Cover Crush: All the Ever Afters by Danielle Teller

Hello, my name is Colleen and I am a cover slut. I know, I know....you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover. I just can't help myself! A beautiful cover draws my eye every single time and I can't help but pick up the book it's dressing and see if the inside seems as intriguing as the outside. Sometimes it does, and sometimes a pretty cover is just a pretty cover. Either way, I love getting an eyeful!

One of my favorite bloggers, Erin at Flashlight Commentary, created a weekly blog post called Cover Crush and she and some other blogger friends are sharing their favorite covers each Thursday. You'll find my Cover Crush selection below and I'll link to everyone else's at the end of the post.

 

 

So, without further ado, my Cover Crush this week is.....

 

 

 

 

It's really hard to decide where to begin describing what I love about this cover, but I'll try! The colors are so lovely and bold that, even with all that is going on, everything feels very distinct and defined. I love the detailed, swirling vines, leaves, and curlicues around the outside, drawing the eye within it to that unwinding scroll, castle, and intriguing red profile in the center. We've even got the glass slipper and hourglass to complete the visual representation of the story within. It's just perfect!!

 

 Why don't we read the synopsis to find out more about what we have to look forward to reading...

 

 

In the vein of Wicked, The Woodcutter, and Boy, Snow, Bird, a luminous reimagining of a classic tale, told from the perspective of Agnes, Cinderella’s “evil” stepmother.

We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. . . .

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice when she is only ten years old. Using her wits and ingenuity, she escapes her tyrannical matron and makes her way toward a hopeful future. When teenaged Agnes is seduced by an older man and becomes pregnant, she is transformed by love for her child. Once again left penniless, Agnes has no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind. Her new position is nursemaid to Ella, an otherworldly infant. She struggles to love the child who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, eventually, the celebrated princess who embodies everyone’s unattainable fantasies. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.

Lyrically told, emotionally evocative, and brilliantly perceptive, All the Ever Afters explores the hidden complexities that lie beneath classic tales of good and evil, all the while showing us that how we confront adversity reveals a more profound, and ultimately more important, truth than the ideal of “happily ever after.”

 

 

Don't forget to check out what covers my blogger buddies are drooling over this week (updated as they become available):


Magdalena at A Bookaholic Swede
Erin at Flashlight Commentary
Heather at The Maiden's Court
Stephanie at Layered Pages
Holly at 2 Kids and Tired




Created by Magdalena of A Bookaholic Swede

 

 

 

Audiobook Review: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

Publisher: Random House Audio
Pub. Date: August 5th, 2008
Length: 19 hours , 15 minutes

Genre: Fiction / Fantasy / Historical Fiction / Contemporary Fiction / Romance / Dual Timeline

Synopsis

An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time


The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned, he awaits the day when he can leave the hospital and commit carefully planned suicide—for he is now a monster in appearance as well as in soul.

A beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life—and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well. For one thing, the pull of his past sins becomes ever more powerful as the morphine he is prescribed becomes ever more addictive. For another, Marianne receives word from God that she has only twenty-seven sculptures left to complete—and her time on earth will be finished.


Already an international literary sensation, the Gargoyle is an Inferno for our time. It will have you believing in the impossible.

What Did I Think About the Story? 

I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have picked this book up to read/listen to if it wasn't for my boss talking it up and loaning me her audiobook copy. I hadn't heard of the book before and, honestly, it seemed from the synopsis like it would have a heavier fantasy element than I typically read. But, CDs in hand, I started listening to it on my commute and found myself completely immersed in this remarkably unique and encompassing listening experience.

Per the synopsis, much of the beginning of the story is spent within the mind of an incredibly narcissistic narrator. He fully admits to being a snarky, self-centered drug-abuser who loves purposefully morphing into different people in order to trick as many women as he can into sleeping with him. He's just the worst sort of human and it's hard to find anything to like about him. Then he has this horrific accident that results in months of recovery in a hospital. This might sound strange, but I found the vivid details given to his injuries and the (often tortuous) remedies employed to help him absolutely fascinating. I never really thought about what it takes to try and heal a burn victim nor how painful that process is for the patient. It's a terrible and grueling thing to have to go through and, with the intricate details given my the author,  you get an incredible sense of just how bad it would be for the person going through it.

During this arduous process we meet Marianne Engel, a possibly crazy artist who changes our narrator from the moment she walks into his hospital room. Marianne is such a fascinating character and through her the reader is sent through time to see various tragic love stories throughout history, including, supposedly, a long ago love story between the narrator and Marianne herself. She weaves such a magical spell over all that the narrator doesn't even know that she is effectively bringing him back to life and shaping him into a much better person than he ever was before. But his love for Marianne doesn't necessarily save her from believing her fate is determined by God and it was both mesmerizing and heartbreaking to watch him try everything to change her as she had changed him.

The narrator of The Gargoyle, Lincoln Hoppe, was perfect for this story as he easily maneuvered between the jaded, snarky character we first meet and the calmer, more settled and much kinder character we are left with. It helps that the story is so wonderfully vivid throughout and I was amazed at how much detail - from realistic history to the healing process for burn victims to the obsessive madness of someone with mental illness to so much more - the author was able to present. There is one part of the book in particular where, while being weaned off drugs, the narrator goes straight into Dante's inferno and the reader is brought along on a terrifying adventure like no other. This part alone could have been it's own story yet is only one of many incredible components of this novel.

Part of being such a wonderful novelist, however, is making your readers love the characters and the world you've created and it was this point in particular that made me really disappointed in the ending. I felt like I had invested so much in this story and been taken along on such a magical and all-consuming ride that the way the author choose to end it just made me feel sort of cheated. I can see why the author made the choices he did, however I felt like everything had been leading somewhere else and I really, really didn't think it had to end as it did. I don't want to say anything else to spoil the story, but I will leave it with the fact that the ending is the only thing keeping this from being a 5 star book for me.    

The Gargoyle is a fascinating look at pain, growth, love, art, mental illness, and faith unlike anything I've read before. It's worth a read for anyone as it's got so much to appreciate, as long as the reader isn't squeamish about graphic language or details. I definitely recommend it as an audiobook as well as you are sure to spend hours enraptured by the authors words.

What Did I Think About the Cover?

I think it's okay. I like that it represents Marianne Engel as well as the fiery heart that is symbolic of some things that happen in the story, but other than that it's somewhat plain given how complex and intricate the story is. There are just so many possibilities of what the cover could showcase!


