Sue Perkins's Blog, page 20

A Girl's Guide to Fairytales

Tomorrow Laurie Buckland visits my blog to tell us about her new book A Girl's Guide to Fairytales. I have recently read the book and decided to do a review prior to Ms Buckland's appearance.



Four very different women who are good friends. Maddy dreams of her own company, but is afraid to take the step into the unknown. Claire's future seems bleak. Her nature borders on the obsessive compulsive and prevents her meeting any potential boyfriends. Issie is an actress, following in her mother's footsteps but can she prevent her mother interfering? Sophie and boyfriend Tom have just moved in together and their life is full of happiness.



A Girl's Guide to Fairytales follows the lives of these four women as their future unfolds. They each have their own chapters as they support each other through thick and thin, encouraging and advising when needed. The story travels through happiness, sadness, anger and despair until I felt I knew each woman as a friend.



When I first started reading I wondered if this was going to be a 'Sex and the City' type of book. The only resemblance to the famous four is the main characters are women. Other than this there are no parallels. Ms Buckland has taken her characters from real life with all their problems, heartaches and happy times. It's not only the story that grabbed me, it's the quality of the writing. I would recommend A Girl's Guide to Fairytales to any reader of light romance. A very good read even if you don't usually read Chic Lit.

Margaret Mahy

Sad news today that the wonderful New Zealand children's author Margaret Mahy has passed away. I met Margaret several times and she was an untiring supporter of New Zealand authors, literature and in particular children's novels.

A wonderful person who will be greatly missed by New Zealand and all the writing community here and abroad.

New Release!

I'm delighted to say my fantasy alternate world novel 'The Sixth Key' is now available from Desert Breeze Publishing.



 This is a review by Lynette Endicott



"I picked up The Sixth Key by Sue Perkins and could not put my eReader down! In the tradition of great fantasy or speculative fiction writers Perkins has created a new world, complete with history and traditions that Riley has to decipher if the man she loves is to fulfill his destiny. This is a sweet to warm romance that includes sexual tension to just the right degree. The adventure is heart-pounding, the puzzles challenging and the characters are not all human or humanoid. Perkins has included animals, from our world and mythology which always makes a book even more interesting for me. Pick up The Sixth Key today. You will be glad you did."

Lynette Endicott, author of More Than A Job.



If you look to the right hand side of the page you will see the links to the blogs I'm visiting on my blog tour. Visit these blogs and leave a comment to be the random draw in to win an ebook of 'The Sixth Key' at the end of the blog tour.

Blog Tour for The Sixth Key

My new novel "The Sixth Key" will be released on the 21st July and over the next few weeks I'll be travelling on a blog tour to talk about this book. I start on Lynette Endicott's blog and would love for you to visit. At the end of the blog tour there will be a random draw of all commenters for an ebook of "The Sixth Key" so be in to win.

On the right you will see the dates and blogs I will be visiting. See you there.

How do you manage your time?

I have been very remiss lately in keeping this blog up to date. Blame it on illness in the family, stress of work etc., but now I'm back and intend to keep up to date with my blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Like all authors I'd rather write than do anything else, but it's just not possible to spend as much time as I'd like writing, promoting and researching. I welcome other authors to leave a comment on how they manage their time.

Personally I only have a few days a week I can give to writing, and even then life intervenes. Today was wonderful, I was able to work the whole day on polishing a submission and sending it off to a new publisher.

Tomorrow I hope to get another book sorted re edits so I can give it a final read through over the weekend. So this week my writing time has been good. How do others manage?

Good morning Gail Delaney

My Inspiration



To talk about my inspiration for Janus and for Phoenix Rising as a whole series, I have to first talk about my inspiration for The Phoenix Rebellion, it's predecessor. 



The greatest inspiration for this series came from the question "What if..."



What if we had first contact with a superior alien race in the early 21st Century? What if those aliens looked like us, spoke like us, and told us they were our ancestors? What if they promises us health, prosperity and technology under the pretense of simply wanting to help their brethren?



What if it all was a lie?



The Phoenix Rebellion answers those questions, right down to what happens when the lies are revealed. What do we do?



Phoenix Rising is the aftermath of all the answers. It has been just a year since humanity rose up and fought back, and reclaimed our world. We are a fraction of the people, the population, we had once been. Our world is beaten, but not broken. Our people weak, but still strong at heart. But, in all that, we still have enemies. 



Book One: Janus speaks of duplicity, of masks we wear, of lies we tell -- not always for the purpose of deceit, sometimes just as protection. 



