Tuesday, October 14, 2014

My first picture story book

Drog        A Dreggen story

See my post on my other blog
http://jambooks-fiction.blogspot.com/

Order it here
https://www.lmhpublishing.com/children/drog-dreggen-story-bk-1

Monday, September 29, 2014

Thanks for downloading When Times are Strange


Thanks to all who downloaded a free copy of my ebook 

When Times are Strange.

 

The offer ended yesterday, Sunday 28th.

 I hope you enjoy reading the stories. 

Please consider writing a review for the Amazon page. 

Blessings!


 

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Thursday, July 17, 2014

The opposite of heavy is light



If your heart is heavy for whatever reason, you can make it light by turning to some creative activity that you enjoy. All of us have creative talent. God endowed us at birth. The thing is that too many of us do not recognise our talent and fulfil its promise. Or, we do not recognise the things we do as creative. Anything that you make from a vision in your head, any thing you feel and do differently, or introduce to others is part of this super creative world in which we live. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker – ever watched someone who enjoys what he (she) does and knows it is worthwhile and recognises that he has a 'style' which is peculiarly his own. Priceless- like a certain butcher in the market who can always get an audience as he prepares his cuts of meat.

You don't have to be able to draw, paint, write, sing, play an instrument, invent something, or any of the other activities recognised as 'creative' to be creative. 

Do you like gardening, cooking, sewing, entertaining, taking care of people ? – you can name it – you are creating. It might be something solid or something more ephemeral like just joy in someone's heart.
Anything that gives you pleasure to create lifts your spirit.

I enjoyed teaching, but when I was in the classroom I don't know if I consciously regarded what I was doing as 'creative'. Looking back, I know it was.

For me, now, it is writing stories and listening to music and sometimes singing along (especially if I am alone since I can't sing). I can't listen to the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, for one, without feeling uplifted. I create along with the singers. Cooking does it for me too. Sometimes it is just looking into the future and creating visions, like a movie in my head, of what could be.

So if you are feeling down, lift your spirit, lighten your heart. Find your creative space and immerse yourself in it. 

P.S. Prayer can do it too, but some of us think we don’t know how to pray. That's for another blog

I gone to cook LOL

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Just a Reminder


My five ebooks on amazon.
If you don't have a kindle reader, there is a free app to download to your PC and read to your heart's content. Get it here http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_ln_ar?docId=1000426311
on the right of each ebook page on amazon you will find the link for other free devices too.

MY EBOOKS: Please support


www.amazon.com/Painting-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B014I5GI3K



Novella:  only $1.99

www.amazon.com/Painting-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B014I5GI3K
A sentimental love story between Karen and Peter. Were women in the70s more naive? More forgiving?

Actually two stories. You get a brawta - The Ebony Desk









www.amazon.com/My-Three-Moms-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/
B00UMAA300/



A Novel: only $3.99



www.amazon.com/My-Three-Moms-Hazel-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00UMAA300/

 
A story about Destiny's loss of her identity and how she recovered.  Wealthy father imprisoned for fraud -Mother deserts them. She is already fumbling when a surprise letter informs her that Carmen who she always thought was her mother - is not.
Devastated, she resolves to find her real mom only to discover there were two. She is all alone an din danger of being kidnapped, until the lawyer she retains to find her surrogate mother enters the picture.
A very good read.







http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESEWI6I



A Novella: only $1. 99


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESEWI6I


Very much like an Anansi story, wealthy Mr. King, anxious for his daughter's happiness, devises a nutty plan to find the right suitor. The plan backfires and his daughter runs away from home to make her own way in the world of music. After many disappointments, she gets a lucky break, and in the end finds her true love.
This is a modern folk tale from Jamaica.that you will enjoy reading, The song lyrics are hilarious. See the reviews and add your own.









http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEAWWCG



A collection of six short stories: Only $2.99 


When Times Are Strange, people do strange things. If you like short stories (varying lengths) you'll like these six stories. The characters are larger than life.They are frightened, they weep, they have to find courage to face their challenges but they also laugh. Typical Jamaican humour bubbles under the surface.

A broad canvas of life in Jamaica.









http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC


A collection of six short stories: only $2.99



Love is in the Jamaican atmosphere, and our characters have to deal with the peculiarities of relationships as they face their partners.In these six short stories, from first love between teenagers to the aftermath of lost love for the more mature, love doesn't always end in 'happily ever after' even when there's a bit of fantasy thrown in. 'Man and woman' story can be very complicated, and romance, perhaps, merely fictional.My favourite from this collection is Emancipation Park

 I dedicated these stories to Whitney Houston, taking the title from her most famous song as they were ready just about the time she died.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Random Thoughts# 5 Food and Love part 2




In part one on this topic, Random Thoughts #4 Food and Love,  I looked at a special cook book, The Secrets of Pistolet, and wondered if the secret ingredient that makes some meals magical is really only love. The recipes in this enchanting book suggest that it is not only the careful choice of the ingredients, but also the method of cooking, including the ambience, which gives food the healing properties our bodies and minds sometimes need.

