Old King Cole was a real life merry old soul.

Old King Cole

Old King Cole is believed to have been based upon a real king who lived in the 3rd century A.D.

The lyrics popular today date back to the early 18th century England. 1700’s

The first version was published around 1708 in William King’s work “Useful Transactions in Philosophy”.

The origin of King Cole can be traced back to Roman occupation. Cole Godhebog, Coel (Old Welsh: Coil) or Coel Hen (“Coel the Old”) is a figure prominent in Welsh literature and legend since the early Middle Ages.

Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen (Coel the Old), a circa Fourth Century leader in Roman or Sub-Roman Britain and the progenitor of several kingly lines in the Hen Ogledd (“the Old North”), the Brittonic-speaking part of what is now northern England and southern Scotland.

Later medieval legend told of a Coel, apparently derived from Coel Hen, who was the father of Saint Helena and the grandfather of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. I doubt this was the same person. If so, then one of the accounts is wrong. The name Cole Godhebog is ancient Welsh. So, unless the Roman changed his name and I very seriously doubt the Romans would have accepted a conquered king to have fathered the next heir to the glory of Rome. When studying history, you have to view things from the perspective of that day and time.

Helena, the mother of Constantine was worn in Bithynia, Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), circa 248. Helena was married to Roman Emperor Constantius and had a son who would become Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to become a Christian.

Helena was born in the caste considered the lowest of commoners, possibly in Drepana, Bithynia in Asia Minor, she became the consort of the future Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and later his queen. He reigned from 293–306. She was also the mother of the future Emperor Constantine the Great who reigned 306–337.

Other similarly named characters may be confused or conflated with the Welsh Coel. The legendary “King Coel” is sometimes supposed to be the historical basis for the popular nursery rhyme “Old King Cole”, but this is unlikely.

He died in 420 AD. It’s believed the name is derived from the Brythonic “Coel”. The character was related to some legendary names in British History, all identified as King Coel and mostly mentioned in British legends and literature.

One of those figures was Coel Hen, also nicknamed, Coel the Old or Old King Cole because of his age. We do know he was the King of Northern Britain during the decline of the Roman Empire when Britain was assailed by the Goths and exempt by the Romans.

Another legendary figure in Britain’s History was Coel Godhebog, a predecessor of Coel Hen, known as Cole the Magnificent. Oftentimes one person has many different names and titles.

The son of Coel Hen, identified as Saint Ceneu ap Coel, (English: Kenneth) was also a King of Northern Britain, mostly famous for defending and claiming the Christian religion especially during pagan invasions. He was canonized for this practice later on.

Another interpretation of this song’s origins is that it could be a musical theme song. In Gaelic the term ceol means music. The term fiddle is an old instrument that resembles today’s violin. The pipe is also used to define a flute or recorder. A literal analysis of this song will suggest that King Cole is the name of a musical group singing. I doubt that too because the era in which the lyrics came from eon couldn’t name himself ‘king‘ anything without serious consequences.

But I think it was originally a light and merry song the court jesters sung to entertain the king. Songs of praising a king was quite common.

“Old King Cole” Lyrics

Modern Version

Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Every fiddler he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Oh there’s none so rare, as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three

“Old King Cole” Original Version

Good King Cole,
And he call’d for his Bowle,
And he call’d for Fidler’s three;
And there was Fiddle, Fiddle,
And twice Fiddle, Fiddle,
For ’twas my Lady’s Birth-day,
Therefore we keep Holy-day
And come to be merry

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Don’t let your characters be paper cut outs.

The genre doesn’t have to be new but for the love of writing; never let your characters be paper cut outs of every other character out there. Make yours unique and different. How do you do that? By reading and reading a lot to see what’s being put out and do the opposite.

The main characters are to be believable and not just paper cut outs you can find in just about any other book. Break the mode of the pre-set standard of your genre. Create your own. Who says you can’t?

You want readers to empathize and sympathize with the characters and their struggles as they find their way through their world. (yes, there are going to be some readers who will not for whatever reasons.) Display a wide range of emotions with a character. A character  that’s angry a lot even they have other emotions. They get boring if they only display one emotions through out the entire novel. This goes for any emotion.

Right now, it’s popular to write about the character being melancholy. That’s fine but it gets boring after a while if the character does nothing else but brood, moan, and groan about how horrible their life is without making attempts to change things. It’s OK to use powers or magic to change things but take the time to study to learn limitations. A character who has no obstacles, weakness isn’t much of a believable story. A character with no limitations nor weakness is God.

You can’t show a strong character getting their butt kicked every few pages. That doesn’t work well either. They are going to have win some battles and lose some.

Don’t use things like what I found in a book I was sent and asked to read and write a review. It was about some type of strong, tough beasts are supposedly afraid of a certain male body part. They are so terrified of the male’s phallus that they freeze in battle and allow themselves to be beheaded.

C’mon.  That’s not believable even unto a two year old. Make whatever their strength or weakness is believable.

