Tag Archives: reading

Myths and Magic: Saffy’s Secret Quest

My thanks goes to Kevin, who has kindly agreed to take part in my blog tour. Without people like Kevin, it’s so hard to get news of your book out there. So it’s greatly appreciated. And he’s my first stop!

So today, I’d like to bring you news about my second children’s book. It’s due out on the 28th May this year but it’s now available for pre-order. It’s book two in the Saffy’s Secret Quest Series, which I’ve written for 5-7 year olds. Here’s a little bit more about Myths and Magic:

The Blurb:

Saffy has solved the first clue in her quest to save the magical world of Mandoreum from danger. Now it’s time to find the second. 

She isn’t alone. Her new friend, Lily, a dragon from Mandoreum, wants to help. Together they take a trip and uncover special stories and unexpected surprises.

But Saffy soon learns that first appearances are not always what they seem. And plotting in the background is a witch who will do everything she can to stop them…

Opening extract:

Saffy Berry smiled and winked at the little dragon statue on her dressing table. And the statue winked back!

The statue was, in fact, Lily – a real dragon from a magical world called Mandoreum. Lily needed Saffy’s help. Narla, the Queen of the Witches, had stolen Fairy Godfather Freddie’s wand and cast an evil spell, taking away all of Mandoreum’s magic and beauty. But, just before she was able to do so, the Fairy Godfather had managed to cast a counter-spell.

“Lily, I don’t know what we’re going to do.” Saffy’s smile faded as she thought about the counter-spell. She and Lily had to find six clues about dragons in the human world – jewels, a book, play, castle, colour book and toy. As Saffy had discovered, they needed to be solved in order. They had already found the first one, the jewels, which turned out to be two of her necklaces.

The second was a book and, if they succeeded in finding all the clues, Narla would be banished from Mandoreum forever and the magical world would be restored.

“I’ve looked through every single one of my books.” Saffy pointed over to her bookcase, then thought of her annoying younger brother. “And Harry’s books too. All the dragon pictures that should be there aren’t. Instead, the dragons have changed into knights, elves, princes – everything you can think of except a dragon.”

She felt as if she had been searching for ages and yet it had only been yesterday that they had solved the first clue.

Lily thumped her stump of a tail on the dressing table. Saffy knew her tail had once been long and elegant, so she could steer herself gracefully through the air, but that was before Narla’s spell. She looked at her new friend, feeling her frustration. The little dragon had been so excited when they worked out the first clue. Poor Lily’s skin had been covered in bald patches and her scales were hanging down. When they found the necklaces, the scales all came back, and shone once more. And the cracks in Mandoreum’s castle walls mended.

But Lily still had fluffy white balls of cotton wool instead of claws. She didn’t have any teeth, her wings were broken and she couldn’t even breathe the tiniest flame. Of course, she also had that tiny tail – all because of Narla.

If they couldn’t find the book, Mandoreum would remain dull. There wouldn’t be any

flowers, trees or green grass. But, worse than that, Lily, and everyone in Mandoreum, would be the way Narla had left them. Forever.

Author bio:

Esther has been a freelance writer for over twenty-five years, regularly writing articles and short stories for magazines and newspapers such as Writers’ Forum, Writing Magazine, The Guardian, Best of British, The Cat, This England, Yours and The People’s Friend.  

Winner of several competitions, including those run by Writing Magazine and The Global Short Story Contest, she has also had the privilege of judging writing competitions and relished being given the role of head judge of the Writers’ Forum monthly short story competition.

Esther loves writing but equally enjoys helping others, which she achieves in her role as a tutor for The Writers Bureau. Always on the lookout for a new challenge, she is taking the distance learning college over at the end of July.

She has had two how-to books on writing published, with a third due out later this year, as well as two collections of short stories. Her second children’s book is coming out in May, where she writes under the name of Esther Moonstomp.

Blogs: https://estherchilton.co.uk

https://esthermoonstomp.co.uk

 

Buying links:

UK: Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Myths-Magic-Saffys-Secret-Quest/dp/1806342103

Ebook: details to be released.

US: details to be released.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Publishing Venture

I have some exciting news! With my friend, Alice Liddell, I have established a publishing company.

 

We have just produced our first book, a collection entitled Mirror Verses. The work consists of a series of poems all of which must be read by holding the book up-side-down. There are other publications in the pipeline including a collection penned by a shy young lady (who wishes to remain nameless) who composed a fine collection of flash fiction whilst nude in hotel rooms.

 

At present Hatters and Hares Publishers Ltd does not have a webpage. However, for further information please do ask.

 

Let Children Learn our Best Verse

A good and interesting article in the Spectator, entitled Let Children Learn our Best Verse, Let children learn our best verse | The Spectator

 

The Second World War Had It’s Poets too

As pointed out in this article, https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-second-world-war-had-its-poets-too/, the poets of the First World War are better known than those of World War II. I am, however, familiar with several of the poets (Keith Douglas for example) mentioned in this article. I shall certainly be adding this book to my books to be read list.

How to Revive Our Reading Habits

An interesting article on how to revive our reading culture, in which the author argues that it is all to easy to blame technology when other factors are at work. To read the article please visit https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how-to-revive-our-reading-culture/

The Suspected Literary Criminal

Burglar Caught in Rome Mid-Heist While Taking a Break to Read Homer’s The Iliad

Its heartening to know that there exist those of a literary bent in the criminal community!

To be serious for a moment. If this (suspected)thief is convicted, and whilst imprisoned develops his love of literature,  it is to be hoped that he will “sin no more” on his release from jail.

Some years back, (before Covid), I visited Brixton prison with friends to eat in the restaurant run by some of the prisoners. The idea behind the restaurant was to teach the prisoners skills so they could obtain gainful employment on their release into the community. Whilst the preparation of food is not the same as developing a love of the written word, hopefully our (alleged) literary thief will, if found guilty,  develop his skills in a direction other than house breaking whilst in prison.

For anyone interested in the Clink charity which runs the restaurant in Brixton prison, you can find out more here Brixton – The Clink Charity : The Clink Charity

A 5 Star Review of my Poetry Collection, “The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems”

I was pleased to receive this 5 star review of my recently published collection, “The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems”:

“… The poems in this short but sweet collection cover myriad topics in a variety of styles. Some are about churchyards while others are about humans and animals. My favorite is “Going to Hell in a Hand Cart,” a perfect way to end the book. If you like straightforward, entertaining poetry, this book is for you.”

 

(To read the review in full please visit Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems).

A 4 Star Review of My Collection “The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems”

I was delighted to receive the following 4 star review of my collection of poetry, “The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems” on Goodreads:

“This is a collection of almost 70 short poems. Most are reflections on mortality and the inevitability of death. Many compare human life to physical phenomena that do not experience death, or to nature, which transcends it. Weather and seasons are mentioned often, both as background and symbol …”.

(The full review can be found here Audrey Driscoll’s review of The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems (goodreads.com)  The review is also on Amazon here Contemplations of Mortality (amazon.ca)

K Morris New Collection of Poetry “The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems” is available on Amazon.

I am delighted to announce that my collection of poems “The Churchyard Yew and Other Poems” is available on Amazon in Kindle format. The Paperback should be available in the next couple of days, and I will post links to it once the book goes live.

 

The photograph on the book cover shows the churchyard of St John the Evangelists Church in Upper Norwood. The photograph was taken by my friend Michelle Whiteside.

The book description reads as follows:

A miscellany of poems about nature, passing time and relationships.

If you read “The Churchyard Yew” please do consider reading a review on Amazon.

For the UK

For the US