Details of a winning roulette system.
Wait, hit and go!
Thursday, 22 May 2025
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
The Pink Pigeon
A girl fights to keep her dream alive...
Nine-year old Leena arrives in Mauritius ready for her holiday adventure: a search for the island's rare pink pigeons. However, the grown-ups are focused on a family wedding and her pleas are ignored. Dejected, she considers running away to the birds' forest home.
Finally her uncle agrees to take her. But nothing goes according to plan. She ends up in trouble for continuing the search in the rain. With the holiday about to end they make one last try, but see no sign of the beautiful birds. Leena is dismayed. She has failed in her quest.
Then something extraordinary occurs, leaving her certain that her pleas must have reached a wider audience.
E-book: amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DGXSR3K
#childrensfiction
#mauritius
#holidayadventure
#asianwedding
Mission: Africa
Mission: Africa
E-book: amazon.co.uk/dp/B08XMLQPC7
Paperback: amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D74QR59V
A gripping tale of revenge served cold.
Blaise Cochrane runs a London security consultancy with Sailor Louw, an ex-Springbok. A wealthy former Rhodesian comes with a shock request: assassinate a former ZIPRA commander responsible for the murder of the client's family and the Muti killing of a child.
Initially, Cochrane is ignored: he lacks African experience. However, Sailor insists on him being in the team. A third member will guide them to the target. Cochrane reveals that his father was murdered. It creates an emotional bond with the client who adds a codicil to his will. The team will receive a large sum if the mission succeeds. But time is limited, the client is a sick man.
Problems mount. In Johannesburg, Sailor drops out injured. Cochrane links with a Soweto glamour model with a troubled past. Will she stay loyal or change sides? Consumed by greed, the guide has his own agenda.
Ahead lies Matabeleland and the unfenced Hwange National Park where wild beasts roam...
#thriller
#adventure
#revenge
Friday, 14 March 2025
Pursuit
Pursuit
E-book: http:amazon.co.uk/dp/B08WKGG5MT
Paperback: http:amazon/dp/B0D6RPQK4P
Hounded from the RUC over his past friendship with an IRA volunteer, ex-detective Blaise Cochrane moved to London. The Troubles, for him, were over.
Without warning, his former chief tormentor - a senior police officer - comes calling, accompanied by a subordinate. The two former antagonists still loathe one another. Cochrane will listen only to the junior officer.
Security forces are desperate to gather intelligence on a ruthless dissident thought to be planning a London bombing campaign. The dissident and Cochrane's IRA contact are known to be close - they shared prison time. Security chiefs want Cochrane to visit his boyhood friend - the IRA volunteer - and learn what he can about the dissident's plans.
The irony is not lost on Cochrane. The very friendship he was vilified for, that cost him his promising police career, is now seen as useful by the same people who forced him out.
Only a strong sense of duty compels him to agree to the mission.
It's a decision he soon has cause to regret as he is sucked into a series of dramatic events. He's up against serious players. One slip-up could be fatal.
#troubles
#dissidents
#police
#terrorist
Hemingway Quest
Hemingway Quest
E-book: amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D661MWXK
Kyle, a London bookseller, has women problems. There's Mallika his flirtatious, married Asian flatmate, and Janice his ex - now a bitter emotional wreck. Kyle's Hemingway obsession leads him to Cuba. There he uncovers a shocking truth about his own family, and enjoys a fling with a troubled tourist. After her partner falls to his death, Kyle is stunned to find himself suspected of murder.
Shaken, he arrives home where Mallika now treats him as a low-caste pariah. Is she serious or playing another of her teasing games?
Following a business meeting with an American entrepreneur, Kyle's future looks bright. But trouble is brewing. Mallika receives unwelcome attention from within her family - a man who holds a grudge against Kyle. Janice, too, is out for revenge.
Allegations and blood flow as, once again, Kyle fights to clear his name.
