The Writing & Ramblings of Janet S Wood

Have you read the series so far?

2019-07-17T22:52:00.000+01:00

Where is A Twin for Miss Darling?

2018-08-17T12:01:00.000+01:00

Hi All,

So, you're probably wondering what happened to our next book A Twin for Miss Darling, our fifth book in the Rakes and Ribbons Series. Well, the truth is life happened, we are sorry to say it but due to ill health and life, in general, A Twin for Miss Darling's release will be delayed. Rest assured you will see it, but it looks to be released sometime in mid to late autumn of this year.

We'd like to thank our readers for all their support and we look forward to giving you new regency romances in the future.

Until Autumn (fingers crossed).
Happy Reading

J & M

A Ring for Miss Briar OUT NOW!

2018-04-20T22:46:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know we've kept you waiting nearly a month but it's finally out!

A Ring for Miss Briar

(A Regency Romance)
Book Four of Rakes & Ribbons

A Ring for Miss Briar (A Regency Romance) is Book Four in our Rakes & Ribbons Series. Each of the books in the series can be read alone, but if you want to catch up with characters from other books along the way, then read Rakes & Ribbons in series order.

Happy Reading!

J & M

Buy, or Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited or download sample chapters at only at Amazon

Can't see your country above search amazon for Janet S Wood!

UPDATE: A Ring for Miss Briar news and cover preview

2018-04-09T18:45:00.001+01:00

A Ring for Miss Briar

News and Cover Preview

I know it's been a while but we have been busy editing A Ring for Miss Briar which is the fourth book in our Rakes and Ribbons series. Hopefully it will be out within the next two weeks (fingers crossed) but we will keep you all notified when it goes up. So watch this space. In the mean time here is a sneak peek at the cover. Eagle eyed readers may have spotted the tiny preview on the Rakes and Ribbons series page.

For those of you who have bought our last book or have KU (Kindle Unlimited) you can read the first two chapters of A Ring for Miss Briar in the back of A Husband for Miss Honeybourne.

Happy Reading.
J & M

A Husband for Miss Honeybourne OUT NOW!

2018-03-24T17:19:00.000+00:00

Yes its finally out!

A Husband for Miss Honeybourne

(A Regency Romance)
Book Three of Rakes & Ribbons

A Husband for Miss Honeybourne (A Regency Romance) is Book Three in our Rakes & Ribbons Series. Each of the books in the series can be read alone, but if you want to catch up with characters from other books along the way, then read Rakes & Ribbons in series order.

Happy Reading!

J & M

Buy, Borrow with Kindle Unlimited or download sample chapters at Amazon

UPDATES :A Penny for Miss Spry - Book Page & more!

2018-03-15T19:25:00.002+00:00

UPDATE : Just to let you all know that A Penny for Miss Spry's book page has now gone live.

Now you can meet the characters and read some quotes from the book as well as find links to all amazon sites which stock it.

You can visit the page by clicking on the Rakes & Ribbons link at the top of the page and then clicking on A Penny for Miss Spry.

In more news this week has been a busy one, apart from updates to the blog we are also editing our third book, A Husband for Miss Honeybourne (Book Three of the Rakes & Ribbons Series). So it's all go here, hope your week has been less hectic.

Happy reading.

J & M

A Disguise for Miss Howe - OUT TODAY!

2018-03-11T18:16:00.000+00:00

Yes we know you've been waiting for it and now it's finally here!

A Disguise for Miss Howe (A Regency Romance) is Book Two in our Rakes & Ribbons Series. Each of the books in the series can be read alone, but if you want to catch up with characters from other books along the way, then read Rakes & Ribbons in series order.

Happy Reading!

J & M

Buy, Borrow with Kindle Unlimited or download sample chapters at Amazon

CO.UK .COM .DE

Happy Mother's Day

2018-03-11T17:23:00.000+00:00

It's Mothers Day here in the Britain today and it's time to reflect on how important mothers are in our lives.

Encouragement

For us our mother is the reason we are writers. From a young ages she encouraged our love in reading with plenty of books and never complained of frequent trips to the library as we developed into ferocious little readers who could easily read a book in a night.

