Looking for that unusual stocking filler!

My books and probably your last chance to pick up a copy from Amazon before Christmas.

The first two books in The Torc Trilogy.  Action adventure based on historical fact.

 

England 50 BC - A Celtic symbol of power and wealth, a Torc wrought from white gold, a trophy for a king. Luain Mac Lanis, warrior turned metal smith, is commissioned to make a magnificent Torc, but he knows nothing of the curse surrounding the strange metal. The only way to lift the curse is to offer the Torc to the Gods in a sacrificial ceremony. Two thousand years later the Torc is listed on the inventory of a sunken ship. Dr Orlagh Gairne, a leading archaeologist, is sent to work with Jack Harrington and his crew of salvage experts. It's Orlagh's job to identify the Torc and ensure its safe delivery to the National Museum, but the operation is not as straightforward as expected. Aided by his team of mercenaries and an historical expert, Jack unearths a wave of hatred spreading across Europe. With the past weaving tightly with the present, they must infiltrate the terrorists' lair in order to prevent a worldwide catastrophe.

Twelve months has passed since the traumatic events that almost claimed her life and Dr Orlagh Gairne is looking forward to a well-earned holiday. With her partner, Jerry, they jet off for the Aegean coast where they plan to make the most of the Mediterranean sun and visit the ancient sites of Anatolia.

The Phoenix Legion, still reeling from a humiliating defeat, have re-grouped and are now planning the next phase of their quest. They are in possession of the Belgae Torc, but this is not enough to ensure total power so they must rely on the druids and their connection with the spirit world.

Whilst searching for treasure in the Sea of Azov, Jack Harrington and his team make an unexpected discovery and with the past merging with the present are unable to avoid being drawn in to another deadly battle.

The Belgae Torc, Jack Harrington and The Phoenix Legion are far from her thoughts, but as Orlagh enjoys her holiday with the man she loves, these forces come together. Will she manage to avoid another conflict or will she become a victim of circumstances that are beyond her control?



The Witness is a psychological thriller, a stand alone novel, but the first of a set having characters and plots that overlap.

 

Landscape artist Josie MacDonald is coming to the end of her stay in Scotland. Whilst out on a painting trip early one morning she witnesses a horrific murder. Mr Mac, the deranged killer, is aware that she has seen him at work and sets out to kill her but Josie manages to escape by plunging desperately into the North Sea. Mr Mac, convinced that she has perished, discovers a few days later that she has survived and sets out to track her down. He follows her to London where he subjects her to terrible psychological torment as one by one her friends are drawn into the nightmare. Josie returns to Scotland in order to discover the truth where her worst fears are realised. With time running out and a killer on the loose she must survive long enough to bring their horrifying ordeal to an end.


Happy reading.

Update for December

I was talking to a friend at the weekend who reminded me that I have not updated my blog for some time and we began to discuss the importance of regular updates. I questioned the wisdom of this, blogging when there was nothing important to blog about. His reply was although I might think that I have nothing interesting to say, he as a follower often looked forward to catching up on the ordinary things that are going on in my life. The art of writing is of course making the ordinary sound extraordinary. Not always an easy thing to do.

Anyway, this is a potted review on things going on at the moment.

We have sold our house and are hopefully moving in January. We were looking to relocate in the Wessex, but have now discarded that idea and have found a lovely little house in a quiet village in Kent, our home county. We have been in our current house for 28 years and therefore have loads of stuff to sort though, memories of children growing up, things that we have not seen for over 20 years stored in boxes in the loft etc, etc, so as a consequence my writing has taken a downward spiral. I have a deadline of next Easter in which to produce my next book, the third part of the Torc Trilogy, but as I have only written 25,000 words that deadline seems unlikely. I need to have about 120,000 words and even with time off work over the Christmas period I probably will be unable to catch up. By this time I should have at least 50,000 words. It is difficult keeping all the balls in the air at once, beginning to pack up the house, dealing with lawyers’ enquiries, writing a novel.

Once over this little molehill and things are back to normal, the book will be completed and I will wonder what all the fuss was about.

To everyone reading this, my latest blog, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

 

Amazon reviews

Hello to everyone who have bought my books from Amazon. Thank you so much for showing an interest in my work and I hope you enjoyed reading my novels. Please could I ask you to leave a review on Amazon as I understand that reviews are highly regarded in the world of book promotion. The other thing of course is that it would be very nice to hear from you and indeed what you think of my work.