My Rating: 4.0/5.0

I borrowed the audiobook CDs of The Gargoyle from a coworker and all opinions are mine alone. To find more information about the stories, including other reviews and links to where you can purchase your own copy, see Goodreads HERE.

 

 

Guest Post by Dusk Peterson, Author of Sweet Blood

I was fifteen when I asked my father to teach me how to research history for a book.

This isn't as odd as it sounds. My earliest datable memory, from age three, is of my father, –a literary historian and later a printing historian, –describing to me the history of nearby buildings while we waited in a hospital room after my mother had surgery. By my teens, my father was talking to me nearly every evening about his research. Meanwhile, my younger brother had decided he wanted to be an archaeologist; our helpful parents took us to archaeological sites. When I became enthralled in Arthurian Britain, my mother took my brother and me to Arthurian sites when we visited England. Soon we were all watching historical documentaries and historical dramas together.

So one day in the summer of 1978, my father took me to the Library of Congress (which he had first introduced me to five years earlier, when I was at the tender age of ten). He showed me how to use the library's new electronic catalogue, and he introduced me to the National Union Catalog: 130 feet of books collecting catalogue entries from libraries around the United States.

Afterwards, he quizzed me about my chosen research topic: the Agrarian Revolution, in which the British working class clashed – sometimes violently – with the ruling class over new farming practices that favored the elite. My father suggested that I might benefit from looking up newspaper accounts written at the time of the events I wished to research. Soon I was absorbed in 1819 newspaper accounts of the Peterloo Massacre.

All this whetted my appetite for real research. In high school, I decided I was tired of reading blandly written textbooks about historical events; I wanted to work with actual historical materials. So I ended up at St. John's College in Annapolis, which had a Great Books program. We read Homer and Dante and Shakespeare and Mark Twain. We learned political theory by perusing the writings of Machiavelli, Marx, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. We learned math by studying Euclid, Isaac Newton, and Einstein. We learned science by recreating the experiments of Galileo, Lavoisier, and Faraday. We debated with fury and delight over whether Aristotle or Kant was correct about ethics. My best friend and I dressed up on Halloween as Ancient Greek parts of speech.

After college, I took a few graduate courses in history and worked in publishing and journalism, freelancing as a history writer so that I could write about everything from Renaissance calendars to American colonial churches. I also worked as a historical researcher for other writers. I spent a lot of time in the Library of Congress.

My father had given me my first computer in 1987; now the digital era was upon us, and my father introduced me to Internet research in 1994. I began surfing through some of the earliest history sites on the web. I published a news e-zine and did research for that. By 2000, I was spending up to eighteen hours a day researching online.

Then my health broke.

That health crisis, which came close to ending my career as a writer, proved to be a blessing. I found myself asking, "Am I really doing what I want to do with my life?" The answer was clearly no. I'd known what I wanted most to do since age nine: be a novelist.

So I dusted off a fantasy series I'd started in 1995, based on a story I'd written at age sixteen, which in turn was inspired by Arthurian tales of fifth-century Britain and by what I learned in my high school Latin class. I created an empire, sent it to conquer a neighboring country, and the next thing that my young protagonist knew, he was a slave in the empire and could only be rescued from destruction if he befriended the very young man he'd previously vowed to kill.

The Three Lands series was history-light: inspired by history, but without substantial research backing it. By 2002, however, I'd discovered the online fiction community. For that community, I started what turned into an eight-series cycle of alternate history stories, set in a version of America that had been settled in ancient times and therefore retained certain classical and medieval customs. The Eternal Dungeon, Dungeon Guards, Life Prison, Michael's House, Commando, Waterman, Young Toughs, Dark Light . . . Each time I started a new series, I ended up plunging into a new research topic: nineteenth-century prisons, turn-of-the-century warfare, early twentieth century lives in theater and poverty and prostitution, 1910s boarding schools, 1910s battles between fishermen, 1960s visions of the future . . . All of this set in a variety of locations in an alternative version of the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

I think that, if I'd been an academic historian who spent decades researching a single topic, I would have gone mad with boredom. What I wanted to do as a novelist of historical speculative fiction was learn about a lot of different topics of American history. My background was as a journalist and as a history writer for general audiences; I was used to immersing myself in topics that I'd previously known nothing about.

As a novelist, I researched in the Library of Congress, in university libraries, in regional studies libraries, in museums and historical sites, and – more and more – in the substantial offerings of the Internet. Worried that I was becoming overly dependent on electronic research, I checked with my father, who was now retired from his job as a university professor and was devoting his time to his research projects. He told me that eighty percent of his own research was now done online. Digital history had become that important.

I issued my stories initially on e-mail lists devoted to online fiction. Readers asked for more stories. By 2007, I was publishing my stories as e-books. My Turn-of-the-Century Toughs cycle was an odd blend of alternate history, adventure, suspense, romance (gay, heterosexual, and asexual), and even a few science fiction stories and young adult tales. My Three Lands series also didn't seem to fit neatly into normal genre categories. But I continued to be prodded by readers for more stories. Clearly, there was some sort of audience for what I was writing.

It was in 2016 – more than twenty years after I began researching online, and nearly forty years after my father showed me the National Union Catalog – that it occurred to me that there might be other novelists who were earlier in learning how to do historical research than I was by this point. And perhaps there were also novelists out there like the nonfiction authors I'd researched for in the 1980s and 1990s, who chose to farm out some of their research tasks.

I knew that the film industry made heavy use of historical consultants, to supplement the research done by historical scriptwriters. Curious now, I decided to see how many historical researchers worked with novelists. I figured that the number must be substantial.

To my shock, I discovered that only a handful of historical researchers specialize in working with authors, and only a small percentage of these specialize in working with novelists.

So I set up my shingle.

I recently opened my business, Historicalfic: Historical Research for Fiction Writers. I'm looking forward to being able to learn about new topics through my research for other writers. But most of all, I'm looking forward to recreating that day, long ago, when my father took me to a library and taught me a bit of what he knew. I'd like to hand on what I've learned since then to other authors, and to learn from them.

 

 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Dusk Peterson's latest novel is Sweet Blood, from the award-winning alternate history series The Eternal Dungeon. The Eternal Dungeon has been split by a civil war, with the division clearly marked by a quarrel between two Seekers (torturers) whose faithfulness to each other has already become legendary. Into this explosive situation arrives a new Seeker, one who is determined to see that past evils do not continue in the dungeon. But can he keep control of himself when assigned a prisoner who falls in love with him?

