Book Review ~ MURDER, Now and Then: Murder Mystery 1919 to 2019, by Diana Jackson

Now available on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com

Think Midsomer murders meets Bergerac, set in the near future and based on an actual murder that took place in 1919, and you'll have a good idea of what to expect from Diana Jackson's latest thriller. Unlikely coincidences keep you guessing and, in classic murder mystery style, have you changing your mind several times about the killer's identity - or who the next victim might be.

I particularly liked the evocative scenes set in Diana's much-loved Channel Islands and could easily imagine this book as a successful  TV drama. The eventual denouement is original and inventive - I definitely didn't see it coming!  Highly recommended, Murder, Now and Then is one of those books you can't put down until the mystery is solved.

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About the Author

Diana Jackson is a full time author living in Bedfordshire, UK. When not writing, Diana’s other passions are social history, gardening, cooking her own produce, following her husband’s rock and roll band and her more recent absorbing interest in early flight, especially flying boats. Inspired by her great grandmother, an Alderney girl, her  ‘Riduna Series’ novels take the reader from the mid Victorian era through to 1920. Diana now plans a third in the series to the mid thirties. To find out about Diana Jackson’s other writing projects, you can visit her blog http://dianamj.wordpress.com/ and find her on Twitter @Riduna

Guest Post ~ A world where all is not what it seems by Caroline Gleave

When he finds a hidden map and a scripture washed up with an unusual body, Daimeh’s idyllic life changes forever.

The Alkoryn Chronicles: Part I Scripture from the Past:

New on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Firstly I would like to thank Tony for asking me to guest post on his blog. It is very much appreciated. My preferred genre has always been science-fiction, fantasy and even a bit of horror. The idea for ‘The Alkoryn Chronicles’ started when I was young and I have always been interested in the interactions of science, technology and biology. Arthur C.Clarke's Third Law ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ inspired my ideas for the story.  There are fantasy elements alongside science-fiction and I examine the relationship between the two. What is fantasy and magical to one character may be scientific technology to another character.

Later in life I decided to turn that idea into a book and wrote the first chapter. I wasn’t able to finish it at the time due to my intense studying and earned BSc (hon) in Natural Sciences, a MSc in Computer-based Information Systems and a Postgraduate Certificate in Computer Aided Graphical and Technological Applications.

Fifteen years later I found that first chapter and it inspired me to continue writing again. I have no qualifications in writing except as a hobbyist, so writing my first novel was a real challenge. I’m glad I persevered and self-published. Since then,  I have been offered a contract to re-publish a revised edition of the book, which I am very excited about. I have also been offered a contract for ‘Part II: Land of Eternal Stars.’ It is still in its early stages so there is no release date yet.

I have created a rich alternative world full of its own animals, vegetation and dynamic landscapes, from jungles to deserts to volcanoes. It is a unique world where its axis only allows the sun to shine on one side, leaving the other side in complete darkness. I have tried to give the locations in the book a real sense of life and place. I wanted to make them as believable as possible. I would always tell myself whilst writing. “My characters deserve a real place to live.”

As the first book in the series ‘Part I: Scripture from the Past’ introduces the reader to the world of Alkoryn, a humble idyllic setting, where the sun never sets. I wanted to give Alkoryn a radiance of harmony, peace and high morality and the Alkoryn people a self-sufficient community who are highly productive without being industrious. Daimeh's life changes when he finds an unusually alien body washed up on the shore of the glorious Galunda Bay. What had burdened the bay?

His aunt Cresadir performs an autopsy on the body and as the story unfolds, Daimeh realises all is not what it seems and the opportunity arises for him to explore beyond the borders of Alkoryn. With his aunt by his side they embark on a journey they had only dreamt of and reveal an enriched world of mysterious technology, peculiar creatures and an advanced civilisation; secretive and led by a single council who seek to evolve themselves into a perfect race.

'Part I' focuses on the light side of the planet and 'Part II' the dark side. This does not necessarily mean good and evil. Although I have always enjoyed the concept, I wished to pull it apart a bit and offer a neutrality between the two. You decide which side you are on.

