Chai And A Chat #236 #ChaiAndAChat

Hello again, Peeps! We are on another bank holiday, thanks to Charlie King Three and his coronation!

Have you got your drink ready?

  • If we were having chai, I’d start by telling you about school. It was a short week, all things considered. We had Monday off because of the bank holiday, then four days in school, but it felt even longer than usual! We started the week with a load more absences, as well as another strike day. So I had three members of staff to cover (1 strike, 2 sickness), which was fun. Thankfully we have a volunteer in on a Tuesday, and she really helped out, as well as another member of staff from another part of the school. Ever grateful to those people able to step in to help out with the craziness of the Early Years! We were were planting, drawing, painting and writing about sunflowers this week, and I have to tell you, I think we have hit that mic drop moment for a good few of the children, where things have properly clicked! It’s like a switch flicks, and they are either attempting to write more, independently, or writing in sentences that we can read, and they WANT to, which is even better! I also had a sad moment, when one of our children had his last day with us, as he is moving to another area. He is such a sweet child, and we will miss him a lot… His family gave a card and beautiful scarf as a gift from them, which was so touching. As I always say, totally unnecessary, but a sweet gesture, nonetheless.
  • If we were having chai, I’d tell you that another thing we did was spend the whole day concentrating on the important occasion that was to be taking place on Saturday; the Coronation! We had an assembly where we talked as a whole school briefly and sang the National Anthem, followed by lots of time in class talking about what a Coronation is, in child-friendly terms, making crowns, and lots of Coronation-related crafts! Then in the afternoon, after a little more Coronation learning, we had a whole school tea party on the top playground. The weather forecast was dubious. We thought we would have to cancel, but we ended up with a dry, sunny 21℃ afternoon!
  • If we were having chai, I’d say that the next day was the Coronation. Weather-wise, it was drizzly. I had every intention of watching all the pomp and circumstance. I am not a Royalist, as such, but I am so aware of the fact that we are a part of living history, and I love to learn about the different customs and traditions. So I sat, watching, for a while, then Cricken Mum duty struck, as Lil Man had a match. We kept an eye out for messages about a cancelled game due to the weather, but they were adamant that it would go ahead. I ended up with the Coronatino streaming live on my phone as we drove, and we parked up in time for me to see the main event, as in the crown being placed on Kin Charles III’s head! Then I got back in time to see the procession and the Royal Salute. It was pretty amazing, I have to say. Hubby Dearest went off to watch the match, which, not unexpectedly, did get cancelled so they were back home early, too.
  • If we were having chai, I’d tell you that last week I was busy with edit revisions. This week I was sent the e-arc, and spent the afternoon, after the Coronation, and evening, reading and going through the formatting! A few little tweaks cropped up, which I reported to my publisher, ready for change when they are back at work on Tuesday, and my (uncorrected) arc has winged its way to the Blog tour advance readers. Now is the time to get nervous!
  • If we were having chai, I’d mention that while I nervously await the feedback and reviews from the Blog Tour readers, it is always a pleasure when I find a new review for Marriage Unarranged, too! It’s only 79p on Amazon for Kindle, if you were interested…
  • If we were having chai, I would update you on Sonu Singh. I have been, as always, reading plenty and he likes to sit with me if I am chilling on my bed. I think he liked this particular book I was reading as he claimed it as his own!

This week, another four-day week, but plenty going on…you know what they say, no rest for the wicked! After relaxing today, since it is a Bank Holiday, I have my student volunteer’s tutor in on Tuesday, an appointment to attend on Wednesday, and the dentist on Thursday, as well as a busy reading week, and cricket duties doubling up, too! I will write new words… I will… soon…

And while you’re here, did you sign up for my mailing list? I am in the middle of writing an exclusive Chickpea Curry Lit story for my subscribers, and there will be news, tips and even recipes! You know you want to join… go on! Click the pic below to sign up!

Spidey’s Serene Sunday #426 – Am Proofing

“Read obsessively. Write furiously. Edit carefully.”

Sissy Gavrilaki

A bit of a continuing editing theme this week, Spidey!.

So I finished my copy edits last week. And was sent the e-arc file to peruse on Saturday.

The whole day was filled with reading and skimming it to ensure it looked as it should.

Having already learned how to format on Vellum when I originally self-published Marruiage Unarranged, I know it can be simple in some ways, but certain things can be a real trouble to get set!

