The Migrant Report (Book One, Crimes in Arabia Series) by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

Available on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Against the glittering high-rises of the capital, Manu, a recent arrival from Nepal, drips his days away on a construction site, cut off from the world outside the labor camp. His sister despairs of finding him among the thousands of migrant workers flooding into the Arabian Gulf to build the country’s infrastructure. Manu and Sanjana must keep their younger siblings out of poverty, even if at their own expense. 

Police captain Ali's hopes of joining the elite government forces are dashed when his childhood deformity is discovered. His demotion brings him face to face with a rising pile of unexplained dead bodies and also an aspiring journalist who is unlike any local girl Ali knows. In danger of flunking out of university, Maryam is searching for an original story that will appease her professor and keep her family’s machinations for marriage in check. 

Can the unlikely trio fit the pieces of the puzzle together before agency thugs get to Manu? 

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About the Author

Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a South Asian American who has lived in Qatar since 2005. Moving to the Arabian Desert was fortuitous in many ways since this is where she met her husband, had two sons, and became a writer. Her coming of age novel, An Unlikely Goddess, won the SheWrites New Novelist competition in 2011. Her recent books have focused on various aspects of life in Qatar.  Learn more about her work on her website at www.mohadoha.com or follow her latest on Twitter: @moha_doha.

Book Review ~ The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen, by Stephen R. Bown

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

"Amundsen! The very name carries the song of the Arctic winds, the mystery of the white places of the earth. Of all men, he alone had stood at both frozen tips of our spinning world."

Boyden Sparkes, December 1928. 

I remember as a schoolboy being led to believe that Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition was 'cheated' of their moment of glory at the South Pole by the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen. I urge you to read this book to set the record straight.

Canadian biographer Steven R. Bown shows us a flawed hero, worshipped by his men yet a womaniser, careless with his money, who lived his life to the full. The fascinating accounts of Amundsen’s adventures are balanced with details of the considerable effort and planning behind each of his voyages.

Early on, Amundsen realised that there was inevitably tension between the ship's captain and the expedition leader, so he promptly gained his captain's papers to solve the problem. For similar reasons he never included doctors on his teams, a policy that almost cost him his life. In the Arctic he was attacked by a polar bear, which smashed his shoulder and ripped great gashes on his back. He had the ship’s cook stitch him up as best he could but suffered from his injuries for many years.

Amundsen's fascination with the Inuit culture is a perfect example of his attitude to exploration. As well as learning how to survive in the ice, how to manage sled dogs and the secrets of their reindeer-hide clothing, he studied their whole approach to life. This proved invaluable when he reached the Antarctic. While Scott struggled with unreliable snow-tractors, 'man-hauling' sledges and ponies, Amundsen's small team travelled light from one 'storage depot' to the next, with teams of dogs ideally suited to the conditions.

Although he never met Scott, Amundsen’s party were visited by the Terra Nova shortly before they left for the pole. Almost obsessive about keeping his own ship, the Fran clean and well-ordered, Amundsen was appalled by the condition of Scott’s ship and thought it did not reflect well on the leadership of the British expedition.

Captain Roald Amundsen at the wheel
during the North Pole expedition, 1920
(Wikimedia Commons)

The global interest in his adventures meant he could earn a fortune from his books and lecture tours, which he used to finance new expeditions. Less easy for modern readers to understand is the way he took two young Chukchi Eskimo girls to America, and then to Norway, apparently to prove they were capable of gaining a 'proper' education.

I knew little of Amundsen’s achievements in discovering the North-West passage, or of his high-risk attempts to fly to the North Pole in various aircraft. His ultimately successful voyage in an Italian airship is one of the most gripping accounts in the book.

Thanks to Stephen Bown, Roald Amundsen is now one of my all-time heroes. I would like to leave the last word to another, Earnest Shackleton, who responded to Amundsen's speech to the Royal Geographic Society, saying, "throughout the lecture tonight I never heard the word 'I' mentioned, it was always 'we'. I think that is the way Amundsen got his men to work along with him, and it brought the successful conclusion."

Tony Riches

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About the Author

Stephen R. Bown is an award-winning author of historical non-fiction with eight books published internationally and translated into many languages. His book Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail was an international critical success and was selected as one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004. Stephen lives in Canmore in the Rocky Mountains with his wife Nicky and two children. When not writing he enjoys reading, mountain biking, hiking and camping in the summer, and downhill and cross country skiing in the winter. Find out more at his website www.stephenrbown.net  and find him on Facebook. 

