Indie Scribe Magazine Editor TS Gwilliam - around the Cauldron!

Hiking to the South Pole in flip flops and a hula shirt is probably easier than trying to make it in Indie, but there are advantages and bonuses. One is when your posse - in this case, author -K-Trina Meador, a big mate of mine on The Wizard's Court - discovers something great, something exciting. Vis a vis Indie Scribe Magazine, created and edited by Manchester's Teresa (TS) Gwilliam. Featuring an Indie novelist and a poet each month, Indie Scribe Magazine had a circulation of two thousand last month, which is not bad in an age where munchie-afflicted gnats have deeper concentration spans than people. 

Also a writer and poet, I picked up the Wizphone and caught Teresa experimenting with her version of Lancashire's finest export, Hot Pot. Here's what she had to say about the world of writing and magazines....

Who is TS. Gwilliam? Tell us a little about yourself.
I am a writer and wannabe poet, who lives quietly with her husband and Lurcher. I have three grown up daughters and am now an extremely proud Grandma. I came to writing late in life finding a need to express myself and realising that I could be creative, fulfilling, as I hear so many do, a dream from their younger days that got lost.

Disastrous Manchester- based soap "Albion Market" - a paragon of
social diversity now standard in British soap (see East Enders), and a visionary
venture a decade ahead of its time.

Whereabouts do you live and do you like it there?
I live in sunny (huh? - Ed) Manchester in the UK, where we’ve lived for about twenty-two years. I do enjoy living here. I like the peace and quiet of the Suburbs, it virtually shuts down at 5pm but I do occasionally enjoy the buzz and life of the City. There is an energy in the streets that can lift the spirit.

Manchester's finest 

Happy Mondays

In what genre do you write and what have you written so far?
Ah now, that’s a good question, on the whole a Realist Fantasy? I’m quite interested in power and identity, how this translates in the world or world’s we live in and our interactions with each other. 

I have a book of five short stories 

Illusions of Grandeur 

(Lovely cover - Ed)

and a novella Reflection of a Rainbow

Any ambitions as a writer? 
For people to enjoy what I write. I’d be lying if didn’t say that I would love to be a full time author. Not famous, but to have enough to live on.

Metaphysicist, contemporarian and existentialist, Franz Kafka,
was also a lawyer. Seldom wrote full time but produced
five classic novels that endure to this day

You are also the editor of Indie Scribe a showcase magazine for Indie authors. What’s the reasoning behind that? Have you a journalistic background?

CLICK HERE - INDIE SCRIBE Magazine - featuring fantastic relationship theorist, Brenda Perlin

Firstly, I have to say no, I don’t have any experience in journalism; I came across Joomag through my husband. As it is quite similar to a Site builder and having worked on my own Roseshadows.com website for quite a while realised that this may be something that I could do. 

"They say you should work on something that you love to do and this is it! I’m having a great time not only am I enjoying what I do but being able to offer something that is useful to others is rewarding in its own way. "

The idea came for a magazine for Independent Authors to showcase the work of indie writers, poets and bloggers who I know from personal experience have to work so hard to advertise their work and on increasingly more social outlets, which can be a daunting experience.   The concept is not only to offer these artistes a place to show their work but to be able to expand to a possible target audience. 

K-Trina Meador - Indie Scribe has also featured great friend of Green Wizard
- seen here sunning herself in Hawaii, which is a lot
sunnier than Manchester, generally.

What are your plans for Indie Scribe?
The main objective, especially now that Indie has eight issues published, is to work on becoming more mainstream, in the sense that it attracts book lovers who will hopefully not only enjoy the magazine but discover the talent that is there in the indie world.     

What’s been the response so far? How are you getting the word out?
The response is getting better each month, last month; February had an amazing 2601 views which honestly exceeded all other months put together. 

At the moment, I am using Google+, Facebook, Wordpress and I have just joined Twitter, so if anyone gets strange messages whilst I am getting used to it, I will apologise beforehand! 

Wizardwatchers: An appeal. Give Teresa a follow on Twitter. You all remember how it started: It's daunting with your account's only foll0wers being your enthusiastic Uncle Roger, a spammer, your Bingo mate, Cynthia, and a carpet fitter you met on holiday in Bournemouth. 

https://twitter.com/TsGwilliam #Follow

I have also been grateful that my featured artists have shared the magazine which has been a bonus. I am looking and working on other avenues such as an online press release, a website and blog dedicated to Indie.

