Tag Archives: k morris author

Even Rock and Roll has Fairy Tales: The Flight of the Sherry Fairy

9 Replies

Thank you to author Sherry Carroll for the below guest post about her book ‘Even Rock and Roll has Fairy Tales: The Flight of the Sherry Fairy‘. I must confess to not knowing a great deal about the subject!

Hi there, thanks for checking me out. I’m Sherry Carroll the Author of “Even Rock and Roll has Fairy Tales: The Flight of the Sherry Fairy” (and more)

You can check me out on Amazon .com or find out more at http://www.evenrockandrollhasfairytales.com and http://www.sherrycarrollbooks.com

Now my Kind of- Sort of a serious Bio. Or, at least, as close as I am ever going to get to making one. L So you want to know about little ole me? Aw, thank you ever so much. So without further ado, my story

Hmmmm… well, If you were to take Janis Joplin, Scarlet O Hara, Bette Midler , Mary Poppins , Carrie Fisher, Gracie Allen , W.C. Fields, and  all four of the Marx Brothers and put them in a giant blender you would get… a really terrible mess and most likely, some fairly serious criminal charges! However, I am the kind of gal, who would help bury the pieces, have the place spotless before the cops arrived, and come up with an airtight alibi, a great excuse or at least a fairly decent justification. Failing that, rent a white bronco, cheap false beard and mustache, a fake passport passes out plenty of funny money and gets you across the border. If the worst should happen (as it surely must) and we don’t make it I promise I will write you a fantastic confession and then defend you to (your) death on Judge Judy.

I am currently trapped in a keyboard cage somewhere in in the suburbs of suburban soccer mom Maryland in the U.S of A pretending to be a mild mannered homemaker (with a not –so secret identity) and mother to four wretched and ungrateful offspring that are a never –ending source of despair and delight. These so called children of mine are Jordan 28, IT expert, Jayme 25, who ran away to Hollywood to become a movie star and is actually well on his way to doing just that! My Adorable Daughter is 22 and working on masters in psychology, and “little” Ian at 14 is twice my size. He’s got Asperger’s but seems to have grown out of or learned coping skills to accommodate his autism spectrum disorder symptoms and now he’s just suffering from typical teenage boy pain- in- the- butt- ski.  I am constantly thrilled and horrified at the tales of growing up in the internet/ information age and their high-spirited antics!

I have no idea how they became so eccentric. I blame their father’s side of the family.

Despite my protests they insist on continuing to grow up and move out leaving me with no other option but collecting really cool creepy dolls as replacements and spending every waking moment at the keyboard . I wish that were a joke!  I frequently wake up on the couch with no blanket after a three day writing/ Facebook/twitter binge/marathon with an open laptop on my chest, ferrets attacking my toes and birds searching my hair for stray birdseed, which they find, to my great dismay, much more than I would care to admit to anyone.

I owned and operated my own private pre-school out of my home for twenty years until I retired about 17 years ago to become useless and dissatisfied on a full –time basis which I was remarkably successful at until about three years ago when I received the unfortunate news that yes, the verdict was in, I was a writer! Just as I always feared and suspected. 

Up until then I  had been going to the University of Maryland part- time and wasted thousands of hours exploring the internet and flying over to see my best friend in London two or three times a year so I practically lived there as much as possible until  the last of my friends there got fed up with my sleeping on their floors and couches, complaining they ate no meat, drinking everything in the flat, and whining about how boring Maryland was and physically forced me on a plane out of their country for a few months.  Back to a place so dull I thought I would lose my mind, as I am a girl accustomed to adventures! Before I was a respectable teacher and housewife I had become a Superstar Teen Queen on the rock and roll backstage scene, with my best friend Shari, the other half of “The Infamous Sherry and Shari.”

When I took my first creative writing class in the fall of 2011 my professor was convinced I should turn my stories of those days would make a great novel.  So, lacking anything better to do the next 18 months I sat down and worked 24/7 until I had written one, much to both of our shock, delight and disbelief!

The results were my memoir “Even Rock and Roll has Fairy Tales: the Flight of the Sherry Fairy.”www.evenrockandrollhasfairytales.com

 I It’s a true story about the good old days backstage and my 20 plus year relationship with Rock god, living legend and international sex symbol Eric Burdon, the charismatic, notorious bad boy and  front man of The Animals and War with an impressive solo career , and not just in music, over the last sixty years. Who quite unexpectedly, at 72 years old came out of a 20 year retirement and had one of the biggest comebacks in history at the same time I finished my book! He’s one of the hottest acts in the business right now still going strong. WOW! Thank you Eric! But it’s the least you could do after…