It's been a year since Humanity rose up against their alien oppressors and took back Earth from the Sorracchi. The war left Earth devastated, crippled, but not beaten. Under the leadership of President Nick Tanner and in collaboration with their new Areth and Umani allies, the Earth seeks stable ground again.



John Smith of the Areth was a soldier before his queen asked him to serve as ambassador to Earth, and he is out of his element. Restricted in his position from carrying a weapon, he has no way of defensing himself or his adopted son when the Xenos -- a group of Humans wishing to purge the Earth of all alien influence -- decide they want him dead. 



Jenifer is a soldier for hire, and answers to no one but her own common sense. She first refused the "job" of serving as John's bodyguard, but a glimpse at the heart of the man convinces her to accept the responsibility. 



John has two faces: a soldier and an ambassador of peace. Jenifer has two faces: the steel-skinned warrior and the forgotten person she once was. Too many people hide behind masks, and it's those hiding who want John dead.



If you would like to read The Phoenix Rebellion before reading Janus, you can purchase it now at Desert Breeze Publishing as a 4-Book pack. Save nearly 30% off buying the books individually! 



http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-312/The-Phoenix-Rebellion--dsh--dsh-/Detail.bok



If anyone would like to read a free prequel novella to the Phoenix series, email me at gail@gaildelaney.com, and I'd be happy to send you a pdf copy. 



I'd like to share an excerpt from Janus, available 21 May 2012.






Excerpt:



"I think Jackie might be able to help us out with your security detail while Connor is recovering." Nick motioned toward the couch where John had previously been sitting. "She knows all about the attacks and the threats against your life."

John sat and leaned forward on the couch, his hands linked and his elbows resting on his legs, focused on Jacqueline. "What do you think?"

"I think if you want to stop an assassin, you hire an assassin."

Nick paused in his descent into his chair, quirking an eyebrow before he finished sitting. "Who?"

"You probably don't know her. But, I guarantee you, if you want the ambassador's ass protected -- no offense, Ambassador -- she's the one that'll do it for you."

"Am I to assume this person isn't exactly official?" He grinned, because very few things since the Humans fought back and retook their planet could really be termed as official. 

"Assume anything you want, Ambassador." Jacqueline sat on the edge of Nick's desk, obviously comfortable and at ease in the presidential office. But, John noted the way her gaze slid to the family photos on the desk -- specifically one of her with Michael and their daughter Nicole -- and just as quickly, she looked away. "All I'm saying is she's the best there is if you want someone dead, or if you want to keep them alive."

"Is she Phoenix?" Nick asked. Which really meant: Was she part of the resistance before the war? 

John had garnered through his time with Nick Tanner the right answer to the question held a lot of weight for him when it came to determining loyalties. With the major threat of Sorracchi oppression gone, most of the world population had started to come together to rebuild. But, volunteering after the winner is chosen was a very different thing to Nick than being part of the fight.

"Officially?" Jacqueline flipped her long, black hair behind her shoulder and moved from the desk to perch on the arm of the couch. She was a stunning woman, John would readily admit, lean and strong, with rich latte skin and dark eyes to match her dark hair. He knew little about her except she'd practically been raised by Phoenix, and she was raising a little girl with Michael, Nick's son. And right now she was harboring a whole lot of pain she wasn't about to let anyone see. "We've collaborated."

Nick made a small sound in the back of his throat, and rocked in the chair, the aged mechanisms creaking slightly. For several moments, the chair squeaked under his habitual rocking as he rubbed his fingers across his lips. 

"She was with me when I found Jace Quinn."

Jacqueline's statement immediately stopped the rocking, and John carefully watched the unsaid communication between the two of them. It was no more than a meeting of the eyes, and a slight nod from Nick. 

"I trust Jackie with everything precious to me. And if she says this woman -- whoever she is -- can be trusted to protect you, then I think you should seriously consider it, John." Only then, when he said John's name did he look away from Jacqueline.

"Good enough for me." 

The Deathly Portent by Elizabeth Bailey

The Georgian gentleman’s version of the Little Black Book



Women who fell from grace in the 18th Century had few options open to them. Get married with speed was top of the list. Preferably to the fellow with whom you did the deed, but frankly anyone of respectability would do.



If Darcy had not intervened to get Lydia married to wicked Wickham, as Lizzie Bennet points out, not only Lydia, but her four sisters would have been tainted and probably doomed to spinsterhood since they had no money to bribe a prospective bridegroom into overlooking the disgrace.



The Bennet girls were lucky. In reality, the family would likely have disowned Lydia. When Wickham tired of her, she was young and pretty enough to have found herself another protector. As time went on, Lydia might have drifted in the direction of Covent Garden where she could well have found herself portrayed in a couple of extremely frank paragraphs in the annual publication of Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies.



