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Welcome to Jane Dougherty’s site. You will find posts about writing in general, my writing in particular, and random notes about where I live, and my animals and other family.
Thanks for dropping in.

As of October 27 2020 my first chapbook of poetry thicker than water is available from most Amazon sites. My second poetry collection, birds and other feathers, followed on November 27 2020.

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250 thoughts on “Home page”

  2. Hi Jane,
    I stumbled onto your blog following links from The Truth You Always Knew. You said your youngest asked the question, what came before the Big Bang. The answer to that is something I’m exploring in my own blog, Steve’s Pen at WordPress.com. Maybe you’d like to visit. I’ll be following you from now on.

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  5. Hi Jane – thanks for the comment on my latest writing post. I find the web in general and wordpress in particular to be a great solace, where else in past times did writers have such a massive support group and people to test their ideas on.
    I think we wear our fortunes too lightly.

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    1. It’s very strange, but I feel I actually like some of the people in the blogosphere I have never met better than most ‘real’ people I know. Something to do with shared interests maybe?

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      1. No-one can fake emotion in writing, as hard as they may try. The goodness of people shine through.

  6. That’s worth quoting, James. You must have great faith in human nature. I immediately thought of poets like Hardy who by all accounts was impossible to live with, like Dickens, and Yeats who was a crypto-fascist though he probably wasn’t aware of it. But who are we to judge someone’s nature by the way they behave in a public way or in a single instance?

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    1. Thank you, Sophie, I’m very flattered you have thought of me. I think I’m going to be like you though and sit on it for a while before accepting it. I am absolutely snowed under with editing at the moment, as well as trying to get my first book finally out of the door.
      If you want to have a go at book trailers have a look at Animoto. It’s the most foolproof site I’ve found. Since you can provide the graphics, all you have to do is find some appropriate music, write a bit of text, and Bob’s your uncle.

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    1. Glad you found it! You’ll get the hang of blogging very quickly. It’s the organisation of it that takes the time initially, but once you’ve got the different sections going, you just write.

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  11. Hi Jane, I’m really pleased to say that your poem, ‘Time Was’, has won the mini monthly writing competition on my blog for August. And well deserved too – I loved the imagery that you created with this piece!
    As winner I would now like to invite you to set the writing prompt for September’s competition. This can be anything, from a general theme to a specific brief, and I would be grateful if you could email this to me at elizfrat@hotmail.co.uk . Thank you again for taking part this month and I enjoy your work 🙂

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    1. I don’t know what to say, except that I am very pleased and very flattered (I’m blushing wildly here) that people enjoyed my poem. Thank you, Elizabeth for your generosity in using your blog to promote other writers’ work.

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      1. It is my pleasure and I love reading all the entries that come in. I appreciate each and every entry and so far the quality of submissions has been really strong. Thank you for setting the next writing prompt and for taking part in what I’m trying to do. All the best and keep up the good work! 🙂

  12. So enjoying your blog and posts and the videos too…hope all is well. Sorry I have been remiss in visiting so often; I am finding it hard to type and sit for long and have been neglecting my blog too though I have stuff scheduled there. I will try and visit more often as I cannot give in and give up. Good luck with everything and much success which you deserve. Thanks for visiting my author pages – appreciated. 🙂

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    1. Sorry to hear you’re having problems. I haven’t been as assiduous as I ought either. Revising and editing has been getting in the way of reading and blogging. Thanks for the good wishes—I hope to be able to announce a(nother) release date for Dark Citadel soon.

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  13. I’ve got a bit lost. I was trying to find your latest post and ended up on this page. There are quite a lot of pages on this site, but I have to say, however I arrived here, and whether this is the latest page or not, these pictures are gorgeous. Did you do them? If you did, stop making those sandwiches immediately and do some more. They really are striking

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    1. I just added another gallery of ‘portraits’ of my characters, and a book trailer. I’m glad you like the pictures. I didn’t either paint or photograph any of them, just borrowed them because they suit the characters or the settings in the book. I’ll get another set together maybe next weekend when the book comes out.

