The Collaborates

http://soniarumzi.com/the-cahokian-by-zoe-saadia-2.html

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:26:21 -0500

http://soniarumzi.com/the-cahokian-by-zoe-saadia-2.html

Photo

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:58:17 -0500

http://youtu.be/HwpUuMcq7zw

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:49:47 -0500

http://youtu.be/HwpUuMcq7zw

Suzie Ivy Interviews Elizabeth Marshall

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:52:29 -0400

I would like to introduce you to Elizabeth Marshall. I met Elizabeth on Twitter. We seemed to connect immediately but then I don’t believe anyone would have trouble connecting with her. I see her smile in every Tweet she sends out and she always spreads her cheerful mood. Add this to being an incredible writer, mom and wife and you have what makes Elizabeth special. She also told me she would tick my tags if I added them on Amazon, now isn’t that a great friend? Please visit her website, I guarantee her books need to be in your eReader.

Elizabeth Marshall

In one sentence describe your latest book:
One sentence, wow! Ok here it goes:-
Alone in a foreign city and haunted to near insanity by the ghost of Robert Hamilton, Grace Evans finds herself four hundred years in the past, in the bed of the man who has haunted her.

What is the most romantic moment you’ve had in your life?*Blushing* But I’ll tell you anyway.
I was sixteen; it was a cold and misty July afternoon in South Africa. I had just returned home from a disastrous singing lesson. My teacher was a friend of my father’s, a lady called Eve Boswell (A chart topping singer from the 1940’s and 50’s with the big band leader Geraldo in the UK) – This lady had seen it all, done it all and knew just about everyone from Frank Sinatra to the queen. She had little patience with a vocally challenged sixteen year old whose dreams far out stretched her talent.

Firmly slapped down, nursing my wounded pride and shattered dreams I shut myself in my bedroom and buried my head in my pillow, sobbing. A knock on my bedroom door told me I had a visitor. Slightly panicked I wiped my eyes and took several deep breaths before opening the door.
“Hey can I come in?”

I forced a smile and tried to hide as much of my face behind my fringe.
“Yes, of course you can,” I replied, thinking that I would rather be left alone to wallow in self-pity.

I liked this guy, he was one of a group of friends who regularly came round to the house to play pool with me.

“You want to go into the bar and play pool?” I asked.

“No, not really, I came to see if you’d like to come with me for a drive up to Monteceel.”

“Ok, but I can’t be long. Mum is doing dinner.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve asked your mum and she said we can be back at nine.”

Here he had my attention. I hadn’t ever been out so late without my parents and suddenly the excitement of going out with a lad that I fancied a lot, on my own, sent butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Was he asking me out on a date? I couldn’t be sure, but either way I had totally forgotten the shattered dreams of becoming a singer.

That evening we had a picnic on the top of Monteceel and sat together watching the sun as it set, casting its brilliant orange glow over the mighty African mountains.

Andrew did ask me to go out with him that night; he also kissed me for the first time. Twenty four years and five children later we are still married.

When do your book ideas most often come to you?
This is a difficult question to answer because inspiration is something that builds over time. My first story was inspired by a family trip to the Scottish Highlands, but it was really the city of York that provided the spark of creativity that made the writing of that story possible.

The ‘Beyond Time’ series was inspired by a blog I wrote about the ghost of George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, a close friend of Charles the second. He was a womanizer with an extraordinary talent for charming pretty ladies into his bed. It is believed that on his retirement George bought a house on exactly the same site as today’s ‘Cock and Bottle’ public house. Mr. Villiers is said to still be there! His saucy ghost has been caught on several occasions spying on pretty young customers of the ‘Cock and Bottle’ pub.

What is your goal as a writer?
I don’t think I have a specific goal as a writer. The process of writing is, in itself, massively satisfying. Add to this the friends I have made through writing and I consider myself to be phenomenally fortunate. To be able to spend my days doing a job that I love, surrounded by wonderful friends is more than I could ever have wished for.

Name your favorite book or author and why?
‘Forever Amber’ by Kathleen Winsor. My mum gave me this book when I was a teenager and it was the first historical romance I ever read; with it started my love of history. I enjoyed it so much that I couldn’t bear to finish the story. I was actually thirty seven before I read the last page. To this day, I regret ending the book.

