Random Thoughts #2

Dog is man's best friend, they say. And this is usually taken to mean best friend to the dog's owner. But is this always so?

Some time ago I had a friend who kept four or five dogs for protection since she lived alone. The dogs were mixed breeds, fierce looking, and they would bark up a storm. None of her friends could just push her gate and enter as we pleased. We had to wait for her to control the dogs, while we walked quickly into the safety of her enclosed verandah.

She also had  some large mango trees; bombay and julie, and those trees usually bore abundantly.

In Jamaica, mango season is fraught with the danger of casual thieves just walking in and stripping the trees. But, the dogs, we all thought would prevent anyone troubling my friend's trees.

Until one day, hearing sounds, she looked through her window and couldn’t believe her eyes.. There was a man with a bag collecting her mangoes, and all the dogs around him wagging their tails. She said the dogs looked as if they were helping the man. As if they were saying, 'This tree, not so sweet, try this one over here.'

The man, of course, ignored her when she called out to him and just continued collecting her mangoes, sure that a call to the police would not be answered. anytime soon.

Man's best friend!

The Ten Commandments

I am trying to come back to regular blogging. I have two new ebooks in the making, but for now I will just share some random thoughts.Usually these come to me at night when sleep is taking a break.

I bet most church folks would say that they know the ten commandments in the Old Testament. Whether they can live it daily is another matter. Whether you are a Christian or not, these commandments are still the best guide for social organization that we have. Whenever I think about the Ten Commandments two anecdotes spring to mind.

A very long time ago, when I was in second form (now Grade 8), our literature teacher was a very creative person. Literature classes could take us anywhere inside and outside the books being studied. I don’t recall why, but in one class, she asked out of the blue, how many commandments there were. Going down the line of students not one of us knew, for sure, and started guessing wildly  - up to 20, I think. She was not amused and I think the class got a detention.

I have often wondered why we froze and didn’t seem to know, considering that in those days, most of would have been attending Sunday School regularly and would have been exposed to Exodus and the stories therein.

I can only suppose that we were flummoxed because the question came in a Literature class. If it had come in a Sunday School class, we would not have had a problem. Maybe.

The second anecdote comes from a church service, where the visiting evangelist challenged the congregation to recite the ten commandments. Most persons knew some, but couldn’t recall all of them and not in the correct order. There were a lot of shamed faces in church that day.

Of course, a few contented them selves by saying that in the New Testament , Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus brought it down to only two which, if followed ,contain all the rest

37 And he said to him, Thou shalt love [the] Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy understanding.

38 This is [the] great and first commandment.

39 And [the] second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

If only we could remember.

Relationships!

Relationships! relationships! relationships!

That's what it's all about

Love stories where the lovers don't even touch? Oh yeah!

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

Love is in the air but it's more mental/spiritual than physical- but not any less real or intense.

Check it here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

A very good read as the reviews reveal

“ They are all love stories in some sort of way and, though short, relationships between the characters are clearly defined. ” StephiiStephii  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement

“ Brilliantly written, with strong characters, and although short, well crafted. ” yaz  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement

“ These are stories of love, hope, promise and sexuality. ” Sandy Bose    
go there now http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

A different read!

Read outside the box today 

Buy a copy

like and review

It's good!

Read the reviews

Check my ebook at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

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

Dangerous Words

The Internet is a strange country. I put up a post about my favourite story in my ebook collection of short stories and I am now getting hits from porn sites. Here's the post about the statues in Emancipation Park
http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favourite-story-in-my-darling-you-4.html

I can only imagine that the persons searching must be very disappointed when they reach my post seeing that they are using search words like

black male penis
jamaican penis
nude vagina&peins (sic)
I suppose it didn't help that I also posted Ban 'vagina' and 'penis' - Censorship in Christian literature

 quite innocuous articles.

Here's the thing I hope the searchers stay to explore more of my articles AND buy a book. I could dream not so!!!!!!!

This might offend some of my friends. So be it It's the INTERNET!!

My ebook

reviews on amazon

Extracts from reviews of My Darling You

“ They are all love stories in some sort of way and, though short, relationships between the characters are clearly defined. ” StephiiStephii  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement

“ Brilliantly written, with strong characters, and although short, well crafted. ” yaz  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement

“ These are stories of love, hope, promise and sexuality. ” Sandy Bose     

Get your copy and add your reviews 

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

 

The stories in My Darling YOU

These are the titles of the stories in my ebook My Darling You. Read some comments I have made on the stories by clicking on the links

The Santa Picture 

First Love

Emancipation Park

The Empty Jam Jar

A Caribbean Princess

The Search

Now you may well ask why I have not commented on the other stories.

I have no answer to that. If you have read the stories and would like to interview me I'll gladly answer your questions. Meanwhile, I continue to wonder about their genesis. The muse is very fickle and sometimes obscure

Read some good (unsolicited ) reviews of the book on the page
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Please support me by buying  a copy. I think you will enjoy the stories
Thanks

History anyone?

I am having a bit of trouble deciding whether some of my stories set in the 70s and 80s qualify as 'historical'. What exactly is the time frame for historical? Anything happening in time past is history, so when can a story be classified as historical?

Realistically, when we see that classification, we think of time long past with characters in history books and significant world periods, like: medieval, Elizabethan or Victorian times. Or, in the Caribbean, we think of  Tainos (Arawaks), pirates, slavery, maroons and sugar plantations. People must be dressed in old time clothing and speak old fashioned language.

In researching this topic on the Internet, I saw one suggestion that a historical setting is anything before World War one. Another suggestion was anything before 1950, it being the halfway mark in the last century. That would make anything after that modern, I suppose. Of course, the next period would be contemporary meaning up to date with all the things that are happening around us now.

So, I suppose my 70s and 80s stories would be modern, but definitely not contemporary as there are no cellphones nor the host of other technological devices which are now so commonplace.

My ebook My Darling You  Get it on amazon

Who Are These People?

Like many other persons who teach writing fiction courses, I advise my students to make detailed character sketches for the persons they put in their stories. This is a must for the protagonists and any other significant characters in the story.
We go down the usual check lists : name (nickname if any); age; physical description; primary relationship(s) MOTIVATION etc

You know the list. As a writer/creator you should know every aspect of your characters' lives. This will help if you run into a roadblock in the story-knowing how your character responds to various situations etc.

Good advice, but not all writers write in the same way.

My characters tend to be born whole. I don't have to work at creating a back story, they come with it. I often find that as I write I am following the character with great interest to find out just what it is they are planning and will get up to next and they tell me why. Once I know what it is I want to say, I can start writing and trust the characters to do their thing. Characters even force their way into my stories. I find that these are usually very interesting persons. They very often add another dimension to the story. (see my earlier post on this blog at http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favourite-story-in-my-darling-you-4.html

I tell my students that they need to know the 'rules'  - i.e. what usually works for writers, but not to be so hard bound by the 'lessons' that they stifle their own creativity. The guidelines work for some, but not for everybody.

See my ebook of short stories My Darling You at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

Appreciate your support Please buy a copy

BACK to normal

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

My two days free download of my ebook My Darling You have ended. Thanks to all who took the time to get a copy.I hope you like the stories. If you read AND liked the stories, please consider writing a review, clicking the 'like' button and telling others about it.
If you scroll down this blog you will find some insights as to how some of the stories in this ebook came to be written, as well as a couple of free stories. 
My favourtie story in the ebook is Emancipation Park. Here's why.
http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-favourite-story-in-my-darling-you-4.html