Yay! I shall keep a close eye on this. Teresa, what makes a good magazine?
I think it’s the layout, how easy it is to read; a balance of long and short features and of course content, this is what I am attempting to achieve. 

One of the best magazines EVER.
Kids classic Speed and Power

Indie has been blessed with the Authors, Poets and Bloggers that have been featured; they are certainly a large part of Indie’s success. Their biographies and interviews are so diverse; serious, funny, interesting and charming and each makes Indie Scribe unique every month. You never know who you will encounter. This makes Indie great fun to work on.

Indie Author David Proctor Guest Stars in January's (Brrrrrr) Issue of Indie Scribe

How do authors get in touch with you? What’s the current schedule like?
Fortunately I have some fantastic authors in the pipeline up until June. 

If any authors, poets or bloggers would like to be considered, I would be really pleased to hear from them at:

indiescribemagazine@gmail.com

tsgwilliam254@gmail.com
or through Indie’s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indie-Scribe-Magazine/1405125503037004


And I hear a whisper that Mark Barry is featured in Indie Scribe in June, Teresa.
He is indeed, Wiz.

Latest work from UK contemporary fiction
author Mark Barry. Discussed and showcased in
Indie Scribe, June 2014

Ahum. (you are such a cheeky so and so! Ed) So,starving magazine journalists raid your offices and kidnap you and dump you in an abandoned magazine office in Wapping. Luckily, you find a sack. In it are two books, two CD’s and a DVD (with player). What would you like them to be?

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams.

Lion of Macedon – David Gemmell.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 

The Best CUBAN in the World.  

Kung Fu Hustle.

What did you have for tea last night?
Homemade Pizza with Red Peppers and Chilli.

And finally, what do fans of TS Gwilliam have to look forward to in 2014
Another book of Short Stories and a Novel – The Singing Fish. 

These I have been working on for quite a while now. I’m not sure at the moment which will come first…I’m not a very organised writer, I sit down and think ‘which story do I feel like working on today?’ 

The good thing is… that now these words are written, I will have to get on and finish this work! I have an awful feeling that I may have said this already so now I have doubly committed myself to Just get on with It!

Teresa, it's been a pleasure to see you around the Cauldron and Wizardwatchers wish you the best of luck with your books and with Indie Scribe in 2014
Thank you, Wiz. It's been fun

Manchester's finest - Mick Miller

Another superb magazine - Skateboard
World

42, Steve. Hope this helps.

Ngaire meets Sci Fi author Yvonne Anderson - around the Cauldron

This week - from her foreboding citadel just outside Cadiz - amidst the orange groves, the raging bulls, bunches of giant pomegranates hanging from parched trees, underneath the illumination of cobalt skies and in the glare of the ever-burning sun, the wonderful Ngaire Elder is back around the Cauldron, by popular demand. 

This morning on my way home from doing the school run, I saw an unusual scene, almost haunting. One of the mountains was shrouded in a smoky-grey layer of cloud with the crests of windmills sprouting through the top. You know the type of windmills I’m talking about, the ones you see on a ‘wind power farm’ not the Don Quixote type!  It triggered a childhood memory – the Pink Floyd music video to Another Brick in the Wall in particular the scene with the walking hammers. I was an ‘ankle-snapper’ (no, kidding Ed!) when the original music video first appeared on television. What an unrelated memory to be triggered by the windmill mountain vista! What triggers a memory to surface from the abyss …? For me, it is simply a sight, sound or smell that sets the memory cogs in motion; the windmill of the mind or as the French would say ‘Los moulins de mon esprit" … is that not a song???

Today, I'm interviewing Yvonne Anderson, Science Fiction author about her latest work. Yvonne lives in rural Ohio with her husband of 37 years and one of her four grown kids. Her five grandchildren live in Virginia, which is entirely too far away. Formerly a legal secretary, Yvonne works part time as a Virtual Assistant but spends most of her time on the planet Gannah researching her books. A member of ACFW, The Lost Genre Guild, Independent Author Network, and International Thriller Writers, she serves as contest administrator for Novel Rocket, named four times to Writer’s Digest list of the 101 Best Websites for Writers.

