Robbie Cheadle

Guest Post: Haunted Halloween Holiday by Robbie and Michael Cheadle.

~ beetleypete ~ 79 Comments

Robbie and Michael have a new book out! Just in time for Halloween too.

Robbie and Michael Cheadle are delighted to present their new book for children, Haunted Halloween Holiday. This book, for children aged 5 to 9 years old, is illustrated with Robbie and Michael’s fondant and cake art and introduces new fantasy characters including Count Sugular, Witch Honey, and Baby Howler.
You will also find our old favourite, Sir Chocolate, featured. He’s in the thick of the Halloween Party, helping the Nougat Clown brothers, Hoot and Flute, deal with Toot’s anxiety and depression.

Clink on the link to listen to a short reading from Haunted Halloween Holiday:

About Haunted Halloween Holiday

Count Sugular is delighted when the Sugarpop Bats invite his family to a Halloween party at the Haunted House. He and his wife, Witch Honey, decide to hire a caravan and enjoy a weekend away with their family.
Includes some fun limericks to introduce the various characters.
You can find the book trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fr5OxyUfd4

Purchase links
TSL Publications: https://tslbooks.uk/product/haunted-halloween-holiday-robbie-and-michael-cheadle/
Lulu.com: https://www.lulu.com/shop/michael-cheadle-and-robbie-cheadle/haunted-halloween-holiday/ebook/product-vd5778.html?page=1&pageSize=4

About Robbie Cheadle
Robbie Cheadle is a South African children’s author and poet with eleven children’s books and two poetry books.
The eight Sir Chocolate children’s picture books, co-authored by Robbie and Michael Cheadle, are written in sweet, short rhymes which are easy for young children to follow and are illustrated with pictures of delicious cakes and cake decorations. Each book also includes simple recipes or biscuit art directions which children can make under adult supervision.

Robbie and Michael have also written Haunted Halloween Holiday, a delightful fantasy story for children aged 5 to 9. Count Sugular and his family hire a caravan to attend a Halloween party at the Haunted House in Ghost Valley. This story is beautifully illustrated with Robbie’s fondant and cake art creations.

Robbie has published two books for older children which incorporate recipes that are relevant to the storylines.

Robbie has two adult novels in the paranormal historical and supernatural fantasy genres published under the name Roberta Eaton Cheadle. She also has short stories, in the horror and paranormal genre, and poems included in several anthologies.

Robbie Cheadle contributes two monthly posts to https://writingtoberead.com, namely, Growing Bookworms, a series providing advice to caregivers on how to encourage children to read and write, and Treasuring Poetry, a series aimed at introducing poetry lovers to new poets and poetry books.
In addition, Roberta Eaton Cheadle contributes one monthly post to https://writingtoberead.com called Dark Origins: African Myths and Legends which shares information about the cultures, myths and legends of the indigenous people of southern Africa.

Robbie has a blog, https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com where she shares book reviews, recipes, author interviews, and poetry.

Find Robbie Cheadle
Robbie Cheadle Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Robbie-Cheadle/e/B01N9J62GQ
Robbie Cheadle Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle
TSL Publications Robbie Cheadle Author Page: https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/robbie-cheadle/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bakeandwrite
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SirChocolateBooks
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyFo_OJLPqFa9ZhHnCfHUA

Guest Post: Robbie Cheadle

~ beetleypete ~ 61 Comments

I am delighted to host a guest post from author, blogger, and cake-maker extraordinaire, Roberta Cheadle. This is an interesting historical account, connected to the same time period as her latest novel.

Roberta Eaton Cheadle is a South African writer and poet specialising in historical, paranormal, and horror novels and short stories. She is an avid reader in these genres and her writing has been influenced by famous authors including Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Amor Towles, Stephen Crane, Enrich Maria Remarque, George Orwell, Stephen King, and Colleen McCullough.

Roberta has short stories and poems in several anthologies and has 2 published novels, Through the Nethergate, a historical supernatural fantasy, and A Ghost and His Gold, a historical paranormal novel set in South Africa.

Roberta has 9 children’s books published under the name Robbie Cheadle.

