Category Archives: General

Paparazzi Pair

The Paparazzi Pair are on the trail of a late-breaking story. Able Cane - Paparazzi PairAble Cane coming to you live from Pearson International Airport where world-famous author, Melanie Robertson-King and her husband, have just passed through security and are now working their way to their departure gate. I’ll see if I can catch up with them and get a word, or a hint as to their destination. Melanie isn’t moving too quickly – as you’ve heard she was injured in a mishap in her home about two weeks ago. I nudge my companion, Roxie Rebel, the photographic genius behind a number of the pictures you see in all the big tabloids.

Roxie Rebel - Paparazzi PairWe move swiftly to the check-point only to be thwarted by a burly security guard. Damn! I so wanted to get a word. Thankfully Roxie has her biggest telephoto lens on her camera and she starts shooting, holding the camera high in the air.

Oh dear, we have to run…

Let me catch my breath. *huff and puffing* That was too close. We’ll have to try a different approach to find out where Melanie is jetting off to. Never fear, the Paparazzi Pair will track her down wherever she is.

Tune in again…

Where do you think Melanie and her husband are going? Leave your guesses in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter, winter go away…

Winter 2013/2014

Ugh! I’ve had it with this winter. It’s lasted waaaay tooooo looooong. Enough already, I say!

Family and friends in the UK are posting pictures of daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops in bloom. Even the magnolia trees are in flower. What do we have here?

Just another blizzard. What else is new this winter? The wind is high enough (and the gusts even worse) that the snow is falling horizontally. Couple that with the blowing snow on the ground and you don’t see very much.

winter
Hubby’s car in front of the house. Mine is tucked up inside the garage.
winter
Our street looking north towards the corner.

The drive home from work was far from fun. The snowplows haven’t been out so about all you could do was keep it between the snowbanks (ice banks is more appropriate since we had a thaw before this latest freeze) and hope you were on the pavement.

There are two places along the highway where it’s easy enough to drop your wheels off the asphalt in perfect conditions and lucky me, I found them both. Oh, and I had some yahoo driving a Ford Super Duty 4×4 that rode my ass most of the way. I was so tempted to jam on the brakes a couple of times to shift him, but that would have only succeeded in having him and his truck in the car with me.

I’ll leave you with this comment…

L’hiver et la neige… PHOOEY!

Blowing My Own Trombone Book Launch Blog Tour by Emma Calin

Hello Melanie – thanks so much for letting me visit your blog to tell everyone about my new book

  “THE LOVE IN A HOPELESS PLACE COLLECTION

Boxed set Kindle

Now, this tour of mine is called the “Blowing my own Trombone Book Launch Blog Tour”.  We have had The Muppets and Cabaret and today – it’s Edelweiss from The Sound of  Music – I’ll leave you to be the judges of that…

The ‘Love in a Hopeless Place Collection‘ is a set of five of my stand-alone titles amalgamated into one. A bargain way for you to get your hands on my gritty tales-with-a-twist.  Initially available for e-books (Kindle, iPad, Android, iPhone, Mac, PC etc on Amazon), the paperback will follow and an audiobook is in production. The titles in the collection are all novelettes or short stories. They stand alone in their own right but are linked by a common theme:  the universal quest for survival, love, passion and respect against the gritty backdrop of working class life.

Sub-Prime – a gritty short story

The Chosen – a short story with a twist

Escape To Love – a novelette, a suspense romance with a twist

Angela – a short story

Love in a Hopeless Place – a novelette, a romance.

The title of one of the books and also the complete collection, “Love in a Hopeless Place”, comes from the song by Rihanna “We Found Love (in a Hopeless Place)”, which  played on the radio at a pivotal point in this individual tale,  but also really expresses the flavour of the collection as a whole.

Here is a small excerpt:

‘To want is easy. To be wanted is a delicious warm bath but with someone else’s hand on the hot tap. Once you’ve jumped the fall takes no courage or talent. I did a parachute jump once for a hospice charity. If you look up where you’ve come from it’s speeding away from you and you can never go back. It’s better to look at the ground because that’s where you’re headed and it’s an obtainable certainty. I knew by inviting her I’d crossed a frontier and as yet the guards hadn’t opened fire.’

LIAHP for vine copy

I am pleased to be able to tell you that during July and August ‘ANGELA‘ the short story from the collection is FREE – so you can even try one before you buy the set!