Yvonne Anderson. Space, aliens, rockets,
mad Gods and incredible paradoxes.
Count me in for the Sci Fi revolution.

Lovely to have you here, Yvonne, nattering round the Wizard’s Cauldron,  tell us a bit about yourself. 

Hi, Ngaire, and thank you for inviting me! I’ve never nattered around a Cauldron before, just a campfire sans Cauldron. So this will be fun. I used to run myself ragged with a mini-farm, kids, and a job. No time to write. Now, my husband and I are in the enviable position of being able to survive on his retirement pension alone. Which is not to say I can spend all my day writing, because I still often have a hard time finding the time. But at least I’m not pressed under the demands of a regular job. 

Yvonne interviewed on "Sci Fi at Nine" on cable.

Your series The Story in the Stars is science fiction and getting superb reader comments, please tell us more about your series and how you chose the genre you write in?

27 Reviews!!

It’s a bizarre tale. Not the book so much, but the background behind its inception. 

February 2002, the strangest thing happened. My two oldest kids were grown and out of the house, the younger two were in high school. We’d purchased our first computer not long before. On the morning in question, the kids had gone to school, I was cleaning up after breakfast, and an unasked-for thought came along and whacked me upside the head: You need to write a book. Huh? Where’d that come from? True, I had the time (no one home to interrupt me! With my husband now retired, I could use some of that…) and a computer. But what would I write about? I tried to block the thought, but it dug under my skin and wouldn’t back out. I finally concluded it was the Holy Spirit, not a tick, so I sat down and talked to God about it. “Surely I’m misunderstanding You. This can’t be what You want.” But He kept pressing, so I finally yielded.

Nine months and 200,000 words later (and daily prayers, begging, “Please, stop me!”), I had a complete novel, but no idea what to do next. 

A short time later, I picked up a little nonfiction book I’d heard some friends talking about. It was a reprint of a book written in the 1800s titled The Gospel in the Stars, and it explained the premise that when God created the heavens and the earth, He arranged the stars in constellations for a specific purpose. Together, they portrayed the gospel story so that early man could “read” it and learn about the Christ who would one day come to redeem their souls. I found the concept intriguing, but I had a hard time with the book because the language was archaic and the technical concepts were unfamiliar. At first I thought it might be fun to “translate” the book, put it into language that a modern reader could enjoy, but I realized I needed to understand it all a bit better before I could do that. Then it occurred to me to write a fictional piece in which the characters discovered this story in the stars. (So much for “never again”!)

I could have given a tale like that any setting I wanted, but perhaps because I’d just been reading about astronomy and had stars on the brain, I gave it an outer-space setting. Once I started writing, I really got into it, and before I’d been at it very long, I realized this was what I’d been studying for all those years. 

The best ever Outer Space episode of Star Trek?
"The City at the Edge of Forever"

How many books have you written? 

All told, I’ve completed a total of eight novels: two when I was younger and just fooling around. Then Mom’s Mirror, and then a sequel to it. Those first four were just practice. The Story in the Stars was my fifth, and I’ve since written three more in that series. BTW, the series is called Gateway to Gannah. The Story in the Stars is the first book in the series. 

Which is your favourite?

My favourite is The Last Toqeph, the fourth and final in the series and as yet unpublished.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Probably the most surprising thing, as noted above, was that I would ever enjoy writing sci-fi. The second most surprising thing was how difficult it is. 

Top 100 Sci Fi Novels of all time: Some Really Hard Books

Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

In my opinion, the characters are eminently real and believable. I have a hard time remembering sometimes that they aren’t flesh-and-blood people and that Gannah exists only in my mind. I keep wanting look online for photos of the place. Since the characters live in another time and another world, their predicaments aren’t much like the situations I face in my own life, but the underlying issues are the same: love and resentment, pushing through tough times when you haven’t the strength, faith and doubt, difficult choices to be made and uncertainty as to where to go for reliable guidance. Alien though they may be, the characters are in essence very human.

Reputed to be one of the
finest sci-fi novels of all time - and living proof
that not all average  covers come from an Indie scribbler's
Publisher software.

Are you traditional or self- published, and has your publishing experience been what you expected it to be? Would you change anything?