 

"The word-building in this story is phenomenal, and the fact that it's inspired by historical events is even more exciting." —Rainbow Awards 2017 judge.

 

 

Honored in the Rainbow Awards, Dusk Peterson writes historical speculative fiction with diverse characters: historical fantasy, alternate history, and retrofuture science fiction. Friendship, romantic friendship, and romance often occur in the stories. Dusk Peterson also runs Historicalfic: Historical Research for Fiction Writers. A resident of Maryland, Mx. Peterson lives with an apprentice and several thousand books.

 

To learn more you can visit both their author website and research website and connect on Twitter (both author and research accounts), Facebook, and Goodreads.

 

 

 

Stone Circle by Kate Murdoch

Pub. Date: December 1, 2017
Publisher: Fireship Press
Pages: 286

Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance / Fantasy


Is the ability to read minds a blessing or a curse?

When Antonius’s father dies, he must work to support his family. He finds employment as a servant in the Palazzo Ducal, home of Conte Valperga. Sixteenth-century Pesaro is a society governed by status, and Antonius has limited opportunities.

When a competition is announced, Antonius seizes his chance. The winner will be apprenticed to the town seer. Antonius shares first place with his employer’s son.

The two men compete for their mentor’s approval. As their knowledge of magic and alchemy grows, so does the rivalry and animosity between them. When the love of a beautiful woman is at stake, Antonius must find a way to follow his heart and navigate his future.

Praise for Stone Circle

"Murdoch presents a delightful romance, feathered with light touches of fantasy. The development of her love triangle is gratifying, and even secondary characters offer stark dramatic moments…" -Kirkus Reviews

 "Kate Murdoch’s characters are so greatly human, that it’s easy to sympathise with them: to cheer them on during hard times and to admonish them for being foolish. Her characters’ interactions with each other and their individualities helped shape the book into something wonderful; at the same time she excels at pacing the story with her characters, all within a framework designed to help readers understand the world of seers and alchemy she has created." -Readers’ Favorite (5 Stars)

 "Kate Murdoch's STONE CIRCLE is a stunning historical fantasy debut set in Renaissance Italy, packed with rich imagery, well-developed characters, and an enthralling plot. The execution of the love triangle is both captivating and refreshing, weaving love, jealousy, and rivalry into a complicated but realistic story of one young seer's journey into alchemy and adulthood. I can't wait to read more by Kate Murdoch." -Madeline Dyer, author of the Untamed series

Book Trailer

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

 

Kate Murdoch is a Melbourne-based writer and artist. Her short-form fiction is regularly published

in Flash Fiction Magazine, Eunoia Review, Sick Lit Magazine, Ink in Thirds and Spelk Fiction. She also writes for her blog at https://kabiba.wordpress.com/.

Kate’s first novel is Stone Circle, a beautifully imagined work of historical fiction. An earlier version of Stone Circle was widely-acclaimed on the HarperCollins UK website, Authonomy, where it was chosen by the editors as the “one to watch” and ultimately ended up ranked 16th out of more than 10,000 manuscripts.

For more information, please visit Kate Murdoch's website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

It's Giveaway Time!!

 

 

During the Blog Tour we will be giving away 3 paperback copies of Stone Circle! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form HERE.

Giveaway Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on December 21st. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to US & Canada only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

HFVBT Schedule for Stone Circle

 





Friday, December 1

Interview at Passages to the Past

Monday, December 4

Feature at The Writing Desk
Feature at What Is That Book About

Wednesday, December 6

Review at 100 Pages a Day

Friday, December 8

Feature at A Literary Vacation

Monday, December 11

Interview at The Book Junkie Reads

Tuesday, December 12

Feature at Historical Fiction with Spirit

Thursday, December 14

Review at Book Nerd

Sunday, December 17

Review at Carole's Ramblings

Tuesday, December 19

Feature at CelticLady's Reviews

Thursday, December 21

Review at Locks, Hooks and Books

 

 

 

 

 





Cover Crush: Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

Hello, my name is Colleen and I am a cover slut. I know, I know....you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover. I just can't help myself!  A beautiful cover draws my eye every single time and I can't help but pick up the book it's dressing and see if the inside seems as intriguing as the outside. Sometimes it does, and sometimes a pretty cover is just a pretty cover. Either way, I love getting an eyeful! 

One of my favorite bloggers, Erin at Flashlight Commentary, created a weekly blog post called Cover Crush and she and some other blogger friends are sharing their favorite covers each Thursday. I've decided to join in this year and will link to their posts down below.

So, without further ado, my Cover Crush this week is.....

 

 

 

 I'll be perfectly honest with you....I'm not really sure what is going on within this picture, but I love it anyways! There appears to be a shipwreck and another boat full of men fighting to stay upright in a stormy sea, all making me think of darkness and turmoil. Then you've got what looks to be a partial painting of a tiger in the upper left hand corner which clearly doesn't fit with the rest of the cover but must have something to do with the overall story within. What could it all mean??

Let's see if the synopsis gives us any clues....


 A thrilling and powerful novel about a young boy lured to sea by the promise of adventure and reward, with echoes of Great Expectations, Moby-Dick, and The Voyage of the Narwhal.

Jamrach’s Menagerie tells the story of a nineteenth-century street urchin named Jaffy Brown. Following an incident with an escaped tiger, Jaffy goes to work for Mr. Charles Jamrach, the famed importer of exotic animals, alongside Tim, a good but sometimes spitefully competitive boy. Thus begins a long, close friendship fraught with ambiguity and rivalry.

Mr. Jamrach recruits the two boys to capture a fabled dragon during the course of a three-year whaling expedi­tion. Onboard, Jaffy and Tim enjoy the rough brotherhood of sailors and the brutal art of whale hunting. They even succeed in catching the reptilian beast.

But when the ship’s whaling venture falls short of expecta­tions, the crew begins to regard the dragon—seething with feral power in its cage—as bad luck, a feeling that is cruelly reinforced when a violent storm sinks the ship.

Drifting across an increasingly hallucinatory ocean, the sur­vivors, including Jaffy and Tim, are forced to confront their own place in the animal kingdom. Masterfully told, wildly atmospheric, and thundering with tension, Jamrach’s Mena­gerie is a truly haunting novel about friendship, sacrifice, and survival.