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      2. Thanks Peter. I’ll send up a flare or something on Friday. You have rather longer to bite your nails to the quick, if I remember rightly. Good luck to you too.

  14. Sounds a really good read and full of fantasy and I am sure Laura will read it. I am her Mum and also a writer and enjoy a good novel. Good luck in your writing and I certainly enjoyed the bookish banter with Laura Crean.

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    1. Thank you, Frances. I enjoyed doing Laura’s very chatty interview. She might well read The Dark Citadel when she gets the time, but we all have so many obligations in the way of reading other people’s work that I don’t expect it to be for a while. Best wishes and hope your own writing projects are bearing fruit.

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      2. Where is my head? You´re the one who nominated me, how the hell did that happen?
        I surely appreciate it but I don´t know how the process work or how you found that story. I´m just curious, thanks again.
        Stay Frosty.

      3. Kendall and I read hundreds of blogs before we made a long short list to discuss together. When you put your mind to trawling through WordPress you can unearth some gems 🙂

  21. Thank you so much for visiting and following my blog. Looking forward to reading your posts and your book, which sounds rather cool. Reminds me to get back into picking away at my scattered drafts now that I’ve finished procrastinating with this year’s NaPoWriMo. But first I think I’ll procrastinate a little longer with a new tale set in Providence … 😉

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    1. Your blog was a real find. I love Italian and though I read it well enough I’d never dare write in it except for very short things. I’m more comfortable with French.
      What is your book about? If you ever do take a stroll through Providence let me know how you find it—I’d love to know!

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      1. I’m currently trying to download your book but having difficulty from the Italian end, as usual! Sometimes to download songs and books from sites ‘not available in my country’ I need to to a bit of re-routing to pretend I’m not really here 😉 I shall persevere and let you know…
        I must confess, my book is…books…I have 9 works on the boil (poetry, short stories, non fiction), 2 first drafts (YA and Spec Fic) finished, research for others, and…well, I’m an edit-phobe. Plucking away at the structure one of them, however!

  22. We almost plumped for Italy but decided it might be a bit too chaotic for us, and came to France instead. I still regret Rome though. Know how you feel about being submerged by draughts. The Green Woman series is finished, or it will be when I get the last edits back, but I have another YA spec fic story in draught plus the first part of a pretty odd historical fantasy and two collections of short stories. The poetry is just for fun. Give us a shout out when the draught is all in the right order 🙂
    I hope you manage to get Amazon to work. There have been glitches all along the line this time around.

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  23. Hello Jane — Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading one of my stories. I’ve been browsing through your blog and find it fascinating. I will be following you. Have a wonderful weekend!

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    1. Thank you Lori! This blog is getting like a lumber room. I don’t know where things are any more! Good luck with the story writing, I’ll be back for more, and enjoy what’s left of the weekend.

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    1. That’s lovely of you Peter but I’ve already had the Leibster Award. I ought to have left the button on my blog but I lost it when I changed the theme and created a home page. Thanks for thinking of me though.

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      1. Yes, the music adds to the drama:) And the images are brilliant. Cannot wait to get the book, I love the YA fiction being a YA myself in my heart 🙂

      4. Now that is a very good question. If potential readers can’t see how to get hold of a copy I really need to do something about organizing this blog! It is on Kindle. I’m on the point of changing the cover and will post the new one today. I’ll make sure I put the purchase link on the post. Thanks for pointing it out 🙂

      5. No worries, it is not because your page is badly organized 🙂 I am trying to interact with every person I am following, and sure I am missing a lot, but what can I do! The link would be very helpful though 🙂

  29. Jane, Your Trailers are magnificent! No wonder Patty loves your works with her Dark poetry & her youth fantasy novels! Best wishes with your great success & a bright future as an author! Phil from excuseusforliving.com

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    1. Sometimes I try to imagine meet-ups with virtual friends. It was easy when I only had one or two. Now there are so many people I am sure I would love to spend time with, the intimate cup of tea has turned into the kind of party I’d need to hire a marquee and a band for. Then it wouldn’t be intimate. Not everyone would get on. Could be disastrous. Back to individual meet-ups again maybe 🙂

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      1. My drawings for my children’s book look generic compared to yours.. I haven’t drawn in years.. I had my children’s story but no money for an illustrator. 😉

      2. Which drawings did you mean? They weren’t mine so don’t give me the credit. I borrow a lot of Pre-Raphaelite stuff because they suit the mood of what I write.

