I thought I’d have something a bit different today, an add a cover reveal to the usual review schedule.
The Vagabond Mother
By:
Tracey Scott-Townsend
Blurb
Not every Vagabond is a Castaway…
Maya Galen’s oldest son, Jamie, left home eight years ago after a massive row with his parents and now Joe, her youngest child and apple of her eye, has cut off all contact with them too.
Called to Australia to identify the body of a young man, Maya is given her son’s journal. After a sleepless night she decides that the only thing she can do is follow in Joe’s footsteps and try to discover her most basic human self. Eschewing a monetary lifestyle, from now on she must rely on her physical and emotional strength to survive.
Following Joe’s hand-drawn maps and journal entries, she travels from Australia to Denmark and beyond, meeting many other travellers along the way and learning valuable lessons.
Eventually a crisis forces her to return home and confront the end of her marriage, but also a new understanding of what family, in the widest sense, really means.
Exploring the big questions at the heart of human existence, The Vagabond Mother shares territory with books and films such as Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, The Way, starring Martin Sheen, Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
‘Writing Fiction is a little pot of gold… Screenplay by Syd
Field for film, Writing Fiction by James Essinger for fiction. It’s that
simple.’
William Osborne,
novelist and screenwriter
Writing Fiction – a user-friendly
guide
is a must-read if you want to write stories to a professional standard.
It draws on the author’s more
than thirty years of experience as a professional writer, and on the work and
ideas of writers including:
Anthony Burgess
Joseph Conrad
George Eliot
Ken Follett
Frederick Forsyth
Dan Harmon
Ernest Hemingway
David Lodge
Norman Mailer
John Milton
Ben Parker
J.K. Rowling
William Shakespeare
Martin Cruz Smith
J.R.R. Tolkien
The twenty-four chapters cover
every important matter you need to know about, including: devising a compelling
story, creating and developing characters, plotting, ‘plants’, backstory,
suspense, dialogue, ‘show’ and ‘tell’, and how to make your novel more real
than reality.
Also featuring special guest
advice from legendary screenwriter Bob Gale, who wrote the three immortal Back
to the Future movies (1985, 1989 and 1990), and novelist and screenwriter
William Osborne, whose many screen credits include the co-writing of the
blockbuster Twins (1988), this
highly entertaining book gives you all the advice and practical guidance you
need to make your dream of becoming a published fiction writer come true.
In December, with any luck, I will have a 2nd edition of both Hidden Fire and Fire Betrayed available, ahead of publishing the third FIRE novel, Fire Awakened, in the new year. I know it’s been a while but I’m feeling more up to writing and stuff. I got the new Prologue written for Fire Betrayed this afternoon and some corrections made to the text.
Anyway, I have three of each of the first edition left from my author’s copies. Normally I sell them for £8 each but to clear stock, as it were, if you buy Hidden Fire I’ll send you Fire Betrayed for free. £8 + postage.
Email me if you want a signed copy. I take paypal payments.
Since it’s almost October (what a thought!) I decided I’d better start being a bit more organised again and actually write one of my ‘scheduled reviews’ post so you know what’s coming up.
Some of the blog tours I’m participating in in the next three months
Frankie: the women who saved millions from thalidomide by James Essinger & Sandra Koutzenko
Organised by Rachel’s Random Resources
18th
Excerpt –
The Devil’s Apprentice by Kenneth B Andersen
Organised by Love Books Tours
23rd
Review – Crime
In the Wake by Helen Trevorrow
Organised by Love Books Tours
26th
Review – Crime
Children of Fire by Paul CW Beatt
Organised by Rachel’s Random Resources
December
1st
Review – Crime
Death Makes No Distinction: A Dan Foster Mystery by Lucienne Boyce
Organised by Rachel’s Random Resources
4th
Promo Post – YA
Fighting Back by Rachel Churcher
Organised by Rachel’s Random Resources
As you can see October and November will be busy but I’m taking most of December and January off to read the 50+ books I’ve acquired over the summer for myself rather than doing blog tours. I also have a small mountain of books from Pen & Sword to review. At some point soon there will be a true crime review post. Maybe to tie in with Halloween. I don’t know. And now I must go, I’ve got three books to review next week, and I’m only partly through two of them and haven’t started the third. Plus I need to get some ideas written down for my fantasy novels. I’m making some pretty big edits to the already published books and will be changing the third book, but that’s another post altogether.
1955. The polished veneer of a boys’ boarding school in Northern England masks a cadre of wickedness. Seniors viciously torment any junior they deem unfit. Jonathan Simon, in his first term is warned that there are three monsters in his dorm; seniors Flicker, Sleeth and Tunk, and that the code of conduct mandates no snitching.
Simon befriends two other juniors; pixie-faced Ian Gracey and witty, grossly overweight Arthur Crown. During a cross-country run, the three friends take a short cut and stumble into the cadet rifle range. Corps Sergeant Sleeth puts them through a degrading punishment using human excrement. The three juniors swear a blood oath never to allow another bully to abuse them.
Will this oath be their downfall, or will they make it through the school year? Snitching could have serious consequences but keeping silent will break their blood oath.
As Simon, Gracey and Crown try to survive this perilous journey, the constant threat of harm brings their friendship ever closer…
Michael L. Lewis was born and raised in England. After
preparatory school in London, he was educated at Stowe School, Buckingham.
Michael now lives in Los Angeles, California, has a law degree, and writes
full-time. He was on the Board of Trustees for several schools and has been a
member of the same book club for twenty-five years.
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The Devil’s back – and he’s STILL not had a holiday.
There’s another mystery to solve – a woman kidnapped by terrorists and the world trying to find her. While he hates doing God’s bidding, The Devil can’t resist trying to put one over on Him. But nothing is EVER that simple.
While the Devil helps the London cops crack the case, there’s trouble in the Underworld. And two of humanity’s greatest backstabbers – Brutus and Cassius – are sharpening their knives with an eye on stealing his crown.
It’s a race against time to find the girl, be the bad guy and maybe stop the apocalypse.
The third book in the award-winning, critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, featuring true-crime writer Alexis Castells and profiler Emily Roy. Previous titles in the series, Block 46 and Keeper, have won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards and sold in 19 countries. A French, Swedish and English TV series is in production, adapted by and starring award-winning French actress Alexandra Lamy.
Spain, 1938
The country is wracked by civil war, and as Valencia falls to Franco’s brutal dictatorship, Republican Teresa witnesses the murders of her family. Captured and sent to the notorious Las Ventas women’s prison, Teresa gives birth to a daughter who is forcibly taken from her.
Falkenberg, Sweden, 2016
A wealthy family is found savagely murdered in their luxurious home. Discovering that her parents have been slaughtered, Aliénor Lindbergh, a new recruit to the UK’s Scotland Yard, rushes back to Sweden and finds her hometown rocked by the massacre.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 