Well; it’s kind of a long story! That’s why I had to write a book LOL

I have done nothing but write non-stop ever since. And now, even living in Maryland isn’t so bad. Especially if you sleep all day and write all night and never leave the house. I have to! I have more stories than I have years left to tell them in. Here is one of the reviews http://pennreviews.com/2013/10/11/even-rock-and-roll-has-fairy-tales/ and an interview on Eric and about my memoir http://indiemirror.com/2014/02/18/interview-with-sherry-carroll-even-rock-and-roll-has-fairy-tales/

I’m finishing my next book “Saving Amazing Gracelynn” any day now. Part one in a series of new-ish, true-ish so –called “fictional” epic rock and roll novels, which basically means all the stories are true, the names have just been changed to protect the guilty.  How thinly you will be disguised is entirely dependent on how much I liked you and how decent a person you were, so if you were a proper villain you better watch out!  Some of you big stars very nervous right now, and for good reason. You know who you are!  It’s the first in a series that covers dozens of big bands and huge stars plus the adventures of our intrepid heroine Gracelynn, spanning well over forty years. I can’t wait for all of you to meet her!

 Everything I write and publish is available on Amazon.com at my Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Sherry-Carroll 

You can frequently  (read always) find me at a little thing called Facebook, maybe you’ve heard of it?

I run a page full of writing tips I want to use, remember and share https://www.facebook.com/SherryCarrollBooks and a page for Eric Burdon, vintage music and my first book called Eric Burdon knows Even Rock and Roll has Fairy Tales https://www.facebook.com/evenrockandrollhasfairytalesSherryCarroll and a silly social group, The House of the Redheads Fun, https://www.facebook.com/groups/HouseofTheRedheadsFun/

I also am learning twitter @thesherryfairy   and just started seriously blogging now that I am trying to get out of the house more and have a life again once the new book is  done. In order to get some long over-due exercise, get healthy and fit and hopefully lose my “writers spread” and to have more adventures so I have something exciting to say worth blogging about!

Well, that’s about it, the rest is all in my stories. I hope you enjoyed this one. Thanks for your time, Sherry

Dialogue

5 Replies

A school playground

A hut

Rain drumming

“Are they coming?”

Debating

“Escaping?”

“From what?”

“From the crowd which stifles”

“But you want to be part of the herd, to play and run with the pack”

“Do I?”

“You long to be lost in the waves, to become part of the great tide”.

“But the tide is impersonal with neither heart nor soul. It sweeps all before it battering the weak and the vulnerable”.

“Oh, but to be part of the whole, to feel the power of the mass, the banners waving, torches blazing”.

“Thank you kindly but I would rather sit, alone in my hut”.

Danny Dever By Rudyard Kipling

Leave a reply

On awaking this morning Kipling’s poem, Danny Dever kept for some unaccountable reason replaying itself in my head. Ever since coming across Danny Dever in the school library as a child in Liverpool I have always entertained a liking for it. However why the poem should pop into my waking mind this morning remains a mystery to me.

Danny Dever was first published in February 1890. The poem recounts the execution of a British soldier for murdering a sleeping comrade and is the first example of the poet’s work which relates matters from the common soldier’s perspective. According to the Kipling Society, (http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_deever1.htm) Danny Dever almost certainly draws on the execution of a private Flaxman, in January 1887, in Lucknow, India for murdering a fellow soldier. The attention to detail of the poem indicates that the poet was familiar with the Lucknow incident. There is, however no evidence that Kipling himself witnessed a military execution.

 

Danny Deever

 

——————————————————————————–

 

“WHAT are the bugles blowin’ for? ” said Files-on-Parade.

“To turn you out, to turn you out,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

“What makes you look so white, so white? ” said Files-on-Parade.

“I’m dreadin’ what I’ve got to watch,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

For they’re hangin’ Danny Deever, you can hear the Dead March play

The regiment’s in ‘ollow square – they’re hangin’ him to-day;

They’ve taken of his buttons off an’ cut his stripes away,

An’ they’re hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’.

 

“What makes the rear-rank breathe so ‘ard? ” said Files-on-Parade.

“It’s bitter cold, it’s bitter cold,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

“What makes that front-rank man fall down? ” said Files-on-Parade.

“A touch o’ sun, a touch o’ sun,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

They are hangin’ Danny Deever, they are marchin’ of ‘im round,

They ‘ave ‘alted Danny Deever by ‘is coffin on the ground;

An’ e’ll swing in ‘arf a minute for a sneakin’ shootin’ hound

0 they’re hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’!

 

” ‘Is cot was right-‘and cot to mine,” said Files-on-Parade.

” ‘E’s sleepin’ out an’ far to-night,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

“I’ve drunk ‘is beer a score o’ times,” said Files-on-Parade.