The writing  is great and so is the structure but that can’t help you if you write unbelievable things.

King Eochaidh The Horse Is A Game of Chess Played Very Well.

The game of politic isn’t new. It’s simply more forward. Take for instant, a simple game of chess is actually politic played out on a game board.

This is the agenda of Queen Erin. The games she are forced to play. Although, she’s playing a dangerous game, vying two powerful warrior  kings against each other because she knows she’s without the option of losing.

The queen (♕,♛) is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, able to move any number of squares vertically, horizontally or diagonally and that’s what Erin does. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of the first rank next to the king and Erin plays the broad very well.

In the game of war-chess. It isn’t a chess piece one loses. It’s their life.

 

 

I made the book more than about violence, battle scenes, blood and gore, although they are important elements when writing about warring nations. But I wanted it to show the cleverness of strategy and the use of power when one is the underdog.

Whom The Gods Love

When first recommended to me I was a little reluctant to read it when I saw the teens on the cover. I have nothing against teens. I’ve raised several. LOL! 

But putting kidding aside, actually, this is a good book. The world building is vivid and very imaginative. It’s a story about a group of warriors aiding a king on quest for the love of his life. No, it’s not the traditional romance but nonetheless  it is love for someone as annoying and pompous as King Callan to go through all this to save the woman he loves. His queen. I did sort of figure out who each character was before it was revealed. I guess it was because I write about mythology myself.

 

The Salem Witch Trials: Lies Can Kill

I was reading an article the other day and the authors wrote: “Lies can not hurt you.” I didn’t comment after seeing it was an inspirational blog. But I wondered where does that person lived where lies told on you can not harm you? Had they never heard of the Salem Witch Trials, Emmet Tills, or the hundreds of criminals cases where innocent people being executed based solely on lies?

People have lied so much on others until it make it hard for anyone to get justice nowadays without providing concrete proof a crime took place. Pathological liars  have discredited everyone.

When I read things like this it reminds me of a movie I saw a number of years ago starring Brendan Fraser and Jamie Lee Curtis where he played a child raised in a 1960’s I think, bomb shelter and his parents one day decided to let him out to roam the streets. I don’t remember the  full details of the movie. But anyone the boy had a legitimate reason for believing everyone was nice. He was raised in a bomb shelter. He didn’t know any better. 

The Salem Witch Trials

Like for example, John Procter, having fathered 18 children by 3 different women and having affairs and was a successful business man didn’t make him a warlock.  I guess by today’s standard he would be called a lady’s man. He was an attractive man with money.  Or the slave woman named Tituba who was lied on by the children she raised. Both of these people died for the lies told on them.

Of course, I understands that the person may had been referring to killing a person’s view of themselves or self esteem. Like the childhood nursery rhyme, “Stick and stones may break my bones but your words shall never hurt me.”

Life Lesson Hard Learned. Politeness is golden.

People wonders where I get the characters from I write about?

I get them from observing people. Everyday life.

Like just the other day, a man was blocking the space I needed to turn into to get to a parking prime space. (Yes, I had already circled the parking lot twice and there was no spaces available.)

I understand waiting for your wife to come out the store but that’s what parking spaces are for and if you can’t find one nearby then move on to the next parking lot if you aren’t shopping. You don’t block the entire lane because your honey is shopping and will be coming out the store. You take your behind and park elsewhere and wait. My husband used to do it all the time. It’s no big deal.

After waiting about a minute and a half in a crowded parking lot. I politely gestured him to move over and all he had to do was maneuver the car closer to the left and let me pass but instead, he looked angrily at me as if how dare I had the audaciously to ask him to move over and shot an one-fingered Italian ‘birdie’ at me. I assumed he thought I was an American who was totally culturally illiterate.

I glared at him.

But I held my peace and didn’t return the obscene gesture. The “American” styled middle finger. No, he wasn’t Italian but had he been, it made no difference. He was still being rude and refusing to move.

There was another man behind me. Who kept gesturing for me to move on. I gestured back,  “I can’t. The lane is blocked.”

He saw it. He briskly got out of his car and walked passed my car window, strided the distance between me and the rude man and reached in the man’s car, dragged him out the window and punched him in the face and kept punching, yelling, “I’m sick and tired of A-holes like you. Always picking on women and children. Now move the f**king car so this lady can get out of my way!”

After traffic started moving again, another brave young man decided it was OK to sped past me and get the spot I was vying for. Mr. Face Basher made him move and go look elsewhere by I had been waiting at least fifteen minutes for that spot.

So to me, that was the premises for a character’s action. I didn’t know any of these people. But if an author is involved in a situation there’s nothing anyone can do about how they write it up.

Did the police show up? No. I don’t think anyone called them. I assumed everyone felt it was safer handling the dispute themselves. But I think everyone was too busy applauding the man who got the traffic moving again.

