Margaret Lynette Sharp's Blog

Happy New Year, everyone! Let's hope for better things in 2022.
Readers, to start the year on a high note, I invite you to download from Amazon your free copy of my 50's romance, Sisters and Rivals. It will be free from 1st January for five days. The giveaway starts in the early evening in Australia.
Hope you enjoy it!

As one who has recently lost the one they adored, I feel qualified to offer this advice.
Never put off having the conversations you ought to have. Never forget to let your loved one know how you feel. Never forget that, for all of us, life is finite. Never forget that no-one has unlimited time.
Teach your children to be kind to each other, to forgive and forget, and above all, to love and never be ashamed or reluctant to say it.
Do all in your power to live a life that does not sow the seeds of regret.

Today we celebrate the birthday of my husband Ronald William Sharp, the creator of the Grand Organ in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

Born in suburban Sydney on the 8th August, 1929, Ron attributes his long life to his love of classical music, and to his habit of keeping his mind active. He is keenly interested in gravity, and in recent times has published a book entitled ‘Gravity, Time and Consciousness.,’ which has been praised by Amazon reviewers.

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Writer no more - at least for a while.

With some regret, I say to you that I cannot go on being the proverbial Jill of All Trades.

My first responsibility is to my husband. How can I provide for his needs - attend to his ever-increasing care as a frail, aged gentleman - if I'm worn out, slaving over a pen (or computer)?

Then, there are our pets to look after. With her long coat, Chicki's need for grooming is on-going. Likewise, her desire for walkies... Our budgerigars, Albert and Victoria, also make their presence felt, squawking loudly several times a day when their food supply runs low, and loving their stints in the great outdoors on fine days, when their feathered friends from the wild often gather near.

I've made my decision, and it's the only one I could make to maximise my chances of preserving my health and energy. After all, I'm only human.

When I was a child, people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. My usual response was 'a teacher.' Later, I modified this to be 'a high-school maths teacher.'
Looking back, I can see how much I've changed. From loving mathematics, I've come to find it more than annoying. The last thing I'd ever want to be is a maths teacher, leave alone one at high-school level, where, horror of horrors, calculus rears its ugly head. My blood pressure skyrockets at the very idea.
So, x number of years later, I find myself being a writer, or as I prefer to call it, an author, with 42 titles to my name, and counting.
It cannot possibly be that I'm enticed by the money, for so far, there has been next to none. I honestly doubt that I've earned a cent over and above what it has cost me to create my stories. And before you start thinking that I must surely be very unsuccessful, think again. Lately, my Amazon author rank has been hovering around the 30,000 mark, out of more than one million. Not so very bad after all, is it?
Now for the bottom line.
Truth is, I'm driven to write. With next to no effort, ideas pop into my head and I *have* to write and develop them into stories. I guess they're like seeds that beg to be sown: precious seeds, quite possibly unique. They are my babies. They evolve as though they have a life of their own.
Will I ever stop this seemingly endless cycle?
Who knows? My will to create has survived scathing criticism from a number of reviewers who have made no secret of their intense dislike of my style and ideas. Yet here I am, right now, tapping away at a keyboard...
For love, not money...


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writing, author, literature, career, achievement, reviews, money, books

Attention, those of you who love Jane Austen Fan Fiction! A new short story nas just been released, available on Amazon Kindle. And it's free to read for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
Pemberley: The Next Generation

Of course, our favorite couple features prominently in the plot.

As every author probably know, your books are like children. You present them as well as you can, and send them out into the world, hoping that they'll be loved, or at last,accepted.
So it is with deep disappointment that I hereby report that my three-story compilation, Elizabeth and Charlotte, is being sadly neglected. At this very moment, on Goodreads, it has no reviews, and no-one in the entire world has even marked it 'to read'. It's as though it doesn't exist.
The sad truth is that I struggled to give a few copies away through Amazon. Of the few that accepted it, no-one has made any mention of it.
Oh well... Here's hoping for a miracle!

I'm thrilled to announce that, within days, Longbourn and Beyond will be available for purchase as a paperback, through Amazon.

A few days ago, I attempted - and passed - my first-ever driving test.
Unlike most people, I'd been disadvantaged as a young person, in regard to getting a licence. My father had given his up, following a collision, when I was about eleven. My mother had been very nervous about cars, and did not encourage me to learn. And, of course, with no car and no licence, my dad couldn't supervise me, and there was no-one else who could in our circle. The die had been cast.
Fast forward - x number of years. When I finally made up my mind to learn, I was older than my father had been when he called it a day. My husband, Ron, patiently showed me the ropes. It took quite a while. At first, I was hopeless at steering. More than once, I thought I'd never make it. But I did!
The moral? If the end result is something you really want, then without doubt, it's worth the struggle to achieve.

Attention, all lovers of Jane Austen Fan Fiction. A new release has just been listed: Much Ado at Longbourn. It's an engaging tale, featuring many of your favourite characters. Why not read it today? It's free to download on Kindle Unlimited.