Blog tour calendar: Everville The Fall of Brackenbone, by Roy Huff
Monthly Archives: June 2020
Extract Post: Charlestown to Charlestown and Beyond, by Michael Nolan
Summary
Mike Nolan grew up in the deprivation of post- war Britain. As a young man he had a dream that somehow became a reality; to live his life on the high seas to indulge his passion for all things nautical. Eclectic employment as a musician, a hod carier, butler and boatbuilder meant that Nolan’s life never confirmed to a nine to five existence. All the while the call of the sea, like a siren, was impossible to resist. His life as a sailor, fulfilled his wildest dreams but saw him hit by a series of catastrophes, including hurricanes and a violent shipwreck. On a more positive note, he did at least manage to save both his wife and her cat! This is a rags to riches story with a sharp sting in its tale.
Information about the Book
Title: Charlestown to Charlestown and Beyond
Author: Mike Nolan
Release Date: 16th June 2020
Genre: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53106155-charlestown-to-charlestown-and-beyond
Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charlestown-Charleston-Beyond-Mike-Nolan-ebook/dp/B07RWPLPZ4
Author Information
Website: http://mikenolan.me
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MikeNolanAuthor
Extract
It was a warm, balmy evening as we had just watched a dazzlingly beautiful sunset, the bright crimson globe had just dipped below the horizon, as the last haze of daylight surrendered to the night, it became dark almost instantly, as there is very little twilight in the Caribbean, we were en route to St Maarten, having left the anchorage at Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea.
Our ship, Hafan-Y-Mor, was an 85 ft LOA Brigantine Schooner. She was our home, as well as providing us with an income, she was the end result of many years of blood, sweat, and tears. All of the sacrifices and effort that we had put into this project was now being repaid in spades. All our hopes and aspirations had come to fruition, and the dream that had been mine for many years was now being shared with Viv. Our future prospects were looking more positive after a couple of successful charters, we were living the dream.
We were running the ship with a crew of four on this particular passage, this was fine for short island hopping. Viv and myself were accompanied by Molino, a South American sailor on his way to St Maarten, along with Magnus a young Swede; these guys were working and paying for their passage.
All was well after completing my evening rounds. Magnus and I went below, Molino was on the helm, he spotted a red light, he called me, I came up on deck to take a look, using the trusted, mark one eyeball and a hand-bearing compass. I was sure that this was the island of Nevis. I went below to the Nav station, checked the chart, and the Satnav confirmed it was Nevis. The chart stated that an all round red light signalled that it was the harbour at Charlestown, we were about two miles distant. I told Molino to keep the light on his starboard side, visible between the mainmast and the shrouds. I returned to our cabin. Suddenly, I heard, and felt, a sickening grinding crunch as the ship lost all forward movement and it stopped. I quickly scrambled up the companionway out on to the deck. I looked puzzlingly at the strange angle of the rigging. My mind would not register the severe degree of the list of the deck. Somehow Molino had driven the ship onto the reef. Instinctively, I knew that the dream had been well and truly shattered, and that it had turned into my worst nightmare.
Blog tour calendar: Charlestown to Charlestown and beyond, by Michael Nolan
Book Blitz: A Thin Porridge by Benjamin Gohs @Bengohs @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours
Huge congrats on publications day to Benjamin Gohs. Out today and we are celebrating with a book blitz from Love Books Tours!
When 19-year-old Abeona Browne’s renowned abolitionist father Jon Browne dies in summer of 1860, devastating family secrets are revealed, and her life of privilege and naiveté in Southern Michigan becomes a frantic transatlantic search for answers—and someone she didn’t even know existed.
Still in mourning, Abeona sneaks aboard the ship carrying her father’s attorney Terrence Swifte and his assistant Djimon—a young man with his own secrets—on a quest to Africa to fulfill a dying wish.
Along the journey, Abeona learns of her father’s tragic and terrible past through a collection of letters intended for someone he lost long ago.
