MKSP Black Friday/Cyber Monday Crazy Fun Party! #prizes

Hi, I haven't been posting here for a while. I had two operations in October and I've been in the 'recovery' thing, which meant all my energy has been spent on getting myself to work and then zonking in front of the TV afterwards. Now that MUST change or I'll never write again!

Anyway, today, I'm still gonna be sitting on my butt, but hosting for an hour today at this event, organised by Kim of the MasterKoda FB group and MKSP, for Black Friday-Cyber Monday. It's a big giveaway of books, with various authors hosting every hour. 

I'm on at 6pm UK time - that's 10am PT / 1pm ET – and giving away some books... pop along if you like. 

The event link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1523164247975549/

There's also a big competition of grand prizes. The rafflecopter will explain all - http://ebookbargainstoday.com/rafflecopter-for-bfcm-event/

And, finally, to all you readers, if you’re looking for a bargain read, why not check out this website, where you’ll find many of the authors taking part this weekend -  http://ebookbargainstoday.com

 
Here's our line up of authors for today and Monday -

Sunday, Nov 29

Hosts:
10amPT: (6pm UK) me
11amPT: (7pm UK) Jennifer Loiske
NoonPT: Debra Shiveley Welch
1pm PT: Ey Wade

~Break~ (One hour)

3pmPT: Greta Burroughs
4pmPT: Steve Vernon
5pmPT: Candy Ann Little

Monday, Nov 30

Hosts:

2pmPT: CJ Peterson
3pmPT: Denise Ellyson
4pmPT: Wendy Siefken
5pmPT: Kimberly Hughes Smith
6pmPT: Tamy Burns

 

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop - October 15-31 - win books!

Hi, I'm excited to be involved in the SPOOKTACULAR Giveaway Hop, hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer (www.iamareader.com). The hop is running from October 15-21, and there are so many blogs involved that you could gather an awesome armful of books!

 I'm giving away paperback copies of my fantasy novel The Sea Inside to 2 winners, 
and an ebook copy of Kiwi and the Living Nightmare to 10 runners-up :) 
Fellow author Greta Burroughs is giving away ebook copies of Gerald and the Wee People and  
House on Bo-Kay Lane to 2 winners. Good luck!

Winners' Prizes

The Sea Inside (paperback) by Vickie Johnstone

Book 1 in the Cerulean Songs series

"A young woman is struggling to adjust to life after a spinal cord injury when she is given a gift by a mysterious older woman. Rather than merely help Jayne adjust to her new reality, this gifts offers the potential of a completely alternate existence. Jayne finds her true love only to be dealt another cruel blow by fate. In her journey to get back her new life she must face the biggest hurdles any of us can – our own fears and doubts.  
The Sea Inside is a young adult fantasy adventure that, like the Kiwi series, takes the reader on a visit to a fantastic realm." (Review, Amazon) 
Amazon author page

Gerald and the Wee People (ebook) by Greta Burroughs

Book 1 in the Wee People series

 
Amazon book link

Amazon author page
 “A charming fantasy story, difficult to put down, and the pages and action quickly fly by.”
(Review, Amazon)

Gerald and his best friend, Vernon, literally fall into a new world when responding to a plea for help. A few years earlier, the boys discovered an unusual clearing in the woods where only Gerald had the ability to watch the daily activities taking place in a miniature village. When creatures attack it, Gerald becomes concerned about the little inhabitants he has become attached to. Inside the village, the boys face many dangers in trying to help the villagers fight the misshapen ones and fulfil a prophecy. An action-packed fantasy adventure that will keep you spellbound until the last page.

House on Bo-Kay Lane (ebook) by Greta Burroughs 
Book 2 in the Wee People series

Amazon book link
“Entertaining, imaginative, well written and lots of fun.” (Review, Amazon) 

 Gerald and Vernon believe their time with the wee people came to an end after they returned to their home world, but they have second thoughts when strange things start to happen at an abandoned house in their neighbourhood. When ghostly images of familiar faces from the wee people village are seen in the windows and echoes of voices from the past haunt the boys’ dreams, an undeniable curiosity draws them to investigate the mysterious haunted house. A special mirror and the telepathic skills of their former friends inevitably draw them back into the world of the wee people. 

