Judith Arnopp's Blog

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour is pleased to host Daughter of Mercia by Julia Ibbotson

Name: Julia Ibbotson

Book Title: Daughter of Mercia

Series: Dr Anna Petersen Mysteries, book #1

Publication Date:  June 6th, 2025

Publisher:  Archbury Books

Pages:  301 ebk, 392 pbk

Genre:  medieval dual-time mystery romance

Any Triggers: n/a

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-tour-daughter-of-mercia-by-julia-ibbotson.html 

Daughter of Mercia

by Julia Ibbotson

Echoes of the past resonate across the centuries as Dr Anna Petersen, a medievalist and runologist, is struggling with past trauma and allowing herself to trust again. When archaeologist (and Anna's old adversary) Professor Matt Beacham unearths a 6th century seax with a mysterious runic inscription, and reluctantly approaches Anna for help, a chain of events brings the past firmly back into her present. And why does the burial site also contain two sets of bones, one 6th century and the other modern? 

As the past and present intermingle alarmingly, Anna and Matt need to work together to solve the mystery of the seax runes and the seemingly impossible burial, and to discover the truth about the past. Tensions rise and sparks fly between Anna and Matt. But how is 6th century Lady Mildryth of Mercia connected to Anna? Can they both be the Daughter of Mercia?

For fans of Barbara Erskine, Elena Collins, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley and Christina Courtenay.

Read an Excerpt:

 

Inthe mead hall feasting where Lady Mildryth is entertaining the stranger,Theowulf

535AD

 She wasperfectly aware that there was speculation and that Theowulf was considered anintruder in their midst. She glanced sideways at him and saw his frowninghesitation as he stared at the food that the serving serfs offered him. Hecautiously took the venison pieces onto his wooden platter with the knife shehad given him, but he shook his head at the spicy sauce, his nose wrinkled upand his eyes narrowed. He was beginning to annoy her with his pickiness. Hemust surely be some great thegn to be so choosy. It seemed that he did notunderstand the quality of her table.

 “No, look,” shesaid, irritation rising in her voice. “This is good. It is to make the meattaste better at this time of year.” She showed him again how to eat with theknife, how to dip the meat in the communal sauce bowl, how to break the breadand mop up the juices. What was the matter with him that he looked as if he hadnever sat at the mead table before? Did the Saxons not have their evening meallike this, together in the hall. Surely they ate the same sort of food with thesame knives to eat with? Where in God’s truth did he come from? What manner ofsettlement was he raised in?

 Theowulf’s firstbite appeared to satisfy him and soon he was eating hungrily, salting hismutton and beef rather more generously than she would have liked, although shehad told him that salt was rare and he must be careful. Had he understood her?Maybe not. She signalled the table serf to remove the salt pot from his reach.

 The bowls ofnuts and berries from the hedgerows he must have recognised as he nodded andate with no hesitation. Mildryth was aware that he was drinking copiously fromhis mead-cup. The women cup-bearers were kept busy refilling his cup as theyscurried around with the thegns’ mead flagon and the communal ale-bowl. Out ofthe corner of her eye, Mildryth watched his strong hands with their longfingers reach for his mead-cup and lift it to his lips, sipping cautiously atfirst, then gulping thirstily as if he savoured a new taste. Did the Saxons nothave mead? Such a big muscular man and yet he ate and drank like a child. Shecould not help but smile at him and he grinned back at her, his piercing blueeyes searing into her soul. Her heart fluttered strangely and she turned downher mouth at the corners.

 “My lady.”Aelfric appeared before her, indicating that the ceorls were ready to light theflares to flame intheir sconces on the walls, and soon the hanging cressets were shedding an oilylight. The fire pit in the middle of the hall flaming up, licking towards theroof, black choking smoke clouding the air as it rose to the thatch. Her thegnsat the long trestle tables down each side of the hall took on a ghoulishappearance in the gloom but as the flames steadied the red sweaty faces cameinto focus.

 Clearly, a great deal of mead had been consumed and her drunken guestsrolled against each other, so that Mildryth thought that Theowulf must wonderif they were embracing or fighting. One swept his hand wildly across the table,knocking over his goblet and spilling golden liquid to drip onto theherb-strewn wooden floor. Another fell backwards from the bench and clutchedthe rich gold-embroidered wall tapestry hanging behind him in a desperateattempt to gain his balance. 

Lady Mildryth rose abruptly and raised her arms, the wide sleeves of hervelvet over-robe falling to her upper arms. “Enough!”

 The boisterous din gradually quietened, with only the odd inebriatedvoices from a few dazed thegns cutting across the hall to the benches opposite.The ladies at the benches turned to glare at their partners and slap theirbloated cheeks, remonstrating with them piously. All faces turned accusingly tothe miscreants, despite their owners having added to the raucous din a fewmoments before.

 Aelfric knocked his seax against the top table three times, and all fellsilent. Mildryth slowly shook her head. “My thegns, you are all well aware thatI do not allow drunkenness and foul behaviour in my mead hall at feasting. Anyguest from outside our settlement would think we are barbarians.”

 A murmur of denial growled across the hall. But as Lady Mildryth turnedbriefly to Theowulf, they seemed to grasp that their cūning mightperhaps be referring to the stranger sitting to her right. She saw their frownsand much shaking of heads. She knew exactly what they were thinking: who isthis newcomer, this outsider who narrowed his sharp blue eyes at them soarrogantly?

 But they kept their peace and bit their lips as their lady signalled toAelfric with a sweep of her hand to summon the .He arrived with an expansive spreading of his arms, his dark cloak falling likethe wings of some great bird, his long white hair and beard glowing in thefirelight. He stood in the centre of the hall turning around to acknowledge theapplause of the thegns and in response they banged the hilts of their seaxesagainst the trestles.

 Mildryth swivelled round at the sound beside her, and saw that Theowulfhad bent forwards over the table, his sleeves almost sopping up the remains ofthe cream and blackberry concoction before him. He was staring intently at the , eyes widened. How odd, she was sure that theSaxons had similar entertainment at their feasts, from what she had heard.Their practices were not so very different from their own, surely. Yet Theowulflooked … what could she say? … wondrous, fascinated, as though he had never seena poet story-teller before.

