Valentine's Promotion on TWO Romances

 

For the love of Romance, from 10th until 15th I have stepped price promotions via Amazon UK and Amazon USA on both my Historicals.

Beneath The Shining Mountains is set in the region now known as Wyoming and Montana in the USA; the date the early 1800s. For the Apsaroke people, the place is Apsaroke lands; the time, the good years between the coming of the horse and the arrival of land-hungry settlers. Game was plentiful; the creeks ran clear. A man could prove his worth by his military exploits – and a woman, if she wanted, could ensnare herself her chosen husband. But why would a man with so many lovers want to take a wife?

“...loved learning about their customs and rich culture...”


Hostage of the Heart is set very much in Britain, on the Welsh Marches, during the autumn of 1066 when the destiny of both Wales and England hung in the balance because of outside forces.

With the northern militia hurrying to York in support of the new king, Rhodri ap Hywel, prince of the Welsh, sweeps out of the forest to reclaim by force stolen lands, taking the Saxon Lady Dena as a battle hostage. But who is the more barbaric, a man who protects his people by the strength of his sword-arm, or Dena’s kinsfolk who swear fealty to a canon of falsehoods and refuse to pay her ransom?

“...a historical that really grips the reader with lots of twists and turns...”


The novels are clean Romantic Suspense, and between them carry over 90 review ratings. Promotional prices start at 99p / 99c today rising back to full price late Wednesday evening. Grab them while you can, and snuggle down with a Valentine’s read of Romance and Adventure!

Global Links:      Beneath The Shining Mountains        Hostage of the Heart

Enjoy! 

Native American Plains Decoration Techniques

Today on her Happy Ever After website Sharon Booth is hosting my guest post explaining how I came to research Beneath The Shining Mountains. If you’ve just hopped across from there, Welcome! If you’ve arrived here first, please follow the link above to read the original post – it’s not long and this one will then make more sense (probably).

It seems that I was almost born with an interest in Native American Plains peoples. My mother, who cut my first coup bonnet from newspaper when I was four, doubtless rolled her eyes and thought I’d grow out of it. I didn’t. I ended up making a tipi, haggling with the local tannery for sheepskins (no bison or antelope skins being available), and dragging my own family to weekend pow-wows and week-long summer camps. Yes, in the UK. The British are renown for their eccentricity.

If a writer’s watchword is What if…? then a re-enactor’s must be How did they…? closely followed by Why did they…? Why did the native peoples of the northern plains decorate just about everything they owned? Good question. Some of the colours and designs were tribal, some denoted status, some had religious significance, some encapsulated a bit of all three. Click on the images for a larger view.

Parfleches c1880-85. Left a Brulé Sioux design; right a Cheyenne design.

The two peoples lived in relatively close proximity, sometimes trading, sometimes skirmishing, 

yet the distinctive designs are particular to each.

Earth and vegetable pigments were used most often on items of luggage, which was usually made of rawhide for strength and durability. The pigments were crushed, mixed with animal fat or tallow and applied to the rawhide by brush and/or stick by pressure so the dye impregnated the rawhide. Parfleches were often made in pairs and carried whatever was needed, from clothing to the winter’s dried meat supply. They were tied to a travois platform when moving camp, hence the need for durability.

 Moccasins with porcupine quillwork decoration.

Left Seneca 1808; right Crow (Apsaroke) or Sioux 1882. 

The Seneca are an Iroquoian Great Lakes people whose territory abutted the plains. They favoured the one-piece soft-soled moccasin against the separate, often rawhide-soled moccasin of the plains. The central strip of decoration masks the seam. By the 1880s enforced reservation life was a reality and the bright yellow pigment of the moccasins on the right may have been from a traded dye. The design was for a religious Sun Dance ceremony, the old-style of decoration probably part of the vow rather than using quicker beadwork which would have been the norm by that time.

Before the influx of fur trappers and traders, porcupine quillwork was the most extensive form of decoration for clothing and small bags. It involved a great amount of work. Porcupines were trapped or, if in abundance, sought and a skin thrown over them so their hooked quills came away. The quills were boiled in a natural pigment mixture and dried for future use. Decoration involved holding several in the mouth so they softened, flattening one between the teeth, then folding it between two sinew threads pushed through a fine hole in the skin punched by a thorn or bone awl. Adding further quills constructed a band of decoration as thin as the width of your smallest fingernail. It wasn’t so much hours’ as days’ or even weeks’ of work.

 

Left Yanktonai, Nakota woman’s strap dress, early 19th century.

Right Crow or Nez Perce man’s exploit shirt 1860.

The dress is made from two very soft and whitened deerskins and is unusually tailored; certainly more ceremonial than everyday. It carries both traded early pony and some later, smaller, seed beads alongside the fine quillwork hoops. Pairs of tin cones adorn the lower skirt so the woman would ‘tinkle’ as she walked. Small sheets of tin, or later even food tins, were sought as trade items for this purpose. Pony and seed beads were made of glass and produced in Venice and Bohemia. The man’s shirt was worn to exemplify his worth among his people to visitors and to enemies during conflicts. The ‘strap’ decoration, made separately and sewn as separate pieces to the shirt, are made from quill-wrapped horse-hair edged in both pony and seed beads.