Runners-up Prize

Kiwi and the Living Nightmare (ebook)
Book 3 in the Kiwi Series

Amazon book link
"Living Nightmare has just the right amount of scary bits along with humour to make it a very enjoyable read for kids of all ages." (Review, Amazon) 

 Amy, James and Kiwi embark on their spookiest adventure yet – on Halloween. What begins with an eerie dream about a three-legged cat will take the budding detectives on a quest to find an old house in the middle of the woods, meeting some perky squirrels along the way. Little do they know that there awaits an angry, restless ghost that will do anything to stop them leaving. Meanwhile, Inspector Furrball and Siam discover the human world, and that Ames and Jimster are not what they seem. 

For a chance to win, just do the Rafflecopter. Good luck! 
Click on the links below the Rafflecopter to hop to the other blogs offering fantastic prizes :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Flash fiction 14: Forever in time #2minutesgo

Well, yesterday it was Friday and write with JD Mader over at his website, Unemployed Imagination - www.jdmader.com/2015/06/2-minutes-go. The idea is to write for 2 minutes - some people write longer - and you just go for it, without looking back and editing. Have a great weekend! :)

Forever in time

How they loved to dance. Shocking in the raw splendor of it. Bereft of shame. Watched, idolised even. Nothing punctured the air encircling them as they stepped, drifting, innocent as children on the air. You could not spy their feet; they shifted so quickly, hungry for the beat carrying them, passionate for the music to never end. It would not – forever it would wind, the notes crushing the bodies to one another, in vain trying to penetrate the flesh, to be one, as one, only one. Yet they were fated to be two, lost in time, woven together as the seconds spun. Around. In the end only a flicker remained on unraveling film before the dying light lost them to the silent screen.

copyright Vickie Johnstone, October 9, 2015

 

#NationalPoetryDay - These twisted paths we tread

A poem for National Poetry Day...

These twisted paths we tread

She slides between these walls
one foot, two feet, a hand and two
this is the space in which she lives
breathes, empties all that she is

she knows, where the eye seeks to spy
through circles drilled into the walls
the hidden, they watch, scratching idly
starving for love, the thing she lost

the ones she forgot were left behind
they hide now like ghosts in the leaves
rustling they leap upon the breeze
echoes of the past haunting mirrors

the scribe knows, he laughs sometimes
knowing all the things he does
it only makes him fail, too self-absorbed
to comprehend what she really is

the ghosts they circle inside these walls
pushing their fingers through the paper
seeking to caress the curls of her hair
twisting, she knows they linger

inside, watching where the beetle runs
trailing all his miniscule unlived lives
between the pages of a book unseen
she lived it, breathed it, all that ripples

thus she dances here alone, casting
rainbow dust upon the bleakest grey
the steel that rusts in crusts of red
rosebud offerings to the elements

laughter so raw covers an ache so deep
like a monster it yearns to spring
inside, where the waiting ends
inside, where the spiral grows

there’s a twist in the passage that eels
a malevolent darkness screams
opening the chasm that yawns awake
stealing tomorrow for its own sake

it twists, but nothing can touch her,
lost as she is in the echoes of her past.


copyright Vickie Johnstone

A Poem a Day (53): Sing

Sing

Some people sing –

It’s a sentiment I crave

Like the desolate moon

Drip-dry of felt.

These waves run to black

As I weave this rolling pattern

Shimmering to the fore

Where we forget this,

The rhythm of the day

The luster of the sky,

Blazing.

A purse lined with nothing,

Scabbed knees praying low

While the blackbird sings

To waken the dead silence

Seeping in a spiral of stars,

Edging into the mind

Where everyone forgot

How to.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

A Poem a Day (52): Smoke

Well, it's been a while... and I'm rusty, but JD Mader's Unemployed Imagination site got me off my butt and writing today. Head over to his place for some inspiration :) A happy Friday to ya, whatever you're up to. 

Smoke

Grey smoke lists

Twists in the echoes

Of an endless night

Moments of indecision

Breaking under pressure

Until life pauses

Offering itself alive

To be savoured

He sees her as she is

In tunnel vision

Soft as the sea’s roar

Penetrating his shell

She seeks and finds him

Here in the dawn

A blanketed man

Raw in his openness

Hopeful of high heart

Aching to know it all

He senses

A reflection drawn

And set apart

Yet completing him

As she lifts her head

To utter a kiss

She saves his smile

A treasured thing

So fragile and fleeting

To keep her warm

On the journey back

To herself.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

A Poem a Day (51): This sea

Well, it's Friday again. Been out for pizza with a lovely friend, gained some calories and lost a jacket (luckily they have it, so fingers crossed it's there tomorrow), and now it's time to write with JD Mader over at his home, Unemployed Imagination - www.jdmader.com/2015/06/2-minutes-go. The idea is to write for 2 minutes - some people write longer - and you just go for it, without looking back and editing. Head over to play or just read. Have a great weekend! :) 

