NARROW BOATING, HISTORY, FEMALE PIRATES, THE TRILOGY & OTHER STUFF

NARROW BOATING, MY FAVOURITE FARMHOUSE, SUFFOLK HISTORY, FEMALE PIRATES,  

THE TRILOGY & OTHER STUFF

BOATING

A short while ago we had a few days on Dotterel, our narrow boat moored in Warwickshire. I needed a respite from trilogies (just the one!), although I confess I wrote the back matter for Book 2. (For the benefit of those who've just joined me, I published Book 1 of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney last summer and It's doing well. The story charts the life of a devastating and charismatic pants wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun in the west and a great lover to both men and women). 

Meanwhile hubby is preparing for the Birmingham Canal Challenge in May, hence our time on the boat. He had always wanted to take part in the challenge, which consists of narrow boats cruising the interesting and the lesser used navigations within and outside Birmingham. It's also a means of keeping the canal system open and used. We are both watery folk. I was brought up opposite the river Thames, and I swum the river  as a kid and I've rowed since I was a teenager. Hubby loved books about canal cruising and took narrowboat trips with family and friends and adores it. We now paddle a traditional Canadian canoe and a rubber one. After I recovered from depression, pre pandemic, I told him to do the challenge. He'd looked after me long enough, time to go! So, we've been cleaning Dotterel, our boat, and son Tom and I will be joining hubby and crew for the challenge itself. 

OCCASIONALLY HUBBY
GETS THE TILLER!  

HISTORY

Meanwhile I've been researching facts about the Suffolk marshes. The story behind that: My dad's best friend, an army mate met during the war, owned a 17th century farmhouse known as Dingle on the edge of the marshlands in Suffolk (it is listed - Dingle Farm, which his grandfather bought after WW1.

Nearly every year when I and my brothers were young, my dad's friend rented the house to us for a week during the summer. I adored that house. Absolutely loved it! I'm only sorry we didn't own it ourselves. I'll be sharing a post about that in due course. I've got numerous photos of Dingle, including one of me as a little kid sitting on that doorstep with our friend's daughter. I've also been researching the history of Suffolk, and in so doing, came across two female pirates! Lady Mary killigrew and Margery Lambert. Of course, that sent me off on another tangent, so that's another blog post to come!

'Suffolk was also home to two of the most famous women pirates of the sixteenth century: Lady Mary Killigrew from Woolverstone and Margery, wife of Peter Lambert ...'

LADY MARY KILLIGREW

AND NOW ...THE TRILOGY!

I've sent off the back matter for Book 2 and final detail thoughts for the front cover illustration. I'm up to date now. The only real issue I have is my author website. It's great for layout arrangements initially, which I have done on my laptop screen, but when reviewed on phone layouts, which is what most folk look at, the layout is all over the show, and elements disappear. I then find them somewhere at the bottom of my design. So I began designing the layout based on phone usage and tried to find a compromise for both that and laptop screens, which seemed a good idea. That didn't really work either (all over the show again). Finally, in attempting to add a link to his blog - Jo B Creative - although I Googled how to do it, failed miserably. I still can't do it. Hubby told me I needed a computer geek - him. So I can have another crack at it with tech geek on hand. So hold onto your hats, folks - Book 2 will be available come the summer, a year after Book 1, which seems reasonable. 

OTHER STUFF

General creativity and artwork is therapeutic for the old brainbox. I've been videoing artistic endeavours and uploading them to my YouTube shorts channel. Rather satisfying. Only mumble is that previously I was able to add music to the clips, but a short while ago I was getting 'upload failed' when uploading through YouTube itself. When I upload directly from Google Photos, I can't find how to add music. Technology, eh? Great when it works etcetera...

On that note I'll bid you farewell, for now...

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Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE BRILLIANCE OF KINDLE UNLIMITED

JO. B. CREATIVE!: THE BRILLIANCE OF KINDLE UNLIMITED: THE BRILLIANCE OF KINDLE UNLIMITED  Fancy reading an offbeat western? A traditional, epic western trilogy with a twist? Alias Jeannie Delane...

THE BRILLIANCE OF KINDLE UNLIMITED

THE BRILLIANCE OF KINDLE UNLIMITED 

Fancy reading an offbeat western? A traditional, epic western trilogy with a twist?

