Coming soon…
I’m really pleased to see that people are enjoying my blogs about the humble beginnings of our customs, traditions and days of celebration. There is probably more folk lore associated with December than with any other month of the year, and most of this is very old. I will soon begin, therefore, to present blogs about some of these many Christmas traditions; including sending cards, Santa Claus, Mistletoe, the Yule log…and much more!
Welcome
Hello and welcome to those of you who have begun to register with my Blog site. I hope you will find it interesting. Please leave comments if you wish, and let me know what I can do to make my blog appealing to you. Glad to have you aboard!
Book dedications
Does anyone read dedications in books, I wonder? I always do, because it took me some time to try to get mine right in just a few words. How can you sum up the importance of the person you are dedicating your book to in so few lines?
Both my published books so far are dedicated to my mother, who I lost to a stroke very suddenly in 1997. I wish she could have seen them published, as she always believed it would happen. In my way, the dedication keeps her memory alive forever.
So, when you skip by our dedication page, maybe give it a moment’s read, and wonder what those few lines meant to us as we wrote them!
Book Promotion
So, you’ve written your book, and actually had it published. Now you can sit back and wait for the money to roll in. Do you think so? No, you soon find out that your work actually begins here. No matter how good your book, how do you get people to know about it, to read it, to tell others about it? It’s not easy, but the key word is Promotion. There are lots of places out there, especially on the internet, where you can try to promote your life’s work. Some are good, some are not. Some make you pay, others just want to help. One such site is:
http://www.authordirectory.co.uk/
Check it out. This is a genuine promotional site that gets a lot of hits. Contact the site to have your book featured. Believe me, any promotion is good promotion. Best of luck to all you new writer’s out there! We can’t all be Terry Pratchett, but we can do our best to get our books noticed!
A light-hearted history of Bonfire Night
The historic origins of Bonfire Night date to the conflict between virtually outlawed Catholics and the Protestant establishment of the 16th and early 17th century. On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes (the real one, not the stuffed variety) and a group of Catholic conspirators who felt badly treated by the King put 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar underneath the Houses of Parliament. (Not a bad idea, do I hear you say?) Some of those involved in the plot however, realised that innocent people would be killed in the explosion. One plotter wrote a letter warning his friend to stay away from Parliament on November 5, and this letter got to King James I. Guy Fawkes was in the cellar with the gunpowder when the king’s men arrived. His guilt was a bit of a give-away. He was taken away, tortured and sentenced to a very unpleasant death (not that it is ever fun…).
The date of the Gunpowder Plot coincided with the end of the English harvest season, traditionally marked with festivals. The fireworks that are now a firm part of Bonfire Night are, no doubt, a reminder of the barrels of gunpowder, but the huge bonfires are more likely to reflect ancient seasonal traditions once part of the Celtic Fire Festival of Samhain.
Enjoy the fun, treacle toffee, parkin, and of course the fireworks!
Halloween
Happy Halloween weekend everyone. I’m sure my character ‘Gertie’ will be enjoying this important day in all witches calendars on Sunday!
Though we celebrate Halloween on 31st October each year, do you know why?
Well, here is a brief explanation!
Halloween seems to have its roots in the Celtic celebration of Samhain, the last day of the Celtic calendar. Samhain was a Pagan harvest festival celebrated by huge sacred bonfires in honour of the dead, marking the end of the Celtic year and the beginning of a new one. Fire often symbolised the power of the sun, or served as a defence against trick-bent spirits. Many of the practices involved in the celebration were fed on superstition. The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the villages on this night. Spirits were thought to assume grotesque appearances, and the tradition of dressing up like these spirits developed in the hope it would prevent the ghostly beings from causing harm. Some believed the spirits could be warded off by carving a grotesque face into a gourd or root vegetable and setting a candle inside it. Family spirits were welcomed home, but gifts and treats were left out to pacify less friendly ones, and to ensure the success of next year’s crops.
The word Halloween was first noted in the16th century and represented a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even (“evening”), that is, the night before All Hallows Day (now known as All Saints Day). This was a time when the boundaries between this world and the next were said to be at their thinnest, allowing the dead to once again walk amongst the living.
Today, many people who celebrate Halloween have no conception of its Pagan heritage. They see this day simply as a time to dress up in frightening costumes and host Halloween parties, while small children enjoy playing ‘Trick or Treat.’
However you celebrate Halloween, stay safe, and have a good one!
Facebook links
Hello again, I hope you’re all having good weekends. I will be spending more time on my blog page just as soon as I manage to link my blogs to a Facebook update. So far it isn’t working…Watch this space. More to come soon.
Updates
Well, I have chosen my background-which I love, added some links and included my first pages. I think I might be ready to release this now. I can add other sections as I go along. Many thanks to Karl Powis for the initial set-up, and for his patience in teaching a web-design illiterate geek like myself to change and update the rest. What do you think of it so far? Any suggestions for improvement appreciated!
Hi all
Welcome to Lynne North’s blog. I am the author of two published children’s novels, ‘Gertie Gets it Right (eventually)’, a humorous fantasy; and ‘Zac’s Destiny’, a sword & sorcery fantasy. I hope you will want to join me in discussing my books, your favourite authors, and what you look for in your chosen reading. Writing is a learning curve, and who better to help authors learn than the readers we are trying to introduce our books to.
Please check out my website at:
And feel free to get back to me with comments or questions about any of my books. I look forward to hearing from you!