It is a pleasure to feature this latest submission in our 2020 Authors Showcase from Mike Cavanagh, a longtime supporter of this blog and its writing opportunities.

Mike's inspirational story is in two parts and recalls the traumatic times at the end of last year living through the Australian wildfires. 

You can read Part 1 of Mike's story New Year's Eve, 2019 by clicking here. 

A warm welcome back to Robyn Boswell, a longtime supporter and contributor to this blog and the Travel Stories/Memorable Life Experiences books.

You can enjoy her inspirational true story The Ones You Remember by clicking here.

The second half of my career I was an adviser in schools, providing professional development to teachers and principals. I worked in schools ranging from very remote sole teacher schools in the Far North New Zealand, where I am lucky to live, through to some of the biggest primary schools in Auckland, our biggest city. I count myself fortunate to have had such a stimulating career.
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It is a great privilege to introduce Irene Pylypec, another newcomer to Fred's Blog.

Read and enjoy Irene's inspirational contribution to our 2020 Authors Showcase:
A Lamb, a Dog and a Haircut, by clicking here.

A self-professed daydreamer and adventurer, she backpacked solo throughout England, Scotland and Ireland upon graduating in the mid-seventies. This is when she caught the travel bug. Besides her native Canada and trips to USA, her passion for travel took her on numerous adventures to Soviet and modern-day Ukraine, Russia, Hong Kong, Mexico and Cuba.
 
Not satisfied with the nine-to-five lifestyle, Irene never stayed in one place very long and consequently worked at many and diverse places. Her jobs included waitress, seamstress, printing press operator, print shop scheduler, marketing assistant, meat packer and electronics assembler.
 
Professional careers included graphic design, technical illustration, photo re-touching (i.e. manual Photoshop), proof-reading, teaching ESL and coordinating an ESL program. Irene is also a businessperson. A lay-off notice resulted in her providing graphic design services at a time when home businesses were new and not that well received. She was also the owner of an ecommerce site when online storefronts were in the pioneering phase.
 
But above all, Irene is a storyteller. She loves to share her travel stories with her readers. The goal in her first memoir (published in 2018) is to take the reader on a journey back in time to walk side-by-side with her on her many adventures and misadventures. Her blog, meanwhile, tells humorous anecdotes of prairie life.
 
These days, she writes, reads, gardens and looks forward to spending more quality time with her young grandchildren.
 
Oh…and to imbibe in fine wine. Preferably with chocolate.
 
https://www.irenepylypec.com
 
https://www.facebook.com/authorlydia/
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The next contribution to our 2020 Authors Showcase is from a newcomer to our blog - Captain Denis Dextraze. He is a friend of Syd Blackwell, who you will know as a regular contributor to our writing competitions and features, as well as being included in the Travel Stories and Memorable Life Experiences books.

It is a great pleasure to include this story from Captain Dextraze. I am sure you will enjoy it and find it as inspirational as I did. You can read Tiger, the American adventurer 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.      ​[email protected]
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The next inspirational true story in our 2020 Authors Showcase is from James Robertson, a regular supporter of the writing opportunities on Fred's Blog.

Enjoy his insightful story David Bowie's Berlin here.

Our latest contribution in the 2020 Authors Showcase is from author Andrew Klein.

Read his inspirational true story Elspeth here.

The third submission in this year's Authors Showcase is from Ronald Mackay, a loyal supporter of this blog and an excellent author.

Four of his stories from last year's showcase are included in the 40 Memorable Life Experiences book.  If you don't have a copy, you can buy it here: getbook.at/40MLE

Ronald has asked me to say that this story is based on true events but he has taken liberties with names and has imagined details and conversations that were unavailable to him.

Enjoy reading his fabulous contribution Unto the Haven here.

A warm welcome back to Roger Knight, who has been a supportive contributor to Fred's Blog for several years.

His first submission to this year's Authors Showcase is entitled The therapeutic value of working together and you can read it here.

Roger Knight

I continue to write prose and short stories mostly based on my experiences of having lived and worked in around 15 countries and 30 cities. I have had some of my work published in magazines such as the Writers and Readers publication and the Bermudian, as well as Robert Fear’s annual travel stories and highlights and memorable life experiences publications.

I have recently completed an anthology, “A circuitous journey taken”, which is a picaresque memoir that I hope may eventually find a publisher.  

You may remember that we recently ran a competition on Malcolm Welshman's guest blog to win a signed limited edition of Malcolm's new book Pets Are a Pleasure.

Malcolm chose the winner recently and I am pleased to announce that the lucky recipient of this prize was Julie Haigh.

Julie has posted a thank-you note to Malcolm on his Facebook timeline and I have copied it here:

THANK YOU, MALCOLM!!!!!

Just want to say a BIG thank you to you, Malcolm! My lovely prize of a Signed Limited Special Edition paperback of your new book Pets Are a Pleasure has now arrived safely. Looking forward to reading it. Thanks to Robert Fear who featured Malcolm on his guest spot on his Fred's Blog recently, where the competition was held.

​Click here to read the guest blog post.