We went to Normandy two years ago. Here's a picture of the castle - it looks rather like a 'Dornröslein Schloss' - unfortunately we couldn't get any closer, but this is a better picture of the ruin.
Wednesday 27 February 2013
We went to Normandy two years ago. Here's a picture of the castle - it looks rather like a 'Dornröslein Schloss' - unfortunately we couldn't get any closer, but this is a better picture of the ruin.
There is a possibility that 'Izevel' will be published here in Germany soon. The other books in the series have been taken on by the Bibellesebund Verlag, and I heard at the beginning of the year that 'Izevel' has a good chance of getting published in German too. I should know by Pesach. (I won't give that Babylonian festival its heathen name. ;))
Over the last two years I've been so busy teaching Business English in various companies around town that I've had virtually no time for writing, which, unfortunately pays less than teaching. But I have my eye on a German publisher who might be interested in publishing 'Raclette and the Siege of Mont d'Or'. I just need to tweak something first. The covering letter is all ready!
Over the last two years I've been so busy teaching Business English in various companies around town that I've had virtually no time for writing, which, unfortunately pays less than teaching. But I have my eye on a German publisher who might be interested in publishing 'Raclette and the Siege of Mont d'Or'. I just need to tweak something first. The covering letter is all ready!
Monday 6 December 2010
Encouraging
Over a thousand copies sold and climbing. Second printing definite. The publisher wants me to write another one - not yet clear what about. Just heard from a person with a youth group in Reutlingen who are going to order some copies. Another friend wrote: "After only the first twenty pages I can't help but feel awe because of the tons of research and historical knowledge that must have gone into this project."
And another dear person wrote an Amazon.co.uk review...
"The author has chosen a very dark period in Israel's history and explored what happens when people turn their backs on God, and begin worshipping other idols.
Prolonged occult practices sanctioned by the royal family of the day had a far reaching and devastating effect on the whole nation as well as other surrounding countries.
Chamberlayne also shows clearly how God's mercy and grace is lavishly poured out when the King turns away from his evil ways and seeks to rebuild a godly foundation for his people.
This book can be enjoyed by adults and young teens alike regardless of whether they're Christian or not.
Would definitely recommend."
Prolonged occult practices sanctioned by the royal family of the day had a far reaching and devastating effect on the whole nation as well as other surrounding countries.
Chamberlayne also shows clearly how God's mercy and grace is lavishly poured out when the King turns away from his evil ways and seeks to rebuild a godly foundation for his people.
This book can be enjoyed by adults and young teens alike regardless of whether they're Christian or not.
Would definitely recommend."
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Thursday 7 October 2010
Raclette - Possibility of a German Publisher?
I know a wonderful person, a professional translater and dolmetscher, who offered to start translating 'Raclette and the Siege of Mont d'Or' into German a few years ago, as practise for her exams. Now she's fully qualified and bless her, is carrying on when she has time. Today I heard from another friend, whose wife works for a German publisher, who said that if I needed anything being published in German, I should let him have it. So I sent him the first three chapters of Raclette - in translation, this morning. No telling what will happen, but you never know.
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Do birds love to fly?
It's only twelve days to go before my book is published. It looks so weird when I read that. From over a year to publication date; it seems such a long time. It's not the first book - the first was published in Germany in 2004, but this is the first in the UK, and therefore special, to me, at least.
When I was nine, my grandmother had a poem, which I had written in a creative writing lesson, entered into a national poetry competition and subsequently published. She wrote in the accompanying letter, 'This is your beginning as a published author.` She always believed I could do it, even though I had little self-confidence. I'll always be grateful for her. She was the first who planted the dream-seeds in my heart. Dream-seeds which just need time and faith to germinate, grow and produce fruit. I held on to what she had given me and 37 years later they're bearing fruit.
No-one else can make your dreams come true, only you can. There have been a number of people who have played an important role in my life, who didn't believe that writing was what I ought to be doing. They thought that I should be concentrating on things which they thought were important. This is because these people were legalistic and lacked imagination. They couldn't help it - they were taught to be that way by others, but it put a damper on me for a while, until I was able to break free of their control and decided that I didn't need their approval to do what I knew was real to me.
There were a few people who encouraged me - Judith, Lou, Anke and Guido immediately spring to mind, and if they ever read this, they should know that I will always be grateful to them, and always remember them for it.