 Two dresses from the Sioux confederacy: left 1875-1900; right c1870 Lakota or Teton

Trade routes between the peoples of North America extended long before Europeans arrived, and shells were a highly-sought exotic: abalone, cowrie, and shown left dentalium. Most women might have aspired to earrings or a necklace; this blue trade-cloth dress was owned by a woman of a powerful family, the dentalium shells probably gathered over generations, re-used and added to. Again, the skin dress shows social standing. Even by the 1870s glass beads imported by traders from Europe were not a cheap item, and to have an entire sleeved yoke decorated in seed beads was a mark of prestige. Sky-blue designs were a feature of the Sioux peoples.

I hope you have enjoyed this small snapshot of the decorative techniques of the northern plains peoples. Read Beneath The Shining Mountains if you’d like to hear how these were used in an everyday setting.

All images are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum and used under a Creative Commons License.

Musings on...Where To Start A Novel

Your characters are nailed, your setting researched, your time period decided. You’ve brainstormed The Big Problem plus a few smaller ones to scatter, and you’ve chosen who’ll carry the story. So where to start? If you’ve written some sort of plan, even a feeble outline, how can where to start be a problem? As always, the Devil is in the detail.

Received wisdom points to a moment of conflict, something to hook the reader. But conflict arises in many forms: conflict with self, conflict with an outside agency, conflict with the environment… And how can the reader be hooked into the story when there hasn’t been page-time enough to learn about the lead character so as to be able to make an emotional investment in him, her, it, or them?

One of my earlier novels, reincarnated as Beneath The Shining Mountains, is set among the native Apsaroke people on the cusp of American-European encroachment on their land. My publisher’s editor at the time dismissed it out of hand as “a Western”.

I could see her point of view; well, I couldn’t at the time and made my position felt, but I can now. Television was full of “Westerns” where the original peoples of the North American continent received a very bad billing. I was a historical re-enactor who gave talks and whose collection of books, recordings and anthropological papers outshone those of the local university. My problem, an insurmountable one according to my editor, was divorcing popular assumptions from the novel’s reality.

This is what readers do; I do; we all do. It’s an easy way of releasing our hold on our own reality and sliding into the reality offered by a novel. We read the signs and make assumptions:  flawed detective suffocating under a never-ending caseload being handed a shitty job because there’s more stress in the station than there is on the street... sort of thing. It might not state that in the opening, but from the tone of the cover, the back-blurb and the first couple of paragraphs, that is what the reader extrapolates. Over the next three or four chapters the reader constantly adjusts that expectation, realigning it to something akin to what the writer had in mind.

For my “non-Western”, I needed to plant a new set of expectations in readers’ minds. Having no control over the cover or the back-blurb, I chose to do it from the first page via an overview of Apsaroke village life, narrowing down to my lead character and her ally subsidiary. The opening was thrown back at me. “Pretty pictures” didn’t mean anything to a reader; people did. Readers wanted a character they could immediately identify with, ie connect with on an emotional level. The “pretty pictures”, if used at all, should be threaded in between.

So I gave the editor what she wanted. The story opens with two women having an argument about the male lead, therefore heralding him for the reader. A few “pretty pictures” are, indeed, threaded in between, but so is something more fundamental for the novel: a sense of personal history about to repeat, of a stalking catastrophe for more than just the main characters. Once written, I mirrored the same tone further in the chapter when portraying a snapshot of the life of the male lead.

The new beginning, about four pages worth, can be read by clicking the Preview option beneath the cover image in the right-hand column. Pick out the Big Problem, the “pretty pictures”, the elements that make up the sense of foreboding. Preceding the opening is a Historical Note to help slip the reader from their reality to the fictional reality, reluctantly allowed by the editor “as long as it’s no longer than 100 words”. So I ensured that it wasn’t.

These musings on where to start a novel came about due to the current work-in-progress, a true “Western” which will appear under my pseudonym Tyler Brentmore sometime over the summer. The story dates from 2014, so my notes tell me, when I’d written the first two chapters before the novel stalled. Returning to it, I could tell exactly why it had stalled: I’d started at a moment of major conflict. There’d been no page-time to learn about the lead character so as to be able to make an emotional investment in him.

This moment of major conflict still stands, but in the rewrite it erupts four chapters in. The preceding 9,500 words contain a few “pretty pictures”, but more to the point they contain a series of smaller, escalating conflicts: with self, with the past, with a hoped-for future, with outside agencies. The initial moment of major conflict has morphed into the novel’s Inciting Incident.

How Historical Should Be Your Historical?

I have been following an earnest debate in a Facebook group regarding how close to factual history Historical novels should stay.

On the one side there’s the fiction is never fact and shouldn’t be taken as such. On the other there’s the fiction should stick to the fact until the fact gets in the way of the fiction. And a lot of differing views threading in, around and between.

My stance is that authors have to be true to themselves and their prospective readers, as far as their publishers will allow.

I’ve never wanted to write about historical figures, or even historical events. I’m much more interested in how ordinary people lived their lives in what we might call a historical era, but that certainly doesn’t mean that I can make it up as I go. Just as modern London can’t be set in modern Poland for the sake of a fictional story, named places that existed as historical fact both have to be set in their true place and have an authenticity to them corresponding to the stated date. And not just in looks or smell.

I remember being in a cinema watching Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. RH (Kevin Costner) had just landed on English sands below the unmistakeable white cliffs of the country's southern shore when he uttered words to the effect of: Tonight I will dine at my father’s table – ie in Nottingham. The  cinema erupted in gales of laughter, with someone behind me quipping, ‘Got a helicopter waiting on the cliff-top, has he?’ And that was it for the film. The suspension of disbelief had been well and truly trashed, the audience more intent on chortling over the succession of gaffes than concentrating on the story.