New Worlds

The adventures of Mrs Pepperpot, Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, Narnia, The Worst Witch, The Box of Delights and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory let us find new friends and explore new worlds. We discovered authors and plundered their treasures, like explorers discovering lost cities and new civilizations, excited and eager to discover the next surprise with each turn of the page.

Mum never complained of evenings with our heads in buried in books or meals hurried through so we could return to the page. And even when she found us reading under blankets by torchlight late into the night, she would gently suggest that we would be tired in the morning. But she would always let us finish the page or chapter.

Reason for Writing

Our mother is the rock upon which our love for stories are built. She is the one who let us dream, who we told we wanted to be writers when we grew up. She never suggested a sensible job, even when the road to that dream was long, hard and winding. It was her love, support and belief in us that is the reason we write today, the reason we write everyday and she will be the reason we will write tomorrow.

Thank you Mum & Happy Mother's Day

M & J

News on A Disguise for Miss Howe

2018-03-04T16:53:00.000+00:00

Good evening everyone hope you are enjoying the rest of your weekend. The final edit of our next book 'A Disguise for Miss Howe' is nearing completion, thanks to copious amounts of Earl Grey tea and Doris Day's ever dulcet tones. Watch this space for a release date.

We'll keep you posted
J & M

Thank You!

2018-03-03T14:24:00.001+00:00

Yesterday our book A Penny for Miss Spry (A Regency Romance) celebrated its first two weeks of release. We'd like to thank everyone who has bought or read the book, your support means a lot to us. Please spread the love and recommend it to a friend. And if you haven't read it yet, why not? It's free to read on Amazon's kindle unlimited or you can download some free sample chapters from Amazon too. Head over to your local Amazon site and search for A Penny for Miss Spry by Janet S Wood.

Enjoy your weekend
J & M

Happy St David's Day

2018-03-01T16:42:00.000+00:00

Dyn da oedd Dewi

Dewi, Dewi Sant

Outside the little cottage

Where Dewi Sant was born

The cold wind it did grumble

And cheerless was the morn

But on dear Dewi’s cottage

The sun was bright and gleamed

And gentle were the breezes

Like summer so it seemed.

The above was sung by me on St David’s Day many years ago (as part of the school you understand, not as a solo) We went to a english speaking school, which is pretty much the norm in South Wales, but it meant that welsh was not really taught until you went to the big school (comprehensive). Even though most of the teaches spoke welsh, usually to gossip in front of a baffled class of children so they would not be understood. (We had, to be fair, been taught a little welsh which mainly centred around the farmyard, but ‘Mae'r mochyn yn y cwt’ (the pig is in the sty), doesn’t really crop up in conversation surprisingly.)

St David’s Day was an exception of course. On the week leading up to it we would learn songs and poems in both welsh and english. Then on the day itself a mini Eisteddfod (concert of poems and song) would be held. Each class would put forward a boy or girl to recite something in welsh to be judged by the teachers.

One year I remember that the boy from our class, who had been chosen to recite didn’t turn up so I had to do so instead (forever the understudy). I can remember standing in the school hall in my welsh costume and knee high white socks, because I had a growth spurt and now the skirt was above my knee. I tried not to sneeze at the daffodil I had pinned to my shawl and to ignore the little boy in the front row who had decided to start eating his leek, something which he would later regret. Then trying to ignore them all I took a deep breath and started the poem. It might have been an oversight on my teacher Mr Griffiths’ part, but the welsh poem was never explained to us in english, so I had no idea what I was saying or even if my pronunciation was making sense. Now the only thing I remember about that poem is that it was called ‘Dewi Sant’ (Saint David), then the rest is a blank. I came second in the end, losing out to someone from another class, but we didn’t get any prizes, just the honour of winning. Which is not as good as a prize when your eight years old and wearing an itchy welsh costume on a cold spring day.

The song above will be familiar to a lot of people who went to school in Wales. Although our school only trusted us to sing the chorus in welsh, which basically means 'David was a good man'. Having looked online I realise now that the english verse won’t be as familiar as the chorus. It seems to be a very general translation of the welsh, but with so many of our teachers having musical talents it doesn’t surprise me that they seemed to have written their own verse instead.