Why do I want to write? That's like asking, 'Why do you want to breathe?' How can I not write? It's how I'm made. I wrote and illustrated stories for my siblings and cousin when I was little, I was always writing snippets of stories on scraps of paper, which I still have, and I have books of poetry hidden away, just as you have. I'm nobody special and what I write is of little consequence in a world which is full of books and important, clever authors. But I've been given a bit of the creative spark, and I LOVE writing! So how can I not?
OK, write, you might say. But why do you want to get published? Why do you want other people to read what you write? Isn't that egotistical? Am I egocentric to be writing this blog? Probably. Why not just write it in a private diary? Why give other people the chance to read it? I don't know. It's kind of fun to see it online, I guess. Plus it's a chance to have contact with others - build friendships across the ether, perhaps. And I have a fire burning in my heart - a message, which I long to communicate to others, in whatever way I can. Books are one way. So this is the way I'm made, and writing makes me 'come alive', to quote John Eldredge, so that's what I do, because I love doing it. I wonder if birds enjoy flying?
I write for children and teens, but they have to be stories which adults like too. In fact, I think that the best stories written for children and teens will appeal to all ages, because they have something timeless about them. I keep reading Tolkein, Jane Austen and other authors for the same reason. C.S. Lewis said that he liked writing the stories which he would like to read himself. I think that's what every author must think, although, having written a book, and gone to all that work, I feel it's rather boring to have to read it all through again. I've lost count of the number of times I've read what I've written.
Anyway, my ten complimentary copies should be arriving any day soon, and those encouraging folks are going to get their signed copy, for what it's worth.
When I was nine, my grandmother had a poem, which I had written in a creative writing lesson, entered into a national poetry competition and subsequently published. She wrote in the accompanying letter, 'This is your beginning as a published author.` She always believed I could do it, even though I had little self-confidence. I'll always be grateful for her. She was the first who planted the dream-seeds in my heart. Dream-seeds which just need time and faith to germinate, grow and produce fruit. I held on to what she had given me and 37 years later they're bearing fruit.
No-one else can make your dreams come true, only you can. There have been a number of people who have played an important role in my life, who didn't believe that writing was what I ought to be doing. They thought that I should be concentrating on things which they thought were important. This is because these people were legalistic and lacked imagination. They couldn't help it - they were taught to be that way by others, but it put a damper on me for a while, until I was able to break free of their control and decided that I didn't need their approval to do what I knew was real to me.
There were a few people who encouraged me - Judith, Lou, Anke and Guido immediately spring to mind, and if they ever read this, they should know that I will always be grateful to them, and always remember them for it.
Why do I want to write? That's like asking, 'Why do you want to breathe?' How can I not write? It's how I'm made. I wrote and illustrated stories for my siblings and cousin when I was little, I was always writing snippets of stories on scraps of paper, which I still have, and I have books of poetry hidden away, just as you have. I'm nobody special and what I write is of little consequence in a world which is full of books and important, clever authors. But I've been given a bit of the creative spark, and I LOVE writing! So how can I not?
OK, write, you might say. But why do you want to get published? Why do you want other people to read what you write? Isn't that egotistical? Am I egocentric to be writing this blog? Probably. Why not just write it in a private diary? Why give other people the chance to read it? I don't know. It's kind of fun to see it online, I guess. Plus it's a chance to have contact with others - build friendships across the ether, perhaps. And I have a fire burning in my heart - a message, which I long to communicate to others, in whatever way I can. Books are one way. So this is the way I'm made, and writing makes me 'come alive', to quote John Eldredge, so that's what I do, because I love doing it. I wonder if birds enjoy flying?
I write for children and teens, but they have to be stories which adults like too. In fact, I think that the best stories written for children and teens will appeal to all ages, because they have something timeless about them. I keep reading Tolkein, Jane Austen and other authors for the same reason. C.S. Lewis said that he liked writing the stories which he would like to read himself. I think that's what every author must think, although, having written a book, and gone to all that work, I feel it's rather boring to have to read it all through again. I've lost count of the number of times I've read what I've written.
Anyway, my ten complimentary copies should be arriving any day soon, and those encouraging folks are going to get their signed copy, for what it's worth.