Cinema-goers do that. Readers don’t. They throw the offending novel at a wall, give it a one-star review for wasting their time, and never read that author again. So novelists play fast and loose with history at their peril, while Hollywood adds the euphemism Based on... and runs all the way to the bank, massacring History as it goes.

Yet every Historical novel is also based on… people, events, places, eras, that once existed. History – the factual History we novelists take as primary or secondary source material – is based on… documents that are based on… hearsay or, if we’re lucky, eye-witness accounts, transcribed by… translated from… and we would be foolish not to accept that everyone along that line is relating facts as they saw them, or was instructed to see them. Truth, after all, is a many-faceted light in the darkness.

This is one of the reasons historical novelists add a Historical Note to the back of their  books, gently separating the history from the fiction for interested readers. You’ll find one in each of the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, to both separate and dovetail the past and the present storylines.

But there’s not one added to Beneath The Shining Mountains, a true based on… the remembrance of a then old woman, translated to an American ethnographer to be set down in a foreign tongue, doubtless edited for understanding, and doubtless edited again two generations later for a thin volume of “tales” from a people who lived yet whose life had perished, her story re-envisioned by me with the help of a wide range of secondary sources that might, or might not, have been as historically accurate as maintained.

How historical is your Historical?

Mine? I do my best. In the end its all any novelist can do. We’ve just got to ensure that we do it.

Interview and SciFi+Fantasy Giveaway Thoughts

The Torc of Moonlight trilogy is complete, Hull's FantastiCon is over, and I'm gearing up for the British Fantasy Society's annual FantasyCon in Peterborough at the end of the month. As part of my RandR in between I'm slowly turfing out the house and hacking back the garden, but the digital promotion continues, nonethless.

I'm interviewed on the Fantasy & Magic website with the questions focusing on why I chose to write the trilogy, and Fantasy in particular, and the evergreens of who my influencers were. It's never that simple, of course. I consider all Fiction to the Fantasy; to me, some elements of storytelling are just more fantastic than others.

Also on-going is the promotional side of things. InstaFreebie has recently offered direct hosting facilities for self-gathered groups. One finishes tomorrow [see HERE]...

Link: https://www.instafreebie.com/gg/shUSLwOigkJnTxPjqUbc

...and the other carries on until the end of the month [see HERE]

http://www.fantasyandmagicbooks.com/instafreebie/

Authors tend to work in the dark with most giveaways, or at least the dark shadow, regarding the number of ebooks claimed. But with the new InstaFreebie group giveaways authors have access to a dashboard making it easy to see how many ebooks are claimed, both of their own and of the other authors in the giveaway. As I key in this post late Friday afternoon, 25 titles have been claimed more than 50 times; only two have had less than 10 claimed, and my 25% partial of Torc of Moonlight is one of them. Mmm... perhaps I need to rethink my 'partial' strategy. As far as I can see, mine is the only partial in the group.

In this context, it will be interesting to see how my Beneath The Shining Mountains 10% KU sample does in the Romance Samples To Whet your Appetite! giveaway lined up from 10-30th September. Though I'm not entirely sure what the organiser's somewhat chilly snow scene brings to the group's landing page. Especially with no text.

https://www.instafreebie.com/gg/fmDycdM9TmbE14o4snJL 

At the moment, though, all this promotion via giveaways is a toe-in-the-water testing for me. We shall see what we shall see.

Moving #Historicals to #KindleUnlimited:

Now the paperback of Pilgrims Of The Pool has been out a week, and before I make decisions on my next writing project, I'm turning my attention to housekeeping, both of the physical type in the space I refer to as my office and my digital backlist.

While I've been concentrating on Contemporary Fantasy, and to some extent my shorter Chillers, I've allowed my two Historicals to moulder somewhat unloved. Both Hostage of the Heart and Beneath The Shining Mountains were originally listed by mainstream publishers and became my digital test pieces when their rights reverted. They have served me well, but they could do being highlighted to a fresh audience. I like the covers, and there's nothing wrong with the content. They just need a bit of a push.

So, for the first time with any title, I've removed both from multiple distributors and given exclusivity to Amazon for 90 days minimum. They have entered the realm of page reads within Kindle Unlimited.

To leave them there without food or water will be to see them fade into more obscurity. So I've started a regime of promotion. I'm using small steps, starting with Twitter and FBook postings, followed by author cross promotions, before considering paid adverts probably with AMS initially. The trick is to discover what works to raise their visibility. As happens with these things, doubtless it will prove to be a mix of all three.

I'll keep you posted.

Discounted Historicals - Final Weekend

There's nothing like stocking up your e-reader with titles from authors new-to-you, and discounted promotions are a simple way to widen your reading horizon in the genre or genres you prefer. Last weekend it was Science Fiction & Fantasy - see HERE.

This weekend the chosen genre is Historical Fiction, the promotion being run by Ryn Shell, and my offered novel is Beneath The Shining Mountains. 

The book has an interesting history. It's an indie-published re-issue of a novel that was never meant to be written. You know how it goes, the given wisdom is "write at least three books in a given world". 

My writing world at the time was Medieval Historical. I'd won a minor national award for my sweet romance Hostage of the Heart, the sales had been very reasonable, and my publishers invited me down to London to discuss my follow-up over lunch. Oh, the heady days of being taken out to lunch by a London publisher!

I travelled prepared, with a synopsis and what I thought was a good line in chat to enthuse the editor. We ate lunch, wine flowed, the small-talk moved to business, I proposed my coming project. 'We've enough Medieval,' she said. 'Write me a Regency.' 