Passage to the Dark Continent is fraught with wild beasts, raging storms, illness, and the bounty hunters who know Jon Browne’s diaries are filled with damning secrets which threaten the very anti-slavery movement he helped to build.
Can Abeona overcome antebellum attitudes and triumph over her own fears to right the wrongs in her famous family’s sordid past?
So named for an African proverb, A Thin Porridge is a Homeric tale of second chances, forgiveness, and adventure that whisks readers from the filth of tweendecks, to the treachery of Cameroons Town, across the beauty of Table Bay, and deep into the heart of the fynbos—where Boer miners continue the outlawed scourge of slavery.
Buy Link
Author Bio
Benjamin J. Gohs is a longtime award-winning news editor whose investigative journalism has included stories of murder, sex-crime, historical discovery, corruption, and clerical misconduct. Benjamin now divides his time between writing literary thrillers and managing the community newspaper he co-founded in 2009.
Review: Red Noise, by John P Murphy
Hardcover
Published May 14th 2020 by Angry Robot
Price: £26.99
Caught up in a space station turf war between gangs and corrupt law, a lone asteroid miner decides to take them all down.
When an asteroid miner comes to Station 35 looking to sell her cargo and get back to the solitude she craves, she gets swept up in a three-way standoff with gangs and crooked cops. Faced with either taking sides or cleaning out the Augean Stables, she breaks out the flamethrower.
The Rosie Synopsis
‘Jane’ or ‘the Miner’ desperately needs food and fuel, so she puts in to an asteroid-based space station, Station 35. Here she is ripped off by the ore company, finds three rival gangs in control and at each others’ throats, while the ‘decent’ population, lead by ‘Mr Shine’ hunker down in the lower depths of the station, except bar-owner/chef Takata and Station Master Herrera, who both refuse to be forced out of the galleria. Jane decides she’s going to clean up the Station and hand it back to ‘decent folks’.
Plans don’t exactly go as expected.
Basically, have you seen any of those old westerns, the ones based on Japanese films, like Seven Samurai, reworked as westerns, or Clint Eastwood’s work, like Fistful of Dollars? Think that aesthetic, but in space.
The Good
The novel calls on the traditions and tropes of westerns and on those westerns based on Japanese films, and obviously on the original Japanese work. So, the protagonist isn’t named, or only briefly, there are rival gangs and corrupt law officers, the place is far from anywhere with no help coming. I have seen an interesting collection of movies over the years but even if I haven’t seen the specific films, I know enough and can get the feeling over the originals, that the book’s references and plot points make sense.
An example of this tradition is in the naming of the protagonist. The ‘Miner’ is unnamed, given nicknames and only once is her real name and some clue about her identity revealed. This is going to be familiar to lovers of dodgy 60s Westerns based on Japanese books and films. Clint Eastwood famously play ‘The Man with No Name’ in the Dollars Trilogy. If you get the aesthetic and understand the tradition it stands in, this is marvelous fun. It’s not the first ‘spaghetti western in space’ sci fi novel, but it’s the first I’ve read and I liked it.
The pace is fast and choppy, moving between Jane and a character called Steven, although he doesn’t go by that name initially – he’s known as Screwball. They are nominally on the same, then opposed to each other and finally they’re allies. Jane doesn’t like people, preferring to stay out in space, mining and tending her orchids and bonsai trees on her little ship. Steven is a hired thug, working for Feeney, the original crime boss on Station 35. Over the course of the book Jane discovers she doesn’t actually hate humans as much as she thinks she does, and Steven finds himself questioning his life choices after a series of unexpected and painful events.
Basically, they follow the character arcs expected in the genre. They both play hero and anti-hero roles at different points and they both have similar motives initially – they need money. They both become more self-aware and ‘better people’ due to their experiences although acknowledging that they aren’t heroes.
As you can imagine from the foregoing, I found the characterisation enjoyable and fitting perfectly for the genre of the book.
