Calling Book Bloggers & Aspiring Writers

I am very blessed to be doing the thing I love most in the world - working with books and literature, in a company that shares my vision and ethos. At Jacaranda Books I am currently managing my own list (I know, so exciting!) which affords me two great privileges: 1. to share the books I love with all you wonderful readers and 2. to provide opportunities to great writers.

So first, to the readers. This month will see us publish The Colour Black by Maia Walczak and I am seeking bloggers and book reviewers to interview, write about and hold competitions and giveaways.

A unique take on the American road novel, The Colour Black is the story of a talented, colour-blind, feisty young woman Silvia Cruz. Silvia lives a quiet but comfortable existence in San Diego as an artist, drawing abstracts and nudes. Then  comes Jack; free-spirited, athletic and a lawyer with a love for wild swimming, he is different from her other models, and though resistant to love or meaningful relationships, Silvia soon finds herself drawn to him.

Five of my Favourite Love Poems

Few things express love more beautifully than poetry. For this reason I have dedicated this blog to a few of my favourite love poems. What I wouldn’t give to have a man compose something as beautiful as those below just for me: some things just cannot be bought. Enjoy!

My Love is Like to Ice

My Love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
But harder grows the more her I entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold,
Should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.

Edmund Spenser

Classic Songs On Love and Romance

Inspired by the season of love and romance, I have decided to share with you what I consider to be some of the most romantic, beautiful, artistic songs on love and romance. Some you will know, some you may not, some you'll adore and some you'll hate. I'm very interested to hear your opinions, so please feel free to coment. And so in no particular order here are my ten favourite love songs:

Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers

Love songs don't get much better than this; it never fails to put tingles down my spine. What a voice, what lyrics, so sad, so sweet. The song was originally produced in 1955 for as the theme for a movie called 'Unchained' about a man condemned to prison, calling for his loved one. There have been many versions since that time, it is one of the most covered songs, but this 1965 version by the Righteous Brothers is a clear cut above the rest. 

I'm Kissing You  - Des'ree

From the I saw the movie Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo di 'Caprio I have been unable to get this song out of my head. Des'ree has incredible vocals in this song. It is simultaneously one of the most tragic and beautiful songs I have heard.

All The Man That I Need - Whitney Houston

She may have gone through troublesome times, but Whitney Houston is still a legend. There are so many of her songs I could choose but this one is beautiful, a booster for the men in our lives. And the voice, let's face it, there aren't many really talented vocalists these days, let alone anyone who measures up to this.

Belated Burns’ Night Dedication

I am a day late, but I could not let this time pass without marking it somehow. As many, if not all, of us know, last night, January 25^th, was Burns’ Night. A special night that marks the anniversary of one of the most poetically romantic and lyrically gifted poets I have ever read, and one of my first favourites. He is also Scotland’s national poet, famous for Auld Lang Syne which is traditionally sung in the UK by many to mark the New Year.

I am going to make this post a short one, only to write here what is my all-time favourite poem/ song from Robert Burns, one of his better known, and one that touches me every time I hear it or read it. It is also one of the first poems I ever learnt by memory and sums up what Robert Burns means to me, what his name evokes; I think it is gorgeous.

I leave you with My Love is Like A Red, Red Rose

My love is like a red, red rose
that's newly sprung in June.
My love is like the melody,
that's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
so deep in love am I:
And I will love thee still, my dear,
till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
and the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will love thee still, my dear,
while the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare the weel, my only love,
and fare the weel a while!
And I will come again, my love,
tho’ it were ten thousand mile

Review – The Sage and the Scarecrow by Daniel Clausen

 It’s the early hours of the morning, around 3 a.m., and here I am all emotional writing a review of the novel that I just completed because the ending was just so incredible and it just rounded up the whole journey that the book had taken me on in a way I wasn’t expecting, so that I hadn’t noticed the journey until I reached my destination. The novel? The Sage and the Scarecrow by Daniel Clausen, an independent and highly talented author from Florida. Here is the synopsis of the book:

Six months after his father has died from cancer, Pierce Williams find himself in a deep state of ennui. The book follows the main character through a journey from his college, where everything seems dismal and empty, to a small town on the east coast of Florida to find his best friend, Jennifer, and the only person he thinks can “cure” him. Touching on themes such as the existential pain of thinking too much, love, and the politics of everyday life, Pierce’s journey takes him through the struggle and boredom of college life as he attempts to discover his place in the world, climaxing with an ending as uniquely original and unexpected as the story itself.