Book Launch - Darkness Echoes: A Spooky YA Short Story Collection

Available on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Six spooky never before seen YA short stories

just in time for Halloween!

Til Death Do Us Part by L.A. Starkey: Jennifer and Zach have been best friends since birth, but as their senior year approaches, things change drastically. With little time left to reveal her heart before college, Jen plans a night to remember at the old haunted Vandercamp Mansion for Zach's birthday. It's just to be the two of them, and no one was to know, but upon arrival, they realize that their presence was expected. Their connection is forged as realization of their past is granted. A love that stands outside of time and space will not rest - Til Death Do Us Part.

Witch Moth by Kelly Hall: Dominic Dane has endured his sister Dahlia's evil deeds for decades while the two serve out their hundred year punishment, but when she threatens to use his new-found crush as her Halloween sacrifice, he realizes she'll never change. Promising Kitty he will stop at nothing to save her and her friends, Dominic is forced to explain his curse, revealing it's not just Dahlia who must kill to survive.

The Coming of the Skin Walker by D.E.L. Connor: When warriors Walking Bear and Nine Fingers rescue amnesia-ridden Lina from the clutches of the immortal Skin Walker they must flee on a harrowing journey where ancient Native American secrets and mysticism unfold, innocence is lost, and the forever bonds of love and friendship are tested.

Lantern by Chess Desalls: Five days before Halloween, all sixteen-year-old Tori has on her mind is vacationing with her family and scoring lots of candy. Her grandmother's estate, with its Gothic spires and trails that lead out to the woods, holds an unexpected secret: a lantern that lights up for Tori and nobody else. Certain that it's a ghost or a prank, she investigates further and discovers a mysterious life that shines in the darkness.

Cloak of Echoes by CK Dawn: Just as Emma Kincaid came into some disturbing empathic powers, she lost her mother in a car crash. She is also pretty certain she's being followed, maybe even hunted. But, is it the shadowy creatures that haunt her nightmares or the mysterious guy, shrouded in darkness, who just enrolled at Jefferson High?

Hallowed Eve by DB Nielsen: Ten years after the sinister disappearance of her father, the turmoil begins again with the stealing of souls ... Seventeen-year-old Evee is forced to accept her birthright of dark secrets and death as she inherits the role of Soul Guardian; a role that brings her into the dangerous influence of a coven of witches and the enigmatic, alluring Hunter, Ben, to defeat the rise of dark magick.

These stories have never been published before and were written specifically for this anthology. Hope you enjoy this spooky adventure!!

Book Review: Jasper ~ The Tudor Kingmaker, by Sara Elin Roberts

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Welsh academic and author Dr Sara Elin Roberts has produced a fascinating and detailed account of the life of Sir Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, Duke of Bedford, who was second son of Owen Tudor and the widowed queen Catherine of Valois.  It was with Jasper's support that King Henry VII returned from exile to defeat Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, leading to the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, yet Jasper has become what Dr Roberts calls ‘the forgotten kingmaker:’

‘Jasper was central to the world of the Wars of the Roses. He was, at different times, a key player in the unfolding, political game: a warrior in battles; a rebel fighter; a threat to the crown and the powers running the country; a potential claimant to the throne; and an exile.’

Although this is an academic study of Jasper’s life, I found it highly readable with a strong narrative thread. Dr Roberts draws from a wealth of contemporary sources from England, Wales and France, several of which were new to me, referenced in twenty-seven pages of endnotes. The book also has thirty colour illustrations and an informative appendix on the Welsh poetry and contemporary law texts which still survive. As well as providing a documented account of the events of the key people and events, the Welsh poems allow an often colourful insight into the late medieval period. 

Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in understanding the world of the early Tudors.