A short post about Royalties.

Wow, I have just received my annual sales payment from my publisher. It's nothing to get excited about, certainly not enough to retire on, but never mind. I get great satisfaction out of being paid for doing something that I really enjoy doing, (writing novels), and being paid for something that I did many months ago. I intend to market and promote my novels more in future, but the most important thing is to write the next one.

A blog about things.

It's time I wrote another blog. I should post photographs of my lovely holiday in France or update you with talk of my latest novel, but just for now I am going to ramble about stuff that is happening now. When my wife and I returned from France we decided that something in our lives just had to change, so our house is on the market, we have given notice to leave our jobs and we are looking to re locate in Somerset or Dorset. Such a dramatic change you might say, and you would be right, but there comes a time in your life when the humdrum ground hog existance becomes overwhelming and you realise that there are things that you want to see and to do. We are soon going to embark on an adventure that hopefully will turn out for the best. I am going to write the final novel in The Torc Trilogy and spend some time marketing my novels. This is what I want to do for the moment, but I will in the fullness of time I suspect have to look for a part time job, but all that is in the future and who can say what might happen. One just never knows!

Kindle price reduction

Great news.  At last I have managed to persuade my publisher to reduce the Kindle price of my book The Belgae Torc.  In the UK it will now be £2.99, with similar reductions in the US.
This is the first book in The Torc Trilogy.  The Gordian Knot, recently released, is the second part and is available from Amazon and to order from best selling bookshops.

Book Launch

The launch of my book The Gordian Knot was held at Whitstable Rugby Club on Saturday evening (2nd August). About 50 guests were invited and the evening went very well.

The table was full of research notes, edited manuscripts, advertising leaflets and hand written text that went to make up the final paperback.

Books piled up ready to sign

Both books in the Torc Trilogy, just one more left to write.
My speech notes can be seen on the left of the table.  The envelopes hold character profiles.  I raffled off two characters to help raise money for charity.  These characters will appear in the next book.

A transcript of an interview I did with Kimberly Eve.  It appeared on her blog; Kimberly Eve Musings of a Writer and also on Facebook.  It can be read on my website.

Artwork and ideas that went into creating the cover.  The Celtic or Trinity knot looks splendid against the black background of the book cover.

Some of my guests being bored by my speech!

Signing books.

Me 'dancing around' whilst speaking!

The Gordian Knot

My latest novel The Gordian Knot is now available from Amazon.com and co.uk.
It can also be found on sites such as Barnes and Noble etc or order from all good bookshops.

Happy reading everyone!

A significant date

Fantastic news, My novel 'The Gordian Knot' should be available from 11th July on Amazon.

Pop up Bookshop

My books have appeared on the shelf of Daisy White's Pop Up Booktique.
The Witness is on the  left hand shelf bottom left, (the picture of the girl on the cover), and The Belgae Torc is on the right hand display, second shelf, fourth book in.  I think this may have been a display from Ardingly, East Sussex.
My new book, due to be released later this month is called The Gordian Knot and is the second book in The Torc Trilogy.

Working on a dreary old day.

The weather this weekend in the south east of England is not going to be inspiring to say the least.  It's warm but overcast with the promise of rain.  It is afterall Wimbledon season so what would one expect from the Great British weather?
Today I received the PDF version of my novel The Gordian Knot from my publisher and now I have to spend the weekend reading through it again searching for stray errors and bits I might not be happy with. This will be the last opportunity I have to make changes before its locked down and sent to the printers.
Exciting times, at last after over a year of hard work the book will come into being, just in time for my book launch on Saturday 2nd August.

Introducing The Gordian Knot

I have to apologise for the quality of the pictures in this blog.  I tried everything to load up images from my computer, but for some reason the files were not compatible so I had to use dodgy photographs instead.

This is the cover of my next book The Gordian Knot.  It's the second part in the Torc Trilogy, the first book being The Belgae Torc.

This is a poster of the synopsis that will be displayed at my book launch.

The manuscript is almost ready to go.  The proof readers are due to return it to me this weekend and once I've made a few minor changes it will be ready for the publisher.  The book should be available from Amazon on Kindle and Paperback from the middle of July, you will also be able to order from all good bookshops.

The official book launch will be on Saturday August 2nd, invitations are currently being prepared.