Alias Jeannie Delaney is a gripping epic western trilogy charting the life of a devastating and charismatic pants-wearing cowgirl. She's the fastest gun in the west, a great lover to both men and women, and this is her journey to find her true self on the American frontier.

The e-book can be borrowed through Kindle Unlimited, a virtual library system, which will cost you $11.99c a month. A Kindle is smaller than a book, allowing you to read on your e-reader or the Kindle app on your phone or tablet from the palm of your hand. You don't need a Kindle to use Kindle Unlimited. You can use the free Kindle app on your phone or tablet with just a few taps. With Amazon's Kindle subscription service, you can access unlimited books for less than what it would cost you to buy one physical book per month.

A fair number of people on Kindle Unlimited have read Book 1, and some of these readers have steamed through it like a railroad train! If you have a self-published book on Kindle Unlimited, unlike Amazon itself, you can access the reader's progress through the book. Apparently when a reader likes Jeannie's story, they really like it, and can't put it down! What can I say?!  This is telling you something that Amazon itself doesn't. You know nothing about your readers when they buy their books there. So Kindle Unlimited is very, very useful. 

The Kindle version of Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! is 78 cents and the paperback version in $9.84 depending upon your preference.

Here are comments from readers of Book 1:

''This is a crack shot story, a unique blend of adventure, humor, and powerful storytelling that blazes across the wild frontier into the heart of the country at that time. It will leave you hungry for more!'

I just grabbed my copy of "Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!" on Amazon. The premise of a charismatic and skilled cowgirl on a journey of self-discovery is absolutely captivating. Kudos on the rave reviews and the unique twist you've brought to the western genre.'

Yee-hah! I'm enjoying this soooo much! Not just because of the story but also because of the quality of the writing, and the loving detail put into it. Clearly a lot of research - Kit Mackenzie writes as though she's actually been there. I'm relishing the nuances of her fab writing. I so enjoyed reading the novel in detail, and relishing the nuances of the fab writing. Rereading it and absorbing the world and the atmosphere she's created. It's a terrific story with strong characters (to put it mildly!) and a powerful arc. The writing is 24 carat gold.

I'm just reading the preview at the moment, it's great! I just love kit Mackenzie's descriptions of where Jeannie is, so atmospheric 😌 I've got to chapter 12 and loving it! A fascinating angle. Good on my phone too. This novel is a refreshing change from the usual western. Easy to read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! Kit writes brilliantly, describing the American Plains in all their beauty as they were back then.

I'm already deep in Chapter 1 of the book and loving it!

A unique and fascinating Western theme. Kit Mackenzie has an enviable writing skill!

Five star reviews from Booksprout

I’ve just finished reading ‘Go West, Girl.’ It was a very good read - a real page-turner, or whatever is the right term on a Kindle. Your descriptions were so vivid I could imagine I was in Coyote Creek. I’m not sure whether or not I like Jeannie - I feel sorry for her that she is so unhappy, but realise it’s because she was ahead of her time, and getting frustrated as she kicked against the social rules of her time. I admire that she refused to accept the norms of times - and people like her made things much more equitable for us today. No doubt you’ll keep us posted re the next book.

A unique western read. well written and entertaining! Five stars. This is a different take on a western and I really enjoyed it. Jeannie is an independent woman focused on living her life on her terms before it was socially acceptable to do so. It is well written and entertaining!

Great western story! Not like any Western book I've ever read... Jeannie is best described as a difficult child. I love her grown-up character. She lives life on her own terms, not always liked but well-respected. I'm looking forward to more stories of her life.

Just finished reading Alias Jeanne Delaney. I found it a really fascinating and an interesting read. Quite extraordinary. Loved your ability to set the scene, making it feel as if the reader was there themself experiencing the scene and the surroundings. I know that you said it might not be my kind of book but I have to tell you that it is! quite unlike anything I have read before. Well done and I hope that it becomes a best seller. I look forward to the next instalment in book 2.

Facebook Jo Ballantyne

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Kitty Le Roy's Wild West

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Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

JO. B. CREATIVE!: MY BIG, BLACK DOG

JO. B. CREATIVE!: MY BIG, BLACK DOG:                    MY BIG BLACK DOG                        I've just come out of a rather nasty bit of brain explosion  and the need to ...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: DID THIS PERSON REALLY WRITE THAT GRITTY, SOMETIME...