 The scōp bowed to Lady Mildryth as she asked him where he was from, aswas the custom, and how far he was travelling that moon-journey, and whetherthe chamber they had set aside for his rest that night was acceptable. With theformalities done, the poet embarked upon his tale, a saga of warriors’ heroismand of dragons, with the names of Mildryth and her father Cnebba of Mercia andof most of their cyth and cyn slipped in to the well-knownnarrative.

 Mildryth settled back to hear the tale, although in truth she had heardit many times before; yet it never ceased to fill her with the comfort ofknowing that it was her tradition, her family, her heritage. And all the time,throughout the whole heroic poem, although many of the thegns fell to sleep ina drunken stupor, their heads resting on the tables or propped up by theirladies, she was aware that Theowulf sat to attention, as if caught entranced byevery word that fell from the old man’s mouth.

 She watched him out of the corner of her eye and saw that his lips movedwith the scōp’s words, silently repeating them … and not always repeating them,but sometimes speaking them along with the poet. So he knew some of her Angelnwords! And, even more strangely, he seemed to know this poem. How could thatbe, if he were not Angeln? She remembered that he had spoken her name and rankwhen she first saw him in the lock-up, but hesitantly as though he was unsureof them or was trying them out aloud for sound.

 And so he had heard the story-teller before. Or at least he hadheard the same poem recited elsewhere. Maybe not by this scōp but by someoneelse at some other feast in some other mead hall in some other settlement. Howintriguing. If only he would speak to her so that she could understand hiswords. For those that fell from his lips were strange and the sounds he madewere incomprehensible.

   

 https://myBook.to/DOMercia

 This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of time. She is the author of historical mysteries with a frisson of romance. Her books are evocative of time and place, well-researched and uplifting page-turners. Her current series focuses on early medieval time-slip/dual-time mysteries.

Julia read English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language / literature / history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. After a turbulent time in Ghana, West Africa, she became a school teacher, then a university academic and researcher. Her break as an author came soon after she joined the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme in 2015, with a three-book deal from Lume Books for a trilogy (Drumbeats) set in Ghana in the 1960s.

She has published five other books, including A Shape on the Air, an Anglo-Saxon timeslip mystery, and its two sequels The Dragon Tree and The Rune Stone. Her latest novel is the first of a new series of Anglo-Saxon dual-time mysteries, Daughter of Mercia, where echoes of the past resonate across the centuries.

Her books will appeal to fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. Her readers say: ‘Julia’s books captured my imagination’, ‘beautiful story-telling’, ‘evocative and well-paced storylines’, ‘brilliant and fascinating’ and ‘I just couldn’t put it down’.

Website: https://juliaibbotsonauthor.com

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/@juliaibbotson

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuliaIbbotsonauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julia.ibbotson

Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/juliaibbotson.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/juliai1

Amazon Author Page: https://Author.to/JuliaIbbotsonauthor

Goodreads: https://goodreads.com/juliaibbotson

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour welcomes: Jane Loftus

Book Title: The Herb Knot  

Series:  n/a

Author Name: Jane Loftus 

Publication Date: May 8th, 2025 

Publisher: HQ Digital 

Pages: 336 

Genre: Medieval Historical Fiction 

  Any Triggers: Domestic abuse / violence (not much, but two short depictions), implied sexual assault, attempted murder, actual murder.

  

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/07/blog-tour-the-herb-knot-by-jane-loftus.html 

  

The Herb Knot

By Jane Loftus

Audiobook Narrator: Matt Addis 

The Hundred Years' War comes to life in this spellbinding tale of love, betrayal and conspiracy … 

A quest born on the battlefield will change a young boy’s destiny… 

Rafi Dubois is five years old when his mother is murdered after the Battle of Crecy in 1346. Alone and lost, Rafi is given a token by the dying Englishman who tried to save his mother’s life: a half-broken family seal which he urges Rafi to return one day to Winchester. 

Years later, when Rafi saves a wealthy merchant’s wife from a brutal robbery, he is rewarded with the chance to travel to England, taking the seal with him. 

But when he reaches Winchester, Rafi finds himself in a turbulent world full of long-held allegiances, secrets and treachery. His path is fraught with danger and with powerful enemies working against him, Rafi falls in love with Edith, a market apothecary. But in doing so, Rafi unleashes a deadly chain of events which threatens to overwhelm them both… 

 The Herb Knot is a sweeping and passionate novel set in one of the most tumultuous times in English history, from a powerful new voice.

 Read an Excerpt 

The branches folded over them, crackling like a dog biting on chicken bones. Raphael and his mother wriggled beneath low shrubs and coils of fern. Even in moonlight they would be difficult to see, but it was not the place of safety his mother would have chosen. It was his mistake that had forced them to stop here.

His first mistake.

‘When did you last see Christophe?’ His mother pulled him close.

‘By the big oak.’

‘Tch!’

‘I’m sorry, Maman.’

The big oak was where they’d entered the forest. It was where enemy soldiers roamed, blood-soaked after a day of battle. There would be looting too, and worse. It was why a woman and two children had left a cottage that was no longer safe. And now one of the children was missing.

‘He told me not to wait. He said he’d catch up.’ Raphael’s tears could be heard in his voice. He’d ruined everything. He should never have let go of Christophe’s hand. Now, they had been forced to stop where Christophe might still find them. They should be further towards the heart of the forest, not here.

It was all his fault.

‘Don’t cry, mon petit. He’ll know where we are.’ Raphael’s mother, Marianne, reached for his hand. ‘I should have paid more heed.’

She’d been calling gently as they walked, to make sure the children were still following. Raphael had answered. But he’d spoken only for himself. Christophe had fallen behind long before she’d become aware of it. They were supposed to hold hands, but Christophe had kept stumbling, dragging Raphael down with him. In the end he’d told Raphael to go ahead, that he’d catch up.

I should have waited.

