Blog Archives

HITCH-HIKING by Nancy McBride

31/5/2016

Great news - we have a last-minute entry for the May competition from Nancy McBride. If you haven't read her wonderful FAIRIES - Do they exist? then follow the link to catch up.

Nancy also contributed two stories last year, Babushka the Beautiful, which was our June winner and Anglo-American Singing Tour of Australia.

Once you've caught up, you can read her brand new travel story HITCH-HIKING.

Nancy attracts adventure. We’re not talking cliff-hanging, here, just stuff that happens to evolve into stories. When she suddenly takes charge, her decisions may not be yours, but she gets the job done, and there’s often a tale to tell. For instance, hitch-hiking happens to her, albeit always unintentionally. Once she once hitched in a Blue-labled Bently in St. James Park, in London, much to her walking companion’s dismay. But she was hot and dragging, it was rush hour, the car was almost idling, so hitch-hiking happened. The driver turned out to be a classmate of her ex-husband, yada-yada, and when he made a sudden left, her walking companion thought for sure she had been kidnapped. The driver just needed petrol and delivered her safely to the friend’s apartment about the time he arrived, rather irritated. She was rested and fine, thank you very much.

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Finding Mr. Perfect! An excerpt from The Lullaby Illusion by Susan Joyce

30/5/2016

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Many thanks to Susan Joyce for her latest entry in our Travel Story competition. It is an excerpt from her wonderful book The Lullaby Illusion.

Read and enjoy Finding Mr. Perfect!

After many years of writing and editing children’s books, the 2013 release of The Lullaby Illusion represented a new phase in the career of Susan Joyce.

As a child, Susan lived for the clarity of excursions, with her dog Brownie, in the Arizona desert. To escape the chaos of her crowded home. And her Pentecostal preacher father. When she came of age, a husband promised a new life of adventure. And freedom. To Israel. To Cyprus, and a war that somehow involved her husband. Her clairvoyance almost got her killed in Belgium, and left her penniless in the street. In Germany, she reinvented herself as an artist and writer.

This twelve-year memoir of profound personal transformation and friendships is a true page-turner. You will find yourself repeatedly asking what could possibly happen next?

http://susanjoycejourneys.com/li/

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THE CHEAP FLIGHT THAT COST PLENTY by Lucinda E Clarke

27/5/2016

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A warm welcome back to Lucinda E Clarke, our May winner from last year with A Trip to the Seaside. She also entered another great travel story An Unforgettable Trip.

Read and enjoy her brand new entry THE CHEAP FLIGHT THAT COST PLENTY.

Born in Dublin, dragged up in the Cotswolds and finished off while training to be a teacher in Liverpool. Three years later she was abandoned in the African bush with a 9 week old baby. The following year she left Kenya for five and a half years in Libya. Experiences here included broadcasting live on radio with a bayonet at her throat and viewing a public hanging. On to Botswana still teaching, and running the worst riding school in the world before relocating to South Africa. This time she was fired from her teaching job, she will never know why, and ‘fell’ into the media scriptwriting for radio and television. Before she left South Africa for a laidback retirement in Spain, she’d set up and run her own video production company. Lucinda has self published 6 books in the last three years in various genres and is currently working on the next one.

https://www.facebook.com/lucindaeclarke.author

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Saved by Ruby Slippers by Elizabeth Moore

23/5/2016

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Welcome again to Elizabeth Moore, who has another fantastic travel story to share with us.

You may remember that Elizabeth was our March winner with Le Petit Train Jaune. We also featured her entry From the Lanai in April. Now you can enjoy her latest story Saved by Ruby Slippers.

Elizabeth has lived in Australia all her life. She is happily married, a mother of two, grandmother of four and devoted assistant to one very bossy tortoiseshell cat named Lucy.
Her working career began as a speech pathologist and later morphed into the totally unrelated field of retail manager in a university science centre and planetarium.
Travel has always been a focus and yes – there has always been a bucket list. This was brought into stark relief when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and following treatment, a travel timetable began to take shape. Guam was first, followed quickly by European and North American adventures.
Illness nudged another longheld interest to the fore and Elizabeth began chronicling her trips with extensive photography, promising herself she would also write about her exploits. Paris has always been top of the list. This adventure was an interesting introduction to the City of Light.

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Nomination for Best Newcomer in Blog Awards

21/5/2016

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Robert Fear has been nominated for the Best Newcomer category in the 2nd Annual Bloggers Bash Awards 2016.