#suspense
#thriller
#travel
Thursday, 6 March 2025
Squirt The Egg-Eater and other stories
My recently published e-book and 197 page paperback. Five short stories for children aged 6-8. The stories are aimed at kids who love birds and animals; they will excite those with an adventurous spirit who dream of travel to exotic places.
Contents:
* The Lesser Who Yearned to Be Great. A young woodpecker learns a harsh lesson.
* The Barbecue. A girl and her dog enjoy their first barbecue.
* First Migration: A Swallow's Tale. Can Grace, the runt of the swallow brood, survive the long migration to Southern Africa?
* The Crow and the Mirror. A young crow fights its image in a mirror.
* Squirt The Egg-Eater. A young snake in the Kalahari embarks on a perilous mission to find his dad. Later he leads the fight against marauding meerkats.
E.book: http:amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DH6GNP98
Paperback: https:amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DFMMM4XC
#childrensbooks
#kidsstories
#animalstories
A Night at the River and other stories
A Night at the River and other stories
Bottom image: paperback amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DVLGGMYT
Six adult stories:
While a teenage boy watches salmon poachers netting a river, a sudden deluge of storm water floods the pool.
When a young woman arrives in Tenerife, she is dismayed to learn that her ex-boyfriend is about.
A rookie screenwriter catches his big break. But when the producers demand a certain scene, his good feeling vanishes.
A young English fashion designer's Paris dream job sours when colleagues denigrate her worth. Then a work crisis develops - is this her chance to shine?
A serial loser hits on a sure-fire robbery idea - but his triumph is short-lived once his callous female accomplice discovers she's among the victims.
When a retiree moves to a flat in a desirable area, he thinks he has found the ideal place. Then problems start with two angry old men.
#shortstories
#writingcommunity
#bookish
Thursday, 1 May 2014
An Irish writer's lament
For many Northern Irish novelists the 1990's were particularly lean years. The country was in the news so often some wag labelled 'Northern Ireland' the two most boring words in the language.
Literary agents didn't want to know. Many agencies included No IRA Stories in their Submission Guidelines. And who could blame them when the real thing, not fiction, dominated newspaper headlines and TV newscasts?
Lean times indeed.
At the time I was engaged in writing what I believed to be the great Irish novel. Sadly, London agents I queried took a different view. I was not prepared to pay someone to publish my masterpiece and so it was abandoned, but not forgotten. I got on with my life ...
Times changed.
I discovered the internet, only ten years or so behind everybody else. The same with mobile phones. With a sense of near disbelief I read about self-publishing. You mean, I could actually bring out my novels in both print and e-book formats myself? No more long hours agonizing over query letters and synopses. No more long waits for rejection letters This was progress. Progress, too, in my home country. Peace had come to 'Norn Iron' and with it the emergence of much new writing talent. Men and women who had lived through tough times, heard the gunfire and bombs, the sometimes horrific reports. They had a well of experience to draw on.
And suddenly publishers and agents opened their arms in welcome.
Me? In the past year I've published four novels and a few short stories. I'm happy. And I've saved the best for last. Currently I'm polishing the cast-aside-but-not-forgotten masterpiece. Some sections surprise me. After so long, it's like reading a stranger's work.
Wish me luck!
Literary agents didn't want to know. Many agencies included No IRA Stories in their Submission Guidelines. And who could blame them when the real thing, not fiction, dominated newspaper headlines and TV newscasts?
Lean times indeed.
At the time I was engaged in writing what I believed to be the great Irish novel. Sadly, London agents I queried took a different view. I was not prepared to pay someone to publish my masterpiece and so it was abandoned, but not forgotten. I got on with my life ...
Times changed.
I discovered the internet, only ten years or so behind everybody else. The same with mobile phones. With a sense of near disbelief I read about self-publishing. You mean, I could actually bring out my novels in both print and e-book formats myself? No more long hours agonizing over query letters and synopses. No more long waits for rejection letters This was progress. Progress, too, in my home country. Peace had come to 'Norn Iron' and with it the emergence of much new writing talent. Men and women who had lived through tough times, heard the gunfire and bombs, the sometimes horrific reports. They had a well of experience to draw on.