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About the Author

Dr Sara Elin Roberts is an historian specialising in the law, literature and culture of medieval Wales. Educated at Ysgol Gyfun Llangefni, Anglesey, she won the Richard Hughes Scholarship to study at the University of Wales, Bangor, where she achieved first class honours in Welsh and History. She won the J. B. Davies Scholarship to St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she gained a Master of Studies in Historical Research (Medieval). Her pioneering study, The Legal Triads of Medieval Wales was awarded the David Yale Prize by the Selden Society for a distinguished contribution to the study of the laws and legal institutions of England and Wales; and also the Hywel Dda Prize by the Board of Celtic Studies for her contribution to the field of Welsh law. Dr Roberts now lectures in medieval British history at the University of Chester and is also a regular contributor to Welsh historical issues on radio and television, including the BBC series "The Story of Wales". 

Special Guest Post ~ On Writing Pippo’s War, by Marion Kenyon Jones

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Fact and fiction weave together to create an epic love story which begins in Northern Italy during the closing months of the Second World War and will span the globe. Coming of age is hard enough for Pippo, the son of a Fascist Italian diplomat, but when his father is arrested, he is forced to question the old family allegiance to the Fascist cause. His mother, originally aligned with Italy against her native Britain, decides to hide escaped allied soldiers from the occupying Nazis, and in so doing finds that love and war often go hand in hand.

I have lived in the Tuscan countryside for part of each year for thirty five years. It is one of the most beautiful places on earth. There are areas of mountainous wilderness rich in wildlife, and gentle acres which have been tilled by man for centuries. Pines, cypresses, patches of scrub oak and towns built of

stone nestle on hill tops as if placed there by an omniscient landscape gardener. Winter can be cold and unforgiving, but in spring and summer the landscape is bathed in an intense light and a riot of fruits and vegetables appear in the markets. As autumn approaches dramatic storms rise from nowhere heralding the change of season, freshening and softening scent and colour. It is time for wild mushrooms and for the grape and olive harvests. 

The descriptions of rural life in Pippo’s War are informed by my early experiences. I learned how

to plant and tend a vegetable garden, to live by the rhythms of each year, to use every season’s bounty wisely, and to enjoy the simple but delicious ‘cucina povera’ (poor kitchen).  There were none of the privations of war but my neighbours Valetta and Gina lived much as they had forty years before. Gina tended the bread oven and made bread for us all once a week. Valetta, who had never learned to read, was the vegetable expert. She planted by the cycles of the moon and used only her own seeds harvested from year to year. (Both cursed the Nazis for parking a tank on their cellar and cracking the ceiling. It had never been the same since!)

Valetta and the author

 at  work in the vineyard

Beneath the seductive beauty of the land lie the blood and bone of conflict stretching from the Etruscans and Romans through to the 20th century. Near my village there is a track where fathers and sons were led into the woods at dawn and shot by a retreating German army. There is a white marble plaque commemorating this event attached to the wall of the church.  One afternoon I stood reading the inscription with my cousin who was visiting from Liguria. After a few minutes of quiet reflection he said he wished to tell me about his war, and we sat for many hours in the small cafe by the church. Pietro’s father was Italian and his mother British. His was a complex tale of divided loyalties, love, loss, bravery, foolishness, generosity, brutality,

Giardino Giusti, Verona

vendetta, reconciliation. He told me the story of an acquaintance of his, a young Jewish girl called Hannah, who was rescued from the Fascist militia terrorizing Florence. He wondered what had happened to her. My novel grew out of that conversation.

I spent five years researching the history of the period and talking to survivors on both sides of the conflict. An old contadino told me how he had hidden a POW in a cave on his landlord’s property for a year.  A POW described his escape from prison camp and his walk along the spine of the Apennines until he reached the Allies in the south. Another recounted his experiences with a partisan group. The soldiers spoke of the Italian people who sheltered and fed them with profound respect and gratitude. 

The villa Paterno is central to my story. It is inspired by the many exquisite houses I have visited over the years. The garden and park are drawn principally from the Giardino Giusti in Verona and the Boboli gardens in Florence. 