In 2011 I signed a three-book contract with Risen Books, a small press. Very small. One-man small. This qualifies me as being traditionally published but doesn’t provide me with the kind of support a major publisher can afford to give their authors. (Not that any publisher does much marketing these days anyway.) 

I didn’t have many expectations when I signed the contract, so I can’t say the experience has disappointed me. Nor can I say I’d change anything, looking back on it. 

Einstein - Beyond genius

It’s been a valuable learning experience. The contract offer came at a time when I was giving serious thought, once again, to hanging it all up, so it encouraged me to keep going. I’d never thought of Stars as part of a series. 

Now, thanks to Risen Books’ interest in it, Gateway to Gannah is a complete, four-book series (though only the first two titles are published) and I’m absolutely delighted with it. I love-love-LOVE the way it wraps up in the last book, and the fact that the publisher doesn’t seem inclined to move forward with producing the rest of it doesn’t bother me. There are a lot of options available to authors these days, and one dead end isn’t the end of the road. 

London based Sci Fi pioneer and pulp fictionist,
HG Wells

Can you tell us about your current work-in-progress?

With the inestimable help of my critique friends (a different group from those I started with, but all wonderful, talented writers and dear to me personally), I’m putting the final polish on Book 4. I’m also mentally working on my next project. I’m excited about it, too, but I can only concentrate on one thing at a time, so I’m not ready to discuss it yet.

How do you market your work? What avenues have you found to work best for your genre?

Ah, there’s the rub. I’ve tried the usual recommended methods such as blog tours, personal appearances/speaking/book signings, social media, advertising on Goodreads, give-aways, a couple of radio interviews. 

And I’ve sold a few books, but it’s been only a trickle at best. Now it’s dwindled to a slow, lazy drip. I haven’t found anything that I can say really works.

Genius painter - terrible marketeer who died
penniless and broken hearted. Vincent Van Gogh.
The fate of many Indie writers?

Blogging has consumed a great deal of time but yielded little to no results. I used to post to my personal blog three times a week without fail, but the past few months I’ve cut back because it wasn’t proving to be a wise use of my time. 

I post every 2nd Wednesday on Speculative Faith, a blog for readers and writers of Christian speculative fiction. I’m a member of the Novel Rocket team, a blog that’s been named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 top websites for writers five years out of the past six. 

Connect with Novel Rocket

My role there is contest administrator for the Launch Pad Contest, Boosting You Out of the Slush Pile, a competition for unpublished novelists. I’m also a weekly contributor to the writers blog The Borrowed Book. But it’s been busywork, for the most part, not useful for stimulating sales.

Indie writer discovers this months sales figures
after daring to create her Amazon report.

What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

I don’t pay a lot of attention to criticism. If several critics tell me the same thing when I’m working on a chapter, that’s worth taking seriously. But where reviews are concerned or general criticism, I figure most of that is just a matter of personal opinion. 

Decent article about dealing with bad reviews

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me so it doesn’t upset me when people don’t. On the other hand, my favourite review to date is a 1-star of The Story in the Stars on Goodreads. ( :-), Ed!) The reviewer’s comments reveal that she understood precisely what I’d hoped to portray, though I didn’t wish to offend anyone. 

Jim Starlin - bringing sci-fi to comics
in  the nineteen seventies and
revolutionising the medium

Once I got past the sting of her words, I realized that her comments were exactly what I needed to hear: I had, in fact, gotten my point across effectively. 

Starlin's Warlock

None of the good reviews gave me that confirmation. The best direct compliment? A friend told me she read Stars twice: the first time, she read fast because she couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Then she read it again just to 
savour it. 



Whom would you give this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to, and why?

Good golly, I have no idea. Because I’m an ignoramus.

The magnificent Aung San Suu Kyi - her story is inspirational

Do you have a bucket-list …? If, so please share one thing you have on the list.

Nope, no bucket list. My goal is merely to take advantage of opportunities the Lord offers, go through the doors He opens. That alone can lead to some unexpected adventures.

What book are you reading now?

The Children of Men by P.D. James.

PD James

Finally, Yvonne, where can readers buy your books and find out more about you?

The first two titles in the Gateway to Gannah series are available in print and ebook formats: 

Book 1: The Story in the Stars at Amazon, and B&N.

Book 2: Words in the Wind at Amazon, and B&N.

You can learn more about me and the Gannah series on my website, Y’s Words, connect with me on Twitter, or, if you insist, on Facebook, though I’m scarcely ever there.