This sea

It sweeps over

This sea

Drowning everything

It sees

The motion

The being

The feeling

In the in between

Secreting inside

This skin

Patience defies

It all

Gasping to be free

To be itself

In the moon tide

Restless in transit

Enlightened, fading

And rising again

The potion

Of the wisest man

Seeks to dispel

This almost knowing

Wishing for clarity

While walking

In grey

In signs still blurred

In lines in twists

Within

Scurrying forth

Beneath this sea

Washing all over

The hands beneath

We dance in circles

Sing in rhyme

Travel in the mind

To find our own kind

In the waters

Secreting our soul.

copyright Vickie Johnstone, August 7, 2015

Flash fiction 13: Strokes

Well, it's Friday again, so it's time to write with JD Mader over at his home, Unemployed Imagination - www.jdmader.com/2015/06/2-minutes-go. The idea is to write for 2 minutes - some people write longer - and you just go for it, without looking back and editing. Head over to play or just read. Have a great weekend! :) This is the third piece I wrote.

Strokes

Colour. I race through colours, all of them – a dipping stream of dizzying brushstrokes zipping the majestic. Me. Just me. I am not you and neither are you me. I used to be an extension, an extra limb, a twin almost to your individuality. The echo of your words, the agreement of your thoughts, dressing in your gawky style. Looking up to you in mind and height. My idea of happiness, for you brought me this.

Skipping on the chalk lines, calling out the purple numbers drawn in curls of magic. Our feet crossing, uncrossing, jumping, stasis. Giggles. And buttercups. Those curved buckets of lemon lips and we did kiss them, but only when the daisies couldn’t see. Our first four-leaved clover, seemingly left by the whitest, brightest unicorn in the land.

Only from the other; the other world. The lies of our dreams. Fantasies worn too tightly, falling loose as we found ourselves in our growing pains. A curtsey to the future while we ran wild, chasing time itself, even as we sensed the curtain must fall one day, when the roses would cease to flood our stage with the perfume of delight.

When once upon a time faded, decay stole into this place, clouding everything in its breath. Including you, my beloved sister, wrenched from my arms before your time. I paint you here with daisies playing in your auburn hair, your elfin eyes creasing at the edges and your lips turned up in a perfect bow. Love racing through its colours. 

copyright Vickie Johnstone, July 24, 2015

Poem: Kid Summer

We're having a heatwave here in Old Blighty with temperatures up to 34C! I think I might have only felt that in Britain in my dreams! So here's a poem about summer. You can find it in my poetry book, Mind-spinning Rainbows. Cheers. Enjoy the sun! 

Kid summer

Lost in days

Strewn in sand

Feet twitch

Caressed by water

Flooding in

The in between

Lost on a horizon

Pinkly lit

Seagulls swirl

Streaks of white

A dance in time

With the tide

Beating a rhythm

Playing to none

Lost in the rays of

An egg-yolk yellow

Summer, we played

Yodelling with glee

Skipping puddles

Grey crab wakes

Shakes a claw

Laughter cracks

A dizzying spray

Salty to taste

Lips cracking

In the heat

Scrubbed by sand

Like lobsters

So red we are

Smelling of the sea

And salted earth

Trying to fly

This blood-red kite

It swoops and churns

Scaring the gulls

Squawking dismay

The wind carries

Us forwards

Jumping, leaping

Before diving

Into the blue

Lost and found

As we emerge

Currents drift

Ebb and flow

A courtesy call

This fish swimming

An orangey speck

Wiggling our feet

Swooping our legs

Circling our arms

We float

In the place

We cannot live

Like flying almost

Where the gulls dare

Losing us

To the here below

Earth bound

Sea legged

Spitting salt water

Only to gulp again

The same

Laughter spreads

Driftwood catches

Giving a rest

To weary limbs

It carries us in

Back to the voices

Of the sunned shore

A line of colourful

Stripy towels

Blowing windcheaters

Our mothers wave

Licking ice creams

The chocolate gone

As the first delight

Waving and swimming

We laugh and play

The day fading out

In the summer’s way

An echo of pink

On the horizon’s back

Towards the end

Of the earth

Flows the sea

Til it fades to black. 

Copyright Vickie Johnstone - Mind-spinning Rainbows, April 2015