Blog Guest - Nancy Jardine - and book launch news!

Hello, Nik. I’m totally delighted that you’ve let me come to share my new launch news with your readers.

Glad to have you visiting, Nancy. I'll hand over to you now.

Those who already know me a little will have learned that my writing spans the fiction sub-genres of historical romantic adventures; contemporary romantic mysteries; and time travel adventures for a middle grade/YA market. My next two books to hit the launch pad are from these quite different styles of writing – though both were delightful to create!

I’m very excited that on the 27^th March 2015, Crooked Cat Publishing is re-launching a new general reading edition of Monogamy Twist, a light-hearted contemporary romantic mystery. The fabulous quirky new cover, designed by Laurence Patterson of Crooked Cat, reveals a grand house at the centre of the story which is a really excellent image since the plot is based around a Dickensian theme.

 

Monogamy Twist

Luke Salieri finds he’s been bequeathed a dilapidated mansion in Yorkshire… but he can only fully inherit after some weird and antiquated stipulations are fulfilled! He’s never met his benefactress Amelia Greywood; hasn’t even heard of her, but Luke’s never one to back down from a challenge. He needs expert help, though, to find out why he was chosen. Rhia Ashton, a historian and family tree researcher, seems perfect but it turns out that she has her own ideas of what will make Luke’s strange request worthwhile. Compromise is the name of the game for Luke… and for Rhia.

It’s probably no surprise that the plot for the novel came about as a combination of my watching the then current BBC TV Charles Dickens serial of late 2010 and while I was also embarking on the first forays in researching my own ancestral background. I found a decided black sheep in one of my great-grandfathers: and Rhia finds a good few family surprises for Luke in Monogamy Twist. Rhia and Luke were lovely characters to invent but some readers have told me that they love Thor, the Irish wolfhound, even more!

I extend a warm welcome to your readers to join my Facebook Launch Party for Monogamy Twist on the 27^th March 2015. Quirky goodies can be won. There’ll be music; food; lovely locations in Yorkshire… Why not pop in and say hello!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1092788957413601/

PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE NOW FROM AMAZON:

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monogamy-Twist-Nancy-Jardine-ebook/dp/B00V1I59TW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427017128&sr=8-1&keywords=Monogamy+Twist

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The Taexali Game
My other new launch – The Taexali Game, a time travel historical adventure for a middle grade/ YA readership − will be in April 2015. Set in northern Roman Britannia (current Aberdeenshire) in AD 210, my valiant trio – Aran, Brian and Fianna – must work through a set task list, part of which is to help both the ‘baddies’ and the ‘goodies’ in the story. The problem is that there are local Celtic tribespeople who are just as nasty as the invading Roman Emperor Severus and his barbaric son Caracalla. Working out who to trust is a perilous business. Literally sparring with death is a daily occupation back in AD 210, but in The Taexali Game, my teens are up to the challenges facing them!

Graphic designer Neil Saddler has done a fabulous job of blending the main elements of the story in the wonderful cover design he’s created − depicting locally recognised background scenery in Aberdeenshire; the threat of invasion from the Ancient Roman Legions; and my time trio who are about to launch themselves into the adventure!  The Taexali Game will be available in both paperback and ebook formats.

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Nancy Jardine lives in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She currently shares a home with her husband, daughter, son-in-law, 3-year-old granddaughter and 1-year-old grandson. It’ll continue to be a busy household till late summer of 2015 when the new build home will be completed for the young ‘uns in what was Nancy’s former back garden. The loss of that part of the garden won’t be missed, she says, since there should now be more writing time available this spring and summer! Childminding is intermittent over the day and any writing time is precious. (If interested in how a new house is built these days, follow her blog posts named ‘Gonna build a house’ )

All matters historical are her passion; ancestry research a lovely time-suck. Nancy regularly blogs and loves to have guests visit her blog. Facebooking is a habit she’s trying to keep within reasonable bounds. [Not easy – Nik] Any time left in a day is for leisure reading and the occasional historical series on TV.

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Author links:

http://nancyjardine.blogspot.co.uk   http://nancyjardineauthor.com/   

Twitter @nansjar 

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XeQdkG

Amazon Author page for books and to view book trailer videos:   

US http://amzn.to/RJZzZz   UK  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nancy-Jardine/e/B005IDBIYG/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Novels also available from Barnes and Noble; W.H. Smith; Waterstones.com; Smashwords; TESCO Blinkboxbooks; and various other places.

Thank you, Nik, for the opportunity to share my news with your readers! 

 

Pleasure's all mine, Nancy. I hope you find lots of readers!

 

FFB - Mortal Engines

Mortal Engines (2003) is the first in the Hungry City Chronicles, a series of four books by Philip Reeve. Aimed at teenagers, it’s a good read for adults too; an action-packed adventure which oozes originality. 

Over a thousand years in our future, when the earth has virtually been ruined following a very brief but devastating conflict, the Sixty Minute War, the seas are dry and many cities and towns have evolved into mobile fortresses. 