I would like to thank Melanie for having me on her blog as part of my ‘Blowing My Own Trombone Book Launch Blog Tour’.  If you want to read more excerpts from all the other titles in the collection – or would just like to hear me blow another tune, come along to the other blogs on my tour over the next 10 days:

Blowing Blog logo17th July Anneli Purchase

18th July Love a Happy Ending Lifestyle Magazine

and Real Life According to Emma

20th July Sheryl Browne

21st July Nicky Wells

22nd July Melanie Robertson-King

25th July Bonnie Trachtenberg

26th July Patricia Sands

27th Stephanie Keys

28th Linn Halton

31st July Venture Galleries Authors Collection

About Emma Calin:

EmmaCalinrectangular500KEmma Calin was born in London in 1962. She currently lives part of the year in the UK and spends the rest in France. She has been writing since childhood and has won numerous local, national and international prizes for poetry and short stories.

Emma enjoys writing love stories firmly rooted in social realism. She blogs about the contrasts in life on both sides of the English Channel, which she likes to explore on her tandem whenever weather and fitness coincide. She is a Lifestyle Contributor on Loveahappyending Lifestyle.

She defines herself as woman eternally pedaling between Peckham and Pigalle, in search of passion and enduring romance.

Emma Calin Links

The Love in a Hopeless Place Collection on Amazon Worldwide

For more books by Emma Calin:  http://www.viewAuthor.at/EmmaCalin

Emma Calin Blog: http://www.emmacalin.blogspot.com

Emma Calin Website: http://www.emmacalin.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/emma.calin

Facebook Page for book: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaCalinBoxedSet

Twitter:@Emma Calin

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/emmacalin/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4915751.Emma_Calin

Emma Calins 6 titles Medium 1700

What a beautiful way to start out the month of May

After the long, cold and snowy winter we had, it was wonderful to be able to tear another leaf off the calendar – May 1st. The temperatures were in the mid 20s Celsius which meant a body didn’t need to wear a coat although the morning did start out on the cool side.

When I go to work, I always take the motorway but when I come back home, I drive the road that runs along the river. It makes for a gorgeous drive in good weather. Last night was no exception. The river was like glass, it was so calm. It begged to be photographed. And so I did.

About halfway between home and work, is a village where there is a place to pull off the road and enjoy the scenery. It’s also where they fill up the volunteer fire department tankers. Still, you can work around the pipes that go into the water for that.

down river
Looking down river towards Montreal
up river
Looking up river towards Lake Ontario

There is only one thing that would have made these photographs even more perfect than they already are – having one of the huge lake freighters passing by… although I have a better location in mind to capture that. One where it looks like the ships are close enough you can reach out and touch them. Here’s hoping I can capture that image soon.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Happy Christmas! It’s snowing here this morning making it look quite magical – that is until a gust of wind blows up, then it doesn’t look so nice, after all.

Yesterday’s wrapping marathon ended well after supper and the 4th gift bag I thought I had, well let’s just say, I didn’t have it anymore. At least I had a huge shopping bag from one of my favourite stores, so it was pressed into service. I just hope the recipient doesn’t think his gift came from there…

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He’ll be disappointed if he does. Have a few other tricks up our sleeves, too. Enjoy your day with family and friends!

Today is the 200th anniversary of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

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Remember those fantastic stories we grew up with? Listening to our parents read them to us and then when we were old enough to read, reading them ourselves?

Snow White

Hansel and Gretel

Rapunzel

Cinderella

Rumplestiltskin

Snow White and Rose Red

There were many others but these were among my favourites as a child. What were yours?

 

 

Another recording for TV…

It’s been a busy day for me here today at Celtic Connexions. First of all, I’m taking part in Janice Horton’s Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party, celebrating the launch of her new novella How Do You Voodoo? And secondly, because it had been arranged some time ago that I would do a spot for our cable company’s program Reader’s Corner.

The show’s host, Doreen Barnes, and I chatted about my novel, A Shadow in the Past. What made me decide I would write a book? Why I set it where I did? We talked about my characters, Sarah & Robert, the research involved, and what my favourite scene is.

I could give you all the answers now in my blog post, but then you wouldn’t want to watch the program when it comes on next month.

At the end of our interview, I was asked to read a very short (about 30 seconds) passage from my book. So I picked one that I hope will entice you into purchasing your very own copy.