 

 

Don't forget to check out what covers my blogger buddies are drooling over this week:


Magdalena at A Bookaholic Swede
Meghan at Of Quills and Vellum
Erin at Flashlight Commentary
Heather at The Maiden's Court
Stephanie at Layered Pages
Holly at 2 Kids and Tired

 

 

Created by Magdalena of A Bookaholic Swede



 

Cover Crush: The Library of Light and Shadow by M.J. Rose

Hello, my name is Colleen and I am a cover slut. I know, I know....you aren't supposed to judge a book by it's cover. I just can't help myself!  A beautiful cover draws my eye every single time and I can't help but pick up the book it's dressing and see if the inside seems as intriguing as the outside. Sometimes it does, and sometimes a pretty cover is just a pretty cover. Either way, I love getting an eyeful! 

One of my favorite bloggers, Erin at Flashlight Commentary, created a weekly blog post called Cover Crush and she and some other blogger friends are sharing their favorite covers each Thursday. I've decided to join in this year and will link to their posts down below.

So, without further ado, my Cover Crush this week is.....

M.J. Rose's covers are always gorgeous so it was no surprise to me that the cover for her next installment in The Daughters of La Lune would be jaw dropping. I love how each cover has similarities to the others in the series, but also changes certain aspects, such as the landscape at the bottom, the woman looming above, and the overall color scheme. The shading of this one seems a little darker, and I'm curious to see if that is due to a darker nature within the story or just to utilize a different color palette.  Either way I'm in!

Here's the synopsis:

In this riveting and richly drawn novel from “one of the master storytellers of historical fiction” (New York Times bestseller Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for Paris after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and triggers a terrible tragedy.

In the wake of a dark and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925 Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set, which is desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like so many of her classmates from L’École de Beaux Arts, in America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most scandalous secrets—for better or for worse. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the fashionable crowd. Though her ancestor La Lune, the legendary sixteenth-century courtesan and—like Delphine—a witch, might have thought differently.

Then, on a snowy night in February, in a penthouse high above Fifth Avenue, Delphine’s mystical talent leads to a tragedy between two brothers. Horrified, she renounces her gift.

Devastated and disconsolate, Delphine returns to her old life in the south of France where Picasso, Matisse, and the Fitzgeralds are summering. There, Delphine is thrust into recapturing the past. First by her charismatic twin brother and business manager Sebastian in his attempts to cajole her back to work and into co-dependence, then by the world famous opera singer Emma Calvé, who is obsessed with the centuries-old Book of Abraham, written by the fourteenth-century alchemist Nicolas Flamel. And finally by her ex-lover Mathieu, who is determined to lure her back into his arms, unaware of the danger that had led Delphine to flee Paris for New York five years before.

Trapped in an ancient chateau where hidden knowledge lurks in the shadows, Delphine questions and in many ways rejects what and who she loves the most—her art, her magick, her family, her brother, and Mathieu—as she tries to finally accept them as the gifts they are and to shed her fear of loving and living with her eyes wide open.

Don't forget to check out what covers my blogger buddies are drooling over this week:

Magdalena at A Bookaholic Swede

Erin at Flashlight Commentary

Heather at The Maiden's Court

Stephanie at Layered Pages

Holly at 2 Kids and Tired
ME (at IndieBRAG)

Created by Magdalena of A Bookaholic Swede

Excerpt of Aphrodite's Choice by Christy English

APHRODITE’S CHOICE
By Christy English

 



Excerpt 2, Chapter 2

 

Up Irving Street, Addy’s house sat on its double lot, surrounded by the flower garden the lawn service kept so carefully tended. She caught the scent of primroses as she came through the front gate. The house rose above her on a little hillock, its red brick and cheerful white shutters reminding her of what it felt like to come home. There was something about this place that moved her as nothing had in millennia.

            Maybe she was getting sentimental.

            As soon as she stepped onto her own property, her fear eased. She laughed at herself as she strolled up the front walk. Her imagination might just be running rampant.

The dappled shade of linden trees covered the flower-strewn walkway, and the morning sunlight streamed through the Tiffany glass on the front door, making the window gleam with jewel tones of red, blue and gold. As she basked in a patch of sunlight on her front porch, Clive opened the door.

            “Madam, do you intend to come inside?”

“Good morning, Clive.”

            Addy caught the eye of her butler, who glowered at her, his close-cropped hair almost military in its precision. But Clive Jennings had never been a military man. He had spent the years before he met her working for the royal family of Great Britain. Addy had stolen him away from his position as footman during a state dinner at Buckingham Palace, and he had never looked back.

            “There is tea in the breakfast room, Miss Stanfield.”

            “Thank you, Clive. I think I’ll just have a bath.”

            “Yes, Madam.”

            As amusing as Addy found him, Clive did not find her entertaining at all. It had been ten years since he had come across the pond to try to civilize her and her household, and thus begin civilizing the wilds of North America. He knew that she rarely, if ever, spent a night away from home. He also knew that she spent every night with a different man. Clive was too well-trained to raise an eyebrow, much less ask her where she had been.

            She never knew how Clive worked his magic, but by the time she had gone upstairs and entered her bedroom suite, hot Darjeeling tea was waiting for her, with milk, sugar and lemon. He had sent up fruit and croissants as well, knowing that both were her weakness. Addy didn’t need to eat, but she always enjoyed it.

            She kicked off her shoes, and stripped off last night’s party dress. Mina, her assistant, came out of the bathroom where she had started drawing Addy’s bath.

            Mina was a girl of Punjabi descent, with dark brown eyes and black hair that hung to her waist like a river of silk. Her mother had an obsession with vampire fiction in general and with Dracula in particular, and Mina had the curse of her name to prove it. Addy knew she was running late, because Mina was frowning.

            “Your appointment with Juliana is at ten,” Mina said.

“Juliana knows I’m always late to morning meetings. I’ll pay her to wait. Why are you really annoyed?”

            “My mother called.”

            “Ah.”

            Addy slipped into the deep marble tub that took up most of the floor space in her bathroom. A skylight let in the morning sun, and a vase of yellow roses from the hothouse stood on the vanity table, giving off their lingering perfume. Addy sighed as the warm water caressed her skin.

She loved hot baths. Before the 20th century, she hadn’t had a decent bath in the Western world since Rome. As a blonde, she did a lot of work in the West, so plumbing was just one more thing to love about the modern age.

            “Mom wants to know if you’ll come to her charity event at the Met this August.”

            “No one goes to New York in August.”

            Mina glowered. “I know that. You know that. Try telling that to my mother.”