Christophe would surely find his way here. He had Raphael’s precious St Joseph scapular with him. Raphael wore it always, but Christophe had been afraid so Raphael had given it to him. It would guide him here; it had to.

Raphael and his mother lay for a while on their stomachs, the leaves above them gently shedding raindrops from the earlier storm. The damp earth smelled rich and strong and caught the back of Raphael’s throat. His ribs began to hurt and he tried to move, but there were footsteps now. Marianne pressed her fingers to his lips.

The footsteps came faster and louder. A man entered the clearing, his outline bulky as if he were wearing armour. There was a shadow of something in his hand, something that glinted for a brief moment as a dull beam of moonlight caught the edge of it. Raphael felt his mother’s hand tighten on his again.

Who was this man? A mercenary? Genoese? There was more moonlight now but it still wasn’t enough to see for sure.

‘Anglais,’ Marianne whispered.

When Christophe crashed into the clearing like a hunted deer, the mercenary had already begun to walk away. Had Christophe arrived but one minute later, his and Raphael’s lives would have taken different paths. But at the sight of the child, soiled and trembling, the mercenary turned on his heel. He had his arm wrapped around Christophe’s neck in an instant, pulling tight until his feet barely reached the ground. Christophe’s hands pulled at the mercenary’s arm but to no avail. Raphael wanted to cry.

  

Universal Buy Link:  https://books2read.com/u/bzN6Z2 

Jane Loftus gained a degree in 16th Century European and British history from Surrey before taking a postgraduate degree in modern political history. As a lone parent, she worked in Winchester Waterstones before returning to IT once her son was older.

Hugely passionate about the Middle Ages, she drew inspiration for this novel from the medieval layout of Winchester which has been painstakingly documented.

Jane is originally from London but has lived in Winchester for over twenty years. When not writing, she is usually out walking or watching costume dramas on Netflix - the more medieval the better. She also plays far too many rpgs.

  

Website: https://janeloftus.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577760507961

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janeloftusauthor/  

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/janeloftus.bsky.social 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0F3Q52X9Y 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29357528.Jane_Loftus 

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: Everything We Thought We Knew by Carolyn Niethammer

Name: Carolyn Niethammer

Book Title: Everything We Thought We Knew

Series: n/a

Publication Date: May 1st, 2025

Publisher: Booklocker

Pages: 254

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers: n/a

Tour Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-tour-everything-we-thought-we-knew-by-carolyn-niethammer.html 

Everything We Thought We Knew 

by Carolyn Niethammer

In 1970, Christie left behind the comforts of L.A. and joined a New Age commune in rural Arizona. With the Vietnam War raging and the counterculture movement in full swing, she hoped to find a community to create a better society. But building a new culture is no easy task, especially when free love, psychedelics, and a war protest gone horribly wrong are thrown into the mix. Important secrets follow them beyond the commune.

Put on your tie-dyed shirt and come to Bella Vida as the friends try to change the rules of modern society, then face the repercussions of when middle age sets in. 

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3GZ6ra 

In the 1970s Carolyn Niethammer visited communes throughout the West and settled in an Arizona artists’ community for many years. Those years were important to who she became as she learned to gather wild foods and wrote several cookbooks centered on edible plants.

In “Everything We Thought We Knew” she hopes to shed light on an important part of American history where young people were advocating for peace in Vietnam War protests and fled to communes, seeking a lifestyle apart from the commercialism and isolation that had overtaken society. 

Website: www.cniethammer.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolyn.niethammer   https://www.facebook.com/CarolynNiethammerAuthor  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolynniethammer/ 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tucsoncarolyn.bsky.social 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Carolyn-J.-Niethammer/author/B001H9XDNE

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/265163.Carolyn_Niethammer 

Delighted to host Tim Walker on his Book Launch of The Trials of Arthur Whitty.

 

Amazon Universal Link: http://mybook.to/ArthurWhitty 

This novella is the story of plain old Arthur Whitty, a man whose dreams are never dull and whose vivid imagination and sense of humour carries him through a series of sometimes challenging situations. Arthur has retired to a pair of slippers and jigsaw table in a quiet cul-de-sac in Berkshire, England. He walks his dog, Max, and lets his mind wander to a series of dreams in which he is more daring, skilful and adventurous that his real-life humdrum self. He is an irritant to his orderly wife, Emilia, and has succumbed to irksome cancer treatment following a run-in with skin cancer.

Once a date has been set for corrective surgery, Arthur sets his mind on organising a real-life adventure – a bucket list trip to Machu Picchu in Peru where he finds peace and a calming of the spirit. Arthur’s bullish nature carries him through a series of situations but there is little the retired couple can do about the onset of dementia. But Arthur is well supported by Emilia and their daughter, Holly, as the family rally round to make his declining years as comfortable as possible. And there’s always escape to his secret world of risk, responsibility and danger. In his dreams, Arthur always wins.

The author has drawn on personal experience and observations of elderly men in a support group he helps run for Men’s Matters charity in Windsor, Berkshire. Half of all royalties from the sales of this book will be donated to Men’s Matters, who support older men by encouraging social interaction and connecting them to health and wellbeing support services.

The Trials of Arthur Whitty by Tim Walker

Extract – Arthur at the Cancer Clinic

Arthur lifted a copy of Country Life magazine from the table and idly leafed through it. He held it up and furtively examined the row of six patients on the opposite side of the room over its top. All were waiting their turn for radiotherapy treatment. Arthur decided that out of the six, three looked worried, and perhaps were pessimistic about their chances of beating silent killer, the Big C. The worriers were fidgeting, their eyes searching the walls for meaning, or redemption. Perhaps they would have less chance of surviving, Arthur thought. In contrast, three appeared more robust, healthier, and seemed less concerned. Did he look unconcerned or did he seem nervous? Did he have the demeanour of a survivor?

"Mister Whitty" the nurse called, and all eyes were on Arthur as he put down the magazine and slowly rose to his feet.

...the last-minute reprieve had not come from the Governor's office, and Art Whitty's lawyer mopped the perspiration on his creased forehead with a red polka dot hankie whilst staring at a crushed cockroach on the concrete floor rather than meeting the hollow eyes of the client he had failed.