This is a great honour and heartfelt thanks go out to Caryl Williams and fellow bloggers for their nomination.

Please take a few moments to click on the following link, scroll drown to the Best Newcomer category and cast your vote for Robert Fear

https://sachablack.co.uk/2016/05/19/vote-now-annual-bloggers-bash-awards-now-open/

WHILE YOU'RE VOTING PLEASE ALSO SUPPORT FELLOW BLOGGERS

Beth Haslem for the Funniest Blog award

Caryl Williams for the Best Newcomer

YOU HAVE UNTIL JUNE 9TH TO VOTE

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Which Way is UP ? by John Rayburn

16/5/2016

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It is, as always, a great privilege to feature another very different travel story from our oldest and most prolific contributor, John Rayburn.

Last year he entered four stories and was the July 2015 winner with Here We Go Again. You can check out his other entries from last year via the 2015 Travel Stories page.

This year we have been treated to A Reluctant Angler and Hither and Yon.

Read and enjoy John's latest fantastic entry Which Way is UP ?

John Rayburn is a long time Radio/TV performer (62 years altogether). He won countless awards, established outstanding TV news rating figures and is a member of a Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame. He did play-by-play broadcasts for football, baseball, basketball, hockey, golf and auto racing.

John recorded dozens of books for the National Library Service and interviewed countless numbers of national personalities. In addition, he did an on-stage presentation of Old Time Radio throughout the United States. He portrayed a Senator in a made-for-TV movie starring Cheryl Ladd.

John claims, “I’m not retired, I’m diversified,” and at nearly 89 years old has sixteen eBooks published, with the next one well underway.

Find out more at:
bloggadocio-onairvet.blogspot.com

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Have you got a travel story to share?

10/5/2016

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Our annual travel story competition is well under way.

Have you got a memorable travel story to share? There are great prizes to be won and the possibility that your entry could be included in the book that we are planning to publish after this year's competition. Find out more details on the Competition page.

Last year's entries were included in Travel Stories and Highlights which was published earlier this year. You can get your copy for only 99p / 99c at the following links:
UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017T3HADK
US: www.amazon.com/dp/B017T3HADK

Read all of this year's entries on the 2016 Travel Stories page.

We look forward to reading your travel story entry.

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RIDING AROUND IN RICKSHAWS…REALLY? by Jill Dobbe

5/5/2016

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It is a great pleasure to welcome back Jill Dobbe, who has a brand new travel story for our 2016 competition: RIDING AROUND IN RICKSHAWS...REALLY?

You may remember Jill's entry from last year: I SURVIVED MT. SINAI (BARELY)!
If you haven't seen it yet then follow the link for a very enjoyable read.

Jill is an international educator and published author who writes about her experiences living and working in schools and countries around the world. She presently lives in her seventh country, Honduras, with her husband, Dan, and her Yorkie-Poo, Mickey. While working as an elementary principal, Jill also writes, travels, takes photos of the beautiful people and countries of Latin America, and muddles her way through the Spanish language. Jill loves her life as an international educator, and most days feels like she is living her dream.

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April 2016 Winner Announcement

2/5/2016

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Many thanks to our entrants for the April travel story competition. There were four featured entries during the month from Elizabeth Moore, Jackie Parry, John Rayburn and Richard Klein. If you haven't read these fantastic stories yet, follow this link and enjoy them through the 2016 Travel Stories page.

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that the April Winner is: JACKIE PARRY
for her story Walking on Water - A Shark Encounter That Changed my Life.

If you are enjoying this competition then please share the link with anyone you know who would either like to read the stories or even enter one or more themselves.

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Guest Blog: Dog Days In The Fortunate Islands

1/5/2016

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Dog Days In The Fortunate Islands is an ideal read for those contemplating retirement, moving to the Canary Islands or an extended trip through Spain. The book will also appeal to any dog lovers and holidaymakers who enjoy an interesting story.

On the brink of retirement, John and his wife Sally are determined to end a life at the grindstone in grimy and wet Lancashire. Together with their beloved Jack Russell/Staffie cross, Freddie, a rescue dog from the local RSPCA, they embark on the journey of a lifetime and relocate to the island of Tenerife.

Selling up, they make the move to the north of Tenerife, a part almost unknown to the casual tourist – their very own hidden paradise. Relaxed and surrounded by stunning coastal views, life in their new home, set amidst orange groves and banana plantations, is very different indeed! The weather is fantastic, the temperature idyllic, the people so friendly and the cost of living outrageously low… what more could they ask for?