St David’s Day used to be a half day and is still in some schools. I used to run down the hill home, knowing that my mum would have welsh cakes on the stove hot plate that my dad made for her. They would be piled high on a plate and sprinkled with sugar or spread with salty welsh butter. It makes me smile now just to think of them.

Well this year I was going to make them and share the recipe with you but yesterday Swansea, as well as the rest of the UK had seen snow. Which meant that the general mass panic saw no bread or flour left on the shelves. So I had to buy these ones instead, sorry maybe next year when it is not -4°c on St David’s Day.
I’m off to eat welsh cakes and watch the snow.

Snuggle up and keep warm.
J & M
P.S. Oh but it feels like -15°c, I forgot to add the wind chill.

A Ground Shaking Romance!

2018-02-18T09:02:00.000+00:00

Our book went up for sale and a day later the earth moved! I can remember times in my teens when I was always putting off doing something, my homework, cleaning my room or even getting up out of bed during the school holidays and my Mum would tease me and say "It would take an earthquake to move you". Well Mum it didn't, the book went up the day before, although in truth we did think of leaving it until Saturday.

Well on Friday the day finally came when our first book went live on Amazon. 'A Penny for Miss Spry (A Regency Romance)' is now available as an eBook across the world on Amazon and I have to admit to being more than a little excited about seeing it go up.

And along with the excitement of seeing the book finally online it also meant there was a lot of writer's housekeeping to do. Author pages had to be set up, banners needed to be updated and life as normal had to carry on. So I shouldn't have been surprised when my to do list spilled over into Saturday, I was looking forward to a day with my feet up, laptop out with some music playing as I weaved my way down my to do list, which seemed to be expanding rather than shrinking.

With a morning gone and my list completed, I decided that I could fill the afternoon with the final edit of our next book, 'A Disguise for Miss Howe'. You can imagine my surprise when at 2.31 pm, just as I was editing a kissing scene the whole house shook. Not a general shake of say a large truck going past, but a proper chair moving shake! I could hear the room vibrating and my body moved back and forth. I felt like a rag doll. Now don't get me wrong it was over in seconds and no damage was done, but I have to admit I was in shock.

To say I was shaken (no pun intended), was an understatement. I went to my front door and looked outside wondering what it was. I thought of an explosion or a crash. But I could see nothing at all, in fact everyone was walking by as if nothing had happened. At this point in time I was beginning to wonder if I had imagined it. So to reassure myself I looked online and saw this on twitter.

Earthquake in Swansea area

(Image: European-Mediterranean Seismology Centre)

Now I know that Swansea does lie near the ends of two major disturbances, the Neath Disturbance and the Swansea Valley Disturbance if I remember rightly from school. But you never expect to actually feel anything. There have been others over the past few years but I was never in Swansea when they occurred. The last one we had of any size was way back in 1906, the same year as San Francisco's big quake when luckily for Swansea, just like yesterday, no one was hurt.

Image Source: BBC

But it did get me thinking. Ernest Hemingway was the writer who came up with the phrase "Did the earth move for you?". Although to be more accurate he actually wrote "But did thee feel the earth move?'' in his book 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and where as in the book it is in almost gentle questioning between two lovers after they have made love. Today it is used as a knowing, almost clichéd question for asking if you found it enjoyable. I do wonder if I would have chosen those words for something pleasurable. I suppose you could ask " Did the sky thunder for you?" instead. But it has too much of a flavour of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for me. Now as I go back to editing 'A Disguise for Miss Howe', Doris Day has just started singing "Shaking the Blues Away", now what are the chances of that?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
J & M

Apple and Candle Night

2017-10-31T17:12:00.000+00:00

Halloween in Swansea is traditionally called ‘Apple and Candle Night’, although this like many other traditions is dying out. My mother can remember it being called so, but even by my own childhood It was rarely referred to by this name.

The name ‘Apple and Candle Night’ refers to the old game of apples and candles. A sturdy twig would be chosen which would be suspended in its middle by a string, upon one end was tied an apple so that it dangled on another string and on the other end of the twig would be secured a lit candle. The trick was to eat the apple, with your hands behind your back, without getting burnt by the candle. To make the game more difficult, if a hot flame and dripping wax was not difficult enough, the challenger could also be blindfolded, and the stick spun so that you didn’t know if it was the apple or the candle in front of you.