Paterno is a place of refuge. For Pippo it symbolises paternal protection: the safety his own father was unable to provide. As the war draws to its close, Pippo is parted from his soul mate Hannah. They leave Italy, travel widely, and make new lives for themselves. Will they meet again?  
Pippo’s War is an historical novel full of period detail, an epic love story, and a classic coming-of-age tale. I hope reading it is as rich and rewarding an experience for you as writing it was for me, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Marion 

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About the Author

Marion Kenyon Jones was born in London in 1949, and trained as a sculptor in Paris. She fell in love with Abstract Expressionism, and moved to the United States in 1974. In 1982, she began to divide her time between a studio in Italy and New York City where she regularly exhibited her work. During this period, she wrote short stories about her summers on a farm in the Tuscan hills and became interested in the history of the area. After a hiatus during which she married, raised two children and took an MA at the Tavistock Centre in London, she began work on her debut novel Pippo's War.  She is currently researching her second novel and leading a happily peripatetic life with her historian husband. Find Marion on Facebook and  follow her on Twitter @mkjmarion.

The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria’s Rebellious Daughter

Available from Amazon UK and Amazon US

The secrets of Queen Victoria’s sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumour and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view.

Louise was a sculptor and painter, friend to the Pre-Raphaelites and a keen member of the Aesthetic movement. The most feisty of the Victorian princesses, she kicked against her mother’s controlling nature and remained fiercely loyal to her brothers – especially the sickly Leopold and the much-maligned Bertie. She sought out other unconventional women, including Josephine Butler and George Eliot, and campaigned for education and health reform and for the rights of women. She battled with her indomitable mother for permission to practice the ‘masculine’ art of sculpture and go to art college – and in doing so became the first British princess to attend a public school.

The rumours of Louise’s colourful love life persist even today, with hints of love affairs dating as far back as her teenage years, and notable scandals included entanglements with her sculpting tutor Joseph Edgar Boehm and possibly even her sister Princess Beatrice’s handsome husband, Liko. True to rebellious form, she refused all royal suitors and became the first member of the royal family to marry a commoner since the sixteenth century.

Spirited and lively, The Mystery of Princess Louise is richly packed with arguments, intrigues, scandals and secrets, and is a vivid portrait of a princess desperate to escape her inheritance.

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About the Author

Lucinda Hawksley is a writer and lecturer on art history and nineteenth-century history. She has written biographies of the pre-Raphaelite muse Lizzie Siddal, Charles Dickens, and Katey, one of Dickens' children. She is the great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens and is a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. You can find out more at www.lucindahawksley.com and follow Lucinda on Twitter @lucindahawksley 

Living in the Shadows, by Judith Barrow

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

 

It's 1969 and Mary Schormann is living quietly in Wales with her ex-POW husband, Peter, and her teenage twins, Richard and Victoria. Her niece, Linda Booth, is a nurse - following in Mary's footsteps - and works in the maternity ward of her local hospital in Lancashire. At the end of a long night shift, a bullying new father visits the maternity ward and brings back Linda's darkest nightmares, her terror of being locked in. Who is this man, and why does he scare her so? There are secrets dating back to the war that still haunt the family, and finding out what lies at their root might be the only way Linda can escape their murderous consequences.

Sequel to the acclaimed Changing Patterns and Pattern of Shadows.

I think that a strong setting in a novel, the creation of a unique environment that the characters move around in, one that sets the atmosphere and tone of the narrative, is imperative in creating a convincing story. It should be so convincing that it maintains the suspension of disbelief; be consistent and yet unreliable at the same time. Giving the reader a recognized framework allows them to understand the motivations, the capabilities of the characters and to empathise with them during your narrative.

With the consistency of the setting the reader can identify a structured world, understand it. With the element of surprise, of unfamiliarity of the background to the story, the reader will stay interested in the characters.

And, I think, setting should be one of the first things established; using all our five senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste (this last is sometimes difficult but should be kept in mind).

Yet it should also be unstable rather than fixed, constantly in a state of change, much like the characters. Ultimately the goal is to persuade the reader to become immersed in the setting to the point of complete familiarity.

The background setting I use in my trilogy, beginning with Pattern of Shadows, is a German Prisoner of War camp during the Second World War. The camp is crucial throughout; in the sequel, Changing Patterns, and finally, in the last book, Living in the Shadows. I’ve explained my reasons for using this setting quite a few times.

