to in becoming completely transparent,

friends reaching out with words of encouragement and appreciation continues. More than this, new people have started to come forward, often

through the most unexpected circumstances, I find myself sitting with strangers eager to talk about their own, very similar, life experiences.

completely true and having the courage

In the past, my acquaintances have

to share my truth, warts and all with the

almost always been women. More

rest of the world. I’ll write more about

interested in feelings, creativity and

that process in my next post, but for now intimacy I have found it very hard to relate to stereotypical male interests such ‘Beginning at the end’ was the start of the process ‘Two stories’ was the end.

as competitive sport, the pub and work.

But now I find sensitive, open, creative ‘What are you doing down there?’ men, with similar life stories to my

‘I’ve fallen down this pit and can’t get

own, gathering around to share their

out?’

experiences, their own vulnerabilities.

This is remarkable… it has never happened to me before, and in many of those interactions, I feel the seeds of lasting friendship, something that I have seldom shared before either…

The doctor takes a piece of paper, writes a prescription on it, throws it into the pit and walks on…

Finally, a friend comes along looks down the hole and says:

One little step at a time though… I still

‘What are you doing down there?’

have a great need for space and calm

‘I’ve fallen down this pit and can’t get

solitude.

out?’

One of these new arrivals into my life

Without thinking the friend leaps into

told me a story which really moved

the pit alongside our character…

me…

It was about a man who was walking along and fell into a deep dark pit. A priest comes along, looks down the

‘Why did you do that? Now we’re both stuck?’

‘No… I’ve been in this pit before; I can show you the way out…’

hole, and says:

This story really moved me. I ‘What are you doing down there?’

mentioned it to Andrea this morning,

‘I’ve fallen down this pit and can’t get she said; out?’

The priest takes a piece of paper, writes a prayer on it, throws it into the

pit and walks on…

Next, a doctor comes along, looks down the hole, and says:

‘Well yes exactly… That’s what you’re doing for others isn’t it?’

‘No, you don’t understand. He was offering his friendship and support to me. I was really touched by the offer.’

‘Yes, but isn’t that what you’re doing with through some very poor countries, often the blog?’ Writing about the journey, to

on a shoestring, the language barrier and

help others find their way out of their

constant moving on meant that I had

own darkness?’

always been one step removed; far more

I hadn’t thought of it that way before. It

the observer than the participant.

would be nice if she is right… Anyway,

But wheeling and dealing all my old ‘tat’

thank you to my storyteller, you know

on free selling sites has introduced me to

who you are…

an incredible diversity of people,

Another thing that has happened is that

speaking my own language, in my own

through the process of selling off all my

country. Some of them seem to have so

old household items I have been exposed little, so many seem to have illness and to an incredible diversity of people. This disabilities. Others have clearly been

has been a great education. My father’s

‘spat out’ by the system, often struggling

story is remarkable; born into poverty he to articulate themselves clearly or make themselves fully understood. I find the was determined that his own children would never suffer the same way, that

whole process humbling. What do I

fear still haunts him and was passed on

know?… These people cope with real-life

to me for many decades. Despite all my

challenges every day whilst I sit in my

internal angst, I have constantly been

ivory tower feeling sorry for myself.

aware that, as a result of his efforts, my

My heart really goes out to these

life has been extremely privileged and

‘normal’ people, I don’t think they have

that my experience of others is reflective any idea how much they are teaching me of that fact:

and how much richness they bring into

In the ‘top classes’ at school I was

my day. Half the time I don’t have the

surrounded by the ‘bright kids’, then by

heart to take any money off them, but

the highly intelligent and/or privileged at inevitably I do, I’m not sure why perhaps university. In my career, I was immersed it is meanness on my part or perhaps I in ‘executive life’ with ‘senior contacts’.

just don’t want to be patronising… Likely

And even though I travelled extensively

a bit of both.

https://amzn.to/2LbxZo5 This book is about each of us finding

Nor is it a self-help guide. It will not tell

lasting peace and happiness in our life,

you how to live your life differently.

without losing ourselves to the cult of

It will invite you to consider the reasons

materialism which is causing so much

why your life might not be all that you

harm to our planet.

had hoped for. And it will invite you to

It is about us developing a deeper sense consider alternative ways of seeing of self-awareness; a deeper connection yourself and the world in which you to one another and the world in which

live, in the hope that you might then go

we live, without having to adopt any

on to experience greater meaning and

form of religious practice or belief

fulfilment in your life. Many of the ideas

system.

discussed in this book have been

This is not a book about philosophy,

influenced by channelled material,

science or religion, although it touches

received by the author, prior to

on all those things.

publication.

Click now To find out more

The Torreón massacre was a racially motivated massacre that took place on May 13 –15, 1911, in the Mexican city of Torreón, Coahuila.

Early in the twentieth century, amid the

More than a century later, the facts

myths of progress and modernity that

continue to be elusive, mistaken, and

underpinned Mexico’s ruling party, some

repressed.

three hundred Chinese immigrants,

This crime has had a strange afterlife. It

close to half of the Cantonese residents

has been misunderstood and

of the newly founded city of Torreón,

misrepresented — many of Torreón’s

were shot and bludgeoned to death in

inhabitants still blame outsiders,

the streets, their corpses mutilated,

marauding revolutionaries and drug

their belongings, businesses and homes

cartels (almost anyone, to avoid their

ransacked over the course of three days.

own complicity).

It is considered the largest slaughter of

But it has never been truly forgotten.

Chinese people in the history of the

Oral and printed versions circulated

Americas, an attempted extermination

almost immediately in its wake, and

that was followed by denial or empty

academic studies followed. The story of

statements of regret. The massacre

the massacre “wants to be told,”

reverberated briefly before fading from

Herbert writes. “It refuses to die. This

collective memory.

book is merely a version of that

Mexican forces outside the Casino de la Laguna “And what do you know about the Chinese

contain conflicting testimony.

people who were killed here?” Julián Herbert

Looping, digressive, and cinematic, this

asks anyone who will listen.

crónica vividly portrays the historical context

An exorcism of persistent and discomfiting

as well as the lives of the perpetrators and

ghosts, The House of the Pain of Others

victims of the “small genocide.”

attempts a reckoning with the 1911 massacre.

It is a distinctly twenty-first-century sort of

Blending reportage, personal reflection, essay,

Western, a tremendous literary performance

and academic treatise, Herbert talks to taxi

that extends and enlarges the

drivers and historians, travels to the scene of the crime, and digs deep into archives that

accomplishments of a significant international writer.

A cart carrying bodies in the aftermath of the slaughter.

https://amzn.to/2zAlLid

I realized in the past couple of years that in the

these classes when he was under the robotic

grand scheme of things, some of us veer off our

spells. Excelling in math and other courses, he

projected path not by choice and are suddenly

still held on to the dream of being a writer. Fast-

thrown into a life which we had no idea existed.

forward a couple of years later. He finally was

CG Blade, or Christopher, my husband, has lived

where he thought he should be working as an

several different lives with the latest one very

engineer at a company called RobotWorx. He

bittersweet. Once a respected engineer in the

had no qualms about doing sixty to sometimes

field of robotics, a backseat pilot in the Navy,

eighty hours a week programming massive cells

and an electrician, (The world of robotics was

of robots all over the world. He volunteered for

something he wanted to be inside of his entire

every job he could get his hands on juggling

life due to B-9 from Lost In Space) slid down an

several customers at a time. They say that in

unknown path about two years into this dream

humans, happiness is fleeting. It sure rang true

job. Although most of our life that I have known

for both of us.

him, he has always told me that one day, he

Unable to stand up at work one day staring at

wanted to be a successful science fiction author.

the ground in sheer pain, he went to see his

This proclamation was first made the week we

orthopedic surgeon who gave him the bad

met when two people are just getting to know

news. His L5-S1 disc was blown out and bulging.

one another. Hold on to that previous sentence,

(For the past fifteen years prior, he had been in

I will get back to it later. While attending college

and out of hospitals for his back but always

to pursue his dream of being an engineer, Chris

bounced back after shots, pills, and plenty of

found out that he loved Creative Writing classes

ice, but not this time)

and English classes. He went on and on about

You are now the nurse feeling helpless for someone you love but you cannot take their pain away.

Until you talk to others

who are involved with the same life, you are blindsided and your entire life has to change.

Surgery was required in 2011 to try to snip off

paper and pen and began jotting down notes,

the bulging disc. It did not work. In 2011, he

sentences, and storylines. Cobalt and the

had three surgeries to reconstruct the disc

Pseudoverse Series were born. If you are the

with rods, carbon fiber cages, and screws. The

caretaker or spouse of someone with chronic

same goes for 2012, 21013, 2014, 2015, 2016,

pain, it is overwhelming, and you are not sure

and 2017. In all, eleven surgeries were

how to react to something positive and

performed like a zipper up his spine. The

shockingly lucid from your loved one. Until you

dream at RobotWorx was over since he could

talk to others who are involved with the same

not stand nor walk for any length of time

life and do research, you are blindsided, and

before falling to the ground. I call our life now

your entire life has to change. You are now the

“DCP” or During Chronic Pain, and before

nurse feeling helpless for someone you love

2011, “BCP” Before Chronic Pain. With nothing

but cannot take their pain away.

to do but wait out the pain, which has never

Back to the beginning paragraph, and that

truly subsided in 2011, Chris was staring at the

dream of being an author began as if he had

ceiling in the middle of the night wondering

been one his entire life. Chris knew what to do,

why humans were created not to regenerate

how to plot storylines, list character traits, and

and live with so much pain. Colors blasted by

gather enough surprises and “ah-ha” moments

his mind in a wonderous creative jolt that not

in books to fill a library.

many people have had. He quickly grabbed

Planning out the next twenty novels, Chris

dream one night and a visit from PKD in

was going to write who, how, when, where,

which he told Chris, “Your writing is terrific

and why each one was about, taking a page

keep going.” What used to be a thought in

from a Hollywood playbook, he scripted and

the back of Chris’ head became a dream

storyboarded each novel and how they

come true and a lifestyle. We both had to

would fit together from book to book. I

make adjustments in our life to

quickly became his muse, as did our editor,

counterbalance his new occupation mixed

Cindy Calloway. Chris wrote every day that

with the agony of surgeries and pain.

he was awake for six to eight hours when he

If someone were to ask me what I learned

was not at doctor’s appointments or

from all of this, it is “never give up your

recovering from surgeries. Even then, he had

dream” and “be very flexible” when it comes

his journal and laptop in hospital rooms and

to a new lifestyle be it negative or positive.

waiting areas always jotting down notes for

His vision of devices and gadgets in the

the next novel. For the past eight years, not

future, the technical side of his writing has

one day has gone by where Chris has not

already begun to surface on this planet. It is

written, taken notes, or discussed characters

incredible that some of these things have

to me that don’t exist but in his mind.

either come true or are being talked about in

Pushing himself to get better and please his

scientific circles. These simply astounding

readers and fans, he has gone to extremes to

novels seem as if he became a conduit of

practice writing every day, learning all he

humanity through bursts of creativity and

could about how to make his readers come

dreams of a dystopian future. The support

alive with excitement and awe. He has told

we receive is undeniable, and we are grateful

me, “If I love this story, I know that the

for the assistance we have gotten. This

readers will love it even more.” Now that you

thankfulness is why we try to help first-time

know how this incredible and altruistic

authors publish their books free. Through

author became successful in a world of

editing, cover art, formatting, webpages,

chronic pain, it should be noted that his

exposure, and advice, he gives back to those

mentor, a man by the name of Ray Faraday

who need a start in this sometimes-confusing

Nelson, a science fiction author from the ’50s

occupation. It is something that we wish had

to the ’80s, encouraged him to keep writing.

when we first started this wonderous ride.

