It's been a while coming, so why not do it in October: the spookiest month of all? I'm overjoyed to reveal that the Tragic Silence series has been relaunched with brand new cover artworks, interior formatting, and a video trailer! I've been working on this secretly behind the scenes since spring, and I'm so happy to finally reveal them! Scroll down to see the four new covers (click on each one for more info) and to watch the new trailer, featuring The Unquiet Grave by the immensely-talented Arianna Deligianni. Fun fact: the moon on each cover is in a different phase to represent the chronological order of the series, beginning with a crescent in Sepia and Silver and gradually growing to full in Darkest Dreams. Special thanks to all the book bloggers, authors, readers and bookstagrammers who assisted in the cover reveals today, and to Arianna for kindly allowing use of her music in the trailer. To celebrate, you can get Sepia and Silver FREE in e-book for a limited time! Click here to grab your copy!
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I'm very happy to announce that this winter, I'll be teaming up with the Swedish Sami charity Adopt a Reindeer Foundation. Commencing with the release of The Night River on December 19th, 10% of royalties from the sale of every book in The Foxfires Trilogy will be donated to the Foundation - this includes all pre-orders of The Night River e-book. Adopt a Reindeer Foundation is a small nonprofit organisation which endeavours to keep the livelihood of the indigenous Sami people alive in Sweden. For thousands of years, the Sami have lived alongside reindeer in the Scandinavian Arctic, but like many indigenous peoples, have unfortunately faced issues which endanger their way of life. As a fantasy, The Foxfires Trilogy doesn't represent any people or culture in particular - to create the Northlands, I took inspiration from the Sami, Inuits, Nenets and ancient Finns, as well as various Finnish, Norse and Inuit mythologies. But my own lifelong respect for the Sami and the times I've spent living in Sapmi (Lapland) meant their culture particularly influenced the story, and I'm happy to be able to use my writing to give back. By supporting Adopt a Reindeer Foundation, either directly or by purchasing The Foxfires Trilogy from official Amazon channels, you will be:
Please visit Adopt A Reindeer Foundation to learn more about their work, and if you would like a brief introduction to the Sami people and their culture, I recommend the videos below.
Step into a Crimean Bloodbath... The new Darkest Dreams episode has dropped! Upon the Heights of Alma had its general release today and this is one I've been particularly excited to reveal. I'm no stranger to writing historical fiction, but this is the first thing I've created which takes place during a well-documented historical event. And even though the event in question happened over 160 years ago, I felt obligated to get as many of my facts straight as possible and remember that real people fought and died in this battle. With that being said, I've had to take some creative liberties for story purposes and the fact that I only had a few thousand words to work with, but I'd like to think I succeeded in portraying a small section of the Battle of the Alma. Some descriptions were even lifted, word for word, from contemporary Victorian accounts of soldiers who survived the war. As with all the Darkest Dreams episodes, Upon the Heights of Alma can be read independently, but I'd also like to provide a little background on this story for anyone who's interested. As I mentioned, it takes place during the first major battle of the Crimean War at the Alma River. This was a war which occurred in 1853-1856 between Russia and an alliance consisting of the United Kingdom, France, Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire. It was also one of the first conflicts where rifles were widely used, but was terribly bloody (1,650,000 total casualties) and the British troops in particular were fraught with military and logistical blunders. I think it's a conflict which has fallen out of memory for many people nowadays - it happened so long ago and was soon overshadowed by the World Wars less than a hundred years later. If anyone remembers anything about it, it will likely be the work of Florence Nightingale and the Charge of the Light Brigade which was later immortalised by Tennyson. That infamous charge actually came at the Battle of Balaklava, which took place just a month after the Battle of the Alma. The Crimean War has remained in my consciousness for a while, however - not just because I find the entire Victorian period fascinating, but because one of my own ancestors fought in it. The character of Norman Calvin is actually based on the information that my family has about him. He fought at the Alma, but upon returning to England, was forced into the workhouse in Liverpool since veterans were poorly looked after. However, ten years later, he had a house with staff, a family, and ran a successful business. As far as I know, though, he didn't have a son who would grow up to become one of the most dangerous vampires in Hungary... You can read Upon the Heights of Alma for FREE by clicking the button! I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge The Crimean War: A History by Orlando Figes, as well as britishbattles.com and historynet.com for their extensive accounts of the Battle of the Alma, which proved invaluable in creating this story. I also wish to acknowledge the 19th century song The Heights of Alma, written following the Allied victory, which provided both the title of the story and its closing lines. Upon the Heights of Alma is part of the Darkest Dreams e-periodical: a collection of short stories released every quarter and connecting the three Tragic Silence novels.
You can read the stories a week before their general releases by signing up for my newsletter, or a month before their general releases by becoming my patron on Patreon. Hello, there, my beloved Batties!
