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In the Flickering by Neetu

June 26, 2025 by in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as , , , , ,

In the Flickering

Walk me through
your cave

show me the petroglyphs
the stories
you have laboriously pecked on the walls
with your hammer stone,
carved in the light of a lantern
where shadows cast gloom.

I want to see. I want to run
my warm hands along
cold rocks to decipher forms
and feel their rugged ridges.

This light is dim. I need a better view.
Hold my hand and place it where
the scenes begin
that you have etched, with squinted eyes
by a flickering lamp.

I trace them lightly,
my fingers grow numb—
in your cave’s icy hollows
there is no echo of love,
even your stories are silent.

Are you still here or am I
alone?

(c) Neetu Malik


Some of Neetu’s Books


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MIRROR, MIRROR: A WRITER’S REFLECTION BY VERONICA JORGE

May 22, 2025 by in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as , , , ,

The painter stares at the canvas waiting for an image to appear. Patiently, he waits until a faint imprint of a landscape or a face emerges. He then grabs a brush and dabs it into the paint on his palette, making haste to reach the canvas with his brush to capture the image. The artist contrasts shade and light. He tightens or increases space. His brush moves rhythmically or scratches across the linen to make the colors and texture warm or cool. The work he renders leaves the viewer feeling airy or heavy.

That’s how I feel when I write. I stare at a blank page as though something secret lay hidden deep within the fibers and emptiness, that by patiently waiting will reveal itself to me. So I wait…until a word, a phrase, or a picture appears.

Could it be that the blank screen or journal page is a powerful mirror able to enlighten my own ideas and thoughWrite from the Heart | Veronica Jorge | A Slice of Orangets? Is it I who write on the paper; or does the paper draw out what is inside of me?

My words pour out and my hand races across the page. My mind tries to keep up with both for they seem to move of their own volition depicting moments dark and light. Paragraphs heavy laden with emotion yield and give way to joy and humor, while spacing slows or hurries the reader along.

Finished, I sit back exhausted and, ignoring my headache, I read what I wrote. Awestruck, I ask, “Where did this come from?”

My trembling fingers turn the leaf to uncover a new blank page and my sweaty palm smooths the journal sheet flat. Pen in hand, I sit ready to capture another treasure. My eyes dilate seeking and waiting for new wonders to behold.

 

See you next time on June 22nd.

 

Veronica Jorge

Books Review by Veronica 

BLACK FOOD: STORIES, ART & RECIPES FROM ACROSS THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

INCIDENT AT SAN MIGUEL

Buy now!
INCIDENT AT SAN MIGUEL

REFUGEE

Buy now!
REFUGEE

THE WITCH WHISPERER

Buy now!
THE WITCH WHISPERER
UPROOTED: THE JAPANESE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE DURING WORLD WAR II

THE ORPHANS OF BERLIN

Buy now!
THE ORPHANS OF BERLIN

DISTANT RELATIONS

Buy now!
DISTANT RELATIONS

FIVE BELLES TOO MANY

Buy now!
FIVE BELLES TOO MANY

THE ONLY ROAD

Buy now!
THE ONLY ROAD

THE LAST GOODNIGHT

Buy now!
THE LAST GOODNIGHT

MIGUEL’S BRAVE KNIGHT

Buy now!
MIGUEL’S BRAVE KNIGHT

FOUR CUTS TOO MANY

Buy now!
FOUR CUTS TOO MANY

FORGIVING MARIELA CAMACHO

Buy now!
FORGIVING MARIELA CAMACHO

FORGIVING STEPHEN REDMOND

Buy now!
FORGIVING STEPHEN REDMOND

FORGIVING MAXIMO ROTHMAN

Buy now!
FORGIVING MAXIMO ROTHMAN

MY FRIEND JACKSON

Buy now!
MY FRIEND JACKSON

THREE TREATS TOO MANY

Buy now!
THREE TREATS TOO MANY
SERIOUSLY, MOM, YOU DIDN’T KNOW?

