Cat's Call - #WordSeach Fun No.3

Cat's Call Word Search Fun!

My apologies for being a little late this week - I have trapped a nerve or strained something in the base of my neck/back (not sure which) and until today I was typing with only one hand. 😎 As you can imagine, this was not very fast.

It's Word Search Wednesday again. How do the weeks go so fast?

N.B. Don't forget, this month's competition puzzle is still open for entries until May 13th, so check it out if you haven't already.

This week I was feeling fantasy inclined so the word search is based on my book Cat's Call. This is the first book in The Chronicles of Charlie Waterman (a trilogy at the moment) and it is full of magic and shapeshifting and multiple universe and many more exciting things. It even has dragons and vampires.

Charlie is a character very close to my heart, because he was one of the first I came up with when I decided to write books professionally. I sat down one day with no idea what I was going to write at all and simply started putting words on the page. That first chapter has long since been mostly deleted and recreated, but it gave me the essence of Charlie and for that I will always be grateful.

Q. Writers - do you ever sit down and just start to write to see what happens, or do you prefer to think it all through and plan before putting words on a page?

Options for Solving

1. Click the button below and start solving online. If you create a free account with MyWordSearch.com (you only have to pay to create word searches) you can save your progress and come back later.
   
   Create account - top left of pop-up.
2. For those who prefer the old school pen and paper, click here to download the PDF so you can print it.

Solution

For those who would like to check their answers or who can't find that last word, here is the solution:

Click to open the puzzle solution in a new window.

Q. What is your favourite kind of puzzle?

Book of the Week

Cat's Call - Chronicles of Charlie Waterman Book 1

by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Charlie doesn't believe in destiny, unfortunately destiny believes in him.

Accosted by a small clay, feline figurine, Charlie finds himself the chosen of the Cat Spirit, one of the Seven Great Spirits who protect the Balance of Existence. When he wakes up with a tail that will not go away no matter how he ignores it, he has to believe what is going on is real.

At eighteen, Charlie isn't old, but he's two years past the threshold for dealing with magic for the first time, apparently. This makes him weird, even in Between, a realm of magic, prophecy and shapeshifting. He could live without the earthquakes, thanks.

So now he has to: figure out magic; get along with five scarily competent sixteen year olds and one prickly vampire to form a team; and last but not least, be prepared to go to any world, in any universe when sent there by the Seer, so the Balance of Existence isn't destroyed by agents of chaos. All of which his mentor, Akari, assures him he did say yes to, even if he doesn't remember that part!

Charlie has never thought of himself as a hero, but Existence depends on him coming to terms with the fact that he is.

       

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Easiest Way to Create a Blogger Post Template - Perfect Post Shortcut

Easiest Way to Create a Blogger Post Template

Blogger gives us many tools to help us with our blog posts to get our thoughts out there to our readers and friends. Post templates are just one of them, and they can give our blogging a useful boost.

❓What is a Blogger post template?❓

Simply put a post template is a way to add elements into a post every single time we create a new one. We can add in whatever we like:

• Footer content we want to have in every post - e.g. I have my newsletter info in my template.
• Formatting, like main title, and any banners we like to have in every post.
• A blog post structure to remind us how to create the best posts.

The possibilities are endless.

❓Why Use a Blogger post template?❓

There are 2 very simple reasons for using a post template:

1. It makes creating blog posts quicker if all the repeated bits are already there.
2. It makes out lives easier by giving us a reminder of how we want to put our posts together.

❓Where can we add a Blogger post template?❓

In the main design area menu - scroll down to the "Settings" option and click on it:

click to enlarge

Scroll down the setting until reaching "Posts" section. Within this there is an option called "Post template (optional)" - clicking on this title with bring up a pop-up where the post template may be edited.

click to enlarge

❓What should we put in the post template?❓

A post template can be as simple as some plain text that reminds us what to put where, or gives us pointers what to write, or as complex as a detailed layout with images and formatting.

1. Plain text - simply type in what is required and click save.
2. Formatted text, possibly with images and more - we will need the html to paste into the pop-up (see next section).

❓What is the easiest way to create the HTML post template?❓

The simplest and easiest way to create the exact HTML we need for our post template is to create the base post inside Blogger and simply copy and paste it.

1. Create a new post.
2. Add in all the content required for the post template as if creating a normal post in compose view.
3. Once the layout and content are complete, change to HTML view (top left in the compose menu)
   
   
   
4. Copy all the code from the HTML view.
5. Exit the post back into the main design area.
6. Go to Settings > Posts
7. Open the Post template, and paste the code into the pop-up and click save.

Now, whenever we create a new post, this template will be used and our common content will already be there for us so we don't have to copy and paste it in from anywhere else. If we decide we don't want it for a particular post we can delete or edit it as we complete the entry.

