Rory Pitch - For ABNA

Sixteen-year-old Archer's medieval village is under threat from a parallel world: modern-day England. His orders are clear. Travel. Investigate. Report back.

His assigned foster home is a nightmare. The other boys strive to break his spirit using his bow - they have no idea they are dealing with a trained warrior. His courage prevails: he teaches them honour, integrity and archery; they teach him how to get in trouble with the authorities. The result is a new foster home where he is faced with a far worse torment. Girls.

Pink-haired Mandy fancies him, but he dislikes her aggression. Twelve-year-old Rory fancies him too, but he protects her like a little sister. When Mandy finds them in his bedroom doing algebra, she threatens to tell. Archer has a choice: submit to her blackmail or get kicked out. Again. She lures him into a gang of teenage shoplifters led by a vicious thug. Rory’s detective skills reveal their scam, but Archer needs every ounce of inner strength to survive when even his friends betray him. Before he can save his village, Archer must save himself.

RORY is a “fish-out-of-water” tale where one teen’s spirit changes the world around him.

Radio 2's 500 words competition

Well, this is my third year as a first round judge for this wonderful competition and this year, I'm taking Chris Evan's advice and going out into schools promoting the competition and running workshops for the children.
The poor teachers don't know what hit them when a cloaked old lady transforms into a wicked witch who picks a hair from one unsuspecting child and casts a spell on the whole class/school.

 There are definitely some askance looks when she turns into the Lady Rowanna, complete with sword and dagger, who revokes the spell and rescues the class.
Having got their attention, they are fascinated by the array of magical objects they can listen to, feel, smell and even lick! Ewww!
A couple of the schools have asked me back for a second session dealing with how to edit their master pieces, not quite as entertaining, but we soon find any excuse to have them up the front practising their acting talents as they deliver the same line in two different ways and the rest of the class has to guess what the tag line might say. Genius.
It's so cool when they show me their stories - there's some real talent out there and I'm privileged to be a part of it.

This one's a little trickier:

Now I’m getting really tricksy - must be the math teacher in me. Marianna at the wonderful Happy Glastonbury bookshop created this interview of me talking in my (not so) cute British accent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtCnq1hm5VM

Have a look at the video and answer one of these questions.
Don’t forget to leave a comment so I know you’ve visited.

Q1 What is the name of Hengist’s brother? Vortigern, Horsa, Thanet.

Q2 What type of settlers were they? Viking, Roman, Saxon.

Q3 What animal is on the flag of Kent? White Horse, White Lion, White Elephant.

Have fun - but don't laugh too loud - it was all done in one take with no script.

Cheers

Jacky

 xxx

Indie Authors Love-in

Hi Guys,
If you've come here from the Indie Author love-in looking for answers:

To win a copy of Archer, you can go to: https://www.facebook.com/HengistPeopleOfTheHorse, like it and tell me one of the ingredients of the Harmonious Mix.

Or go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDltCp6GobI,
leave a comment there and tell me one of the lines of text in the trailer (apart from the first one – Be Brave, Be Worthy).

Or read the post above this one - when it appears.

Have fun

Jacky ♥♥♥

Interviewing the cast

I have seen this done on various websites and thought it seemed like fun. I actually wrote this a long while ago, then it got buried in amongst a load of school work. I just found it amidst a huge clean-up of my over-stuffed bureau - it's a work in progress, but I'm 80% there now. Here's a taster - to read the full thing, go to cast interview (just after the map).

Tale-teller: So Archer, you are the favourite to win the sporting round – is it going to be easy?

Archer: Not at all. No-one can touch Finn on the back of a horse and Beorn’s a master with the sword.

Tale-teller: Your skill with the bow and arrow is known all over Oxford – I hear that Gaelic Sound even wrote a song about it.

Archer: The song was about Finn and Fletch too. All three of us went to meet the Oxford Bowman but it got dangerous when we met the Renegates.

Tale-teller: But they called it Archer, Son of Sedge. Never mind, I can see you are embarrassed by it. Can you guess who will be in the final?

Archer: Gosh that’s a hard one. There’s no one as good as Fletch in the Worthy round – except maybe Machin – he has a really show-stealing invention. Tybalt’s craft entry is going to be hard to beat and any one of the Warriors could go through – we’re all evenly matched.

Tale-teller: But only you and Finn are jousting – it’s unusual to see juniors involved in this sport.

Archer: I know, but Professor Niall said we were ready and we want to honour his decision.

Tale-teller: Thank you Archer. Fletch, who would you bet on?

Fletch: Me obviously. I can sing, dance, fight and nobody knows more about King Richard than me.

Tale-teller: I like your confidence. Who will you be facing in the final?

Fletch: Archer obviously from the Warriors. Tybalt's the strongest Magi, but he’s not so good when it comes to the sporting rules so I will best him on the knowledge round.

Happy New Year

Apparently there's all manner of superstitions about bad luck if you wish someone glad tidings for the new year after the 12th night, but seein' as how I make my own luck, it doesn't apply to me.

Well that was a festive season and a half! I drove 1800 miles picking up/dropping off my wonderful offspring and visiting friends and family for Yule and Chrismas festivities.
Some of the highlights were:

• being attuned to Reiki One (with my dear friend Sarah) by my talented auntie Lynne; 
• supping soup and ale by a roasting fire in a picturesque pub in Coniston; 
• early snowfall on the hills surrounding Castlerigg stone circle, 
• sunset on Glastonbury Tor on the eve of the winter solstice, 
• greeting the sun in Avebury sun circle on solstice morning (many thanks to the Archdruid and Crone of Avebury for making us welcome); 

• singing Christmas carols in the magnificent grounds of Warwick castle 
• and best of all sharing several fantastic feasts with my fabulous family. 

2014 had such a great start, it has a lot to live up to, but with the digit sum of 7, I'm sure it's equal to the task.

Is it really that time already?

Four girls as daft as me!

My how the year has flown. I'm just creating the annual newsletter to send out to friends/relatives - ok I realise it's more for my benefit than theirs - who really wants to hear about how well my kids are doing or how many times I climbed Cadair this year? Obviously, no-one but me, but will that stop me from inflicting the poor dears with the showing off of a proud parent? Unlikely! I might email a few more to save on printing tho' - someone seems to be eating the ink in the cartridges.

I really do it for my own benefit - I have a cracking record of all our little adventures since 1999 - except for 2002 - it seems to have gotten lost. I just read through them all - it was a wonderful trip down memory lane, reliving some of the highlights of me and mine. Exactly what you need when you're shivering waiting for the heating to come on and faced with the task of addressing a huge bunch of envelopes - could this be the year I finally do it on labels?
Hope you like the fun pictures I found from just before I left Marconi (June 2001) - even back then I liked to dress up. Our football team was called Comic Strip! and I was a winger, I insisted Olan Mills did one with my Tina Turner wig, and the final one was my leaving do - my attempt to do Cher. I know, 'nuff said.