This fascinating little volume was started in 1757 by one Samuel Derrick, as a venture to get himself out of debtor’s prison. His lively descriptions of the ladies who made themselves available for a gentleman’s amours proved so popular that he not only procured his release, but he started a phenomenon that continued until 1795.



Almost all the ladies spoken of as being of good education evidently fell into “the life”, as it was popularly called, by way of seduction and subsequent abandonment.



Like Miss Char-ton of No. 12, Gress Street, who “came of reputable parents…yet the address of a designing villain, too soon found means to ruin her; forsaken by her friends, pursued by shame and necessity; she had no other alternative...”



Seduction was not confined to the educated classes. There was Miss Le-, of Berwick-Street, Soho, who “was debauched by a young counsellor, from a boarding-school near town, where she was apprentice.”



Then there was Miss We-ls, of No. 35, Newman-Street, daughter of a Welsh farmer, who is described as being “as wild as a goat, of a sandy colour, her features are small, and is a tight little piece.” She was sent to London when young where “a young gentleman ingratiated him so far into her graces, as to gain her consent to make him happy by her ruin, under a promise of marriage” and then he subsequently “abandoned her to the reproaches and calumny of a merciless world”.



The majority of the ladies featured in this entertaining little black book for your pleasure-seeking young buck were in their teens or early twenties. An example is Miss Townsend, nineteen, of whom we learn that “the use of the needle first fired this lady’s imagination with the use of a certain pin”. This sort of witty euphemism abounds.



Perhaps it is not surprising that the anodyne of choice for a number of the ladies is strong liquor. Like Miss Godfrey, a commanding female, who “will take brandy with any one, or drink and swear, and though but little, will fight a good battle.”



The women are delineated in detail, depending on their particular attractions: “she is amorous to the greatest degree, and has courage enough not to be afraid of the largest and strongest man that ever drew weapon in the cause of love”. Or non-attractions, as “but a middling face, with large features, a coarse hand and arm, and in stature short and clumsy”, but she is “an excellent bedfellow”.



Their looks are described: “of a middle size, black eyes, plump made and her skin good” or another with “fine blue eyes that are delicious”. We are told about good teeth and “sweet breath”, in a day where these ere rare. We hear about “yielding limbs, though beautiful when together, are still more ravishing when separated”. 



Disposition is mentioned, whether she is “agreeable” or “animated with no small degree of vanity” or indeed “a pompous heroic girl, without either wit or humour”. There is a figure to suit every taste, and an accommodation for every sexual whim. We learn whether or not she has a keeper (which doesn’t stop any lady selling her favours elsewhere) and what it may cost our young man about town to enjoy her charms.



One or two guineas appears the norm, with here and there a more expensive luxury on offer. The genteel Miss Le- above, who was led into sin, is only seventeen and a “has a piece of the termagant about her”, but she commands three or four guineas for her services, which include birching for those so inclined. While Miss - of Wardour Street, who is “but newly arrived” and “darts such irresistible glances as can scarcely fail to engage the hearts of the beholders” will not accept less than five guineas. Mrs Ho-fey, on the other hand, who “calls forth all her powers to give delight with uncommon success” will happily settle for half a guinea.



A guinea (one pound, one shilling) seems a pathetic sum to us. Yet these women were the middling class of prostitute. They could not aspire to the heights of high-class courtesans like the later Harriette Wilson, whose clients included the Duke of Wellington, but they were a good deal better off than the street corner girls who plied their trade for a few pence, or a few shillings at best.



But whether they earned a pittance or a fortune, many women ended up selling their bodies to make ends meet. There were 50,000 prostitutes in London in 1797, according to a contemporary magistrate’s account. That statistic argues a lack of opportunities for women to find gainful employment. The better bred, the fewer the options.




It’s tempting to withhold sympathy for our Covent-Garden ladies when you convert their earnings to the present day. In today’s money, a guinea is worth around £60. A lady’s maid was paid less than that in a year! And no doubt worked a lot harder. While Miss Le- with her five guineas was getting buying power to the tune of our £300 every time she lay flat on her back!



What’s more, these ladies of the night could afford to please themselves how they lived, which was more than could be said for most wives, be their husbands lord or boot boy. They lived in comfortable apartments, had a great deal of freedom, could pick and choose among their clientele, and enjoy all the entertainments on offer in the shops and theatres of the time. And all at the trifling cost of respectability.



