Russell Phillips's Blog, page 16

Getting Friendly with the National Archives

I’m a huge fan of the National Archives. It’s a wonderful resource for research. Last time I was there, I put my money where my mouth is, and joined the Friends of The National Archives. My membership card arrived in the post yesterday. As a Friend, I get several benefits (discounts at the shop and online book shop, discounts on events, exclusive events, magazine, etc). The magazine is interesting (I was able to see the latest copy while I was at the Archive), and I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Frankly, though, my primary reason for joining was simply to help the National Archives continue their work. I benefit from that work, after all, and I want to ensure that they are able to keep on doing it. If you’d like to do the same, you can get a membership form here. Alternatively, you can raise money when you shop online, without any extra cost to yourself.

The post Getting Friendly with the National Archives appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Digital Reinforcements: Free Ebooks

Ever since I bought my first Kindle in 2010, I’ve found that I prefer ebooks to paper. I’m not blind to the advantages of paper books, however, and I know that many people prefer paper. Whichever format you prefer, most people would admit that both have advantages. I’m sure many people would like to have books in both paper and ebook formats, but don’t want to pay twice for every book.

My publishing company, Shilka Publishing, has a solution. From now on, every Shilka paper book will have a coupon code in the back. By simply entering that code at the checkout on the Shilka website, the reader can download the ebook version for free. You can now read my books as both paper and ebook, taking full advantage of both formats, at no extra cost.

The free ebook can be downloaded in several formats, so that it can be read on any device: Mobi (for Kindle devices & apps), ePub (for other ereaders & ereader apps), and PDF (for reading on a computer). Ereader apps are available for all computers, tablets and smartphones.

The post Digital Reinforcements: Free Ebooks appeared first on Russell Phillips.

A Life Of Research: Interview With J.F. Penn

Oxford educated, British born J.F. Penn has travelled the world in her study of religion and psychology. She brings these obsessions as well as a love for thrillers and an interest in the supernatural to her writing. Her fast-paced ARKANE thrillers weave together historical artifacts, secret societies, global locations, violence, a kick-ass protagonist and a hint of the supernatural.

Russell Phillips: Pentecost was a NaNoWriMo project. How did the tight deadline affect the research and writing of the book?

J.F. Penn: It only started as a NaNoWriMo project and I managed 20,000 words and a rough idea for a book. It was called Mandala at the time, and I definitely wanted a psychologist and Carl Jung’s Red Book to feature. But that January we had a trip to Venice and in St Mark’s Basilica, I saw the Pentecost mosaic which sparked the idea for the stones that Morgan must hunt down across the world. The bones of the apostles have always fascinated me! In the end, the book took 14 months from idea to publication.



RP: If the ARKANE thrillers were made into a series of films, who would you like to play Morgan Sierra and Jake Timber?

JFP: Morgan has always been Angelina Jolie to me, in the same vein as Lara Croft, or SALT. And Jake is Hugh Jackman … no hint of a fantasy there then!

RP: Morgan likes storms and enjoys research, as do you. How much of you is in Morgan?

JFP: Morgan is my alter-ego and when I want to blow stuff up or go travelling, she gets to do it. Her background is nothing like mine as she is half Israeli and has a Jewish ancestry and upbringing in the Israeli military. I wanted to bring Israel into the mix as Jerusalem is my favorite city in the world and one of my goals is to live there for a time one day, so that was a way to do it! I do have a Masters degree in Theology and another degree in Psychology, so those fascinations also run through Morgan, but I am certainly not a fighter, although I am extremely independent, and I have travelled to most of the places in the books.

RP: I first experienced the ARKANE characters through an audio book, so my mental image of them is influenced by the narrator’s depiction of them. When you first heard the narration, how closely did it match your mental image of the characters?

JFP: The audiobooks are narrated by the amazing Veronica Giguere, an American, so that does skew the story somewhat, although I tried to help her with the British accent. I am British, but Morgan should probably sound part Israeli and I think Veronica did amazingly well. She also managed to nail most of the other accents, including Eastern Europeans, Egyptians and loads of other nationalities that I didn’t even think would be turned into audio when I was writing!