Roberta was educated at the University of South Africa where she achieved a Bachelor of Accounting Science in 1996 and a Honours Bachelor of Accounting Science in 1997. She was admitted as a member of The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2000.

Roberta has worked in corporate finance from 2001 until the present date and has written 7 publications relating to investing in Africa. She has won several awards over her 20-year career in the category of Transactional Support Services.

The story of Jurgens Nieman (10 December 1898 – 27 July 1900)

During the second phase of the Second Anglo Boer War, hundreds of Boer women fled into the veld to evade the British forces. The took their children, trusted native African workers and some livestock with them. This was an attempt to escape capture and imprisonment in concentration camps.

Jurgen’s Albertus Nieman was born on the 10th of December 1989, the son of a Boer scout also named Jurgens Albertus Nieman who was never wounded or captured throughout the war. Jurgens Senior and his 14-year-old son Jacobus Johannes fled the siege at Paardeberg under General Cronje on a young horse which had neither a saddle nor a bridle.
Jurgens’ Senior’s wife, Anna Elizabeth, had been left on their farm. When the British troops neared their home, she fled with her four young children in a horse-drawn cart, together with a small flock of sheep and a single trusted native African herdsman.

On the 26th of July 1900, Anna Elizabeth and her children were caught. The British soldiers loaded them into an open ox-wagon to be transported to the Klerksdorp Concentration Camp. During the day, other families were captured and joined the wagon train.

The following morning, Anna Elizabeth and the children walked over to another ox-wagon to meet a new family. Jurgens suddenly began to fidget and fuss. When his mother picked him up to comfort him, blood trickled onto her hands from a head wound.

On inspection, she found that her son had been shot in the head. English fire was taking place in the distance, and Jurgens was struck by a stray bullet. The baby died that evening and was buried in a shallow grave at the side of the road. A plank detailing his name and other details was planted at the site of the grave.
Fourteen days later, his father passed the grave. He found his son’s body almost perfectly preserved due to the cold weather. He took the casket with him and re-buried it at Rustfontein farm.

This is the bonnet that Jurgens Nieman was wearing when he was shot. The bloodstains are still visible. At this time, baby boys were often dressed in bonnets and dresses.

A Ghost and His Gold, a paranormal historical novel partially set during the Second Anglo Boer War, written by Roberta Eaton Cheadle describes similar tragic deaths of young children.

This is a short extract:
“A few moments later, Annette Smit enters the tent with her children, who’ve been waiting patiently for her outside the tent. She lies the dead body of her baby down on a blanket. Dropping into a seated position on the hard ground, she sits, rocking herself to and fro, and keening softly.
Her worn and seemingly bloodless body is that of an old woman and the large eyes in her white face are wild and haunted. The death of her infant on top of the recent losses of her oldest son and toddler seem to have broken something deep within her mind. It is frightening to watch.
Hatred for the camp supervisor who denied the baby a few drops of brandy constricts Estelle’s throat. The baby is dead. She’ll never take her first steps, laugh and play with her older brothers and sisters or go to school. The camp supervisor did nothing to try and save her. In Estelle’s mind, he is a murderer. Taking deep breaths, Estelle attempts to unwind the knot of anger in her stomach
.
Marta looks at Annette, her eyes are sympathetic. “It’s better that the baby died,” she says. “She’s now at peace with our Father.”
Tannie [Aunt] Sannie’s eyes flash anger. “The camp supervisor could have tried to help! Surely he could have found a few drops of brandy for Annette’s baby somewhere.”
“That is true, Sannie, but God expects you to forgive him. He’ll not forgive our individual sins if we bear grudges against someone else. Worse yet, such feelings, if not repented, could cause Him to turn away from our people and our cause.””

