The passing of a wonderful friend

April 7th. 2014
The passing of a wonderful friend.

Since my last blog exactly three months ago, I have lost a wonderful friend, Miles Hughes who died on the 20th February after a two month fight with pancreatic cancer. The writing establishment of Auckland lost a wonderful man who was unstinting in his time and help. Miles was an engineer who retired early to do his first love -- writing. Within a few short years, he had ten books on Amazon. His knowledge was prolific, his goodness immeasurable. We all miss him. Especially me. He was always on the other end of the phone, knew so much about the sea, the military and the navy, in fact, he was a wonder. We gave him a WRITER'S ROAST at 121 Café in fashionable Ponsonby and amongst the items, was a light hearted skit I wrote playing on his name and the Knights Templar of which he wrote a young adult trilogy. I thought his name Miles and his wife Bronwyn were just the ticket as medieval names. So I made him Sir Miles and her Lady Bronwyn and at the end of the political skit on the local government scene in Auckland, had him starting his own brand of religion -- under the House of the Hughenots... pronounced with a hard g and you get my drift. His entire family turned up to enjoy the afternoon and within ten days he was dead. I miss him when I write, miss him when we all turn up for our Writer's Open Mike at 121 Café and miss him at our Society meetings. He was too young to be taken, ( a youthful 66) and though there might be a better place in heaven, for him the best place of all was here on earth with his wonderful Lady Bronwyn, his friends who all love him and his writing for which he had so much zest.
His works are available on Amazon and Create Space, Fishpond and Ingrams Distributors.
THE CATALAN
THE EGYPTIAN
RICHMOND ROAD
THE COCONUT WAR
and others for young adults.

On my own front, The Ming Admiral: A Chinese Odyssey is out on Kindle, Create Space and Fishpond as is Destinies Divided: A World War 1 romance of the Chinese Diaspora. These are of course historical novels and have both garnered glowing reviews from Red City Reviews and Flaxseed.c
So I hope you will look into them and enjoy them. Till next time. Addios, Amigos.

Easter 2014

EASTER 2014

A happy holiday dear readers and for you church-goers, a blessed one.
Here in New Zealand, this Easter is one of raging bad weather thereby dampening holiday plans.
But for most bad weather brings solace in books and movies, even family re-unions.

Next Friday is ANZAC DAY when we commemorate the two world wars. Above is my contribution to the nearly 200,000 Chinese labourers who worked, and died in the trenches of France. They worked on the side of the Allies and made the horror of that dreadful war, slightly less dreadful. They dug the trenches, put up the barb wires, removed the barb wires, buried the dead.

 But DESTINIES DIVIDED is also the story of how mixed-race Chinese Maoris from New Zealand struggled in both their parents' countries to find acceptance only to find it finally in that most terrible place where so many millions died in such unspeakable conditions.
It is a story of love in its broadest sense, of missionaries in China during the Boxer Rebellion and their children who survived it only to meet up again in Flanders. It is available on Kindle, Create Space and Fishpond.

For us DownUnder, Easter is the beginning of the cold weather but for you in the Northern Hemisphere it is the herald to Spring and Summer. May you have wonderful sun and warmth.
Enjoy Destinies Divided. This is the book that took my heart and soul in the writing. I hope it finds itself to your heart and soul.