I couldn't have been more taken aback if I'd been slapped across the face with a wet haddock. How did writing Medieval equate to writing Regency? Had the editor no concept of the amount of research I'd undertaken, would have to undertake to move into a new time period? Besides, I'd been force-fed "Mr Darcy" et al when a teenager at school. I didn't like the period, or the strata of society it focused on.

'So what can you write?' she asked, and the look I was given left me in no doubt that my writing career hung in the balance. And what period could I write that wasn't Medieval? '19th century Native North American,' I said. 'I belong to a living history group. We make costume and holiday in a tipi and I've over 200 research--'

It was the sneer and the dismissive wave of the hand that did it, that and too much wine. I can recall leaning across the table and the editor backing off as my voice shot across the space between us stating rather forcefully If I can't make a six foot, sun-tanned man with raven-black hair sexy...

The upshot was that I could write it and they'd see. I did write it. The publisher took it, and it sold over 30,000 copies. When my rights to it reverted I ditched the crass title it had been hobbled with and reverted to my original. It might not have sold another 30,000 copies, yet, but it is still my best-seller. Enjoy.

Discounted eBooks Extravaganza!

Readers of this blog will realise that I'm dipping my toes into the world of author cross-promotions. I won't say that it is highly lucrative, at least for me, but it is an exceptionally worthwhile learning curve where marketing my books is concerned. This month I am engaged in two: 7-8th and 14-15th.

The first, with 100+ SciFi & Fantasy titles, kicks off today at http://pattyjansen.com/promo

My offered ebook is The Bull At The Gate being offered for 99p / 99c on all major e-retailers. Click the above link, choose your preferred e-retailer, and a host of ebook covers opens itching to be checked out.

It will seem strange that the second in a trilogy is offered at 99p/c when the first is full price - well it did to me - so I'm discounting Torc of Moonlight by a third from its normal price to £1.99 / $2.99 or equivalent. Direct links are below:

Amazon  ¦  iBooks  ¦  Kobo  ¦  Nook  ¦  Smashwords

More to the point, these discounted prices will be held until Sunday 15th.

Out of the blue I was offered a place on a Historical cross-promotion that runs 14-15th January, and I decided to enter Beneath The Shining Mountains into the Histfiction.com 99p / 99c promotion alongside other authors' titles. 

However, how many emails and notifications do I want to send? It seemed far simpler to put these three novels on promotion at the same time. So here are the direct links for Beneath The Shining Mountains:

Amazon  ¦  iBooks  ¦  Kobo  ¦  Nook  ¦  Smashwords

Enjoy! Me? I think I need to lie down in a darkened room. Or perhaps just get on with the final in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy. Now there's a novel idea...

Book Trailer Anyone? #4 Native American

On my quest for book trailers for some of my novels, I took advantage of an offer made by the organisers of the mini litfest at FantastiCon held recently. The novels didn't have to be SciFi/F so I opted for my Native American historical Beneath The Shining Mountains.

I did not discover the identity of the trailer's creator, but the requirements seem more or less universal. It was seen with others in a loop playing at the Con, which was the first time I saw it. Now it's all mine. What do you reckon? I think it turned out rather well.

For more info on the novel and a full set of buying links, visit The Historicals page.

Next year's FantastiCon, to be held during Hull's City of Culture 2017, is scheduled for the weekend of 02-03 September. 

#BlackFriday or Colourful Weekend? Book Sale!

This weekend - 29th & 30th November - are the final days to grab my Native American historical at 99p / 99c (or equivalents) at Amazon Kindle stores worldwide. And, yes, I'd forgotten about Black Friday when this was scheduled. But why fight over a TV when you can download colour and excitement at the mere touch of a button?

This multi 5* reviewed novel came from a passion, held from childhood, for the everyday life of the northern plains peoples. My mother used to regale acquaintances with tales of cutting a warbonnet from folded newspaper when I was four years old. None of this needing actual feathers, you'll notice. Obviously my imagination held reign even then. 

The old game of "cowboys and indians" was popular when I was a little older, fired by the Westerns prominent on television. No guessing who made herself a bow and arrow quiver.  This obsession became so well known that books picked up by neighbours at church bazaars were dropped at our house. I would pore over them, inspecting the photographs with a magnifying glass, reading every word. 

Those good people, who would smile somewhat knowingly and shake their heads at my shrugging mother, would have no idea that those precious books, which I still own, would become the basis for a minor research library. Good on them, I say! 

And to you, dear reader, I say encourage a passion in a child, don't deter it, no matter how bizarre it seems at the time. You never know where it might lead in later life.

Beneath The Shining Mountains can be downloaded for Kindle USA or UK.

#TheBullAtTheGate Pre-Launch Promo2 - New Discounts!

Torc of Moonlight, book 1 in the trilogy of the same name, is now on offer at 99p / 99c as an opener for book 2 The Bull At The Gate, which is going live at the end of the week. Amazon is quick off the mark and the link should jump direct to a reader's personal region - the wonders of technology! 

Distribution through Kobo, Nook, iBooks, etc, has passed vetting (by a human, no less) and the price change will be feeding through to the stores in the next few days. In the meantime grab a copy in ePub format via Smashwords.

It is also Read An Ebook Week until 8th March - yes, it passed me by, too. I have kept the ePub version of Beneath The Shining Mountains on offer at 50% discount. Add in the coupon code shown on its page at the checkout.