Giving Chris advice manuscript after manuscript, the two of them bonded as Chris paid homage to him and his longtime friend, Philp K. Dick. Cobalt was written because of a

We will be celebrating novel number ten in his historical fiction series, and his readers love his style of writing and the sarcastic stories he has to tell.

If I were to say to you that he was destined to

become a person who supported someone who

be a writer ten years ago, I would have laughed

could not support himself. Standing up for more

and said, “You have to be on some sort of

than five minutes at a time is a chore for him,

medication.” Now I see someone who IS an

and here we are talking about Hollywood

author and excels at it successfully. Writing is

scripts. I know how bad life can be at times. Not

hard, arduous, and painstaking work, along with

everyone gets the chance to fulfill a dream. My

the historical research he does every night. His

advice is to keep going and keep dreaming. You

dedication to the art of writing is worth every

never know where it might lead one day. Your

moment he spends honing his craft. Easy

path in life might veer in another direction, but

reading is damn hard writing, especially when

sometimes you have to be flexible. Never give

you cannot control the amount of pain you are

up and never quit preserving. Act and believe as

in every day. He doesn’t care how much it hurts

if you can never fail even if life is pushing back

as long as he can tell a story. He sets goals for

against you with a vengeance.

his novels and knows he needs to get his

Sincerely, the Wife of a Successful Historical

readers the next book in this great saga as soon

Fiction Kitchen Sink Conspiracy Author.

as he can. Combine chronic pain, great stories,

Jackie Siefert-Pappas,

an intelligent multi-faceted editor, genius co-

CEO Pseudosynth Press Publishing

authors, and incredible characters, and you have the Pseudoverse Series novels. He has told me that these novels were written in mind with others and myself, who are caretakers of the disabled both mentally and physically. Chronic

pain sufferers can become easily depressed and try to hide their pain due to pride and being ashamed that their past life is gone. The caregivers are often overlooked in these situations. They can also become depressed and take on symptoms of the person they are looking after.

Could the next stop be Hollywood? You bet! The script for Chris’ well-received horror novel Ash is about to be written. How could this possibly be!? Our dreams had to mesh, and I had to

https://www.pseudosynthpress.com/

We have been asked plenty of times, "what is the Pseudoverse? I see these amazing colorful novels could you please tell me what they are?"

"In the simplest of explanations, the Pseudoverse Series is an original world of fiction mirroring today's sociology-economic structure and technology. They contain sixteen novels driven by historical accuracy, pop culture, Easter Eggs, Music, horror, witches, heroines, robotics, artificial intelligence, Transhumanism, Fructose Products, and pseudo humans all wrapped up inside colourful cover art of real women that we are friends with. The cover models are also the main characters inside each novel.

These characters jump from novel to novel so you never know who will show up in which novel. It is a jaw-dropping, head-snapping series that you cannot put down until the very last pages are read."

We didn't write that, one fantastic readers did, in a review you can find on the

Pseudosynth website.

Imagine this main genre as a mash-up of every sub-genre thrown into a blender and switched on "high". Everyone is familiar with horror, sci-fi, historical fiction, and fantasy‌ 'Conspiracy Kitchen Sink'.

Each CG

Blade novel is a standalone story that also fits like a puzzle with the next novel in the

series. For more insight as to how this series was laid out please visit our blog page: There is a First For Everything

Cobalt The multiple plots within our first thrilling novel in the Pseudoverse Series are fused with futuristic technology and genetic engineering running parallel with each other inside Cobalt until the very end.

The American citizens and the military are subjugated becoming complacent by an unseen threat.

Could this be a virus, biological agent, or worse, mind-control?

The entire Pseudoverse Series lays out how we got to the point of artificial intelligence singularity and why.

One man’s quest starts out as good intentions for one woman on the verge of death and turns into a

final fight for the planet.

http://authl.it/B07CVQGXV8

It was the year of our 25th wedding

driving her Buick Electra. When she

anniversary and Sandy and I wanted to

started to object I pulled my trump card.

spend a romantic weekend together. For “Then let’s take the Vette.” our getaway we booked a two night stay I knew that would never happen since at one of Indiana’s nicest lodges, Turkey she refused to go any further in my little Run State Park in the southern part of

red sports car than the nearest ice

the state. The lodge has a large

cream stand. Then she surrendered.

swimming pool, an on site restaurant,

“Okay, but it better not be hot and what

and a series of walking trails that offer

if it rains?”

numerous breath taking views created during the Ice Age, and it was only 130 miles from home.

The week before our planned trip I bought my first truck, a brand new compact sports model that was dressed in spoke wheels, sporty graphic decals, a plush interior, and a stereo that would wake the dead. What it didn’t have was air conditioning, ample legroom or a

comfortable ride. The night before our trip, I waited until Sandra was in a good mood and informed her of my plan to “break in” my new truck instead of

I was ready for that argument. “It’s May, how hot can it get? And I’ll put our suitcases in trash bags and strap them into the truck bed.”

The following morning we got an early start. It was cloudy and cool, and for the first hour I talked non-stop like a carnival barker. I explained to Sandy that although this “baby” didn’t have a lion under the hood, I liked the feel of having five forward gears and besides, we had to be getting great gas mileage.

Her grunts and one word replies

The next day things were worse. My

weren’t exactly encouraging, but I

idea of adventure was renting a

stammered on anyway.

canoe and paddling three miles down

After a few miles I discovered that

Sugar Creek. I laughed when the tour

with such a short wheel base every

operator told us to put our valuables

time we hit an imperfection in the

in the car and leave the keys with

road the truck jumped like an

him, since “Anything can happen in

agitated dog shaking off water. With

the water.” Reluctantly I did. He

little conversation I punched in a

drove our group three miles up

Creedence Clearwater Revival tape

stream and when it was our turn to

that I hummed and sang along with.

get in the canoe he held it while

Then it happened. The sun broke

Sandy boarded. When I went to get

through the clouds and started

in he let it go and instead of stepping

beating down.

in the centre of the vessel I planted

I cracked open my window and turned on the fan, but it was no use. I glanced over at Sandy who sat in silence with arms folded looking

straight ahead, while little beads of

my foot to one side. Then the world went around and when I popped to the surface Sandy stood there in waist deep water shouting, “WHAT DID YOU DO?”

perspiration appeared on her forehead.

Things were off to a really bad start, but I hoped a nice dinner and a short walk afterwards would soften her

mood. Yes and no. Yes, she enjoyed that evening, but no, after this trip she promised to never ride in my truck again, and she never did.

SUGAR CREEK

After apologizing, we re-boarded the canoe

The rest of our canoe trip was terrible.

and started down scenic Sugar Creek.

Sandy barked orders like a coxswain,

It quickly became apparent that this whole

“Paddle the other side...faster...wrong

thing was a mistake as we floated sideways

side... why are we going sideways?”

and in half circles. The water was low and

I admit I was laughing so hard I could

there were numerous dry spot where I

hardly paddle and when I had to get out to

actually had to get out and push the canoe

push she sat there like George Washington

as it scrapped the bottom. I thought my

crossing the Delaware.

experience with a row boat would prove

After two arduous miles the long

valuable, but this was a different animal.

suspension bridge over the creek came into

We only travelled a short distance when

view and that’s when Sandy abandoned

the current pulled us sideways again and

me. She walked the half mile back to our

swept us under a large outcropping rock.

room while I wrestled the canoe onward to

We were both lying on our backs pinned. I

the pick-up point.

tried pushing away with the paddle, but it

We made other memories that weekend,

was no use. When two guys passing by

but not without a few more “bumps” in the

asked if we needed help, I was laughing

road.

and said no, but Sandra was yelling, “Get us out of here.”

But that’s another story.

Matthew Malarkey has decided it's time to settle down with his detective girlfriend and what better time to propose marriage than on a chilled-out holiday on the beautiful island of Ibiza. But Matthew's plans go horribly wrong when he finds himself implicated in an international smuggling ring. In an attempt to solve his problem, he takes matters into his own hands and returns to the island - with disastrous results.

Targeted by a gang of criminals' intent on silencing him, Matthew tries to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. But with time running out, the law and the villains closing in, Matthew faces losing his freedom, his relationship - and his life.

https://amzn.to/2HwGW9a

"Each story in this collection focuses on the characters, the people involved in the acts these stories reveal. Whether they are the perpetrators, the victims or innocent bystanders caught in the maelstrom of the events, we get catch glimpse, an understanding of their minds, their inner fears and wishes, the dreams, desires, doubts and regrets they hold hidden within themselves.

Stories of robbery, murder, greed and lust are all told between these books covers, along with much, much more.

Tales of Crime and Violence asks questions of the participants and the reader; 'The Phone Call' examines the question of would you kill, would you take another's life to save your own family from almost certain death, and then asks how you would live with yourself after the event, whichever decision you made.

'Silly Cow' looks at how running from our perceived fears could lead to our own untimely death, while 'The Arrangement' gives a deep and harsh insight into the widespread and destructive effects forced arranged marriage can have on entire families and beyond.

Whatever you expect from great crime fiction, you will find it here, in Tales of Crime & Violence, but woven around each tale is the deeper inspection of the human psyche."

KINDLE

PA P E R B A C K

Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3

Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3

RFTLOI provides a forum for literacy experts to inspire educators, and to help them

promote a lifelong love of reading with their students

In the Beginning...

