Absolutely WonderfulIn 1953, twelve-year-old Natalie spies on her neighbours recording their lives for future historians. Theoretically, not much should be going on. WWII is over, people have gone on with their boring daily lives in small town Alberta. Or have they?Turns out the legacy of war lingers with sorrow for those killed, with unseen wounds in those who returned. The war may have changed lives, but prejudice and superiority remain.As Natalie’s spy glass hones in on citizens’ lives — good deeds and bad — are exposed much to the readers’ delight.Kudos to Milholland for this wonderful story which is much more than YA.BLURBSO MANY SECRETSAn engaging, coming-of-age story set in a small Al...

#6wordstorychallenge #sixwordstory #writing #scifi #fantasy #mystery #adventure #romance #thriller #worldbuildingToday’s challenge is “Found” “How?” “They can hear your heartbeat.” I look forward to your responses. Cheers, J. I. RogersOriginal link

EXCELLENT READ.Even though the Ritz Hotel in Paris is swarming with Nazis, Claude and Blanche Auzello manage to keep it running throughout WWII, but not without grave personal consequences.Little is known about Claude and Blanche, but as Benjamin brings them to life for us, we experience a different kind of war taking a toll on individuals that is just as damaging, in its own way, as being in battle.Blurb:Nothing bad can happen at the Ritz; inside its gilded walls every woman looks beautiful, every man appears witty. Favored guests like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor walk through its famous doors to be welcomed and pampered by Blanche ...

It’s been forever since I posted a comprehensive update on my writing, so long in fact, that I don’t remember writing it. Without further ado, here’s what’s happened and what will be going on for the next six months. I’ll be adding to the list, but the items below are recently done, or already in the works.I took the raw draft of book three as my date to NaNoWriMo this year and managed to cobble together just over 60k worth of new material from it. I’m still writing, but I’ve won this year’s challenge. With any luck, this means book 3 will be in the hands of beta-readers early next year.That’s it for now. Cheers!J. I. RogersOriginal link

Revolution Day is an official Mexican government holiday, celebrated annually iRevolution Day is an official Mexican government holiday, celebrated annually in Mexico on November 20th. On this date, in the year 1910 the revolutionary war to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Díaz, began. http://www.darlenejonesauthor.com   Original link

#6wordstorychallenge #sixwordstory #writing #scifi #fantasy #mystery #adventure #romance #thriller #worldbuildingToday’s challenge is “Record” “Paper receipts? They use clay tablets.” I look forward to your responses. Cheers, J. I. RogersOriginal link

A fun read! Blurb:AYESHA SHAMSI has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn’t want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.When a surprise engagement between Khalid and Hafsa is announced, Ayesha is tor...

Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico    (www,darlenejonesauthor.com)Original link

I was 26,291 days old (72 years in Earth orbit terms) and went for a hike in Delamere Forest in Cheshire. I forgot to smile because……I am worried. It’s book three of the Flying Crooked series and it’s getting away with me. Characters are writing themselves and telling me to fuck off, make a cup of tea while they get on with plot, subplot, craziness, proving me right by being wrong and all that.I was teaching in Chester’s Queen’s Park High in Handbridge when I wrote my first novel. While I enriched kids’ lives with my antics, field trips and tales of blood and fire (I taught Geography and they loved natural disasters) I found a piece of amber with a fossil seed in it. A kind of Extinction Reb...

  Saw this guy today scampering from a nearby tree, huge round guava in his mouth.“He eats the fruit and almonds as well,” said our friend.We watched him race across the sand and clamber up the tallest palm tree in the vicinity.“What’s he doing up there?” we asked.“He’ll find a small ripe coconut to break open and eat.”Would dearly have loved to see him do that, but he chose not to oblige, staying hidden under the fronds presumably enjoying his fruit.Original link

FALLING UP is the sequel to the surreal science fiction novella, Suppose We, published in May 2019. The fifth draft of Falling Up is now complete having gone through the rigours of Orbiters 7.Orbiters? That’s one of the critique groups of the British Science Fiction Association. Every two months we send around 5,000 to 9,000 words of our latest oeuvre to be hacked at by eagle-eyed wordsmiths in return for mutual editing. The funny thing is that if there are, say, six members of the critique group, by the time you’ve received five detailed edits (using MS Word’s Review / Comment feature) you’d think there’s nothing left to change. After all, Falling Up had already been outlined, rough drafted...

 Korean immigrant Daniel, a hopeless romantic, and Jamaican immigrant Natasha, a hard core scientist, meet by chance as each rushes to a meeting that could change their lives. As they spend the day together, we are given a bird’s eye view of their lives and families. As I read, I often forgot that they were teens. I came to care for, them, their families, and those they interacted with. Narration chapters from the POV of others added an interesting twist.BlurbNatasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. No...

#6wordstorychallenge #sixwordstory #writing #scifi #fantasy #mystery #adventure #romance #thriller #worldbuildingToday’s challenge is “Deadline” “Straw… Gold… You have until sunrise.” I look forward to your responses. Cheers, J. I. RogersOriginal link

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#6wordstorychallenge #sixwordstory #writing #scifi #fantasy #mystery #adventure #romance #thriller #worldbuildingToday’s challenge is “Uncomfortable” “Haven’t we met?”Blank stare. Dismissal I look forward to your responses. Cheers, J. I. RogersOriginal link

#6wordstorychallenge #sixwordstory #writing #scifi #fantasy #mystery #adventure #romance #thriller #worldbuildingToday’s challenge is “Waiting” “Today?” She scanned e-mail, hopefully. “Nothing.” I look forward to your responses. Cheers, J. I. RogersOriginal link

The flood waters have receded, the streets are more or less dry and we are–dare I say it?– almost finished the cleanup.BUT take a look at this.  Yep, that’s the drainage canal. Just how much water can it hold? Enough to prevent another flood during the next one or two or ten storms predicted for the area in the coming weeks?NO, there are no signs of backhoes or excavators coming to the rescue.So we wait with fingers crossed for the end of hurricane season. http://www.darlenejonesauthor.comOriginal link

#6wordstorychallenge #sixwordstory #writing #scifi #fantasy #mystery #adventure #romance #thriller #worldbuildingToday’s challenge is “Elixir” “To youth.” She drank, then gagged. I look forward to your responses. Cheers, J. I. RogersOriginal link

 It rains. Within an hour a river is running through your house.We’ve seen it on the news hundreds of times. The destruction. The devastation. The panic. Terrible, yes, but so far away.This time, though, is different. This time it’s your family fleeing the water. Now, you truly understand the horror that people face. Overwhelmed with the task of cleaning, as you survey your property in the aftermath and search for valued possessions — the mementos that hold so many memories.  Where do you begin? And when you have restored your home, will you ever feel safe again? Original link

DARLENE JONESI love the ebook revolution. I love my ereader. I love that my books are available in ereader formats as well as print. I love being able to carry a library with me.So many pluses for the book lover. See a book that sounds interesting. Download a sample. Enjoy the sample. Check out a few reviews. Reviews are encouraging. Buy with one click.Do all of this from anywhere in the world.Unlike other readers, I’m not tied to print books. I don’t think there is any loss of enjoyment in the story if I read an electronic version.But … and it’s a big but, I do bemoan the following:Nothing matches the joy of an uncle handing you a book from his laden shelves, one you undertake to read with ...