If you could meet anyone in history, who would it be?
This question isn’t as difficult as you might imagine, and I suspect you will find my answer slightly surprising, as my choice is not a powerful, rich or famous character.

I would desperately love to meet a watchmaker called Robert James Croy Irvine born in 1861 in the Orkneys.

In 1883, he married Rebecca Watson, a dressmaker from Edinburgh at St Giles’ Church on the Royal Mile. Together they set up home at number 7 St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh. In the late 18hundreds, the young couple and their children set sail for South Africa, where Robert opened a jeweler’s shop in a place called Newcastle. During the second Boer war his shop was destroyed and his stock trampled into the ground by the Boers, in retaliation of his support for the British.

The Irvine family returned to Scotland where Robert died of a stroke in 1908. He left his wife and four daughters, one of whom (Lilly) moved to England and there married a man called James Martin. At the age of 18, Lilly became the first woman to pilot an airplane. Another of Robert’s daughters (Jessie) returned to South Africa and there she married a man called Robert Pettigrew, (my great grandfather). In 1932, Jessie was widowed and went on to open a chain of butchery shops which went on to become the largest supplier of meat in Durban.

Why would I like to meet this man? Well aside from the fact that he is my great, great grandfather, I am in awe of the man who was born in the Orkneys, married and traded in Edinburgh, sailed his family half way around the world to start his own business, stood proudly British against the Boers and whose dreams were finally trampled for the courage of his convictions.

When it comes to money, what is your one decadence?
Oh this is an easy one. Without a doubt it’s books.

What is your favorite junk food?
I understand the question so I will answer KFC but honestly my Achilles Heel is cheese, olives and port, throw in my husband, a roaring fire, a snow storm and a book and I’m in heaven.

I’ve followed you on Twitter and you love quotes. What is your favorite?
‘If you live to be a 100, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.’ A.A. Milne

What are you going to do as soon as you finish this interview?
I’m going to bath my little girl and tuck her into bed.

Tell us something no one knows about you?I can’t get to sleep at night until I have said my prayers. *embarrassed* My nightly prayers are the same now as those I said when I was six, with a few additions, of course.

If you could be an animal for a day what would you be and why?
I would love to be a Springbok. How wonderful it would be to have the agility, freedom and grace to glide across the African bush.

What are you reading right now?
I actually have a few books on the go at the moment, but unfortunately it’s been a few weeks since I got the chance to sit down and read. Hopefully this will be changing soon and I look forward to some quality time with my kindle.

What is your best piece of advice to an aspiring author?
I don’t really feel qualified to offer advice but if I had to say anything it would just be that a head full of stories does not make a book, but add a heart full of passion and you have your book.

Visit Elizabeth’s Website Buy her books at Amazon and Smashwords

http://anothersuzieivyblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/amazing-interview-1-elizabeth-marshall/

Elizabeth Marshall- Amazing Interview #1

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:50:16 -0400

Elizabeth Marshall- Amazing Interview #1

Elizabeth Marshall- Guest Blog on simontall.com

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:55:07 -0400

Elizabeth Marshall- Guest Blog on simontall.com

An amazing novel of the results and fight against drugs.

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:28:49 -0400

An amazing novel of the results and fight against drugs.

Bushfire: Drug trafficking Halted and destroyed!

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:26:24 -0400

I could not put the book down. It was fast and moving. Even in the midst of the mayhem that this story produced, Paul Anthony managed to use pleasing language to describe the surroundings. It seemed that when he described a beautiful spot, it got marred by the incidents surrounding it. I found that appealing in that it gave me a contrast between “normal” life and the lives of criminals and the havoc they reek on society.

Paul Anthony expressed his horror and aversion to drugs and their heinous effects on society and individuals.

Since I love a fast-paced story, I enjoyed this story-telling. Since I love people, I cheered the antagonists in the book as they fought against difficult odds to stop drug trafficking, even this one time.

So well done.

An amazing book for a thrilling ride.

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:19:43 -0400

An amazing book for a thrilling ride.

