Cathie Dunn writes...

Welcome to the brand-new Ocelot Press Book of the Month ! Each month, we will focus on one particular Ocelot Press publication.  This month it is Sue Barnard ’s romantic intrigue The Unkindest Cut of All , the action of which takes place over one week in March, during an amateur dramatic society’s production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Here’s the blurb: BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH… Brian Wilmer is God’s gift to amateur dramatics – and he knows it.  So when the Castlemarsh Players take the ambitious decision to stage Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, there is only one man who can play the title role – even though Brian’s posturing “prima donna” attitude has, over the years, won him few friends and many foes. Rehearsals progress apace, and the production draws ever closer.  But when another member of the cast has to drop out due to illness, local journalist Sarah Carmichael (a stalwart of the Players’ backstage crew) suddenly finds herself called upon to step into the breach a...

Today, I'm delighted to welcome my friend Sue Barnard – terrific author, award-winning poet, and editor extraordinaire – to my blog. Her wonderful novella, Never on Saturday , is released through  Ocelot Press today.  Over to Sue to tell us more about Never on Saturday !  Today (15th December 2020), a new title joins the Ocelot Press catalogue.  Never on Saturday is a timeslip romance novella with a hint of mystery and a touch of the paranormal.  It is set partly in medieval France and partly in present-day North Wales, and is based on an old French legend. Unfortunately I can’t be more specific at this stage about the legend itself, as that would give away too much about the story.   Blurb: Two stories, two heartbreaks: one past, one present… Leaving her native France and arriving in North Wales as a postgraduate student of History and Folklore, Mel is cautiously optimistic that she can escape from her troubled past and begin a new and happier lif...

I’m so excited.  Today is the day when Doorways to the Past is published. ~happy dance~ A collection of short stories and character interviews by five Ocelot Press authors – Sue Barnard , Vanessa Couchman , Nancy Jardine , Jennifer C. Wilson , and me – with a foreword by our newest Ocelot, Yvonne Marjot , Doorways to the Past takes you on a journey encompassing 2,000 years! My own contributions are an interview with Nanthild from Love Lost in Time, and a short story linked to Dark Deceit, with the Empress Matilda (literally) walking on thin ice. But I do love all the other stories and interviews. So many fascinating characters, and you can get a real sense of the times they (fictionally or really) inhabited. If you're around later on this afternoon, 5pm-7pm UK time, 6pm-8pm CET, and 1pm-3pm EST, then stop by at our virtual launch event on Facebook where you can win some great prizes! Just click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/372655283704981/...

Today, we have a special treat in store for you at My Place: Wuthering Heights , the dark, weather-beaten setting for Emily Brontë ’s classic novel of the same name. My author friend Sue Barnard has recently published a beautiful novel, Heathcliff – The Unanswered Questions Finally Answered? , in which she explores the years of young Heathcliff’s absence from Wuthering Heights, and his subsequent return. Well worth a read! So off to Wuthering Heights we go. Over to Sue... ~~~ WITHERING TOPS? “Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr Heathcliff’s dwelling, ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed; one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if ...

Today, I welcome the lovely Sue Barnard to My Place. Not only is Sue a highly talented writer, she's also a history nut (sound familiar?) - and she studied Italian and French, two languages I love. :-) Sue's novel, The Ghostly Father , tells an alternative story to Romeo & Juliet , the world's most famous – and most tragic – romance. Today, she's telling us more about them, and their city of Verona... ~~~ Roman Arena Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life, Whose misadventured, piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents’ strife… Shakespeare So begins William Shakespeare’s tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet, the story for which the city of Verona is justly famous.   In fact, more than one-third of Shakespea...