And suddenly publishers and agents opened their arms in welcome.
Me? In the past year I've published four novels and a few short stories. I'm happy. And I've saved the best for last. Currently I'm polishing the cast-aside-but-not-forgotten masterpiece. Some sections surprise me. After so long, it's like reading a stranger's work.
Wish me luck!
Friday, 3 January 2014
KDP formatting - those troublesome first-line-of-a-chapter indents
But the job is only half done. Most authors want an e-book version of their work. What could be simpler? Just click the buttons and follow the steps from CS to Kindle Direct Publishing. The hard work is already done. Right? It's time to uncork the bubbly and celebrate.
Whoa, hold your horses! Don't make the mistake of thinking that because all the kinks were ironed out of the print version, KDP will automatically format as you want it.
Every page must be checked - just as you did after uploading your file to CS.
Having recently published three novels on KDP, I can point to two issues that require careful attention.
- Dialogue that ends in a dash (-) or three dots ( . . .). After uploading to KDP you may find places where the three dots are split, with only two on one line and the third carried over to the next line. Or a sentence ending in a dash could have the words on one line and the dash appearing on the next line with only the speech mark (") for company.
- First-line-of-chapter indent. You've followed the steps from CS to KDP and are reviewing the content on the on-screen previewer when you notice the first line of each chapter is indented. First line after section breaks too. Huh? This didn't happen with the CS print version, so what's gone wrong? Through reading community threads I learned that KDP indent every paragraph. So it's up to you to amend those first liners.
Corrections must be made to your original file stored in your desktop or laptop.
Fixing the dash and dot issues is simple - just a matter of altering the wording of the offending sentences to change their length. The best way of correcting the indents, I read, is to highlight the paragraph. Then go to 'paragraph' at the top of the Word page and click Special, then from the box 'first line'. Next at By type in 0.01 and then click OK. This command overrules the KDP default. Repeat for each chapter's first paragraph and each section break.
Then upload to KDP - and re-check.
It worked for me.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
Paris writers of the 1920s
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce - and artists of the calibre of Picasso and Miro. Expatriates all. What was it that made that era special? And why Paris?
For me it began with The Old Man and the Sea, my favourite novel. I loved it so much I looked at the writer behind it. Although raised continents apart, there were similarities between Ernest Hemingway's upbringing and mine. We both loved to fish and spend time outdoors. In Nick Adams - hero of the early Hemingway short stories - I recognized a kindred spirit.
My reading taught me about Hemingway's family, school, home neighbourhood, war injuries, career and marriages - his whole life. I was hooked. But let's look at Paris, the city he loved best. Like him, I knew what it took to adapt to a new country. There was something about the struggling but confident young writer that held me enthralled. What was it that turned him from novice to world-renowned author in a few short years? I trawled for facts and the more I learned the more hooked I became.
In Paris he met Scott Fitzgerald who offered writing advice and steered him towards Charles Scribner's Sons in NYC and the firm's famous editor Maxwell Perkins. The relationship with Fitzgerald soured as did almost all of Hemingway's literary friendships. Fitzgerald became a new source of interest to me: his and Zelda's marriage difficulties, his career's sharp decline. EH claimed Zelda was jealous of her husband's fame and crazy to boot. She was to end up in an institution.
James Joyce was the living writer EH most respected. In recent years Joyce has attained deity-like status in Ireland, although he had few good words to say about it during his lifetime. I had known a girl from Trieste and was fascinated to read of Joyce's time there, and of his speaking Italian when out and about in Paris.
Back then, life was very different to what we know today. To hear news of acquaintances or rivals you visited certain cafes or called in at Sylvia Beach's bookshop, Shakespeare and Co. Gertrude Stein, American writer and art collector, was a good source of knowledge about painters. Hemingway would go on to own artwork by both Picasso and Miro.