A Ghost and His Gold
After Tom and Michelle Cleveland move into their recently built, modern townhouse, their housewarming party is disrupted when a drunken game with an Ouija board goes wrong and summonses a sinister poltergeist, Estelle, who died in 1904.
Estelle makes her presence known in a series of terrifying events, culminating in her attacking Tom in his sleep with a knife. But, Estelle isn’t alone. Who are the shadows lurking in the background – one in an old-fashioned slouch hat and the other, a soldier, carrying a rifle?
After discovering their house has been built on the site of one of the original farms in Irene, Michelle becomes convinced that the answer to her horrifying visions lies in the past. She must unravel the stories of the three phantoms’ lives, and the circumstances surrounding their untimely deaths during the Second Anglo Boer War, in order to understand how they are tied together and why they are trapped in the world of ghosts between life and death. As the reasons behind Estelle’s malevolent behaviour towards Tom unfold, Michelle’s marriage comes under severe pressure and both their lives are threatened.
Through the Nethergate
Margaret, a girl born with second sight, has the unique ability to bring ghosts trapped between Heaven and Hell back to life. When her parents die suddenly, she goes to live with her beloved grandfather, but the cellar of her grandfather’s ancient inn is haunted by an evil spirit of its own.
In the town of Bungay, a black dog wanders the streets, enslaving the ghosts of those who have died unnatural deaths. When Margaret arrives, these phantoms congregate at the inn, hoping she can free them from the clutches of Hugh Bigod, the 12th century ghost who has drawn them away from Heaven’s White Light in his canine guise.
With the help of her grandfather and the spirits she has befriended, Margaret sets out to defeat Hugh Bigod, only to discover he wants to use her for his own ends – to take over Hell itself.

Follow Roberta Eaton Cheadle at:
Website
https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/
Blog
https://wordpress.com/view/robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19631306.Roberta_Eaton_Cheadle
Twitter

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/robertawrites/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Amazon

Purchase Roberta Eaton Cheadle’s books
TSL Books (paperback)
https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/roberta-eaton-cheadle/
Lulu.com (ebook)
A Ghost and His Gold: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/robert-eaton-cheadle/a-ghost-and-his-gold/ebook/product-d858km.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Through the Nethergate: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/roberta-eaton-cheadle/through-the-nethergate/ebook/product-1qkz92jq.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Amazon US

Robbie is a fully-engaged blogger, and a valued part of our wider blogging community. She also writes in many different genres and themes, with something that will appeal to everyone. Please follow the links to find out more about her, read her posts, and perhaps buy some of her books too.

Guest Post: Robbie Cheadle

~ beetleypete ~ 82 Comments

Today I am delighted to feature author, poet, and blogger, Robbie Cheadle.

Robbie Cheadle has published nine books for children and one poetry book. She has branched into writing for adults and young adults and, in order to clearly separate her children’s books from her adult books, is writing for older readers under the name Roberta Eaton Cheadle.

Robbie Cheadle’s Sir Chocolate children’s picture books are written in sweet, short rhymes which are easy for young children to follow and are illustrated with pictures of delicious cakes and cake decorations. Each book also includes simple recipes or biscuit art directions which children can make under adult supervision. Her books for older children also incorporate recipes that are relevant to the storylines.

Roberta Eaton Cheadle’s supernatural stories combine fabulous paranormal elements with fascinating historical facts.

Children’s picture books – available as a square book and an A5 book (co-authored with Michael Cheadle):
Sir Chocolate and the strawberry cream story and cookbook
Sir Chocolate and the baby cookie monster story and cookbook
Sir Chocolate and the sugar dough bees story and cookbook
Sir Chocolate and the Condensed Milk River story and cookbook
Sir Chocolate and the Sugar Crystal Caves story and cookbook
Sir Chocolate and the Fondant Five story and cookbook
Sir Chocolate and the Ice Cream Rainbow Fairies story and cookbook

Middle school books:
Silly Willy Goes to Cape Town (includes five fun party cake ideas)
While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with Elsie Hancy Eaton)

Poetry book:
Open a new door (co-authored with Kim Blades)

Supernatural fantasy YA novel:
Through the Nethergate

Horror Anthologies (edited by Dan Alatorre):
Spellbound
Nightmareland
Dark Visions

Paranormal Anthologies (edited by Kaye Lynne Booth):
Spirits of the West
Whispers of the Past

