The Psychic’s Tale can now be told! This first part of The Fitzwarren Inheritance is ready for purchase and download from Silver’s site today!
Excerpt:
Mark chose to try for lunch at the Red Lion, it being the oldest by several centuries, and more likely to have ghostly happenings that might be useful fodder for Waldron’s TV show. The structure was from the fifteenth century, while the other had a Georgian facade. Inside, the main saloon lived up to its promise of age. Black timbers stretched across the ceilings, patterned the pale yellow walls and framed the crooked windows. The only level line in the place was formed by the bar itself, a Victorian affair in rich mahogany. Even the massive stone mantel over the huge hearth had a slight angle. Though still summer-warm outside, a faint smell of wood smoke drifted over the scents of beer and furniture polish, and he could easily imagine logs burning in the wide grate during autumn and winter.
Mark leaned on the bar and inspected the menu, finally opting for chicken and chips, then retreated with his beer to a table by the window. At the next table along sat a man of about his own age, poring over large photographs spread across his table. His long black hair hung forward, partially screening his profile, and he hummed quietly to himself as he scribbled in a dog-eared shorthand notebook. Incurably curious, Mark craned his neck to see what the photos were, but could make nothing of them. They looked like something downloaded from Google Earth.
Then the man glanced around, and Mark found himself caught by silver eyes with a dark ring around the edge of their irises, eyes that crinkled at the corners and were set in a lean, deeply tanned face with a mischievous smile. That smile and the light in the man’s gaze sank deep into Mark’s consciousness and resonated through his blood. That the stranger had wide shoulders and powerful arms, both displayed well by his blue tee-shirt, was an added bonus. Not even the white logo Archaeologists do it in trenches dampened Mark’s interest. If they were in the bar of the Chartreuse Room, one of the gathering places for gays in Bristol, he would have done his damnedest to connect with him.
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Starfall is released as a paperback today!
A Real Book! I love ebooks and desperately want a Kindle, but there’s something about holding a solid chunk of paper – complete with gorgeous cover – in my paws that cannot be beaten *g*.
Excerpt:
Ash took another quick look at the couple in the corner on his way to the door. The woman was watching him with unhidden interest. He knew most of the people he’d met here thought of him as handsome—and that had taken some getting used to, after years of his family and friends teasing him about his height, his heavy-set body, and coarse features. Then her companion looked up and for the first time since he’d landed on this planet, Ash’s shades provided no barrier. The man locked eyes with him and Ash swore under his breath. A slow fire began in his blood. Yes, there was no possibility he was imagining it. He had never experienced the sensation before but it was hard-wired into his psyche. Every Vyan knew what to expect when they met their true-bond. The connection was real and unless he was very careful, it would only strengthen from now on. At least, it would as far as he, Ash, was concerned. What the Douryan felt—if anything—was another matter entirely. Either way, it meant he was effectively shafted.
Ash found he’d come to a halt, transfixed. The smolder abruptly flared toward a conflagration and his flesh was stirring, hardening. No. With another curse he strode for the door, letting it slam shut behind him.
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I’ve just learned that STARFALL will be released as a print book on June 4th, the same day that THE PSYCHIC’S TALE goes live at Silver!
I am very pleased, to put it mildly. Being published in e-book format is great, but to actually hold a Real Paper Book in my sticky paws is the ultimate high.
In other news, I’m back home after a couple of weeks in the Welsh Marches, South and North Wales. I’ve got lots of hotos to sort through, and a blog to write on Stokesay Castle, the inspiration for Westford Castle in The Psychic’s Tale.
I was travelling all day yesterday, so didn’t get a chance to do more than update my Facebook, so here’s the fanfare for Starfall’s release *g*.
Hopefully no one’s fed up with me blithering on about it, but this book got right under my skin while I was writing it, and it’s still there. I have a feeling I’ll be revisiting Ash and Conn in the not too distant future.
My next release is Clue Game on Saturday, March 26th, a Sip from Torquere Press this time – Ben and David hunt rubies in Paris…
Back in 2007 I stayed with friends in Barre, Vermont, and this young man took my eye. The countryside around Barre and Montpelier is just stunningly beautiful – majestic – and need I say the maple syrup is especially delicious?
The spectacular scenery inspired me to set Starfall in Vermont. Amassol – an Abenaki name for canoe – is entirely fictitious, and so are the two lakes; Lake Verde and Mirror Lake. They are all set not so very far from Barre, and about an hour’s drive from Burlington. Creating my own places within an existing landscape, especially in a foreign land, is a very useful exercise as well as a fun thing to do.
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About five years ago I came into a small windfall, and after paying off my mortgage I had enough cash left to visit a few of the places on my Travel Wish List. So I thought I’d post a selection of them over the next few weeks or so. I still travel, but only in the UK. I say ‘but’, yet there equally beautiful places here, so I’ll add some of those as well.
River Avon at Salisbury
Just for fun, here’s a pic I took a few weeks ago while walking into town.
After a great day yesterday on the Silver Publishing Facebook, I’m taking a day off to regroup *g*.
The final edits have been done on Starfall and Clue Game, and they are with the publishers for the last round of technical stuff.
Starfall will be released on March 19th by Silver Publishing.
Clue Game will be released on March 26th by Torquere Press in their Sip range.
Game On, Game Over is completed in first draft and is with my beta-readers for their input. It came in at just over 52,000, pretty much on target. That will change a little bit as it goes through the editing process, but not by much. It’s still in one document, even though its two parts are so different in setting and pace. When/If it’s accepted, I’ll be going by what my editor suggests. It might end up as two novellas – Game On, and Game Over.
So while I wait for Game On Game Over to come back from my betas, I’m going to dive into Fool’s Rush, the third and final part of the Fool’s Odyssey Trilogy for Manifold Press.
That leaves a further six titles on my WiP list:
Spiked – fantasy
Finders, Keepers – contemporary
Cause and Effect – paranormal
The Carandor Interface – SF
Oil and Water – paranormal
Tribulation – SF
Not to mention the as-yet untitled ideas floating around in the porridge that passes for my brain…
Clue Game, Game On Game Over, Starfall, WiPs, Writing | 
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Just got the cover for Starfall, my gay contemporary SF novel due out from Silver on March 19th.
What really impressed me with this is the pains the artist took to liaise with me to get their features exactly the way I see them. Especially in relation to Ash, the one in the forefront.
Although you can’t make out the detail of Ash’s eyes in the size of the pic, it’s enough to see that they aren’t quite human.
Reese did a brilliant job, IMHO.
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