            Addy washed her back with the rose-scented, goats’ milk soap she loved. “Send her a check. Tell her I’m in Europe that month, along with the rest of the world.”

            “The Europeans come here,” Mina said.

            “Good. Then I’ll have the Continent to myself.”

            “You, and a million other Americans from Iowa.”

            “Do they have a million people in Iowa?” Addy asked.

            Mina’s glower faded and a smile lurked at the corner of her mouth. “I could look it up.”

            “No need,” Addy said. “I love Americans. I look forward to spending August on the Riviera with them.”

            “You’re scheduled to visit Lake Como.”

            “Right…well, no Americans there.”

            “Only the occasional oil baron and movie star.”

            “Do they still have American oil barons?”

            Mina laughed, the last of her bad mood slipping away. “Every time I talk to my mother, I ask her why she named me Mina.”

            “But you know why.”

            “That damned book.”

            “Vampires and their ilk are indeed damned,” Addy said. “If you want, just change your name in court. I’ll pay for it.”

            Mina smiled then, her brown eyes warming behind her gold-rimmed glasses, making her look as young as her twenty-three years.

            “I’d better hang onto it. My mother would kill me.”

Addy sighed. Modern women, with all their freedoms and responsibilities, often allowed themselves to be bogged down by nonsense. As if, having the burdens of family and society removed, they insisted on creating new burdens, even minor ones, to hold themselves back. She climbed out of the sunken tub, and Mina turned away.

The girl would learn one day that life was too short. Change what you hate about your life, and move on. She had told Mina that mantra, again and again, but so far, her wisdom had fallen on deaf ears. Maybe the girl would figure it out tomorrow.

 

 

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Publication Date: May 20, 2016
eBook; ASIN: B01FZQ80F0

Series: The Goddess Diaries #1
Genre: Fantasy/Mythology/Paranormal/Romance

 

 

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, still walks the modern world. No longer thronged by worshipers, Aphrodite heals the bodies and souls of the men she touches, one man, one night, at a time. But not everyone thinks of her as a long-dead myth. Someone is stalking her. The men who have hunted her kind as witches for centuries have passed their hatred on to their sons.

As she flees her enemies and tries to warn her sisters of the danger facing them once again, Aphrodite is followed by one of the members of the Brotherhood, a man who has been given the task of killing her, and any of her sisters who cross his path. But it does not take her long to discover that Steven Wharton is not a murderer, and his soul is one she has known before.

In this paranormal romance, a goddess’s past is brought to life, from the Greek city of Corinth to the shores of the island of Cyprus, at the court of Versailles to the burning city of Persepolis. But it is not until she meets Steve that Aphrodite falls in love for the first time. As she faces an ancient enemy, Aphrodite discovers that the love she feels, not the love she gives, is the root of her soul. And that love might even be the path to her freedom…

 

 

Buy the Book

 

 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

 

About the Author

 

 

Ever since Christy English picked up a fake sword in stage combat class at the age of fourteen, she has lived vicariously through the sword-wielding women of her imagination. Sometimes an actor, always a storyteller, Christy works happily with Sourcebooks Casablanca to bring the knife-throwing women of her novels to life. A banker by day and a writer by night, she loves to eat chocolate, drink too many soft drinks, and walk the mountain trails of her home in western North Carolina.

Please visit her at http://www.ChristyEnglish.com. You can also find Christy on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

It's Giveaway Time!!

To win an eBook of Aphrodite’s Choice by Christy English, please enter via the Gleam form HERE. 5 eBooks are up for grabs!

Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on September 9th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

– Giveaway is open Internationally.

– Only one entry per household.

– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.

– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

 

Good Luck!!

 

 

Aphrodite's Choice Blog Tour Schedule

 

Monday, August 29

Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!
Spotlight at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, August 30

Review at Luxury Reading

Wednesday, August 31

Review & Excerpt at The Silver Dagger Scriptorium
Guest Post at Let Them Read Books

Thursday, September 1

Review at 100 Pages a Day
Review & Guest Post at Historical Fiction Obsession

Friday, September 2

Review at Just One More Chapter
Interview at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Monday, September 5

Review at Broken Teepee
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Review at History From a Woman’s Perspective

Tuesday, September 6

Review at A Bookish Affair

Wednesday, September 7

Review at Ageless Pages Reviews
Interview at A Bookish Affair
Excerpt at Buried Under Romance

Thursday, September 8

Review at CelticLady’s Reviews
Excerpt at A Literary Vacation

Friday, September 9

Review at Eclectic Ramblings of Author Heather Osborne

  











Q & A with SJA Turney, Author of Insurgency

Please join me in welcoming SJA Turney to A Literary Vacation today!! SJA has kindly stopped by to answer some questions for me, so please enjoy. And, as usual, continue after the  Q & A for more information about SJA's newest  novel, Insurgency.

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Hello, SJA, and welcome to A Literary Vacation! To start off with, please tell us a little about your book, Insurgency?

And thank you for having me. The new book? Well Insurgency is a tale of love and betrayal and an empire teetering on the brink of destruction, surrounded by powerful enemies. I suppose that’s the pitch really. What it truly is is the tale of four people at the heart of an empire, whose personal lives fall apart at the moment of the empire’s greatest need and consequently plunge the world into danger. It’s a story of dangerous sea voyages, adventurous pursuits, slavery, battles and sieges. As the power structure suffers the empire weakens, and hitherto unknown enemies at its borders initiate long-laid plans for conquest. It’s fantasy, but in its most realistic, historical style. Think Roman generals and Attila the Hun - or perhaps Genghis Khan.

Now Insurgency is part of a series, correct? Where does it fit into the series?

The Tales of the Empire were designed to be standalone books but with a common thread and all set in the same world. The first three books cover around a twenty year period from several different angles Insurgency is the fourth volume, preceded in order by Interregnum, Ironroot and Dark Empress. Quite simply, while Insurgency is part of a series it can easily be read as a one-off novel without losing anything. For the very best effect, I would say read Interregnum first, as the characters in Insurgency are the descendants of those in Interregnum, but that’s not a necessity by any means. The other two books fit somewhere between these in the timeline but have far less impact on Insurgency.

The book and series sound like a delicious combination of history and fantasy! Where did the idea for the series come from? What prompted you to mix the genres together to tell your stories?

