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Great news. The 2025 Edition of 25 Treasured Memories is now available on Amazon. The Kindle version is on pre-order for release on December 1st, but the paperback is already published. Here is the link to both: mybook.to/25TM Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the 2024 Memoir Showcase and congratulations to those included in this new book. I look forward to publishing more of your excellent stories next year.  Although the 2024 Creative Writing Showcase is now closed, we received one last entry yesterday evening before the deadline. It is in the Fiction category and is from Liliana Amador-Marty. You can read her contribution Red Door here. Liliana Amador-Marty is a Colombian-American writer, dancer and teaching artist. She has been journaling nearly five decades honing her writing skills at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater. Liliana holds a Master of Fine Arts in the Performing Arts from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and continued post-graduate work in Memoir Writing at The New School in New York City where she wrote her first story, In Caring for my Ficus published in 40 Inspirational True Stories, 2021 Edition by Robert Fear. While living in London, United Kingdom, Amador-Marty wrote and developed personal narratives, travel stories and poetry with an international collective of women writers, Primrose Pens. Her travel story, Blood Memory was published in Robert Fear's 2020 anthology, 40 Memorable Life Experiences and In Clearing in his 2022 Edition, 40 Life Changing Events. Liliana's personal narrative, Gypsy Curse is on Instagram @thecreativesoulcollective. Liliana Amador-Marty is working with The Inner City Ensemble, the same organization that trained her in the arts as a teen, launching a Playmaking program for teenagers at the Great Falls Youth Arts Center in Paterson, New Jersey.  Photograph by Rodney Pedroza Portraits
With only a few hours left in the 2024 Creative Writing Showcase, it is a pleasure to feature a contribution from Sue Bavey in the Memoir category. You can read Autumn reminiscing here.
It is an honour to be able to feature this latest contribution today from Ronald Mackay in the Memoir Showcase, written from recollections by Bernardino de Armas. Ronald wrote this at the weekend and it is very close to his heart (as you will see from his bio below). You can read El Desconocido here. Bio for Ronald Mackay September 2024 When he was 18, Ronald spent a year working in banana plantations around the village of Buenavista del Norte, Tenerife. He learned Spanish and blended in with the village. Later, he wrote “Fortunate Isle, a Memoir of Tenerife” to capture the importance of that period. At the suggestion of the Alcalde, the Mayor, he rewrote his memories in Spanish as “A Tenerife con Cariño”. Both books include photos of rural life as it was in the early ‘60s. Every year, Ronald and his wife spend time in Buenavista del Norte. Villagers share stories with him and invite him to write about them. Don Bernardino de Armas shared this one, based on a real event.  Nino and Ronald Bar Pilon September 2024
On the penultimate day of the 2024 Creative Writing Showcase, I am pleased to welcome a newcomer to Fred's Blog, Jeremiah Gilbert, with his contribution to the Memoir Showcase. You can read Jeremiah's story Don’t Teach While Traveling here. Jeremiah Gilbert is an award-winning photographer and travel writer based out of Southern California. His travels have taken him to over a hundred countries spread across six continents. His photography has been published internationally and exhibited worldwide. He is the author of three travel books, including Can’t Get Here from There: Fifty Tales of Travel and From Tibet to Egypt: Early Travels After a Late Start. His most recent, On to Plan C, documents his return to travel in a post-pandemic world and is the first to include his photography. Website: https://jeremiahgilbert.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jg_travels/  A Symphony of Horrors: Oravský Castle, Slovakia + That Was So Hebden Bridge by Jackie Lambert28/9/2024 As we enter the last couple of days of the 2024 Memoir Showcase, I have a real treat for you. Award-winning author, Jackie Lambert, has contributed two fabulous stories and accompanied each of them with a wonderful selection of photos. You can read A Symphony of Horrors: Oravský Castle, Slovakia here and That Was So Hebden Bridge here. Author Bio: Jacqueline (Jackie) Lambert is an award-winning travel writer, full-time nomad, and dogmother, who loves history and curious facts. B.C. (Before Canines) she hurtled, slid, submerged and threw herself off bits of every continent except Antarctica. Even though she was single at the time, she asked for – and was granted – 'maternity leave' to backpack around Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. A.D. (After Dog), with husband Mark, she gave up work to become an Adventure Caravanner. With The Fab Four, their four pups in tow, their stated aim is: To Boldly Go Where No Van Has Gone Before. Jackie has published six light-hearted memoirs about her travels since quitting work: Fur Babies in France, Dog on the Rhine, Dogs ‘n’ Dracula, It Never Rains But It Paws, To Hel In A Hound Cart, and Pups on Piste. Her seventh book, Building The Beast, is the first in her Wayward Truck series. It chronicles her Brexit-busting plan to convert a 24.5-tonne 6x4-wheel drive army truck into an off-grid home-on-wheels fit to drive to Mongolia. Subsequent books will follow The Beast’s adventures. A keen off piste skier and windsurfer, Jackie is the wordsmith behind her own travel blog, and author website . She has contributed to several anthologies, and also writes guest articles and posts for various magazines and international blogs. Connect with her via the links below: Amazon: author.to/JacquelineLambert Blog: www.WorldWideWalkies.com Author Website: www.JacquelineLambert.co.uk  Jackie Lambert Author with Ruby in Provence
