Fred's Blog

July Winner and Summer Bargain Reads

1/8/2018

Find out who won the July competition

The 2018 Travel Stories Competition has now closed. We had an amazing 106 entries, more than in any previous year. Thank you to all the authors and writers who contributed. All the stories will be read by our panel of independent judges during August and the Top 3 will be announced early in September. Prizes are: 1st - $300, 2nd - $200 and 3rd - $100.

Oh, and I almost forgot. The July winner was .......
Robyn Boswell and her story A Weekend on the River

MANY CONGRATULATIONS Robyn - your $50 prize is on its way

Grab your Summer Bargain Reads

To celebrate the success of this year's competition, the following four Kindle books are available for only 99c/99p each from today until Tuesday, August 7th. Follow the links and grab your copies while this offer lasts.

Fred's Diary 1981: Travels in Asia
getBook.at/FredsDiary1981

Exclusive Pedigree: My life in and out of the Brethren
getBook.at/ExclusivePedigree

Travel Stories and Highlights: 2017 Edition
getBook.at/TravelStories2017

Travel Stories and Highlights: 2018 Edition
getBook.at/TravelStories2018

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A Weekend on the River by Robyn Boswell

30/7/2018

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On the penultimate day of this year's Travel Stories Competition, it is a pleasure to welcome back Robyn Boswell with her fifth entry this year. Many thanks for all your support Robyn.

Enjoy her latest travel story A Weekend on the River here.

Robyn Boswell

I’ve enjoyed travelling far and wide around the world, but I would much rather spend time in wild places or out at sea than in crowded civilization. In 1986 my sister and her Australian husband sold their house in Melbourne and bought a Landcruiser, a box trailer and a load of camping gear. I took time out from my job, my Dad and I flew across the Tasman to meet them and we set out on a 20,000km, 3 month adventure through the Outback, across the Top End and down the Queensland coast back to Melbourne. It was a wonderful time, filled with numerous adventures. By the time we reached Noosa, we hadn’t stopped exploring for 90 days.

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The Day I Disappointed the Queen by Apple Gidley

27/7/2018

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With just four days left in the 2018 Travel Stories Competition, it is a pleasure to welcome a newcomer to our travel writing contests, Apple Gidley.

Read and enjoy her story The Day I Disappointed the Queen here.

Apple Gidley

A transient life has seen Apple Gidley live in countries as diverse as Papua New Guinea and Thailand, or Equatorial Guinea and Trinidad & Tobago, and another eight in between. Her memoir, Expat Life Slice by Slice (Summertime Publishing 2012), chronicles the highs and lows of that nomadic life - one she wouldn’t trade for all the proverbial tea in one of the places she hasn’t lived, China.

Her travel articles are filled with color, and spiced with subtleties which take the arm-chair-traveller to that country, or make the experienced traveller add it to their list. She draws on her experiences for her pieces on expatriate living, which offer down-to-earth observations and encouragement to those about to embark on the trail, or who already live the life.

Gidley writes a regular blog at www.applegidley.wordpress.com and writes travel and expatriate articles for print and online magazines. She has short stories published in various anthologies and her first novel, Fireburn, set in the 1870s Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) was published (OC Publishing, Canada) in October 2017.

She lives in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, and is currently writing the sequel to Fireburn,

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Through Their Eyes by Lindsay de Feliz

25/7/2018

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It is a real pleasure to be able to feature the fifth entry in this year's competition from Lindsay de Feliz. You may remember that Lindsay was the March winner with Consequences. If you have missed any of the entries you can catch up with them via the 2018 Travel Stories page.

Enjoy Lindsay's latest travel story Through Their Eyes here.

Lindsay de Feliz was born, raised and educated in the UK, where she worked in London as a marketing lecturer and a Marketing Director for various financial service companies. In her mid 40s, she decided to follow her dreams and travel the world as a scuba diving instructor, ending up in the Dominican Republic 17 years ago.

She was on a six month contract but fell in love with the country and its people and met and married a Dominican. Having been shot in the throat during a robbery she was unable to dive any more, and now works as a writer, translator and marketing consultant.

Lindsay currently lives in the northeast mountains in the Dominican Republic with her husband, four dogs, one cat, six goats, two geese and numerous chickens. She writes a blog about the Dominican Republic and daily life at www.yoursaucepans.blogspot.com and is the author of the bestselling books “What about your saucepans?” and “Life After My Saucepans”.

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The Best Little Bank in the World by Helen Bing

25/7/2018

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With less than a week to go, it is my pleasure to feature the third entry in this year's competition from Helen Bing.

You can read her travel story The Best Little Bank in the World here.

Kia ora

My name is Helen Bing. I live in Auckland, New Zealand, and like many of my contemporaries, I am rediscovering the wonders of travelling. These days we do a lot of our travelling by sea which gets us to all sorts of interesting parts of the world. This months story is from one particular cruise when we sailed from England back to New Zealand. Our final port of call before reaching home, Pago Pago, American Samoa.