The greatest influence I could claim is Guy Gavriel Kay. He is the master of blending history with fantasy, and I read his earliest books at school. They essentially informed my whole view of literature with their subtle fantasy twists on historical periods. I myself began writing straight history with an attempt to rework Caesar’s diaries and make them readable. The resulting series (Marius’ Mules) has reached book 9 now, but even as I finished book 1 I realized that an author could have so much more influence on their story and the world in which it is set if they started with a blank canvas, so I decided to keep the flavor of Rome and work it into a fantasy milieu in the manner of G G Kay. Also, being a table-top role-player through my formative years has given me plenty of experience in world building, which helped a great deal. History and fantasy are closely tied together anyway, as anyone who reads Roman and Greek mythology will know. The lines between fantasy and history blur a great deal, depending on where the reader is happy to draw them. It seemed the best way to create something unique while drawing on the Roman history which I love.

I’m a huge historical fiction fan. Is there anything in particular that draws you to historical fiction? Are there any particular times in history you gravitate towards more than others, or do you just enjoy history in general?

Actually I primarily write Roman fiction. The Tales of the Empire were something of an indulgence originally, to give me a chance to use my full imagination without being bound by historical fact. But most of my volume of work is historical in nature, with the Marius’ Mules series set in the time of Caesar, the Praetorian series during the reign of Commodus, a kids’ book in the first century AD, and a series set in the late 15th century Mediterranean. Oh, and I’m also part of a collaborative retelling of the fall of Troy (A Song of War), which is released in October. Essentially, I have been an obsessive lover of Roman history since my grandfather took me to Hadrian’s Wall when I was six, and over the last decade I have also become increasingly fascinated with the Byzantine world. Like a true obsessive, almost everything I do is informed by my passion for history.

Did you have to conduct any research to write Insurgency? Have you ever traveled to the locations discussed in the story before or during the writing process?

One of the key features of writing ‘historical fantasy’ rather than the more wildly fantastic sword and sorcery stuff is the need to be clear on any historical elements one might use. For the horse clans in Insurgency I bought several texts on Attila’s Huns and the Mongol horde, to achieve a realistic feel to their clothing and weapons, their lifestyle and so on. Their language, which appears here and there, is my own creation based heavily on the little that is known of the tongues of the steppe peoples of the ancient and medieval worlds, influenced by a smattering of modern Mongolian. Research for my fantasy books is as in-depth as it is for the straight history. Luckily, being a lover of the subject, research is as much a hobby as a chore. I try to travel to any location I use in a book, as I think that gives any description of a place a sense of authenticity. It helps if a writer knows how a place feels and smells as well as what it looks like, in my opinion. Some visits are unachievable, sadly. I never managed to visit the Russian/Mongolian steppe, for instance, but many of the locations in Interregnum are based on places with which I’m familiar (Istanbul, Capri, Rome, Rocamadour and so on.)

Was there anything that shocked or surprised you during the research or writing process? Is there anything in particular that you discovered and found interesting that didn’t end up making it into the story?

Writing is always a fluid thing for me. I am permanently prepared to be surprised, if that makes any sense? I set out with a detailed plan, and then constantly have to adjust that plan as little epiphanies strike me and the plot twists this way and that in my hands. Insurgency was a prime example of that. Perhaps a third of the way into the book I was out having a walk and an idea struck me. I went back to writing later in the day and launched into that idea only to find out that it neatly solved a problem I didn’t even know I had until I’d resolved it. That then became a central plot thread to the whole book. Strange how that happens. Another odd thing came along when my editor noted that I mention it being Spring throughout the book and thought I had got the timings wrong. But when I went back over the timescale for the whole tale, it begins in early spring and ends within a few short months, as spring moves to summer. Most of my books take place over quite some time so that came as a surprise, especially since I hadn’t realized it until it was pointed out to me. And I had a few scenes in mind set in the desert lands of Pelasia (which I love as a setting, and is the main reason I wrote Dark Empress) but they were surplus really, and had no real bearing on the plot, so they were cut.

Similar to the question above: I’ve heard a number of authors say that their characters, while fictional, spoke to them and shaped the way the narrative of the story evolved. Do your characters “lead” you anywhere and, if so, did they lead you anywhere unexpected?

Ah yes. See above! Characters are tricky things. I try and keep them under control, but they tend to live their own lives whatever we do. I had less of this than usual with Insurgency, but still they occasionally tweaked the plot when I realized that their motivations would require them to do something I hadn’t originally planned on. Jala, the Empress, was the main culprit in Insurgency. Her motivations were troublesome to nail down, and she changed things quite a bit. In my second book in the Praetorian series, the main character developed an unintentional addiction to opium, which in the end changed the whole feel of the book. It happens.

What does a typical day (if there is one) look like for you? How do you balance writing with the rest of your life?

Coffee! I rush around to get the morning chores done and sort out the kids with my wife, and then shuffle off into my office armed with coffee. I then write solidly for about seven hours periodically refilling my mug (or perhaps a cheeky beer in the afternoon.) Then by 4 or 5 in the afternoon I down tools. That being said, I am rarely not working in some way. Of an evening or a weekend I am always plotting, making notes, reading research material and suchlike. The brain never stops... except on Wednesdays. That’s my day off. Four days a week I write hard, and in the evenings and at weekends it’s all about family time. But on Wednesdays, while the kids are at school, I turn from writer to reader. My wife and I head into town and I’ll find a comfy corner of a pub to read and relax. I’ve tried writing through the week, but with the pace I set myself on writing days, I’ve found I tend to burn out by about day 4 if I don’t give the brain a bit of a rest, so Wednesday refuels me to launch into things again for the rest of the week.

A lot of authors have become huge on social media, not only promoting their work but interacting with their readers and offering up giveaways, book recommendations, etc. Are you a big proponent of using social media in this way? How do you prefer to interact with your fans?

I’m not a pushy person by nature. In fact, I’m actually surprisingly shy with people I don’t know. I suffer horribly from stage fright and nerves, which can be something of a hiccup in the world of book publicity. But because of that Social Media is a life saver. It doesn’t feel like you’re speaking to strangers or to the world as a whole, but to friends. I love it. After initially doubting the value of it, I plunged into Twitter and Facebook years ago and now have a lively online life. I’ve made many good friends, and I do use it to interact with fans all the time – ‘fans’ and ‘friends’ are more or less synonymous words to me these days. I also run a blog reviewing other peoples’ books and have my own website. I occasionally run giveaways and promote my own work, but I am sparing with it. Fortunately, there are a number of fans out there who promote me far more than I probably deserve, but as I say, I don’t like to be pushy, so I do little of it myself except around the time of a book’s release. Some authors can be rather irritating with the level to which they try the hard sell. I couldn’t be one of them, but I will always enjoy the social media world and be part of it.

