Latest Posts

Currently reading ‘Disclaimer’ by Renee Knight

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At the moment I’m reading an addictive book called ‘Disclaimer’ by Renee Knight – it’s great. For a long time I’ve been hungry for a book that constantly has me predicting, has me wondering (even when I’m not reading) and more importantly keeps me hooked. If this is what you desire from a book, then get your hands on a copy of Renee Knight’s Disclaimer!
If you’re dying to find out more, than below is the blurb for Disclaimer.

“Imagine if the next thriller you opened was all about you.  When an intriguing novel appears on Catherine’s bedside table, she curls up and begins to read. But as she turns the pages she is horrified to realize she is a key character, a main player. This story will reveal her darkest secret. A secret she thought no one else knew…”

With some great story telling from Knight, the book immediately hooks you in and introduces you to the main character, Catherine, and into her personal life – a lot of stress, a deep secret and of course, the mysterious book.
With so much hunger to discover Catherine’s secret and the identity of the book placer, you just find yourself wrapped up in the book; hungry for answers. I struggle to stop reading Disclaimer at the moment and I’m not far from the end. I cannot wait to finish it hopefully over the weekend!

A great part (for me personally) of reading Disclaimer is that it shares a similar theme and main plot to my own novel ‘The Author‘ – allowing me to see how Renee tells a story using a book as one of the key aspects of the plot.

Writing DECEPTION!
As a side note, I have also been working on my new thriller ‘DECEPTION’ – why am I mentioning this in a post about Disclaimer? Well, because DECEPTION is currently the same size as Disclaimer (367 pages), everyone loves a fun fact!

I’m so close to the end of writing DECEPTION, before I then begin the editing process.

The journey so far

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‘My adventure into writing began back when I was just seven years old. The set up would be in the dining room with me and my brother at the dining room table. He would be drawing wars and dinosaurs whilst I would be there writing stories.
Even though I was too young to have a plan for the future, writing was the least likely option for me – being a child that needed speech therapy and extra support with writing and spelling, I was never considered to be a child that might enjoy writing.’

You can find out more about my journey into writing and self-publishing by having a read of my new ‘About‘ page.

Another makeover for the blog! 

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Hi everyone. 

If you’ve visited my blog in the last couple of days, then you’ll have noticed that the blog now has a complete new look as well as some new pages. 

With a notepad style theme and new pages dedicated to my writing, you’ll have the chance to see my ‘Poem Attempts’, Flash Fiction/Micro Fiction and new short story nightmare. 

Click the new page names above to see some of my writing – feel free to comment on the pages with your opinions, questions and own writing. 

Enjoy the blog and I look forward to hearing from you! 🙂 

Monday night’s creepy dream!

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I turn into the private close and pull up in the layby outside my parent’s home. Switching off the engine and shuffling in my seat toward the house, I see movement at the top window. 

Unplugging my seat belt and unwillingly stepping out into the dingy cold weather, I look back up to the top window and catch the blinds slowly rising, revealing a figure. Turning back to the car I press lock and await the clunk of the car doors before heading toward the house. 

Looking up at the top window I see a face I don’t recognise. A face that  sends a shiver down my spine. A face that looks like a mask. Midstride I freeze and stare back at the bald man. His puffy, grinning and moon crescent shaped grin frightens me. It’s permanent, with a bloody redness to it. 

I run straight through the wide open door, into the sitting room and then toward the stairs.

“Mum, Dad?” I shout. 

Third step up I see him, staring at me, still smiling uncontrollably from the top of the stairs. Reaching out to him I push him against the wall, he doesn’t flinch, he continues to smile. 

“Where are mum and dad?” I hear the fear and shaky intonation in my voice.

He continues staring and keeping his tight smile before eerily telling me “They’re not here.” 

I push him aside and run into my parent’s bedroom, staring to the bed I look away. I can’t look again. But I have to. 

Looking back to the bed I see two mounds under the duvet. 

Dream ended! 

That was my nightmare. It was quite creepy and easily woke me up and had me thinking for a while before settling back down. 

But why on earth did I dream of that happening? Especially with the eery man – extremely creepy! 

Feel free to turn your dream or nightmare into a short story and post it below! 

DECEPTION – A love of lies

T. J. Blake2 Comments

#amwriting #DECEPTION ‘A love of lies’ as a #tagline what do you think? #thriller #drama #ComingSoon 
What do you think? Feel free to comment. 

Six word story on Twitter

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‘In six words or fewer, write a story about someone you see everyday but never speak to. #amwriting #sixwordstory’

So here’s my story – ‘@WriterlyTweets she gleams amongst the swarm #sixwordstory #amwriting #shortstory’

You give it a go! 

Writing DECEPTION – Tweets

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I regularly update my Twitter page whilst writing DECEPTION – I like to post ambiguous tweets about certain parts of the book. 

I thought I’d gather the tweets below for you to read. Can you guess what’s going on in DECEPTION from these posts? 

#amwriting #DECEPTION Billy returns home and something is not quite right. Something is missing. Something he loves has gone.

#amwriting #DECEPTION Billy floats under the freezing cold water, only to see a body floating above him #thriller #nightmare

#amwriting #DECEPTION they walk for approximately 22 minutes. So Billy times it just right to take the bins out #spying #thriller

#amwriting #DECEPTION What is love? Billy speaks about the past and reveals what he does when he sees a couple #thriller

DECEPTION Ch.21 – Billy has finally read the entries

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I’ve been working on DECEPTION again this weekend, and now more has been shown to Billy. 

He was in unfamiliar territory when asked to read some entries that he promised he would never read. But because he needed answers, he’s had to go against that. After reading the entries, there are some answers for Billy, but some things are still unclear. 

Billy returns home and something is not quite right. Something is missing. Something he loves has gone. 

T. J. Blake #Author blog stats for 2015

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people…

Where did they come from?

79 countries in all!
Most visitors came from The United States. United Kingdom & Brazil were not far behind.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thanks to everyone who has viewed and interacted with my blog, it’s always great to meet and speak with you all.

Merry Christmas everyone and a have a happy New Year! 

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Hi all, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas yesterday! 

Let these great times continue with Boxing Day today and then the New Year celebrations. Enjoy this time to relax & to take your mind off work, appreciate this time with your family and of course, take a mini break from your diets – save that for the New Year! 

Happy Christmas everyone, and have a Merry New Year 🙂