Murder mystery Anthology (edited by Stephen Bentley)
Death Among Us

Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://bakeandwrite.co.za/

Blog: https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

Twitter: BakeandWrite

Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram

Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books

Treasuring Poetry and Poetry Treasures

I have always enjoyed poetry. From the moment I read Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery when I was ten years old, I wanted to be a poet. I spent a lot of time in my tween and early teenage years attempting to write poems and I am sure mine were as overblown and overcomplicated as Emily’s were in this memorable book.
When my children were young, the desire to write poetry and rhyming verse stories came back to me. This may have been because I spent a great deal of time reading nursery rhymes, and rhyming verse stories to my sons. Dr Seuss books and Pete the Magic Dragon were firm favourites. My natural interest, combined with my son, Michael’s, interest in making up stories and characters, lead to the creation of our co-authored Sir Chocolate series of books.
We published our first Sir Chocolate book in August 2016 and soon after that I started my first blog, Robbie’s Inspiration. I embraced blogging and the blogosphere and was delighted to discover that a huge number of talented poets regularly published their poetry on their blogs. Over my 4 ½ years of blogging, I have developed a lot of friendships among the blogging poetry and writing community.
In 2018 I met Kaye Lynne Booth of Writing to be Read blog (https://writingtoberead.com/blog). Kaye’s blog is aimed promoting writing in all forms and she shares a lot of book reviews and interesting articles by a few bloggers, including herself, about a wide spectrum of matters relating to reading, writing, and other artistic undertakings.
In 2020, Kaye and I collaborated on a new series on Writing to be Read called Treasuring Poetry. This series is aimed at promoting poetry and poetry books and providing a platform where poets and lovers of poetry can meet new bloggers and writers and have discussions about their own, and well known and famous poets, work. This series proved to be popular despite the pandemic, lockdowns, and all the related issues and drama and in December Kaye suggested we ask the Treasuring Poetry guests to contribute to an anthology.
From this great suggestion, Poetry Treasures, the first anthology in the WordCrafter Press poetry anthology series, was borne with contributions from several talented poets in the blogging community including Sue Vincent, Frank Prem, K Morris, Annette Rochelle Aben, Colleen Chesebro, Jude Itakali, Geoff Le Pard, Victoria Zigler, and myself, publishing as Roberta Eaton Cheadle.


A collection of poetry from the poet/author guests of Robbie Cheadle on the “Treasuring Poetry” blog series on Writing to be Read in 2020. Open the book and discover the poetry treasures of Sue Vincent, Geoff Le Pard, Frank Prem, Victoria (Tori) Zigler, Colleen M. Chesebro, K. Morris, Annette Rochelle Aben, Jude Kitya Itakali, and Roberta Eaton Cheadle.

https://books2read.com/u/3n7BDR

The anthology includes between three and five poems by each contributor including five delightful poems from Sue Vincent. Sadly, Sue passed away a few weeks before this anthology was published, and the book includes a tribute to her and her wonderful poetry. She is greatly missed in the writing, poetry, and blogging community.
Today, I would like to share one of Sue’s poems from Poetry Treasures which I read and recorded on her behalf on my Youtube site. The poem is called Poetic vision.

Please use the many links to connect with Robbie, and check out her varied books.
She has something for everyone!

Blogger’s Books: Robbie Cheadle

~ beetleypete ~ 75 Comments

(Due to some kind of WP glitch, the whole of this post appears in italics. I have tried to alter that, but cannot)

I am delighted to feature South African blogger and author, Roberta Cheadle. She is a very popular member of our blogging community, and her cake-making skills have transferred into a range of delightful illustrated books for family reading, written in collaboration with her son.
Read the book, and make the cakes!

Here is her bio.

Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with seven published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.

I also have a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.

I have recently branched into adult and young adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. My first supernatural book published in that name, Through the Nethergate, is now available.

I have participated in a number of anthologies:

Two short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Dark Visions, a collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre under Robbie Cheadle;
Three short stories in Death Among Us, an anthology of murder mystery stories, edited by Stephen Bentley under Robbie Cheadle;
Three short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Nightmareland, a collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre under Robbie Cheadle; and
Two short stories in Whispers of the Past, an anthology of paranormal stories, edited by Kaye Lynne Booth under Roberta Eaton Cheadle.

And the new book.

