Songbirds and Stray Dogs – Meagan Lucas, Mint Hill Books 2019 I was familiar with Meagan through her roles as fiction editor of the excellent Barren Magazine so it was with some anticipation that I received her first novel. My interest was piqued even further by the quotation from which the title is drawn (from…
Category: Novel writing
Fiona Erskine interview – The Chemical Detective
THE CHEMICAL DETECTIVE by Fiona Erskine is published by Point Blank, an imprint of Oneworld, in hardback on 4 April (see review on Goodreads) I’m privileged to be able to interview Fiona Erskine, author of the brilliant new thriller The Chemical Detective. Back in September 2017, OneWorld announced that it had signed up for two…
My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 3)
Parts one and two of this blog series covered what happened when I signed a contract with a publisher for my novel and it turned out badly, with a product I was unhappy with, poor sales and a deteriorating relationship with the publisher, and then my initial, unsuccessful attempts to retrieve my rights to the…
My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 2)
To start off with, I should say that I gave this blog its title before I heard about the shameful business involving Amélie Wen Zhao. Now that really is a publishing nightmare. Suffice to say that what happened to me was bad enough, and the kind of thing that befalls a lot of aspiring authors,…
My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 1)
This is the story of how bad things happened to an author. Me, as it happens. I was naive, disorganised, and arguably lazy with how I sought to get my novel published, but ultimately I don’t think that excuses the bad things. The short version is that I got stuck with a publisher who wasted…
Blog tour for A Black Matter for the King
A virtual blog tour for A Black Matter for the King, the second of the Oath and Crown novels about the events leading to the Norman conquest of England, is currently underway courtesy of Historical Fiction Blog Tours. Please take a look at the blog tour page here to find reviews, features and a giveaway…
Historical fiction – where to draw the line
The issue of factual inaccuracy in historical fiction is a perpetual source of debate, and occasional outbreaks of controversy. Reports in the media today pick up on this issue with aspects of the new film Mary Queen of Scots labelled ‘problematic’ by a historian in a BBC report with the Telegraph going as far as…
Interview with Amanda Berriman, author of ‘Home’
I am very pleased to welcome to Air and Sea Stories, Amanda Berriman, whose fantastic debut novel Home will be published next month (February 2018) by the Transworld imprint of Penguin. Home is a beautiful novel with a unique voice – that of four-(and a half!)-year-old Jesika, who, with her mother is forced to negotiate…
Nemesister – review and interview with Sophie Jonas-Hill
I am pleased to welcome to Air and Sea Stories, Sophie Jonas-Hill, whose pacy psychological thriller Nemesister was recently published by Urbane Publications. First off, a review of the book, followed by an interview with Sophie: Review – Nemesister Sophie Jonas-Hill’s novel is an incredibly atmospheric thriller that swings from eerie to brooding to intense…
“Vintener is Coming” – Fields of Glory review
When historical novelist Jemahl Evans recommended Michael Jecks’ Fields of Glory, the first in his Hundred Years War series, I knew there was a good chance I was in for a decent read. Moreover, having just launched a mediaeval novel myself (An Argument of Blood, co-written with J.A. Ironside, about the lead up to 1066),…
Author S.K. Keogh – relentless pursuit, betrayal, and revenge
Air and Sea Stories is pleased to welcome S.K. Keogh, author of a series of swashbuckling but nuanced nautical adventures. I’m delighted to interview Susan on the relaunch of the first in the series, The Prodigal. Here’s how Susan describes her Jack Mallory books: A story of relentless pursuit, betrayal, and revenge: As a young…
Two new William the Conqueror novels
Today is the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings – the single battle that has perhaps done more to shape the destiny of England than any other. The fate of England, and indeed, Europe, looked very different in the evening of 14 October 1066 than it had early that morning. This seems a good…
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