Guest blog: Ros Gemmell - 'The Jigsaw Puzzle' (A Tween Mystery Fantasy)

Twelve-year-old asthmatic Daniel stays with his bossy cousin, Amy, her mum, and two cats in the Scottish countryside during the Christmas holidays while his parents take a trip to sort out their problems. When Amy and Daniel make up an old jigsaw puzzle, the cottage and garden gradually change to resemble the Victorian cottage pictured on the box lid. In between searching for the missing Title Deeds of the cottage to save it from land developers, they complete the jigsaw and find a strange rhyming puzzle hidden within the box. What does it mean? Daniel and Amy soon find out when they become trapped in the past.

Will they solve the cryptic written puzzle and find their way back to the present before it’s too late to save themselves, the destruction of the woods, and their cottage?

The Jigsaw Puzzle (excerpt)

“I know what we’ll do.” Amy suddenly ran into her room, startling him out of his thoughts. “I found an old jigsaw in the attic one day and I haven’t tried it yet. Let’s take it downstairs and we could start it now.” 

Hardly pausing to see if Daniel agreed, Amy led the way down to the living room as though expecting him to follow. So, he did. He didn’t really care what they did today. Anything would do to stop him picturing his mother and father driving away without him.

He didn’t even want to think about them flying across the Atlantic to America with the kinds of trouble these days, or accidents. No, don’t think of that. At least Amy kept him amused in her bossy way, taking charge. He used to like jigsaws and hadn’t done one for years. In fact, he loved any kind of puzzle, especially anything in code. It was a change from playing computer games, though his friend back at school, Paul, would never believe Daniel put together a jigsaw.

Once seated at the big table in the corner, they opened the jigsaw box, standing the picture lid against the fruit bowl so they could see it clearly. Hundreds of small pieces lay in the box. Daniel picked one up, surprised to find the pieces made of thin wood instead of cardboard. It appeared very old and cut a bit differently from more modern jigsaws.

Some of the curved edges had no cut-out bit to attach to another piece. He reckoned they probably shaped against another curve to join up. Other pieces looked more like the kind he knew with notches or spaces to connect to each other.

Daniel stared at the picture on the lid. “Huh, a house and garden. Why can’t it be something interesting like wild cats or birds?”

Amy shrugged, not bothering to answer. She might be bossy, Daniel thought, but at least she didn’t chatter all the time like the girls at school.

Then he stared at the picture more closely, noticing something strange about it. The house did look a bit familiar. But the old-fashioned crisscross windows had tiny panes of glass which he’d never seen before. A strange doorknocker shaped like an old face hung on the door, and the garden bloomed with lots of colourful flowers and plants. A stone sundial stood at the bottom of the garden, casting a shadow across its surface. Daniel’s stomach flipped. The house in his dream!

BIO

A freelance writer for many years, Rosemary Gemmell’s short stories and articles are published in UK magazines, in the US, and Online and she has won a few short story prizes over the years. Her first historical novel, Dangerous Deceit, was published by Champagne Books in Canada in May 2011 (as Romy), and Victorian novella, Mischief at Mulberry Manor, was published on kindle in December 2012.

First tween novel, Summer of the Eagles, was published by MuseItUp Publishing in Canada in March 2012 (as Ros) and The Jigsaw Puzzle is now released in April 2013. She describes herself as a butterfly writer, as she writes in so many different genres and different styles. Rosemary is a member of the Society of Authors, the Scottish Association of Writers and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Available from MuseItUp: http://tinyurl.com/d2so3x9

and Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Jigsaw-Puzzle-ebook/dp/B00CB4RGLO/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_4_1YKB

Website: www.rosemarygemmell.com

Blogs: (children’s) http://rosgemmell.blogspot.com and (main): http://ros-readingandwriting.blogspot.com

Romy Gemmell - 'Dangerous Deceit'

Although traditionally regarded as All Saints’ Day, November 1st was also sometimes known as a day for pranks and mischief. In this excerpt from my Regency intrigue novel, Dangerous Deceit, several of the characters are visiting exciting Vauxhall Gardens for the evening.