RP: Will there be more books in the ARKANE series? If so, when can we expect them?

JFP: There are 3 full-length adventures out now – Pentecost, Prophecy and Exodus, and a novella, One Day In Budapest, which can also be read as a stand-alone.

I’ve got 2 more adventures planned for 2014 – a full length book around the themes of the Inquisition and the Jews in Spain and Kabbalah, as well as another novella that will take place in London, and also tie into one of the characters from Desecration, my crime thriller.

RP: How important do you think realism is in thrillers?

JFP: Personally, I think you should believe it could happen within the real world, so I do a lot of research to make the books as ‘real’ as possible and then take that further into fiction. I always have an Author’s Note at the end which explains what is real, for example, ‘One Day In Budapest’ is about a right-wing political party whose anti-Semitism spills into violence with echoes of WWII. It was sparked by being in Budapest in November 2012 as a real political party marched in black shirts around a Roma village, and called for a national registry of Jews. I’ve outlined more of the realities of that book in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5onR9-L5IbU

RP: It’s generally acknowledged that some men won’t read novels written by women. How have you been affected by this?

JFP: Amusingly, I got a lot of feedback that ‘I write like a man,’ whatever that is meant to mean. Perhaps a reflection on the amount of fight scenes and action-packed plot, but there’s also plenty of romantic tension and even some sex …

In order to take gender out of the equation altogether, I use J.F.Penn, my real initials, to write fiction while I use Joanna Penn for my non-fiction. This enables me to keep the brands separate but also to bypass gender in the reader’s mind. I certainly have both male and female readers

RP: You’re well-travelled, and your books take place all over the world. Do you ever use locations you haven’t personally visited? If so, how does that affect the writing of those scenes?

JFP: I sometimes use places I haven’t been and I do a lot of research online with sites like Flickr.com where people load more casual photos that can bring a personal flavour. One example is in Tabriz, Iran, where I haven’t been and I found lots of fantastic pictures of the souk online, as well as information about the churches. In this article I explain more about that kind of research:

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/02/11/how-to-write-about-a-real-location-if-you-havent-been-there/

But at the end of the day, it IS fiction.

RP: When you visit somewhere new, do you view it as a potential location for a scene, or are you able to relax and simply enjoy the location?

JFP: My life is all research now, and I love that aspect of it. We went to Budapest as a research trip but also as a personal journey of discovery into my husband’s Hungarian Jewish ancestry. I plan trips according to books I want to write. Basically, one of my reasons for being a writer is to make travel a more active part of my life.

RP: You started out writing nonfiction. What prompted you to write fiction?

JFP: I always wanted to write fiction but thought I had to write something like Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, or a Pulitzer Prize winning novel to be considered a proper author! This is the result of my Mum being an English literature teacher and going to Oxford University where literary snobbery certainly still rules. But I love thrillers and action-adventure, and psychology, religion, architecture and travel, so when I realized that I could write books I also loved to read, I decided to have a go. I’ve always been a huge reader, so it was a natural progression. I look forward to still writing on my death-bed!

RP: I’m always interested in finding new authors and new books. What single author, book, or series would you recommend I take a look at?

JFP: One of my all-time favorite authors is James Rollins – check out The Order of the Sanguines series with Rebecca Cantrell. And right now, I am reading A.G. Riddle Atlantis Plague, which is a real page-turner.

RP: Thanks, Joanna. I’ve not read anything by James Rollins, Rebecca Cantrell or A.G. Riddle, so I’ll be sure to check those out.

The post A Life Of Research: Interview With J.F. Penn appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Why We Need Museums

I’ve written before that I’m not really concerned about bookshops closing, but I do care when libraries close. In a similar vein, I am a great fan of museums. I wrote to my local council recently to express my concern at some of their budget proposals, which I believe could put some of the local museums at risk.