  34. Hi Jane – I just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award. There is a special tab on my blog for it. I don’t know if you do these or not (my first, probably last time) but I have a link there that will bring readers to your blog.

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    1. Thank you, Laine! I have a policy of not accepting blog awards because of all the hard slog of nominating and linking so many other bloggers. Lazy I know, but it takes me forever. But it’s churlish not to acknowledge such a generous gesture—you took the trouble to do all that linking business after all! So I’ll do a post with my diluted version. Thanks again 🙂

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      1. Thanks Jane. That’s not necessary. I wanted to publicize the authors I actually read most on WordPress, but it was very difficult to pick only 15, and as you say – a lot of work. I now have my own policy too lol 🙂

  36. I simply LOVE ALL of your book covers! The art and design are fantastic. And The Dark Citadel has officially gone on my Amazon Wish list for the holidays. It’s been such a pleasure following your blog and it is one of my favorites.

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    1. What a lovely comment! Thank you, Marcy for your encouragement. I’m so pleased you like the covers. They’re simple because I don’t have fancy software, but I hoped they were effective. And thanks for saying you’d like to read The Dark Citadel. If you do, I hope you enjoy it.

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    1. I’ve been looking around your site and you write very impressive poetry. You’ve been too places I haven’t, thank goodness, and I admire you for being able to take your words there with you.

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  39. Loving the photos and the video too. Thanks for popping into my author blog too. If you read the CF article let me know your thoughts – CF appreciate seeing the comments there….they’ll keep me on LOL xx Hoping all is going well and this week is a fab one xx

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      1. Thanks so much appreciated. You have been so busy I see…trying to catch up with all your posts when I can. Enjoy them no end…if only there were more hours in a day – we all cry!

  41. Started reading ‘Beyond the Realm of Night’ and felt really sad about what happened to Jonah. It’s not often this happens to me so your writing is really good. Will you be continuing Jonah’s life in the shadows in a separate story?

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    1. I’m glad Jonah’s story moved you, Lev. I hope you’ll find he gets a sort of closure in the final volume. He doesn’t really have a life as such any more, just a memory, so for me, his story is over. I have written his backstory though; it’s one of the stories included in In the Beginning and tells his story before he meets up with Deborah and how he sees his role in the scheme of things.

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      1. I am sorry to hear that his story is over in the final volume. Because he and the pups entered the shadows at location 1390 of the final volume as sentient beings or spirits (?), I assumed that he still had a role to play. Or was he with Deborah in spirit until the end?

      2. It’s one of the ideas in the story, that memory and reality are not easily disentangled. And the door between life and death isn’t permanently closed. Jonah is still present, even though his body is dead, and he stays with Deborah forever. I’m writing a follow on series set a few years after the end of The Green Woman, and Jonah is still very much in her thoughts.

  42. Thanks for explaining Jane. And good luck with your writing. It’s reading books like yours that enable me to get through a dark period of my life.

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      5. I had but some of it is watermarked and that’s another confusion. I don’t want to break any rules. I had generally checked whether such and such is allowed for copying but it takes time. Thank you for your suggestion. ❤

  44. Great post
    if you please please see my blog, I feel more happy, where maybe you can read useful for you

    Thank you in advance I say

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  46. Thanks for following The immortal Jukebox Jane. I hope you will much to entertain you (and comment on!). i look forward to exploration of your blog. Regards Thom.

    Reply

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