Book Tour – Day Six, the final day

Today is the sixth and final day of my book tour for THE ENCLAVE.

I am featured on Indy Book Fairy
(Click here to read and leave a comment 🙂 )

I also am featured in Crypticreads with a review so please go and take a look. (Click here to read the review :))

Please feel free to drop by and say hi.   I’d welcome the company.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

 

Book Tour – Day FIve

Today is the fifth day of my book tour for THE ENCLAVE.

I am featured on Ari’s Reads (Ari is also my daughter’s nickname 🙂 )
(Click here to read and leave a comment 🙂 )

My other stop today is at Danica’s Thoughts (Click here to read and leave a comment )

Please feel free to drop by and say hi.   I’d welcome the company.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

 

I Was Only 19 – A favourite song of mine

I was Only 19 (A walk in the Light Green)

Here is a classic Australian song originally performed by Redgum, but this version of the lyrics are from a version by The Herd.

I love this song and whenever I hear either version it speaks to me in ways that I can’t explain.  I am proud that I am the daughter of a Vietnam Veteran, but the way these men were treated and ignored when they came back by both the United States and Australia was disgusting and even today, the horror that our newest ‘veterans’ suffer from are not  treated with the compassion, understanding and treatment that the people who fought on behalf of our countries should be entitled to!

I was only Nineteen (A walk in the Light Green) – The Lyrics (The Herd Version)

Mum, Dad and Denny
were some amongst many
who came to watch the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
Seemed every man and his mongrel
came watched cadets stumble
on the long march to the Viet jungle.
“Oh Christ”, I mumbled as I drew that card
and my mates came to slap me on the back with due regard
We were the sixth battalion, yet next to tour
we did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left, rest assured

Seemed half of Townsville turned out to see us leave
they lined the footpaths as we marched to the quay
And the papers wrote it up like you wouldn’t believe
but we were only looking to the future for a fast reprieve
And there’s all of us looking young
strong and clean rockin’ slouch hats
slung SLRs and greens

God help me, I was only nineteen

From Vung Tau the black helicopters
the chinhook pilots seemed relieved at Nui Dat when he dropped us
Seems like months running on and off landing pads
letters to Dad
it’s like, man, he’s sad
But he can’t see the tents that we call home
cans of VB, pin-ups of chicks off TV
The heat, the mosquitoes, and the noise suprising
like the first time you see an agent orange horizon

So please can you tell me doctor why I can’t get to sleep
the scar’s left in me?
Night time’s just a jungle
dark and a barking M16 that keeps saying
“rest in peace”
And what’s this rash that comes and goes
Don’t suppose you can tell me what that means?

God help me, I was only nineteen

Sent off on a four-week long operation
where every single step could be your last one
On two legs were sorta living hell
falling with the shells, war within yourself
But you couldn’t let your mates down
’til they had you dusted off
so you closed your eyes and thought of something else

Someone yelled “contact!”
another bloke swore
we hooked in for hours then a god almighty roar
Then Frankie kicked a mine
the day that mankind kicked the moon

God help me, he was going home in June

And I can still see Frank with a can in his hand
thirty-six hour leave in the bar at the Grand
And I can still hear Frank
a screaming mess
of bleeding flesh
couldn’t retrieve his legs

You see the ANZAC legend
neglected to mention
mud
the fear
the blood
the tears
the tension
Dad’s recollection
beyond comprehension
didn’t seem quite real until we were sent in
Chaos and confusion
the fire and steel
hot shrapnel in my back
I didn’t even feel

God help me, I was only nineteen

So please can you tell me doctor
why I can’t get to sleep
I can’t hardly eat?
And the sound of the Channel Seven chopper still chills me to my feet
still fuels my grief?
And what’s this rash that comes and goes like the dreams
can you tell me what that means?

God help me, I was only nineteen

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
It was a long march from Cadets
The sixth battalion was the next to tour
It was me who drew the card
we did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left

And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean.
And there’s me in my slouch hat with my SLR and greens.

God help me, I was only nineteen

So please can you tell me doctor
why I can’t get to sleep
I can’t hardly eat?
And the sound of the Channel Seven chopper still chills me to my feet
still fuels my grief?
And what’s this rash that comes and goes like the dreams
can you tell me what that means?