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Izevel, Queen of Darkness
Very thrilled to report that my second book, 'Izevel, Queen of Darkness' will be published in October by Scripture Union, as part of their 'Dark Chapters' series under the pseudonym Kate Chamberlayne.
Have really enjoyed writing this. Just researching the book was fascinating and taught me a huge amount.
For example, that the ancients used opium, which was traded from Sumer, Assyria, Babylon etc from 3,400 BC.
That Ahav's ivory palace in Shomrom (Samaria) described in 1 Kings 22:39, was discovered. That the ancients frequented baths which were attached to brothels, in which newborn babies were murdered. Nothing new under the sun. Much like convents being used as brothels and the resulting babies killed and thrown into limepits. The Queen of Heaven has always demanded such evil sacrifices.
In 1921 the largest cemetery of sacrificed infants in the ancient Near East was discovered at Carthage. It is well established that this rite of child sacrifice originated in Phoenicia, ancient Israel's northern neighbor, and was brought to Carthage by its Phoenician colonizers. Hundreds of burial urns filled with the cremated bones of infants, mostly newborns but even some children up to age six years old, as well as animals have been uncovered at Carthage.
They were buried there between the 8th century B.C. and the fall of Carthage during the third Punic War in 146 B.C. On the burial monuments that sometimes accompanied the urns, there was often inscribed the name or symbol of the goddess Tanit, the main Phoenician female deity, and her consort Ba'al Hammon.' Infants and children were regularly sacrificed to this divine couple.
The meaning of the name 'Jezebel' - 'where is the Prince?' which comes from the Ugaritic prayer wailed by the goddess of fertility, the Queen of Heaven, Anat, when lamenting her brother/husband Baal's descent into the Underworld.
'Jezebel' can also mean 'without co-habitation', and just the addition of one letter 'a' at the beginning, as a pun, transforms it to 'Where is the dung?'
The history and significance of Tyre, is fascinating; as one of the most influential of Phoenician city states in the ancient world - whose ruling King and spirit Ba'al Melqart (Hercules) behind him, were described by Ezekiel in such a way as to point out that the Ba'al was another name for the Usurper of the name of the Messiah, 'Morning Star', translated by Jerome in the 3rd century in the Latin vernacular as 'Lucifer'.
Have really enjoyed writing this. Just researching the book was fascinating and taught me a huge amount.
For example, that the ancients used opium, which was traded from Sumer, Assyria, Babylon etc from 3,400 BC.
That Ahav's ivory palace in Shomrom (Samaria) described in 1 Kings 22:39, was discovered. That the ancients frequented baths which were attached to brothels, in which newborn babies were murdered. Nothing new under the sun. Much like convents being used as brothels and the resulting babies killed and thrown into limepits. The Queen of Heaven has always demanded such evil sacrifices.
In 1921 the largest cemetery of sacrificed infants in the ancient Near East was discovered at Carthage. It is well established that this rite of child sacrifice originated in Phoenicia, ancient Israel's northern neighbor, and was brought to Carthage by its Phoenician colonizers. Hundreds of burial urns filled with the cremated bones of infants, mostly newborns but even some children up to age six years old, as well as animals have been uncovered at Carthage.
They were buried there between the 8th century B.C. and the fall of Carthage during the third Punic War in 146 B.C. On the burial monuments that sometimes accompanied the urns, there was often inscribed the name or symbol of the goddess Tanit, the main Phoenician female deity, and her consort Ba'al Hammon.' Infants and children were regularly sacrificed to this divine couple.
The meaning of the name 'Jezebel' - 'where is the Prince?' which comes from the Ugaritic prayer wailed by the goddess of fertility, the Queen of Heaven, Anat, when lamenting her brother/husband Baal's descent into the Underworld.
'Jezebel' can also mean 'without co-habitation', and just the addition of one letter 'a' at the beginning, as a pun, transforms it to 'Where is the dung?'
The history and significance of Tyre, is fascinating; as one of the most influential of Phoenician city states in the ancient world - whose ruling King and spirit Ba'al Melqart (Hercules) behind him, were described by Ezekiel in such a way as to point out that the Ba'al was another name for the Usurper of the name of the Messiah, 'Morning Star', translated by Jerome in the 3rd century in the Latin vernacular as 'Lucifer'.
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