The plate from Art’s last meal of steak and chips was as empty as his soul; his time was up. It was the most popular choice the orderly had remarked, rather pointlessly, Art had thought, given the gravity of his situation. His tongue licked salt from cracked lips in a final connection of reflex to memory as the sound of metal studded boots echoed along the corridor.

"Add a final entry and take my diary to my publisher. Tell them to publish," Whitty drawled. "Maybe they'll find out who really killed Mary Lou Randall after I'm gone and the second edition will be a bestseller."

"Please remove your jacket and lie on the table, Mr Whitty," the nurse said, pointing to a paper-covered mortuary slab.

Arthur followed instructions and was soon staring up at what looked like a vintage hair dryer attached to a robotic arm. A technician in a white coat consulted his file and pointed the gun end of the device at the scar on Arthur's head where a cancerous lump had been surgically removed a month earlier.

"Lie still, Mr Whitty, it will flash and make a clicking noise."

The tech and nurse donned tinted goggles and scrambled behind a screen, crouching to avoid the radiation, as if members of Oppenheimer's team at Los Alamos. Arthur was left alone with the death ray gun pointing menacingly at his head. Ready, aim, fire. Then a beep, click and flash, and it was over. A short dose for the patient would hopefully eradicate all traces of the cancer, he had been told. Drastic perhaps, like a Medieval kill or cure remedy. But what residual damage would there be to his brain and cognitive function?” It was a question his radiologist had ducked.

“Only three more treatments,” the nurse said as she returned Arthur to the waiting room. He felt moved to give his fellow condemned a smile and thumbs-up. A nervous woman returned his smile, her eyes darting from his face to a ghastly health warning poster.

Emilia was waiting for him in reception, and they departed the sacred space in reverential silence, heads bowed, hoping for a sign.

“How did it go?” she asked over the roof of their car.

Arthur slid into the passenger seat and rubbed his scar. “Fine, dear. I’ll soon have enough radiation to open the garage door with nothing more than a hard stare.”

Tim Walker is an independent author living near Windsor in the UK. Born in Hong Kong in the Sixties, he grew up in Liverpool where he began his working life as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper. He went on to attain an honours degree in Communication Studies in South Wales before moving to London where he worked in the newspaper publishing industry for ten years.

In the mid-90s he opted to spend a couple of years doing voluntary work in Zambia through VSO, running an educational book publishing development programme. After this, he set up his own marketing and publishing business in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, then managed a mineral exploration company before returning to the UK in 2009.

His creative writing journey began in earnest in 2014, as a therapeutic activity whilst recovering from cancer treatment. In addition to short stories, he researched and wrote a five-book historical fiction series, A Light in the Dark Ages. The series connects the end of Roman Britain to the story of Arthur in an imaginative narrative. It starts with Abandoned, then Ambrosius: Last of the Romans; Uther’s Destiny; Arthur Dux Bellorum and Arthur Rex Brittonum, the last two books charting the life of an imagined historical King Arthur.

More recently, he has written a dual timeline historical novel set at Hadrian’s Wall, Guardians at the Wall. His two books of short stories, Thames Valley Tales and London Tales combine contemporary and historical themes and are now available as audiobooks. Somewhere along the way, he co-authored a three-book children’s series with his daughter, Cathy, The Adventures of Charly Holmes.

Thank you for reading The Trials of Arthur Whitty. Please leave a star rating and review on Amazon and/or Goodreads so others can benefit from your experience.

Tim’s Amazon author page: www.author.to/TimWalkerWrites  

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/678710.Tim_Walker 

Tim’s website: www.timwalker1666.wixsite.com/website

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/TimWalkerWrites 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/timwalker1666 

X (Twitter): www.twitter.com/timwalker1666 

TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@timwalker804 

BlueSky: www.bsky.app/profile/timwalker1666.bsky.social  

The Coffee Pot Book Club Tour presents: Unspoken by Jann Alexander

Book Title: Unspoken

Series: The Dust Series

Author: Jann Alexander

Publication Date: July 3, 2025

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pages: 368

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers: Two deaths from dust pneumonia in first chapter, 1935; inhumane treatments in an asylum setting, pre-1950; maltreatment in a state home for children, pre-1945; a botched abortion where a woman nearly dies, 1940s

Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/_Caypmn4JBs 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-tour-unspoken-by-jann-alexander.html 

Unspoken: A Dust Novel 

by Jann Alexander

A farm devastated. A dream destroyed. A family scattered. 

And one Texas girl determined to salvage the wreckage.

Ruby Lee Becker can't breathe. It's 1935 in the heart of the Dust Bowl, and the Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through six years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. On Black Sunday, the biggest blackest storm of them all threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice —one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.

To survive, Ruby is forced to leave the only place she's ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother has abandoned her, she's determined to get back.

Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, she's broken by their separation.

Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home —and faces her one unspoken fear.

Heart-wrenching and inspiring, the tale of Ruby Lee's dogged perseverance and Willa Mae's endless love for her daughter shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who bravely lean on one another, find comfort in remade families, and redefine what home means.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mqP7ke 

Book Funnel Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/h3rt6fn7vd 

Author’s Website: https://www.jannalexander.com/buy-unspoken 

Jann Alexander writes characters who face down their fears. Her novels are as close-to-true as fiction can get.

Jann is the author of the historical novel, UNSPOKEN, set in the Texas Panhandle during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression eras, and her first book in The Dust Series. 

Jann writes on all things creative in her weekly blog, Pairings. She's a 20-year resident of central Texas and creator of the Vanishing Austin photography series. As a former art director for ad agencies and magazines in the D.C. area, and a painter, photographer, and art gallery owner, creativity is her practice and passion. 

Jann's  lifelong storytelling habit and her more recent zeal for Texas history merged to become the historical Dust Series. When she is not reading, writing, or creating, she bikes, hikes, skis, and kayaks. She lives in central Texas with her own personal Texan (and biggest fan), Karl, and their Texas mutt, Ruby. Jann always brakes for historical markers.