The launch of The Bull At The Gate is now moving into white-hot mode. Call back, or have this blog brought to your Inbox when a new post is live.

Happy reading!

#TheBullAtTheGate Pre-Launch Promo Update

The edits are in and it is time for The Bull At The Gate to be formatted. Release date will be finalised in a couple of days.

The discount on Beneath The Shining Mountains has given my name a boost – the 99c/77p discount will now finish Monday 10th March [incorrectly stated 3rd] so don’t delay. The ebook is currently riding at #22 in the Amazon.com Native American chart. Today I'm blogging about it at LindsaysRomantics. Come read an excerpt.

Torc of Moonlight will be discounted from Wednesday 5^th. Sign up on the right to have notifications sent straight to your Inbox. 

And lastly, a big thank you to all the bloggers who offered to host my launch blog-hop. There'll be a full list here shortly.

It’s getting exciting, folks!

#TheBullAtTheGate Pre-Launch Promo 1 - Discounts!

Exciting news just in from one of my advanced readers - no, it's hush-hush as to tell all would mean a spoiler. But it proves that a lot can happen in a few days. I've also found that sometimes it's hard to keep up with technology. 

"...pacey and fascinating..."

Partly as a trial run for *Visibility* purposes, I am discounting the Kindle edition of my Native American Historical, Beneath The Shining Mountains, from its usual $2.99 / £2.00 to 99c / 77p from today until midnight 3rd March. According to Amazon's instructions it would take around 12 hours to filter through. It took one hour to go live on the USA/UK sites - which took me somewhat by surprise.

But what, I hear you mutter, if readers don't have a Kindle? That's where the speed of technology has overtaken me. It is available in all eformats on Smashwords but due to the time constraints of feeding price changes to its distributors I've gone instead for a Discount Coupon Code. This I will be offering first to my Newsletter subscribers. Now there's an incentive to subscribe (top right - easy-peasy).

Beneath The Shining Mountains has gained nine 5 star reviews on Amazon.com since it was published - or republished by me - it sold 30,000 copies in print when it first saw the light of day under another title.

Watch out for the Tweets, or you can help spread the word by Tweeting this blog. It's all very much appreciated. And for those who haven't read it yet, enjoy the novel.

PS: Saturday 22nd I'm blogging about this novel, with an excerpt, at HistoricalFictionExcerpts

Interview: Native American historical

My interview with Lisa Mondello is live, and we are discussing the story behind the story of Beneath The Shining Mountains, set up in Montana and Wyoming.

Americans tend to find it amusing, if not decidedly odd, that a Brit would have an interest in Native American historical lifestyles. I recall having just this conversation with a Cheyenne lady on duty at Old Bent's Fort near La Junta, Colorado.

The adobe fort was primarily a trading post and replenishing station on the Santa Fe Trail, and ran from 1833-1849. The fort isn't the original, but was rebuilt in 1976 to the specifications drawn up by a recuperating army surveyor who wintered there and made it his project to stave off boredom. And let's all be thankful for that.

So what did that Cheyenne lady, who was working in costume feeding horses, think of a Brit having an interest in the period? "Visiting Europeans mostly have more knowledge - sometimes more than me!"

Well, visiting Europeans are going to Fort Bent for a reason. And I know many Americans who have a sight more knowledge of the English Regency period than I do.

Do drop by the interview. You may well be surprised.

Arrived! Torc of Moonlight Paperback

They've arrived! Okay, I shall calm down. I'm an indie ebook writer, yet it is still a huge thrill to open a carton and find paperbacks looking up at me.

My test buys have arrived, too - Amazon UK, and Book Depository for inclusive world-wide postage. With print-on-demand it is always a good idea to do a test buy when possible as different printer's machine settings produce slightly different results within a variable.

So if you live in the UK and would like a **signed copy** drop me an email. For a limited time I'm price-matching Amazon & throwing in free postage.

Torc of Moonlight: Book One £8.99

Beneath The Shining Mountains £7.99

Ooh, the Kindle could get jealous.

The Delights of Indie Publishing

A few days ago Amazon announced that 23 of its indie ebook authors had sold over 250,000 units last year. Just to be clear about this, that's over 250,000 each, not combined. Much to my surprise I find that I'm sharing a forum with three of them, and it's been celebrations all round.

I might not frequent such dizzying ebook numbers, but I'm sitting here in my own warm glow. Today I uploaded the print version of Torc of Moonlight to Createspace, downloaded the digital proof, tinkered with widows & orphans, like you do, and re-uploaded. In less than five hours it's been vetted by a person and I've just ordered a physical proof to be delivered to my door.

When I started with ebooks I thought I'd waved farewell to paperbacks - I like reading on my Kindle, and it's always my first option for new purchases - but having a big smiley lapel badge "Ebook Author" doesn't quite hit the spot when I'm giving talks. Participants are happy to take my postcards sporting the book covers, blurbs and buying info, but they still yearn for a physical book, duly signed, from an author they've met.

When I uploaded Beneath The Shining Mountains late last year this wasn't in my mind. As an ebook this is my biggest selling title, mostly to USA readers, yet I'd noted from various forums that authors offered both digital and print. My ebooks are offered in both ePub and Kindle formats, so why not print as well? All it was going to cost me was an updated cover and time to absorb the formatting learning curve, which wasn't as onerous as expected. Since the paperback went live I have been pleasantly surprised as to sales. Long may it continue.

I expect Torc of Moonlight the paperback to go live on Amazon in about ten days, and become available from Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, and others, in about a month.

