As the penultimate month of this years' Authors Showcase draws to a close, it is a pleasure to feature this third contribution from Robyn Boswell.

 Robyn's latest story is called Luxury Limo Surprise and you can read it by clicking here.

Robyn Boswell

I have always lived in the beautiful north of New Zealand.  For 17 years I taught in a school that was considered to be the toughest in our city. It was hard work but there were plenty of rewards along the way once you got the respect of the kids.  I was fortunate to work with very compatible colleagues and we shared many hilarious and memorable experiences together. Winning a prize in a competition draw I didn’t even know I had been entered in didn’t quite turn out as I expected. 

I am very pleased today to welcome popular author Val Poore to Fred's Blog and the 2020 Authors Showcase for the first time

You will, I am sure, enjoy Val's inspirational contribution A train journey to remember as much as I have. Click here to read her story.

Val Poore was born and raised in England but at the end of 1981, she moved to South Africa where she and her family lived for nearly twenty years. She returned to Europe in 2001 and has since been working as a freelance teacher and trainer in the Netherlands. She teaches writing skills to both business and academic students. Val shares her time between a 120-year-old barge in Rotterdam and a cottage in Zeeland, both of which seem to take an inordinate amount of time to maintain. She loves writing and as a distraction from the rigours of her teaching requirements, she writes articles for magazines as well as publishing her own books, most of which are memoirs.

Find out more on Val's Amazon page: www.amazon.co.uk/Valerie-Poore

A warm welcome back to Mike Cavanagh with his third contribution in this year's Authors Showcase.

After his previous two recollections about the horrendous fires in Australia, this one is more light-hearted and takes us back to his childhood. Enjoy reading Mike's latest story Raining Cowboys and Injuns by clicking here.

Mike Cavanagh is now in his sixties and has no idea how that happened. He lives with his wife, Julie, adult son, Dan, and two black cats in Bateman’s Bay, Australia. Mike writes various stuffs, plays guitar, composes music, is doing research on rock-wallabies, and spends way too much time playing computer games. He thought he knew who he was until a diagnosis of high-functioning autism in his sixties gave him pause to rethink who he thought he was, and how he got here. So, he wrote a memoir, then another… as you do. Info on Mike’s writing and music lurks here: https://oneofitslegs.org/home-page/
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Today's featured contribution in the 2020 Authors Showcase is the third this year from Helen Bing.

Enjoy reading Helen's cat-orientated inspirational story, entitled Polly, by clicking here.

It is a privilege to welcome another newcomer to the blog (and to the 2020 Authors Showcase) - well-known author and historian Neal Atherton. 

Neal's truly inspirational contribution relates to ​D-Day 6th June 1944 and a poignant visit to Normandy.  It is entitled American Cemetery and you can read it by clicking here.

Neal Atherton

Neal is a travel writer with a particular passion for France and French wine. His love of history also comes to the fore in his writing. He has travelled extensively in France over many years and often spends time in Paris. He has written four books on France and conveys his feelings for that country and the people he and his wife have met with warm affection. The stories are many and varied but always told with humour and a wish to inspire you to follow his footsteps. Neal loves to help with the travel plans of others and his friends always look forward to his bountiful return from exploring the cellars and vineyards of France.  All his books are on Amazon including Kindle Unlimited along with one about family history written from a military perspective.

Neal now lives in Somerset although he is a Lancastrian and spent most of his life in that county. He talks like a Lancastrian and you may have to agree writes like one. He loves the English game of cricket, golf, soccer, photography, walking and cooking. Of course he loves to travel also.

His books can be found at: http://getbook.at/FrenchTravel

More information is on Neal’s website: www.nealatherton.com

He is happy to be contacted via the contact details on the website.

I have a real treat in store for you today in the 2020 Authors Showcase.

For the first time ever on this blog, we are featuring a screenplay. It is from well-known author Susan Joyce.