Childhood Mischief in Wartime Birmingham, by Eric Yates

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

This treasure trove of Second World War stories is a must read for those wanting to know about the lives of ordinary families in the history of Britain – or indeed, anybody wanting a good laugh to brighten up their day.

In the history of Britain there is a shortage of Second World War stories detailing the lives of ordinary families living in poverty, the children’s games and the black market profiteering that history has forgotten.

The story of young Eric and John is here to set the record straight. Two boys growing up in the midst of rationing, with a flair for mischief and a sense of humour history will never see again – what could happen? Quite a lot, apparently, if the exciting family life of Eric and John is anything to go by. 

Telling of their family life in war torn Birmingham where poverty was rife, Eric’s account is full of wit and the kind of humour history should remember. From the infamous Bread Pudding Incident to the charming children’s games like ‘Penny on the Brick’, you will find laughter and warm memories of time spent in an age before computers, when children had to entertain themselves. Yet there is poignancy here, too, as Eric and John find themselves swept up in the greater tide of war as evacuees, made to travel to the country with no chance of looking back...

For review copies please contact PublishingPush at http://publishingpush.com

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About the Author

Eric served two years' National Service as an Army Education Officer in Cyprus, and seven years with the Kenyan Police in East Africa where, as a Customs & Excise Investigation Officer, he swam in shark-infested waters looking for hidden contraband. Whilst living in Africa, he joined the National Theatre of Nairobi where he performed in Shakespeare, the Classics and drama. At one time a presenter for BBC Radio Birmingham, Eric spent ten years with the Monitoring Section of the BBC World Service in Berkshire, becoming well-known locally for his acting talent, especially mimicry and humour, winning numerous awards over the years. Eric was married twice and met his second wife in Henley-on-Thames, when she directed him in J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married. At that time he was semi-retired working as a warden at Windsor Castle, where he endeared himself to his colleagues but was often reprimanded for displaying his unique brand of humour to the general public. Retiring to Devon in 2001, Eric enjoyed boat restoration, brewing very strong cider, cultivating rare trees and plants and reading. He began writing his stories in 2004 - and also began tales from his adult life, regrettably unfinished.

Connecting with readers on Goodreads

Goodreads is for readers, so is not the place for authors to engage in self-promotion but there are over 25 Million registered users, looking at 750 Million books, who have created 29 Million reviews.  So how should you build this into your author platform? I've been on Goodreads for over four years and offer some thoughts on some things to consider:

1. Create your Goodreads author page

Your author page is separate from your member profile page, which lists your bookshelves friends and reviews. It doesn't take long and it’s free, so search for yourself and click on your published author name, then send a request to join the Goodreads Author Program. If you haven’t set up your page, Goodreads offers readers a disappointing silhouette, so switch that for your favourite photo. You can also add a bio, links to your blog and Twitter user name. I sometimes see authors who put the wrong links, so test them to make sure they work properly. (My Goodreads author page is HERE if you’d like to see what they look like.)

2. Make sure your books are listed

Your books don’t just appear on Goodreads, someone has to list them in the first place. The best person to do that is you, as soon as your book is launched. You can make sure the details are all correct, with the best cover image. If you added the book it is also much easier to update it in the future. Check before adding a book by searching by author and title – and read the guidelines. If your books need to be added, you will be given access to the online form.  You can also upload eBooks in epub or pdf and allow readers access to the whole book or an extract.

3. Start adding and reviewing books you read

The whole point of Goodreads is for readers to share thoughts about books they read, so please join in. I sometimes forget but am trying to make time to write a short paragraph and cross post on Amazon as well as Goodreads, so you have double value from your time and, depending on your review, may be helping other authors and readers.

4. Join and interact with Goodreads groups that match your genre(s)

There is a discussion group for everyone on Goodreads, including many led by Goodreads Authors so start exploring – just go to http://www.goodreads.com/group and type some keywords into the search box. Some groups offer book useful book promotion advice and are a great place to link up to other indie authors and find new ideas. (I recently formed a useful group of 'beta readers' for my new novel on a special interest group.)

5. Link to your writing blog with RSS

I have a lot of visitors to my writing blog via Goodreads, so it is definitely worth hooking up the RSS feed. (If you don’t know how to do it, here is step-by-step guidance) 

6. Post your promotional videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a one and half minute video worth? I’ll be posting later in this series on my experience with YouTube, but if you have a promotional video it makes sense to add it to your Goodreads author page.

