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Hello, All,

Welcome to another edition of In The Spotlight. The post-World War I years were a time of great change and transition. One of those changes was the increasing challenge to the British Empire. We see this clearly in the history of India, during the last years of the British Raj. Let’s take a look at that era today, and turn the spotlight on Abir Mukherjee’s A Rising Man.

It’s 1919, and Captain Sam Wyndham has just arrived in Kolkata/Calcutta from England to take up his duties with the police. He’s trying to get used to the different way of life and, most especially, the heat, when he gets a new case to investigate. Alexander MacAuley, head of Indian Civil Service (ICS) finance for Bengal, has been murdered, and a note found stuffed in his mouth. The note threatens that ‘blood will run in the streets,’ and warns…

I’m absolutely delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for A Child Called Happiness by Stephan Collishaw as I adored his previous book, The Song of the Stork and you can see my review of that book here.

To celebrate A Child Called Happiness, not only am I reviewing it, but I have the chance for a lucky UK reader to win a paperback copy of the book. You can enter the giveaway at the bottom of this blog post.

A Child Called Happiness was published on 17th May 2018 by Legend Press and is available for purchase here.

A Child Called Happiness

Three days after arriving in Zimbabwe, Natalie discovers an abandoned newborn baby on a hill near her uncle’s farm.

115 years earlier, the hill was home to the Mazowe village where Chief Tafara governed at a time of great unrest. Faced with taxation, abductions and…

DID YOU READ PART ONE AND PART TWO?

            George held open the door for Lilah as soon as they made it Prevalli’s Restaurant. Lilah walked in first and then stepped to the side to let George walk in front of her. She figured now would be a good time to let him handle all the talking.

“Hello, how are you?” the hostess greeted them right away.

“I’m doing well, how are you?” George replied with a polite smile.

“Great,” she said a little too enthusiastically in Lilah’s opinion. She picked up two menus and looked back up at George. “Table for two? Would you like a booth?”

“No, thank you. We’re not here to eat.” George declined. “Is your manager around?”

The hostess paused for a moment before she finally nodded her head. Her voice shaking she said, “Oh, sure. Let me… Just let me go get him.”

Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Things about myself? Well I’m not sure where to begin. I really don’t like talking about myself  *cough* but if I must pontificate about myself at length I will marshal on. It’s funny because as a writer you are of two minds the narcissist and the demur. I say this laughingly because if you give me a mic and an audience of at least one it’s like flipping a switch.  I like to tell stories and make people laugh. It’s what I am best at. I obviously can’t speak for other writers but I would be willing to bet they too are victims of their own hubris. I was raised as a child during the economic downturn that gripped the Western slope of Colorado.

As a child I often spent a lot of time daydreaming. The stories and events that lived in…

Here is another of the stories from my first story collection.. Flights of Fancy.. This time the story of a woman and a dog who come together on a harsh Welsh mountain.

Trust by Sally Cronin

The house was quiet. The men had left a few minutes ago and already she felt alone. The ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall intruded into the silence. Time was passing slowly and each minute felt like an hour.

Claire stared out of the kitchen window at the gathering gloom. It would soon be dark, and she would be unable to see the mountain rising above the house, harsh but fiercely beautiful. It was this mountain that had attracted them last spring, the lower slopes covered in lush grass dotted with the cotton wool white of the ewes and their lambs. The craggy rocks of the mountaintop jutted up into a…