I’ve noticed that a lot of authors are also big readers. When you have time for leisure reading what sorts of books do you gravitate towards? Have you read anything good lately?

I really should read ahead, shouldn’t I? Heh heh. As I said previously, I love to read. Some writers avoid reading within their own genre for fear of being influenced by other people’s work. I take the opposite position. I read a lot of historical fiction, especially Roman, and as well as enjoying them it allows me to make sure I write things that are different and don’t cover the same ground as other authors. I mostly read historical novels, but occasionally I foray into crime, fantasy, comedy or the supernatural. Books outside the straight historical genre that have stood out for me recently include Simon Toyne’s Sanctus trilogy, Manda Scott’s Into the Fire and James Douglas’ thrillers.

Are you working on any other books that we can look forward to reading in the future?

Oh I always have more than one book on the go! In fact, there’s a swathe of stuff in the pipeline. A standalone Roman novel is complete and with my agent. A series based on the war between Constantine and Maxentius that I’m writing with Gordon Doherty is currently seeking placement. The Trojan War collaboration ‘A Song of War’ will be out in October. The ninth Marius Mules novel will be out next month. And I am about to embark on a whole new project that will be virgin territory for me which will be released by Canelo next year. Plenty of reading matter to keep page-turners busy. 

Thank you for having me on A Literary Vacation. It’s been fun.

You are so very welcome, thank you for stopping by!!

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Publisher: Canelo

Pub. Date: August 16th, 2016

Pages: 351

The Empire has fallen… 

The Empire will rise again. 

A historical fantasy of valour, honour, and determination against all odds from the bestselling author of the Marius’ Mules novels. 

For twenty years, civil war has torn the Empire apart, and the once proud soldiers of the Imperial army now fight as hired hands for greedy lords fighting over the remnants of a more glorious time. 

Now the Empire is rising again under the benevolent reign of Emperor Kiva the Golden. Meanwhile his younger brother – the gifted warrior Quintillian – has been driven away from the Imperial Palace by an uncontrollable love for the Emperor’s wife Jala. Instead the honourable fighter chooses a life of simplicity as a sword for hire leaving the long legacy of his family behind. 

But not all ties of loyalty can be escaped and the bonds of family run deep… 

A truly epic reimagining of the history of the Roman Empire, Insurgency is a fast-paced and addictive novel that will delight fans of the series and capture the imaginations of new readers. The Tales of the Empire series takes S.J.A. Turney’s passion for Roman history and builds a fascinating new fantasy world adorned with all the hallmarks of a shattered Roman Empire.

About the Author

Simon Turney lives in rural North Yorkshire with his family. A lover of Roman history, he decided to combine writing and history with a new look at Caesar's diaries, spawning the hugely popular Marius’ Mules and Tales of the Empire series. When he’s not writing, he spends time visiting classical architecture and ruins. Insurgency is his 18th novel.

Buy the Book

Amazon | Amazon UK | Canelo | Kobo | Apple iBooks | Google Play

*Insurgency is published by Canelo, priced at £3.99 as an ebook*

 

 

Interview with B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree Helen Hollick

Please join me in welcoming B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree Helen Hollick to A Literary Vacation today! Helen lives with her family in North Devon, England, in an eighteenth century farmhouse, surrounded by thirteen acres of fields and woodland. A variety of pets include horses, two Exmoor ponies, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, and geese.

A passionate supporter of indie, Helen is Managing Editor for the Historical Novel Society Indie Reviews, and with her editor, Jo Field, Helen co-wrote Discovering the Diamond, a short advice guide for new and novice writers who are interested in self-publishing.

Her main passion is her pirate character, Captain Jesamiah Acorne of The Sea Witch Voyages which carry the quality endorsement of Indie B.R.A.G. medallions. Helen is also published traditionally in the US, and became a USA Today Bestseller with The Forever Queen (titled A Hollow Crown in the UK) – the story of Saxon Queen, Emma of Normandy. Her novel Harold the King (titled I Am The Chosen King in the US) is an acclaimed re-telling of events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings.

Her Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy, set in the fifth century, is widely acclaimed as a different telling of the Arthurian Myth.

Helen is published in various languages including Turkish, Italian and German.

 

 

Hello, Helen, and welcome to A Literary Vacation! To start off with, please tell us a little about the books in your Sea Witch Voyages series?



The Voyages, as the series is called, are set in the early eighteenth century – the Golden Age of Piracy. We first meet my pirate, Jesamiah Acorne, in the first book, Sea Witch. Attacking an East Indiaman merchant ship off the coast of Africa he notices a young girl on the deck – their paths are to cross several times, but he is completely unaware that she - Tiola Oldstagh – is no ordinary girl. Only when she saves his life does he discover two things: that he is deeply in love with her, and that she is also a White Witch.

 Written for adults (the books have some adult content) each Voyage is a stand-alone story, but there is also a continuous thread of finding out about Jesamiah and Tiola’s background running through the entire series – their characters developing as we voyage with them. In Pirate Code, Voyage Two, Jesamiah has given up piracy, but is tricked into finding some missing cargo. He then gets embroiled in a rebellion on the island of Hispaniola – while trying to avoid an unpleasant death from the less than friendly Spanish Governor, and resisting temptation from a beautiful widow.


Voyage three, Bring It Close, sees him going against that famous pirate, Blackbeard and dealing with the ghost of his father. In Voyage Four, Ripples In The Sand, he sails to England, where yet again he finds himself in unexpected trouble.

There is an element of supernatural in each book – the ghost of his father, Tiola’s ‘Craft’, and the spirit of the sea, Tethys, who wants Jesamiah for herself.

Before I get any further, I just have to say that I am thoroughly impressed that each book in this series has been awarded a B.R.A. G. Medallion! This speaks to your incredible capabilities as a storyteller. Can you tell us a little bit about how you’ve honed your skills as a writer?

 

I’ve been a published author for over twenty years, initially published by William Heinemann of Random House, UK, so I guess practice has played a large part! I also highly value my editors’ input to my books. They are the professionals and their advice is always worth taking on board.