Join Sir Chocolate and Lady Sweet on a fun adventure to discover why the milkshake rain is pale and white.
Contains five recipes that children can make under adult supervision

Sir Chocolate and the Ice Cream Rainbow Fairies story and cookbook.
Authors: Robbie and Michael Cheadle

A recent review on Goodreads (4 stars)
What fun it must be to live in Chocolate Land where the rain tastes like milkshake – and not boring flavours like vanilla and strawberry, but banana-toffee, peachy-marmelade, honey or nuts. And then one day, the rain is all white and the rainbow pale. Sir Chocolate and Lady Sweet set off to discover what is the problem and Sir Chocolate gets a chance to make his own flavours of rain. The fairies made from fondant are very pretty and the recipes are very tempting. We’re definitely making the blondies!

You can connect with Robbie using the following links.

Website

https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/

Blog

https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle

Twitter

And here is a buying link for the book, which is VERY reasonably priced in Kindle format.

Please check out Robbie’s links, discover the rest of her writing, and get a copy of this fun new book!

Blogger’s Books: Robbie Cheadle

~ beetleypete ~ 97 Comments

Today, I am delighted to be featuring the new book by the lovely Robbie Cheadle, and her son, Michael. Robbie is my kind of blogger; committed, engaged, and generous with her time and comments. Robbie blogs from her home in South Africa, the land that brings us gold and diamonds, and perhaps more importantly, my favourite red wine, Pinotage. She has sent me an introduction, and a short bio too. Please enjoy her work, and if you think it might appeal to you, links are available at the end.

Thank you, Pete, for inviting Michael and I over for a visit to tell you about our new book Sir Chocolate and the Condensed Milk River story and cookbook.

When Michael was learning to read, he would do anything to distract me from the work at hand. He started off by running away but later that year he got cleverer and he started making up stories. He quickly realized that I was also easily distracted from the boring task of learning sight words when he started talking about his imaginary world where you could eat everything, even the flowers, trees and houses. Sir Chocolate was born and we developed his character and those of his friends during these conversations. When Michael started learning how to write, it quickly became apparent that it was very hard for him and a processing disorder was diagnosed. We started writing his little stories down together as a nice way of practicing something that was very difficult for him.

Michael and I wrote Sir Chocolate and the Condensed Milk River while we were on holiday in Ballito, a sea-side holiday town in KwaZulu Natal. My sister and her little girl, Emily, were staying with us in a holiday house and one unusually cold morning we were all sitting chatting and drinking cocoa made with condensed milk to warm us up, when the idea of a river made of condensed milk was born. By the end of the morning the whole story had been discussed and written and read out loud to all the other children. They loved it and the idea was so much fun that Michael and I were very easily able to make [and eat] all the delightful illustrations including this lovely condensed milk pool.

Please explore Robbie’s book collection via these links. You can buy them at very reasonable prices.
https://www.amazon.com/Robbie-Cheadle/e/B01N9J62GQ
http://tslbooks.uk/tsl-books/robbie-and-michael-cheadle/

Here is Robbie’s own bio, by way of introduction.

About Robbie and Michael Cheadle

Robbie Cheadle was born in London in the United Kingdom. Her father died when she was three months old and her mother emigrated to South Africa with her tiny baby girl. Robbie has lived in Johannesburg, George, and Cape Town in South Africa and attended fourteen different schools. This gave her lots of opportunities to meet new people and learn lots of social skills as she was frequently “the new girl”.
Robbie is a qualified Chartered Accountant and specialises in corporate finance with a specific interest in listed entities and stock markets. Robbie has written a number of publications on listing equities and debt instruments in Africa and foreign direct investment into Africa.
Robbie is married to Terence Cheadle and they have two lovely boys, Gregory and Michael. Michael (aged 11) is the co-author of the Sir Chocolate series of books and attends school in Johannesburg. Gregory (aged 14) is an avid reader and assists Robbie and Michael with filming and editing their YouTube videos and editing their books. Robbie is also the author of the new Silly Willy series the first of which, Silly Willy goes to Cape Town, is now available.

Robbie’s own blog can be found here. Please visit, whenever you have the chance.
https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/

Many of you will have seen Robbie’s comments on my blog posts, and on many others in our small community. Let’s all try to give her the support she deserves, by sharing her links, and if you feel inclined to, buying her books. Best wishes to you all, Pete.