It's probably best not to have too much common content, since we don't want our readers to see a post and think "same old, same old" or Google to get spam ideas, or anything like that, but for some things it can be very useful.

Do you use a post template for your blog posts? What kind of things do you have in it? Drop a comment and LMK. 💖💖

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Dead Before Dawn - #WordSeach Fun No.2

Dead Before Dawn - Word Search Fun

As promised, it is Word Search Wednesday and I have a new puzzle for everyone to enjoy. But don't forget, last week's competition puzzle is still open for entries until May 13th, so check it out if you haven't already.

This week's word search is based on my vampire novel "Dead Before Dawn" (almost typed Dad Before Dawn - which is a whole other kind of book 😂). The book is full of actors, vampires, vampire hunters, action, adventure, romance, and life and death excitement, so lots to enjoy. It's available in paperback and eBook from Amazon, and eBook from all our other favourite book sites. See the bottom of the post for link.

The book was originally a real person fanfiction that I wrote for a Big Bang Event (a fiction exchange for long fiction where authors are paired up with artists). I liked the premise so much that I altered the setting and characters, and expanded the universe into a full original novel. I keep meaning to get round to writing the sequel. If only it would give me a clue as to how it should end 😉.

Options for Solving

1. Click the button below and start solving online. If you create a free account with MyWordSearch.com (you only have to pay to create word searches) you can save your progress and come back later.
   
   Create account - top left of pop-up.
2. For those who prefer the old school pen and paper, click here to download the PDF so you can print it.

Solution

For those who would like to check their answers or who can't find that last word, here is the solution:

Click to open the puzzle solution in a new window.

Please, let me know if you are enjoying the word searches with a comment, and if you enjoy a romantic, little bit naughty in places and exciting vampire tale, check out the book it's based on.💖

Book of the Week

Dead Before Dawn: The Vampire Curse

by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Max Statton's life will never be the same again.

While in Moscow for the premier of his new movie a terrifying encounter reveals some nightmares actually exist. Attacked by one of the city's resident vampires, Max is bitten and infected. Only a team of local vampire hunters prevent him being dragged into the violent underworld of the undead.

Fighting for his very existence, Max must resist the vampire curse with the help of Yulia, the hunter's doctor. But with his humanity slipping away, Max only has two choices: ask the hunters to end it, or risk becoming a monster.

When Yulia offers him a final, desperate, kill or cure option, Max must decide if he has the courage to take it. He wants his life back, and the idea of telling his friend and co-star, Gian Bossard, he's sort of in love with him, doesn't seem so frightening after vampires. However, Yulia's solution could just as easily send him to a worse hell than the one he's living.

       

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Newsletter

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Many Exciting Things

So much is going on at the moment. Lots of exciting stuff, so I thought I would post an update.

Youtube

I am preparing to lauch my new Youtube channel Tales with Tasha. For this one I want to have everything ready well in advance, rather than winging it even remotely and it has taken far longer than I was expecting. There are spreadsheets, lovely people, lots of spreadsheet, which make me happy because there is just something about organising things in spreadsheets that it so satisfying.

I know, peak nerd, but it feeds the part of my soul that isn't wildly chaotic author 😂.

Hannah Witton - from giphy

I'm starting it off as a fiction channel, so my first job was organising all the fiction. There will be new stories as well, but also lots of my already written stories are being given the Youtube treatment. Youtube does not like mature content, so there were some that were simply unsuitable.

I have lists that categorise everything I have ever written by:

• genre - so I can make sure there is a variety
• length - so I can decide about episodes etc
• rating - it's my own broad rating scheme: All, PGish, 12ish and Teen
• seasonality - like Christmas, Valentines or Halloween
• editing needed - Youtube is touchy about some things, so some stories needs gentle editing and others need whole scenes redoing.

and more that I will not bore you with. It's been a useful exercise in more ways than one because it includes everything, paperbacks, ebooks, online published, giveaway fiction etc, even though most of the fiction I intend to use on the channel are stories that are not the ones I have published on Amazon.

More details will be forthcoming very soon. I am almost ready to start recording!

My New Office

One of the things I need for the Youtube channel is a recording space and now I have it. 

via giphy

We had a back room we have used for storage for all the time we have lived in our house. It used to be a bedroom back in the day before we owned the house, but it was cold, dingy and full of polly boxes. The room was part of the original extension put on the house some time before 1964, but there are no records to say when. It still had its original wall paper and carpet.

My amazing, DIY-ly gifted husband has transformed it into a new office for me. It's been insulated, had a new floor on top of the old one which was drafty and not flat, had a new loft hatch put in so he can insulate the roof space too, been carpeted and decorated and had new lights.

It looks awesome, and I will post piccies, but not quite yet. Rob also heavily suggested it was time for me to have a new phone when he tried to install the ap to control my new lights and it went 'nope', because my current one is getting so old is can't run lots of things. That is arriving this week, and it has a far better camera, so I am waiting to take some piccies then 😉.