The downside was the future. The lifestyle was no sinecure. There are very few females over thirty in Harris’s List. Assuming one could avoid a dose of “the pox” or any other disease and live, what to do when the charms of youth faded? How many of them were canny enough to salt away a quantity of takings as insurance?



A few, one assumes, if they had garnered sufficient fortune, might be lucky enough to marry. Others are mentioned as having moved into brothel-keeping themselves. But the rest?



What happened to Sally Robinson, who was given five shillings at the age of fifteen to cure her of the clap “which she got from her deflowerer”? On the town in 1761, what hope had “a tall, fat girl” of any kind of living thirty years later? Or Kitty Buckley, who was one of the few older females and already 35 in 1761? She was “reported to have ruined twenty keepers” because she was “as wicked as a devil, and as extravagant as Cleopatra”. Since she had been in the bailiff’s hands about three times a year, did she end her days in prison?



While Harris’s List is a delight in many ways, there is something a little distasteful in the warts-and-all public exposure of a whole generation of unfortunate females, whose only mistake was to succumb to the lure of sensual gratification.



Besides marriage or prostitution, was there any other way out for the fallen woman? If they were lucky, or had kind and generous relatives, there was hope. Transported to another place, perhaps with an allowance, they could start a new life under an assumed name - but with the shadow of the past always ready to catch up with them.



This is of course a familiar theme in our modern take on the historical romance. Our heroine is plucked from this life of shame and obscurity by the love of a good man. What better way to compensate her for enduring such punishment for what was, to our twenty-first century thinking, perfectly natural behaviour?



As for the luscious Covent-Garden Ladies, who had the gumption to use the only means they had of making a decent living - good for you, ladies!







Elizabeth Bailey’s latest Georgian historical crime was  published by Berkley Books (Penguin) in the US on 3rd April 2012, and comes to the UK on 7th June.  Her sleuth Ottilia, now wife to Lord Francis Fanshawe, is drawn by insatiable curiosity to investigate the murder of a blacksmith in the village of Witherley, where Cassie, a young woman with second sight, is stigmatized a witch and blamed for the death. What terrible secret is Cassie hiding that makes her feel unworthy of the love of Aidan, the new vicar, who has taken  up the cudgels in her defence? More info at www.elizabethbailey.co.uk

Cover for The Sixth Key

The cover for my fantasy romance "The Sixth Key" has been approved and is ready to go with the release date in July. Take a look - hope it makes you want to know more.




To be normal in a magical world is bad enough, but Riley is caught in the middle between the deviant Mute and the magical people who rule Sacral. Two men fight on opposite sides for their world and Riley is caught in the middle.

Reva's Quest 4 star review

Sorry it's been a while since I posted here. I do have a good excuse. I've travelled from the bottom of the world to the top. i.e. New Zealand to England. Now I'm recovered from the journey I'd love to share with you the review from Long and Short Reviews for my Middle Grade novel Reva's Quest.




Click on the link to see the review.

Long and Short Reviews - Reva's Quest

Scotch Broom has arrived

Welcome Marva Dasef and the latest in her "Witches of Galdorheim" series. "Scotch Broom" takes place in Scotland and I can't wait to read it. I'm honoured to host Marva on this pre blog tour. Welcome Marva.







BOOK RELEASE APRIL 6!



SCOTCH BROOM: Book 3 of The Witches of Galdorheim

A magical trip to Stonehenge lands a witch in the Otherworld where an ancient goddess is up to no good.



Marva Dasef: https://sites.google.com/site/mdasefauthor/books/galdorheim 

MuseItUp Buy Link: http://tinyurl.com/ScotchBroomMGD – Available beginning April 6th

Scotch Broom Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYnRmbvPp7Q 





Blurb:



Kat expects to have a great time on her graduation trip to Stonehenge. However, from the moment she leaves the witches’ arctic island, Galdorheim, she gets in nothing but trouble.  Her younger half-brother tries to horn in on her trip, she gets lost in the magical Otherworld realm, is led astray by a supposed friend, then she has to confront a Scottish goddess who’s fallen on hard times.



While dodging the goddess’s minions and trying to find her way out of the Otherworld, Kat soon learns she shouldn’t underestimate the old has-been for one second; the crone still has a few tricks that can drain a witch’s magic in a flash. To make matters worse, Kat's brother secretly followed her into the Otherworld. Now he’s in danger too.  Kat has to go one on one with the goddess to save herself and her brother.