The US dollar went a long way in 1920s Europe - a continent not yet recovered from the ravages of war. Paris was beautiful, lively and cosmopolitan, different in every way to the staidness of prohibition-era America. Expatriates came and enjoyed it's gifts; and the skiing in Austria and Switzerland, the beaches of the Riviera and the magic of Spain.
EH's years in France are brilliantly captured by Paula McLain in her best-selling novel The Paris Wife.
For me it began with The Old Man and the Sea, my favourite novel. I loved it so much I looked at the writer behind it. Although raised continents apart, there were similarities between Ernest Hemingway's upbringing and mine. We both loved to fish and spend time outdoors. In Nick Adams - hero of the early Hemingway short stories - I recognized a kindred spirit.
My reading taught me about Hemingway's family, school, home neighbourhood, war injuries, career and marriages - his whole life. I was hooked. But let's look at Paris, the city he loved best. Like him, I knew what it took to adapt to a new country. There was something about the struggling but confident young writer that held me enthralled. What was it that turned him from novice to world-renowned author in a few short years? I trawled for facts and the more I learned the more hooked I became.
In Paris he met Scott Fitzgerald who offered writing advice and steered him towards Charles Scribner's Sons in NYC and the firm's famous editor Maxwell Perkins. The relationship with Fitzgerald soured as did almost all of Hemingway's literary friendships. Fitzgerald became a new source of interest to me: his and Zelda's marriage difficulties, his career's sharp decline. EH claimed Zelda was jealous of her husband's fame and crazy to boot. She was to end up in an institution.
James Joyce was the living writer EH most respected. In recent years Joyce has attained deity-like status in Ireland, although he had few good words to say about it during his lifetime. I had known a girl from Trieste and was fascinated to read of Joyce's time there, and of his speaking Italian when out and about in Paris.
Back then, life was very different to what we know today. To hear news of acquaintances or rivals you visited certain cafes or called in at Sylvia Beach's bookshop, Shakespeare and Co. Gertrude Stein, American writer and art collector, was a good source of knowledge about painters. Hemingway would go on to own artwork by both Picasso and Miro.
The US dollar went a long way in 1920s Europe - a continent not yet recovered from the ravages of war. Paris was beautiful, lively and cosmopolitan, different in every way to the staidness of prohibition-era America. Expatriates came and enjoyed it's gifts; and the skiing in Austria and Switzerland, the beaches of the Riviera and the magic of Spain.
EH's years in France are brilliantly captured by Paula McLain in her best-selling novel The Paris Wife.
Sunday, 21 April 2013
Boston: what goes around comes around
To anyone who has studied international acts of terror, events in Boston over the past few days will have made interesting viewing and reading. And for many of the city's more senior citizens, the twin bomb blasts, fatalities and horrific injuries will have provided much food for thought.
Over a thirty-year period, Boston was a prime fund-raising area for the Irish Republican Army. Organizations like Noraid and Clan na Gael collected millions of dollars from the city's large Irish community. While it's accepted that funds reached needy families in Northern Ireland (read: families of imprisoned IRA men), it's also accepted that money collected in the US helped pay for weapons and explosives and led directly to the deaths of many innocent people.
IRA apologists will argue that telephone warnings were given before bombs went off. Not always. Did PM Margaret Thatcher get a call before the explosion which partly demolished the Brighton hotel where she was sleeping? Some warnings were unclear - like with the Omagh bomb that killed twenty-five people. They will argue that the IRA never packed bombs with nails and metal fragments. No, they had a better idea. At the La Mon hotel they attached cans of petrol mixed with sugar to the bomb, creating a napalm-like fireball which incinerating its victims beyond recognition.
The signs are that terrorism in Ireland is on the rise once more. We can only hope that, after Boston, Americans will keep their hands tightly in their pockets when the collection boxes are passed around.