Yvonne, on behalf of the absent Wizard and the Wizardwatchers, I'd like to wish you the best of luck and thank you for coming around the Cauldron.

Thanks, Ngaire, for inviting me to visit. It’s been fun!

Contact

Blog link – http://yswords.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/yvonne.anderson.549

Twitter – https://twitter.com/YAnderson101

The father of Sci Fi - Isaac Asimov

The Story in the Satrs – Amazon Link http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Stars-Yvonne-Anderson/dp/1936835045

The Story in the Stars – B&N link http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/story-in-the-stars-yvonne-anderson/1101954675?ean=9781936835041

Words in the Wind B&N link - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/words-in-the-wind-yvonne-anderson/1112120420?ean=9781936835102

Words in the Wind Amazon Link - http://www.amazon.com/Words-Wind-Yvonne-Anderson/dp/193683510X

Another Yvonne Anderson.
Not a science fiction author
from Ohio.

Ngaire Elder can be found most days on Twitter. @ngaireinfo and also around this blog. Check the bottom right.

The Night We Danced with Rommel - Mary Ann Bernal meets Elisabeth Marrion

From the main Nottingham McDonalds, it's my pleasure today to welcome my friend and brilliant editor of all my novels Mary Ann Bernal a writer and interviewer who needs no introduction at all...and here she is, all the way from Nebraska. A big friend of the Wizard's Cauldron, here's her original interview with me from way back when...

http://greenwizard62.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/an-interview-with-mary-ann-bernal.html

Oh, and I didn't tell her to dress up like Capt.Kirk's wife! Mary Ann did it all of her own volition.

______________________________________________________________________________



Greetings Wizardwatchers - it is my pleasure to host this week’s interview with Elisabeth Marrion.

For the Wizard’s followers on the UK side of the pond, there is a six hour difference from the central time zone neck of the woods in  Omaha, Nebraska - yes, the mid west - land of the wide open spaces - Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill - and let’s not forget the ladies - Belle Starr, Stagecoach Mary, Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane - but then, I digress.  

Besides, what does a city slicker, that’s right, a New York transplant, know about the great outdoors, and growing corn and supporting the Cornhuskers - well, now that you ask - resistance is futile - I have been assimilated - RED ALERT - we are now off course.  

An American Star-Trek version with unknown characters which
doesn't star Capt. Kirk and Mr Spock and therefore cannot
be a real Star Trek. Spot the famous character in the right hand bottom
corner.

But fear not, my communication channel is open, so let’s welcome Elisabeth.

Chichester's Elizabeth Marrion

Mary Ann:   Hi Liz, welcome to The Wizard’s Cauldron.

Liz: Hi Mary Ann, it is a pleasure to be invited

Mary Ann:  It’s such a delight to have you featured today, but before we forge ahead, perhaps you could tell the Wizardwatchers a little bit about yourself. 

Liz: I was born in Germany in 1948. We lived in the North of Germany, which was occupied by the British, after WWII . My father was a corporal in the RAF ( Royal Air Force ) and was stationed in our town, Hildesheim . There he met my mother, who had lost her husband on the Russian front, during the last days of the War. 

I have 2 half brothers and 3 half sisters all older than myself. I moved to England in 1969, intending to stay for one year, but loved it and stayed. There I met my husband, David. Together, we formed an importing clothing Company. Through this company we worked many years in the Far East and the Sub Continent.

 Mary Ann:  Since I am an avid history buff, and am not limited to the 9th Century, please tell us about your fascination with Rommel and way you chose to write a book about this intriguing personality.

Liz; My mother’s husband, Karl, was a young officer serving under Rommel during WWII. After Rommel’s death, Karl was sent to the Russian front at the end of the War, but he did not return. My mother kept his memories, and the memory of Rommel alive, by telling us about their lives and showed us the photos she had kept. I was the youngest, and after moving to England, my mother stayed with me every year for up to two months, and during those weeks together, she told me her story.

The Desert Fox

Mary Ann  It is my understanding that “The Night I Danced with Rommel” is a fictionalized account of what happened when your mother met the infamous German Field Marshal aka The Desert Fox.  Are there any insights handed down by your mother that were not included in the book?