Caroline Gleave

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About the Author

Caroline-Jayne Gleave grew up in Pity Me, a small suburb near Durham City and now lives in Esh Winning. She studied sciences at University of Durham and continued her studies to a postgraduate level.

She was very sporty when she was younger and in her early twenties she became an Olympian, her chosen sport being women's ice hockey. Now, she is a clothes designer and runs her own business from home. When she is not working or writing she enjoys movies, tv series, gaming and designing. You can find Caroline on Twitter @QissQasai and Facebook, as well as on her blog The Alkoryn Chronicles

Book Launch Guest Post ~ Unelmoija: The Spiritshifter by Elle Boca

Loi, an amplifier able to help young superhuman Weeia develop their abilities, is found dead of mysterious causes. Amy, like Loi, may be an amplifier. If she gets involved she might be next. Should she risk her life to help Weeia youth unlock their abilities? 

New on Amazon US and Amazon UK

The story and the series began with Amy. All along she has led me with her in her adventures and that of Unelmoija and the Weeia. I in turn share her story in the Weeia books in the hope that they entertain others. The idea was born of my interest in and enjoyment of urban fantasy books. I wanted to write a story with a strong woman lead in a contemporary real world (versus a fantasy world) environment. I also want to share a bit about the beautiful area where I live in the book. As far as I know this is the first urban fantasy set in Miami. While the city is famous around the world it remains in many ways undiscovered.

Over the course of the story, Amy becomes special, but all along she's the girl next door trusting and somewhat naive yet armed with great sympathy, generosity and courage. We ride along close up and personal thanks to her first person account from the day she discovers she's superhuman, meets her father for the firsts time, meets Duncan, the man who is her polar opposite yet is irresistibly attracted to her, and watch her falter, suffer and grow through some challenging and unexpected experiences while at the same time she discovers Miami, her new home.

From a bigger picture perspective, I like the idea of superhumans representing a possible next step in our evolution. Who are the Weeia? The Weeia (pronounced way-yah) are similar to you or me in most ways, except that they have superhuman abilities and live long lives. Fearing humans, they live hidden among us. Your neighbor, banker, boss or doctor, even a person you’ve known all your life could be Weeia. Their super abilities vary by type and strength. They fall into four main categories: Emotional, Material, Mental, and Temporal.

 Elle Boca

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About the Author

Elle Boca is the author of the Weeia urban fantasy series set in Miami, Florida in the United States. When not writing and creating fantastical beings she likes photographing nature and wildlife, eating baked goods, watching movies, and dreaming of going on safari. Find out more at her website elleboca.poyeen.com and find her on Twitter: @elleboca and Goodreads. 

Guest Post ~ What drove me to writing, by Carla Michelle Hamilton

The old soul's coven search for their leader Melinda

but in her place find a librarian called Emily Harris.

Will Emily's shady past and hidden secrets reveal

she was the one they were looking for or  will

their hunt for Melinda lead to a whole lot more? 

Available on Amazon US and Amazon UK

I've always loved writing since I was a child, of course then, I was the main character in all of my stories and repeatedly saved the world. But now I love to build from my crazy imagination and see where it leads me. In 2010 I suffered a miscarriage, and as you can imagine I was heartbroken, but I choose to see the world as ‘Everything happens for a reason’.

For me, it was discovering my love for books. I’d never properly, let a book take me in, but when I cracked the spine of Stephanie Mayer’s Twilight, something just clicked inside of me (team Edward). I couldn’t get enough, at one point I’d read four of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books in four days, it was crazy (team Eric).

Then, after eight months nonstop reading of other people’s books, I decided I’d like to contribute. My life would be so boring if it wasn’t for the amazing Authors who chose to tell their stories to the world, it’s only fair that I give something back.

So naturally I chose to follow the same genre of the Authors who captured my mind, fiction, but I focused mainly on the fights and dramas that come with a group of supernatural people banded together because of what they are.

