My gratitude goes out to Ronald Mackay for his tremendous support in this year's (and last year's) Authors Showcase. This is his fifth contribution and I know that he has another one lined up for September.

Ronald's stories are always so well written and his latest is no exception. It is entitled The ’Keeper wi the Lauch (That’s in his native Scots. In English it is: The Gamekeeper with the Laugh). I am sure you will love this truly inspirational story - you can read it by clicking here.

Viviana and Ronald, Rice Lake, August 7 2020
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It is always a pleasure to feature Syd Blackwell's mixture of prose and poetry.

In his first entry to this year's showcase, Syd reflects on his late mom's life in a moving compilation entitled MOM - SOME THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES. I am sure you will appreciate it as much as I have.​  To read Syd's contribution, please click here.

Syd Blackwell

​I was born in a little ski town that used to be a gold mining town in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia.  I also lived on the coast, on Vancouver Island, in the north, and even in northern Alberta for a decade.   I visited every province and territory in Canada, and more than 40 other countries.  I was an educator, an innkeeper, and an assisted living facilitator.  My life was rich with experiences before I left Canada less than two months before my 61st birthday.
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Uruguay, has been our home for more than a decade.  My wife and I share our home with our five dogs. Prior to 2020, we had international visitors every year. We also continued to travel, particularly in South America.  In fact, we returned from a vacation in Brazil in March, re-entering Uruguay five minutes before the borders were closed.   They have not re-opened.   We will just have to remain in our wonderful home in our adopted country for the time being.

Today, I have a special treat in store for you in the 2020 Authors Showcase.

During lockdown, well-known author Frank Kusy has been writing a daily diary which will become a book. We are privileged to get an insight and read two days from that diary.

I am sure you will enjoy Frank's piece Going Batty as much as I have. You can read it by clicking here.

Frank Kusy

Born and raised in the fog-shrouded streets of 1960s London, and with more than 30 years of travel writing experience under his belt, aspiring Buddhist and incorrigible cat-lover Frank Kusy is a SUNDAY TRIBUNE RECOMMENDED AUTHOR and a four-time Gold Medal Winner on the Harper Collins Authonomy site. He has been awarded the AIA Awesome Indies Seal of Excellence for his flagship book 'Rupee Millionaires', and has been a featured author on several promotional sites, including BookBub, Pixel of Ink, Indie Book Bargains and FreeBooksy. His books have received international press acclaim, and have made the Kindle Top 100 List several times, his first published book, 'Kevin and I in India', climbing as high as #5. In 2015 his children's book 'Ginger the Gangster Cat' won a Gold medal on the prestigious Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards for 6 to 8 year olds, though both his cat books (the second one is Ginger the Buddha Cat) appeal as much to adults as to children.
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Check out Frank's book store at:
frankkusybooks.weebly.com
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It is a real pleasure to welcome back Malcolm Welshman with his first contribution in this year's Authors Showcase. He also featured in a guest blog earlier this year - if you missed it, you can catch up with it here.

Then you can sit back and enjoy reading Malcolm's inspirational true story While the Roses Still Bloom by clicking here.

Malcolm Welshman is a retired vet and author. He was the My Weekly vet for 15 years and has written many features for magazines such as She, The Lady, The People’s Friend, Cat World, Yours, and newspapers such as The Sunday Times and the Daily Mail. He is the author of three pet novels, the first of which, Pets in a Pickle, reached number two on Kindle’s bestseller list. His third novel, Pets Aplenty, was a finalist for The People’s Book Prize 2015. His memoir, An Armful of Animals – published September 2018 – was long-listed for the Dorchester Literary Festival’s local author prize. His fourth pet novel, Pets are a Pleasure, was published on 28th Feb 2020. Malcolm is also an international speaker on cruise ships, having completed 50; and he has talked at over 40 WI, Rotary, Probus and retirement associations’ meetings. He is a bi-monthly contributor to a local community radio, Keep 106 in Dorset.

Social media links
twitter.com/malcolmwelshman
Facebook.com/malcolmwelshman.7
Website:  http://malcolmwelshman.co.uk  
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Malcolm & Dora

With 2 months left in the 2020 Authors Showcase, it is a pleasure to feature a story from Mary Mae Lewis, her first this year.