So I’ve done my bit so far and sent back the report of what is looking great and what isn’t sitting well and a couple of omissions or typos… (as far as I could see!)

One step closer to that proper book!

It feels like no matter how many times you read a manuscript or how many eyes pass over it, there is always something that gets missed!

So, Peeps, what would you do if you read a book and found errors? Would you contact the author or leave a bad review? 😊

#SoCS May.06, 2023 – Songs Of Our Youth

Linda’s SoCS prompt…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “a song from your childhood.” Think of a song from your childhood and just write. Have fun!

Oh, there are so many songs from my childhood, ranging from Western to Bhangra, Kenyan to Bollywood, that I could pick… Which one?, is the question!

I’m choosing Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth.

When this song came out, it was around my seventh birthday.

The tune was infectious, and it was playing on the radio all the time, as well as on Top of the Pops!

I loved it.

Some unfamiliar words in the lyrics, that were English, but with Jamaican patois sprinkled within, meant we didn’t always know what we were singing, but we sang along, anyway!

I was so excited to find the lyrics printed in a copy of The Sun, (don’t judge! Pops always got it for the Sun Bingo numbers!) one morning, that I cut them out, and tried to memorise them!

It’s still a bit ambiguous an out what a dutchie actually referenced, though.

A ‘dutchie’ is a Jamaican cooking pot, but the original lyrics passed a ‘kutchie’ around, which is a pot that holds cannabis.😳

I guess it would have been immoral to have a band comprising of children singing about weed…

Still, I love that song. They even performed it live last summer at the Comonwealth Games in Birmingham!

Enjoy!

One-Liner Wednesday – Tea, Please!

“Sometimes I wish I was grown up enough to enjoy coffee, then I remember I hate the taste!”

Ritu Bhathal
 

For Linda’s #1LinerWeds Challenge

Tell Me How THis Ends by @JoLeevers  #BlogTour #BookReview @fmcmassociates

Today I am bringing you a beautiful story written by Jo Leevers, Tell Me How This Ends.

The Blurb

Can Henrietta find out what happened to Annie’s sister—before it’s too late?

Haunted by the past, Henrietta throws herself into a new job transcribing other people’s life stories, vowing to stick to the facts and keep emotions at arm’s length. But when she meets the eccentric and terminally ill Annie, she finds herself inextricably drawn in. And when Annie reveals that her sister drowned in unexplained circumstances in 1974, Henrietta’s methodical mind can’t help following the story’s loose ends…

Unlike Henrietta, Annie is brimming with confidence—but even she has limits when it comes to opening up. Ever since that terrible night when her sister left a pile of clothes beside the canal and vanished, Annie has been afraid to look too closely into the murky depths of her memories. When her attempts to glide over the past come up against Henrietta’s determination to fill in the gaps, both women find themselves confronting truths they’d thought were buried forever—especially when Henrietta’s digging unearths a surprising emotional connection between them.

Could unlocking Annie’s story help Henrietta rewrite the most devastating passages in her own life? And, in return, can she offer Annie a final twist in the tale, before it’s too late?

My Review

Tell Me How This Ends by Jo Leevers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A book I found I wanted to get back to as soon as I was able, every time, I had to put it down.
Henrietta is a woman with a quirky personality. She sees things in very specific ways. When she get a job at a centre for the terminally ill, helping them to write their life stories, I wondered how she would cope with the sensitive nature of the job.
And there were a few hiccups.
But she meets her first candidate, Annie, and how the story unfolds, and their relationship develops is beautiful.
It is not straightforward at all, though.
Annie has secrets. She has also suffered heartache through family situations and in her marriage. But Henrietta has her own skeletons, too.
Some sensitive issues are dealt with throughout the book, and the story is told in an engaging manner.
It’s a centre for the terminally ill. There will be sadness, but there are spots of brightness which make the read so worthwhile.

About the Author

Jo Leevers grew up in London and has spent most of her career working on
magazines, most recently writing features about homes and interiors for
leading newspapers and magazines. This means she gets to visit people
around the country and ask them about all the things in their homes.
Some might call this a licence to be nosey…
Tell Me How This Ends is her debut. Whether writing fiction or interviewing
people for articles, she is fascinated by the life stories that we all carry
with us. She has two grown-up children and lives with her husband and
their wayward dog, Lottie, in Bristol.

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