Don't you just love modern publishing?

Beneath The Shining Mountains - New Cover

The new e-cover for Beneath The Shining Mountains is now live on Amazon USA and UK, and also on Smashwords. Barnes & Noble and the iBookstore should be updating shortly.

And, despite the fact that this is an ebook, it will shortly be able to stand on its own two feet, or 276 pages, as a print book. Watch this space.

To make life easier, sign up to have my short but chatty Newsletter delivered to your Inbox. And yes, you can unsubscribe as easily as subscribing. That's the joy of it.

Featured At...

Well, Friday 13th seems to be the day to embrace.

Beneath The Shining Mountains is the Featured Book at Guerrilla Wordfare. Thanks to Lizzy Ford for hosting. Question: how many print books did this novel sell in its original format?

Reading A Writer's Mind: Exploring Short Fiction - First Thought to Finished Story is the focus of a long interview on writing and associated subjects across on Why Did You Write That Thanks to Peter Lewis for asking such searching questions.

Dead Men's Finger's received a double accolade in the shape of a blog feature  'New Western Writer Comes To Town' on IcyStoneBlackstone.com and a cracking in-depth 5 star review from Toni V Sweeney.

Thanks to all who hosted. If you have time, do stop by to have a look or leave a comment.

#SampleSunday 20: Beneath The Shining Mountains Chapter 4 Pt1

Having been placed in unacceptable danger in the enemy Shoshone village - by accident or negligence - and putting himself in an unenviable position with the experienced war band leader by covering for a man he considers his friend, Winter Man's heart is no longer filled with lovers' games.

~~~

‘Is it true? Are they back?’

Moon Hawk’s eldest brother gazed at her in open-mouthed astonishment. Adult siblings maintained a strict sense of dignity in their exchanges. His sister’s lack of propriety embarrassed him. Turning to their mother, he spoke directly to her.

‘Bear On The Flat sends me to tell you that Running Fisher has returned with horses and coups. He said that you’d be eager to know.’

Little Face took a step towards him, smiling. ‘Thank you, my son. Were there any injuries?’

He shook his head. ‘Not that I’ve heard. There will be a great deal of singing tonight. Here, I’ve brought you something.’ He opened his hand and showed her the slender dentalium shells he had hidden there. ‘These will look well hanging from your ears.’

Little Face uttered her delight as he tipped them into her offered palm. ‘You’re a good son, Antelope Dancer. You make a mother proud.’

He smiled, nodding his acceptance of her thanks. Without a glance towards Moon Hawk, he bowed his head and went out through the door opening.

Little Face frowned at her daughter. ‘If you talk to him like that again, he’ll refuse to visit us while you’re here.’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I’m—’

‘I know. I know. You’ve been like it for days. I don’t know which is worse, falling over Winter Man every time I leave the lodge, or coping with your anxieties when he’s away from the village. I’ll be pleased when it’s all over.’

Moon Hawk relaxed a little, and smiled. ‘Mother . . . You know you’re enjoying every moment.’

‘Perhaps,’ she mused. ‘But I’ll still be pleased when his family offer you an elk-tooth dress.’

An elk-tooth dress. A wedding gift. It was all Moon Hawk could dream of, that and lying in Winter Man’s arms.

‘Don’t stand there like something carved,’ Little Face admonished. ‘Bathe. Dress. I must paint your face and oil your hair. He will be here soon!’

 **

 The face of Skins The Wolf seemed to be set in a permanent scowl. While Otter Robe had dressed his hair and attached bright beaded temple ornaments to the thin braids he wore in front of his ears, Spider had painstakingly painted his eyes vermilion and his face black, the honour colours of a coup-taker. Running Fisher had divided the captured Shoshone horses, generously keeping no more for himself than he had given to his men, but Skins The Wolf could speak of nothing but the group of boys they’d met some little while before.

‘They’ll have run straight to the village and told everyone we’re here. What surprise will there be when we ride among the lodges now?’

It was the third time he had said those same words. Hillside bent his head nearer Winter Man’s ear as he applied vermilion to the torn skin of his back.

‘He likes to hear his own voice. He sounds like a prairie chicken trying to encourage a mate.’

Winter Man turned his blackened face so that he could see Hillside from the corner of his eye. ‘You sound like something, too, ridiculing his every move.’

Hillside narrowed his eyes. ‘I carry a fire in my chest for him, the way he’s treated us. I don’t know how you can remain so calm.’

Calm? Winter Man nearly laughed. Was that how he looked to Hillside? Was that how he looked to them all?

‘I feel unworthy. I have gained a coup, taken a picketed horse—’

‘—and rescued me.’

Winter Man sighed. ‘I don’t feel that it should be my shoulders these honours should be heaped on.’

‘Then whose shoulders should they be heaped on? Those of Skins The Wolf for deserting us? Your only mistake was to protect him by not disclosing all you saw to Running Fisher. It’s too late to alter that now. It’s gone; it’s past. Your honours are good. You’ll stand tall and raise your head high. What will people think if you skulk into the village hiding your face? What will Moon Hawk think? She’ll be waiting for you to pass her lodge.’ He slapped Winter Man playfully on the shoulder. ‘Say that she won’t be there, all coy and affecting a tired disinterest, while she wears her most prized clothing for you. Ah, you’ll feel differently when the celebrations begin.’

Winter Man hoped so.

When Running Fisher felt the time was right, he told his men to mount their horses. They began at a sedate pace, singing songs of valour and cunning, but as they neared the tipis they eased their mounts into a trot, finally entering the village at a gallop, driving the stolen horses before them.