Samuel Hearne Senior P. S. and Oakridge Jr. P. S. on February 14, 1975. It was expected that 750

In the 1960's, a group of educators came together from two of the legacy Boards of the Toronto District School Board: East York and Scarborough, along with the Metropolitan

Separate School Board (EY and Scarborough regions), now the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Their mandate was to promote literacy, through an affiliation with the International Reading Association (IRA). They established the East York - Scarborough Reading Council and held meetings and workshops in

teachers would attend the one - day event on a designated professional activity day. There were five large group sessions and 33 small group workshops and Reading for the Love of It was

born. Reading awards were given out to teachers and staff who had demonstrated leadership in the field of reading. The annual conference has been held every year, since 1975, with the exception of 1988, when the IRA Convention was held in Toronto in May of that year and we chose to combine our efforts.

local schools and Board offices.

This group of dedicated volunteers, comprised of teachers, consultants, administrators,

2020 marks the 44th anniversary for the conference

superintendents and resource personnel initiated a yearly program of literacy events, the highlight being the annual Reading for the Love of It Conference.

The Conference has grown from a few hundred local delegates to upwards of 4000 delegates from across the country, making it the largest literacy conference in Canada. Reading for the

Love of It is hosted at the Sheraton Hotel in

The First Conference

downtown Toronto.

The East York - Scarborough Reading Council held its first annual reading conference at

The 44th Annual Reading for the Love of It

conference is taking place on Thursday, February 20, and Friday, February 21, 2020 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.

This annual language arts conference is regarded as pre-eminent in bringing together local, national and international authorities in the field of literacy. The goal of the conference is to provide a wide spectrum of speakers to inspire and provoke thinking about literacy issues, and to promote the lifelong love of reading, all at an affordable cost to delegates.

We look forward to welcoming you to the 2020 conference. Click here to check out the most recent 2019 conference highlights on our YouTube channel, or paste the following URL into your browser. bringing together local, national and

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kXMUbXRBC4Q&t=12s

international authorities in the field of literacy. The goal of the conference is to provide a wide spectrum of speakers to inspire and provoke thinking about literacy

The Association's "main event" is the

issues, and to promote the lifelong love of

annual literacy conference in February

reading, all at an affordable cost to

each year. The Reading for the Love of It

delegates.

Conference is regarded as pre-eminent in

Speaking of Reading is our twice-yearly

Outreach is the Association's effort to reach

newsletter that is sent out to all delegates who

out to support individuals and organizations

have attended the conference. Each

involved in worthy literacy endeavours. These

complimentary issue focuses on a literacy

projects have included assisting adult literacy

theme and features articles, book reviews and

groups, sponsoring Faculty of Education

photographs from educators in the field.

students, supporting book programs for

Noteworthy events and special presentations

daycares, building schools in Africa and

are highlighted, and current thinking about best

providing programs to inform parents about

practices in literacy, learning and teaching is

literacy development. These are examples of

shared.

ways in which the Association demonstrates its commitment to making a difference.

We welcome you to the 44th Reading for the Love of It conference with a Special Opening on Thursday Morning featuring an Indigenous Presentation by Suzanne and Cedar Smoke, and Keynote by Tanya Talaga sharing All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward.

Suzanne Smoke and Tanya Talaga Indigenous Presentation Suzanne Smoke, Biindigen Healing and Arts in Georgina, pipe carrier, sun dancer, and Suzanne Smoke

most importantly, life-giver to her daughter, Cedar Smoke (Ogimaa Geeziko Kwe), head woman of the Skyworld. They are both traditional dancers, speakers, educators, and facilitators. They will open the 2020 Reading for the Love of It conference.

Tanya Talaga

Tanya Talaga: All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward An award-winning journalist and author, and the

Thunder Bay, won the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize. In

First Ojibway woman to deliver the CBC Massey

addition to the RBC Taylor Prize, Seven Fallen

Lectures, Tanya Talaga is an acclaimed storyteller.

Feathers also won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize

She is the bestselling author of two books All Our

for Political Writing, and the First Nation

Relations: Finding the Path Forward and Seven

Communities Read: Young Adult/Adult Award. It

Fallen Feathers.

was also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’

Her book Seven Fallen Feathers, a national

Trust Nonfiction Prize and the BC National Award

bestseller that introduced us to seven Indigenous

for Nonfiction and was named CBC’s Nonfiction

high school students who mysteriously died in

Book of the Year and a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book

Tanya is of Polish and Indigenous descent. Her

diverse audiences ranging from university

great-grandmother was a residential school

students and school children to corporate and

survivor and her great-grandfather was an

non-profit organizations.

Ojibwe trapper and labourer. For the past 20

In her powerful keynote, Tanya will share

years, Tanya has worked as a journalist, and is

Indigenous stories from across Canada and the

now a columnist for The Toronto Star. She has

world, humanizing the legacy of residential

been nominated five times for the Michener

schools and colonization and sharing her hope for

Award in public service journalism. From 2017-

a more inclusive and equitable future.

2018, Tanya was the Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy through The Canadian Journalism Foundation.

Note: This is a complimentary event with limited seating. No other workshop sessions will be provided during this time. As an alternative, we

In addition to the CBC Massey Lectures — a

suggest you use this time to visit the exhibitors’

renowned lecture series that travels to cities

display.

across Canada — Tanya has also spoken to

Todd Parr : It’s Okay to be Different

organizations to help people, animals, and promote literacy.

Todd's books have won several awards

Todd Parr is the author and illustrator of more than 45 books for children,

including the New York Times bestselling The I Love You Book, The Earth Book, and The Thankful Book.

His books are available in over fifteen languages throughout the world. He is the co-creator of the popular children's television show ToddWorld as well as short films for Sesame Street.

and his TV show, ToddWorld, was nominated for three Daytime Emmy Awards.

Todd has partnered with Target, SFMARIN Food Bank, Stouffer's, People Magazine and several companies and

Todd lives in Berkeley, California with his three adopted Pit bulls.

Amazon https://amzn.to/31OFKWP

Esi Edugyan: Storming the Centre Esi Edugyan’s richly entertaining fiction expands the historical novel ’s field of vision by reimagining classic literary genres through the eyes of black characters. Engrossing, impeccably researched and pitch -perfect in tone, her work deftly explores the dark and complicated history of race and the nature of belonging. The daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, Edugyan explores the dislocation of diaspora in her first novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne. Her second novel, Half-Blood Blues, the story of a half-black, half-German jazz trumpeter in Nazi Germany, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and received the Scotiabank-Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award.

Edugyan’s most recent novel, the bestselling Washington Black, which she calls a “post-slavery narrative,” was named one of the top ten books of the year by The New York Times, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly and

TIME and was one of President Obama ’s Favorite Books of 2018. It was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and was also awarded the Giller Prize Canada’s highest literary honor. Edugyan is one of only three novelists to win the award twice.

is not a ‘WAR’ story.

It is a collection of poignant, eye-opening Each tale reflects true events; Paul has stories and articles, written as fictional

managed to elicit the emotions, the

accounts, yet based on the true

feelings and the inner anxieties of those

experiences of people living and working whose accounts are represented here. in major war zones around the globe.

Yet he also found stories of great courage,

Each of the stories and articles are

fortitude and resilience of human spirit

formed from interviews, discussions,

strewn amongst the detritus of war.

reports and dialogues from those directly involved and affected by conflict.

In ‘Life in the War Zone’, Paul has gently

Whilst these stories are particular to the individuals to whom they belong, the sad fact is they can easily be told by so many.

coaxed from the depths of people’s

hearts the truth of how destructive and debilitating the effects of war are to individuals, families and entire communities.

This book may be finished, but sadly the strife continues.

A collection of personal stories based on

Conditioned, indoctrinated and convinced

true accounts.

by those who have only power and ultimate

The modern civilised world we know is little wealth to gain are those whose personal more than a fragile moment balancing on a stories are revealed on the pages of this knife-edge between the evils of avarice and book. the struggle for dominant authoritarian

Life in the War Zone takes a serious, no

supremacy.

holds barred look at the devastation and

Caught in the maelstrom between the

trauma of life in the battlefields of the

warring factions are the innocent lives of

Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia,

the civilians, the children, the unsuspecting Serbia, Croatia, Israel, Palestine, Libya, conscripts and misguided volunteers on all Lebanon, El Salvador and more. sides.

m y b o o k .t o / L i f e Wa r Z o n e

Have you missed out on recent editions of Electric Press – Literary Insights magazine?

Now here is your chance to catch up with all our great content and stories from the last two

editions.

Simply 'click' on the cover image to read your choice.

Don't miss out again, go to the Electric Press blog page

HERE and join our mailing list, we will then inform you whenever we have a new edition hot off the press or exciting news.

Don't worry, we don't spam.

In this, the November edition of Electric Press we celebrate the life of Bill Maudlin, an American soldier, one of the thousands of

American troops who served during the second world war.

Electric Press hopes, as this is armistice month, a month of remembrance, this article will serve as a small token of a reminder that Bill Maudlin and all he stood for shall never

be forgotten.

Bill, who was a regular enlisted man,

infantrymen, Willie and Joe.

created a legacy which lives on today, not

It was they who came to represent the

with his rifle but with his pen, artistry and

average American GI. Bill's work meant so

wit.

much to the millions of Americans who

Bill, you see was a hero, a true hero but not, fought in World War II, and to those who maybe, in the way you would expect.

had waited for them to come home.

While serving in the 45th Infantry Division,

He was just another enlisted man, his gripes

Mauldin volunteered to work for the unit's

were their gripes, his laughs their laughs,

newspaper, drawing cartoons about regular his heartaches their heartaches. soldiers or "dogfaces" as they were then

He was one of them.

known colloquially.

Eventually, Bill created two cartoon

They loved him.

Mauldin's cartoons made him a hero to mocking a typical late-war headline: the common soldier. GIs often credited

"Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed

him with helping them to get through

with victory, are bringing in thousands

the rigours of the war. His credibility

of hungry, ragged, battle-weary

with the common soldier increased in

prisoners". He was featured on the

September 1943, when he was

cover of Time magazine, and his book

wounded in the shoulder by a German

“Up Front� was the No. 1 best-seller in

mortar while visiting a machine gun

the United States.

crew near Monte Casino.

When Bill returned to civilian life and It

grew older, he never lost that boyish Mauldin grin, never outgrew his excitement about doing his job, never big-shotted or high-hatted the people with whom he worked every day.

turned out Bill had another ardent fan: Five-star Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe.

