Catherine Meyrick's Blog, page 25
July 11, 2021
Steampunk Cleopatra by Thaddeus Thomas
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Thaddeus Thomas’s recently released novel Steampunk Cleopatra as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Amani watched Berenice study the workings of the statue, which marked the passing time. The mechanics of the clock were hidden outside the palace, but she studied the artwork of the sculpture with displeasure. Amani suspected she had no concept of the complex system of tanks, gears, and siphons that resulted in an ac...
July 7, 2021
Ariadne Unraveled by Zenobia Neil
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Zenobia Neil’s newly released novel Ariadne Unraveled as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Ariadne Unraveled is a retelling of the myth of Ariadne and Dionysus.
“Always an honor, High Priestess,” Seer, the priestess of the temple, said, clasping her hand. The warmth in the older woman’s smile made Ariadne want to go into the smallest chamber and confess all her worries. Perhaps Seer could help her. But Ariadne was...
July 6, 2021
Book Review – The Fall of the House of Thomas Weir by Andrew Neil MacLeod
‘… I have often said that when you have eliminated the natural, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the supernatural.’ – Dr Samuel Johnson
The Fall of the House of Thomas Weir by Andrew Neil MacLeod begins with Alexander Boyle, the rational nightwatchman of Greyfriars Kirkyard, the place with the reputation of the most haunted graveyard in the world, doing his nightly rounds. This night in mid-1773 does not end well for Boyle ‘…even as the scream found its way to his throat, t...
July 5, 2021
Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65 by Dane Pizzuti Krogman
Today, I’m pleased to be sharing an excerpt from Dane Pizzuti Krogman’s novel Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65 as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
Chapter 8: The uprising.
“We have waited a long time. The money is ours, but we cannot get it. We have no food, but here are these stores, filled with food. We ask that you, the agent, make some arrangement by which we can get food from the stores, or else we may make our way to k...
July 2, 2021
My Reading – June 2021
The Course of All Treasons by Suzanne M Wolfe
‘Satan’s pizzle!’
Simon Winchelsea cursed as he sank ankle-deep in the revolting effluent running like a river down the center of the street.
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
The house lights dim. The audience quiets.
The Dream Weavers by Barbara Erskine
‘Elise!‘
There she was again. Wretched woman! Calling. Endlessly calling.
The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
It is the cocked hat that draws her to him: the way it arches above the barricade of top...
June 28, 2021
The Usurper King by Mercedes Rochelle
Today I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Mercedes Rochelle’s The Usurper King as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. The Usurper King is a novel of Henry Bolingbroke, the third book in Mercedes’ series, The Plantaganet Legacy.
Prince Hal must tell Queen Isabella about Richard’s death
Isabella of Valois was probably the only person in England who did not know about Richard’s funeral. She was fourteen now and kept in close confinement at Havering-atte-Bo...
June 22, 2021
Discovery by Barbara Greig
Today, I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Barbara Greig’s novel Discovery as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club. Discovery is an epic tale of love, loss and courage .
Chapter 20: An extract from a journal written in sixteenth century English (unlike the rest of the novel)
The sixteenth day of September 1557
It is eleven of the clock and all are abed, but I am unable to sleep. The experience of encountering Marie Gharsia proveth too diverting. I will ...
June 16, 2021
Guardians at the Wall by Tim Walker
Today, I’m delighted to be sharing an excerpt from Tim Walker’s newly released dual timeline novel Guardians at the Wall as part of a blog tour hosted by The Coffee Pot Book Club.
[Archaeology student, Noah, continues his desk research into Centurion Gaius Atticianus]
On Monday morning, I picked up where I’d left off with the Corbridge tablets. From what I’d translated, added to guesswork on what was missing, I deduced that Gaius was at Coria to report that his unit had been attack...
June 11, 2021
Interesting things I read last month – May 2021
How young couples managed to meet before the advent of social media
Rustic Courtship
Love island: the love lives of our 19th century ancestors
by Dr Marion McGarry
In recent years, apps have increasingly facilitated online dating, Indeed, thanks to Covid-19, these have become the only way for single people to link up with potential partners. Covid has also meant that large get-togethers in real life are out of bounds. This would have been an unimaginable state-of-affairs to our rural 19th ce...
June 4, 2021
My Reading – May 2021
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
On the morning Perveen saw the stranger, they’d almost collided.
Deep South: Stories from Tasmania edited by by Ralph Crane and Danielle Wood
He had never heard of the ‘enthusiasm of humanity’—the expression was not in fashion in his day, and, if it had been, I doubt whether he would have understood it; for he was only an Australian stock-rider, a ‘Sydney cornstalk’ born, who had never read a book in his life except the Bible, and perhaps not very m...
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