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“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.”

                                                                          C. S. Lewis

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Fantasy fiction is essentially about the concept of power; great fantasy fiction is about people who find it at great cost or lose it tragically; mediocre fantasy fiction is about people who have it and never lose it but simply wield it.”

                                                                        Stephen King

Soups in 25 minutes – Smoked Mackerel and Tomato and Cannellini Bean with Cavolo Nero

Welcome to Carol’s Cookery Column where taste and nutrition go hand in hand and can be cooked in a trice…

Soup can be eaten whatever the weather as a starter or as a snack even as a main meal if it is a substantial one served with lots of fresh crusty bread or with the addition of rice or noodles as it is served here…

I know for many of you… Autumn is here which although often brings some lovely sunny days it turns a tad cooler in the evenings….

However for those of us (me) who are experiencing warmer weather soup is eaten a lot here and is a staple in the Thai diet…think Thai chicken noodle soup or Tom Yum…it seems that no matter what the weather many people enjoy a bowl of…

Legendary journalist, author and historian, Cokie Roberts has passed away due to complications of breast cancer. She won numerous awards over the course of her career including three Emmys, and in 2008 was named a “living legend” by the Library of Congress. She was one of  the “Founding Mothers of NPR” and they tweeted this morning: “Roberts helped shape the public broadcaster’s sound and culture at a time when few women held prominent roles in journalism.” For me, Cokie Roberts was everything fair and responsible about journalism, and she was someone who inspired me to be a better person and speak out if I saw an injustice taking place. The world needs more women like her. She will be missed.

Here is my basic approach to life. I am a totally unpartisan human being. I don’t care which party has the right ideas—or which party has the wrong ideas. I…

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To all writers:

Please trust in yourselves, have faith in your voices, and tell the stories you want to tell.

Have confidence in your abilities, and keep going.

Remember that you can do this, that you can create your work, and that you are a writer.

Remember, success comes with the discipline to continue the work.

Pick up a pen, or sit at the keyboard, and write!

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I’m a cheapskate.

I’m also technologically impaired.

So when it came to making a book trailer for Sunwielder’s audiobook pre-release hype, I resorted to the old familiar standby from my years of selling office furniture – MS PowerPoint. The program’s been updated over the past 2 decades, but I still figured it out with some trial and error. And error. And a little more error.

The main thing I learned is regarding sequence:

1. Start with your text: Keep it pithy. I used my book blurb and pared it down to its bare essentials. That gave me about fifteen slides to populate with images.

2. Then add images: I took advantage of Pixabay’s royalty-free, attribution-free images for this one, frequently mashing them together to create a scene. Remember to check copyright details for the images you decide to use.

3. Add transitions: Don’t get too zany, but have fun. Timing…