The office is now the warmest room in the house and I love it - so do the cats.

Ruby enjoying the view from the window.

Most important item of furniture in the room.

New Book

While I am working on new fiction, I also have a Word Search book in the pipeline. I was trying to think of a new way to get my other books under the noses of new readers and it struck me, that people like puzzles. So each word search is based around a book. People can have fun with the word searches and, fingers crossed, I might be able to entice a few over to my fiction books too.

I'm about halfway through creating the word searches at the moment. More spreadsheets! 😂

New Blog Content

I know I have been neglecting this blog for a while and I have plans to liven it up again. Wednesday will now be Word Search Wednesday, where I hope to entertain people with puzzles and maybe some interesting topics to go with them as well as monthly competitions. And I hope to get some more useful and fun content up as well on other days, but I am still planning that.

What kind of thing do you enjoy seeing on blogs that bring you back? Do let me know in the comments.

Love to all - hope you are doing well.💖

And don't forget to check out my on-going competition to win eBooks:

Word Search Fun to Win! Competition 1 #WPComp1Chip

Word Search Fun to Win! 

Competition 1

Welcome to my blog for my first word search competition. Now, don't worry, it's not a difficult one, I want everyone to be able to play. It's even heart shaped. I thought it might be fun to create some word searches based on my books and then give some away as competition prizes.

Depending on how many people enter there will be more winners up to a max of four, so convince your friends to enter to be in with a greater chance of winning. Each winner will receive 1 eBook of mine, of their choice, via a Smashwords coupon or a direct one-time email.

How to Enter

1. Tweet about the competition. If you don't have a twitter account see below*.
   
   
   
   
   
2. a) For those who like to complete their word searches virtually, fill in and submit your entry with the link below. PASSWORD = chip
   
   b) For those who prefer old school pen and paper, download the PDF here and follow the instructions inside.

Winners will be drawn after the competition closes on May 13th 2021.

* For those who do not have a twitter account, please share this blog post on another form of social media or your blog and drop a comment below with a link to where. Something like this:

Word Search Fun to Win! https://bit.ly/3uPrB9Q Solve online or offline and enter to win ebooks.

Book of the Day

Chip Off the Old Block?

Dawn of the Antichrist ... maybe.

Paranormal Romance, Humour

Short Story

The Anti-Christ is coming!

His name is Owen.

Well technically it's Beherit, but that's so last millennium. Aspiring to world domination is just around the corner and his simple life of school is coming to an end ... which is kind of the problem. His best friend David, the local vicar's son, will no longer be there and that makes Owen feel things he doesn't understand. What else is a boy to do, but ask his dad what it all means, even if that dad has horns and his eye on the corruption of humankind?

Will Owen figure out what he's feeling for David, or will his dad throw a sacrificial dagger in the works? Find out in this short erotic, comedy horror.

       

This is one of my FREE titles.

Rules

1. No entries will be accepted after May 13th 2021.
2. Winner(s) will be drawn at random from correct entries.
3. Participants may enter as many times as they wish, but only one correct entry will be entered into  the draw per person - e.g. if you submitted accidentally online without completing the whole word search, submitting a second time with the whole thing completed is fine. Likewise, for the PDF version. But all entry steps must be completed for each submission as shown above.

Writers & Writing - #WordSearch Fun! #1

Writers & Writing - Word Search Fun!

I have recently rediscovered my love for words searches. They combine my love of words with my need to solve things. Imagine my joy when I discovered there are lovely people like MyWordSeach.com who provide a service to allow people like me to not only create their own word searches, but also embed them into blog posts to allow them to be played online with a device of choice.

Hands up who loves words too?

For word search #1 I had to choose the topic closest to many of our hearts, writers and writing. This one isn't too complicated - 25 words and a big grid to break us all in gently.

Options for Solving

1. Click the button below to solve online.
2. For old school print out and solve with a pen - click here for the PDF to download and print.

Drop me a comment and let me know if you enjoyed the word search and if you would like to see more. Was it about the right level? Too easy, too hard? Any other topics you would enjoy seeing used to inspire the words?

Check back often for more fun puzzles, competitions and other exciting content.

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Solution

For those who would like to check their answers or who can't find that last word, here is the solution.

Click here to open the solution to this puzzle in a new window.

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Check out my books

My books are available from all the major eBook sellers, with some novels and anthologies also available in paperback from Amazon. Several of my short stories are free, so pick a couple up to check out my writing and then come back for the other books in the series 😉. Thank you.

I lean towards the speculative fiction end of the spectrum, so fantasy (paranormal, contemporary & epic), science fiction, and horror, often with a side of romance, many featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

  

If you enjoy spicier stories I also have an alter ego Virginia for the podcast and ebooks of The Manor - a paranormal romance and adventure series - VirginiaWaytes.com