These were the pleasure gardens of the Regency era (and before) where all levels of society rubbed shoulders together. And what a place for intrigue and mischief! The many secluded paths, groves, and arbours allowed men and women an ideal opportunity to arrange clandestine meetings. With supper boxes, orchestras and fireworks, it was a lively venue. As well as the rogues and courtesans, the more ‘well-to-do’ took pleasure in all it had to offer.

Unknown to my heroine, Lydia, someone is determined to cause mischief for her, contriving to separate her from Lord Sheldon and the rest of their party. And Lydia is now lost in the slightly dangerous pathways.

EXCERPT

She had to choose one of the paths in the hope it would take her towards the orchestra and supper boxes. But which one? She had no idea which way they’d walked as she had been too busy talking and exclaiming over the sights.

 Deciding to keep going as straight as possible, she took one of the paths just off center. Several couples were coming towards her from that direction which meant they had to be coming from somewhere. Gripping her shawl as much for comfort as for cover, Lydia walked as quickly as her slippers would allow over the gravel path, looking neither to left nor right and avoiding all eye contact from curious stares.

 She started as one young dandy came so near that Lydia could smell the ale on his breath.
 “Well, well, a fairy princess has crossed before me. Grant me a wish then, princess!”

“No, you don’t. You have yer own fairy queen beside you, jackass, who’ll grant you anything you like!” The colorful woman beside the young man yanked him back to her and laughed at Lydia’s shocked expression.

“Pretty young gal like you don’t want to be on yer own down here.”

And they both walked on holding each other, their laughter echoing back as Lydia walked more hurriedly. She didn’t know whether she was more shocked by the woman’s clothes, her preposterous feathered hat, or her coarse language but she was certainly grateful for her presence and kind warning.

She often longed for some adventure and now Lydia regretted the form the adventure had taken. She was a young female on her own and would seem easy prey to some enthusiastic young buck, or some reprehensible rogue. Not for the first time, she wished she could enjoy a similar type of freedom as that enjoyed by young men like James.

Well, such musings did nothing to protect her at this present moment, she decided. She resolved that she would not let herself be easily intimidated should she be accosted again.

Quickening her walk, Lydia wondered at the length of time it was taking to reach the end of the path. She had no recollection of such a long walk on the way down. Although there were lamps lighting the way enough to see by, it was still darker than she liked and she was disconcerted to hear whispers and subdued laughter at regular intervals along the path. She noticed the slight gaps in the hedge now and then, which presumably led to other paths and arbors, but she kept walking straight ahead. She wasn’t quite sure whether she was grateful she was alone, or more apprehensive at the eerie stillness.
 Suddenly, an arm shot out from one such gap that Lydia had failed to see. She barely had time to realize what was happening before she was being half dragged towards a secluded arbor. Gathering her wits about her, Lydia dug her heels in as far as she could and began to resist.

Rosemary Gemmell Bio

Based in the west coast of Scotland, Rosemary Gemmell’s first novel (as Romy), Dangerous Deceit, historical romance and intrigue set in Regency England, was published by Champagne Books in Canada in May 2011. Her first Tween novel, Summer of the Eagles, which is set in Scotland, is being published by MuseItUp Publishing in Canada in March 2012 (as Ros).

Her short stories and articles are published in UK magazines, in the US, and Online, and her children’s stories are in three different anthologies. One of her short stories was included in the fundraising book, ‘100 Stories for Haiti’ in 2010. A historical short story was published in ‘The Waterloo Collection’, launched by the late professor Richard Holmes in April 2011. She has won a few competitions and will be a short story adjudicator at the annual Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference in March 2012.

Dangerous Deceit is available in kindle version from www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com and all other e-book versions from http://www.smashwords.com/

The print version (and e-book) is available from http://champagnebooks.com/

You can find Rosemary at:

Website: http://www.rosemarygemmell.com/
Reading and Writing Blog: http://ros-readingandwriting.blogspot.com/
Romancing History Blog: http://www.blogger.com/goog_1050960198
Flights of Imagination Blog: http://rosgemmell.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @rosemarygemmell