I was researching for another novel when I came across records of a disused cotton mill, Glen Mill, in Oldham, a town in Lancashire in the North of England, and its history of being one of the first German POW camps in the country. This brought back a personal memory of my childhood and I was sidetracked.

My mother was a winder in a cotton mill (working on a machine that transferred the cotton off large cones onto small reels (bobbins), for the weavers). Well before the days of Health and Safety I would go to wait for her to finish work on my way home from school. I remember the muffled boom of noise as I walked across the yard and the sudden clatter of so many different machines as I stepped through a small door cut into great wooden gates. I remember the rumble of the wheels as I watched men pushing great skips filled with cones alongside the winding frames, or manoeuvring trolleys carrying rolls of material. I remember the women singing and shouting above the noise, of them whistling for more bobbins: the colours of the cotton and cloth - so bright and intricate. 

But above all I remember the smell: of oil, grease - and in the storage area - the lovely smell of the new material stored in bales and the feel of the cloth against my legs when I sat on them, reading until the siren sounded, announcing the end of the shift.

When I thought of Glen Mill as a German POW camp I wondered what kind of signal would have been used to separate parts of the day for all those men imprisoned there. I realised how different their days must have been from my memories of a mill. There would be no machinery as such, only vehicles coming and going; the sounds would be of men, only men, with a language and dialect so different from the mixture of voices I remembered. I imagined the subdued anger and resignation. The whole situation would be so different, no riot of colour, just an overall drabness. And I realised how different the smells would be - no tang of oil, grease, cotton fibres; all gone - replaced by the reek of 'living' smells.

And I knew I wanted to write about that. But I also wanted there to be hope somewhere. I wanted to imagine that something good could have come out of the situation the men were in.

 And so the background of the trilogy was set against the camp, the fictional Lancashire town of Ashford, and a small village in Wales, Llamroth.

Every story has to have a beginning. And for every action, there is a reaction. Although each of the books in the trilogy stands alone, in Living in the Shadows it is the next generation that has to live with the consequences of the actions of the characters in Pattern of Shadows and Changing Patterns

 Judith Barrow

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Judith Barrow has lived in Pembrokeshire for thirty years. She is the author of three novels, and has published poetry and short fiction, winning several poetry competitions, as well as writing three children's books and a play performed at the Dylan Thomas Centre. Judith grew up in the Pennines, has degrees in literature and creative writing and makes regular appearances at literary festivals. Find out more at http://www.judithbarrow.co.uk/  and follow Judith on Twitter @barrow_judith.

Book Launch - The Bow of Destiny, by P. H. Solomon

New on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Haunted by his past. Hunted in the present. Uncertain what is real.  

Athson has seen things that aren't there and suffered fits since being tragically orphaned as a child at the hands of trolls and Corgren the wizard. When a strange will mentioning a mysterious bow comes into his possession, he's not sure it's real. But the trolls that soon pursue him are all too real and dangerous.

And what's worse, these raiders serve Corgren and his master, the hidden dragon, Magdronu, who are responsible for the destruction of his childhood home. Athson is drawn into a quest for the concealed Bow of Hart by the mystic Withling, Hastra, but Athson isn't always sure what's real and who his enemies are. With Corgren and Magdronu involved, Athson must face not only frequent danger but his grasp on reality and the reasons behind his tragic past.
  

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About the Author  

P. H. Solomon lives in the greater Birmingham, AL area where he strongly dislikes yard work and sanding the deck rail. However, he performs these duties to maintain a nice home for his loved ones as well as the family’s German Shepherds. In his spare time, P. H. rides herd as a Computer Whisperer on large computers called servers (harmonica not required). Additionally, he enjoys reading, running, most sports and fantasy football. Having a degree in Anthropology, he also has a wide array of more “serious” interests in addition to working regularly to hone his writing. The Bow of Destiny is his first novel-length title. Follow him on Twitter @ph_solomon.  