The latest contribution to the Memoir Showcase is another fascinating chapter from Captain Denis Dextraze's memoir in progress, Once upon a time in Cuba. To read Dr. Guziec, an American plastic surgeon teaching in Cuba, click here. Author Bio Canadian born Captain Denis Dextraze started traveling internationally at age 18 when he hitchhiked around Europe during the summer break. After graduating from two U.S. universities, he specialized in international high-tech marketing which took him around the world. He retired early to enjoy sailing his 45 ft. ketch. Between his career and his port-o-calls on Aventura, he visited more than 80 countries. “Once upon a time in Cuba” is being written so that an interesting two years capsule of Cuban history, starting in May of 1998, will not be lost forever. All events reported in this book really happened no matter how ludicrous, illogical or incredible they appear. These years were times of changes and uncertainty for the Cuban authorities. They wanted our money but did not want us because we were “contaminating” the communist indoctrination of their controlled population. We were living interesting times, sharing the docks in Marina Hemingway with an array of adventurers not representing any normal and organized society in the world. They ranged from millionaires, drug smugglers, Hells Angels members, pedophiles, smugglers, tough Vietnam vets, world class sailors, escaped refugees. We were pioneers living interesting times and loving it! During those days as it is still today, the Cuban society was segregated into two categories. On the 0.3% upper side, the communist ruling party composed exclusively of militaries whether in uniforms or not were living in incredible luxury ironically just like their ousted predecessors of the Batista regime. On the down side were the other 11 millions slaving Cubans living in desperate conditions. We, as visiting foreigners, were odd-balls in this two class system. Since we did not belong to either class, we were tolerated and generally allowed privileges that were reserved to the Cuban military elite and forbidden to the population. [email protected]  It is a pleasure to feature this latest submission to the Memoir Showcase from Syd Blackwell. Syd has been a regular contributor to Fred's Blog and our annual anthologies over the past ten years with his fascinating combinations of prose and poetry. You can read his most recent story Victoria Reminiscing here. Syd Blackwell Retired in Uruguay for seventeen years, I recently had reason to reflect on my years as a university student in Victoria, BC.  2023 with PALUCHE
As this year's showcase enters the last few days, I am really pleased to be able to feature four short stories from Sue Wald's ''I might actually have lost the Plot' compilation. Sue provided me with the following explanations about each of these extracts: The first one is an anecdote called 'Bluffing' about moving from one of the big Canary Islands (Tenerife) to one of the small ones (El Hierro). The second one is an anecdote called 'Moving House with the Troupe' about leaving the Canary Islands for our new home on the northern shores of mainland Spain. The third is called 'Saint Lucia's Eyes' and is an anecdote inspired by the beautiful beaches of the Cantabrican Coast of Galicia, and 'The Life of Brian'. The last one is an anecdote from when I trained as a geriatric nurse at 55, so I could take better care of my ailing grandmother, then 97, and is called 'The Captain's Flags'. You can read them all by clicking here. About the Author As a Thursday Child and multilingual language teacher, she has helped enough school children (and a few adults) on their way to be able to look back on a life not wasted and heave a sigh of relief, while enjoying the scenery and the cool breeze drifting in from the ocean. Under her Nom de Plume 'Sue Wald', she has put together 'A Day in the Life', an Anthology comprised of Tristan Stories - 'Tristan Radler's Opinion of Life' - (Fred's Blog Fiction Showcase), the Short Memoir 'Players' (Fred's Blog Memoir Showcase), which takes the reader on a journey through time from the 1990's in Nürnberg in Franconia, Germany, to her granddad's hometown Zwittau in Sudetenland, now in the Czech Republic, in the 1920's, offering glimpses into her grandfather's life before, during, and after WWII, including an entertaining lunch encounter with the Oskar Schindler, as well as peeks into her own life and ghosts of the past; as well as a Short Thriller, 'Faith Value', set in the present, and in her chosen neighbourhood, the lush Cantabrican coast of Galicia; 'I might actually have lost the Plot' is the title of the Collection of other Short Stories - also part of the anthology - of which these four extracts are the latest entries.  |
NEW WRITING FEATURE COMING ON APRIL 1ST 2025
2025 NEW RELEASE
5* RECOMMENDED READ
Summer of '77
Beaches, bars and boogie nights in Ibiza by Robert Fear 
Available in Paperback
and on Kindle (including Kindle Unlimited) Archives
November 2024
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