JO. B. CREATIVE!: DID THIS PERSON REALLY WRITE THAT GRITTY, SOMETIME...: DID THIS SWEET HOPSCOTCHING STEAMPUNK GAL WHO LOVES THE COLOUR PINK & STUFFED ANIMALS  REALLY WRITE THAT GRITTY, SOMETIMES DARK WESTERN...

DID THIS PERSON REALLY WRITE THAT GRITTY, SOMETIMES DARK WESTERN?

DID THIS SWEET HOPSCOTCHING STEAMPUNK GAL WHO LOVES THE COLOUR PINK & STUFFED ANIMALS REALLY WRITE THAT GRITTY, SOMETIMES DARK WESTERN? YES, SHE DID!

 

HOW'S THIS FOR BONKERS? 

Hubby and I dropped in on Basingstoke's Milestones Museum's Cogs and Clogs Steampunk event in Hampshire recently. 

Enormous fun! Loads of stalls, music and everyone dressed wild west punk, fairies, military, medieval, you-name-it... We were dressed to the nines - hubby as a befrilled sergeant in peaked cap and goggles who screams orders at rookies, and me as a glam pirate complete with small flintlock pistol. When I'm not a gun totin' westerner granny called Kitty Le Roy, I'm a pistol totin' pirate granny with the same name. 

 Milestones Museum is an indoor Victorian town setting open to customers to wander shop and factory settings. On one of the pavements are two hopscotch squares chalked up. Naturally we have to hop. He's tall and skinny, like a drainpipe, and he's good at hopping. I ain't. I used to be slim and beautiful but now I'm Rubenesque and beautiful. I've never hopped well and was terrible at school PE. (I'm great on a bike and striding briskly). 

So hubby hopped like a good 'un and I sorta hopped on and off. (I'm not talking to him any more!) Never mind. Glad we did it. Good fun! And we filmed one another. Brilliant stuff. Hop scotching steampunk style. 

Now, if you want to see it being done properly, here you are:

 

And there you have it. Ain't that great? 

Another confession: I love the colour pink and hubby and I love Pig and Monkey. 

Now, the point of this post is: Did this fun loving hopscotching, rather sweet gal (so my teenage twin granddaughters say, and I believe them) really write that gritty, sometimes dark and violent western? What? Really? Yes, really. 

I'm either schizophrenic (shouldn't joke - I know all about mental health), or there are genuinely two sides of me. The dark side and the goofy, creative side. The goofy artistic side is predominant, but the dark side, when the mood strikes, comes crashing in. I had to write Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!. I had no choice. This girl gunslinger - female gunfighter - who's the fastest gun in the west, had to be. My fascination for the wild west decreed that I writ1e the story of a devastating and charismatic pants-wearing cowgirl. I know her inside out. I know what she looks like, her qualities and her likes and dislikes. I wanted to be her, it turns out, because my own family - parents and siblings, and their wives - didn't understand me and tried to make me what I'm not and didn't want to be. 

Jeannie is powerful. Magnetic. Charismatic, hysterically funny, scary. Terrifying sometimes. Tremendously stylish in male clothing. Sexy as hell. Tomboy beautiful. She looks like a beautiful youth, then she's figured out. OTT. Irresistible. She's bisexual. All things to everyone. I was horrendously embarrassed about her, which made things even harder. I tried to tone her down but it didn't work. Finding out just how much people appreciate her has made things so much better for me. 

I wanted to be like her to make up for my largely alone position within my family. I managed to cope with that when I was young, but having children made matters harder and my mental health, exacerbated by childbirth and post natal depression, suffered, along with the drip drip of family pressures and opinions. 

That's why I wanted to be Jeannie. That's why I needed to write her story and 'get her out there'. And that's why I have two sides to me. Which would I rather be? Both. Gladly. 

Facebook Jo Ballantyne

Facebook Kit Mackenzie Author Page

Kit Mackenzie Author Website
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West Saloon Facebook Group
Kitty Le Roy's Wild West

Jo.B.Creative

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Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl!

JO. B. CREATIVE!: KINDLE UNLIMITED - STEAMROLLING READERS!

JO. B. CREATIVE!: KINDLE UNLIMITED - STEAMROLLING READERS!: Someone - or two persons - have finished reading Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! on Kindle Unlimited at a rate of knots!  ...