Liz: The account in the book is as my mother told it to me. I changed only some of the names and some places. Most of my brothers and sisters still do not know some of the things my mother trusted me with. So I wanted to write this book that my extended family would realize, and what made my mother the strong woman that she was. 

But then, I realized that not many people know what life was like for families in Germany during that period. I now want share her story with a wider audience.

Mary Ann:  You are also translating the book into German.  How is that project coming along?

Liz: I am half way through. I would like the first translation to be finished by the end of May 2013. After I do the initial translation, I forward each chapter to my School friend, Waltraut. From there, it goes to my niece Susanne. Later, we print it out and read it again, but after that, I will have to find a German proof reader. I would like to have it ready at Christmas, to give to my brothers and sisters, whose English is limited.

Mary Ann:  You are also writing the sequel, “The Liverpool Connection.”   Tell us a little about this second installment.

Liz  Again, this is based on facts, and tells about life in Liverpool at the same period as “The Night I Danced With Rommel,” between 1926 – 1945.  David, my husband comes from Liverpool and so did my father. My father’s aircraft bombed and flattened my hometown a month before the end of WWII. After the War, it was my father who kept my mother and siblings alive.

A flattened Liverpool during the blitz

 Mary Ann:  Have you come up with a title for the third installment of this series?

Liz: Yes the Cuckoo Clock. It is the story of Jewish emigrants from my home town going to America.

Mary Ann:   Your father was a Corporal in the RAF and stationed in the British occupied Zone in Western Germany after World War II where he met and married your mother.   What was it like growing up in an occupied country?

Liz:   We were lucky . we lived in the British Zone. Germany was divided into  four parts. British, American , French and  Russian . The Russian zone was totally enclosed. This was where most of my mother’s family lived. We could never visit there. And if one of my aunts or uncles would get permission to come and see us, they would have to come alone, without any other family member. This confirmed to the Communist party over there that they would return. Also, they would come as they stood, no money or clothes, just with one bag and just for a few days. Originally, movements were also restricted in the other zones. You could not travel from the British  to the American or French zones. But over the years, we managed to live side by side .

The zones still exist today and American and British Armies still have their bases over there.

A divided and colonised Germany in 1945

Mary Ann:  You were also fortunate to work on the sub-continent and Far East.  Would you be willing to share a few of your stories with us?

Liz: Yes, through our work, David and I spent a lot of time abroad. This strengthened our love and understanding for different cultures . That is actually where I fell I love with my husband, in India, Mumbai, and at that time, was still called Bombay. 

The best of India

We worked for different companies back then. I was working for an importing company as their expert in India, and David was a director at a large men’s clothing chain. It was hate at first sight! We could not stand each other. See where it got us! Later we worked a lot in Bangladesh, and there, together with our manufacturer, we built a school in the rural part of the Country.

A Bangladeshi garment factory

Mary Ann  Your mother instilled your love of theater, and it is my understanding that both of  you have performed on stage.  This is quite an exciting reference on a resume.  Theater stories are the best; what insights might you divulge?

Liz:  My mother performed back in East Prussia and myself in the Theater in Hildesheim until I left in 1969. I was in a couple of Ballet performances in West London. If memories can be measured on the Richter scale, Theater memories would get a 10! Even today, when I go to see a show, in my mind, I am up there with the performers. The best smell in the world is when the curtains open, and a warm sweaty smell hits you, sitting in the audience. Sorry!  In ‘The Night I Danced With Rommel’, my mother meets a famous German Actress, Lil Dagover. I also met her later on stage back in Hildesheim.

Work in a theater was different then. Everybody was employed  by the theater, and you would be in many performances during the year. It would range from Opera, Musical, Plays, Christmas, pantomime. Say each show had about 20 – 30 performances a year. These would be staggered.

Like a musical tomorrow, a play the next day, and so on. Quite often, I would be in a Christmas Pantomime, with shows on weekends, at 11 am and 3 pm. 

Heartbeat's That Nick Berry - coming soon to a panto
near you

At 8 pm, I would be in a Musical. No wonder I got on so well with my mother, she never saw me. In between, I had to go to school, and later, college. On other occasions, if the Musical group played in the home town, the acting group would be a guest performance somewhere else. There was constant juggling around.

