Blog Archives

Cinders Goes to the Ball by Valerie Fletcher Adolph

28/6/2024

As we near the halfway point of this year's Creative Writing Showcase, I am pleased to feature this third story in the Fiction category from Valerie Fletcher Adolph.

This contribution is very different from her previous two entries, but it made me smile. I am sure you will enjoy it as well. You can read Val's story Cinders Goes to the Ball here.

Valerie Fletcher Adolph

Val is a life-long writer living in the extreme southwest corner of Canada with a view over to Washington State’s San Juan Islands. She has two grown children, two grandchildren and two cats. Her Covid project was to publish a trilogy of historical cozy mysteries set in post WW2 Yorkshire.

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Light Against the Darkness by Carly Standley

14/6/2024

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A warm welcome to Carly Standley, a newcomer to our writing features on Fred's Blog and the latest contributor to this year's Fiction Showcase.

You can read Carly's story Light Against the Darkness here.

Carly Standley, writing under the pen name Olivia Bey, seamlessly blends a full-time career as a Registered Nurse with the pursuit of her Master's degree as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. As a devoted mother of three in Colorado, she finds solace and joy in writing, a cherished passion that serves as her ultimate escape. Crafting stories is not just a hobby; it's her essential self-care in the demanding field of healthcare.

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Privileged by Ronald Mackay

10/6/2024

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For the latest entry in this year's Memoir Showcase, it gives me great pleasure to feature another contribution from Ronald Mackay.

You can read his insightful story Privileged by clicking here.

Also, if you appreciate Ronald's writing as much as I do, you will be interested in his recently released book Windows On My Worlds: A Collection of Short Stories.

It contains a fabulous selection of Ronald's life stories, some of which have previously been featured on Fred's Blog.

You can buy it here:
mybook.to/WindowsOnMyWorlds

Ronald Mackay
In 1976, Ronald migrated from Mexico where he’d been working for two years, to Canada. For several years he worked in most Canadian provinces as well as all over the Canadian Arctic. Years later, he and his Peruvian-Italian wife, Viviana, moved back to Canada from Argentina where they had been growing grapes. Ronald enjoys a good relationship with his two stepdaughters. Having had no children of his own to bring up, he sometimes finds the situations into which he is drawn by his four grandchildren deeply puzzling.

Viviana and Ronald, April 2024, Buenavista del Norte, Tenerife

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I'm Missing my Mutt by Malcolm D Welshman

6/6/2024

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It is an honour today to feature a contribution from Malcolm Welshman in our Memoir Showcase.

You can read Malcolm's moving story I'm Missing my Mutt by clicking here.

Malcolm D Welshman

Malcolm began writing when he first joined a small animal veterinary hospital in West Sussex as a young vet, and started to attend evening classes in creative writing. The exploits at the hospital were the source of Interesting Stories from a Vet’s Casebook, a series of anecdotal tales that ran in the magazine, My Weekly, for fifteen years.

He went on to write a couple of booklets on kittens and puppies while continuing to dabble in features, providing copy for a variety of magazines such as People’s Friend, Yours, Parrot Magazine and Cat World.

On retiring from practice, he decided to write a novel. Pets in Prospect was born in January 2006. The second publisher he approached, Robert Hale, accepted the book and it was published in hardback, paperback, large print, audio, Czech and Japanese. The subsequent publicity saw him give over 24 radio interviews and more than 40 talks, including four Literary Festivals.

The book was reissued as Pets in a Pickle in May 2011 by John Blake Publishers; the ebook reached number two on Kindle’s bestseller list in September where it remained for two weeks.

The sequel, Pets on Parade, was published in April followed by Pets Aplenty, the third in the Prospect House series, published in 2014. The latter was a finalist in The Peoples’ Book Prize 2015 and has garnered 453 five star reviews on Amazon. Pets are a Pleasure is the fourth in the series. Malcolm has also written a memoir, An Armful of Animals, published in September 2018. His latest book, a children’s novel, Beasts in my Bedroom, was published in May 2024.

Through his writing, he’s been invited to talk about his animal experiences on cruise liners and as a result has completed 54 speaker engagements around the world over an eleven-year period.

Malcolm and Dora

www.malcolmwelshman.co.uk
Facebook.com/malcolm.welshman.7
X.com/malcolmwelshman

Beasts in my Bedroom: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1035851792

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Cinders Goes to the Ball by ​Valerie Fletcher Adolph

Light Against the Darkness by ​Carly Standley

Privileged by ​Ronald Mackay

I'm Missing my Mutt by ​Malcolm D Welshman

Archives

Cinders Goes to the Ball by Valerie Fletcher Adolph

Light Against the Darkness by Carly Standley

Privileged by Ronald Mackay

I'm Missing my Mutt by Malcolm D Welshman