What a way to end the week…. Donna Parker with a lot of reasons why Canadians are great and deserve some respect. Why it seems that the inmates are in charge of the asylum, that there major issues in all our countries that need to be sorted out instead we are wrapped up in tawdry scandals and fake news. There is a great deal of insults being flung between countries on tariffs and how big each other’s arsenals are. Can we have a time out please and take care of some of the issues that Donna also brings up about the appalling way we deal with people who have nothing. Anyway…head over and see how succinctly all this is put together and spread it around.. Thanks Donna.. I feel better for getting that off my chest. Peace and goodwill everyone… wouldn’t that be nice.
Vague Meanderings from The Great White North Yes, The Great White North, we don’t need to be great again, we just are…oh and by white we mean our snow, not our complexions (what’s that got to do with anything anyway?). We’re proud to be a cultural mosaic. It’s not cold here right now, it’s sauna-like, with the prerequisite nude folks (sometimes a towel can be a lifesaver…mine).
Our news is flooded with the loss of a spectacular voice (for song and human rights) that came from an inspirational woman – Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul will move our ears, feet, and hearts forever…
More people killed with guns (who knew, guns do kill people); Omarosa is a sociopath just like Trump The Great Orange Misleader, they deserve each other, but we don’t deserve either – perhaps they’re in on it together, hey, let’s have a public feud…
Congratulations to the winners of the Word Weaver Contest and special mention to Adele Marie Park as the overall winner, and Geoff Le Pard in third place. Adeles story will be appearing tomorrow on Dan Alatorre’s blog.. Fantastic.
It seems like the wait gets longer each time, doesn’t it?
Why is that?
Because I need a lot of time to read and critique the amazing stories you send, that’s why!
I KNOW you want to get right to the winners
and believe me, so do I.
These are really good stories and they’ll be getting invited to take part in our horror anthology that will be published in October! That’s kind of a big deal.
I read and critiqued ALL the entries, then selected the finalists.
Then I reread the stories.
And read them again…
ANYWAY, the wait is over and the winners are HERE.
TOMORROW, the first place winning story will appear here on the blog.
Tuesday it’ll be the first place winning story’s author profile.
Wednesday we’ll feature the second place story, Thursday will be the 2nd place profile, and so…
The boy stirred in his cot and waved his chubby fist in the air. The mid-afternoon sun was barred from his room by the rattan blinds at the window. The slowly moving blades of the fan above his cot sent a welcome and cooling breeze across his hot skin. The rest of the house was quiet, except for the gentle snoring of his amah as she dozed fitfully on the pallet on the other side of the room.
The boy was called Clive and was the fourth child and first son of a naval officer and his wife who were stationed here in Trincomalee. He was three years old and his curly blonde hair now lay slick against his scalp as he recovered from the fever. It had been a worrying few days with the doctor calling in every few hours to check on his condition. The household, including his three older sisters and his parents, were exhausted having had little sleep for the last few nights.
Measles in this climate could be very dangerous for a child Clive’s age and he had been restricted to his cot in the darkened room to prevent the risk of blindness. Thankfully his fever had now broken, and the family having enjoyed their Sunday curry lunch, had retired to their bedrooms to sleep the afternoon away beneath their ceiling fans.
Welcome to the weekly round up and a catch up on the week’s events here on the blog.
Most of you will know that as of August 1st – our Facebook profiles are not longer linked automatically. In itself it is not a problem because it offers an opportunity to personalise the post when sharing to FB. However, many of my posts, including the columns that are written by William Price King, Carol Taylor, D.G. Kaye and Jessica Norrie, are scheduled to go out at just after midnight. Around 65% of my readers are from North America and they are usually checking the WordPress reader, and also their email notifications during those overnight hours. With the loss of the link to Facebook where I have a substantial amount of followers, this meant that the post would not be seen until the following night, and would most likely be long lost in timelines and on the WP reader.
Despite my reluctance to have two accounts with FB… I have weighed up the pros and cons and have established a page, which by the new rules is linked directly. A great many of my posts are author and blog promotions, and I want to achieve the most effective reach I can for those I promote. I hope that this will help me do that. I have sent invitations out to my current FB followers, but if you are not connected there, perhaps you would like to head over to the new page and join me there: https://www.facebook.com/smorgasbordblogmagazine/
In September I will be introducing new promotional posts and I am also very interested in developing new collaborations in the form of monthly, fortnightly or weekly columns to join the already established Health, Music, Cookery, Literary and Health posts.