As a small independent author, I want to continue being able to bring you fantastical worlds, compelling stories, and advice for your own creative journeys. However, as a small indie author, this also means that the final products which you see (such as novels, videos and free short stories) are only the tip of a massive iceberg which I live and breathe constantly. The only person on my team is myself, and while it's wonderful to have full creative control, it also means that I have to devote myself to it in every spare moment. Those final products can take weeks, months, or even years to complete, and are often presented for free or the equivalent of a cup of coffee. In order to help me to continue producing the work which you love, and which I hope can both entertain and inspire you, I'm humbly asking you to consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon is easy to use, ongoing, and you can choose how much you'd like to pledge by selecting a tier - each of which come with their own rewards which you won't be able to get anywhere else. It also allows me to give back to you in order to thank you for your support. By becoming my patron, you''ll be able to help me increase the production of my videos, secure good editors for my novels, and attend more in-person signing events. You'll also have the chance to become involved with my filming and writing ventures, receive physical gifts and exclusive material, and go behind the scenes of my creative process like never before. I hope you'll consider becoming my patron; but even if you can't, interacting with my videos and social media posts, sharing my work and buying my books are still fantastic and appreciated ways you can help and support me. I honestly can't say how grateful I am that you're taking this journey with me. Do you know any younger Batties who love Ancient Egypt, time travel and magic walking sticks? Today is the release day of Temira Burtons and the Pharaoh's Treasure: the debut children's book by Dawn Funnell! I've been honoured to collaborate with Dawn on this wonderfully quirky story, though not as a writer! As some of you may know, I'm also a graphic designer, and while this isn't the first cover design I've done for other authors, it's the first to also take me back to my roots with illustration! My earliest stories were illustrated in the same medium as this and it was wonderful to return to this simple yet colourful style for the first time in many a year. I channelled inspiration from two of my favourite children's book artists: Raymond Briggs (The Snowman, Fungus the Bogeyman) and Quentin Blake (practically every Roald Dahl title). What's the story? Temi Burtons travels from London to a Norfolk Market Town called Burpham to spend some time with her eccentric Aunt Guin. Aunt Guin lives in a pink thatched cottage and will only eat and wear red. Aunt Guin explains that there is a family connection to the great Howard Carter. With the help of Bess and a myna bird called Lancelot, Temi discovers an old Victorian time machine and races back to Ancient Egypt to try to find the evil pharaoh's treasure. Get your copy! Temira Burtons and the Pharaoh's Treasure is available in e-book and paperback from Amazon today! You can get it at the link below - and maybe celebrate with some Bum-Bum Cakes!
Come back into the frozen Northlands with me... I'm overjoyed to announce that The Mist Children, Book Two of the Foxfires Trilogy, is now available in e-book and paperback worldwide! I realise the irony of releasing a very snowy novel at the height of summer, but I'm personally glad for the fantasy of coolness in the wake of the hot weather we're having! The Mist Children picks up almost immediately after the first book in the series, The Winter Spirits, left off. Tuomas, Lumi, Lilja and Elin are back, and this time the danger they face is older and far more insidious. It is something which has lain in wait for centuries, just beneath the thawing ice, and will unearth a deeper darkness much closer to home. To quote the Swedish proverb which was attached to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: "What is hidden in snow comes forth in the thaw."
Dare you awaken to Darkest Dreams? The second instalment of the Darkest Dreams e-periodical, Gift of the Dark, has been unleashed upon the world. And... oh boy, was this a tough one! Not in that the story fought me or was a pain to create, but just because of how dark it is! It's probably the most disturbing thing I've ever written, with a protagonist who's utterly despicable. Set in the late 1700s, this one is chronologically the earliest of the Tragic Silence timeline. It connects The Libelle Papers and Sepia and Silver, and lays the foundation for the Bernstein family legacy which influences the entire series. The framework of the plot is very loosely inspired by something I studied at university. My course was in animal behaviour, but I also had to take a module to help me understand ethical arguments, philosophy, what constitutes intelligent thought and the ability to feel pain, etc. And that meant looking into the history and ethics of early scientific method. While no animals are featured in Gift of the Dark, they unfortunately were in the real Scientific Revolution. One of the major schools of thought came from the French philosopher Rene Descartes, who coined a phrase I'm pretty sure you're familiar with: "Cogito ergo sum." "I think, therefore, I am." But Descartes also came up with the idea that humans were divinely different from animals, and everything animals did was essentially the workings of a machine. Animals ate, slept, mated and vocalised not because they were conscious, but because it was what they had to do to ensure their own survival and nothing more. In short, they had no souls. As a result, this provided early scientists the justification for performing experiments on animals, often while they were still alive and without any kind of anaesthetic. And it was just as horrible as you'd think. While I was repulsed by some of the stuff I learned, I can't deny the impact this time period and its mentality left on me. I found myself thinking about it a lot when I was writing The Libelle Papers in 2013, and it did eventually work its way briefly into the story. But that was from a modern viewpoint which knew how barbaric it all was. This time, with Gift of the Dark, we're in the thick of the Scientific Revolution, when such practises were deemed not only necessary, but ethically sound. So switch out the animals with the study of vampirism. Now imagine what you could get away with if your laboratory was beneath the streets and never saw the light of day... You can read Gift of the Dark for FREE by clicking the button!
But maybe don't read it after sunset. Just saying... What lies beneath the thawing ice? I'm very excited to reveal the cover artwork for the second instalment of The Foxfires Trilogy! The Mist Children returns to the Northlands for a brand new fantasy adventure, set shortly after the end of The Winter Spirits, where a long-buried secret has now turned deadly. As the villages prepare for the reindeer migration and a mysterious malady sweeps across the tundra, Tuomas must gather all his strength to face a new enemy... Paperbacks won't be available until the release date on Friday June 26th, but you can pre-order The Mist Children in e-book from all Amazon retailers! Just hit the button below to learn more, and get an exclusive FREE sneak peek at the prologue and first three chapters! And don't forget to grab your spot at the FREE virtual release party for an evening of live readings, games, giveaways and more! |
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