Last week I’d originally planned to have a writers away week in a log cabin in Wales. Having discovered that my wordage increases with distance from my house chores, I’d organised the 90 miles trip via my Dawes Super Galaxy touring bike staying at the Ffynion Wen Youth Hostel before dark on the first leg. However, the weather forecast promised deep frost, and snow during the journey and since I’d top 850 metres my cogs would be likely to fall off…
So I travelled with my wife instead. Photos are
http://www.geoffnelder.com/plastalgarth/pt.html
While shivering in the cold Plas Talgarth apartment, I did read a couple of books to review – A comic science fiction novella, Bark! by Darrell Bain – very amusing too – how could it be other with the star being an ADHD minature dachshund that saves Earth from an inadvertent alien invasion. Find Bark! here
I also read an intriguing take on the Pied Piper of Hamelin legend. Piper is written by established author, Helen McCabe. Helen doesn’t hold back from the dark side in her well-researched interpretation and her skillful writing makes the chilling pied piper character real enough to induce nightmares. I’ll post a link to my review in a later post.
Brian Withecombe At the Eleventh Hour a tale of the end of the First World War, has been published by Chipmunka Publishing and is a fascinating fictional insight into what it must have been like to be a soldier on the front line in the last moments of the first world war. I hadn’t known that fighting continued even after the Armistice was signed, in order to squeeze any land advantage.
Finally I returned home to find a package from Gladys Hobson. I held the honour of doing a minor touch of editing to her anthology of mainly Ulverston stories published as ‘Still Waters Run Deep – Stories of hidden depths. link here The blurb, written by me says:
“Don’t be fooled by the writings of Gladys Hobson. She appears like a harmless mature woman and so you settle one afternoon to relax into her stories. Then in goes the hot poker and you find the goings on in Ulverston, ignited passion, and Cumbrian emotions. The wicked are saved by pseudonyms, the innocent by their ignorance. This collection is a jigsaw of zeal and a genuine feel for landscape.” Good job, Gladys.
Incidentally, both Gladys Hobson and Brian Withecombe are with me as former clients of the sham literary agent, Christopher Hill. See how in spite of adversity we triumph!