If you have never read a screenplay before, then you are in the same situation I was a few days ago when Susan first submitted her script. The scenes being featured are the final ones from her screenplay entitled The Cyprus Affair, which is adapted from her book The Lullaby Illusion.

Should you be familiar with screenplays then you can go straight to it (after reading Susan's bio of course) by clicking here.

If screenplays are new to you, Susan has kindly provided some instructions on how to read one. You can find these below her bio, at the bottom of this post.

In either case, I am sure you will enjoy this truly inspirational contribution. 

Heartfelt thanks to Susan for introducing me to screenplays. I am now hooked and hope you will feel the same by the time you finish reading.

How to read a Screenplay

The script is a blueprint for the story that appears on the screen, including essential physical cues like location, time of day, general environment, etcetera. A good screenplay is both interesting to read and well constructed, in terms of format and layout and allows for the reader to “watch” the film in their mind’s eye.

Script writing is visual writing. Scripts vacillate wildly from large blocks of text to simple paired-down lines of dialogue. Writing a good screenplay that allows a reader to “see” the movie as they read it is a challenge.

A script shows the SCENE ACTION and location appearance. The first thing you should understand when reading scene descriptions are the terms INT. and EXT. Those mean “interior” and “exterior” and denote where the scene takes place. The last word in the scene description tells the reader when the action happens; day or night.

EXT. CARS PARKED ON RISE NEAR HIGHWAY – NIGHT

A script also shows CHARACTER ACTION and what’s happening around characters. The tense for such sentences is present tense. Example: “Susan turns the radio on at low volume.”

The next thing that throws some people off is “(O.S.)” or “(O.C.)”. If either of those descriptions appears next to a character’s line, the mean they are “off camera” or “off screen.” Another common abbreviation you’ll find is “(V.O.)” for “voice over.”
 
Parentheticals are the words that appear in parentheses directly under a character’s name, telling you something essential about the character’s behavior. This something should use language that’s visceral and visual. For instance, “(smiles).”
 
Hope you enjoy my script!

You can read it by clicking here.

It always gives me great pleasure to welcome a newcomer to Fred's Blog. 

Today, I am very pleased to be able to feature a story from Leslie Groves Ogden in the 2020 Authors Showcase.

Leslie's inspirational story is called Nervous Night in Nevada, and you can read it by clicking here.

Leslie Groves Ogden

​I am a retired elementary school teacher who enjoys going through all my old journals, travel diaries and photographs in search of possible story ideas. I have written about several true but unusual experiences and shared those stories with family and friends. In the future, if enough interest is generated I may compile these stories into memoir form and seek publication. For now, I am content to keep writing as a hobby. I find that now is the ideal time to get serious about putting my experiences into story form, since we are quarantined at home here in California and my days are uneventful with few diversions. Writing adds interest to my stay-at-home hours. I hope you enjoy my story.

A warm welcome back to Tina Wagner Mattern with her fourth contribution to the 2020 Authors Showcase.

Enjoy her latest heart-warming story entitled SUMMER FAITH by clicking here.

Tina Wagner Mattern is a 69-year-old Portland, Oregon writer. She has been published numerous times in anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Maine Review, A Cup of Comfort and most recently (and gratefully) in Robert Fear’s “40 Memorable Life Experiences”. She dabbles in short, humorous fiction but her main focus is on finishing her memoir-in-progress, “Butter Side Up, Thank God.” This story, which highlights her marriage to her best (and weirdest) friend, is testimony to her belief that in chaotic times such as these, humor is a powerful shiny bullet. 

It gives me great pleasure to feature this second contribution from Elizabeth Moore in this year's Authors Showcase.

You can read her moving story The Cuddle by clicking here.

Elizabeth Moore

Elizabeth has lived in Australia all her life. She is happily married, a mother of two, grandmother of five 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 long-held interest to the fore and Elizabeth began chronicling her trips with extensive photography, promising herself she would also write about her exploits. 
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