You can read her inspirational true story, IN THE LIBRARY, which is based on the experiences of someone she knew, by clicking here.

Biography : Mary Mae Lewis 
 
www.author-marymaelewis.co.uk
 
Mary Mae is author of the novel Where There’s a Will, There’s a Woman; Published July 2017.
She has kept a diary since she was sixteen and is prolific letter writer.
Raised in Staffordshire UK, she trained to be a primary school PE and English teacher and later qualified as a TEFLA teacher and taught part-time at Staffordshire University for nearly fifteen years.
She lived in Wales for one year, London two years, Grand Cayman four years (where she worked as a newspaper reporter) and Malawi for five years.
She now lives in Newcastle-u-Lyme UK but spends half the year in Southern Spain. She is fluent in Spanish.
Married for nearly 50 years she has three sons and four grandchildren.
It is from personal experience that her fiction is born.
She has been published In The Telegraph, is a published poet and has won prizes in short story competitions and contributed to Robert Fear’s Travel Stories Anthology 2019 and his 40 Memorable Stories Anthology 2020.
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Entries for the 2020 Authors Showcase have been slow over the past couple of months. As a contributor mentioned to me recently, ‘I have not been particularly enthusiastic about writing this year, I think our strict lockdown put the brakes on a lot of things.’ I am sure many of us feel the same.

Even so, there are many inspirational true stories out there. They just need to be told. Have you, or your family, or your friends, done anything during the pandemic that has enthused others? Something heroic? Something generous? Something heart-warming?

These one-off events need recording for posterity and now is the time to do it. Contributions for this year’s showcase can be anywhere from 800 to 3000 words, so there is plenty of scope to get your thoughts down in writing. Your story could feature in the next published anthology.

For details of the entry criteria, please click here.

You can catch up with the 26 stories entered to date here.

I look forward to reading your story or stories.

The latest story in our 2020 Authors Showcase is a real treat. It comes from Susan Mellsopp, who has been a regular contributor to this blog, and is her first this year. As she explains, "I am afraid I have not been particularly enthusiastic about writing this year, I think our strict lockdown put the brakes on a lot of things." I believe that puts into words how many of us feel.

I found her new story truly inspirational and am so pleased she decided to share it with us. You can read Susan's contribution My Silvery Friend by clicking here.

Susan Mellsopp is retired and lives with her now retired golden retriever guide dog Jay in Hamilton New Zealand.  Much of her life has been spent as a dairy farmer and also working as a librarian, archivist and accessible transport researcher. She runs a writers group and is constantly being challenged to write in genres other than travel and memoir. She has published two school histories and writes for a national magazine which is published monthly. Susan is a voracious reader, loves to travel, listen to classical music, cook, and enjoys learning to use modern technology.   

Susan with Jay on the occasion of his retirement in December last year

Today, it is an honour to feature this fourth inspirational true story from Ronald Mackay in this year's Authors Showcase.

Read and enjoy Ronald's latest contribution Prick of Conscience by clicking here.

Ronald's Bio July 2020

Gardens, large and small, have ever exerted their drawing power on Ronald Mackay. The magic began as a child when he lived with his mother, elder sister and younger brother in his grandmother’s home in Coupar Angus, Scotland in the early 1940s.

Since then he has worked in walled gardens belonging to grand Scottish houses, shared gardens in municipal allotments, flower gardens and in vegetable gardens in England, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Chile, and Argentina.

This year (2020) he and his wife Viviana are helping to plant out and manage a respectable vegetable garden at the beautiful Elmhirst’s Resort <https://elmhirst.ca/> on the north shore of Rice Lake, Ontario, Canada.

Ronald in Elmhirst's vegetable garden June 2020
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Our latest submission in the 2020 Authors Showcase is the third this year from Tina Wagner Mattern. 

Tina's latest story is a very personal, touching and inspirational extract from her upcoming memoir. You can read My Mother’s Last Gift by clicking here.

Welcome to the second half of this year's Authors Showcase.

Today's featured contribution is the third from Captain Denis Dextraze, and is another condensed excerpt from the book he is currently writing called Once Upon a Time in Cuba.  

After catching up with his bio below, read and enjoy Captain Dextraze's latest inspirational true story entitled The American smugglers in Cuba by clicking 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.     dextraze@yahoo.com
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