It's Time To Read Mamaw: dreams

Clash of the Titles presents four brand new inspirational novels. One's set in a Bible camp for tweens or the tweens in your lives. Hopes and dreams are threatened in another. In the third, a town's in need of a miracle. Two people work to cure a deadly disease in the fourth. Which one will you read first? Browse the books, then, using the voting box below, let us know the title you'll put at the top of your to-be-read list.

SPEAK NO EVIL by Mary Hamilton
Having his younger sister at summer camp will be a pain, but Taylor Dixon, 15, never expects the pain to go so deep. When she falls for his snobbish cabin mate, a war of words and pranks escalates, threatening to land him in jail and destroying his dreams for the future, until a lesson learned from an old engine sets him free from the prison he built himself.

THE HESITANT HEIRESS by Dawn Crandall
With the rare ability to play the piano by ear, Amaryllis Brigham wants nothing more than to someday found a music school. However, someone keeps undermining her hopes and dreams, and
she's sure it's Bram Everstone--the father of the one man she's ever come close to falling for.

MIRACLE IN A DRY SEASON by Sarah Loudin Thomas
Perla Long wants a quiet, safe place for her and her daughter where her past can stay hidden, but she ends up in a town in desperate need of a miracle. Bachelor Casewell Phillips sees everything he wants in a woman in her, but can't get past the sense she's hiding something.

WITH EVERY BREATH by Elizabeth Camden
In the shadow of the nation's capital, Kate Livingston's respectable life as a statistician is disrupted by an encounter with the insufferable Trevor McDonough, the one man she'd hoped never to see again. A Harvard-trained physician, Trevor never showed the tiniest flicker of interest in Kate, and the only reason he seeks her out now is because of the one thing they share in common: the competitive drive to cure the world's deadliest disease.

Today a Wonderful Treat! Vickie Johnstone

Shares 2 books of POEMS

Kaleidoscope
Published in March 2011

This is a collection of 119 poems - some long, some short, some haiku - that I have written on various subjects over the years. They range from serious to funny, covering subjects from the everyday to philosophy or the abstract. Some are snippets from the lives of imaginary characters or just ideas or reflections on nature.

The book is structured under eight themes: figures; nature; abstracts; love; haiku; creatures; childhood and dark wave.

Where to buy: Smashwords 2.99 ebook, Amazon paperback,
Kindle 2.99 ebook

Excerpts of Poems from book:

Vickie's favorite is the Fox and the Mole

We ride in cars

Slow to ride
Our comic days
All drowned in wine
In the stifling heat
We ride in cars
With windows down
Singing to strangers
Who cannot sing
Hold the tune
Against the summer breeze
With the dog’s head bobbing
He laps it up
The speeding cars
And the lingering lights
The ripped out trees
Shouting our sights
We ride in cars
Chase the tyre tracks
From dawn til dusk
We hold our fire back
And we scream and laugh
In the silencing
As the dark draws near
And we pretend to sleep
Keep the fires burning
As the dog nods on
In the piercing light
Of the summer sun

Rain

She sits and dreams of making rain
In the dark, shadows dancing mimic
Colours of the aghast
Sights and sounds and murmurs
Still breathing
Watching over the edge
Of everything
The glass splinters into a million shapes
Cast in a myriad of lights
Bright and sparkling, dancing
In the spring sun
And she dreams of making rain
That tears and crashes
Washing away the shards of glass
Splattering the colours rent
With droplets of ice-cold nothing
Cuts and caresses
Shards of grass peeking through
Clouds gathering
Dust.

Poppies

Marching in formation
Across distant lands
Enduring the unendurable
For a distant cause
Marching in formation
Up long, steep hills
Crossing mudflats and seas
For a patriotic cause
Marching in formation
Forever forward
Seeing things never forgotten
For a government’s cause
Marching in formation
For this the poppies grow
In patches of red blood
For the worthiest cause

Moon beams

Distancing the days
In her fragile accolade
The moon reaches down
Towards coloured boats bobbing
Twinkling she shines
Lighting the way
For every stranger passing
And old friends returning
She travels the skies
In a silvery glide
Always remembering
The shortness of time

I don’t mind

I don’t mind
If you stare
Or paint the room in blue
While I sleep

I don’t mind
If you walk a while
Or smile in your style
And mimic your expression

I don’t mind
If the urge to be is too much
Or the strength to see is gone
While I dream

The fox and the mole

Let’s rob a bank
Said the fox to the mole
I’ve got mouths to feed
And I’m feeling the need

Ok, said the mole
But you know I can’t see
I can burrow real deep
But I might fall asleep

Well, said the fox
I can offer my cunning
I will find a way inside
And to you I’ll confide

Wake me up said the mole
When you discover this
As I’ve got a hunch
We’re in a credit crunch

So the fox went off thinking
How to rob the bank
And came up with a plan
While eating a cherry flan

Well then, asked the mole
What do you suggest we do
To steal all the money
But not do anything funny?

Aha, said the fox grinning
I’ll tell you what to do
Just burrow under the bank
While I drive up in a tank

Oh, said the mole frowning
I never thought of that
I didn’t know foxes could drive
Have you told this to your wife?

No, we have to keep this secret
Said the fox to the mole
As she’ll have my guts for garters
And that’s just for starters

So off went the fox and mole
To begin their bank robber life –
They rivalled Bonny and Clyde
Living it up, the law they defied

LIFE'S RHYTHMS ~ 316 haiku

About Book

Ancient Japanese poetry with a modern twist. The old meets the new in this collection of 316 haiku, composed in the traditional pattern of three lines with 5-7-5 syllables. Subjects include: nature, life, food, animals, loss, love, longing, hope, dreams and time.

Where to buy:
Kindle ebook only .99
Amazon paperback

Sample of one of the poems:

Rain fallen like stars

Sprinkles silver-like touches,

Dancing beside me

Some distant day she’ll

Return when she sees beauty

In a rainbow sing

Under sparkling stars

She laughs like water cascades

Rippling endlessly

Raspberries blood red

Ripe, soft and so succulent

Chilled ice-cream slithers

Eyes turn to the sun,

River of blue-black shimmers

On peacock feathers

Leaves hurtle, twisting,

Dropping without an echo –

Curved, their hands open

About Vickie

Hi, I live in London, UK, and I’m a freelance editor. I've published 3 books of poetry: Kaleidoscope, Life’s Rhythms, and Travelling Light. My novels include: 4 books in the Kiwi Series for kids; 3 Heads & a Tail, and Day of the Living Pizza. Besides books, I love art, travelling, nature, the sea, gigs, dancing like an eejit, rock music, films, fluffies and tarot. Sleeping should be an Olympic sport.

My Thoughts

Kaleidoscope and Life's Rhythms are full of beautiful poems. If you want to be inspired then you should definitely read Vickie's poems. I did not want to rush through either of the books. How can I describe how I felt when reading the poems? I wanted to enter the poem and feel the emotions. Kind of like sitting in my rocker looking out into the piney woods that surround my house. I feel the trees swaying, birds and squirrels playing. Reading her poems were like that, inspiring, heart felt and full of wonder. An emotional experience.

I like the way it was divided into subjects: figures,nature, abstracts, haikui, creatures, childhood, dark wave

I have several favorites in Kaleidoscope but here are two.

THE AFFAIR and THE DARK WOOD.

I will share one of them. Then when you get the book you can read THE AFFAIR.

The dark wood

In the deepest depths of the dark wood

See the spectre trees stand and stare

Stretching out their bony fingers

To trip up weary wanderers who dare

Go freely into the unknown air.

In the deepest depths of the dark wood

Catch the ghostly moonlight crossings