Website: https://www.jannalexander.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JannAlexanderAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jannalextx/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jannalextx.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jannalextx/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/2708203210

Book Bub for Unspoken: https://www.bookbub.com/books/unspoken-a-dust-novel-the-dust-series-book-1-by-jann-alexander

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/jannalexander

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jann_alexander

Goodreads for Unspoken: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230163000-unspoken

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: The Will of God by Julian de la Motte

Book Title: The Will of God

Series: n/a

Author: Julian de la Motte

Publication Date: May 13, 2025

Publisher: Historium Press

Pages: 292

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers: n/a

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/07/blog-tour-the-will-of-god-by-julian-de-la-motte.html 

The Will of God

Julian de la Motte

"Deus Lo Vult!"

Gilles is the natural son of the Earl Waltheof, executed by William the Conqueror for supposed treachery. Raised in Normandy by Queen Matilda of England, Gilles is a young servant of Robert, Duke of Normandy, when the first call for a Holy War against the infidel and for the liberation of Jerusalem is raised in Christendom. Along with thousands of others, inspired by a variety of motives, intense piety mixed with a sense of adventure and the prospects of richness, Gilles becomes a key and respected follower of the Duke of Normandy and travels through France and into Italy to the point of embarkation for Constantinople and the land of the Greeks.

In this epic first phase of a long and gruelling journey, Gilles begins to discover a sense of his own strengths and weaknesses, encounters for the first time the full might and strength of the Norman war machine and achieves his much coveted aim of knighthood, as well as a sense of responsibility to the men that he must now lead into battle.

The Will of God is the literal translation of the Latin phrase "Deus Lo Vult"; a ubiquitous war cry and a commonly offered explanation of all the horrors and iniquities unleashed by the First Crusade of 1096 to 1099, when thousands of Europeans made the dangerous and terrifying journey to the Holy Land and the liberation of Jerusalem. It is the first of two books on the subject.

Praise for The Will of God:

"De la Motte has superpowers as a writer of historical fiction; he's a warhorse of a writer bred to stun and trample the literary senses. You won't stop turning the pages of The Will of God." 

~ Charles McNair, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of Land O'Goshen

Read an Excerpt:

Matilda of Flanders, his companion, co-conspirator and help mate of many years, was a tiny doll like figure the size of a child. William, at one and the same time, both venerated and feared her. In his periodic audiences with her he would begin with unease and trepidation and conclude, exhausted, and with a fine collection of fresh and wise advice; as pungent and lingering as the scent of her store kept herbs. In all their years together, her shrewd and acute mind, sharp as a knife and full of useful filed and stored information, always seemed to be at least two full steps ahead of him; full of speculation and expert analysis, measuring the fine lines between possibility and attainment.

She was in full cry now in her roaring great chamber, a space seemingly made small by the vast impedimenta she had gathered and accrued over the years. She sat at the very centre of her world upon a once immaculate divan. Her nose was pinched and pointed and her hands, once long and slender, now all but crippled with arthritis. Her eyes glittered like diamonds packed in ice. It had been some months since his last visit. To William it seemed that his wife had grown yet smaller. Briefly, he smiled at her with a rare smile of genuine affection. Matilda was unmoved.

‘My fierce little mouse’ he thought fondly to himself. She was sharp as a weasel on a whetstone, a store of bulging information gathered in the recesses of her mind as her eyes sparkled with mischief and, possibly, malice. As ever, the old lady delighted in posing questions to which she already knew the answers, relishing the prospect of throwing a speculation into the air and then seeing where it might land and what might also come with it in its fall back to the earth, and then taking it from there. If, by chance, she did not fully know the answer to her own question then she had a rich store of information stored away in her fevered, busy brain to draw upon. Long ago, from the days of his tempestuous wooing, he had learned to treat her with respect and caution. Once in the early days of his exuberant courtship, back in her childhood home in Flanders and when an unseemly ardour had gripped him, she had actually stabbed him, quite severely, with a large darning needle. Or so it was reported. The story was commonly believed and reported, and indeed he could vouch for its truth but for the fact that it shamed him. The matter was never discussed within the hearing of the Duke and King. With Matilda, honesty was always the best policy. Do not presume to dissimulate and the treasure of her wisdom could be yours for the asking.

Universal Buy Link:  https://geni.us/uXe6u 

Julian de la Motte is a Londoner. He graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in Medieval History. He was further awarded a Master of Arts qualification in Medieval English Art from the University of York. 

He studied and taught in Italy for nearly four years before returning to the U.K. and a career as a teacher, teacher trainer and materials designer before taking up a new role as a Director of Foreign Languages and of English as a Foreign Language.

Married and with two grown up children, He is now extensively involved in review writing and historical research, primarily on medieval history.

''The Will of God'' [the first of two books on the subject of the First Crusade] is his third novel.

Website: www.historiumpress.com/julian-de-la-motte 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julian.delamotteharrison.3 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08XWMRPYK 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/20873400.julian_de_la_Motte 

The Coffee Pot Blog Tour presents: A Shape on the Air by Julia Ibbotson

 

Name: Julia Ibbotson

Book Title: A Shape on the Air

Series: Dr DuLac series, Book #1

Publication Date:  January 8th, 2022

Publisher: Archbury Books

Pages:  220 ebk, 366 pbk 

Genre:  Medieval Timeslip Mystery Romance

Any Triggers: n/a

Twitter Handles: @JuliaIbbotson @cathiedunn

Instagram Handles: @julia.ibbotson @thecoffeepotbookclub 

Hashtags: #Medieval #HistoricalFiction #AngloSaxon #TimeTravel #TimeSlip #Mystery #Romance #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot... 

A Shape on the Air

by Julia Ibbotson

Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the 'dark ages' unfold.

How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past? 

Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in the end, how can they help each other across the ages without changing the course of history?

For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, Christina Courtenay.

Universal Buy Link: https://myBook.to/ASOTA

 This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of time. She is the author of historical mysteries with a frisson of romance. Her books are evocative of time and place, well-researched and uplifting page-turners. Her current series focuses on early medieval time-slip/dual-time mysteries. 