” ‘E’s drinkin’ bitter beer alone,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

They are hangin’ Danny Deever, you must mark ‘im to ‘is place,

For ‘e shot a comrade sleepin’ – you must look ‘im in the face;

Nine ‘undred of ‘is county an’ the Regiment’s disgrace,

While they’re hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’.

 

“What’s that so black agin the sun? ” said Files-on-Parade.

“It’s Danny fightin’ ‘ard for life,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

“What’s that that whimpers over’ead? ” said Files-on-Parade.

“It’s Danny’s soul that’s passin’ now,” the Colour-Sergeant said.

For they’re done with Danny Deever, you can ‘ear the quickstep play

The regiment’s in column, an’ they’re marchin’ us away;

Ho! the young recruits are shakin’, an’ they’ll want their beer to-day,

After hangin’ Danny Deever in the mornin’.

 

(http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_deever.htm).

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Dalliance; A Collection Of Poetry And Prose By K Morris – A Guest Post On Opinionated Man’s Blog

Leave a reply

Many thanks to Jason (Opinionated Man) for his kindness in allowing me to publish a guest post on his blog about my collection of poetry and prose, “Dalliance”. For the article please visit Jason’s blog here (http://aopinionatedman.com/2015/02/28/guest-post-dalliance-a-collection-of-poetry-and-prose-by-k-morris/).

 

Kevin

The Abandoned Garden

9 Replies

The weeds, interspersed with flowers raise their heads enquiringly at unfamiliar footfall. So long have they remained undisturbed,, they scarcely know how to greet a guest.

Once visitors thronged to the garden. Comments on it’s layout and the many and varied plants rang out. A joyous chiriping as of many birds was heard.

The gardener became ill, died or perhaps lost interest in his plot, leaving it to dwindle, turn in upon itself. A few flowers still bloom, their scent appreciated by the occasional guest who, stumbling upon the place unawares pauses, savours the beauty of the flowers then wondering, sadly why this little paradise has been abandoned, passes on.

Is not a blog a little like a garden?

Sting In The Tail Free From 28 February Until 4 March

2 Replies

My collection of short stories, “Sting In The Tail” is free in the Amazon Kindle store from today (Saturday 28 February) until Wednesday 4 March. To download “Sting In The Tail” free please go to (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sting-tail-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00DFK6R54/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8, for the UK) or (http://www.amazon.com/Sting-tail-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00DFK6R54, for the USA).

 

If you read “Sting In The Tail” or any of my other books, I would appreciate it if you would please consider leaving a review.

 

Many thanks,

 

Kevin

Pages: 1 2 3 4

The Land Of Lost Content By A. E. Housman

Leave a reply

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

The Thing

6 Replies

Like a living thing it lurked in the spare room quietly clicking away to itself. No one knew about it save for the boy and he told no one. What would have been the point of telling? Had he told they would have called him mad, a strange child with a tenuous grip on reality, the adults would have remarked. Sometimes even he doubted the existence of the thing. During the day the room stood silent and empty except for the presence of a chest of drawers, a single bed and a wardrobe. The homely presence of the furniture, solid and dependable reassured him during daylight that all was right with the world. When the sun shonne on the walls the horses imprinted on the wall paper filled the child with delight. He imagined them galloping across sunlit green fields their long mains blowing in the wind.

At night the thing came. Click, click it said, crouching in the corner coiled and ready to pounce. It never left it’s lair but the knowledge of the loathsome presence filled him with dread, Click, click, waiting patiently in the dark for it’s prey.

Looking back he never could recall having entered the room. Some how or other he was there in the presence of the unspeakable clicking entity. It never spoke, perhaps it was incapable of speech, the thing merely bided it’s time and when the time was right struck like a beast launching itself upon his prey. Click, click the machine whispered to itself it’s tentacles reaching for the boy’s neck. Choking he fought with the thing. It was strong but he always managed to wriggle away somehow. Perhaps it wanted him to escape. Like a cat which takes pleasure in catching a mouse, releasing it and giving chase once more the thing would let him go only to wait, patiently for the next tussle.

He called it the strangling machine on account of it’s propensity to choke him. Click, click, click, the sound echoed down the years.

Young Woman Older Man

4 Replies

Some time ago, while in a humorous or cynical frame of mind (take your pick as to which one applies), I penned the below poem entitled, “Young Woman Older Man” which runs thus:

 

“Young lady older man, is there love or a cunning plan? Middle aged man with younger girl, does love exist in this world? What thoughts pass through your heads, as you lie entwined in your bed? Girl are you there or far away? What holds you, makes you stay?

“Oh my darling man why worry? enjoy me while you can. Life is short, I am sweet. Give in to lust then let us sleep”.