The village erupted in its excitement. There were calls and shouts. People waved painted robes and ran alongside the horses of the returning men. The air was filled with dust and noise; the women’s continuous high-pitched trilling punctuated by the deafening booms of powder-guns. Round the village, the stolen horses were driven by every tipi so that all might see and admire them.

Once the horses had been shown, Running Fisher paraded his men: Skins The Wolf to the fore in recognition of the precedence of his grand coup, Winter Man behind him leading the roan, the wolves came next, in honour of their duties, and finally Hillside, Otter Robe and Spider in a line bringing up the rear. They stopped outside the lodge of Running Fisher so that his family and clan members could hear the deeds of the raid and applaud his leadership. They stopped outside the lodge of Skins The Wolf so that he could re-enact the taking of his coup for his family. They stopped outside Winter Man’s lodge so that all there might hear at first hand how he’d come to take the roan and save the life of Hillside. Slowly the raiders made their way through the rejoicing village, stopping before a group of Lumpwood society members who sang songs for Skins The Wolf, and again before a group of Fox society members who sang songs for Winter Man.

It was as Hillside had predicted. The jubilation forced all melancholy thoughts from Winter Man’s mind. He was treated as a hero – and he felt like one. He told his tale time and time again, showing off the red-painted wound on his back, emphasizing his bravery as custom demanded. One of his clan-grandfathers, a mentor since before the time of his vision quest, loudly recalled the other deeds Winter Man had accomplished: the taking of a gun, the striking of a second and a third coup, so that the people might know and remember that he was a Good Young Man with a strong heart, destined for mighty things.

Swallow came to hug him and bathe in his glory. Several of his cast-off lovers did the same, but not Moon Hawk. He wondered if she had been standing outside her father’s lodge as the men had paraded by it. He had made a point of not looking, half-hoping that she would seek him out herself.

As the sun slipped towards the mountains and the clamour of the village began to subside, Winter Man felt a new excitement kindle within him. He was pleased Moon Hawk hadn’t come to fawn over him the way his lovers had. Very likely, it would have meant an end to their game. But she hadn’t come. The game was still on – and it was his turn to play.

~~

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#SampleSunday 19: Beneath The Shining Mountains Chapter 3 Pt4

Sundays seem to arrive with alarming regularity. Let's hope they continue to! Please Tweet this sample and if you are enjoying the continuing story, take a moment to leave a message.

To bring readers up to date, Moon Hawk has caught Winter Man's attention, but her plan to marry him has had unforeseen consequences. Instead of taking her in his arms, he's joined a raid against the Shoshone, stealing a horse picketed outside its owner's tipi so as to gain a Grand Coup. The raid hasn't gone according to plan, and now Winter Man has to stand by his honour.

~~

The other members of the party had cut a large number of horses from the unguarded herd on the hills surrounding the Shoshone village. Running Fisher had sent them on ahead while he’d waited alone for his three remaining men. They waited now, the horses rested, the men crowding around Skins The Wolf, eagerly listening to details of his coup.

Winter Man felt his heart grow heavy as he rode towards them. There were many questions still in his mind, questions to which he’d found no ready answers.

Hillside slipped from his mount’s back before it had fully drawn to a halt, almost running in his haste to reach Skins The Wolf. He hit him in the shoulder with such force that he nearly knocked him off his feet.

‘You could have killed us!’ he roared.

Skins The Wolf stared at him. Spider and Otter Robe stared, too. Hillside was boiling with such fury that he could hardly speak.

‘Your foolery nearly cost us our lives!’

Skins The Wolf squared his shoulders and took a menacing step towards his accuser. ‘Foolery? I gained a grand coup. You saw me gain it. Are you going to stand before these men and say that you were blind?’

Running Fisher cut between them, separating them with his arms. He looked quickly from one to the other, finally resting his gaze on Skins The Wolf.

‘What is this?’

Skins The Wolf beat his chest with his closed fist. ‘I gained a grand coup,’ he said, his pride glowing in his face.

Ignoring Hillside, Running Fisher turned to Winter Man and called him into the circle. ‘Did you see this coup being taken?’

Winter Man’s stomach knotted. He’d known he would be asked to verify the deed. What was he supposed to say? A man never lied, it was an outrage against one’s Medicine, against First Maker, but could he stand before others and accuse the friend with whom he’d shared so much over the years of leaving himself and Hillside to die at the hands of the Shoshone?

He twisted the riding-thong about his fingers as he stood before Running Fisher. The tired roan nuzzled at his neck.

‘It was a good coup,’ he said in a clear voice. ‘A man and woman were walking between the tipis. Skins The Wolf gave warning of his presence. The man turned to attack him and he took the coup, knocking the man to the ground. The woman began to scream and he hit her with his club.’

‘Smashed in her skull,’ Skins The Wolf qualified with enthusiasm. ‘I felt it shatter beneath the blow.’

‘She fell on the man as he was trying to rise. It gave Skins The Wolf time to strike him, too.’

Winter Man looked straight into Running Fisher’s eyes. Running Fisher stared unflinchingly back into his.

‘And then?’

Winter Man could not say it. There had to be a reason for Skins The Wolf doing what he had, some fact of which he was not aware.

‘And then?’ Running Fisher repeated.

‘I cannot say with certainty what happened next. There was much confusion. I’d taken the picketed horse and—’

‘You were not on its back! I gained my coup first.’