The origins of the dispute and the background of the Station are mentioned in different places in the narrative, so the reader learns more as the Miner does. There are logical reasons for Station 35 being where it is when she arrives. None of the characters are surplus to requirements and the main characters as fairly well fleshed out.
Herrera’s insults are fabulous.
The Not-So-Good
Not much. I’d have liked to know more about the ‘universe’ and Herrera gets a bit characateurish at times.
The Verdict
I enjoyed reading this book, it’s given me hours of enjoyment over the three days I spent reading it. I was on the edge of my seat a lot of the time.
Highly recommended.
Extract Post: Seven and a Half Minutes, by
Before Roxy found herself “Single in Buenos Aires,” she was a single girl in London in search of true love. The third installment of The Polo Diaries series takes us back to that time, and we follow Roxy as she hires a love coach to help her navigate the dating scene. But the love coach comes up with an unexpected assignment: reconnect to a long-forgotten passion. For Roxy this means horses. Within weeks, she finds herself playing polo, thanks to a series of unforeseen events.
Torn between her desire to become the best polo player she can be and the dream of falling in love, Roxy steps fully into the exciting and demanding world of polo, where injury and recovery mix with hard training, and where celebrating the victory of a tournament comes at a high price. Will Roxy eventually become the polo player she dreams to be? And with polo being such a demanding sport, can there be any space left for love?
Purchase Links
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Half-Minutes-Polo-Diaries-ebook/dp/B083KB87KG/
US – https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Half-Minutes-Polo-Diaries-ebook/dp/B083KB87KG/
Continue reading “Extract Post: Seven and a Half Minutes, by”Blog tour calendar: Arrival, by Marian Beland
Extract: Festival Fireworks by Ann Burnett
Aussie Jill arrives in Edinburgh at Festival time, at the start of a gap year. Unfortunately, her boss at the temporary job she’s taken turns out to be her grumpy neighbour, Andrew, aka Mr Bossy. As the Festival fireworks explode over the city every night, they start to fall in love. Then Jill has to return suddenly to Australia. Can their budding romance survive or will the fireworks fizzle and die?
Extract
She wondered what Mr. MacCallum-Blair would be like. Late fifties, she thought, balding, with a large stomach and a pinstripe suit. Or perhaps fortyish with longish hair and lurid ties, a live-in girlfriend who works in advertising or as a model, and….
Jill was so busy conjuring up her new boss’s lifestyle that she had passed the number before she realised it. She quickly doubled back and ran up the broad steps to the entrance to number 76. According to the nameplate, MacCallum-Blair Enterprises was on the first floor. She buzzed and gave her name, then waited for the click of the door’s release.
She ran up the stairs and, as she turned to climb the final flight, she was surprised to see a woman sitting at a desk at the top of the stairs, watching her ascent.
‘Good morning,’ she said. ‘I take it you’re from the agency?’
‘Yes, I’m Jill Kennedy.’
The woman nodded. ‘Take a seat,’ she said, gesturing at an armchair in the corner next to a coffee table of glossy magazines.
Like an upmarket dentist’s, Jill thought, and I feel exactly as if I was going to have several teeth pulled.
The phone rang and, while the woman answered it, Jill took the opportunity to size her up. After all, she would probably be working quite closely with her. Early forties, neatly dressed in a dark blue trouser suit, with a pale lilac patterned blouse and wedding and engagement rings. Not the boss’s fancy woman. Probably the PA she was replacing had that role. Or maybe Mr. MacCallum-Blair was happily married. Here’s hoping, at any rate. She didn’t fancy having to cope with amorous advances as well as the new workload.
‘Mr. MacCallum-Blair will see you now.’ The woman pointed to a dark wooden door. ‘Just go in. He’s taking a call at the moment, but he won’t be long.’