My 1-year old daughter with a WWII gas mask

A good museum gives visitors a link to the past in a way that nothing else can. The photo above is of my daughter (then just over a year old) next to a WWII baby gas mask at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent. I’d seen gas masks like that before, but seeing my daughter with it was a shock. I couldn’t help imagining how she’d react if I had to put her in it, and it wasn’t pleasant. Just 70 years ago, parents lived with the very real fear that they’d have to use those things.

My son (then 5) lifting a car at MOSI

My six-year old son likes history (as he put it once: “I love learning about the past. It’s so weird“), and I suspect that’s largely because we’ve visited museums with him. He and I have learned a great deal from them, and we’ve had a lot of fun doing so. At the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester, we saw working Victorian machinery. Young children like my son were employed to work underneath the clattering machines, clearing away the cotton. I’m very grateful that he is able to go to school instead of having to work under one of those machines.

Cramped conditions on submarine U3

My wife and I were able to go on board a WWII submarine, the U3, at a museum in Sweden. Squeezing through the watertight doors gave us a whole new understanding of just how cramped they were. I’ve been on board HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, and got some idea of the living conditions for officers and men on both ships.

I’m a great believer in the idea that we should learn from the mistakes of the past. I love books, but museums offer the chance to understand the past in a way that nothing else can. That’s worth a great deal, and so they should be cherished and protected. Society would be much poorer if we lost our museums.

The post Why We Need Museums appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Giveaway: This We’ll Defend

The paperback of This We’ll Defend launches on the 3rd of March. To mark the launch, I’m giving away five copies at Goodreads. For a chance of winning a copy, go to the Goodreads giveaway page.

.goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px;
font-style: normal; background: white; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; }
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;
text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;
border: 1px solid #6A6454; border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;
background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layo... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596;
outline: 0; white-space: nowrap;
}
.goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(https://www.goodreads.com/images/layo...
color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;
}


Goodreads Book Giveaway







This We’ll Defend



by Russell Phillips

Giveaway ends March 03, 2014.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The post Giveaway: This We’ll Defend appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Crisis Point III

Some time ago, I expressed possible interest in attending this year’s Crisis Point game (a big, weekend-long wargame organised by Richard Crawley). On Friday, Richard put on a practice game for me, since I’ve never played Arc of Fire.

Mujahideen advancing on the forest

It was a simple scenario. I had a platoon of Mujahideen, who had received reports of NATO troops in a nearby forest. They therefore set off to find said NATO troops and kick them out of their forest. Things didn’t go brilliantly for the Andreivians, as a forward observer team in the forest called down fire from three 105mm light guns. The NATO troops turned out to be SAS. Although there were only four of them, their excellent training and morale (and the help of the 105mm guns) meant that they were able to hold their own very well.

The game was a lot of fun, and Richard was a great host. I really liked the Arc of Fire Rules. They made for a fun and interesting game, emphasising training and morale over quality of hardware. I’m very much looking forward to running some Russians in April.

The Mujahideen command group

Crisis Point III promises to be a lot of fun. It only costs £10 for a full weekend of wargaming, and there is plenty of affordable accommodation locally. If you have some 20mm models, you will almost certainly be able to use them (The Andreivia setting is designed to allow all manner of kit to fit in). If you don’t have any suitable models, some can be provided for you. It will take place over the weekend of 12th and 13th April 2014, at Dungworth Green Hall, Dungworth, on the outskirts of Sheffield.

You can see details of previous Andreivia at the Andreivian Tales blog, and there are photos of of previous Crisis Point Big Games at Richard’s blog

The post Crisis Point III appeared first on Russell Phillips.

New Authors (to me) in 2013

In 2013, I read books by several authors who were new to me. I don’t do reviews any more, but I can recommend the books listed below.