There are a number of options to think about. Do you have an expertise in a particular area of writing, publishing, film or a hobby that you are passionate about? If you write about health you can write under the Health Column umbrella as a guest. You may have a series of posts on a particular subject that you have already published on your blog in the past and would now like to share with a new audience.
If you are interested in talking further then please email me onsally.cronin@moyhill.com with a view to posting at the end of September either monthly, fortnightly or weekly.
Posts from Your Archives – Blogger promotion
Earlier in the year I featured over 200 posts from your archives. I will be bringing this feature back from October and so I am giving you plenty of time to check your archives and find posts that you feel could use some more attention.
If you would like to participate in this series of Posts from your Archives here are the details.
All of us have posts that sit idle in our archive with perhaps a handful of visits from readers who are browsing on our blog. But I would like to offer you the opportunity to share some of your posts that you feel would be enjoyed by a different audience.. Mine.
I am happy to share posts on any subject including short stories, writing, publishing, pets, health, personal experiences with life and events, films and music. If you have travel posts that have a great many photos, then I will feature those as a reblog post with up to four of the photos and then a link to go to your blog to read the rest.
Apart from sharing your post, I will of course share your bio, any book links, social media and of course your blog so that readers can head over and enjoy your more recent hard work. Currently my readership across the blog and Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest is 36,000, many of whom are readers and authors.
If you are interested all I need is the links to four posts you are interested in sharing and then I will take it from there. Most of you have already sent me your links but if we have just met I may come back to you. sally.cronin@moyhill.com
Okay.. time to get on with the posts from the week that you might have missed.
The Music Column with William Price King – Diana Krall the Finale – New series on Jazz Instrumentalists beginning next week.
Off to Mexico in the company of travel expert Debby Gies – Where it is safe, shopping wining and dining, excursions, accommodation and health. Read before you book, and get the most out of your holiday.
Getting to know you – Sunday Interview – With N.A. (Noelle Granger)
I had the pleasure of meeting my guest today at the Bloggers Bash in 2017 and discovered a delightfully charming person and also had the privilege of meeting her husband. Noelle Granger is the author of the Rhe Brewster crime thriller series and has recently published Death in a Mudflat
Personal Stuff…Letters from America – my parent’s visit in November 1985 and our trip to The Alamo in San Antonio and the deep and amazing Natural Bridge Caverns.
Today Teagan Geneviene shares some background to a minor character in her novel Atonement, Tennessee Marje Tipton, who is due to have more prominent role in the sequel, Atonement in Bloom.. Sounds like my kinda Gal.. loves Westerns and dresses the part.. Also a surprise in the form of a cover reveal for a second book to be released at the same time The Glowing Pigs… snort stories… great cover as you will discover when you head over to meet Marje. #recommended
Welcome everyone. You’ve entered my sanctuary. Today we’re visiting Atonement, Tennessee. I know it can be hard to find your way around in a fictional town. So, let’s have lunch at the local diner, L.O.L.A. Lola’s. I want you to meet the owner, Marge Tipton.
Marge’s part in Atonement, Tennessee is quite small, but she comes back for book-2 with a somewhat bigger role. I thought it would be fun for you to meet some of the residents of the quirky town.
Actually, I wrote this vignette a few years ago. So while I try to finish the edits to Atonement in Bloom (I know you must be as tired of hearing me say that as I am of saying it but…) I’m giving you a rerun. I hope you don’t mind. This little slice of life was done in my “three…
Darlene Foster is justifiably proud of her artistic daughter whose work has been recently featured in prestigious art magazine in the UK… love the pottery and I can see why Darlene is so proud.
I have mentioned my talented potter daughter previously. I am so proud of her as she continues to grow and create fabulous art. Recently she has been featured in a glossy magazine from the UK called Art Reveal
In the article she states, I’m privileged to participate in the cycle of handmade artifacts.
Haven’t shared any Gary Larson cartoons for a while. How about a few examples of his take on animals? Twisted & bizarre? Of course. It’s Larson, after all!
😀
I have been saving this up today to close of play …. what a cutie.. I want to bring him home. Thanks to Cindy Knoke for taking such amazing photos even through a window.. amazing.
Meep-Meep Jr. is much shyer than Mama-Meep.
He likes playing me like Wile E.
Whenever I venture outside,
he vanishes, in a cloud of dust.
He forces me to shoot him through the double-paned, not too clean, windows.
Cheers to you from the very fast, quite shy, and oh-so-wiley, Meep-Meep-Junior~
Father O’Grady was preaching the difference between knowledge and faith.