At the launch I intend to raffle off two characters, one Female and one Male.  The winners will have the opportunity to have their name assigned to these characters and appear in the final part of the trilogy.  All money raised will go to a nominated charity.

New Book Launch Venue

Whitstable Rugby Club

I have finally secured a venue for my book launch.  This year it will be held on Saturday 2nd August at Whitstable Rugby Club.  This is my old club, I used to play for Whitstable and also coach the Mini and Junior section.  I was fixture secretary for the Mini and Juniors, and was a member of the committee for about twelve years.  I left all that behind in 2002 and have not been back to the clubhouse since, so it was a trip down memory lane when I called in there last week to make the arrangements for my book launch.

The rugby club is bigger than where I usually hold my events and it also benefits from having its own car park.  Parking in the town is a premium and during July and August the place is usually full of visitors.  The rugby club is easier to find, and as I have more and more guests attending each year it was important to find an alternative and bigger venue.

Latest news on progress.

• The book cover has now been agreed and it looks great.
• The manuscript is undergoing proofreading and comments coming back are very good.
• Promotion opportunities are under way with an appearance at Canterbury library on 1st November.
• My publisher is helping me to promote my books in libraries across Britain and Canterbury want copies of the book as soon as its available.

I am now busy researching for the next book in The Torc Trilogy.  I'm itching to write the first chapter but am holding back as there are loads of things I need to do in the run up to the launch.  I also have to update my website, so busy, busy, busy!

Manuscript, research notes and hand written notebooks.

From my previous blog about the manuscript, I am pleased to be able to post the completed article.  116,386 words, 472 pages (almost a ream of paper), and numerous books of hand written script.

The novel complete.

This one is for the proofreaders. 

Research notes crammed into a large file.  I also used some of the notes from the Belgae Torc file, (the first book in the Torc Trilogy)

I always write the first draft by hand, I find it more intimate than typing directly onto my laptop, my ideas seem to flow better, besides I love notebooks and pens.  I can't stop myself from going into every stationary shop I see and buying notebooks.  The little book on top of the file is crammed with thoughts and ideas, also hand written research notes.  Each one of my novels has one of these little books dedicated to it.  This was invaluable and followed me around everywhere.  It is where ideas first appeared before being expanded into the script.  There is of course loads of stuff in there that didn't make it into the book, but these ideas may be useful for the next part of the trilogy.

Sheffield Park, Sussex

The house at Sheffield Park is not open to the public but it does look splendid in the bright spring sunshine.

Views from around one of the lakes are spectacular at any time of the year.

In the autumn these trees are rich reds and browns.

  The colours reflected in the water during autumn are breathtaking 

We usually visit during the latter part of the year but thought for a change it would be nice to see the trees and plants at springtime.

Two of the residents.

Bluebells add a splash of spring colour.

One of the forest paths leading to an area where during the Second World War soldiers were stationed in billets whilst training before going to France.  The foundations of these buildings were removed a couple of years ago and now young trees have been planted in their place.

These bushes were beautiful, I have no idea what the plants are called but the bees loved the tiny pink flowers.
Check out Sheffield Park on the internet to see it in its autumn glory or better still visit if you can.

Big Boys Toys

I used to have this, a Suzuki Bandit 600s.  I had this bike from new and kept it for ten years.  It only ever came out in the sunshine as I had another bike for everyday riding.

When I sold my bikes a couple of years ago I bought this Mazda MX5.  It is fourteen years old but has very low mileage and is in excellent condition.

The MX5 at Sheffield Park Sussex, Easter 2014

As the sun was shining we had the top down.  This was the MX's first outing this year after wintering in the garage.  The interior is tan leather with wooden sports steering wheel, matching gear lever knob and handbrake.  (I'm beginning to sound like an 'anorak')!  The car is great fun to drive and has loads of go.  It's a 1.8 Mark 2, on a 2000 numberplate, and yes I am a member of the MX5 owners club, with the hat, key ring and tax disc holder!  

A novel update

At last my manuscript is ready to go to the proof readers.  I aim to deliver them copies this weekend and together we have a month in which to find and iron out any horrors.  (Hopefully not too many)!  My publisher wants it by the first week in June.
The cover is done and looks fantastic.  I have to come up with a quote from the book that will appear on the front, so will be searching through the pages this weekend for a suitably gripping sentence.
The countdown to the 'official reveal' has begun.  In four weeks time I will post the cover and synopsis.  The book launch will be at the end of July, but the book will probably be available on Amazon etc from mid July.
Watch this space for further updates.
Happy reading everyone.