    

Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, No. 1) by Tamora Pierce
Giving The Bird: The Indie Author’s Guide to Twitter by Benjamin Wallace
The Diary of a U-Boat Commander by Stephen King-Hall

  

The Red Effect by Harvey Black
Pentecost by J.F. Penn

The post New Authors (to me) in 2013 appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Christmas Giveaway

Christmas is a time of giving, so during the week between Christmas and New Year, I shall be posting discount codes here, and on Twitter and Facebook. Each code will be valid for one day, and will allow the ebook to be downloaded for free.

The list of books and the dates they will be free are below. Don’t forget to check back for the code on the relevant day.

Have a good Christmas!

27 December: A Fleet in Being

28 December: Red Steel

29 December: This We’ll Defend

30 December: A Damn Close-Run Thing

31 December: The Bear Marches West

The post Christmas Giveaway appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Bookshops, Amazon, and Libraries

It’s a commonly-held belief that bookshops are a dying breed, that ebooks and online bookshops (especially Amazon) are killing them. Many book lovers decry this turn of events, yet (in some cases) still continue to buy books online. Personally, I’m no more concerned by the closure of bookshops than I am by the closure of any other business. I am truly saddened, however, when I hear of libraries closing or being reduced in size.



I grew up in a mining village in South Yorkshire. There was no bookshop, but there was a library. The local town didn’t have a real bookshop (the closest we had was a WHSmith, with half a dozen book shelves), but it did have an excellent library. I was 32 years old before I lived within commutable distance of a bookshop, and by then I didn’t care. I’d learned how to get any book I wanted from the library, and by that time any book I wanted to own could be bought online.

I’ve been in plenty of bookshops, of course, but I’ve never really experienced the super-helpful assistant that other people get so nostalgic about. Once, in the history section of a huge bookshop in Leeds, an assistant asked if he could help. I (frankly glad for the help) asked if they had any books on the 1971 India-Pakistan war. I got a blank look, followed by a “Sorry, I don’t know”. He didn’t even offer to check the military history section. On the other hand, if I type “1971 India-Pakistan war” into the search box at an online bookshop, it gives me a list of books. Some websites have better search engines than others, of course, but even the worst are a lot more useful than a blank look and a muttered apology.

On the other hand, while I’ve had little help from bookshop staff, I’ve benefited from plenty of help from librarians over the years. They’ve helped me find books relevant to my interests, or to help in my research. They’ve helped me get the more esoteric books from other libraries via the magic of inter-library loans. Not one has ever given me a blank look, no matter how unusual the request. My son visits the local library regularly. He has the same love of reading that his mother and I do, and I hope that as he grows older, he continues to have access to libraries and helpful librarians, just as I did. I’m much less concerned about whether or not he’ll have access to a local business that happens to sell books. If you do care about your local bookshop, though, put your money where your mouth is, and buy your books there. bookshops are commercial entities, and they can only survive if enough people spend enough money there.

The post Bookshops, Amazon, and Libraries appeared first on Russell Phillips.

Remembrance Day: The hell where youth and laughter go

Today is Remembrance Day in the UK. I have a red poppy, and I shall be observing the two minute silence at 11:00. I’ve read things recently that have prompted me to think about why I consider Remembrance Day to be so important.

I consider Remembrance Day to be a time to remember everyone that has been harmed by war. Any war, any nationality, civilian, military, whatever. It’s a time to remember not only those that died, but also those that survived. Some have injuries that are plain to see. Others have mental injuries like PTSD, which are much less visible but can be just as debilitating.

It’s important to remember that, when you go to war, people will die. It’s obvious, yet people seem to forget it all too easily. I wear a poppy to remind myself and others of that simple truth. It is my eternal (but almost certainly naive) hope that the more people understand what happens during war, the less likely they will be to call for it in future.

The following poem from Siegfried Sassoon was written during the Great War, but is sadly still relevant today.

Suicide in Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

He put a bullet through his brain.

No one spoke of him again.

*****

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you’ll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

Source: The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon at Project Gutenberg.

The post Remembrance Day: The hell where youth and laughter go appeared first on Russell Phillips.