In 1945, at the age of 23, Mauldin won a

Pulitzer Prize for his wartime body of work, exemplified by a cartoon depicting exhausted infantrymen slogging through the rain, its caption

THIS IS THE TOWN MY PAPPY TOLD ME ABOUT

In 1959, Mauldin won a second Pulitzer

assassinated, of the statue at the Lincoln

Prize, while working at the St. Louis Post-

Memorial slumped in grief, its head cradled

Dispatch, for a cartoon depicting Soviet

in its hands.

author Boris Pasternak in a Gulag, asking

Mauldin drew Willie and Joe for publication

another prisoner, "I won the Nobel Prize for one last time on Veterans Day in 1998 for a literature. What was your crime?"

Peanuts comic strip, in collaboration with Pasternak had won the Nobel Prize for his

its creator Charles M. Schulz, also a World

novel Doctor Zhivago but was not allowed

War II veteran. Schulz signed the strip

to travel to Sweden to accept it.

"Schulz, and my hero..." with Mauldin's signature underneath.

Bill died at age 81 in the early days of 2003.

The end of his life had been rugged.

He was scalded in a bathtub, which led to terrible injuries and infections; Alzheimer’s disease was inflicting its cruelties. Unable to care for himself after the scalding, he became a resident of a California nursing home, his health and spirits in rapid

The following year Mauldin won the

decline.

National Cartoonist Society Award for

During the late summer of 2002, as

Editorial Cartooning. In 1961, he received

Mauldin lay in that California nursing home,

their Reuben Award.

some of the old World War II infantry guys

Many think he should have won a third Pulitzer, for what may be the single greatest editorial cartoon in the history of the craft; his deadline rendering, on the day President John F. Kennedy was

caught wind of it. They didn’t want Mauldin to go out that way. They thought he should know he was still their hero.

10,000 cards and letters had arrived at Mauldin’s bedside.

Gordon Dillow, a columnist for the Orange

One of the veterans explained why it was so

County Register, put out the call in Southern important: “You would have to be part of a California for people in the area to send their combat infantry unit to appreciate what best wishes to Mauldin, helping to spread

moments of relief Bill gave us."

the appeal nationally, so Bill would not feel so alone. Soon, more than Better than that, old soldiers began to show up just to sit with Mauldin, to let him know they were there for him, as he, so long ago, had been there for them.

So many volunteered to visit Bill there was a waiting list.

Here is how Todd DePastino, in the first paragraph of his wonderful biography of Mauldin, described it: “Almost every day in the summer and fall of 2002 they came to Park Superior nursing home in Newport Beach, California to honour Army Sergeant, Technician Third

Mauldin is buried in Arlington National

Grade, Bill Mauldin.

Cemetery.

They came bearing relics of their youth: medals, insignia, photographs and carefully folded newspaper clippings. Some wore old garrison caps. Others arrived resplendent in uniforms over a half-century old.

Almost all of them wept as they filed down

On March 31, 2010, the United States Post Office released a first-class denomination ($0.44) postage stamp in Mauldin's honour

depicting him with Willie & Joe. It’s an honour that most generals and admirals

the corridor like pilgrims fulfilling some long never receive.

-neglected obligation.”

What Mauldin would have loved

grandfathers in times you cannot ever

most, I believe, is the sight of the two imagine today with all you have because guys who keep him company on that stamp. To the side, drawing them and

the only reason you are free to have it all is because of them."

smiling that shy, quietly observant

smile, is Mauldin himself. With his buddies, right where he belongs.

Forever.

Look at it.

Bill Maudlin’s book.

There’s Willie. There’s Joe.

Up front, an 1947 original

A fitting tribute to a man and to a

https://amzn.to/2UaNBLo

time few can still remember.

"But I say to you youngsters, you must most seriously learn of and remember with respect the sufferings and sacrifices of your fathers, grandfathers and great

This article was produced, in part, with many thanks to Partneringwitheagles/Profilesincourage

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Flash Fiction

Restless.

I throw back the white cotton sheet.

Laying naked, letting the air circulate over my skin hoping for coolness.

No relief.

Padding barefoot I cross the room.

Sliding the glass doors open, stepping onto the balcony.

The slight breeze a welcome freshness.

Looking down, way down below, I see the cars snaking through the city, Yellow cars.

All cars are taxis at night, cabs running to and fro, Making frivolous journeys for inconsequential people.

I see dots, little dots moving irregularly.

They are humans, tiny individuals, Way below.

A fire truck passes, lights flashing, Multiple glints against the glass buildings.

The deep honk of the fire trucks horn billows, Suffocating all other sounds for that instant.

I look out, around me.

Towers.

Reflections, light and glass.

I see inside lighted rooms, empty offices, lounges, bedrooms.

Nobody has curtains, nobody draws their blinds.

Seduced by the height, blinded by reflection, They think they are obscured from vision.

But I can see them, all of them.

I am standing in darkness, hidden in the shadows, looking out.

One pair of a thousand eyes, from a thousand dark places, Windows, balconies, rooftops, all staring at the city, Watching it move, pulsate, vibrate, gyrate.

Who, I wonder, is watching me as I stand here naked, Breathing in the night air, cooling my skin.

I do not care.

Look all you want, feast your eyes, Fantasise, ogle, masturbate if you wish, I do not know you, nor you, me.

Even if you are there, in one of those thousand windows, Or upon one of a thousand rooftops, if you exist anywhere but in my imagination, I still do not care.

Another siren, its echoes reverberating up the sides of the towers, Lights flashing, reflected, refracted, distorted in the mirror glass.

I turn around and pad barefoot back to the bed.

The faint light falls on her skin, she sleeping with one leg out, Twisted in the sheet I discarded, the other splayed wide and her arms akimbo.

Hair pouring over the pillows, a delta of soft threads.

There is no room for me now.

I do not want to wake her or disturb her slumber.

I am not tired, I have no desire to sleep.

I grab a drink from the kitchen and go back onto the balcony, This time I sit, open my laptop and light a cigarette.

I write this, my random thoughts of dark recesses, prying eyes, Mirrored glass walls, and yellow taxis, I write of my sleepless night in New York City.

Š Paul White 2014

m y b o o k .t o / w t i p e n ta c l e

m y b o o k .t o / D a r k Wo r d s PJ

Jane Risdon

https://janerisdon.com

Jane Risdon began writing several years

England when they meet.

ago having had a successful career in the

Jane’s main focus remains crime,

International Music Industry.

however, and she is working on a series

Jane has published a collection of her

of novels called 'Ms Birdsong

short crime stories: Undercover: Crime

Investigates' centred around a

Shorts .

glamorous ex MI5 Officer forced into early retirement, and is trying to keep a

Recently she has co-written a novel with award-winning author Christina Jones is

low profile in a rural village in Oxfordshire.

entitled 'Only One Woman' published by Accent Press Ltd.

Her past experiences come to the fore when she finds herself investigating

Christina and Jane have a shared history

murder.

of the 1960s and the music scene back

Too soon she finds herself back on old

then and have written a fictional story

territory with Russian Mafia, Ukrainian

about two girls and a lead guitarist

People Traffickers and an old flame to

whose band is touring and recording in

deal with.

As authors we often have to undertake

in brief, means that the perpetrator of a crime

research. Depending upon our genre this can

will bring something to a crime scene and will

involve a large amount of ferreting around in

also leave something at a crime scene. Ball the

various libraries, Googling, consulting Wikipedia

above can be used as forensic evidence; hence

and similar on-line resources and reading vast

the white suits, masks, and foot coverings

amounts of material by ‘experts.’ Some years

police and forensic experts wear at crime

ago I decided I needed to take several university

scenes; it is why everyone entering and leaving

courses (on-line) in Forensic Science and

a crime scene must register their name with the

Criminal Justice, with well-known tutors in their

police officer at entrance to the cordoned area

field, to ensure I write the most authentic and

around a crime scene.

accurate crime stories I can.

Dr. Edmund Locard (1877-1966) was a pioneer Research can be great fun but if the clock is

in forensic science, known as the Sherlock

ticking and a deadline looming it can be a bit of

Holmes of France. And it is he who formulated

a pain to be honest. Luckily, I have lots of notes

the basic principle of forensic science: Every

and video tutorials to fall back on when writing

contact leaves a trace and not just visible

about for example: the identification of a

traces.

skeleton found in a shallow grave, without any form of identification or possessions with it, or

For me research isn’t that bad and I do have a

how an interview with a witness to a crime is

couple of really lovely former Police detectives

conducted - which has changed over the years

whose brains I can pick if really necessary.

with the introduction of PACE. Do please look this up if interested. It is quite complex and I don’t want to give you brain ache.

I recently published a collection of some of my short crime stories, Undercover: Crime Shorts, and I had to do quite a lot of research into poisons and other methods of murder –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

goodness knows what a search of my Google

Police_and_Criminal_Evidence_Act_1984

history suggests! I must admit to my research being great fun but I do wonder how many

We only need to look at the way DNA is now leading the way in many investigations and we

no longer rely upon blood type, fingerprints, and hair samples alone.

There is also Locard’s Exchange Principle which,

victims have been bumped off so easily, by readily available poisons, or not so well-known methods of murder which are innocently sitting in our homes or growing in our gardens; some untraceable after a few hours following the crime.

I used such an innocent everyday item to murder

writing one had been way off my radar. Christina,

a victim in one of my stories, Murder by

I am sure, will most likely agree although she is a

Christmas, in this collection. I had to find a way of

romance writer, so she had the heads-up on me

killing someone hours after the actual deed had

genre-wise.

been perpetrated ensuring the murderer was long gone from the scene. It was quite a challenge but

But with all my memories I still had to undertake

goodness me, it was worrying just how simple it

a lot of research. Memories can be unreliable.

could be to despatch someone without any trace.

Feelings can become blurred with the passage of

I also had to ensure that I was mindful in all of the

time.

murders committed in my collection that they

Telling the fictional story of a young girl – my

adhered to the Locard’s Exchange Principle.

character was Renza aged 16 - at the beginning of her life journey and getting inside her teen head

Writing Only One Woman with Christina Jones

during those amazing times was quite a feat.

was quite a challenge, for starters it isn’t a crime

Trying to recall how I felt back then, what the

story – my comfort zone – so for me it was an

fashions and music were really like and which

epic undertaking. The story of Renza and Stella is

world events were shaping teenage lives meant a

set in the late 1960s UK music scene who both fell

great deal of research, and because Christina was

in love with the same musician, and you know

writing the character of Stella, we had to compare

what they say; ‘if you can remember the 60’s you

notes to check facts, dates, and events, so we

weren’t there…!’

didn’t contradict each other. It could have been a headache, but it was actually fun. It was rather

Admittedly my memory is good. I was there, living

sad at times too.

through the music scene and, although I recalled

loads of facts and events, not just the music and

I decided to write Renza’s parts in diary format

fashions of the day such as the popular venues,

because I came across lots of old diaries during

the music charts, the groups and celebrities we

unpacking - having just moved house - and

followed, which we featured in our novel, but I

reading them it occurred to me that it would be

had to try to recall the various political

easier for Christina and I to each take a date per

assassinations, the Moon Landings and so much

chapter when writing our character’s parts. I

more, accurately. We even included food and

found lots of information in my diaries.

drink and lots of social change taking place – a social commentary on the lives of teens during the late 1960s. It was quite daunting when I came to write about it in such great detail. The romance side especially, as I have never read a romance, so

They were records of our lives – my husband’s and mine - which I’d kept going right back to the time I met him and all through his band years and beyond, right up to recent times when we were working

in the international music business which, by the

see a chart band for next to nothing in a local

time of writing, had changed beyond imagination.

village hall – where Stella first met Scott from Narnia’s Children in Only One Woman, on her last

These diaries were great for giving me names of long gone venues on ‘the circuit,’ dates of record releases, movies being shown, the clothes we were all wearing, the presenters on ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘Ready Steady Go!’ and what they wore, as well as reminding me about world events: moon landings, assassinations, marriages and deaths of important and popular people as I touched upon earlier…it was all there.