Adjusting to life abroad, and all of the costs that come with it, are explained in the book – from buying a new home and sorting out living taxes, to integrating into the local community and taking the dreaded Spanish driving test. Follow John and Sally as they learn a new language and take on a couple of new hobbies, while Freddie takes off on some unbelievable (but true!) exploits with his new canine friends.

With a colourful collection of characters, travelling anecdotes that stretch from the English Midlands and all the way through mainland Spain in an old classic car, and some not so perfect moments that bring us back down to earth from time to time, this is a series of adventures that you will not want to miss.

Dog Days In The Fortunate Island Is Available in eBook & Paperback Format at Most Online Retailers.

From April 29th through May 3rd the eBook is available at a huge discount! You can get this ebook for $1.99 at most good retailers!

Click A Link below and get your copy today, you'll love it!

Matador / Amazon / Google Play / iTunes /

B & N / Kobo

I was born in 1943 at Derby Royal Infirmary, a war baby, and for the first 18 years of my life my home was in Ashby de la Zouch, an old market town in Leicestershire. I was sent away to become a boarder at Kings Mead Preparatory School, Seaford, and then Rugby School. Having been at Rugby has certainly stood me in good stead throughout my life, and I could not have asked for better.

John

I am still not quite sure exactly how it came about (perhaps because my maternal grandfather was a solicitor) but I suddenly found myself articled to a firm of solicitors in Ashby. It was not a happy period for anyone concerned, although I have to concede that I learned a lot during my time there, but it was clear that I was too much of a free spirit to enjoy being chained to a desk for a pittance each week. The only highlights to my miserable years as a bookworm were trips out to criminal courts or prisons. I must have been to every prison in the Midlands.

Concurrently, I was commissioned into the Territorial Army and still proudly display my certificate signed by HM The Queen.

When my parent’s marriage began to founder, I relocated to West Sussex to help out at their latest venture, a country hotel. My few weeks’ offer of help (neither of my parents having even the slightest knowledge of, or interest in, the hotel industry) turned into some 35 years, with me taking over from them, changing and extending the place considerably along the way. My restaurant in the hotel held 2 AA Rosettes for food for a number of years right up until I sold the business.

My son Marcus, my pride and joy, was born in St. Richards Hospital, Chichester. As I write this, he has turned 41, and he is an accountant. Married to Tina, they have provided me with two lovely grandchildren, Josh and Sam.

After I sold my hotel I moved up to Lancashire, where I had met and later married Sally. We

Sally

started a new business together, a commercial legal services company, something completely new for both of us. During that time we encountered a puppy, Freddie, a Jack Russell/Staffie cross, who we “rescued” from the RSPCA and fell in love with.

We sold out on a high after some 10 years, enabling us to seriously consider the move to Tenerife. With nothing to hold us back, we made the life-changing move, and have not regretted it. Did I think that retirement would be relaxation in the sunshine? Far from it! I think that I have never been so busy, and the latest of my activities is becoming restaurant reviewer for the main Canary Islands newspaper. I was flattered to have been invited to the position. Our exploits in Tenerife with Freddie form the backbone of the stories in my first book.

Freddie

My second book is an entirely different proposition, a different genre, and written in a completely different style. When a cache of letters, written by my father to my mother during the years of World War 2 eventually came in to my possession, I concluded that I should share some of them with a wider audience. In between a selection of those letters is traced the story of his life over those five long war years. It fascinated me to learn of the day to day life of an enlisted man – and later officer – as the war progressed to its inevitable conclusion, though finally without him as he languished behind the wire in a POW camp in Germany after having been captured on the battlefields of Normandy. And so his story has finally been written and my second book has now made it into print.

Author Website

http://www.johnsearancke.com

Author Email

johnsearancke@hotmail.com

Twitter

https://twitter.com/@johnsearancke
https://twitter.com/AuthorDogDays

https://twitter.com/OfficialPrunes

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/johnsearanckeauthor/?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/john.searancke.1

https://www.facebook.com/Dog-Days-in-The-Fortunate-Islands-867368390009475/

https://www.facebook.com/PrunesForBreakfast/
Rukia Publishing

http://www.rukiapublishing.com/meet-the-author-john-searancke.html

Troubador

http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=2609

Exciting News!!!

Giveaway #1

Author John Searancke is offering everyone that purchases Dog Days in The Fortunate Islands a chance to win 1 of 3 eCopies of Prunes For Breakfast!

Send Us The Proof of Purchase for