Big friend of mine, racehorse breeder and
Newark punter, TV's Frazer Hines plays the indolent Jack in "Jack and the Beanstalk"
I've no idea who the rest are. A personalised 100 word
sonnet to the first person to tell me who any of these people might be.

Mary Ann:  Can you list five fun facts that people don’t know about you?

Liz  I can only lists things my husband knows about , otherwise that would be telling! (Oooer, missus - Ed!)

Well, the following is true, albeit embarrassing: When we moved house, the time before last. into a small village west off London, I was slightly confused about my new surroundings.  On my first day at the new house, I took the dog out for a walk, and as luck would have it, I met several of our new neighbors. I stopped and introduced myself, and made small talk. Later, in the bedroom back home, some items of clothing were on the bed. I went  to my husband and said, “I am definitely going mad now, I cannot remember having taken my running shorts off.” He shrugged his shoulders and said,: “That is because you never had them on.”Yes, I went through the village, introducing myself to people in my underwear and a t-shirt.  Don’t worry, years later, I became chair person of the Village Committee, I guess they forgave me.

Elisabeth's rediscovered shorts

Because of our business, we travelled a fair amount. On one occasion, when David went to Bangladesh without me, upon returning, he asked me whether everything was alright at the office. I told him I bought a travel agency. “What do we know about the travel agency business?”  Told him that we did not need to know since it came with staff of 12 people.

Now these are stories I can freely tell, can you imagine what my others story would be like. Are you sure you want five ?

Mary Ann:   These are sufficient, Liz.  Am still chuckling from envisioning the running shorts, or lack thereof, confession. If you could have dinner with anyone who ever lived, who would you invite, and what would you serve?

Liz : I would invite Margaret Thatcher. (Boooooooooooooo...Ed! ) When I was still working and trying to sell our latest ranges to big departmental stores in the 80’s , people would refer to me as ‘Maggie’. There could have not been a greater compliment. I would cook an East Prussian Dish ‘ Kohlrouladen’ Cabbage leaves, stuffed with meat, rolled together and cooked in the oven. I would serve it with a small portion of mashed potatoes. It is delicious and I am quite sure, she would have appreciated some simple home cooking.

Vegetable based German delicacy

Mary Ann  Oh dear, there is a time warp in Federation space, the Nexus will soon whisk you into its extra-dimensional realm.  As you are swept away, you will be able to bring with you 3 books, 2 CDs and 1 DVD.  What will you choose?

Liz:  I assume, wherever I am whisked  off  to, I would have plenty of time to read. In this case I would take ; 

The complete Works of William Shakespeare.  

Oscar Wilde : The importance of being earnest and other Plays

Brilliant Cerebus cycle featuring Sebastian Melmoth,
Wilde's post-gaol personae, an identity who refused to write for profit after
his treatment by the vicious homophobe and bully, the Marquis of Queensberry

Rabbit proof fence by Doris Pilkington.

  

CD: I would take songs by Hildegard Knef; many of her songs have real meanings and there is truth and conviction in her songs. Again, survival against all odds.

The other CD I would take is Ultimate Hits, by Garth Brooks. This would remind me of happy stays in the USA.

DVD: I would take the Erich Kaestner Collection.  Erich Kaestner was one of the banned authors during the Nazi regime.  Most of his children stories were made into film during the 50’s, and are loved by  most adults . They have an underlying message.

Mary Ann:  Elisabeth, we have run out of time on tonight's show, but I'd just like to say that I found all this fascinating and I am sure other's will too. The very best of luck to you!

Liz:  Mary Ann, thank you for the opportunity. It's been a pleasure.

Mary Ann: Wizardwatchers can contact Elisabeth on:

Webpage: http://elisabethmarrion.yolasite.com/

https://twitter.com/Lizziekind 

http://www.writers-room.org/

Mary Ann: Buy:

The Night I Danced With Rommel

Ebook

 http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Danced-Rommel-ebook/dp/B00B854ZXY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366308263&sr=8-1&keywords=the+night+i+danced+with+rommel

 Print

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/elisabeth-marrion/the-night-i-danced-with-rommel/paperback/product-20723600.html

Mary Ann can be contacted on her brilliant magazine style blog...

http://maryannbernal.blogspot.co.uk/

Gallery:

Mary Ann's wide range of historical fiction

Proper Star Trek...with Tribbles...

TJ Hooker - a smash hit in the UK