I am not an academic, I left school at sixteen with only a few low-grade certificates to my name, but I have always loved reading and writing. As a teenager I desperately wanted a pony, but we could not afford to keep one, so I made one up. I wrote dozens of stories about our adventures together – many of them, I must confess, during the more boring lessons at school. I even wrote one story during an important exam! Well, I’d finished the questions and had time to spare, so I started a story. I filled up both sides of an A4 sheet of paper, and asked for more paper. Filled that up. Asked for more. It was a good story (well, I thought so at the time, it probably wasn’t though.) What I didn’t realise, all the other girls in the examination room thought I was still answering the questions and were worried that they had only one sheet of paper to hand in, while I had a whole pile. When they discovered the truth I wasn’t very popular for a while!


My first real foray into writing came from my English teacher. I’d written an essay and it came back with those dreaded words: “See me after class”. What had I done wrong?


“Now then Helen!” she said, “This is good, but it could be a lot better.” She then spent about an hour (it was the last lesson of the day) showing me how I could improve my writing by not repeating words and not using so many adjectives. Show not tell; build the story up; have a clear start, middle and end. I’ve never forgotten her encouragement. It’s a shame she isn’t still alive to see my achievement, but this was almost forty-five years ago and she was nearing retirement even then.


I wonder what she would have made of my pirate?

I love that your series seems a wonderful mix of history and fantasy. Which aspect do you enjoy writing more? Did you do any research before writing the books? If you did conduct research, did you find out anything during the process that surprised you?

It can be a challenge to get the blend just right. Although Tiola is a White Witch she has her limitations – I didn’t want her able to click her fingers and ‘hey-presto’ get Jesamiah out of trouble. She doesn’t do ‘magic’ so I think of her Craft as more like the Force in Star Wars, not the spells of Harry Potter.


I do a lot of research for the ‘everyday’ things of the period, clothing, food, transport etc. I have been to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, three times now as I have several scenes set there in Bring It Close (and possibly the sixth Voyage, Gallows Wake – I’m not sure yet though, as the book is not written!) I also meticulously research my nautical detail: get those facts right then the made-up bits seem plausible. The trick is to blend the fact, the fiction, and the fantasy seamlessly together so the reader is not certain which is which!


One thing really surprised me and came so unexpected that I felt the hairs on the nape of my neck rise up, one of those ‘oo-er’ moments! While preparing to write the fourth Voyage, Ripples In the Sand, I had decided to bring Jesamiah and his ship, Sea Witch, to Devon, England, to make a change of scenery for me and my readers. I lived on the outskirts of London at the time and chose Devon because that was where my Editor used to live. I used to visit her quite often, but only when researching did I discover that Bideford on the North Coast of Devon, the town I was to bring Jesamiah to, had in the 16-1700s been one of the main English ports used for the tobacco trade. I’d chosen it at random – you could have knocked me down with a feather.


And another unexpected surprise – completely out of the blue, in 2013 my family had the chance to move away from London. We moved to Devon, about eighteen miles from where Ripples is set!

I’m sure it’s impossible to say, but do you have a favorite book from this series? How about a favorite character?

Sea Witch itself, of course, because it was the first, but possible my favourite is Bring It Close. I loved being able to trundle history around and fit my pirate into the known facts about Blackbeard! My favourite character has to be Jesamiah himself. I adore him.

Historical fiction happens to be my all-time favorite genre and I find myself going back and forth between what periods of history are my favorite to read about. Do you have a favorite time period to write and/or read about, or do you enjoy jumping around as I do?

I have a few periods I don’t enjoy: I can’t stand the Tudors, and I have very little interest in the 1400s or the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Otherwise, anything goes as long as it is well written and exciting.

What does a typical day (if there is one) look like for you? How do you balance writing and the rest of your life?

I’d like to say I’m organized, but I’m not! I answer my emails and deal with social media stuff of a morning, then write in the afternoons. The trouble is, I now live on a thirteen-acre farm and there’s always something that needs doing outside: we have horses, dogs, chickens, geese, ducks…. The fields to harrow and roll, horses to ride, eggs to collect… So I tend to get more writing done when its raining or at night!

What drew you to independently publish The Voyages series as opposed to seeking traditional publishing?

As I said above, I used to be published by Random House UK, but unfortunately my ex-agent let me down badly and I was dropped about ten years ago. I had written Sea Witch with such enthusiasm (it took me just three months to write) and I was devastated when ex-agent said she hated it. (It transpired that she also disliked the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie.) She wanted me to write the story for teenage boys – but I had deliberately set out to write Sea Witch for adults. You see I loved The Curse of the Black Pearl with Johnny Depp’s wonderful portrayal of Jack Sparrow. The plot was daft, I know, but it was fun! Nautical adventure about pirates with an addition of romance and fantasy; pure escapism.


I searched for adult novels of the same sort of thing, found plenty of children’s books (a bit lacking in adult matters) and plenty of good nautical fiction (C.S.Forrester and Patrick O’Brian for instance) but they were all straight fiction, no fantasy. In the end, I gave up looking and wrote the book I wanted to read.


Sadly ex-agent did not share my enthusiasm, but I stuck to my guns and we parted company. I did offer Sea Witch to a few publishers, but they all came back with the same response: ”Love it, but no one is interested in pirates.” (I seem to recall them saying the same about wizards …)


I had faith in Jesamiah and Sea Witch, so decided to go Indie.


Best thing I ever did.

 How did you discover indieBRAG and what does it mean to you to have your books awarded the BRAG Medallion? 

IndieBRAG discovered me, well CEO Geri Clouston did! I think we ‘met’ because of her husband’s excellent books (read them, they’re very good.) and Geri floated the idea of what did I think about her forming a good review-type platform for Indie books. I told her it was a good idea – but I honestly didn’t think she was serious! So many review sites start up then fall by the wayside. I soon came to realise that Geri was perfectly serious, and I am delighted that IndieBRAG is becoming the huge success that it is.


What I want to see now, is IndieBRAG getting the recognition it deserves here in the UK as well as in the US. It is much needed over here …. Come on Geri, your next goal!

 

 

 

Thank you, Helen, for taking the time to answer my questions!

 

You can learn more about Helen and her books on her website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also email her and find updated news on her online newsletter. You can find all links to purchase the books in her Voyages series HERE.

 

 

 

A Message from indieBRAG:

We are delighted that Colleen has chosen to interview Helen Hollick, who is the author of The Voyages series, our medallion honorees at indieBRAG. To be awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion ® , a book must receive unanimous approval by a group of our readers. It is a daunting hurdle and it serves to reaffirm that a book such as Past Encounters merits the investment of a reader’s time and money.