WE WERE SO

‘ INNOCENT’

night on earth, and I am sure Christina found the same when writing Stella. It was possible to close my eyes and actually taste the era, smell the air and feel the electric vibe which seemed to be all around us. For a short time I was there, I was a

teenager and what I was reading became reality as I recalled events, people, and places and how I felt whilst recording little facts and events just as they happened. A blast from the past. Research.

Little things which I found amazing back then and which today we take for granted, such as a girl going in to a public house on her own – frowned

upon and not ‘done,’ for example, made me laugh In the letters fans sent to my husband, sometimes relating little stories of how and where the fan had met and seen him and his band, I found a mine of valuable information. How the girls wrote and spoke and what was important to them. Tour posters and schedules reminded me of which bands were touring and with whom (support acts)

and the costs of entry to various venues. It was amazing. A time capsule of our lives. It was fascinating and time-consuming because I kept forgetting I was doing research and not taking a trip down ‘memory lane’ for my own reading enjoyment – there was plenty to laugh about and more than a few tears to shed.

The whole experience transported me right back to those fabulous times when music was everywhere; group vans with lip-sticked messages written on their sides went up and down the road to venues large and small. A time when you could

out loud – we were so ‘innocent.’ A girl going inside one on her own was thought of as ‘cheap,’ and if anyone told you they’d be into a pub without a male to accompany them, we’d all nearly faint with shock. Boys being a bit ‘forward,’ was something you kept to yourself in fear of being thought of as being ‘easy,’ and not putting up the right defences. Right out of Victorian England when I think of it now. It may well have been the Swingin’ Sixties for some sophisticated folk but for most of us we dare not swing for fear of our parent’s finding out. Although there was The Pill, most of us who were unmarried were not eligible to receive it on prescription.

Research helps inform or remind a writer of such events and very different times and it gives our readers a flavour of what they may also have experienced and younger readers an insight into history!

h t t p s : / / b o o k s 2 r e a d. c o m / b / 4 j D 0 w o Also at Waterstones in Paperback: ISBN: 9780359397839

Writing about a teenage girl falling in love with a

Going back through those diaries and pieces of

rock musician and how they conducted

memorabilia brought it all

themselves was quite a trip down memory lane

Mostly it was fun and funny looking back, but

really.

some of the research made me feel really sad.

Upon reflection it was all so ‘proper.’ My

Sad for lost youth I suppose, and for the lives we

research reminded me of just how unworldly we

led back when. It made me realise that we are

were. Even Stella was fearful of what her

all walking histories too, and researching your

parents and community would think of her as

own history is quite an undertaking and not for

contemplated going to ‘live in sin,’ with Scott.

the faint hearted.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OnlyOne-Woman-Christina-Jonesebook/dp/B075D88JBP Available internationally – digital platforms and in paperback.

ASIN: BO75D88JBP Also at Waterstones in Paperback: ISBN: 9781783757312

Mechanical Mike is a wonderfully constructed eBook novelette, in the best amalgamated traditions of sci-fi, comic book, pulp fiction.

This book contains all the elements needed for a fun, enjoyable and fast-paced tale, including a ‘gumshoe’ old style detective, a beautiful, shapely blond girl, a mad scientist, robotics, and Nazis… all situated in France during World War Two. Read Mike Green’s race against time to rescue his sweetheart and to stop Hitler obtaining a robotic army. Yes, you read that correctly… after all, what else could you possibly wish for in a tale of this crazy magnitude?

Enjoy Mechanical Mike, download it right now,

mybook.to/MechMikeEE

Other people will always be interested in your

Tell the reader if the characters feel real to you.

opinion regarding the books you have read.

If the story kept you guessing about 'what Whether you enjoyed them or not, if you share

happens next and if there were any unexpected

your honest opinion and give the details and

'twists'.

reasons to your conclusions, it will assist others in selecting the titles they believe will be to their personal taste.

If you feel it difficult to explain your thoughts, simply imagine you are speaking to your best friend, who is sitting across the table from you in a cafĂŠ and they ask your opinion about a book they are thinking of reading.

Write exactly what you would say to them.

You could detail your favourite part of the book and tell why it was so.

What type of scene did you think the writer handled particularly well, for example the sad scenes, tense scenes or those alluring to mystery?

Did any part of the book make you laugh or cry?

Or leave you with thoughts running through your head, if so which and why.

Start with a few sentences outlining the book but without giving any spoilers or revealing plot twists.

Was the story an intense 'slow burner' or a fastpaced thriller? Did it grip you and keep you turning the pages, or was it a book you could

As a rule, avoid detailing anything which

put down yet yearned to return to?

happens from the middle of the book onwards.

If the book is part of a series mention that it is and whether you think it best, or needed, to have read the other books in the series to

You should and must mention what you disliked about the book if anything. If you loved it all this bit of guidance is irrelevant.

enjoy, or understand, this one.

Talk about what did not work for you.

Discuss what you liked about the book. Focus

Did you find the ending poor; did it feel rushed

on your thoughts and feelings about the story

or inconclusive? Do you wish it was not a cliff-

and the way it was told. i.e. the narration and

hanger that left you frustrated?

authors style.

Why could you not identify with the characters, Explain things like;

particularly the protagonist and why?

Who is your favourite character and give

Was the story too scary for your liking, or did it

reasons why?

focus on a theme you didn't find interesting?

Do not be shy about expressing your

If you wish you can give the book a

opinion, this could be an important element

rating, for example, a mark out of five or

for anyone choosing a book.

ten. You could award a book 'stars' or

Now summarise your thoughts on your overall impression of the book and the feeling it left you with.

Suggesting the type of reader you think would enjoy the story; like younger readers, mature ladies, fans of relationship dramas, sci-fi fanatics or old fashioned historical romancers etc.

'lipsticks' or 'bananas. If those reading your review understand your rating system anything goes.

If you are going to write a review then write a review. One or two lines that

say, "I enjoyed this book, lots", or "Oh, what a scorcher, five stars from me", are not reviews, they a throwaway comments which are not helpful to the

Mention any books or series you would personally compare as a likeness.

author or any potential reader.

A bit is about the city of Seattle, Washington, USA and where Electric Press suggests bookworms should eat while visiting this fast-growing American city.

You may know about the Space Needle, Starbucks and its distinction as the birthplace of grunge. But

did you know Seattle is built on the ruins of a city which burned down over a hundred years ago? Or that it’s the hometown of Kenny G? Despite its rainy image, Seattle gets less annual rainfall than New York, Houston, Boston, and Atlanta.

It does, however, have quite a few cloudy days and days with light precipitation, particularly in the wintertime.

The 600-foot-tall Space Needle was the brainchild of artist Edward E. Carlson, who sketched a design for the tower that would loom over the 1962 World's Fair on a cocktail napkin. The structure, which

was built in just 400 days, can withstand winds of up to 200 mph and a 9.1 magnitude earthquake (more on that later), thanks in part to its foundation, which extends 30 feet underground.

Seattlites are a cultured bunch. Around 80 percent of adults hold Seattle Public Library cards, while the Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Ballet is said to have the highest per capita attendance of any ballet in America.

The following are where many of those cultured folk dine.

H ow to Co o k a Wo l f Ethan Stowell’s Queen Anne eatery was named for MFK Fisher ’s How to Cook a Wolf, a 1942 guide to culinary creativity in the face of wartime shortages. This rustic, Italian-inspired restaurant pays fitting tribute to Fisher ’s forte of creating adventurous spreads from modest ingredients. Such simplicity is palpable in down-to-earth plates of uncomplicated pastas on an ever -changing seasonal menu—perhaps pumpkin and mascarpone agnolotti drizzled in brown butter and crowned with pine nut and rosemary crumble that warms on a Seattle winter ’s day.

Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf

continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table. M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations

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to celebrate life by eating well.

Meet the Moon

The neighborly Leschi restaurant from Heavy Restaurant Group is named for a snippet of poetry by Robert Frost: “We ran as if to meet the moon that slowly dawned behind the trees.” Frost’s pastoral verse excerpted from the poem Going for Water—the writer himself a long-time proponent of rural living—seems an apt title for this Lake Washington–adjacent address. On the menu are dishes for all mealtimes: housemade pastries by morning, meaty sandwiches and farro bowls by night, and delightful nibbles like a porter and white

cheddar pretzel when snack time rolls around.

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The well was dry beside the door, And so we went with pail and can Across the fields behind the house To seek the brook if still it ran; Not loth to have excuse to go, Because the autumn eve was fair

(Though chill), because the fields were ours, And by the brook our woods were there.

We ran as if to meet the moon That slowly dawned behind the trees , The barren boughs without the leaves, Without the birds, without the breeze.

But once within the wood, we paused Like gnomes that hid us from the moon, Ready to run to hiding new With laughter when she found us soon.

Each laid on other a staying hand To listen ere we dared to look, And in the hush we joined to make We heard, we knew we heard the brook.

A note as from a single place, A slender tinkling fall that made Now drops that floated on the pool Like pearls, and now a silver blade.

T h e Wa l r u s a n d t h e Carpenter Renee Erickson’s famed Ballard bar offers masses of icy oysters, small plates, and inventive cocktails. It’s aptly named for Lewis Carroll’s narrative poem in Through

the Looking Glass about a walrus and carpenter who trick unsuspecting oysters to walk upon the beach for easy-access feasting. In this whitewashed space, savour fried brussels sprouts, octopus carpaccio, or roasted medjool dates in the company of a massive, coral-like chandelier that provides the semblance of dining under the sea.

https://amzn.to/2oPOnSd

To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said…

(Carroll)

To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said “I’ve a sceptre in hand, I’ve a crown on my head.

Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be Come dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen and Me!

“Then fill up the glasses as quick as you can,

And sprinkle the table with buttons and bran: Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea– And welcome Queen Alice with thirty-times-three!”

O Looking-Glass creatures,” quoth Alice, “draw near!

‘Tis and honour to see me, a favour to ear: ‘Tis a privilege high to have dinner and tea Along with the Red Queen, the White Queen, and Me!”

Then fill up the glasses with treacle and ink,

Or anything else that is pleasant to drink: Mix sand with the cider, and wool with the wine– And welcome Queen Alice with ninety-times-nine!

Oliver’s Twist This Greenwood happy hour destination (and its spinoff in Magnolia) was named for the owners’ son, Oliver, along with Charles Dickens’ second novel, which follows lowly orphan Oliver Twist on his escape to London and adventurous encounter with the young delinquent, the Artful Dodger. The lounge sports a long bar and dim lighting; the tiny kitchen produces nibbles like garlic truffled popcorn and warm

olives. Plus smart cocktails, naturally.

Dickens had already achieved renown with The Pickwick Papers. With Oliver Twist his reputation was enhanced and strengthened. The novel contains many classic Dickensian themes - grinding poverty, desperation, fear, temptation and the eventual triumph of good in the face of great adversity.

Oliver Twist features some of the author's most enduring characters, such as Oliver himself

(who dares to ask for more), the tyrannical Bumble, the diabolical Fagin, the menacing Bill Sikes, Nancy and 'the Artful Dodger'.

For any reader wishing to delve into the works of the great Victorian literary colossus, Oliver Twist is, without doubt, an essential title.

https://amzn.to/2pAhp8R

Karen J Mossman I was watching a programme called 7up on the

Since that February Dad began losing weight

television recently. If you don’t know it, it

and by the July he was just skin and bone. No

started in the sixties where children were

one knew what was wrong but something

interviewed when they were seven, and every

clearly was.

seven years the cameras caught up with them.

Hubby and I went for a weekend away but

The ‘children’ are now 63 and it has been

instead of leaving the worry behind, it came

fascinating. My mum and I followed it

with me. I couldn’t settle and rang Mum to

throughout the years and she missed the last

check on him. Dad answered, normally we

two now.

have a brief word before he passes me to

This time the first programme was a little

mum. This time he said I couldn’t speak to her

different. They had well known celebrities

because she was lying down. Mum, if she

watching as they discussed it. They always ran

wasn’t well, slept on the settee, she never

through previous episodes first, and one boy in

went to bed and she never, ever, refused to

28-up was visiting his mother’s grave.

talk to me. I felt even more unsettled so we

A discussion by the celebs followed with each

decided to go home.

of them remembering when they lost a parent.

On the journey back, not knowing I was already

It was evident the memories were still raw,

on my way, my sister rang asking me to return

even though some were elderly they never

as dad had been taken to hospital by

forgot the pain losing someone they loved.

ambulance. I told her we would be home

It made me think how everyone has a story to

within the hour. She rang again to say Mum

tell, and even after time has passed, it can

had now been taken in by ambulance.

break hearts. As they talked, it made think of

That was August 19th. Every day I made the 30-

my loss and how I coped with bereavement.

mile round trip to visit them.

My parents passed away at more or less the

Mum was unable to walk but chirpy. Dad was

same time. It was August 2010 when it all

Dad, although he looked awful he was

began.

optimistic. He was going for a scan and if it was clear he could go home. It wasn’t. They kept

him in and I was with him when the doctors

persuasion, she was wheeled down the corridor

broke the news. It was pancreatic cancer, he had

to him. They stayed together for a good hour

only a few days to live.

and I’ve often wondered what they talked about.

The doctor asked him if he suspected it and he

What could they talk about? How do you even

said he hadn’t. He was so brave as he somehow

have that conversation?

accepted his time had come. The way he coped

On 2nd September, Dad passed away with my

helped us all.

brother by his side. Even though I knew it was

I went back to mum’s ward to tell her the news.

coming, it was still a shock. The whole thing was

Unable to contain myself I burst into tears.

surreal. You don’t expect things like that to

Mum, in her usual take control, everything will

happen to you.

be all right, manner, said, “Not you as well!” My

We continued visiting Mum, who couldn’t walk

sister was sitting there, her face red with tears.

by now. She also began acting strangely. No one

The strange thing was, Mum didn’t want to see

said what was wrong with her. A DVT blood clot

him. She had listened to the news and it was as

was suspected and she was ongoing with tests.

if she didn’t believe it. Eventually after some

She stopped talking normally to us. She was

The 23rd September was Dad’s birthday and a

having hallucinations. This strong woman I’d

difficult day. It was the only day I took off from

known all my life was suddenly not speaking. It

visiting. The following morning my sister rang

was difficult to deal with. In times like this, it was

saying, ‘Come now, there’s something wrong

always Mum who knew what to do, she was the

with Mum.’

one who held us together. Now she just stared

We all sat by her bedside as she quietly slipped

and wouldn’t respond. Then she began keeping

away.

her eyes closed, even when she was awake.

I’m a multi-genre author and have just released “Mum, open your eyes,” I said to her one day. I

a book called 'The Magic of Stories book'. Inside,

wanted to show her a picture of my daughter’s

there are many themes including poetry and

boyfriend. The one she went on to marry. She

shorts.

opened them and they were all milky. I don’t think she could even see.

Two of them are for mum and dad. One is poem which explains what happened. The second is

We organise dad’s funeral, hoping mum would

about a spur of the moment decision to visit

get well enough to attend. She showed no

them at home before I went away. It would be

interest as she retreated into herself. One day I

the last time I’d see them together in their

visited and she’d had a stroke, no one said

house. I am so happy I did that. It was a perfect

anything or confirmed it.

way to remember them.

Magic of Stories Karen J Mossman

Amazon UK https://amzn.to/2Vc6I8r

International

mybook.to/MoS

Rupert is a bit of a bumbling lad, a 'normal' regular bloke, who is pretty much drifting through life.

He meets Carla, who becomes the love of his life; the girl he is to propose to the very day he is snatched off the street and his adventure begins.

Through flashbacks and memories, Rupert's dysfunctional childhood is slowly revealed, as is Carla's traumatic past and George's (Rupert's boss and friend), previous life.

The reader is taken from moments of laugh out aloud, to high drama before being plunged into tearjerking depths of despair, as they travel through each of the characters' lives.

Often hilariously funny and charming, this fast-paced, suspenseful, unbelievable, honest and truthful book searches into the readers own soul and asks questions of their own humanity, probes their fears, uncertainties and beliefs before making then cry with laughter once again, tears of joy and sadness.

This is a story of realisation, of finding oneself, of intrigue, humanity and, above all, love.

Available from Amazon and other many other good online bookstores Paperback & eBook/Kindle

Brian Sims autobiography, You don’t have to be a Champion to be a Winner At the moment, finding time to read is a bonus, so this bank holiday weekend gave me a welcome

chance to get stuck into a book written by Brian Sims , called, 'You don't have to be a Champion to be a Winner' and subtitled 'A Journey from Xerox to F1'.

While the title may not roll off your tongue, it accurately describes what this book is about; or does it?

Let me explain.

If you have been, or are, involved with motorsport then I am certain you will have heard of Brian Sims.

The words in the title, 'Champion and F1' also lend themselves to the initial conclusion this is about motor racing; as I am a long-time Grand Prix/Formula one fan, it is the main reason I was looking forward to reading this book, which is an autobiography of Brian Sims and his long term association with motorsport and F1, both as a (not too successful) driver and as a major force in the commercial business of motor racing.

However, this is where the book differs from my perceived expectations.

Although much of this book does focus on motor racing or rather the business of motorsport, which is something else, it covers so many more aspects which will appeal to those in general business, advertising, sponsorship, corporate affairs, teaching, self-improvement, life skills, fundraising, acquisition and negotiation.

I guess that all sounds a little boring. Well, it's not.

Brian Sims delivers his life story; the successes, failures, frustrations and achievements, in an entertaining and endearing way. Whilst filling each page with a wealth of historical memoirs, Brian manages to slip in a world of information and knowledge which registers in one's mind almost subliminally.

While Brian is ten years older than me, I do recall much of the people, places and music of the sixties (at least the latter part) and, as the years progress, recall not only living through those times (70/80's and onwards), but being mesmerised by the drivers characters and enchanted by the sounds of the Grand Prix cars, albeit mostly on a monochrome television.

'You don’t have to be a Champion to be a Winner' reveals the histrionics, the infighting, greed,

egotistic characters and short-sightedness of, not only motor racing, but within the corporate

business world in general.

What we saw, what was promoted as smooth, slick operators running the world's most expensive sport were, in fact, more often than not, flying by the seats of their pants on dubious and poor sponsorship agreements which often delivered little for sponsors, the racing teams, the drivers or even the future of motorsport itself.

It certainly opened my eyes to some of the situations and relationships which existed but were kept well hidden from the public.

This book may be Brian's autobiography, but it is also a wonderful walk through history for any diehard motorsport fan, including Indy/CART/sportscars/Formula3 and more, especially for anyone who may regard themselves as Tifosi. (Perhaps nowadays I should add Tifose, too?)

As for the personal stuff.

Brian may blow his own trumpet now and then, which is his right. After all, this is his book about his own life, but he is not shy at admitting when he got things wrong, made mistakes or bad decisions. Neither does he claim it was all part of a grand design, rather he is truthful about chance meetings and fortunate timings, which, all in all, makes this an easily readable,

thoroughly enjoyable book, one which I devoured in two afternoons.

I expected to read this book in dribs and drabs, picking it up and putting it down to fit in with my busy life. It did not turn out that way. I read the whole book, opening biography, dedication, the thanks to Claire at Austin Macauley, the Prologue, all the 49 chapters and 308 pages in two sittings, while soaking up the sun in my garden.

Bliss.

Would I recommend this book?

Maybe, if Brian would sponsor me a spare pair of tickets for the next F1 Grand Prix.

No, honestly, go ahead and get yourself a copy of this book now. It is a wonderful, easy, enjoyable and a most entertaining read.

mybook.to/champion

This special feature includes an interview with Ally Vance by Fiona McVie, taken from her

blog, Authorinterviews, My interviews with many authors https:// authorsinterviews.wordpress. com/

Ally Vance is an International Bestselling Author who writes in the Dark Romance genre. She has been writing since she was a teenager, going on to study Professional Writing at University.