In this post on how we prepare food, I will be looking only at domestic situations. Institutional cooking deserves a post of its own. 

So, if I am postulating that it is cooking with love that makes food taste really good, I am inviting you to think about meals which stand out in your memory. When I got married, my husband was loud in praise of his mother's cooking and it seemed clear that I could not hope to compete. However, as I redoubled my efforts, and probably fell more in love with him, the comparisons faded. It was only her Saturday soup that I couldn't compete with. Since I don’t like Saturday soup, I think I must have cooked it (when I condescended to do so) only as a chore, therefore it wasn't going to taste more than so-so.

So why don't I like Saturday soup? Rewind to my childhood when Saturday was chores day and cooking was an afterthought, just another chore for my mother. The soup was thrown together not just because it was traditional, but because it was the easiest meal to cook. It never tasted good to me, and I would dawdle over it until it was cold and even more insipid, despite her threats.

Contrast that with her Sunday dinner (lunch really), half cooked either overnight or early morning because we had to go to our church service which didn't end until about noon. On returning from church, she would go into the kitchen and finish cooking the meal in a loving frame of mind (no doubt fortified by the Holy Spirit from the service). Wow! Something to look forward to, as I recall.

Over the Christmas season, I saw a post on Facebook from one of our prominent world leading athletes, about a Christmas when things were so tight at home that her mother could only cook her best turned cornmeal with saltfish for Christmas dinner. But she remembers sitting with her family and thoroughly enjoying the meal – (I am adding this) perhaps more than those in affluent homes with lavish meals where ill will is sometimes the sauce flavouring the whole meal. I was struck by her use of the word best. Obviously her mother took great care with the preparation of the meal. It was cooked with love. In the spirit of The Secrets of Pistolet, she might even have been singing some carols as she cooked.

All my girls and my granddaughter cook very well. But, I can tell the difference in the taste of the food when it is prepared simply because it is 'my' turn as opposed to when extra goodwill and love is added to the ingredients.

Then again, there are individuals who will say that their mothers could not cook. I wonder if this was tied to constant negative feelings in the home?

I KNOW that I have prepared meals in times of stress when family have eaten only because they didn't want to further hurt my feelings. And I have been invited to meals in other people's homes and served food which should have been good but which tasted like thrash. Perhaps it works both ways, the love has to be shared to make the meal spectacular, and make us not only feel full, but zing our taste buds and leave us satisfied in body and mind.

Do you have any favourite meals from your past which fit my theory?

Note: Traditional Saturday soup in Jamaica is usually well seasoned beef soup with vegetables, (lots of pumpkin for colour) and starchy foods like yams and potatoes and dumplings (the best part).

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Random Thoughts# 4 Food and Love part 1


"All who spend time at Pistolet leave with their hearts and minds transformed."


One of my daughter's friends sent me a book she thought I might enjoy reading – and I certainly did. Thanks Rachelle.

This is the kind of book which is sometimes the unexpected reward for browsing through a bookstore. The Secrets of Pistolet, text and illustrations by Jana Kolpen is a delightful adult book which looks like a picture book for children. Whimsical illustrations enhance each page. A pseudo cook book, it is also interactive as the recipes are in envelopes and one has to pull out the cards to read the instructions. These recipes are guaranteed to correct the emotional problems of the persons who visit this magical farm in France. They are prescriptions for happiness as each has very specific instructions on the right ingredients and method of cooking which will reorient the troubled persons. "All who spend time at Pistolet leave with their hearts and minds transformed."

When you pull out a recipe there are wonderful instructions like: 'go to the farmers' market and buy only from smiling gypsy women. OR 'go to the farmers' market and find the most robust farmer with the rosiest complexion. With tender loving care pick out the deepest purple, firmest beets.'

The instructions include things like 'While you are cooking, put on gypsy music and dance wildly', OR 'play lullabies until ready'. There are also warnings on the consequences of eating these enchanted preparations – 'One taste of this potion and the afflicted heart will swell with compassion and generosity' Or  'Serve only to those who are truly in need'. OR 'This infusion has been known to turn the meekest souls into BRAVE HEARTS' OR 'Sweetness will ooze from the pores of even the most gnarly types.'

It's a feel good book which will lift your spirits. It's also a cookbook with recipes which only brave hearts will try. (One reviewer said she had tried them!) Because, if you can't find the real, yet magical ingredients, will it have the desired effect?

Actually this book set me thinking about how we prepare food, and how the secret ingredient that makes food magical is really only love.
Next post I will expand on this.