Julia read English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language / literature / history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. After a turbulent time in Ghana, West Africa, she became a school teacher, then a university academic and researcher. Her break as an author came soon after she joined the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme in 2015, with a three-book deal from Lume Books for a trilogy (Drumbeats) set in Ghana in the 1960s.

She has published five other books, including A Shape on the Air, an Anglo-Saxon timeslip mystery, and its two sequels The Dragon Tree and The Rune Stone. Her latest novel is the first of a new series of Anglo-Saxon dual-time mysteries, Daughter of Mercia, where echoes of the past resonate across the centuries. 

Her books will appeal to fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. Her readers say: ‘Julia’s books captured my imagination’, ‘beautiful story-telling’, ‘evocative and well-paced storylines’, ‘brilliant and fascinating’ and ‘I just couldn’t put it down’.

Website: https://juliaibbotsonauthor.com

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/@juliaibbotson

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuliaIbbotsonauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julia.ibbotson

Bluesky:  https://bsky.app/profile/juliaibbotson.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/juliai1

Amazon Author Page: https://Author.to/JuliaIbbotsonauthor

Goodreads: https://goodreads.com/juliaibbotson

The Coffee Pot Book Club presents: The Lydiard Chronicles by Elizabeth St.John

Book Title:  The Lydiard Chronicles (A Trilogy)

Author: Elizabeth St.John

Publication Date: 2016-2020

Publisher: Falcon Historical

Genre: Historical Fiction

Any Triggers: No

Hashtags: #HistoricalFiction #EnglishCivilWar #FamilyHistory #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-the-lydiard-chronicles-by-elizabeth-stjohn.html 

The Lydiard Chronicles:

The Lady of the Tower (Book #1)

By Love Divided (Book #2)

Written in Their Stars (Book #3)

by Elizabeth St.John

Duty, passion, and power collide in The Lydiard Chronicles, a gripping trilogy inspired by true events. Follow three courageous women—survivors, strategists, and storytellers—who defy the constraints of society to shape their family’s fate and England’s future. Their voices echo through time. Their legacy changed a nation.

The Lydiard Chronicles is an award-winning, best-selling historical family saga which brings to life the remarkable true stories of the St.John family. Spanning three compelling novels—The Lady of the Tower, By Love Divided, and Written in Their Stars—the series follows the legacy of resilient and intelligent women who lived as spies, courtiers, and diarists during England’s most turbulent century, navigating the quicksand of love and war, political upheaval, and personal sacrifice. 

Bound by fierce family loyalty and unforgettable love, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles defy the limits of their time with passion, courage, and unshakable independence. They endure captivity in the Tower of London, exile in the Louvre Palace, and the heart-wrenching divisions of the English Civil War—fighting not just for survival, but for their beliefs, their families, and the right to choose their own fate. Meticulously researched and vividly told, this epic saga reveals how these women created history from the shadows, leaving a legacy of resilience, defiance, and enduring influence.

Rooted in original diaries, letters, and family papers, The Lydiard Chronicles offers an intimate, biographical portrait of women who moved behind the scenes of power. Serving as trusted secret agents, military wives, and confidantes of kings, they were deeply engaged in the political and religious conflicts of their time. Through tragedy and triumph, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles shape their destinies—and the fate of a nation—in this richly researched and vividly told historical epic. 

Universal Series Buy Link: https://geni.us/TheLydiardChronicles

These titles are available to read on #KindleUnlimited

Hot Summer Reads:*Each novel is priced at just 99c / 99p July 1st - 15th, 2025*

A short excerpt from Written in Their Stars

Exiled to France

Frances’s simple story of dragons sustained her as she walked along the Folkestone shore early the next morning, Walter’s guard following closely. The sea lay with an oily tint to it, flat as could be, with just a small wave lapping on the smooth sand. This was not the rough Atlantic she knew from her childhood in Devon. Her county bred navigators and explorers, dragon fighters and adventurers. And yet a squall drifting on the horizon reminded her of the presence of danger on even the calmest water. 

Daybreak melted the fog and burnished the world silver. As she walked by a half dozen one-masted fishing boats tethered to the spit of land, her spirits rose with the sun. Gulls cried as the fishermen readied their boats to catch the morning tide, and a fresh easterly breeze caressed her cheek. She waved Walter’s guard to stay out of earshot and approached the boats.

As an intelligencer, proving her resourcefulness must be a priority. And while Allen slept off the French brandy from the night before, she would take care of this next part of their journey.

“You’ll be wanting passage, my lady?” A voice broke into her thoughts. Was she that obvious?

She turned and faced a man of about Allen’s age and height, shoulder-length blond hair straggling from under a wide-brimmed hat that concealed his expression. His left sleeve was pinned to his chest, flat and empty across the front of a jacket woven of some unidentifiable cloth, beige once and now salt-stained and crusted in white. 

“Yes.” 

The man limped to the boat tied at the end of the small spit, the incoming tide nudging the vessel and rocking it gently in place. His swaying gait mimicked any seafaring fisherman, and yet Frances suspected it came from a wound sustained on a battlefield. Swinging himself on deck, the fisherman deftly sorted his net with one hand, laying it out on the narrow planks and kicking it into place with worn boots.

Holding her guard back five paces, Frances followed him and waited on the shore. The vessel looked seaworthy, solidly made and sitting evenly in the water. Painted a rust colour and thick with a pitch coat below the water line, it appeared well-maintained.

“Tide is best just before sunset,” the man replied, “if you’re not afeard of the darkening. How many are you?” 

“Two and a half.”

The man raised an eyebrow.

“One is a child. She is two.”

The man shrugged and leaned forward to untether his boat. His legs planted wide, he easily moved with the rocking of the swell. “Same risk. Same price. A crown each. Proper coinage. No useless siege money.”

This man assumed a lot and negotiated little. Frances untied the rope and threw it to him. “How can I trust you?” 

“Do you have a choice? You’re not taking a packet boat for a reason.” He caught the rope and coiled it on the deck. “My hut is the third from the end. You can wait there today, for it is safer than the town from those curious about travellers.”