I didn’t learn anything that day. But I hope Mr. Bust Face did. I hope he learnt: you take yourself and park your car if your honey is too fragile to wander through the parking lot to find you, then you tell them to call you when they are finished shopping and you drive by the curb and pick them up. You don’t hold up a line of cars for minutes on no end because someone just might be having a bad day and snaps.  I hope he learnt the whole world is not fascinated with your significant other and stop behaving as if they should be. That’s how to avoid getting your face bashed in. Politeness is golden.

Limited Time.

The more your work and books grow the sparser your time becomes. The limited time you have, you have to learn to use it wisely. Gone are the days when you could endless chat online. Gone are the days when you could visit hundreds of blogs a day or read funny tweets or Facebook posts. It’s not that you wouldn’t like to but oftentimes, by the end of your day everyone is asleep or you are too tired to stay up any longer. You don’t have the time nor energy to double and triple everything on your blog. You are doing great if you get it written.

So those writers who still free days. Enjoy them while they last.

Advice I was given when I first put my books out.

Having two years under my belt and have shared my experiences with up and coming authors I feel now I can tell this story which occurred nearing three years ago.

when I first came back online two years, I was sending posting out all over the place and wasn’t getting much response. So, I tried many different serves and none actually panned out. It didn’t take long to realize I was throwing my hard earned money at the wind or more or less the fireplace.  Nowadays, even if you have a publishers you still have to do a lot of your own marketing.

One day, almost two years ago, (it has been two years ago now for this post has been in my folder for over six months.) when I signed on Facebook and opened a message from someone I sent a post to on Facebook. I was reluctant to open it  because so far all the responses to posts I was getting  was someone asking me for a date or a picture or my phone number.

My eyes widen, I read it and read it again. I couldn’t believe this person was responding to me when I had sent out only heaven knows how many posts. I checked the authentication of their page and it was actually the author or a monitor of their page. I can’t say for sure. For I don’t I know for sure if it was the actually author or an employee but at the moment..it didn’t matter. I ran and grabbed my neighbor to show the message to her because someone else just had to see this besides me.

I don’t have permission to say who said the person was because during our short chat I didn’t ask for permission but they are quite famous in the literary world. They gave me a piece of advice that stuck with me because I have read so many of their books.

They said never ignore any one nor be unkind to anyone for you never know which one of  these Indie authors may someday make it big. If they do. Then you may want a recommendation or review from them. Because their name carry weight but if you have spent all your time being choosy and very selective as to who you would and wouldn’t support. Oh boy! They will remember you. They will remember who ignored them when they were an unknown author and who supported them on their way to the top and most will return the favor accordingly.  So get to know as many other writers as you can. You don’t always have to like a book to support it. Only readers are allowed that luxury.

I took a chance and I asked did they like the book? “Unholy Pursuit: The Devil on My Trail”

They said yes, they liked the originality of it. They hadn’t read anything like it. It was something new and fresh from the books normally seen on market and they wouldn’t have written back had not they liked it.

I was on cloud nine.

My friends and even my kids told me to keep this revelation to myself or I may be accused of name dropping if I tell anyone without showing proof to the world of the correspondences between myself and these two authors. How is that so? When I haven’t named anyone. But it actually happened. Not only that. A few months later, in early 2017, another well known author answered my email I had written months ago. I wrote her saying how much I enjoyed one of her books. I was bowled over when she said, “Just as you have been reading my book, I’ve been reading yours. I liked the concept. It’s different. Unusual but different.”

This letter has been sitting on my computer for over a six months. I was reluctant to send it out for everywhere I read I see negativity about saying things are merely ploys for attention and such.

Frankly, I wish to go places and no one pays me attention. Not people pay me attention. LOL! That was before I put any work out. That’s a lifetime thingy having nothing to do with books. A whole different story.

The lesson is: You never know who maybe reading your work. So keep writing and let the madness sort out itself. The same person whose work you’ve admired for years maybe reading yours. 🙂

Sowing seeds of kindness in the winter breeze.

It’s become the national norm to let all your racist foolishness, sexist perceptions, nasty attitudes and attires hang out and blow freely in the zephyr and to be proud of them.

But what those of you who think this is cute, sophisticated, or chic or you are making a political or social statement have forgotten is that this system will only exist for a short while but your online and offline friends and associates will be with you for the rest of your life and when this circus has folded it tent and moved on. You’re going to be left with a lot of angry people glaring at you. All the people you ignored, shunned, abrogated, or refused to say anything to because they didn’t support one madness or another are going to be still here when the circus is gone. And I’ll have you to know, people have the memory of an elephant. They forget nothing. Many friendships has been rendered unsalvageable all in the name of nothing worth it. And in truth, those who projects these attitudes and inclinations know they aren’t worth the backdraft.

It’s important to sow seeds of kindness in the winter breeze to bear fruit in the warmth of the spring.

So, the next time you feel the urge to behave eccentric.

Think it over.