C.J. Archer's Blog, page 34
August 7, 2015
July 24, 2015
THE LAST NECROMANCER can be pre-ordered at a discounted price....
THE LAST NECROMANCER can be pre-ordered at a discounted price. After August 11, the price goes up. All links are on my website: http://cjarcher.com/…/the-ministry-of…/the-last-necromancer/
July 21, 2015
Early reviews of The Last Necromancer
Early reviews are trickling in for THE LAST NECROMANCER. There are 7 at Amazon.com right now. Here are some snippets that I love:
“This book is by far one of the best!!!”
“The Last Necromancer is worth five stars… and a moon.”
“This book is a page turner from the moment you begin reading.”
“It is a book that you can’t put down but you want to read slow so it will last. It is one I will read again and soon.”
If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet, then please do so. Use the bookstore links on this page: http://cjarcher.com/…/the-ministry-of…/the-last-necromancer/
July 15, 2015
The Last Necromancer: Excerpt #1
London, summer 1889
The other prisoners eyed me as if I were a piece of tender meat. I was someone new to distract them from their boredom, and small enough that I couldn’t stop one—let alone four—from doing what they wanted. It was only a matter of who would be the first to enjoy me.
“He’s mine.” The prisoner’s tongue darted out through his tangled beard and licked what I supposed were lips, hidden beneath all that wiry black hair. “Come here, boy.”
I shuffled away from him but instead of the brick wall of the cell, I smacked into a soft body. “Looks like he wants me, Dobby. Don’t ye, lad?” Large hands clamped around my arms, and thick fingers dug into my flesh through my jacket and shirt. The man spun me round and I gaped up at the brute grinning toothlessly at me. My heart rose and dove, rose and dove, and cold sweat trickled down my spine. He was massive. He wore no jacket or waistcoat, only a shirt stained with blood, sweat and grime. The top buttons had popped open, most likely from the strain of containing his enormous chest, and a thatch of gray hair sprouted through the gap and crept up to his neck rolls. Hot, foul breath assaulted my nostrils.
I tried to turn my face away but he grasped my jaw. The wrenching motion caused my hair to slide off my forehead and eyes, revealing more of my face than I had in a long time. A new fear spread through me, as sickening as the man I faced. Only two prisoners seemed interested in a boy, but if they realized I was a girl, the others would likely want me too.
“Anyone ever tell you you’re too pretty for a boy?” My tormentor chuckled, but he didn’t seem like he’d discovered my secret. “Pretty boys can get themselves into trouble.”
Girls even more so. It was just my ill luck to get caught stealing an apple from the costermonger’s cart outside the cemetery and wind up in the overcrowded holding cell at Highgate Police Station. The irony wasn’t lost on me, but it wasn’t in the least amusing. As an eighteen year-old girl, I should be separated from the men, but I’d been passing myself off as a thirteen year-old boy for so long it hadn’t even occurred to me to tell the policemen. With my half-starved body, and mop of hair covering most of my face, nobody had questioned my gender or age.
The big brute jerked me forward, slamming me against his body. My nose smacked into a particularly filthy patch of his shirt and I gagged at the combined stenches of sweat, vomit, excrement and gin. I wasn’t too clean myself, but this fellow’s odor was overpowering. Bile burned my throat but I swallowed it quickly. Showing weakness would only make it worse for me. I knew that from experience.
“Come here and keep old Badger warm.”
Warm? It was summer, and the cell was hotter than a furnace with four adult men and myself crammed into a space designed for one.
“I’m next,” said the bearded Dobby, closing in to get a better look at me.
“If there’s anything left of him after old Badger’s broken him in.” Badger chuckled again and fumbled with the front of his trousers.
I closed my hands into fists and clamped down on my fear. Shouting for the constable wouldn’t help. He’d told the other prisoners to “Enjoy,” when he’d tossed me into the cell. It had only been a few minutes since he’d walked off, whistling. It felt like hours. I had to fight now. It was the only way left. Not that I stood a chance against the men, but they might beat me unconscious, with any luck. It was best not to be awake while they took their liberties.
I swung my fist, but Badger was faster than he looked. He caught my wrist and sneered. “That ain’t going to help you.” The sneer vanished and he shoved me into the wall.
I put my hands up and managed to stop myself smashing into the whitewashed bricks, but my wrists and arms jarred from the force. I gasped in pain, but smothered the cry that welled up my throat.
“Leave the boy alone.” The voice wasn’t one I’d heard yet. It didn’t come from outside the cell but from another prisoner to my right.
“What’d you say?” Badger snarled.
“I said leave the boy alone. He’s just a child.”