As the boat bobbed away from the land, the man lifted his hand in a gesture that almost appeared a salute.

“God save our king across the sea.” The words disappeared on the morning breeze. Had she really heard them under the slap and murmur of the waves on the sand?

The boat drifted out on the morning sea. A triangular brown sail raised, and a second smaller one at the stern. Frances stood until it disappeared into the rising sun. Beyond the horizon lay France, the king, her future. After a while, she turned. Time enough for daydreaming later.

Frances could not read Allen’s expression as he gazed back towards the cliffs, rearing cream and white from the ocean itself, barricading their precious island from the turbulent sea. The last of the light lingered on the western horizon. He held Isabella tightly in his arms, tucking her inside his coat so just her head peeped out from the dark blue wool. Frances knew Allen needed to embrace his child, protect her from the dragons. As important for him as for her. 

“So we forsake England,” she mused. Unlike Allen, she left no family behind, for hers had departed this earth long ago, before the war. Yet she knew the emptiness that came with leave-takings. This loss encompassed more than family, for it included her country too. Her courage lay as a hard kernel within her heart, for emotion crushed her soul when the boat left land.

“You choose curious words.” Allen stared at the cliffs, his chin resting on Isabella’s bright curls. “We sacrifice much for England, but leaving our family to follow the king is surely not renouncing.”

“Yet we fight from a foreign land, Allen, not on our own shores. Parliament claims our country while we run away.” She was in a strange mood, fey. 

“We are not running away, Frances. We are defending our future and the future of England.” Finally, he dragged his eyes away from the cliffs, now so diminished they became one with the westerly skies. He tucked Isabella closer into his jacket and smiled. “Are you fearful tonight, my love?” 

Her heart swelled as two pairs of bright eyes regarded her, both merry and alight with excitement. Her life, her destiny. Her only family. Isabella struggled and freed her hand, a little pink starfish waving against the brown sail, squealing at the seagulls swooping over the boat.

They laughed at their daughter’s delight. If there was to be a crossing over, a voyage to the unknown such as this, then Frances could not have wished for a smoother sailing or a happier child. 

God willing, their refuge in France would be as harmonious.

***

Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story.

Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel.

Elizabeth's works include The Lydiard Chronicles, a family saga set in 17th-century England during the Civil War, and The Godmother's Secret, which unravels the medieval mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. Her latest release, The King’s Intelligencer, follows Franny Apsley in the treacherous court of Charles II as she risks everything to uncover the dangerous truth behind the discovery of the princes’ bones.

Website: https://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJSt...

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjs...

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@elizabethjst...

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethstj...

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/eliza...

Amazon Author Page:     https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn

Goodreads: https://geni.us/GoodreadsElizStJohn

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents: Shattered Peace – A Century of Silence by Julie McDonald Zander

Book Title: Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence

Series: n/a

Author Name: Julie McDonald Zander

Publication Date: March 27, 2025 (Official book launch was May 10, 2025)

Publisher: St. Helens Press

Pages: 290

Genre: Historical Fiction, Time-slip, World War I

Any Triggers: It contains references to date rape, war violence, post-traumatic stress disorder, and faith and redemption

Twitter Handle: @MacZanderAuthor @cathiedunn

Instagram Handle: @juliemcdonaldzander @thecoffeepotbookclub 

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlh5nXX9bv8 

Tour Schedule Page: https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-tour-shattered-peace-by-julie-mcdonald-zander.html 

Shattered Peace: A Century of Silence 

by Julie McDonald Zander

A forgotten diary. A century-old secret. A town still haunted by its past.

When former Navy Seabee Colleen Holmes inherits an old house in Centralia, Washington, she sees it as a chance to escape her own ghosts and start anew. But as she peels back layers of history within the home’s walls, she unearths long-buried secrets tied to a dark chapter in the town’s history.

Hidden behind crumbling plaster, a faded diary and a bundle of love letters unveil the struggles of a soldier trapped in the trenches of France and the heartbreak of those left waiting at home. Yet the diary’s brittle pages hold more than just longing—they bear witness to the explosive events of November 11, 1919, when a parade meant to celebrate peace erupted into violence and bloodshed.

As Colleen pieces together the tragic choices that shattered lives and fractured a town, she realizes history is never truly buried. The wounds of yesterday still shape today, and the past is not done with her yet.

Inspired by true events, Shattered Peace is a gripping time-slip novel of love, loss, and the echoes of history that refuse to fade. Perfect for fans of The Alice Network and The Girl You Left Behind, this haunting tale of resilience, redemption, and the pursuit of truth will linger long after the final page.

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4AyWBp 

Julie McDonald Zander, an award-winning journalist, earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from the University of Washington before working two decades as a newspaper reporter and editor. Through her personal history company, Chapters of Life, she has published more than 75 individual, family, and community histories. 

Her debut novel, The Reluctant Pioneer, won a Will Rogers Medallion and was a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award for Best Historical Novel.

She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest, where they raised their two children.  

Website:  https://maczander.com/ which takes you to https://mczander2024.ag-sites.net/index.htm

Twitter / X:  https://x.com/MacZanderAuthor and    https://x.com/ChaptersofLife 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563140294856

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliemcdonaldzander/?hl=en

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mczander.bsky.social

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/maczanderauthor/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/julie-mcdonald-zander

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maczanderauthor?lang=en

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Julie-McDonald-Zander/author/B001K8VG86 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5856830.Julie_McDonald_Zander

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour presents Nero & Sporus by SP Somtow

Book Title: Nero and Sports

Series: Nero and Sporus

Author: S.P. Somtow

Publication Date:  May 30, 2025

Publisher: Diplodocus Press

Pages: 750

Genre: Historical Fiction / Historical Biographical Fiction / LGBTQ Interest

Any Triggers: Sexuality of various kinds, violence, slavery.

 https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-tour-nero-and-sporus-by-sp-somtow.html 

Nero and Sporus

by S.P. Somtow

Finally available in one volume! The decadence of Imperial Rome comes to life in S.P. Somtow's Literary Titan Award-winning novel about one of ancient history's wildest characters.

The historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Nero emasculated and married his slave Sporus, the spitting image of murdered Empress Poppaea. But history has more tidbits about Sporus, who went from "puer delicatus" to Empress to one Emperor and concubine to another, and ended up being sentenced to play the Earth-Goddess in the arena.

Read an excerpt from Nero and Sporus

Preparing to go out took us almost until dawn, but I still was not tired.  Just one hour of freedom, I thought, one hour of anonymity.  When we left through the front door, we weren’t noticed.  Gallio’s slaves were probably too busy worrying about whether they would live or die, and they weren’t that familiar with what I looked like.  In Roman society, what you wear identifies you as much as many facial features.

We giggled like children as we left the villa behind us.  Though this was a strange city, it was not cluttered and labyrinthine like Rome.  The real Corinth was long gone, from a series of civil wars; Julius Caesar’s recreation of Corinth was strictly according to the Roman colonial template: here the temples, over there the theater, here again a forum.  

But I felt like a boy again, giddy with short-term freedom, running down an alley with a playmate.  I had not felt this way for a long time.  The unimaginative architecture was not my concern.  We raced down an alley, rounded a temple, startled a dove-seller as he hawked sacrificial birds in cages in front of the Temple of Octavia.

We laughed as he chased the birds, hopping along the steps.

“Let’s help him,” I said to Hylas.

We bent down and started to catch the birds.  They seemed tame, not wanting to fly away.

I realized their wings were clipped.

I handed a bird to the vendor, and he sighed as he returned it to the cage.  “Yes, I know,” he said.  “It saves time.”

“It seems a pity,” I said.  “Birds should fly.”  I thought of my own fate.

“In my country,” he said in a strange accent, “the buyers don’t wring their necks to honor the gods.  In fact, they set them free, to earn merit in their next life.”

“That is a beautiful idea.”

“But what the clients don’t know is … their wings are clipped anyway.  I was a bird-seller’s slave once.  My job was to catch the escaped birds so we could sell them again.  The clients did not know the birds were used again and again, so their intentions were pure.”

“It seems less wasteful than killing them,” I said.

“If me was a bird,” Hylas said — his Greek had not yet caught up with his Latin — “Me rather die than not fly.”

“What country are you from?” I asked him.

“I’m from the very farthest limit of the Hellenic world,” said the vendor, “beyond even the Empire of Caesar.  “I am from Bactria, which is in India.”

“The farthest footfall of Alexander the Great,” I said, remembering some past comment of my tutor Aristarchos.  

“You’ve heard of it!  My, you had a good tutor,” he said.  “You are not who you seem to be, young master.”  We finished caging the birds and the vendor handed us an obol for our efforts.  “Go share a lamb skewer.”

We left the temple steps and turned another corner.  The sun was rising.  I could smell grilled spiced meat and warm bread, and I could tell we were near a market.  “You heard him,” Hylas said in Latin.  “Lamb.”

“You go.”  I had become despondent suddenly.  I could not help thinking of the flightless doves, captured and recaptured to ease the sensibilities of pilgrims.  

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/ba90Qx 

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Once referred to by the International Herald Tribune as 'the most well-known expatriate Thai in the world,' Somtow Sucharitkul is no longer an expatriate, since he has returned to Thailand after five decades of wandering the world. He is best known as an award-winning novelist and a composer of operas. 

Born in Bangkok, Somtow grew up in Europe and was educated at Eton and Cambridge. His first career was in music and in the 1970s, his first return to Asia, he acquired a reputation as a revolutionary composer, the first to combine Thai and Western instruments in radical new sonorities. Conditions in the arts in the region at the time proved so traumatic for the young composer that he suffered a major burnout, emigrated to the United States, and reinvented himself as a novelist.

His earliest novels were in the science fiction field and he soon won the John W. Campbell for Best New Writer as well as being nominated for and winning numerous other awards in the field. But science fiction was not able to contain him and he began to cross into other genres. In his 1984 novel Vampire Junction, he injected a new literary inventiveness into the horror genre, in the words of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, 'skillfully combining the styles of Stephen King, William Burroughs, and the author of the Revelation to John.' Vampire Junction was voted one of the forty all-time greatest horror books by the Horror Writers' Association, joining established classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. He has also published children's books, a historical novel, and about a hundred works of short fiction.

In the 1990s Somtow became increasingly identified as a uniquely Asian writer with novels such as the semi-autobiographical Jasmine Nights and a series of stories noted for a peculiarly Asian brand of magic realism, such as Dragon's Fin Soup, which is currently being made into a film directed by Takashi Miike. He recently won the World Fantasy Award, the highest accolade given in the world of fantastic literature, for his novella The Bird Catcher. His seventy-plus books have sold about two million copies world-wide. He has been nominated for or won over forty awards in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

After becoming a Buddhist monk for a period in 2001, Somtow decided to refocus his attention on the country of his birth, founding Bangkok's first international opera company and returning to music, where he again reinvented himself, this time as a neo-Asian neo-Romantic composer. The Norwegian government commissioned his song cycle Songs Before Dawn for the 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, and he composed at the request of the government of Thailand his Requiem: In Memoriam 9/11 which was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.

According to London's Opera magazine, 'in just five years, Somtow has made Bangkok into the operatic hub of Southeast Asia.' His operas on Thai themes, Madana and Mae Naak, have been well received by international critics. 

Somtow has recently been awarded the 2017 Europa Cultural Achievement Award for his work in bridging eastern and western cultures. In 2020 he returned to science fiction after a twenty-year absence with "Homeworld of the Heart", a fifth novel in the Inquestor series.

Currently he has just finished Nero and Sporus, a massive historical novel set in Imperial Rome.

To support S.P. Somtow's work, visit his patreon account at patreon.com/spsomtow. His website is at www.somtow.com. 

Author Links:

Website: https://www.somtow.com/ 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/spsomtow 

Twitter / X: https://x.com/somtow 

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/somtow 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/somtow 

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/s-p-somtow 

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APBJXC/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/81037.S_P_Somtow