Dear Readers,
As I write the opening chapter of Amanda Cadabra Book 3, Heypressto releases 3 non-fiction books. The Feel-better Collections by Chartreuse are now becoming available beginning with Book 1.
Is there a link between these and the Sunken Madley chronicles? Yes. Cozy mysteries are feel-better novels, gentle, distracting, humorous and with happy endings. They are stories that leave you feeling that the world is a kinder, safer, softer, more joyful, friendlier yet exciting place than you may have felt it was before you were reading. And if it the case, as I believe, that you get what you focus on then the reader may actually begin to experience a better feeling environment.
So what are they about?
The first is 50 Feel-better Films.
‘Why not feel-good? Because at the bottom of the emotional staircase you can’t just ‘cheer up’. But you can feel better. Even if it’s just a little. Film from this collection drawn from 8 decades, about people dealing with the top 9 life crises, have helped others. They may help you or someone you care about.
Some of the movies are famous, some obscure. The main characters are from all kinds of backgrounds. The cinematic art quality ranges from Oscar winner to chick-flick, from great work to critical flop, from UK, US, Australia, France and India, from animation to restored black and white, from Random Harvest made in 1942 to Wonder, released on DVD in 2018.
There are no tales of fixes of what is broken, only new and improved. There are no deaths of subsidiary characters we have grown attached to, there is no wistful sadness; there is only hope, fulfilment and happiness at the ending of each of these stories.
You may not be ready even for the inspirational and motivational and so, although these films are also those things, this list is designed simply to include something that may soothe, comfort or encourage you into a better feeling emotional place.
50 Feel-better Songs from Film and TV was a natural progression from Book 1. Each song is about coming from a bad situation into a better feeling place, even if that isn’t yet a physical one that you can see. From 11 decades and 8 genres pop, pop-rock, jazz, reggae, RnB, soul, musicals and classical, some are slow, some upbeat. Each song has links to lyrics, Youtube where you can see the clip where it was sung live or in a movie, and to Amazon where you can listen and download.
Every song in this list, inspired by Abraham Hicks’ emotional scale, has soothed or comforted or inspired someone somewhere, in however small a way, to feel better.
Finally, 25 Feel-better Free Downloads was inspired by a desire to let people on a tight budget know what free examples of this kind of entertainments are available: 5 films, 5 songs, 5 five poems, 5 wallpapers and 5 books.’
Two more collections are on the table at the moment. Book 1, films, and Book 3, downloads, are now available from Amazon Kindlebooks with book 2, songs about to follow.
Meanwhile, what of Sunken Madley? What tidbits can I let fall about the sequel to Amanda Cadabra and The Cellar of Secrets? Well, there will be 4 new characters. The village is about to receive new residents. There is a project afoot. The past will once again become entangled with the present.
All of the old favourites return: Amanda Cadabra, Granny and Grandpa, Detective Inspector Trelawney, his former boss the retired Chief Inspector Hogarth, and, of course, the star of the show, in his opinion, Tempest, Amanda’s irascible feline familiar. Plus the local Festival of the Feast of the St Ursula of the Orchard. Will Trelawney finally get his tour?
To help while away the weeks between now and the release of Book 3, I am working on some quizzes for you to have fun with. Please do drop me a line, or comment on Facebook or below if this is something you would enjoy.
Happy weekend,
Holly
Available from Amazon
and paperback