SECRET RELATIONS

Buy now!
SECRET RELATIONS

TWO BITES TOO MANY

Buy now!
TWO BITES TOO MANY
#PLEASE SAY YES (#HermosafortheHolidays Book 1)

ONE TASTE TOO MANY

Buy now!
ONE TASTE TOO MANY

THE ALLIANCE

Buy now!
THE ALLIANCE

A DRAKENFALL CHRISTMAS

Buy now!
A DRAKENFALL CHRISTMAS
THE RELUCTANT GROOM AND OTHER HISTORICAL STORIES
THE DAY BAILEY DEVLIN PICKED UP A PENNY

THE SCRIBE OF SIENA

Buy now!
THE SCRIBE OF SIENA
THE DAY BAILEY DEVLIN’S HOROSCOPE CAME TRUE

SEVERED RELATIONS

Buy now!
SEVERED RELATIONS

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Buy now!
FOREIGN RELATIONS
WHEN PLANS GO AWRY

A BIRD WILL SOAR

Buy now!
A BIRD WILL SOAR

NEMESIS AND THE SWAN

Buy now!
NEMESIS AND THE SWAN

FLORES AND MISS PAULA

Buy now!
FLORES AND MISS PAULA

I AM FLAWSOME

Buy now!
I AM FLAWSOME

LA NOCHE BEFORE THREE KINGS DAY

Buy now!
LA NOCHE BEFORE THREE KINGS DAY

A SKY FULL OF SONG

Buy now!
A SKY FULL OF SONG
WITH OUR BELLIES FULL AND THE FIRE DYING: TALES OF SINNING AND REDEMPTION
GREEN PROMISES: GIRLS WHO LOVED THE EARTH

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MIRROR, MIRROR: A WRITER’S REFLECTION BY VERONICA JORGE

April 22, 2018 by in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as , , , ,

The painter stares at the canvas waiting for an image to appear. Patiently, he waits until a faint imprint of a landscape or a face emerges. He then grabs a brush and dabs it into the paint on his palette, making haste to reach the canvas with his brush to capture the image. The artist contrasts shade and light. He tightens or increases space. His brush moves rhythmically or scratches across the linen to make the colors and texture warm or cool. The work he renders leaves the viewer feeling airy or heavy.

That’s how I feel when I write. I stare at a blank page as though something secret lay hidden deep within the fibers and emptiness, that by patiently waiting will reveal itself to me. So I wait…until a word, a phrase, or a picture appears.

Could it be that the blank screen or journal page is a powerful mirror able to enlighten my own ideas and thoughWrite from the Heart | Veronica Jorge | A Slice of Orangets? Is it I who write on the paper; or does the paper draw out what is inside of me?

My words pour out and my hand races across the page. My mind tries to keep up with both for they seem to move of their own volition depicting moments dark and light. Paragraphs heavy laden with emotion yield and give way to joy and humor, while spacing slows or hurries the reader along.

Finished, I sit back exhausted and, ignoring my headache, I read what I wrote. Awestruck, I ask, “Where did this come from?”

My trembling fingers turn the leaf to uncover a new blank page and my sweaty palm smooths the journal sheet flat. Pen in hand, I sit ready to capture another treasure. My eyes dilate seeking and waiting for new wonders to behold.

 

See you next time on May 22nd.

 

Veronica Jorge

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Some summery covers to go with the weather

July 4, 2017 by in category Art, Cover, Design by H. O. Charles, Writing tagged as , ,

That most sumptuous of seasons is now in full swing (in the northern hemisphere, at least) – there is a big, yellow thing in the sky, Wimbledon is on, and it’s the fourth of July!

Image may contain: 1 person, meme and text

No, really, I hope you all have a wonderful day of celebrations on your side of the pond. I shall raise a beer and a punnet of strawberries in each of your respective honours, even if I cannot guarantee queenie will.

On that summery note, I’ve picked out some summery-covered new releases. I cannot comment on the content, but what unites each of these is that they are recently published, that they have a very popular feel, and are therefore designed to be picked up by holiday-makers in their masses. Let’s go ahead and judge each of these books by their covers…

Holiday in the Hamptons by [Morgan, Sarah]

 

Holiday in the Hamptons by Sarah Morgan

Summer cover checklist: palm trees, sunset, summer dress, sea view and even a lighthouse! A prerequisite of all summery covers is that they must include the colour blue, because blue skies make us happy and remind us of sunbathing, or something along those lines. Extra points go to this cover’s designer for obeying the rule of thirds.

 

 

Read, Write, Love at Seaside by Addison Cole

Aside from the colour blue, another thing you’ll find these covers have in common is the scripty style title writing. It’s a kind of code to the potential reader that says, “Hey, I’m popular, light-hearted fiction and JUST the sort of book you like to read on the beach!” What I like about this cover in particular is the way the artist has stuck to a limited palette – purple, blue and beige. It yields a much cleaner effect overall, and is visually quite satisfying. Points for including the cute dog in the beach bag, but I do hope the owner remembered to pack poo bags in there too.

