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.

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Earth - The Final Frontier

It's been a busy few days. I've been formatting Beneath The Shining Mountains for Createspace, which of course means tweaking the text (again), and looking for elements to use in its new cover; there's the w-i-progress to add to (far too slowly for my liking) and, of course, the day job to negotiate.

But tonight I stepped outside, glass of wine in hand, and was the first in the family to spot the International Space Station as it followed its line across the sky. Could hardly miss it really; it was the brightest thing there, often to be seen despite the cloud.

So what brought this on?  http://vimeo.com/45878034 is what. Note: if you have a laptop like mine, first time around you'll need to give it time to load. It is HD after all. Then sit back and enjoy an awesome four minutes. And add the sound. It's beautifully restful.


Oh yes, and I also saw a satellite, and recognised The Plough. I could get hooked on this, y'know. The w-i-progress is in danger of falling behind during these balmy, cloudless evenings. Tomorrow I think I'll organise a lounger and a pair of binoculars. And perhaps dream of seeing Earth the way the astronaunts can.

Guest Blogging on Lindsays Romantics

Today I'm guest blogging across on Lindsay's Romantics about my Native American Beneath The Shining Mountains. For once I've included images of reproduction artefacts from my days as a re-enactor.

The blog is part of a three author series - The Lindas - where we talk about why we chose to write in our particular sub-genre. It finishes Friday, so do call across if you have time.

Review: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

It's not often that I review books on this blog, but this one begs to be an exception: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - or The Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale is hardly new (2008) - I read the updated 2009 copy, and it well deserves the many accolades and awards it has garnered. It is truly fascinating on so many levels.

On the night of 30th June 1860 the Kent family and live-in servants retire for the night. By the next morning one of their member, a child, has been brutally murdered, and all eyes in the quiet Wiltshire village of Road turn to the seemingly respectable family living in the grand, secluded house.

If that sounds like a typical Victorian whodunnit, please be aware that this is no work of fiction. This book, written in extremely accessible language, is a biography not just of a murder, but of London's fledgling detective service, of Victorian attitudes and class snobbery, and, so pertinent to our own time, trial by media - newspapers and journals in this case - as the unsolved case took the country by storm.

It became the event that launched the Victorian country house murder genre - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868), generally regarded as the first British detective novel, mirrors the case so closely as to make modern writers shudder. Charles Dickens is another celebrated author who we see in a less than golden light. How members of the family, and their servants, managed to survive the emotional and physical strain is beyond me. But it was the author's postscript to the 2009 edition that touched me most, bringing the Kent family into sharp, very human, relief.

Kate Summerscale is a fine writer and obviously has more than a touch of the detective about her, going by her research. For those interested in this period of English Victorian life the book is a veritable mine of information, all backed up by 50+pp of index and chapter notes, a fascinating read in themselves.

The image came from Amazon UK