The Haunting Ruins of Pennard Castle...

Half buried in windblown sand along the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, is what's left of the once majestic, Pennard Castle.

By Eiona R

Commissioned by Henry de Beaumont, the first Earl of Warwick in the twelth century, the castle has slowly been consumed by time and sand after its abandonment right around the turn of the fifteenth century. Now all that's left is the gatehouse, the curtain wall, and the remains of the Norman Hall - oh - and the ghosts, of course.

They say that the Gwrach y Rhibyn (The scary banshee creature of Wales) haunts the area. Stories handed down through the centuries tell us that anyone daft enough to spend the night inside the castle, won't live to see the dawn! We also have tales of a ghostly woman, consumed by sorrow, who walks the grounds on moonless nights. Some say that despair caused her to walk into a nearby lake from which she never emerged--at least not in mortality. No one is quite sure who she is, or what caused her sorrow.

Personal Photo of Three Cliffs Bay near Pennard Castle

Marlene Bateman, author of A Crooked House, Gives Tips on Characterization!

I am pleased to take part in Marlene Bateman's Blog Tour as she presents A Crooked House and some tips on Characterization!

Every author wants to capture their reader’s interest and one of the best ways to do this is by using effective, efficient characterization. Your story will only succeed if the people in it fascinate, anger, please, tickle, or otherwise affect the reader. You have to have believable, interesting characters. Readers want to become involved with the characters they read about.

To make your readers feel something for your character, you must make your character a specific person—you must strike a chord you know to be universal; such as fear, love, revenge, ambition, insecurity, etc. Work to give your readers someone they can identify with. To do this, you’ll want to pick out useful characteristics from the following list. Pick out a few things—not everything:

Author Marlene Bateman Talks "A Death In The Family!"

Best-Selling Author, Marlene Bateman is with us today to answer a few questions and discuss her latest novel, "A Death in the Family!"

So tell us, Marlene, what’s your secret to making the character’s in your books come to life?

I write down everything I possibly can about each character and keep it in a file so I REALLY know the character.  I don’t use most of the information in the book, but it helps me create a real character—lets me get into his or her ‘skin’ and know their past, present and their hopes and dreams for the future.  As I write, I try to imagine myself as that character and imagine how he or she would respond to each situation they faced.

How do you come up with characters names and place names in your books?

I get my names from two sources. First, I can look online. I found a great website that lists names according to year. This way, if I have an older character, I can type in their birth year and have a long list of names from that era to pick from.  Second, I save names from the sports pages of my local newspaper when they list all-star football and basketball teams.  I clip out the entire page and file it away for when I need some current popular names. Each page has dozens of cool names.

Heroes of Faith Blog Tour with Marlene Bateman Sullivan...

Marlene Bateman Sullivan, best-selling author, is back for another visit and this time she's talking about her newest novel, Heroes of Faith!

Synopsis

Our fast-paced society loves adventure and it loves a hero—but what about Latter-day Saint heroes?  Are there any?  There are plenty!  Heroes of Faith, True Stories of Faith and Courage, is a collection of twenty-four riveting

stories about people who rose above difficulties and impossible odds to emerge triumphant.