BOOK REVIEWS

How often do you purchase something on Amazon and then after a decent amount of time you get an email from them asking if you would like to post what you think of the product? 

I get these emails all the time and usually try to respond by doing a short review, as it helps other customers with their decision on whether to buy the product or not.

Authors are especially grateful for any comments that their readers find time to make. Actually, it only takes a moment and you don’t need to give a long in depth review.

If the word “review” puts you off, don’t worry. You don’t have to be an expert at reviews. Your grammar doesn’t even have to be perfect! All you need to post are your honest comments about the book. This can be as short or as long as you wish.

Do bear in mind though with book reviews that the author will probably read your review. As my dear old author friend and mentor Jan Valpy used to tell her writers’ group - “when doing a critique remember to be kind to the soul of the writer!”

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BOOK REVIEWS WELCOME!

How often do you purchase something on Amazon and then after a decent amount of time you get an email from them asking if you would like to post what you think of the product?

I get these emails all the time and usually try to respond by doing a short review, as it helps other customers with their decision whether or not to buy the product.

Authors are especially grateful for any comments that their readers find time to make. Actually, it only takes a moment and you don’t need to give a long in depth review.

If the word “review” puts you off, don’t worry. You don’t have to be an expert at reviews. Your grammar doesn’t even have to be perfect! All you need to post are your honest comments about the product. This can be as short or as long as you wish.

Do bear in mind though with book reviews that there is a human being at the other end of the review. As my old mentor Jan Valpy used to tell her writer’s group, when doing a critique remember to be kind to the soul of the writer!

AUTHORS MEET!

I had the pleasure on Tuesday of meeting in Starbucks, Melia Nassau Beach Resort, Cable Beach, with six established local authors for a chat about writing and publishing. Here’s a photo that appeared in today’s Tribune. As you can see from the scattering of books, along with coffee cups and goodie bags, we had a great time!

BAHAMIAN MUSIC IS “BLOWING IN THE WIND”

The Invaders playing in the old Lisbon Club on Bay Street 1965.
Left to right: the late Lorin Cartwright, 
Peter Catalano and my husband Erskine Knowles

I heard a recording yesterday on the Charles Carter radio show of the late great Brook Benton’s song “The Ties that Bind” by Bahamian legendary entertainer Marvin Henfield. Henfield’s rendering brimmed with the sensual Bahamian beat that I fell in love with when I first came to The Bahamas. I’d never heard that type of music before I arrived in Nassau. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!

Where is all that lovely Bahamian music now? Gone like Peter, Paul and Mary’s song “Where have all the flowers gone?” It should never have been allowed to practically disappear. It’s unique. Tourists loved it. Bahamians loved it. Expats loved it. Now we are subjected all the time to gangster rap, watered down reggae, hiphop…. I couldn’t even find a Bahamian CD downtown the other day as a present to send abroad.

Thankfully, radio hosts like Sir Charles Carter and Steve McKinney keep Bahamian music alive to some extent on their shows. But it should be everywhere for everyone to enjoy. Cuba and Mexico have retained their national musical identity for example (and of course countries like Scotland where I come from – oh how my heart stirs to the bagpipes!). Why couldn’t we have done the same here?

Once we met some tourists when we were out for a walk. They wanted to know where they could listen to some Bahamian music. We really had to stop and think. We suggested Junkanoo Beach and probably Atlantis.

We should have an income producing Bahamian Cultural Museum downtown, featuring our traditional Bahamian musicians (past and present), like Liverpool has for The Beatles. When we visited that Merseyside tourist attraction some years ago, we were able to go from section to section with various Beatles’ music playing and memorabilia for all to see. Live performances by traditional Bahamian musicians could take place in the Bahamian Cultural Museum from time to time.

The Bahamian Cultural Museum could also feature Bahamian artists, authors, and everything cultural that is Bahamian, with workshops. I keep suggesting this, but no one ever carries my suggestion any further. It all just keeps like the Bob Dylan song “blowing in the wind”!