Unsurprisingly this game has died out although the remnants of it can still be found. Some apple bobbing is done with the apples floating in a bowl of water with the challenger having to retrieve one by their teeth alone, the echoes of the hands behind the hands behind the back rule still remaining. Whilst other apple games dangle the apples from string with the same no hand rule applying.

The candles it seems now stay more safely away in the lanterns which traditionally would have been turnips or swedes hollowed out with carved faces. These too have been largely replaced by pumpkins, which have only become popular in the last twenty years or so.

It is sad to think that ‘Apple and Candle Night’ has all but died out and in a generation or two it will probably be forgotten completely. But as I light my candles tonight and wait for the trick or treaters to knock the door, instead of saying “Happy Halloween” I might say “Happy Apple and Candle Night” in hope of a revival.

Well I am off to bob for apples.

Happy Apple and Candle Night this Halloween!

J & M

Son of the Waves

2017-10-27T15:57:00.000+01:00

Dylan Thomas 1914 – 1953

Today is Dylan Thomas’ birthday and I think he would have smiled to have seen the glorious sunshine his ‘Ugly, lovely town’ was bathed in. Even in his ‘Poem in October’, which he wrote on his 30^th birthday he states,

“And I rose,

In rainy autumn,

And walked abroad in a shower of all my days.”

Which really isn’t surprising, for Swansea is the wettest city in the UK.

Dylan Thomas was born at ^no5 Cwmdonkin Drive in the Uplands part of Swansea on the 27^th of October 1914. The son of an English teacher, perhaps it is easy to see where he got his love of words from. He wrote poetry from a child and by his teens had amassed over 200 poems, many of which would be published in later years.

He eventually came to the attention of London literary circles and had his first collection 18 poems published in 1934. When he moved to London he met and married Caitlin MacNamara and together they had three children.

Like Byron himself, Dylan was ‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know.’ Years of drinking and his fiery relationship with his wife Caitlin are evidence enough. In fact, he admitted as much when he wrote ‘I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me.’ But for all the success of his poems and plays he was frequently short of money, something I think every writer can empathise with.

One of my favourite works by Dylan Thomas has to be Under Milk Wood, a play for voices from 1953. It tells the tale of a small sleepy seaside town as the inhabitants dream, we wander through and listen to their thoughts, wishes and desires. Like many of his poems and works it looks back to the places of his childhood. In Welsh we would call this ‘Hiraeth’, which has no equivalent word in English, it is akin to homesickness but is more like a yearning and longing for not just your homeland but the Wales of your childhood and past.

Dylan had a unique voice, but he spoke in words, terms and phrases which were familiar to a girl from his home town like me. Swansea is not big, it hugs the coast and bay with hills and valleys hampering its expansion, so as a child to read A Child’s Christmas in Wales and know it was written about the place where you lived seemed quite magical to me at the time. Now with the way the world is connected it might not seem so, but when I was a child, the thought that the words written by a man from Swansea were read and loved by people all over the world was astounding, it made the world seem smaller. So when in a few short days we publish our first book I wonder if the world will seem smaller again to me.

Dylan Thomas died like so many others, before his time on the 9^th of November in 1953 in Saint Vincent’s hospital in New York. He was 39 years old at the time. But his poetry lives on. He once said “Poetry is not the most important thing in life… I’d much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.” As much as I share his love of a good murder mystery, I’m glad he didn’t.

If you wish to explore Dylan’s work for yourself there are many books of his poems, letters and plays published which you can easily buy online.

I would recommend the official website:

www.discoverdylanthomas.com

and also the website for the Dylan Thomas Museum

www.dylanthomas.com

There have been several adaptions of Under Milk Wood which I love. The BBC made a recent adaption in 2014 to mark the 100 year anniversary of his birth. There is also an audio CD with Richard Burton as the narrator which I bought many years ago and may still be available. Richard Burton also starred in a film of Under Milk Wood (1972) version alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O’Toole.

For films about Dylan Thomas I would recommend Set Fire To The Stars (2014)which was filmed entirely in Swansea and The Edge of Love (2008) which explores the relationship with his wife Caitlin.

These are a few of many so go and explore.

Well I am off to bed as it says in Under Milk Wood ‘The thin night darkens.’

Goodnight

J & M