Jill tapped on the door and went in. The room was dominated by two long picture windows, through which Jill could see the trees in the private gardens. A nice outlook for the boss then. In front of the windows was a wide, old-fashioned desk with a very modern laptop sitting on it. Mr. MacCallum-Blair had swivelled his chair round to face out of the window while he took the call. While he ummed and said ‘Right’ and ‘Fine’ to his caller, Jill took the opportunity to admire the high ceiling decorated with an elaborate cornice of grapes, vine leaves, and flowers, and a centrepiece, similarly decorated, surrounding the base of a chandelier.
It’s stunning, she thought, as she admired the crystal pendants waterfalling from their fixture. The light from the windows caught them, and glints flashed around the ceiling and walls. She was enchanted.
‘Good God, not you,’ said a voice.
Ann Burnett has been writing for many years and covers many genres. She wrote Postman Pat stories for a comic for five years, adapted Moomin stories as picture books, and scripted over 100 programmes for BBC children’s TV and radio. She also writes short stories and articles and has even tried poetry and drama!
Her latest writing is a contemporary romance, Festival Fireworks, for Ladybug Publications.
She was once almost sold to a Masai warrior for two cows but was only saved because her husband wouldn’t have been able to get the cows on the plane home!
Her website and blog about writing is at annburnett.co.uk
Buy Link
Book Blitz: One Fatal Night by Helene Fermont
Buy Link
Kindle edition – https://amzn.to/36XOxt3
Down to £2.99 from £7.99 – a 63% saving when you buy the eBook
Paperback – https://amzn.to/3dydhKS
One woman’s quest for revenge unearths a fatal secret from her past.
Astrid Jensen holds one man responsible for her mother’s suicide, and she’ll do whatever’s necessary to get close to Daniel Holst and destroy his life – even if it means sleeping with him to gain his trust. Astrid knows he’s not who he pretends to be. But before she can reveal his dark secret, people from her mother’s past start turning up dead, and it looks like she and Daniel are next. In order to survive, she might have to put her trust in the man she has hated for so long.
Daniel Holst has worked hard to climb into Norway’s most elite and glamorous circles, and he’s not about to let any woman bring him down. But when a psychopathic killer starts murdering people from his shadowy past, he discovers that the only person who might be able to save him is the woman who wants to destroy him.
As Astrid digs deeper into her past, she uncovers secrets long buried and realizes everything she once believed is based on lies. What began as a quest to avenge her mother’s death becomes a desperate struggle for survival and leads to the truth about what happened one fatal night ten years ago—and the surprising mastermind behind the most recent murders.
Author Bio
Hélene is an Anglo-Swedish fiction author currently residing in her home town of Malmo, Sweden, after relocating back from London after 20 years.
Her thrilling character-driven psychological fiction novels are known for their explosive, pacy narrative and storylines.
Hélene is the proud author of four novels – One Fatal Night, Because of You, We Never Said Goodbye and His Guilty Secret.
Pen & Sword Review: ‘The Hidden Lives of Jack the Ripper’s Victims’, by Robert Hume
Published: 18th September 2019
£15.99
Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly are inextricably linked in history. Their names might not be instantly recognisable, and the identity of their murderer may have eluded detectives and historians throughout the years, but there is no mistaking the infamy of Jack the Ripper.
For nine weeks during the autumn of 1888, the Whitechapel Murderer brought terror to London’s East End, slashing women’s throats and disembowelling them. London’s most famous serial killer has been pored over time and again, yet his victims have been sorely neglected, reduced to the simple label: prostitute.
The lives of these five women are rags-to-riches-to-rags stories of the most tragic kind. There was a time in each of their lives when these poor women had a job, money, a home and a family. Hardworking, determined and fiercely independent individuals, it was bad luck, or a wrong turn here or there, that left them wretched and destitute. Ignored by the press and overlooked by historians, it is time their stories were told.
Continue reading “Pen & Sword Review: ‘The Hidden Lives of Jack the Ripper’s Victims’, by Robert Hume”
Everything Is Better With Dragons 