7. Make time to update your status

This is one of the under-used areas of Goodreads, which means if you have time to bother your input stands out. All you need to do is go to http://www.goodreads.com/update_status and you’ll be presented with any books you’ve marked as currently reading, but you don’t have to limit your updates to that.

8. Send friend requests to like-minded reviewers and authors

Goodreads recommends that you only add someone as a ‘friend’ after you’ve interacted with them in a group or in a book discussion thread. I rarely bother sending friend requests to readers unless I have a really good reason, but it’s a useful way to keep tabs on other authors who share your interests.

9. Accept friend requests

Unlike Twitter, where you need to be a bit careful about who you follow back, I’m happy to accept any ‘friend requests’ on Goodreads. If I have the time I usually check out their blog and add them on Twitter if they have a Twitter username you can be fairly sure they’ll follow back.

10. Help other authors

One of the Goodreads groups I like is Authors Helping Authors described as is a place where authors and bloggers can come together and help one another out. If you have a writing blog this is a great place to find authors interested in guest posting.

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Do you have more ideas and suggestions on how to get the best from Goodreads? If so, please feel free to add a comment below

Guest Post: Marina Julia Neary, Celto-Slavic disaster writer‏

Available on Amazon US and Amazon UK

1830s Bermondsey, London’s most notorious slum, a land of gang wars and freak shows. Dr. Thomas Grant, a disgraced physician, adopts Wynfield, a ten-year old thief savagely battered by a gang leader for insubordination. The boy grows up to be an idealistic opium addict who worships Victor Hugo.

Author Interview

America's most Irish author to come out of Eastern Europe - that has become Marina Julia Neary's tagline. A privileged albeit maladjusted only child of classical musicians, she came to the US at the age of thirteen. Her literary repertoire revolves primarily around the Anglo-Irish conflict, namely the events around the Easter Rising. She has a day job in foreign exchange. Today she joins me for a brief interview.

Q: You mentioned having to defend and explain your interest in Irish history.

A: When people find out I'm not Irish by blood, they ask me, "Why do you write about Ireland? You're not Irish." But then, does one need to be a vampire to write about vampires?  Does on need to be a serial killer to write a murder mystery? My parents were a mixed couple, ethnically and ideologically, so I have first-hand experience of tension.  With a Russian pro-imperialist mother and Polish nationalist father, the atmosphere in the house was always heated.  It's both humorous and dramatic.  My Irish last name is from my husband.  I've been with him since my late teens.  We met at the height of Celtic revival in the late 1990s. He's my hero and my muse, the most exquisite other-worldly male specimen. 

Q: Your debut novel Wynfield's Kingdom set during the Crimean War took you 16 years to write.

A: I often joke that the novel has been through more revisions than Michael Jackson's nose.  I wrote the first draft at the age of 15 and set it aside.  Then more than a decade later, I revisited it and made some significant changes to the storyline.  It was published by Fireship Press when I was 31.  The main character stayed the same.  It was my goal to create an iconic Victorian child-hero.

Q: You dub yourself as a disaster writer.

A: They say "write what you know".  I say, you should write what comes naturally to you.  I am a very tense, aggressive, negative person, and writing about disasters is second nature. You can tell from my picture. Each of my novels features some sort of disaster, be it political, military, natural or psychological.  I've written about the Irish Famine, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Easter Rising, and, last but not least, the Chernobyl explosion.  

Q: Tell us about your latest novel, Saved by the Bang: a Nuclear Comedy. I understand, it's autobiographical?


A: Correct. My friends and readers have been begging me to write something autobiographical.  So I have to give people what they want, even if it's something they are not ready to palate. Set in the radioactive swamps of Belarus in the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion, Saved by the Bang is tagged as a nuclear comedy.  Like I said before, I believe that tragedy and comedy go hand in hand.  If you hear a boo-hoo, chances are, there's a ha-ha around the corner. Some readers find my sense of humor disturbing. I've been called heartless and insensitive.  And yes, there is a lot of unsavory material in the novel: second trimester abortion, cancer, birth defects, rape. I don't depict those things to shock the reader. I write them because that's how it was in a society where human life is not valued.  I know I come across as a cynic, but actually I have profound respect for God and life.  I'm staunch pro-life activist, even though the tone of my works is not always life-affirming. 

