Tuesday Talk: Read the Story... Guess the Song

Awarded for all 5 star reviews

As most of my regular readers and followers know, I founded and run (supported by a fantastic team of reviewers and admin helpers) an historical fiction review blog - Discovering Diamonds. We 'opened for business' in January 2017 and have been going from strength to strength ever since. We recently had our 1,000th submission enquiry and have had over 334,000 page views, and are (at time of writing this) 14th on the Top 35 Historical Book Blogs & Websites To Follow  listing

Awarded for all 4 star reviews

We are quite picky about the books that get a review published - they must reach a certain 'value for money' standard, not only for the writing but for the presentation as well. No one wants to pay good money for a novel that is poorly formatted, let alone poorly written. We only review historical novels with at least 75% of the story set prior to 1953 (that's because I was born that year, and I refuse to think of myself as 'historical'!)

But during December we take a break from posting reviews every day and treat our regular (and many new!) visitors to a special entertainment.

Read the first story HERE

We have a variety of authors - some well-known, others not as familiar - contributing a short story that was inspired by a song. These stories are not necessarily historical-based (although some are) some are amusing, some thoughtful. Some are romances, some are not... in short (excuse the mild pun) anything goes! 

And apart from enjoying a superb variety of stories, written by a variety of authors, there is a second 'entertainment' - as you are reading, can you guess the song? I give a picture clue at the start of the story - although most are not easy clues!

For instance, can you guess the song that goes with this image? (Don't cheat by scrolling down to reveal the answer!)

Here's a clue to the song!

I would like to thank all our authors for taking part with such enthusiasm and talent, and also take this opportunity to thank our reviewers, the followers on Facebook and Twitter who share and retweet our reviews, and thank all the who visit Discovering Diamonds, whether as readers, authors, publishers or just out of interest...

We offer more than just posting a review, however: we have Cover of the Month and Book of the Month and then Cover and Book of the year. For every book we review I leave a brief comment on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Goodreads, and have links to these two Amazon platforms plus Amazon Canada to make it easy for potential readers to buy the book reviewed. From January 2020 we will be adding links to Amazon Australia and Goodreads.

Our logos (and the review itself) do not carry copyright so that authors are welcome to use either as, where and when they like (although we do appreciate accreditation of 'Reviewed by Discovering Diamonds').

Our aim is to promote quality Historical Fiction and good authors - especially Indie writers who, unlike mainstream authors, find marketing their books a challenge.

And, to have a bit of fun of course!

If you would like to submit a book for potential review email me (Helen) on author@helenhollick.net. Or if you would like to help us support good authors we always welcome new reviewers!

So... did you guess the song?

Telling Stories by Tracy Chapman

(official video)

Note: there is strict copyright regarding lyrics - but no copyright for ideas

The Full List of Authors Taking Part

(Start Here - then follow to 'Next Story>')

December

2^nd   M.J. Logue   First Love  

3^rd   Richard Tearle Chips and Ice Cream

Richard is our senior reviewer

He is writing his first novel

4^th    Helen Hollick Promises, Promises

5^th    Paul Marriner Memories

6^th    Pam Webber One Door Closing

7^th    Louise Adam Hurt Me Once

(Louise is the pen name of one of our reviewers

for personal reasons she wishes to remain anonymous)

*

8^th    Barbara Gaskell Denvil Sticks and Stones

9^th    Judith Arnopp Secrets

10^th  Erica Lainé  Silk Stockings

11^th   Anna Belfrage Hold Me, Love Me, Leave Me? 

12^th  Annie Whitehead Frozen

13^th  Tony Riches Alas, My Love

14^th  Clare Flynn, Zipless

15^th  J.G. Harlond The Last Assignment

16^th  Elizabeth St John Under The Clock

17^th  Alison Morton Honoria’s Battle

18^th  Jean Gill The Hunter

19^th  Patricia Bracewell Daddy's Gift

20^th Debbie Young It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas

21^st   Ruth Downie  Doing It Properly

22^nd Nicky Galliers What God Has Joined

Nicky is not yet published

(but she's working on it...)

23^rd  Elizabeth Chadwick The Cloak

24^th / 25^th HAPPY CHRISTMAS

26^th  Helen Hollick Ever After

*

27^th   Barbara Gaskell Denvil Just The One... Or Maybe Two

*

28^th   Deborah Swift Just Another Day

29^th   Amy Maroney What The Plague Brings

30^th   Cryssa Bazos River Mud

31^st  HAPPY NEW YEAR

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