‘In the front row we have Teresa and Shamus with their six children,’ he said. ‘Teresa knows they are her children. That’s knowledge. Shamus believes they are his children. That’s faith.’
Restaurants.
There is a Mongolian-Jewish restaurant. It’s called Genghis Cohen..
******
Two crayfish in a restaurant’s aquarium realised that this would probably be their last night together. The male started kissing and cuddling the female. She said: ‘Okay, but will you still respect me in the mornay?’
******
A Scot, Irishman and an Englishman were dining together in a restaurant. When the waiter cleared away the coffee the Scot was heard to ask for the bill.
Next day the newspaper headlines declared: Irish Ventriloquist shot in restaurant.
Salesmanship
Sid was told if he did not sell more toothbrushes he would be fired. One month later his sales record had soared and his manager called him in to explain the dramatic turnaround.
Sid explained that he had got tired of calling at pharmacies and had set up a little stall at the main train station with some crackers and a new dip.
‘Try my dip,’ he would say, and a constant stream of people did so. When they enquired about the ingredients of the dip, Sid told them: ‘Garlic and Chicken poop!’
They would go ‘Aaaargh!’ and spit it out.
Then Sid would say: ‘Would you like to buy a toothbrush?’
Never look a gift Porsche in the mouth…..
A sixteen year-old boy came home with a Porsche and his parents began to fuss,“Where did you get that car???!!!”He calmly told them, “I bought it today.”
“With what money?” demanded his parents. “We know what a Porsche costs.”
“Well,” said the boy, “this one cost me fifteen dollars.”
So the parents began to panic and asked.“Who would sell a car like that for fifteen dollars?” they said.“It was the lady up the street,” said the boy. “I don’t know her name; they just moved in.She saw me ride past on my bike and asked me if I wanted to buy a Porsche for fifteen dollars.”
“Oh, my goodness,” moaned the mother to the boy’s father, “John, you go right up there and see what’s going on.”
So the boy’s father walked up the street to the house where the lady lived and found her out in the yard calmly planting petunias! He introduced himself as the father of the boy to whom she had sold a Porsche for fifteen dollars and demanded to know what was going on.
“Well,” she said, “this morning I got a phone call from my husband. I thought he was on a business trip, but learned from a friend he has run off to Hawaii with his secretary. The secretary took his money and left him after they had arrived. He called me and claimed he was robbed and stranded.
He asked me to sell his new Porsche and send him the money. So I did.”
Thanks for dropping in today and hope you have enjoyed.. Please feel free to pass along.. Sally.
It is Wednesday which means it is time for the Jazz Age over at Teagan Geneviene… Last week we were left aghast at the temerity of the mystery woman who whisked the ailing Valentino off into thin air. Meanwhile the distraught angel bots are in bits about the state of affairs, and I mean in bits and Tesla has his work cut out for him if he is to save them. Meanwhile Pearl is beginning to show her true colours… and Lulu and Gramps are the only ones who are in a fit state to find Valentino and rescue him. We are arriving at the climax of this story with only one or two weeks to resolve the conundrums. Head over and get up to speed…#recommended
Angel-bot with Tesla in his electric car. Art by Rob Goldstein
Hi there, Shieks and Shebas! You’ve come to the train station for Jazz Age Wednesdays. This is where I share stories set in the Roaring Twenties.
The fabulous images for this #DieselPunk story are created by artist, Rob Goldstein. He also makes pos-i-lutely swell videos that are parallel to the story. Plus, Rob sent random “things” that I used as prompts as I envisioned and authored Hullaba Lulu.
If you need reminders of past chapters, I did a Real World Tech Review post that has links through episode 11.1.
Tesla Coil, Public Domain Image at Wiki Media Commons
That said, I’m nearing the end of this adventure for Lulu and the crew. So I’m posting a longer chapter today. I’m still pantsering, writing in an unplanned spontaneous way, so I’m not sure whether the…
ARTODU is a Swiss online gallery inspired by the urban art of Budapest. We are passionate about our mission: to show you a very special and spectacular collection of artworks that you can't find anywhere else. We represent our highly talented artists who are in love with Budapest.
Vague Meanderings from The Great White North
Marge Tipton at L.O.L.A. Lola’s
Susa, wood-fired stoneware 
Ocean Momma 
Amphora 
Raku Shake Basket 
Rhythm of the Dance 
Angel-bot with Tesla in his electric car. Art by Rob Goldstein
Tesla Coil, Public Domain Image at Wiki Media Commons