For those of you who are local to Brockville and have cable you’ll be able to watch it on local channel 10. I’ll post the date and air time when I get it, but with so many of my followers being scattered to the four corners of the world, the episode should be shown on their website. TV Cogeco Readers Corner. Once the show goes online, I’ll post the complete link.

Not quite the ear-to-ear grin that I had in Kansas but still looking pretty pleased with myself.

You can buy A Shadow in the Past from the following:

In Canada:

Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Shadow-Past-Melanie-Robertson-King/dp/0983801886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346607916&sr=1-1

ChaptersIndigo: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/A-Shadow-In-The-Past-Melanie-Robertson-king/9780983801887-item.html?ikwid=a+shadow+in+the+past&ikwsec=Home

and if you’re local to Brockville, you can buy it from Leeds County Books, 73 King Street West or directly from me melanie@melanierobertson-king.com

In the US:

4RV Publishing: http://4rvpublishingcatalog.yolasite.com/robertson-king.php

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Past-Melanie-Robertson-King/dp/0983801886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344434406&sr=1-1

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-shadow-in-the-past-melanie-robertson-king/1112348992?ean=9780983801887

And in the UK:

Amazon.co.uk:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Past-Melanie-Robertson-King/dp/0983801886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344434484&sr=1-1

Celtic Connexions welcomes author Sheryl Browne as she re-launches her romantic comedy Recipes for Disaster

LAHE logo

Loveahappyending.com author Sheryl Browne re-launches Recipes for Disaster…

Recipes for Disaster

The shortest way to a man’s heart.

Mix romantic comedy and step-by-step cooking instructions. Bake at 200 degrees for an entertaining read and handy guide.

She’s a single. He’s a widower. She wants him. He wants her. She wants to impress. So does he. There’s just one catch – she can’t cook. To get him, she needs to get past the big fish – his mother. Lucky her, she’s got an Ace up her sleeve and all she’s got to do is impress this one time. Bad luck, though, her new guy can’t cook either, her dog Rambo is on the loose and now they’ve got to pull off the big lunch at the club. Will it be a match made in heaven? Will they be able to pull off a culinary miracle? Will their combined efforts result in love at first bite? Or is it simply a Recipe for Disaster?

Publication Date: 1 February 2012
Format: Paperback. Also available on Kindle
ISBN: 9781908208057

Available from: Amazon, any local bookstore, or direct from Safkhet Publishing Price: Paperback: £6.99, €7.99, or $9.99 respectively

Author website: http://www.sherylbrowne.com/
Twitter A/c @sherylbrowne: https://twitter.com/#!/SherylBrowne

Author Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/AvJ2qg
RNA page: http://bit.ly/xgSxQo

Amazon.co.uk Buy: http://amzn.to/yhC15N
Safkhet Publishing Buy: http://www.safkhetpublishing.com/

Taster of Recipes for Disaster:

“One cup red or green seedless grapes, three cups shredded chicken…”

“OK, got it.” Phone wedged between shoulder and ear-hole, I scribbled down the ingredients Becky was giving me — while frantically spraying Febreze to disguise the stench of dead fish.

“…cooked,” Becky added.

“What?” I knitted my much furrowed brow.

“three cups shredded… cooked… chicken.” She spelled it out, slowly, as if talking to an incompetent. I might have taken umbrage, but for the fact that my domestic Goddess gene wasn’t so much deficient, as it died, probably at birth. A slave in the kitchen I was not. Slut in the bedroom I could do. Or would quite like to. Somehow, though, I doubted the new man in my life would want to make mad passionate love to the girl who’d just killed off his mother.

“Honestly, Lisa…” Becky sighed. “It has to be cooked before you shred it. You can’t shred raw chicken, can you?”

She was taking the pee now. “Obviously,” I dripped, indignant, though there was a good possibility I might have tried.

“And make sure it’s a happy chicken.”

“Ri-ght.” I paused to ponder. “Cooked and shredded, I should think it’ll be highly amused.”

“Oh, ha-di-ha.” Becky didn’t sound impressed. “I meant, an organic chicken, plucked and without giblets. Wash it under cold water, then place the whole chicken in a big pot, cover it with water, and bring it to boil over a high heat.”

“By which time it will be positively ecstatic.”

Silence.

“Ahem. High heat, got you. Go on.”