There is nothing better than picking up a book and realizing, this would never happen in real life. There’s nothing a bunch of witches and vampires are going through, that could make you think “that’s exactly what I’m going through” (unless you are a witch or a vampire, in that case, get in contact with me I’d love to chat).

Even though I’ve stressed on how much I love fictional characters, after I’ve finished writing the third book in my The Old Soul’s Coven series, I’m going to start on a new two-part-series. It’s also going to be very drama based, just less of the supernatural people. This story has been swirling around in my mind, about as long as Emily’s Haven has, but Emily’s story became too juicy and I had to write it first. I’m very excited to get started on the new series, but I have to often remind myself of my half-finished book.

Carla Michelle Hamilton

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About the Author

Carla Michelle Hamilton was raised by her single Mother, alongside her three younger siblings. Carla grew up in Middlesbrough up until joining the British Army at the age of sixteen. She left shortly after giving birth to her first child. Carla now lives in Northern Ireland with her husband and their son. Carla says ' I got an E in my GCSE English and can’t spell to save my life - but that is why the world created editors and I am thankful for that!'  You can find Carla on Twitter @carlahamilton and on Goodreads, as well as her Amazon author page.

Book Review: A Place for Us (Part 1) by Harriet Evans #APlaceForUs

Available to pre-order on Amazon US annd Amazon UK 

"The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day.”   Isn’t that a great opening line?  A Place for Us, the new novel by Sunday Times bestselling author Harriet Evans, is one of those books that grabs you and won’t let you stop until you learn what happens.

Following the life of each member of the family in turn, you are drawn deep into the complex relationships between them. I was impressed at how Harriet Evans pulls of the neat trick of making you really care about her flawed characters – any one of whom would be more than capable of carrying the novel on their own.

In a clever move, publishers Headline are releasing A Place For Us as four exclusive part-serialisations. Martha Winter's family is going to be one a to follow, a modern classic in the making  - and are they all finally coming home?

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About the Author

Harriet Evans was born in London and went to Bristol University, where she did Classical Studies. After working on The Lady magazine, she went into publishing, first at Penguin, then at Headline. Harriet started writing in the mornings before work, and in 2003, sent the first few pages of her book to an agent under a pseudonym. This led to a publishing deal with HarperCollins, who have now published all five of her novels and she left her job to write full time. She says ‘I love getting involved with the world I’ve created and the people within it. Hopefully that means the reader loses themselves in something for a few hours too, something that makes them smile, keeps them gripped and is complete escapism. - See more at her website http://www.harriet-evans.com and find her on Facebook and Twitter @HarrietEvans

Guest Post by Rosie Amber ~ author of Talk of The Playground

When the police have been seen at school on the second day of term, fighting breaks out amongst parents and gossip about individuals threatens to spiral out of control. Is this an idyllic English school? Sophie Grey lands a job where she must hunt out the inside story.

Available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Learning from Blogging

Blogging opened up a whole new world to me and I have met some lovely people. I try to publish a blog post every single day because my blog is still quite new and I need to keep readers interested. I began my blog primarily to help promote my own book, but it has become a much bigger part of my life. I’m now able to use my love of reading and my blog to help promote other people books too. My most recent addition to the blog is a page I’m building on resources for writers. It features people who offer editing services, marketing, promotion, book covers, book reviewers etc and I shall be adding more.

My first published book is Talk of the Playground, a fun tale of the ins and outs of an English village school. I call it my work of love rather than my work of art because it meant so much to me at the time. I learnt a lot about writing and self-publishing and have learnt even more from blogging and reading other writers work.

Reading and Blogging Challenges

I love reading. In the Goodreads 2013 challenge I read 154 books, this year I expect to increase that number. Nearly every book I read gets a review on Goodreads, Amazon and my blog, with links to my Facebook author page, Google+ and Twitter. I also do Guest Author Interviews and take part in book related tours.