Into the Woods



In Scotch Broom, I try to connect my version of witchcraft to some of the “common knowledge” about witches, but I feel it’s my duty to show that many of those prejudices are simply the mundane world’s fear of magic. Since way back in the middle ages, people have planted rowan trees by their front door because they’re supposedly a ward against witches. I’m not sure whether they worked, but I’d put good money against it. I think that a tree might stop a witch, but they more likely were polite enough to not cross a threshold where they are unwelcome. Here’s some additional information on rowan trees from http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/rowan.html. There’s much more in the article if you’re interested in the subject.






“In the British Isles the rowan has a long and still popular history in folklore as a tree which protects against witchcraft and enchantment. The physical characteristics of the tree may have contributed to its protective reputation, including the tiny five pointed star or pentagram on each berry opposite its stalk (the pentagram being an ancient protective symbol). The colour red was deemed to be the best protection against enchantment, and so the rowan's vibrant display of berries in autumn may have further contributed to its protective abilities, as suggested in the old rhyme: "Rowan tree and red thread / make the witches tine (meaning 'to lose') their speed". The rowan was also denoted as a tree of the Goddess or a Faerie tree by virtue (like the hawthorn and elder) of its white flowers.”






Excerpt:



Kat’s lost in the Otherworld and picks up some companions along the way. She’s with her first companion, Sianach the Stag, when they come upon a thick forest patch of rowan trees. This does slow down Kat’s progress while she tries to figure out how to get into the woods.



“Oh, great! You found the grove,” she yelled and sped up to catch him. At the edge of the rowan grove, she smacked face first into something invisible. “Ow!” Kat shrieked, holding her nose. She drew her hand away to check. “Dang it. I’ve got a bloody nose.” 



Sianach stood stock-still facing away from her, not answering or even seeming to hear her. Holding out her hand, she felt the barrier keeping her out of the rowans. 



“What the—?” Then she remembered rowans were wards against witches. She couldn’t go into the grove.



The stag turned and walked back out of the woods. “I’m sorry. I forgot you couldn’t come in.”



Kat dabbed the blood from her upper lip with her sleeve. “I noticed.” She looked left and right. “Maybe I could walk around.”



“No, the trees will not let you pass on either side.”



Kat put her hands on her hips and considered. “Isn’t there another way?”



“No.”



“Maybe—” Kat sent her thoughts toward the nearest rowan tree. She figured it couldn’t hurt to try. The tree rewarded her with a soft brush that tickled her brain. “Hey, that’s cool.”



“What is cool?” Sianach asked.



“I think I can talk to the trees. Maybe ask them if I can go through.”



The stag snorted. “Talking to trees. I doubt you can do that.”



“My gift is talking to animals, no offense, so maybe—” Kat closed her eyes and imagined the tree with ears and a mouth. She whispered to them, asking them to listen. A trembling breeze passed between her own ears. She felt Sianach move from her side. Opening her eyes, she saw what might be the face she imagined. Just a bit of rough bark had shifted, giving the appearance of a craggy, ancient man on the tree’s trunk.



“What do you want?”



Kat smiled and turned to Sianach, who had moved back several paces. His own limbs trembled now. “I’ve not seen such magic before,” the stag whispered. “You are a strong witch.”



“Oh, not so strong. The rowans are obviously highly intelligent and evolved trees. After all, how could they keep witches at bay if they were mere wood?” Buttering up the tree couldn’t hurt.



She turned back to the tree. “If you would be so kind, will you allow me to pass? I mean you no harm.” She listened for a response and was on the verge of giving up when the tree answered.



“Why do you want to pass?”



“I’m looking for the Hall of King Connor.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the stag. “Sianach said we have to go to the other side of your grove.” Another lengthy silence passed while Kat waited patiently. The trees might be intelligent, but they didn’t exactly rush things. Still, this ten minutes for each sentence was about to drive her batty.



“Pass by.”



“Thank you.” Kat walked into the grove with no trouble. Sianach shook his head and followed her. The pair made their way through the rowans



* * * *



About Marva:



Marva Dasef lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a fat white cat. Retired from thirty-five years in the software industry, she has now turned her energies to writing fiction and finds it a much more satisfying occupation. Marva has published more than forty stories in a number of on-line and print magazines, with several included in Best of anthologies. She has several previously published books. Her latest pride and joy is the Witches of Galdorheim Series from her super duper publisher, MuseItUp.





Watch Marva’s Blog at http://mgddasef.blogspot.com  for announcements on giveaways throughout the Merry Month of May.



Where to find her:



MuseItUp Author Page: http://tinyurl.com/MIU-MarvaDasef 

Blog: http://mgddasef.blogspot.com 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/MarvaDasef 

Twitter Handle: @Gurina

Book Trailers: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarvaDasef/videos