“Make sure it doesn’t boil over,” Becky continued, after an audible humph. “Once it’s boiling, you can turn down the heat. Let the bird cook for at least one hour and then check if it comes off the bone easily. If not, turn off the heat and leave it in the pot until it does. Depending on the size of the bird, this might take a bit longer.”

“Becky, slow down!” I scrawled frenziedly and tried to keep up.

“Right, got it. I think. Next?”

Becky emitted another despairing sigh. “Order a takeaway.”

“Sorry?”

“Never mind.” She sighed — again, pointedly. “Repeat back what I’ve just said.”

“Hold on.” I turned to kick the back door closed before I got frostbite, then grabbed up the saucepan containing the culinary catastrophe I might have poisoned new man Adam and his mum with — and tipped it in the dog dish.

Then padded back across the kitchen and fell over the dog.

“Ooh, God! Three cups shredded cooked… absolutely delighted …chicken!”

I snapped, straightening up from the work surface, which mercifully broke my fall before I parted company with my teeth. “Good boy, Rambo,” I cooed, more sweetly. “Din dins, hon.”

My midget Jack Russell looked at me, looked at the dish — wherein floated a monkfish head, sniffed it, curled a lip, I would swear, then beat a hasty retreat to the hall.

“What else?” I asked after the next ingredient, while heaving out a sigh of my own, then trying hard not to breathe back in. The Bouillabaisse — traditional Provençal fish stew (Easy Fish recipe book now in trash) — I’d decided to serve for the brunch Adam had invited himself and his mother to, smelled horribly pungent while cooking. Burned, it could strip the lining from your lungs. I shudder to think what it would do to your digestive tract.

“Patience, lots of… on my part,” Becky went on wearily, “one cup thinly sliced celery, half a cup thinly sliced green onions, half a cup chopped, salted roasted pistachios…”

“Pistachios?! Where am I supposed to get…”

“Kitchen cupboard, right hand side. At least, that’s where they were at Christmas.”

“Oh, right.” I nodded and wondered whether I should also do an inventory of my kitchen cupboards… sometime.

“Next…” Becky went on efficiently: “…a quarter cup of fresh chopped mint leaves. And, yes, you have got some,” she assured me. “You bought it when you got the parsley and thyme for the Bouillabaisse. You’ll also need … two cups cooked couscous. If you like, you can use Bulgur or rice instead.”

“Is that it?” I asked, feeling overwhelmed by the task ahead as well as odious smells.

“For the salad, yes. For the Curry Chutney Dressing, you’ll need…”

Tescos, I thought wanly.

Friday the 13th…

And what did it bring to Eastern Ontario? Well, let me tell you it wasn’t pleasant. Mother Nature got a head start on the fun and games with a day of freezing rain yesterday. This morning, it was just rain but with the ice on everything, it froze when it made contact. Then it changed to snow. Huge flakes to start with! Now the snow that’s falling is in really fine ones.

Our power was up and down at work this morning. We have a generator which kept some of the offices up and running. Payroll/document imaging (my office) was one of them. But even the generator kicked off a couple of times… and right after we’d just managed to get all of our programs opened.

Just before 3:00, we were given the go ahead to leave because the latest prediction for restoring power could be as late as noon tomorrow!

Now you might think I’m weird, but I was hoping that the power would be off at home for at least 24 hours. I have a gas stove so could cook (can’t use the oven), I have a gas heater that doesn’t require electricity to work. It lights like a propane/gas BBQ, and when we switched from oil to gas some years ago, we asked for the old-style water heater rather than a power-vent one, so we would have hot water. I have candles, lots of flashlights and plenty of batteries.

Possibly even more important, my son has a power inverter for his car so I could charge my laptop and my Blackberry (it needs charging now so best do it before my wish does come true).

So what did I come home to, you ask? This…

Juniper tree at the back corner of my garage

My poor Juniper tree is bent right over under the weight of the ice and the heavy, wet snow. It’s been through many an ordeal so I’m not sure if it will come back again.

Other heavily laden trees in my back yard

All of the trees are feeling the pinch of the sudden blast of winter and I don’t think they are liking it too much. While it may look pretty, it sure isn’t good to drive in, nor walk in or just generally be outdoors.

And the best is yet to come! The temperature is still hovering around the 0C mark. The flash freeze is coming and by tomorrow it will be -20C. Brrr…