 

I Wish You Happy: A Novel by [King, Kerry Anne]

 

I Wish You Happy by Kerry Anne King

Ah, some very seasonal dandelions! We’ve ventured away from the seaside, and are now running gaily through a summer field. Impressively, the character has managed to locate some fresh dandelions when all the others are expired, and hasn’t been savaged by patch of nettles and thistles, but hey, realism isn’t always quite as romantic as an artist would like. We’re back to the rule of thirds with this one, but I’m not sure I like the orange as part of the colour palette. Put it down to personal taste.

 

The Summer House: A gorgeous feel good romance that will have you hooked by [Hale, Jenny]

 

The Summer House by Jenny Hale

You know, there’s photoshopping and there’s photoshopping. Perhaps this one is supposed to look cartoony and superimposed – I’m not sure, but it does do well in communicating that it’s a light summer read for you to breeze through on your hols (and it’s currently #215 in the UK Kindle chart, so clearly that fake photoshopping is not harming its sales). We have plenty on our summer cover checklist here: blue skies, voile curtains, flowers, beach, yachts and even a phallic lighthouse. How it does go against the grain is with the lack of scripty writing in the title, and instead the artist has chosen lowercase serif in a light colour, which is a reliable standard in pop fiction. Oh yeah, and it has ‘Summer’ in the title! Dead giveaway, but helpful for Amazon search bait.

 

Summer at Buttercup Beach: A gorgeously uplifting and heartwarming romance by [Martin, Holly]

 

Summer at Buttercup Beach by Holly Martin

I challenge you to come up with a more summery title than this one! The colour palette has been limited to entirely summery colours, there’s beach, there’s sky, ferns and a deck chair. There’s nothing challenging in the image, which indicates there’s probably nothing challenging inside, either. It just screams to be added to your holiday reading collection with a happy, brainless grin upon its papery face.

So there’s my very brief summary of summery popular covers. If you want to tell your readers that popular, sunny fiction is the content of your novel, then these are the exactly the sorts of designs you should look at emulating. Now, I’m off to sit outside in the garden. Where was that beer…?

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Cover review: Half ‘n’ Half Covers

May 8, 2017 by in category Art, Cover, Design by H. O. Charles tagged as , , , ,

My eye was caught this month by these rather attractive, bipartite covers in the Thriller section:

He Said/She Said: the Sunday Times bestseller by [Kelly, Erin]My Husband the Stranger: An emotional page-turner with a shocking twist you'll never see coming by [Done, Rebecca]Two Sisters: A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist by [Wilkinson, Kerry]

What I really like about these three covers is the way they separate their titles into two halves using both contrasting colours and placement inside the background imagery.

Not only does this make a striking image, it also communicates the essence of the titles before the reader so much as thinks about the meaning of the words within them.

They tell you that there are two stories to be told, two points of view – a this and a that. Of course, the real world is not always so simple, and the stories within may not be either, but our human brain likes things to be reduced to simple statements, which is exactly what these covers are.

The great thing about this type of cover design is that it can be applied to so many novels, especially in something like the crime/thriller genre, where there is a question of innocence/guilt, or was it him/her? etc.

But the title has to work with the design. “He Said/She Said” is easy to balance and mirror, as is “My Husband the Stranger”. With “Two Sisters”, however, the designer has to forget the idea of perfect symmetry, and tie the words instead to background images that balance them out. Even though the words are different sizes, you are still left with the impression that they represent two individuals, who are likely quite contrasting in character, standing in that landscape.

So there you go – another design route to consider for your next novel!

I thought I’d also include a couple of “cover picks of the month” this time round, because they were so pretty (and tie in with what I was nattering on about last month re: minimalist titles and their covers)

 

Kin: Helga Finnsdottir Book I by [Kristjansson, Snorri] Once Cold (A Riley Paige Mystery-Book 8) by [Pierce, Blake]

 

Aren’t they pretty? And also slightly spooky?!


H. O. CharlesH.O .Charles, a cover designer and author, was born in Northern England, but now resides in a beige house in Suffolk.

Charles has spent many years at various academic institutions, and really ought to get on with writing a PhD, but frequently becomes distracted by writing fantasy fiction instead.

Hobbies include being in the sea, being by the sea and eating things that come out of the sea.

Cover designs: www.hadleighdesign.blogspot.com

Author:  www.hocharles.com

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