Presenting Children of Discord review

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:18:11 -0400

Presenting Children of Discord review

Sean Brown- @seanypants- 'The Altruist' PART 4- Awakening

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:04:00 -0400

7^th November 2020

Location- Scott Biological Technologies, New York Laboratory

Daniel had been in and out of consciousness for a number of days, although he was unsure of how many. The pain that movement once brought was fading gradually. Due to the limited space in the tank he was encased in, Daniel had been unable to move too much. He remained confused as to what was happening and was still unable to remember his last memory. Unexpectedly, consciousness came to him suddenly and quickly, as did his strength. To Daniel, it felt as if he had been filled with energy. With this, came a colossal feeling of being trapped. He lifted his leg and pressed his knee against the glass. It was difficult for him to move this much and being in water didn’t help. He moved his knee harder and quicker to impact the glass, surprisingly cracking it. The force Daniel exerted to impact the glass was barely what he had expected to crack it. He lifted his knee again and smacked the glass with little force, this time smashing it. Instantly, as the oxidised water poured out of the tank and the glass shattered all over the floor, an alarm sounded. The volume of the alarm brought a disabling pain to Daniel for a few seconds, making it difficult for him to pull away from the neck brace which was attached to the back of the tank. After the initial phasing, he found the strength to effortlessly pull away from the tank. As he forced his neck to look down, he saw dozens of tubes coming out from all over his body. Taking his first step out of the tank, pulling away from oxygen mask and the tubes, he realised those few seconds he had been phased were all too important. Four heavily armed men ran into the room surrounding him, instantly, they pointed their weapons at Daniel.

Sean Brown- @seanypants- 'The Altruist' PART 3- The Future

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:58:00 -0400

Skip 70 years in the future. Capitalism has evolved as it had done constantly since its beginning. The beginning of the 21^st century saw the world become capitalised. Religion, food, media; everything was affected and every decision you made had a capitalist driven after-thought. The most drastic of these developments was the capitalisation of politics. The politics of the late-21^st century was more capitalised than lobbying or the marketing of parties could ever have made it. The 3 most dominant companies with the most political leverage of the century became the government. Scott Bio-Tech (Scott Biological Technologies), surprisingly enough to speculators of the early 2000’s, was one of these companies. How they came to be one of the ‘Power 3’ was even more of a surprise.

Scott Bio-Tech, founded in 2013, was owned by the brothers Kent and Logan Scott, well known in the industry for their success in experimental innovations in the field of biomedical engineering. The company began focusing on relatively simple commercial biological advancements for the time, such as artificial muscle enhancement or automatic fat dissolution technology. In 2015, the company won a contract with the US government which contractually obliged Scott Bio-Tech to supply the US health care system with biological advancement technology. This continued for a number of years, allowing Scott Bio-Tech to gain a good reputation and a friendly relationship with the government. With this, came growth a Western company had not seen before. Scott Bio-Tech became world leaders in their field and with the Scott brothers at its helm, the company’s continuous consumer-friendly innovations helped keep them that way.

The events of 2017 changed the world forever. Inevitably, the world faced a much expected oil crisis. OPEC collapsed, energy companies tanked. This was not down to a lack in demand. The world’s dependency upon oil forced governments to begin a race to discover a cheap, quick and easy source of alternative fuel. The ‘race’ element of this discovery came from the idea of whichever country controlled the source of production, controlled the planet’s oil source. In late 2017, an untapped oil source was discovered, giving the world approximately a three year lifeline. Naturally, governments all over the world put into action policies to preserve oil, estimated to only buy a few months.

Elizabeth Marshall - @EM_Writes - Haunted York

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:24:31 -0400

Sit back, relax and prepare yourself to meet some famous residents of York - the most haunted city in Britain!

The dark streets are overcrowded, noisy and foul smelling. The air is heavy and wet. The smell of rancid waste fills your nostrils and hits the back of your throat. Lowering your eyes to the ground, anxious to avoid stepping in the sludge of filth that carpets the street, you notice an old man stumble and fall heavily in front of you. His death is not your concern.
You turn and guide your horse off the main path of the street and onto the cobbled courtyard of a posting house. A stable lad is grooming a fine black stallion as you emerge into the yard.