Still editing

Still editing, now half way through the second read and things are flowing nicely.  Proof reading has begun with one or two comments in already.  It's amazing that no matter how many times you carefully read through something there are always errors that get away.  Words repeated, the odd typo, that comma missed, it is so annoying.  Anyway, I'm pleased with the positive criticism so far.  The manuscript will be read three times by different proofreaders.   Sometimes I don't agree with their comments and indeed often they don't agree with themselves.  Everyone is different and entitled to their opinions, so once they have done their reading it is up to me if I make any changes.   Hopefully with this story there's won't be too many.
Next week I am off work so will be able to spend a little more time editing then Easter weekend we are off to see friends in Lancashire.
Happy Easter everyone and happy reading.

First edit complete. (Phew)!

Last night I completed the first edit of my second novel in the 'Torc Trilogy' and now all I have to do is read it through again to see how it flows. My publisher is working on the cover design so when that's done I can start my advertising campaign. In the meantime I have to get my manuscript proof read and ready for the publisher to work on. Having missed my Easter deadline, I'm hoping to have everything done by mid June, then, I can start arranging my book launch, which will probably take place at the end of July. So much to do and so little time in which to do it!

Book sleeve on the way

The synopsis is done and the designs for the book cover are about to be discussed with my publisher. The editing is ongoing but the manuscript is not yet ready for proof reading, that will be done next month. I'm also working on an 'authors note', which explains the philosophy behind the title of this book. Everything is looking good for a July launch, but of course before that, as soon as the sleeve design is confirmed I'm planning a reveal, so watch this space.

Editing

The next instalment of The Torc Trilogy is well under way. I might have missed my deadline for an Easter launch, but I think July is more realistic. In the town where I live, we have a summer festival going on then, so that would be a good time for a book launch. I'm now working on the second edit and things are looking good. This is the first time I’ve read it in its completed form. The manuscript needs proof reading but that will come in the next couple of weeks providing I don't have to do too many re-writes. I'm a quarter of the way through so far and I don't anticipate any horror stories lurking within the chapters left to read. I still have to work with my publisher on the cover design and back of book synopsis, as well as all the extra bits that need to go in, thank you’s etc. It’s a great feeling to have finished the second book in the series. I have a notebook full of ideas for the third book and I know exactly how it all goes, all I need to do is sit down and write it!

Merville Battery Normandy, France

The Merville Battery is situated just a few kilometres from Le Bois des Monts and it was here that fierce fighting took place between the German gunners and men of the 9th Parachute Regiment.

A carefully restored Dakota, these aircraft were extensively used to drop parachute regiments into Normandy.  They were also used to tow gliders full of men and equipment to landing areas all over battle zone.

Views of just a couple of the fortifications used to house huge guns and German soldiers.  British paratroopers were given the task of taking out the guns that were aiming at the beach just a few kilometres away.  Many more Allied troops would have been killed if it was not for the para's, many of whom gave their lives to silence these guns, just before the beach landing began on 6th June 1944.

German soldiers manning one of  the guns that would have fired on the beach.

Le Bois des Monts, Normandy, France

Just returned from France.  We spent a week in Normandy near Caen staying at a family owned house high up on a ridge near Breville-Les-Monts.  The view over Caen, situated about 10km away, is spectacular with some of the best views from our bedroom.  We were able to sit in bed and look out over farmland whilst watching deer who visited the garden each morning.

Le Bois des Monts saw some fierce fighting during WWII and the house and gardens are regularly visited by men who fought there during the summer of 1944.

 

Views of Le Bois des Monts that served as British Headquarters during June 1944 as troops fought to secure the Normandy landings.

Literally just across the road German soldiers were stationed in the Châteaux.

There are several dedications to the men who fought and died here scattered along the road and in the villages.  This one stands at the entrance to the garden and is dedicated to the men of the Black Watch Highlanders.

Today Le Bois des Monts is a happy and peaceful place ideal for a holiday.

The heated swimming pool is a fantastic place to relax and unwind after a busy day.

The extensive grounds are a beautiful place to stroll.  There are woodpeckers, owls and a range of other wild birds to be seen.  Deer also visit the garden in the morning and evening.  There is also a tack room and stables in the grounds.