Marina Julia Neary 

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About the Author

Marina Julia Neary spent her early years in Eastern Europe and came to the United States at the age of thirteen.  She now lives in Stamford, Connecticut with her husband and young son. An award-winning historical essayist, multilingual arts & entertainment journalist, she is a published poet, playwright, actress, dancer and choreographer. A specialist on the obscure works of Victor Hugo, Marina's novel Wynfield's Kingdom is a narrative version of Hugo in London. Her poetry has appeared in literary journals such as First Edition, Alimentum and The Recorder. In addition to her writing career,Marina has starred in independent art and horror films, and she is currently working on an adaptation of one of her novels. Find out more at Marina's blog.

Historical Fiction Spotlight ~ The Banneret's Blade - Revenge is Sweet, by Nick De Rothschild

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

The year is 1339, King Edward III is on the throne, French and Genoese warships continue their attacks on the English coast, and Sir Roger de Bohun, the Banneret, has been asked by the king to steal back his crown from the Prince-Bishop of Mainz and replace it with a counterfeit.

This epic tale picks up where The Banneret’s Blade: Trouble Brewing left off—the early days of the Hundred Years’ War, on the eve of the all but forgotten great naval Battle of Sluys.

Full of mutinous sailors, great sea battles and land wars, pirate raids, double-crossing spies embroiled in political intrigue, passionate affairs, and men caught up in forces beyond their control, this meticulously researched novel brings the history of medieval Europe to life.

The Banneret’s Blade: Revenge is Sweet invites readers into a world seemingly descending into chaos and introduces them to fascinating and complex characters driven by all manner of motives. Fans of sweeping works of historical fiction by genre masters such as Ken Follett and Bernard Cornwell will delight in the emergence of another great new voice on the scene.

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About the Author

Nick de Rothschild graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Art. Despite being a scion of the famed Rothschild banking dynasty, he never became a banker. Instead he was a pioneer in the video industry in London, before moving to the New Forest in Hampshire to look after his family's estate at Exbury, where his grandfather created the world renowned Exbury Gardens. An avid filmmaker, Rothschild occasionally makes movies about the Gardens and likes to think of himself as 'the man who lives in paradise.' In his spare time, he enjoys collecting nerines and photographing South African flowering bulbs. Find out more at www.banneretsblade.com and you can follow Nick on Twitter
@rothschild_nick.

Authors: How to create a free smartphone optimised 'showcase' for your books

"Our behaviour as consumers is evolving." This comes from a recent report on the exponential rise in smartphone use, which predicts over six billion users by 2020. Research in the US also concludes, 'nearly two-thirds of Americans are now smartphone owners, and for many these devices are a key entry point to the online world.' 

I've been aware of the significant rise in smartphone use by book buyers for some time, (and I've even heard of people reading books on smartphones!) so was interested to experiment with the free facilities in WiX to see what was possible. In particular, I wanted to see how quick and easy it was to set up - and how well my promotional YouTube videos would run.

If you're not familiar with WiX, they are have grown to over 60 million users in 190 countries and claim to offer the only 'drag and drop' website building platform with HTML5 capabilities - and guarantee that your experience is simple, fun and code-free. Although you can pay for premium services, their business model allows WiX to provide full websites free of charge.

You can see what I created here:

http://tonyriches.wix.com/historical-fiction

There are seven simple steps as follows:

1. Sign up for a free WiX account at WiX.com and choose a free layout template and background. (You don't need to pay as long as you don't mind having a small WiX advert in the corner)

2. Add your book cover images, with a short 'blurb' in a text box. (You can link the images to Amazon.)

3. Add alternative purchasing sites and your promotional videos from YouTube, if you have them:

4. Switch to the WiX Mobile Editor:

5. Now you can arrange your book layout by simply 'dragging and dropping' the elements:

(Purple guidelines appear as you move things, to make alignment easy)

6. Preview the results and test all the links to make sure they work.

7. Publish the new site and test on a smartphone.

You don't need any coding or technical skills, as it is all really intuitive and I didn't need to refer to the help files. Once you have the basic page working properly, you can add pages for an author bio etc. I also spent a few minutes improving the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by adding keywords and put some social media links in the footer.

The whole thing didn't take long - and like me, you would probably copy and paste the contents from your main website. Most importantly, this approach enables you to extend your author platform at no cost, which is always worth considering. I can't see myself switching from blogger to the still rather 'clunky' blogging features of WiX - but my new 'experiment' has already replaced my Wordpress author site as the main showcase for my books. 

http://tonyriches.wix.com/historical-fiction