God help me, I was only nineteen.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

Book Tour – Day Four

Today is the fourth day of my book tour for THE ENCLAVE.

I am featured on coffee, Books and Art today.  There is a small interview and a Guest Post.
(Click here to read and leave a comment 🙂 )

Please feel free to drop by and say hi.   I’d welcome the company.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

 

Book Tour – Day Three

Today is the Third day of my book tour for THE ENCLAVE.

I have one stop today on Musings of a Book Maven, where I have a guest post on what inspired me to write THE ENCLAVE.
(Click here to read and leave a comment 🙂 )

My second stop today is a spotlight on Diane’s Book Blog.   (Click here to read and leave a comment )

Please feel free to drop by and say hi.   I’d welcome the company.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

 

5-Star Book Review: The Kalarthri by H.M. Clarke

www.ginabriganti.com

I’ve been particularly pleased to read two wonderful, suitable for all ages, fantasy books in a row. Both are by new-to-me authors. Both are the first in their series. Both feature 10-year-old main characters. Honest, I didn’t plan this. It’s a case of the Universe delivering to me what I like to ask for from a book – good times.

“The Kalarthri” (The Way to Freedom, Book 1), as I mentioned above, is a fantasy about a young girl, Kalena, who is born into a feudal society where she, as second born, is automatically a servant. Neither I, nor Kalena, had any idea of what the future held for her. I braced myself in case I was in for a long, sad tale full of abuse and violence. H.M. Clarke instead delivered a tale that was sugar and spice, where the spice was a welcome accent. The story is highly…

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Book Tour – Day Two

Today is the second day of my book tour for THE ENCLAVE.

I have one stop today on Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews
(Click here to read and leave a comment 🙂 )

Please feel free to drop by and say hi.   I’d welcome the company.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

 

Book Tour – Day One

Today is the first day of my book tour for THE ENCLAVE.

My first stop is an interview for Fantastic Indie Authors
(Click here to read what I had to say 🙂 )

And my second stop for today is with Science Fiction Books and Authors (Click here to visit )

Please feel free to drop by and say hi.   I’d welcome the company.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

 

What Is Gravity?

by Tia Ghose,

Gravity is the force that attracts two bodies toward each other, the force that causes apples to fall toward the ground and the planets to orbit the sun. The more massive an object is, the stronger its gravitational pull.

Fundamental force

Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces, along with the electromagnetic, strong and weak forces.

It is what causes objects to have weight. When you weigh yourself, the scale tells you how much gravity is acting on your body. The formula for determining weight is: weight equals mass times gravity. On Earth, gravity is a constant 9.8 metres per second squared, or 9.8 m/s².

Historically, philosophers such as Aristotle thought that heavier objects accelerate toward the ground faster. But later experiments showed that wasn’t the case. The reason that a feather will fall more slowly than a bowling ball is because of the drag from air resistance, which acts in the opposite direction as the acceleration due to gravity.

Sir Isaac Newton developed his Theory of Universal Gravitation in the 1680s. He found that gravity acts on all matter and is a function of both mass and distance. Every object attracts every other object with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. The equation is often expressed as:

F_g = G (m₁ ∙ m₂) / r²

• F_g is the gravitational force
• m₁ and m₂ are the masses of the two objects
• r is the distance between the two objects
• G is the universal gravitational constant

Newton’s equations work extremely well to predict how objects such as planets in the solar system behave.

Theory of relativity

Newton published his work on gravitation in 1687, which reigned as the best explanation until Einstein came up with his theory of general relativity in 1915.  In Einstein’s theory, gravity isn’t a force, but rather, the consequence of the fact that matter warps space-time. One prediction of general relativity is that light will bend around massive objects.

Fun facts

• The gravity on the moon is about 16 percent of that on Earth, Mars has about 38 percent of Earth’s pull, while the biggest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, has 2.5 times the gravity of Earth.
• Though nobody “discovered” gravity, legend has it that famous astronomer Galileo Galilei did some of the earliest experiments with gravity, dropping balls off the Tower of Pisa to see how fast they fell.
• Isaac Newton was just 23 years old and back from university when he noticed an apple falling in his garden and began unraveling the mysteries of gravity. (It’s probably a myth that the apple bonked him on the head though.)
• An early measure of Einstein’s theory of relativity was the bending of starlight near the sun during a solar eclipse on May 29, 1919.
• Black holes are massive collapsed stars with such strong gravity that even light cannot escape from it.
• Einstein’s theory of general relativity is incompatible with quantum mechanics, the bizarre laws that govern the behavior of the tiny particles — such as photons and electrons — that make up the universe.

