Yellow Dog Blog

I’m busy preparing for a challenge set by author Wendy H Jones.  The challenge is to use the national celebration days throughout October to market your books.  There are some interesting days, such as; national vodka day, boyfriend day and handbag day.  Who on earth dreams up these things?  It is a great challenge, but before I tell you my two favourites, I’ll tell you a short story. A youth worker friend of mine was chatting to a young person who had been dealing with a lot of struggles and the lad said to him, “Why can’t people just be nicer?” My friend responded by telling the boy that this is the second of the Ten Commandments, ‘to love your neighbour.’ Getting back to Wendy’s challenge , one of my favourite days is ‘Do Something Nice Day.’   As I think about this and my friend’s story, I ask the same question as that young lad and I question, “Why do we have a, ‘Do Something Nice Day?”   If we all did something nice every day, then there would be no ...

I published my first book, The Golden Thread, in 2015, so I've been writing for over 6 years and have now published 8 books.  Though I have written blogs before, this is my first venture onto 'Blogger' and so far I am most impressed.  As this is my first blog, I thought it best to introduce myself a little. I love to investigate the meaning behind names, particularly when creating a character for a novel.  Their name must have an appropriate meaning to reflect the personality, temperament and nature of the subject.  Do you know the meaning of your own name? My name, Brendan, is derived from the Gaelic name Breandán, which is in turn derived from the earlier Old Irish Brénainn and it means, ‘Prince’ or ‘King.’  Wow, I am royalty.  This may explain why I was not at all daunted on the two occasions when I have been honoured to meet members of the Royal Family.  The first time was when I was invited to one of the Queen’s garden parties and the second when...