Winter Man felt his jaw sag open, and quickly gritted his teeth to cover his astonishment. From his own lips Skins The Wolf was telling him that he’d known their positions. He’d simply ignored their safety. Winter Man didn’t want to believe what he was hearing.

‘Winter Man had gained the picketed horse,’ Hillside countered vehemently.

‘I had not cut its restraining line,’ Winter Man said. ‘I was waiting in the shadow of the horse for the two Shoshone to pass me.’

‘They would have seen you,’ Skins The Wolf snorted.

For the first time since he’d been called as a witness, Winter Man turned to look at him, and he did not like what he saw. Skins The Wolf was brimming with self admiration. He could hardly keep himself from strutting before them all.

‘I do not think so,’ Winter Man answered thickly. ‘I do not think so.’

‘Then the coup was good?’ Running Fisher asked. Winter Man had to acknowledge that it was. ‘It seems to me that you gained your coups at the same time within sight of one another. Both will stand. Neither will be devalued. It is rare that honours are gained this way, but it does happen.’ He looked from one to the other of them for signs of objections. There was none. ‘Then that is how it will be told.’

Skins The Wolf threw his arms up in jubilation. Whatever Running Fisher said, a grand coup always took precedence over a picketed horse. He curled his arms round the shoulders of Otter Robe and Spider and led them away to tell them, yet again, of the details.

Winter Man turned away, thankful to be able to tend to his new horse as an excuse to be away from the others. He had begun to rub the roan with grass when Running Fisher drew close.

‘Is there anything you wish to tell me?’

‘Tell you?’ he echoed.

‘That you would, perhaps, not wish the others to hear?’

Winter Man forced himself to look at the pipe-carrier. It was obvious the older man knew something was amiss.

‘Skins The Wolf took a horse from me a good while before you and Hillside came into view,’ Running Fisher prompted.

Winter Man ran his hand under the roan’s belly giving himself the opportunity of averting his eyes. ‘I have said. There was much confusion.’

An ominous silence gathered between them. It spoke much of Running Fisher’s true belief. He dropped his gaze and began to turn away, before pulling himself up to look back at his subordinate.

‘A man always holds the truth in his heart. Sometimes his words are the same, sometimes they are slightly different. Keep the truth in your heart in your heart, Winter Man.’

Winter Man watched Running Fisher walk into the darkness, his chest and stomach heaving until he felt bile rise into his throat. He turned to the roan and pushed his face into its flank in an attempt to hide his anguish.

Keep the truth in your heart in your heart. He had been called a liar. As near as possible without the word being spoken, he had been called a liar by a pipe-carrier, by a Good Man. Never change your story, that was what he’d been warned. Never speak of what is truly in your heart now that you have denied its existence.

The shame... The humiliation…

He felt a hand drop heavily on to his shoulder and shuddered under the impact, believing his thoughts had been discovered. It was Hillside.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I’m angry with myself. That back of yours will need a salve.’

Winter Man worked his shoulders. ‘It does feel stiff.’

‘A lance skimmed you, I think. Your Medicine was strong today.’ Hillside showed him his arm. It was covered in dried blood from shoulder to elbow. ‘I was nicked by an arrow.’ He chuckled. ‘Both our Medicines were strong today.’ His amusement faded. ‘What did Running Fisher want?’

Winter Man wondered, fleetingly, if he’d the courage to speak of his dishonour, then realised he needed someone to confide in. ‘He wished to know what was truly in my heart. I couldn’t tell him. He called me a liar.’ He hung his head. Would he ever be able to hold it high again? He heard Hillside’s gasp of astonishment, and the pain in his chest increased until he had to grasp the roan for support.

‘To your face? He accused you to your face?’

Winter Man shook his head. ‘His words were couched very well, but he’ll never trust me again.’

‘Will he . . . Will he say this to others?’

‘He won’t need to. He’ll pick men to ride with him and he’ll not pick me. How many times will that happen before others wonder why? I’m disgraced.’

‘No,’ Hillside told him. ‘You are not disgraced. Running Fisher came to me, too, but I added nothing to what you’d witnessed before us all. I’m not disgraced. You are not disgraced. It is Skins The Wolf who has disgraced himself.’

He took a half step back, angling his shoulders as to leave, and then swung round again. ‘Why did he do it? He was there to guard your back, not to take himself a coup. He could have killed us. Why did he do it?’

‘Perhaps he couldn’t resist the opportunity when it presented itself.’

Hillside scoffed. ‘A man says that in defence of a boy on his first raid, not in defence of an experienced man like Skins The Wolf.’ He shook his head, not wanting to believe what had happened. ‘To gain such a coup and then turn and run, leaving us to the Shoshone…’ He raised his head, waving a finger a Winter Man. ‘You came back for me,’ he said. ‘You’d escaped and you rode that horse back into the Shoshone village to rescue me. I told Running Fisher that, and shall recount it to the village when we return. I shall recount it to the members of the Fox society. I shall not forget that you saved my life.’ He patted Winter Man on the arm, and walked away.

The roan turned in a tight circle and came to nuzzle at its new owner. Winter Man slipped a hand under its jaw and patted it. He should have felt exhilarated gaining such a coup, taking such a fine horse. Songs would be sung about the deed. Songs would be sung about his rescue of Hillside. He would be paraded around the village, his valour brought to the notice of everyone. His family, his clan, they would all be proud of him. The women would trill for him. Moon Hawk would trill for him. None of it would wipe away his shame. That would be with him for ever.