 

Yesterday I was chatting with a female friend regarding my writing. I can’t remember how the matter arose but at some point during our conversation she mentioned that older men (in their 70’s) shouldn’t be allowed to date young women in their 20’s. Her argument was that the young women could take advantage of the lonleness and/or vulnerability of the older man. On me questioning my friend further she mentioned she found it distasteful for people with big age differences to date.

 

I hear all my friend says. However, as I said to my friend, such a relationship cuts both ways. Many older men (and women) are in possession of all their faculties and know exactly what they are letting themselves in for. Lets take the worst case scenario where a much younger woman (or man) enters into a relationship with someone considerably older than themselves in order to gain financial staibility (I.E. love does not enter into the equation). I am sure that in many such instances the older party in the relationship is well aware that their other half entertains no romantic feelings for them. However both are gaining something from the transaction. The older person is gaining companionship and (yes) other things, while the younger participant is obtaining financial security. No one’s rights are being violated. Of course if the older person is suffering from dementia and the younger party takes advantage of this fact, this is wholly immoral and downright illegal. However many older people in such relationships are in full possession of their faculties and would, quite understandably feel patronised were anyone to suggest they didn’t know what they where doing.

What about the younger participant in the relationship, can not she (or he) be exploited? Yes they can. However if the law says (as it does in the UK) that people may marry, without parental consent at 18-years-old (and at 16 with their parents consent), then on what basis can a law stopping younger people from marrying those considerably older than themselves be based? Also how old is too old? Is it OK for a lady of 21 to enter into a relationship with a man of 41? If yes is it OK for the same lady to date a man of 51? If not, why not? And were, exactly does one draw the line and on what basis?

There is, of course the possibility of genuine love. People with vast age differences can (and do) fall in love, not all such relationships are based on crude calculations of financial gain and, ultimately provided both parties are adults and compus mentus it is, no concern of anyone other than themselves how they live their lives.

To say the above is not to argue that one should never offer advice in such situations. A parent who’s 18-year-old daughter announces her intention to move in with a man in his 60’s might well feel grave apprehension and (rightly) counsel her to think extremely carefully before taking such a step. It would, however, in the final analysis be the choice of the adult woman. One can argue that 18 is to young and that the law should (as was previously the case) stipulate 21 as the age of adulthood in the UK, however unless that happens (which is extremely unlikely) we must respect the decisions of others to do as they wish in matters of relationships.

So there is no doubt in the matter I believe that relationships should, in the ideal world be based on love and friendship. However it is not my role to tell other

Pages: 1 2

Free book promotion

Leave a reply

Several of my books will be free to download in the Amazon Kindle Store as set out below. If you download any of my books it would be great if you would please consider leaving a review on Amazon and/or your own website. Alternatively, please feel free to contact me with your comments at newauthoronline (at) gmail.com. For reviews of my books please visit the below web pages or go to http://newauthoronline.com/reviews-of-my-books/ For my Amazon author page please go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY for the UK or http://www.amazon.com/K.-Morris/e/B00CEECWHY for the US.

Sting in the tail – February 28th – March 4th

A collection of short stories, many of which have an unexpected twist in the tale. The stories range from ghostly happenings through to tales of crime and moral conflict.

For the UK please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sting-tail-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00DFK6R54/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 or http://www.amazon.com/Sting-tail-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00DFK6R54/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 for the US

The Suspect – March 4th – March 8th

Tales of the unexpected, ranging from stories of crime and vengeance through to ghostly happenings in an ancient mansion.

For the UK please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Suspect-other-tales-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 or http://www.amazon.com/Suspect-other-tales-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00PKPTQ0U/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 for the US

Samantha – March 8th – March 12th

Samantha tells a story of a young girl forced into prostitution in the city of Liverpool. Can Sam’s love for Peter, a man she meets in a nightclub, save her? Or will Sam end her life in the murky waters of Liverpool’s Albert Dock?

For the UK please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samantha-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI or http://www.amazon.com/Samantha-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B00BL3CNHI for the US

An Act of Mercy – March 12th – March 16th

A collection of dark and intriguing tales encompassing blackmail, murder and sex.

For the UK please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/act-mercy-other-stories-ebook/dp/B00EHS74CS/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 or http://www.amazon.com/act-mercy-other-stories-ebook/dp/B00EHS74CS/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 for the US

Streetwalker – March 16th – March 20th

In this collection of flash fiction we meet a variety of characters, many of whom have been deeply damaged by life. The stories range from a young prostitute who walks the dangerous streets of London to tales of vengeance and comeuppance. Serious issues of abuse of power are touched upon. Anyone who is looking for a comfortable read should avoid this book.

For the UK please visit http://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Walker-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00HLRNDP4/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 or http://www.amazon.com/Street-Walker-other-stories-Morris-ebook/dp/B00HLRNDP4/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 for the US