Book Launch Guest Post ~ The Treasure Hunt of Research by Jeannine Atkins

New on Amazon US and Amazon UK

and also on Goodreads

May Alcott spends her days sewing blue shirts for Union soldiers, but she dreams of painting a masterpiece—which many say is impossible for a woman—and of finding love. When she reads her sister’s wildly popular novel, Little Women, she is stung by Louisa’s portrayal of her as “Amy,” the youngest of four sisters who trades her desire to succeed as an artist for the joys of hearth and home. Determined to prove her talent, May makes plans to move far from Massachusetts and make a life for herself with room for both watercolors and a wedding dress. Can she succeed? And if she does, what price will she have to pay? 

Based on May Alcott’s letters and diaries, as well as memoirs written by her neighbors, Little Woman in Blue puts May at the center of the story she might have told about sisterhood and rivalry in an extraordinary family.

Besides a fascination with what remains from the past, or what’s hidden, I write historical fiction because I get to read a lot. I like ferreting out details and weighing various points of views to decide who’s telling what kind of truth. Historical fiction begins with research, though it doesn’t stay there. We may be given a plot, place, and characters, but it’s what we do with them that make a novel come alive.

One intriguing person may introduce us to another. After writing about American author Louisa May Alcott, I wanted to know more about her youngest sister. Louisa’s most famous novel, Little Women, was loosely based on her family. The fictional younger sister was cast as shallow, selfish, and not particularly talented. In real life, May Alcott was ahead of her time, struggling to have it all: love and watercolors, too. I wondered why Louisa would diminish a sister she also clearly loved, and wanted to give May a voice. 

I began reading about the Alcott family and the art, literature, fashion, gossip, and politics of mid-nineteenth century New England and Europe. There were a lot of books. Even poorly documented lives can have long trails. I was careful, as like many writers, I’m tempted to seek one more letter to decipher or yet another person to interview. These can be both crucial and a form of procrastination, since for many of us, talking, visiting sites, hunkering between library shelves, and reading on the sofa can be more seductive than wrangling a life onto paper.

To keep myself from hiding in the research, I assign it to myself after three in the afternoon. I began this routine back when my daughter was young and she got home from school, for books were something I could pick up and put down. I often read when slightly sleepy, letting the best details about art exhibits or tea parties float to the surface, or perhaps unfurl into longer stories. It’s good to read, pause, and return to see what settled. What remains after some time away is often what matters most. 

Facts I find in the evening can provide fresh inspiration come morning. 
Just as I might move from a middle chapter to jot down ideas for the novel’s end, research is woven throughout the writing process. I need to start with a solid sense of the people and place, but do more research when I’m in the middle of a draft, and read and look up from the pages, letting fact nudge me toward daydreams. 

Of course research isn’t just reading, perhaps done with a high quotient of skimming. We get to know people not just through the words they speak, but what they look like and look at, the scents, sounds and textures of places where they lived. 

Writing Little Woman in Blue: A Novel of May Alcott, took me to Orchard House, (see http://www.louisamayalcott.org/ ) where May lived as a young woman. I could see her bedroom walls, which she used like a big sketchbook, and an owl she painted over the hearth in her sister’s bedroom. I listened to the Concord River where May rowed and sketched, and when the water froze, I heard ice crackle as it had when she skated.

I went to Walden Pond, but didn’t wind a sheet around trees to make a private place to put on a flannel bathing gown: styles have evolved, and there are now rooms where people can change into bathing suits. I looked past the big parking lot to listen to the birds and smell blueberry shrubs growing along the shore. 

Finding inspiration in books and landscapes, historical fiction writers take what’s old to make something entirely new. Research is just the beginning, even when it never entirely stops.

Jeannine Atkins

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About the Author 

Jeannine Atkins’s most recent books are Little Woman in Blue: A Novel of May Alcott, published by She Writes Press and Views from a Window Seat: Thoughts on Writing and Life. She also writes books for children and teens, including Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon and Borrowed Names: Poems about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C. J. Walker, Marie Curie and Their Daughters. She teaches as an adjunct at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Simmons College. Find out more at Jeannine’s website www.Jeannineatkins.com and follow her on Twitter @jeannineatkins.