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Gelato - as it once was by Julie Watson

23/7/2018

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We have been treated to a huge variety of stories in this year's competition from both regular contributors and newcomers to our travel writing contests. It is an honour to feature this latest entry from another new entrant, Julie Watson.

Enjoy her travel story Gelato - as it once was here.

Julie Watson

I'm a retired lecturer who now spends her time writing, travelling and doing a range of voluntary activities such as teaching refugees, marine mammal surveying and gardening.

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Timeless by Anisha Johnson

21/7/2018

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A warm welcome to another newcomer to our competition, Anisha Johnson.

Enjoy her travel story Timeless here.

Anisha Johnson

My name is Anisha. I have been homeschooled by my mother my entire life, and, after taking a gap year, I plan to attend Mount Holyoke College in the fall of 2019 to study computer science, creative writing, and film, along with a minor in French. I have always been passionate about traveling and hope to continue doing so both during and after college.

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Typhoid; or, a prosaic illness in India by Philip East

21/7/2018

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With only a few days left in this year's competition, it is my pleasure to introduce another newcomer to our travel writing contests, Philip East.

Read his entry Typhoid; or, a prosaic illness in India here.

Philip East
Hi, my name is Phil East and for the past two years, I have been writing as BewilderedBee for my travel blog. I started writing after almost six years of sporadic travel across North America, Europe and Asia, and as I did, I embarked on a one-year trip across South Asia, which yielded the story I include below. Although at first, I wrote mainly about the places I visited, the longer I went on the more I steered toward the topic of travel itself, rather than the locations. As such, I like to question why and how we travel, however, the transition, as my website will attest to, is an ongoing one.

This is not to say I no longer travel, though! After returning to Europe last year I have been based in Manchester, in the UK, but have found time to visit Germany and Lithuania, plus multiple trips to Sicily (the home island of my partner). Also, next month I will be in Bosnia for a period, from which I hope to begin writing an article on Islam in Europe.

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A Trans-Atlantic flight (in 2016) by Mary Mae Lewis

21/7/2018

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Welcome back to Mary Mae Lewis with her second entry in this year's competition.

Read her latest travel story A Trans-Atlantic flight (in 2016) here.

Mary Mae Lewis

www.author-marymaelewis.co.uk

Born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent in a pottery working class family, Mary Mae left home at eighteen to train as a PE and English teacher in South Wales; she finished her teacher training in London and after she and her husband located to Grand Cayman where she worked as a reporter for the island’s weekly newspaper and a copy writer/ account executive for the island’s monthly magazine, for four years, during which time she had a son .

She followed her husband to Malawi where he worked for two years as a technical teacher, then three years as workshop manager on a tea estate while Mary was a part- time primary school teacher.

In 1981, with two more sons, the family moved back to the UK. Mary first worked as a swmming instructor then took up learning Spanish and spent eight months in Northern Spain as a Language Assistant before gaining a Spanish degree and TEFLA teaching qualifications.

She taught English as a foreign language, part–time, for many years at Staffordshire University UK, until she retired at sixty.

She now spends half the year in Spain, where she does most of her writing, and half the year in England.

She has been published in the THE TELEGRAPH, is a published poet and author of one published novel “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Woman.” Another is in the pipe line!

She has entered the TOO WRITE short story competition, held as part of the Stoke-on-Trent Literary Festival every year since it’s inception, four years ago, and this year she has been shortlisted for a prize. The winners and awards were announced on Monday 11th June 2018.

Besides reading and writing Mary Mae enjoys buying and selling antiques, delving into local history, going to the theatre and cinema, gardening and meeting up with old friends.

She also loves travelling, and with a brother in Australia, one son in the USA and another in Serbia she has no shortage of ideas of where to go!

Mary has always been a prolific letter writer and diary keeper and uses her personal experiences to weave into fiction.

FOOTNOTE: Mary Mae came second runner up in the TOO WRITE competition.

Me with my novel , Where There's a Will, There's a Woman, and a photo of my winning story ( A Vie en Rose) in the TOO WRITE competition which was printed out and framed.

All winners at the TOO WRITE competition.

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The Skelligs, 13/6/93. By Mike Cavanagh

21/7/2018

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It is an honour to feature a very different story from Mike Cavenagh, his third entry in our 4th Annual Travel Stories Competition.

Enjoy his intriguing travel story (in the form of a poem) The Skelligs, 13/6/93 here.

Mike Cavanagh is now in his sixties and has no idea how he got here. He lives with his wife, Julie, and two black cats in Bateman’s Bay, NSW. The house he and Julie live in is quirky and in need of regular maintenance, as are its owners. Mike's passions are writing, playing guitar, composing music, and, as Julie will only too readily tell you, playing too many role-playing games on PC. Find out more about Mike's book One of its Legs are Both the Same on his site: http://oneofitslegs.org

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