It’s a town eat town kind of world – all to do with Municipal Darwinism, where big powerful towns and cities attack weaker ones and utilise the building materials for fuel and ransack antiques and artwork for their museums and capture people for slaving in the engine-rooms.  And London is on the prowl, it seems, heading into the dangerous hunting grounds...

Apprentice Tom Natsworthy manages to thwart an attempt on his hero Valentine’s life but is repaid by betrayal and is cast out of the city, into the treacherous Out-country, with only the would-be assassin Hester Shaw for company.  A fragile friendship develops between them and they are picked up by a wandering town and imprisoned, to be sold as slaves... 

Their adventures are daunting and exciting, with plenty of chapter-end cliff-hangers. 

In opposition to the marauding towns and cities is the Anti-Traction League who have spies everywhere.  Then there are the air-pirates and their balloon craft.  To make matters worse, searching for Hester is the Resurrected Man, Shrike, mostly metal and virtually indestructible. 

The descriptions of the cities and towns, the forbidding environment and the marvellous individual characters make reading this book a joy.  There are heroes and villains and even the bit-players are sketched-in sympathetically. The grimness of the bowels of London city – with its turd tanks, the colours of the airbase Airhaven and the multi-national pirates, the magnificence of the scenery viewed from the air, all combine to present a visual feast just crying out for a movie.

Then there’s the pirate town of Tunbridge Wheels.  The Mayor of this town, Chrysler Peavey, is a fascinating character who only wants to better himself – and have an easy life at others’ expense, of course...

And hovering in the background is the mystery of MEDUSA and the dreadful power that London’s mad mayor is about to unleash...  The ending was satisfying and sad and made me want to buy the next adventure straight away!

 
The full series is:

Mortal Engines

Predator’s Gold
Infernal Devices
A Darkling Plain

Reeve was thirty-seven when this first book was published and he’d been writing since he was five. Never give up; keep writing!

 

Leap of Faith - Book review

Richard Hardie’s YA novel, Leap of Faith, the first in the Temporal Detective Agency series, is great fun. Narrated by Tertia, it brings to mind Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next novels and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, as the same kind of wry and dry humour is in evidence.

Teenage Tersh and her cousin Unita (Neets) are apprentices of Merlin. The famous wizard is actually a woman, wouldn’t you know? Well, now you do. Keep up. These nearly-wizards are Merl’s Girls (hoping that the BBC doesn’t ban this term!), members of the Temporal Detective Agency (along with Marlene, the sister of the more famous Merlin), that is time travellers who happen to have the odd handy nifty time portal. Beats commuting. Zzzzzzzp.

When the duo investigate the missing statue of Nelson, having vanished off his column, they end up on the Welsh coast in the past; Port Eynon, 1734. They meet up with Bryn; as Tertia muses,  ‘… he wasn’t all that bad looking for a boy. If he played his cards right he stood a chance of a date, I reckoned, even if I was a thousand years older than him. Maybe he liked older women.’

Hardie never lets up with the pace, thrusting Neets into one predicament after another. There is quite a bit of history behind her, obviously! And it now, perhaps predictably, turns up to haunt them in the guise of the Black Knight, who escaped his due comeuppance at Camelot. Problem is that Sir Galahad isn’t interested in chasing bad knights, he’d rather attend to his new restaurant, the Olé Grill, not to be confused with the Holy Grail, which he purportedly found...

Zzzzzzp.

Thrown into the mix is police inspector Smollett, with his illegal truncheon; he was snatched into the time portal and his life was never the same again: ‘water poured from his shoes onto the carpet and added to the pool I’d created earlier. Of course his feet were several times larger than mine so he dripped longer and more thoroughly.’

 
The most calming thing is a cup of Merl Grey, apparently. And we need bucketsful as the pace quickens. We soon learn that Bryn’s father isn’t quite who he seems… Mystery and plot thicken, though the Merl Grey remains digestible and drinkable. There are a few likeable characters to meet too, notably Mrs Jones, a fantastic cook and marvellous eater. Not to be confused with Miss Jones, the head teacher, who employs Tersh briefly to mesmerise the children with her tales of derring-don’t do this at home stuff. There’s romance in the air, too, but not too soppy – this is a YA book, after all, and there are more serious things to write about, like swordfights and betrayal and hidden ill-gotten treasure…
 
Temporal paradoxes are acknowledged too – ‘One of Neets’s temporal anemones…’ Tersh observed knowingly.

Zzzzzzp.

 
The title relates to the cliff-top – from where people can make a leap of faith… and die… Very significant, that. Won’t say more on the subject, save that the ending is moving and the imagery works very well. I liked the sentence and sentiment – ‘Time for a group smile, then.’
 
I felt that maybe some of the chapter headings gave away too much about what was to happen; or perhaps they were intended to reassure the reader. Minor quibble.
 
Recommended. Please zzzzzzzzp it into your e-reader  or buy the book and enjoy.
 
[A shorter version of this review will appear on Amazon…]