Malla Duncan's Blog

‘Leap the Wild Water’ is still one of the best self-published books out there: history, family drama, romance, action and social commentary. Should make an excellence TV drama or series.

Between the Lines ~ Books’n’Stuff

jennylloydwriter

Today, I am delighted to have my fellow author, Judith Barrow, as a guest on my blog. Judith’s new book, A Hundred Tiny Threads, has just been published. It is a prequel to her historical family saga, and I’m sure it will gain her many new fans. So that you can get to know her a little better, I’ve invited her to this interview.

Welcome, Judith. Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

Although I was born and brought up in a small village on the edge of the Pen...

For the Sherlock Holmes fans – and anybody wanting to do a walking SH tour of London.

Luxereporter

It’s 130 years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first Sherlock Holmes novel and his character is, after numerous incarnations on screens large and small, probably going stronger now than it has since the early 20th century.

Back in the 1880s, though, Holmes’ creator wasn’t finding life particularly easy. He had moved to London from Edinburgh to set up as an ophthalmologist and things...

Introducing author Kathy Bryson – guest posting today about her latest book “Fighting Mad” – an intriguing mix of romance, humor and family drama. Ah, and a touch of Irish legend in there somewhere.

Here you have it: romance, money and those (ahem) leprechauns – slippery but handsome and charming creatures that no one quite believes exist. Despite their sly shyness, author Kathy Bryson has sniffed them out. Here’s her story about the delightful Irish legend of Leprechauns and how it inspired...

janruthblog

In which I’m made to eat my words as I come full circle through the maze of publishing to discover that the grass isn’t necessarily greener over there; it’s still mostly desert scrub from every direction…

Last year I wrote a general post about the publishing industry which resonated with a lot of independent authors: https://janruthblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/my-affair-with-john-hudspith-and-why-i-had-to-leave-self-publishing/

It came about through sheer frustration at the lac...

The urge to write – the wings within

Writing is one of the most beautiful expressions of who we are. Writing is pure self-expression, an ordering of the mind, the making of patterns and rhythms that seem to breathe with us and create something that is of us and yet becomes its own without us, living in the world in a different sphere that is no longer our brain but a connective dart weaving into other minds, influencing other lives. Writing as a craft makes those darts with subtle precision an...

Balance is art – the exact ‘enough’.

I’ve introduced Jennifer Lean to you before. So here is another quivering yet precise observation from her eloquent pen. As creative people – whether artists, writers, designers, musicians – we have all felt that curious sense of anticipation before we begin the birth of something entirely new: the burst of excitement, anticipation, that tingle of apprehension yet urge to experience the process of creation, the emergence of a dream, that perfect moment befo...

Originally posted on Stephen Liddell:

Have you ever wanted to get rich quick? Long before Nigerian spammers were in on the actthere was the art of metal-detecting. Often metal-detecting enthusiasts are derided as being a little bit odd and depicted as spending their lives wondering around barren fields with not much to show for it but then one of them discovers a lost treasure and spends the rest of their lives still beingthe subject of jealousy the rest of us.

The largest UK hoard of Anglo Sa...

Sometimes there are people in this world who understand language, words, form and creation better than others. I have many favourite writers and poets that fit into this description. But no one more so than Jennifer Lean, a Cape Town poet whose words will leave you breathless. Somehow, in the fewest words possible she manages to cut you to the bone, strip away all pretenses and defenses, and lay bare the human condition. Her point, sharp as a fencer’s blade, is always made with perfect weight...

Malla Duncan:

Rhinos. Sometimes we don’t know how to help. Saving rhinos and wild animals in Africa seems far away. But here’s a way to bring it closer, to make it easier to get involved.

Originally posted on SanWild Fundraisers:

For the past fourteen years the SanWild Wildlife Trust and its handful of donors and supporters have poured their hearts and souls into establishing a protected refuge for injured, orphaned and traumatized wild animals where they can live free and raise their young in...