Over a thirty-year period, Boston was a prime fund-raising area for the Irish Republican Army. Organizations like Noraid and Clan na Gael collected millions of dollars from the city's large Irish community. While it's accepted that funds reached needy families in Northern Ireland (read: families of imprisoned IRA men), it's also accepted that money collected in the US helped pay for weapons and explosives and led directly to the deaths of many innocent people.
IRA apologists will argue that telephone warnings were given before bombs went off. Not always. Did PM Margaret Thatcher get a call before the explosion which partly demolished the Brighton hotel where she was sleeping? Some warnings were unclear - like with the Omagh bomb that killed twenty-five people. They will argue that the IRA never packed bombs with nails and metal fragments. No, they had a better idea. At the La Mon hotel they attached cans of petrol mixed with sugar to the bomb, creating a napalm-like fireball which incinerating its victims beyond recognition.
The signs are that terrorism in Ireland is on the rise once more. We can only hope that, after Boston, Americans will keep their hands tightly in their pockets when the collection boxes are passed around.
Thursday, 28 March 2013
Writer Friends
Where would we be without them?
Writing is a lonely business - how often have we heard that? Perhaps not as lonely as sailing solo around the world or sitting in solitary confinement on death row. It's the nature of the job. Few writers can have gained inspiration amid the confines of a crowded, rush-hour train or surrounded by raucous fans at a football match.
But just like normal people :) the writing fraternity needs social interaction. Under that brooding, glowering gaze is a mind that relishes freedom breaks. Hemingway would forget about his WIP after knocking off for the day, believing his subconscious was still beavering away, readying him for tomorrow's fight. Yeah, he saw it as a fight. That's why he wrote standing up. Today we enjoy the luxury of connecting with people around the world at the click of a mouse. From the comfort of our homes we are able to chat and interact without the need to shave or dress respectably or even to have met the other person.
Where would we be without comments on our work? The feedback, both good and bad; and when the going is tough the encouragement from others who themselves have faced and slain the demons. How can we adequately express our thanks to those who, blessed with a quicker understanding of how the 'social media' and new technology can help the writer, give of their time and knowledge to assist others?
Today I acknowledge the assistance of cyberspace friends. May their years of toil, mental anguish, sore backs, broken fingernails bear fruit in spectacular fashion. May their early drafts be transformed as if by magic into scenes that excite and transfix the reader.
Nancy in Florida. A lovely lady full of humour and ambition, currently crafting a series of YA sci-fi and romance novels featuring a feisty science-wizard teen who becomes the target of a shadowy group intent on using her brilliant new ideas.
http://authonomy.com/books/39542/backward-glances/
Lisa in France, and her Mom - a dynamic duo - creators of New Adult fantasy tales set in magical kingdoms with a host of intriguing characters.
http://www.lisa-corner.com/
Sandra-Jane, a writer of historical novels set in 1830s England. Her knowledge of the countryside shines through in her work. Hers has been a guiding hand helping me along the self-publishing path. https://sites.google.com/site/sandrajanegoddard/home
Ruko Dango has written a fascinating, colourful and often amusing account of her time working with the UN in the Congo. Ruko is now seeking an agent.
http://authonomy.com/books/44676/no-ice-cream-in-the-land-of-the-cannibals-/
Writing is a lonely business - how often have we heard that? Perhaps not as lonely as sailing solo around the world or sitting in solitary confinement on death row. It's the nature of the job. Few writers can have gained inspiration amid the confines of a crowded, rush-hour train or surrounded by raucous fans at a football match.
But just like normal people :) the writing fraternity needs social interaction. Under that brooding, glowering gaze is a mind that relishes freedom breaks. Hemingway would forget about his WIP after knocking off for the day, believing his subconscious was still beavering away, readying him for tomorrow's fight. Yeah, he saw it as a fight. That's why he wrote standing up. Today we enjoy the luxury of connecting with people around the world at the click of a mouse. From the comfort of our homes we are able to chat and interact without the need to shave or dress respectably or even to have met the other person.