It was a long-time dream of Ally's to become a published author, which she achieved in 2018 with her Bestselling debut book, Flower in the Dark.

Additionally, Ally co-writes with her close friend Michelle, under the pen name Ally Michelle.

She lives in Kent, the county called the 'Garden of England', in the United Kingdom with her husband and stepson.

Violet...

Loneliness is a constant in my life. I have no one to turn to. No one to come and save me. Except for him. He has become my everything, and all we have to do is meet...

Him...

My little flower is ripe for the picking. All I have to do is pluck her out of her lonely and comfortable world and drag her into mine. I want her. I will have her. I will make her SCREAM.

https://amzn.to/2Me3pcE Warning: contains triggers and is intended for a mature audience 18+

Fiona McVie: Let’s get you introduced to everyone,

find particularly challenging?

would you tell us your name and your age?

I’ve been told I’m very descriptive and lyrical

Hi, everyone, I’m Ally Vance and I’m 27 years old.

which comes from years of writing poetry. It can

Fiona: Where are you from?

be hard to adapt but I try not to force myself to

I’m from Kent in South-East England in the UK Fiona: A little about your self (ie, your education, family life, etc.).

I’m married with a son, and a fur baby called Declan. Education-wise I’ve got a Foundation (Associate’s) degree in professional writing.

Fiona: Tell us your latest news.

Latest news in the book world I’ve just been a part of an anthology with a collection of amazing

write in a way that isn’t suited to me.

Fiona: How much of the book is realistic and are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

For my first book not at all based on real people or events. As for realism maybe.

Fiona: To craft your works, do you have to travel?

Before or during the process?

No, I don’t have to travel.

authors. Something Wicked anthology.

Fiona: Who designed the covers?

Fiona: When and why did you begin writing?

Opium House Designs.

I’m not sure why but I started writing when I was

Fiona: Is there a message in your novel that you

14.

want readers to grasp?

Fiona: When did you first consider yourself a

In some of them there are, but I think its always

writer?

that dark and hard times don’t mean happiness

Consciously probably after I published my first book.

Fiona: What inspired you to write your first book?

An old assignment from university and the enthusiastic prodding from fellow author and friend Michelle Brown.

Fiona: How did you come up with the title?

can’t be found.

Fiona: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest? Who is your favorite writer, and what is it about their work that really strikes you?

I’ve been meaning to read Ember Michaels who is a new author and also more of Faith Ryan Fiona: Outside of family members, name one

The title is based off the story, the name of the

entity that supported your commitment to become

main character and an ongoing theme

a published author.

throughout.

Fiona: Do you have a specific writing style? Is there anything about your style or genre that you

Michelle Brown was my first supporter and I’ll always love her for it.

Fiona: Do you see writing as a career?

makes me laugh, and I don’t lke seeing people or

One day I hope!

animals in pain, it upsets me.

Fiona: If you had to do it all over again, would

Fiona: Is there one person, past or present, you

you change anything in your latest book?

would love to meet? Why?

I’m not sure, I think the stories always happen as

Michelle Brown and Renee Botbyl because those

they are meant to.

2 ladies are my US sisters and I need to hug

Fiona: Did you learn anything during the writing of your recent book?

them.

Fiona: Do you have any hobbies?

That I can write strange stories and people will

Reading! Also watching Crime Dramas

still read them. Love my readers.

Fiona: Favorite foods, colors, music?

Fiona: If your book was made into a film, who

One of my favourite foods is spaghetti bolognese.

would you like to play the lead?

My favourite colour is probably Forest Green,

I’m not sure.

and my favourite genres of music are rock and

Fiona: Any advice for other writers?

Never stop, never doubt yourself and never force it. The story will flow as its meant to.

Fiona: Anything specific you want to tell your readers?

Thank you so much for all your support and I

metal.

Fiona: Imagine a future where you no longer write. What would you do?

I’d like to teach or get into editing.

Fiona: You only have 24 hours to live how would you spend that time?

appreciate and love you all.

I’d spend it with family

Fiona: What book are you reading now?

Fiona: What do you want written on your head

I’m reading an ARC from Yolanda Olson, Cirque

stone?

Du Freak by Darren Shan, and Beast of Bondi

I have no idea, I don’t want to be buried

Duet by Yolanda Olson

traditionally.

Fiona: Do you remember the first book you read?

Fiona: Do you have a blog or website readers can

The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton when I was 8 years old.

Fiona: What makes you laugh/cry?

The weird senses of humour of my friends always

visit for updates, events and special offers?

I don’t have a website but I post book news on my author page and in the reader group I share with my friend and sometimes co-author Michelle Brown.

Seth Galahad

Leeann Mallory

Reckless rule-breaker with a taste for violence.

It's what I’ve been called time and again.

My brother's string of gambling debts has raged out of control.

Carving my way through the names I’ve been given, I’ll rise through the ranks.

An insurmountable sum that he’s racked up over time.

Collecting your blood as payment for your debts

Out of money and out of luck, he did something unthinkable.

I’m young, I’m hungry, and I won’t be stopped.

I take what I want, when I want. Nothing can hold me back.

The cross on my back speaks of a past I know nothing about.

The history of my family drenched in mystery.

Playing with my life in a game of chance, he lost.

My brother did nothing to prevent me from being taken.

The debt collector came in the night, and he snatched me from my bed.

Debts must be cleared, and I'm going to be the

This is a standalone novella within the Cavalieri della Morte series Thirteen interconnected standalones that will push your limits, test your one-handed reading technique, and take you into a suspenseful world where men are domineering and dangerous, and their female counterparts are feisty and strong.

Are you ready to take the ride with us?

https://amzn.to/2Vhv40v

フォトハイガ Elizabeth Crocket on Japanese photo-haiga Shortform poetry

My interest in Japanese short form poetry,

I never knew what this area of over eleven

particularly haiku, began many years ago. It was

hundred hectares of nature reserve, full of

fascinating to me that a short poem of only

herons, egrets, raccoons and more, had in store

three lines, could burst with such vivid imagery

for me. I wrote poetry of an osprey circling

and be filled with such depth. I learned that the

around a cloud, a soaring seagull carrying a fish

five-seven-five syllable count, was seldom being

in the air, and a lone swan. On other days, I

used anymore in the western world, and what I

wrote of new foliage growing on the dam made

had been taught in school, was not relevant to

of discarded Christmas trees, or a bee

what was being published in the leading

squirming on purple thistle. I ended up with a

journals today. As someone who always loved

collection of haibun (prose that usually ends

being outside surrounded by nature, learning

with a haiku), by the end of that summer.

about all the various forms of this genre of

Eventually, I learned of another type of poem

poetry became a natural fit for me. I threw

called photo-haiku or photo-haiga, a pairing of

myself into learning more about this ancient art

a haiku with a photograph that complements it,

that dated back hundreds of years.

and fell in love with the form and

After a major surgery, while still in recovery, I

accompanying learning curve. While I am new

began to drive myself to the property owned by

to the photography game, I am here to stay,

the Royal Botanical Gardens close to our home.

thrilled at this new way of seeing and

I would find a bench to sit on, with my pen and

experiencing the world. And I am in awe of the

small notebook in hand, and write haiku,

patience I witness in photographers, waiting for

finding it interesting that each day nature

as long as it takes, to capture that perfect

would hand me something new to write about.

moment.

Recently I found myself at one of the great lakes,

Last summer I travelled many country roads,

capturing glorious sunsets of a tangerine-

stopping to take a picture of a large bull

coloured sky, and at a Dark Sky Preserve in

languishing in the sunshine, a field full of

Ontario, Canada, hoping for the elusive northern

sunflowers craning in the direction of the sun,

lights to dance their way into my camera lens.

and a pasture of lavender whose scent stayed on

Even though they didn’t grant me an

my clothes. Some of those pictures I have used in

appearance, the journey to that small village and

my photo-haiga, and some I have filed away,

back offered me shots of stunning rock

waiting for the perfect haiku to match with

formations, and a winding river of a shade of

them. I consider myself a poet who loves

blue, I don’t have a name for. Closer to home this

photography, not a photographer. As my skills

past winter, I captured a frozen waterfall

improve, perhaps that will change some day.

surrounded by trees dressed in white lace, and trumpeter swans with their heads nestled inside

In the meantime, I am loving the

their wings wrapped around themselves for

journey.

warmth.

Sixth generation Canadian, Elizabeth is a Japanese short form poet, children’s picture book author and women’s fiction author, born in Toronto, Ontario.

Elizabeth has photo haiga published in NHK World – Japan; Daily Haiga; Failed Haiku, A Journal of English Senryu; Haiga Online; World Haiku Association; Wild Plum; Scryptic Magazine; FreshOut Magazine, Colorado Blvd. Poets Salon; Chrysanthemum; the Urban Fantasist; Sonic Boom and Human/Kind Journal. Her photo haiga won the photograph based category of the second annual Jane Reichhold Haiga Contest.

Amazon USA

Amazon UK

Electric Press discovers eight books Hollywood have transformed into feature films and are due for release during 2020

Death on the Nile Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel, Death on the Nile, comes to life with the help of actors Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Jodie Comer, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman and Letitia Wright. Branagh plays the character of Hercule Poirot who is tasked with investigating the murder of an heiress while on vacation.

This isn’t the first time Death on the Nile has been made into a movie. It first became a feature film in 1978 with cast members including Mia Farrow, Bette Davis, Jane Birkin, and Peter Ustinov.

Expect to see the updated version hit theatres on Oct. 9, 2020.

Read the book; https://amzn.to/2pJXRPr

Chaos Walking Author Patrick Ness will see his work come to life next year. The movie is based on the first instalment of his Chaos Walking trilogy including The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men. Chaos Walking tells the story of Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland), a man who lives on another planet when a virus infects everyone’s minds.

Hewitt is forced to flee his home and team up with a girl named, Viola (Daisy Ridley), to save lives and

discover the truth about what happened.

No exact release date has been released but we do know the film is due to hit theatres sometime in 2020.

Read the books; https://amzn.to/2LPT1ZN

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before 2 To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before took Netflix by storm last year. The teen romance is based on the book of the same name by author Jenny Han and follows Laura Jean Song as she learns, that somehow, love letters she wrote with the intention of never sending were somehow sent.

The book is one of three with the second book, P.S. I Still Love You, being made into a feature film next. It will be called To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before 2.

No further details currently.

Read the books; https://amzn.to/2OlskxG

The Devil All the Time Here’s how IMDb describes the film version of The Devil All the Time: “Follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia.”

Donald Ray Pollock’s 2011 book of the same name inspired the film and has 4.1 stars out of 5 on Good Reads.

No specific release date has been announced.