In 2013 I was lucky enough to be invited to write a monthly book review page for a local magazine called “Fleet Life”. 5000 copies go out locally and the magazine has an online version too, I usually review 5 books of my choice per month for the magazine. In 2014 I also picked up its sister magazine Elvetham Heath Directory which has 2000 copies and an online version, I do a different set of reviews in each magazine.

I love keeping my blog fresh; in April 2013 I took part in my first April A to Z Challenge and I blogged my way through the alphabet matching book titles to the letters of the alphabet. This year I took part for a second year and again promoted books using all the letters of the alphabet, it is a great way to meet lots of new bloggers from all over the world.

Never one to stand still for long I recently completed a year-long challenge that I set myself on the day I began reading a book called AYear of Doing Good by Judith O’Reilly. Judith challenged herself to do Good Deeds for a whole year and wrote a truly inspirational book about what happened. Judith undertook giant acts of good, my own challenge was to do just 1 Good Deed a day for a year. Every Sunday I update my readers with my latest deeds. On April 16^th 2014 I celebrated completing my challenge and am now carrying on for a second year. Do come and check it out at My Year of Good Deeds.

Book review Challenge Series

I’ve just launched a Book review challenge as I’m very keen to get more people to write reviews for the books they read. How often do you write and post a review of a book you've read? Ever wondered if your review would be of any use to anyone? Don't know how to write a review? We will be hearing from several book reviewers on how they go about writing a review and from authors about the importance of reviews. 

It began on Wednesday 25th June - Book reviewing by Rosie Amber + Guest piece from Melissa Newman of Martin Sisters Publishing + easy to follow tips for writing your own review.

* Thursday 26th June - Book reviewing by Bodicia from A Woman's Wisdom + How to download a PDF file of a book to your kindle + Non-fiction book reviews

* Friday 27th June - The Importance of book reviews by author Terry Tyler + a look at Goodreads + A bad or negative review, should you write it?

* Saturday 28th June - Book Reviewing by Diane Coto from Fictionzeal + Shelfari + Going in deep, talking reviews

* Sunday 29th June - Book reviewing by Ionia Martin from Readfulthings + Author Adrienne Vaughan’s views on book reviews + Reviewing to Amazon + Gearing up to write that review

* Monday 30th June - The Importance of book reviews by Lizzie Lamb + Authors should walk to the book reviewer’s side of the fence

Come and find out more and sign up for the challenge to read a book for FREE and write a book review at my blog Rosie Amber.

Rosie Amber

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 About the Author

Rosie Amber is an author, book reviewer and blogger, living in the county of Hampshire in the UK.  She is married with two children and juggles part-time work with full-time motherhood.  Rosie says, 'I was inspired to combine a love of writing with a desire to embrace social technology. Thus my first book was born from the experiences of being a playground parent.' Find out more on Rosie's blog Rosie Amber and find her on Twitter @rosieamber1 and on Facebook.

New Book Review ~ The Second Time I Saw You by Pippa Croft

Available from Amazon US and Amazon UK

Quite a diversion from my usual reading, The Second Time I Saw You is an intimate ‘insider’s view’ of life at the fictional Wyckham College, Oxford. Complete with dodgy Dons and athletic rowers,  this second book in Pippa Croft's Oxford Blue romance series is everything you would expect.

The most interesting character is the enigmatic ex public school aristocrat Alexander Hunt, who manages to show he does, after all, have a sensitive side. Pippa’s storytelling skill made it a fast read – and I didn’t spot the surprise ending!  Now I’ll have to read the next novel in the series, Third Time Lucky, which is available to pre-order from Penguin.

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About the Author

Pippa Croft is the pen name of an author who read English Language and Literature at Oxford, then worked in advertising, journalism and PR until she decided to write her first piece of fan fiction, inspired by a TV drama called North and South. She says ‘I love writing passionate steamy stories about dark brooding alpha heroes and feisty women and I’ve been dying to write a book set at Oxford. This is my dream project!’  You can find her on Twitter @PippaCroftBooks. Pippa Croft also writes as Phillipa Ashley – find out more at her website: www.phillipa-ashley.com