“Any chance of a drink for my horse?” you ask, noticing a trough of water to the side of the yard. The lad nods in the direction of the trough.

It is 1680 and you are watering your horse at what is now known as ‘The Olde Starre Inn’ - York’s oldest licensed public house.

The air around you fills with the desperate cries of wounded and dying men and the unmistakable smell of blood and death hangs in the air.

Fear grips your soul as the sound grows louder and closer - but there is no one there, except you…and the stable lad.

The lad shrugs, “Ignore it! It is nought but the cries from the surgeon’s blade. Before my time, you know…back in ‘44, after Marston Moor. They brought their injured and dying here, used it as a bloody billet hospital and morgue. It is said the landlord was none too happy, him being a Royalist and all. Don’t suppose he had much choice, them Roundheads haven taken the city from Charles. Mind it wasn’t long after that they took his head as well.”

So, if you are ever in York, I dare you to take a wander up Stonegate. Look for the banner stretched across the street and take the entrance below. Go hear for yourself the cries of the dead as you lift your mug of ale and sup to King Charles’ and his head.

Not brave enough for the ‘The Olde Starre Inn’, well…why not try the ‘Cock and Bottle’? Ladies be warned however, of a man wearing a richly embroidered coat and tight fitting breeches, with dashingly handsome features and long, black, wavy hair.

George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, born in London in 1628, was a close friend of Charles the second. He was a womaniser with an extraordinary talent for charming pretty ladies into his bed. So infamous was his character and reputation that his way with the ladies and his downfall from parliament in 1673 was immortalised in the nursery rhyme ‘Georgie Porgie’.

It is believed that on his retirement George bought a house on Skeldergate on exactly the same site as today’s ‘Cock and Bottle’ public house.

Ladies be warned - Mr Villiers is still there! His saucy ghost has been caught spying on young ladies in the shower, following them to the toilet and fondling and stroking pretty customers of the ‘Cock and Bottle’ pub.

Shall I continue?

Ok, but we only have time for one more, so grab a cup of tea and enjoy this, my last haunted tale for now!

Around Bedern Arch, off Goodramgate, stood an ancient building that, in 1847, became the ‘York Industrial Ragged School’. Its master, a greedy and crazed alcoholic, rounded up the homeless and hungry children of the city and set them to work. His only interest in the children was their financial worth and he frequently kept their welfare money for himself. Many of them perished from exposure and starvation. This suited the master very well as each death meant one less child.
In summer months he would secretly bury their little bodies in shallow graves. But when the winter frosts came he wasn’t able to dig through the hard ground. Instead he hid the bodies in a large cupboard in the orphanage. Over time the rotting bodies mounted in his cupboard and the ghosts of his victims haunted his twisted mind until, in a state of wretched derangement, he took a knife and murdered the remaining children in the home.
The house no longer exists but, on cold winter nights, if you are brave enough to wander through the Bedern Arch off Goodramgate, it is possible that you will feel the hand of a child in yours and hear the terrible screams of the ghosts of the ‘York Industrial Ragged School’.

On that note and with many thanks for your time - I bid you a warm farewell from York, the most haunted city in Britain.

"Buddhism If shit happens, it’s not really shit."

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:21:25 -0400

“Buddhism
If shit happens, it’s not really shit.”

"Taoism: Shit happens."

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:20:34 -0400

“Taoism: Shit happens.”

A story of finding the right man and keeping him. Fun for women...

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:10:03 -0400

A story of finding the right man and keeping him. Fun for women over 40. :)

A story of growth and strength. Friendship and caring between...

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:06:06 -0400

A story of growth and strength. Friendship and caring between women.

A wonderful ghost story of love and discovery. Trilogy in three...

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:35:41 -0400

A wonderful ghost story of love and discovery. Trilogy in three short stories. Shivers and smiles.

A wonderful romp on the dark side and beyond, with exciting new...

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:33:05 -0400

A wonderful romp on the dark side and beyond, with exciting new characters and thrills. Wonderful read!

An amazing read. Wonderful book.

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:30:40 -0400

An amazing read. Wonderful book.