Cover Reveal - The Ghosts of Aquinnah by Julie Flanders

Julie Flanders is a novelist and freelance writer in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a life-long love affair with the ocean and has spent more summer vacations than she can count on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

When not writing, Julie can be found reading, cheering on her favorite sports teams, and watching too much television.

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I met Julie because she too is an animal lover. She shares her home with her dog and cat, and I hope to feature them on Pasha’s blog in the near future.

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COVER REVEAL

The Ghosts of Aquinnah,

by Julie Flanders,

will be released by Ink Smith Publishing

on December 5, 2013

A brilliant flash of light transcends through time. Another freezes a cloaked figure within a frame of salty mist as waves crash against a rocky shore. Her harrowing expression shadows the beacon to a pinprick.

By the next blaze, she is gone. Only the lighthouse remains.

Hannah’s eyes blink in step with each heartbeat. Images of her deceased parents and Martha’s Vineyard explode like firecrackers inside her mind.

She shakes her head.

For weeks this eerie woman dressed in nineteenth century garb has been haunting my webcam, but tonight she stared into my soul.

Why? ...

Who is she? ...

Casting aside months of research on historic lighthouses, Hannah drives to the coast and boards a ferry.

What is the strange connection she has to this mysterious woman suspended in time?

Hannah finds out.

But, it’s not at all what she expects ...

Hannah unravels a century old murder.

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Find Julie at:

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads

Multi-Faceted Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer is not only an avid reader, a scrupulous reviewer (IF you can get him to read your stuff), but foremost he is a writer with a deep sense of commitment to his own craft: Writing.

In his latest book, Fischer once again lays out a family saga with war in the distant background. Keeping the color scheme and the writing from his first two novels, The Luck of the Weissensteiners, and Sebastian, this book shows the Bavarian country side at its best with The Black Eagle Inn in the center. It is the name of a family business; to me it is also a foreboding sign of things to come as this was also an emblem on Germany’s flag.

As always, Fischer aptly inter-weaves political and religious themes with the very personal lives of his protagonists. The Black Eagle Inn is the third in the Three Nations Trilogy and—as do its two predecessors—this book offers an indirect perspective on war and its impact on ordinary people.

The Black Eagle Inn is slated for release by October 15.

Read more about in Fischer’s blog at:

http://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/black-eagle-inn-cover-reveal/

Best of the Indies

The Mission: To find great books.

Readers: How do you find great books from talented Indie writers?

Answer: Through The Fussy Librarian.

This new site conducts personalized searches for its readers’ preferred genres, alerting them via e-mail of the many great writings by participating Indie authors.

Authors may submit books with a prescribed number of high-starred reviews.

Let’s give The Fussy Librarian a hand for great success with this effort to bring together fussy readers and great Indie books.

Check it all out here: http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/

Rare British Historical Fiction

Author James M. Hockey was born on the slopes of the Iron Age hill fort of Ham Hill (check out the Ham Hill face book page). During the Roman period the IInd Legion had a camp here. This fort is only eight miles from the Cadbury hill fort, the favored if speculative location for Camelot and Arthur during post-Roman times. It is in this countryside that Alfred the Great hid and plotted the defeat of the invading Danes.

Moving just two miles down the road Hockey spent the early years of his life under the shadow of St. Michaels Hill, the scene of one of the last abortive rebellions against the Normans after 1066.

It is hardly surprising that history is in his blood and that his writing is set in this historic countryside.

We have all read about the Tudors, the Stuarts, and of course the late-comers to history, the Windsors. But in his two sprawling historical fiction sagas, Mr. Hockey takes us straight into the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 and through a fireside storyteller back to the story of the early migrations of Germanic peoples during the 5^th Century.

In the West Country of England, the invaders were the followers of Gewis and were known as the Gewissae. They were also known as ‘The Trusted Ones.’ It is this that leads to the hypothesis on which Hockey’s two dark-age yarns are based.

Most migrating invaders needed to steal land and food to survive and had to fight to do this. So how is it, he asks, that the Gewissae settled so peacefully?

The assumption is that they had sufficient resources to buy rather than steal land and food.

                                 

The first book The Axe the Shield and the Triton shows the adventures of Gewis as a Vandalic pirate in the Middle Sea as the Roman Empire crumbles into anarchy leading to the sack of Rome. From this, indirectly, Gewis becomes wealthy enough to finance the peaceful migration of his tribe.

The second book The Axe the Shield and the Halig Rood  follows the Gewissae as the vicissitudes of Fate land them in an unintended place where, in exchange for the land they need they become embroiled in the wars between petty kinglets and chieftains, each seeking to gain dominance over a province broken apart by the withdrawal of the Legions.

Both these books are imbued with a belief in the workings of Fate. These bring about, through Gewis and the Gewissae, Cerdic the king and Arthur the Peacekeeper, the creation of the kingdom of Wessex and the conditions for the eventual re-unification of England.

Both books have been extremely well received by their readers. I urge you to visit Mr. Hockey’s Author pages here:

US: http://www.amazon.com/James-M.-Hockey/e/B006GD9WX6/

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-M.-Hockey/e/B006GD9WX6/