Greetings, one and all.
The poets are on fire! We have started receiving entries for the annual poetry award we launched a couple of months ago.
Let your ink flow (or your keyboard ring)…
If you need to refresh your memory about the submission requirements, please visit our blog and follow the links to MUSPA.
Greetings, one and all.
Musketman Shakespeare joined Instagram last month. Just as he does on this site, he will be following everyone who follows him on Instagram. See you there!
Greetings, one and all.
A red letter day coming up. We are going to launch an annual poetry award later this month — on the first day of spring. Mark your calendars!
Greetings, one and all.
Opening paragraph of THE CORISCO CONSPIRACY:
My father served as a courier in the Catholic underground and was, therefore, always privy to a plot or two to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. I followed in his footsteps from the age of ten until that fateful night in November 1605 when our dream of an all-Catholic England was brought to an end with the arrest of Guy Fawkes.
Happy New Year, one and all.
Here’s hoping you all had a memorable virtual Christmas season, and wishing everyone of you the very best throughout 2021.
Greetings, one and all.
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
SONNET 73 — Number 5 of my top 10
Greetings, one and all.
Things are beginning to look up for THE CORISCO CONSPIRACY. A well-known literary agent to whom Raphael Sone sent a query has requested that parts of the novel be rewritten and the manuscript resubmitted to her.
Wish him luck!
Greetings, one and all.
On this, the third anniversary of my plunge into social media, I am very happy to inform you all that, as of today, my blog has been visited a little over 27,500 times; I have 3,235 followers on Twitter and just under 8,600 connections on LinkedIn.
Greetings, one and all.
Last month Raphael Sone reviewed a new novel by the London (Ontario)-based author Gaston Mabaya. The full text of his review reads as follows.
L’HÔPITAL
Auteur déjà d’une demi-douzaine d’ouvrages généraux et un recueil des poèmes, l’écrivain congolais canadien Gaston Mabaya vient de publier son premier roman, le tome 1 de sa trilogie Bulamatari, auquel il a donné le rusé titre de L’HÔPITAL. Le roman est fascinant à plusieurs niveaux, en commençant par son titre – car plus d’une institution médicale figure dans le récit. À nous de deviner laquelle fait le sujet du titre. L’HÔPITAL est un casse-tête littéraire avec lequel l’auteur nous mène de la côte ouest africaine jusqu’à l’Inde en passant par la Turquie, sans nous permettre de respirer en route. Un véritable “page-turner”. J’ai hâte de lire le tome 2 de la trilogie Bulamatari, un nom dont l’origine est presque aussi intrigante que la fiction de Mabaya.
Greetings, one and all.
Last month, my blogger, Raphael Sóne, started querying agents and publishers about putting out my war memoirs. If any of you in the writing community know literary agents who are interested in historical fiction, especially those likely to enjoy reading about my life and times, please put in a word for him or drop us a line at MusketmanShakespeare@gmail.com
Many thanks for your support.
