WRITING IN SHORTHAND!

 

Pitman's Shorthand - 

"I love to write in shorthand!"

When I left school at sixteen years old, I wanted to get a job in a London newspaper and train as a newspaper reporter from the bottom up. However, my mother didn't want me to leave Devon and go to the big city on my own at such a young age! She insisted I enroll at the local technical college and train to be a secretary. Wise mother as she was, she told me the shorthand and typing would come in useful if I ever did become a newspaper reporter.

I followed her sound advice and to my surprise, I found I just loved shorthand and typing. After a year, I qualified as a secretary, having also taken law, commerce and a couple of other courses, as well as Pitman's Shorthand and RSA Typing. 

I worked as a secretary for a year, then the opportunity came up in a news agency that two London Fleet Street journalists had set up. I took the job they offered me as a trainee reporter/Girl Friday and received the best newspaper and writing training ever from these two brilliant men.

Even today, I still write in shorthand most of the time when making notes to myself. It comes in very handy!

AN EARLY BAHAMAS GENERAL ELECTION!

 

The Bahamas General Election due to be held in May 2022 has been called early.

It will now be held on September 16th, 2021. Signs promoting the two main parties, the Progressive Liberal Party and the Free National Movement, sprouted everywhere as soon as the new date of the Election was announced! 

MORE BOOKS POPULAR ON KINDLE UNLIMITED

 

Image from Amazon.com

My short story collections, Sunbeams from the Heart and Moonbeams from the Soul, have always been popular among Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers, especially in the U.K., but I am thrilled that all of a sudden readers are branching out to read my other books too via Kindle Unlimited. 

About Kindle Unlimited from Amazon.com: "Kindle Unlimited is a service that allows you to read as much as you want, choosing from over 2 million titles, thousands of audiobooks, and up to three select magazine subscriptions. Explore new authors, books, and genres from mysteries and romance to sci-fi and more. You can read on any device. It's available for $9.99 a month and you can cancel anytime. Try it free for 30 days." - and - "Customers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, India, China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and Australia can sign-up for Kindle Unlimited in their local Amazon marketplace. We also plan to expand this service to other countries." 

I invite readers from around the world where Amazon Kindle Unlimited is available to give this a try! All of my published books are listed in Kindle Unlimited. Of course, you are also able to buy my ebooks or paperbacks outright on Amazon.

OLD MANUSCRIPT FEATURED IN BUCKINGHAM & WINSLOW NEWSPAPER!

 

Great news! The Buckingham & Winslow Advertiser, Buckingham, England, has featured me and my old children's adventure book manuscript in their online edition! Maybe I'll hear from a publisher, who might want me to edit and complete it again!

I've been told that the feature should appear in their print edition next week.

BUCKINGHAM & WINSLOW ADVERTISER FEATURE

BOOK DEDICATIONS

 

Above is the dedication inside my novel "Deadly Deceit In Paradise", Book Two in my Buchanan Mystery Romance Series! I dedicated the book in memory of my late Swedish grandfather Frederick Wilhelm Johanson. I wish I had known him.

I don't have a Swedish grandfather in "Deadly Deceit In Paradise", but I do have an elderly Bahamian uncle, whose niece Natalie Barrett notices a string of suspicious events that lead her to believe he may not have died from natural causes as reported. Will her curiosity and subsequent amateur investigation point to murder? And will she have to choose between the two handsome men she meets? A whodunnit filled with intrigue, romance, scandal and mystery that will keep your mind on it long after you’ve read the last page!

Available on Amazon and other online retailers as an e-book and in paperback.

Click here for Deadly Deceit In Paradise

COMING FULL CIRCLE!

  

Part of the old manuscript

When I was between eleven and twelve years old, I wrote a children's adventure book. At the time, I was living with my parents in Buckingham, England, where they owned and operated a watchmaker and jeweller's shop.

My father gave me an old accounts ledger in which to write the book. It was quite thick and had a hard cover. I carried it everywhere I went for a whole year, scribbling my adventure story every chance I had in school recesses, lunch hours and after school.

At the end of the year it was finished, but I had no outlet for it. I didn't even have a typewriter (there were no computers or internet in those days).

During the school term after that I lived in the hostel of Wolverton Grammar School. The housemaster, Mr. Hodge, who was an author, read my book, to give me his opinion. He gave me a little review with suggestions for a few changes. I was thrilled when he told me it was very good and I should try to get it published.

However, the book still didn't go anywhere. I carried on writing the poems and stories I had written since the age of nine and took my book with me when I moved to Devon, Canada and finally, The Bahamas.

I still have some of the first pages from the book, but sadly the rest of it was somehow lost over the years. I believe it may had been eaten by insects when stored on Long Island for a while!

Anyway, reading over what I have of the book, I realize that I have actually come full circle. I started off writing mysteries and dramas and now I am working on Book Three in my Buchanan Mystery Romance Series, which is also full of drama!

MANIPULATING CHARACTERS IN A NOVEL!

The original manuscript for "Dangerous Devotion"

(formerly "Love at Sunset") before it was published!

I'm sending Violet and Gordon to Long Island again! They are the main protagonists in my Buchanan Mystery Romance Series. I am currently working on Book Three of the series. Violet and Gordon appear throughout. They love Long Island and have a little beachfront cottage there. They also love Scotland, where Gordon is from.

We authors enjoy manipulating the characters in our books. We can send them anywhere we want and navigate their lives! 

You can purchase Book One (Dangerous Devotion) and Book Two (Deadly Deceit In Paradise) by clicking on the book cover links to the left of this page. You can also go to Amazon and put my name Fay Knowles in the search box. It will come up with all of my books on my Amazon author page (as e-books and in paperback). You may be able to special order paperbacks through your local bookstore as well.