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic

-HMC

Small Excerpt from The Kalarthri

Here is a small excerpt from my book THE KALARTHRI.  I hope you enjoy it

“Wing Lieutenant.  Where do you think you are going with that girl?” the Captain’s voice was hard and emotionless and Kalena moved closer to Gwidion.  She did not like this man.

Gwidion snapped his feet together and made the Captain a small bow.  “We are heading for the Mess Hall Sir.”

The Captain stared at them a long moment.

“Has she been tested yet?” he suddenly asked.

“No Sir.  Not properly.”

“Do you think it wise to let her near other Hatar Kalar until you are sure she cannot hear them?”

Kalena felt the hand on her shoulder stiffen.  She clung tighter to the Wing Lieutenant.

“Test her for me now Kalar.”

“What? She has only just undergone the Krytal.”

“Talk to your beast now and let us see if she can hear you!” The Captain said leaving no room for argument.

Gwidion opened his mouth to say more but thought better of it.

“Very well.”

He looked down at Kalena and she could not help but smile up at him.

“Kalena, I’m about to talk in mind voice.  If you can hear me can you repeat it for the Captain.”

Kalena nodded as Adhamh’s voice flooded through her head.

‘Remember.  Pretend you do not hear them.’

‘I remember Adhamh.’

Gwidion eyes remained on her but they suddenly unfocused and Kalena heard the familiar whisperings in her mind.

‘Kalena, if you can hear this tell the Captain that he is a fart faced maggot off of a horses rear that needs-‘

‘Gwidion! Be respectful.’ A female voice said sternly.

‘Sorry Jolar but he is.’

Kalena tried not to show any reaction on her face.  If she had said what Gwidion had said her father would have washed her mouth out with lye soap.

“Well?”

The Captain’s voice cut through Gwidion’s mental chatter.  Kalena shrank back behind Gwidion.

“Kalena, did you hear anything?  I did not hear you repeat my words.”

Suddenly she felt her arm gripped by fingers of iron and yanked forward and Kalena found herself face to face with the Captain.  His thoughts were jumbled and confused but full of anger and fear.  Kalena immediately blocked them from her mind.

“Answer the lieutenant Kalar.”

Tears started to trickle down her cheeks and Kalena tried to stop herself from blubbering.  Dimly a roar was heard from outside and she heard Gwidion talking urgently with the Captain.

“-you are upsetting her and her new Hatar partner.  He feels her fear through the link.’

The Captain seemed not to hear the Lieutenant’s words.

“Did you hear him?”

Kalena shook her head; her voice did not want to work.

Suddenly the Captain backhanded her across the face.  She would have collapsed if not for the Captain’s iron grip on her arm.  Her face stung like fire and she felt Gwidion shift behind her.

“Answer me in an appropriate manner, Kalar”

“Damaging State property is not setting a good example to the men Captain Jerant.”

The Captain released his grip and spun around in surprise.  The two infantrymen immediately turned and smartly saluted.  Kalena jumped back to Gwidion’s side and she felt him place a protective hand on her shoulder as he guided her back behind him.

“Provost Marshall Brock,” the Captain stammered.

The Provost Marshall’s eyes flicked across everyone present in the hallway, lingering longest on the red mark that now rose across Kalena’s face.

“I think you need to come to my office and explain your actions to me Captain.  You know there is a ban on children undergoing the Krytal.”

The Provost Marshall then swept past them and continued along the corridor without waiting to see if his request would be followed.  Captain Jerant stood a moment glaring hard at both Kalena and Gwidion before turning swiftly to follow the Provost Marshall.

Buy THE KALARTHRI here 

And if you like it, please click here to see how you can help spread the word about my books!

Cheers

-HMC

Don’t forget to sign up for my Newsletter here to get access to extra goodies, giveaways and contests!  This months newsletter will have exclusive access and information to my upcoming book – Winter’s Magic