Where would we be without comments on our work? The feedback, both good and bad; and when the going is tough the encouragement from others who themselves have faced and slain the demons. How can we adequately express our thanks to those who, blessed with a quicker understanding of how the 'social media' and new technology can help the writer, give of their time and knowledge to assist others?
Today I acknowledge the assistance of cyberspace friends. May their years of toil, mental anguish, sore backs, broken fingernails bear fruit in spectacular fashion. May their early drafts be transformed as if by magic into scenes that excite and transfix the reader.
Nancy in Florida. A lovely lady full of humour and ambition, currently crafting a series of YA sci-fi and romance novels featuring a feisty science-wizard teen who becomes the target of a shadowy group intent on using her brilliant new ideas.
http://authonomy.com/books/39542/backward-glances/
Lisa in France, and her Mom - a dynamic duo - creators of New Adult fantasy tales set in magical kingdoms with a host of intriguing characters.
http://www.lisa-corner.com/
Sandra-Jane, a writer of historical novels set in 1830s England. Her knowledge of the countryside shines through in her work. Hers has been a guiding hand helping me along the self-publishing path. https://sites.google.com/site/sandrajanegoddard/home
Ruko Dango has written a fascinating, colourful and often amusing account of her time working with the UN in the Congo. Ruko is now seeking an agent.
http://authonomy.com/books/44676/no-ice-cream-in-the-land-of-the-cannibals-/
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Zambezi Seduction
Zambezi Seduction by Tamara Cape
Little does English air stewardess Kerry Stephens know what she is letting herself in for when she agrees to accompany world renowned South African wildlife artist Chad Lindsay on a field-trip to Zimbabwe.
A charging elephant, hungry lion and car breakdown aren't all that Kerry has to deal with. Chad is a confirmed bachelor - an independent, at times arrogant womanizer who loses no time in trying to bed her. Alone with him in the wilds of Africa, will she be forced to defend her honour each night?
Their relationship reaches a turning point as she recovers from illness. She sees a caring, softer side to her companion. And on the banks of the beautiful Zambezi River, Kerry finds her feelings for Chad changing.
For those who like romance played out in exotic locations, complete with appealing heroine and lusty hero, this story is definitely for you.
Tamara Cape is a pen name - obviously. The link to the story on Kindle:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BPVR6BO
#romance
#Africa
#lovestory
Thursday, 14 February 2013
A Writer's Thoughts
Greetings everyone!
Up and running at last. Phew!
A brief intro: In the past I took some heavy punches from agents and publishers (haven't we all?) - but never thought of quitting. After a quiet 2012, during which I did some rewrites and gave and received critiques on Authonomy, I'm expecting things to happen this year.
Up and running at last. Phew!
A brief intro: In the past I took some heavy punches from agents and publishers (haven't we all?) - but never thought of quitting. After a quiet 2012, during which I did some rewrites and gave and received critiques on Authonomy, I'm expecting things to happen this year.
- My short story A Night at the River was longlisted at the Chapter One International Short Story Competition, 2011. Tranquillity Publishing took it for their anthology titled Tales of Tremendous Tragicide which came out this month in both print and Amazon Kindle. Can't wait to receive my copy! The story has been accepted by a new magazine in London. It's owner/editor called it Compelling and beautifully written ... (No, I'm not making this up! :) More on this later.
- Klipspringer Hill A small snake undertakes a perilous journey through the Kalahari in search of his missing dad. It's aimed at the 7+ age group. After a valuable critique from a literary consultant, changes were made and it's ready to go out to agents.
- The Pink Pigeon - about a 9 year-old Asian girl's holiday adventures in Mauritius.
Perfect Killing is a crime novel with an IRA theme.
Zambezi Seduction is a romance novel - no prize for guessing where the action happens!
If all goes according to plan, this group will be self-published on Amazon Kindle this year.
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