Read the book; https://amzn.to/30RtWSi

Dragon Rider Dragon Rider is a 1997 children’s book by Cornelia Funke.

IMDb describes the film as follows: “A young silver dragon teams up with a mountain spirit and an orphaned boy on a journey through the Himalayas in search for the Rim of Heaven.”

Patrick Stewart, Felicity Jones, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Freddie Highmore lend their voices to the animated movie. No release date yet.

Read the book; https://amzn.to/2LPpQWP

Artemis Fowl Artemis Fowl is a series of books written by Eoin Colfer. The Irish author’s books will come to life with the help of Disney and actors Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Ferdia Shaw, and Diana Alexandra Pocol.

The film’s storyline is this: “Artemis Fowl II, a young Irish criminal mastermind, kidnaps the fairy Leprecon officer Holly Short for ransom to fund the search for his missing father in order to restore the family fortune.”

Aug. 9, 2020 is the film’s expected release date.

Read the books; https://amzn.to/2OmGv5B

The Turning The 1898 Henry James novella, The Turn of the Screw, gets a modern makeover in the 2020 version directed by Floria Sigismondi.

The Turning follows the same storyline as The Turn of the Screw when a man hires a governess to help him take care of his niece and nephew who came into his care after their parents died.

Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, and Mark Huberman star in the film adaptation set to hit theatres on Jan. 24, 2020.

Read the book; https://amzn.to/2LRKR3b

Call of the Wild

Based on the 1903 book by Jack London, Call of the Wild will premiere on Feb. 21, 2020. Call of the Wild follows a sled dog’s journey during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s.

Buck, the sled dog who is the main character in the book, will be played by actor Terry Notary in the film adaptation. Other actors who have signed on to the film include Karen Gillan, Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, and Bradley Whitford.

Read the book; https://amzn.to/2pOAcgX

The term 'Kotodama' literally means “the spirit of language” (koto = language, dama (tama) = spirit or soul). It is a belief based on the idea of Shintoism, the indigenous

religion of Japan which worships divinity in all-natural creation and phenomena.

In ancient Japan, language was believed to

yamatokotoba, was preferred.

have a spirit, which gives positive power to

Under the name of kotodama, this

positive words, negative power to negative

connection between spiritual power and

words, and impacts a person’s life when his

pure language survived throughout Japanese

or her name is pronounced out loud. Wishes

history as a looser concept and was

or curses were thus spelled out in a

reinvented multiple times.

particular manner in order to communicate with the divine powers.

According to this ancient belief, the spirit of language only resides in “pure” Japanese that is unique and free from foreign influence. Therefore, Sino-Japanese loanwords, which were numerous by then and had a great impact on the Japanese language, were eschewed in Shintoist rituals and Japanese native vocabulary,

Expressing your own opinion or feeling is called “kotoage” and is not a good thing to do.

The attitude when saying words is also important in Japan. If you have

maliciousness or arrogance in your heart, these words are believed to come back to you. If you say something good, something good will happen, but if you say bad things, something bad

Masaru Emoto undertook controversial

words and feelings on molecules of water can

experiments in which he claimed positive

positively impact the earth and our personal

words uttered to a water sample would cause

health.

the water to produce beautiful crystal patterns when frozen, whereas negative words with negative intentions would cause the water to form ugly crystal patterns when frozen.

This book has the potential to profoundly transform your world view.

Emoto says' "Any living creature is made from

Using high-speed photography, Dr. Masaru

water, minerals and the planet itself are the

Emoto discovered crystals formed in frozen

same. So, the positive thoughts can make any

water reveal changes when specific,

related things beautiful and harmonized."

concentrated thoughts are directed toward

He produced a work called ‘Messages of

them. The implications of this research create a

Water’; in this New York Times bestseller, he

new awareness of how we can positively

shows how the influence of our thoughts,

impact the earth and our personal health.

h t t p s : / /a m z n .t o / 2 O p 6 W r g

A Christmas treat for music lovers

E XC L U S I V E E D I T I O N

https://goo. gl/M4UGn3

Like many book lovers, I have a hard time parting

You may be surprised at what Electric Press

with books I've read. Even those I lend, grudgingly

found.

and oh, so very occasionally.

Of course, this is not a scientific study, an

Summer Brennan is quoted as saying, “what kind

exhaustive or comprehensive account it is simple

of degenerate only wants to own 30 books or

for elucidation and a 'bit of fun'.

fewer? Not anyone I know."

As an aside, the people who did not make it into

One study reported, if you own one thousand

the following Electric Press report include:

books, you qualify as a book hoarder.

Marylin Monroe with a lowly 400 books, George

Of course, a tiny one-bedroom apartment or

Washington whose library did not extend past

bedsit would have no space to hold anywhere

1,200. Surprisingly, at least to me, Charles Darwin

near that figure, so I would balance the number

only collected 1,480 books while Oprah Winfrey

books a person collects to the space available,

is estimated to have 1, 500. Frederick Douglas is

then apply some ratio to identify the hoarders. I

estimated to have around 2,000, a figure Mark

wonder if your name would appear on that list?

Dawson slightly exceeds with 2,500.

With the above in mind I asked Electric Press to

If you know the book count of other public figures

poke around and find out about the book

please let Electric Press know as we may follow

collections of famous people, to see which ones

up this article.

are true book hoarders.

The Human Condition By Hannah Ardndt https://amzn.to/2OpreRn

Now, onto the larger numbers‌

The Hannah Arendt collection at Bard College

could not resist it!)

is made up of some “4,000 volumes, ephemera

The food writer and television personality

and pamphlets”, including over 900 featuring her

Nigella Lawson has floor-to-ceiling

annotations which came directly from the New

bookshelves filled with thousands of cookbooks

York City apartment she lived in until she died in

in her Belgravia home in London. However, it is

1975. (Not sure these could all be classed as

not only cookbooks which populate those

books, but for the purpose of this article Electric

shelves; Nigella has a literary bent and says her

Press are happy to do so.)

favourite book of the 6,000 she owns is David

For some reason, 4,000 seems to be

Copperfield.

a lucky number for libraries of literary types; other writers who had that many books in their private collections include Virginia Woolf and Katherine Anne Porter.

https://amzn.to/2pLLAtP “I cannot live without books,” Thomas

https://amzn.to/2AJFpZL

Jefferson famously said.

When Harry Houdini died, he left his private

According to the Library of Congress, when the

collection of over 5,000 books about magic, the

British torched the capital in 1814, Jefferson had

theatre and on spiritualism, to the Library of

the largest personal library in the United States…

Congress. Several sources claim he held the

estimated to have been in around 6,487 books,

largest private collection of books on magic in the

which he sold to Congress for $23,950.

world. You can still browse through almost 4,000

After that, he began acquiring books again,

of them there.

before also selling them, to pay his debts, in

There is no escaping their appeal… (sorry, we

1829.

William Randolph Hearst had two libraries in

While this may not surprising considering

his castle; the main library, which held 4,000

the man, almost 10,000 books is an

volumes, and the Gothic study, which held another

impressive number.

3,000, but it seems that was not enough space for all his books, which he tucked away wherever he

During Michael Jackson’s life, he was a

could find room. So old Randolph book count must be put beyond 7,000.

regular at bookstores in Los Angeles, including Book Soup and Skylight.

“He loved the poetry section,” Dave Dutton of Dutton’s Books in Brentwood told the L.A. Times.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was his favourite, Jackson’s attorney Bob Sanger told L.A. Weekly the pop star had 10,000+ books at

the Neverland Ranch, “there were places he liked to sit and read. You could see the books with his bookmarks in them, handwritten notes. I can tell you from talking to him he was very well-read.” https://amzn.to/2OqBg4M

According to Debra A. Moddelmog and Suzanne del Gizzo’s, Hemingway in Context, Ernest Hemingway carried a library with him wherever he went, along with continually acquiring new books. Some suggest he acquired as many as 200 a year.

By the time of Ernest's death, his Finca Vigía library held approximately 9,000 volumes.

This figure does not include those left in Key West, where he held another 800 books.

https://amzn.to/2IqlmUs

Okay, so Jay S. Walker is only a famous person

to the public, but his employees, as well as

if you’re a nerd. If you're not, Jay is the

special guests like Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred

entrepreneur who founded Priceline.com and

Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Clint Eastwood, Steve

Synapse Group, Inc., but Electric Press finds him

Martin, Edith Head, and Charlton Heston, (oh,

more famous because of his personal library,

to name drop!), are allowed to check things out

which is a wing in his Ridgefield, Connecticut

when they visit.

home he calls “the Library of the History of Human Imagination”, which sounds deeply pretentious, but as It has three levels, a glass bridge, floating platforms and a whole ton of books, somewhere around the 20,000 mark, maybe he has the right to call it whatever he wishes.

https://amzn.to/2MdDulq However… All the libraries of people mentioned above, individually and collectively, pale into relative insignificance when compared with the

book collection of the late Karl Lagerfeld.

Karl Lagerfeld collected more books than pretty https://amzn.to/2ANJ2hm

much anybody. During a “master class” at the 2015 International Festival of Fashion and

In 1978, George Lucas established the Lucasfilm

Photography, Lagerfeld explained: “Today, I

Research Library, first by collecting volumes at

only collect books; there is no room left for

his Los Angeles office, then moving the library

something else. If you go to my house, I’ll have

to his main house at Skywalker Ranch.

you walk around the books. I ended up with a

In addition to over 27,000 books, his collection

library of 300,000. It’s a lot for an individual.”

includes over 17,000 films, along with

Oh, he installed a catwalk to reach the upper

photographs, periodicals, press clippings, and

levels of his library. Well, what else would you

more media formats. Lucas’s library is not open

expect of Lagerfeld?

T h e L I S T 2 0 2 0 is CQ International Publishing’s annual catalogue of specially selected and recommended books designated as ‘Must Reads’ during the year, this time, the year in question is 2020.

Recommendations and nominations are received from bookworms, bibliophiles, professional book reviewers, writer, authors, publishers and special invitation.

Each nominated book is read by the nominator before submission to CQ International, who then evaluate each book before the final selections are chosen to appear in the new edition of The LIST. The LIST has become a ‘go to’ publication for gift buying and personal book selection throughout the year.

The LIST is free to read online in over 90 countries and is available, on request, as a PDF for a nominal charge.

Read the List here

Love this modern take from a classic album

As a matter of fact it’s all Dark An new classical tribute piece; a design inspired by the lyrics of Pink Floyd’s legendary album, Dark side of the Moon and created by PeeJay design Studios Available from RedBubble as wall art and on a range of clothing, home decor, skins & cases, stationary, and accessories.

“Pink Floyd fans will love this ” See it all H E R E now