I turned and pressed my back into the wall. My rescuer stood in a similar position, his arms crossed over his chest. He was perhaps late twenties, with fair hair and cloudy gray eyes circled by red-rimmed lids. He wasn’t nearly as tall as Badger, nor as solid, and I doubted he could defeat either Badger or Dobby in a fight. My heart sank.
“You going to make us?” Dobby asked.
The man shrugged then winced, as if the movement hurt. He sported a bruise on his cheek, and his blond hair was matted with blood. “One must try. It’s the decent thing to do.”
“‘One must try.‘” Badger mimicked the other man’s toff accent to perfection. Dobby and the fourth prisoner, lounging on the cot bed, laughed.
Dobby straightened his back, threw out his chest, and affected a feminine walk to where the man stood. The prisoner on the bed laughed even harder at the hairy beast’s acting. “Oh, protect me from these brutes, sir,” whimpered Dobby in a high voice. “You’re my hero.”
The blond man lowered his hands to his sides and curled them into fists. I held my breath and waited for the first punch to be thrown. The man smiled instead. It held no humor.
Dobby tugged on the lapels of the blond man’s jacket, pretending to straighten it, then fidgeted with the high, stiff shirt collar. The gentleman wore no tie, and his hat and gloves were also missing. The fine cut of his clothes reminded me of my father, always so perfectly groomed. Even the fellow’s aristocratic bearing was very much like my father’s. Whether it was also an affectation this gentleman had developed, it was difficult to tell. I wasn’t as experienced with the upper members of society and their ways as I used to be.
“Finished?” the blond man drawled. I wondered why the gentleman had landed in jail and why he was defending me, a stranger. He’d get himself killed if he didn’t keep quiet.
His fun spoiled by the gentleman’s lack of fear, Dobby snorted and moved away. He turned back to me and licked his lips. Badger wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and eyed me with renewed interest. He reached for me, but the blond man smacked his hand away. Neither Badger nor I had noticed him approach.
Badger bared his teeth in a snarl. “You don’t get to ruin Badger’s fun!” He smashed his fist into the blond man’s face, sending him reeling back into the bed.
The prisoner lounging there had to quickly pull up his legs or be sat on. The blond man recovered, and with a growl of rage, lunged at Badger. But he swung his fists wildly and his blows merely glanced off the bigger, meaner prisoner. Badger responded with another punch to the gentleman’s jaw. Blood splattered from the blond man’s mouth as he careened backward and slammed into the wall. His head smacked into the bricks, and the crack of his skull turned my stomach.
Dobby laughed, sending spittle flying from the slit in his beard. Badger dusted off his hands and watched as the gentleman folded in on himself and crumpled to the floor like a ragdoll. My heart sank, and it was only then that I realized I’d let it rise in hope.
My rescuer was dead.
July 9, 2015
Get the entire 1st Freak House Trilogy at a huge reduction. The...
Get the entire 1st Freak House Trilogy at a huge reduction. The box set is now on sale at the following bookstores:
Amazon - http://amzn.to/1Mh1Ine
Amazon UK - http://amzn.to/1gpCZD3
iBooks - http://apple.co/1JQVnS4
Nook - http://bit.ly/1D2wzPa
July 6, 2015
This is the house on which Lichfield Towers is based. It’s...
This is the house on which Lichfield Towers is based. It’s actually Chateau Miranda in Belgium, but I’ve transplanted it to Highgate, London. Here’s an excerpt from The Last Necromancer*, when Charlie first sets eyes on the place where her captors take her:
I gaped at the mansion. It sat atop a low rise like a crow with wings spread out in either direction. The building was a mad collection of shapes. Tall, narrow pinnacles shot from the centers of square towers positioned between the triangular gables and rectangular chimneys. But it was the central tower that caught my attention. At almost twice the height of the rest of the house, it was an imposing entrance. Beneath the three cones at its crown was a small window then nothing but dark stone plunging down to the large arched door. Rapunzel wouldn’t look out of place in that high window, but it would take more than a lifetime for her hair to grow long enough to reach the ground.
I recoiled and suppressed a shiver. Sir watched me with those all-seeing eyes of his. His expression remained cool, detached, unreadable. It was unlikely he cared what I thought about our destination, unless he could use that fear against me.
“Is this Bedlam?” I asked. I could well imagine the mansion was the infamous insane asylum. It looked bleak enough to house those miserable, mad people. People like me.
Pretty snorted. “An apt assessment, but no.”
***Pre-order The Last Necromancer from:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Necromancer-Ministry-Curiosities-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZMVECQA/?tag=cjarcaut-20
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-last-necromancer/id1006356419?mt=11
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-necromancer-cj-archer/1122151534?ean=2940151972086
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/C_J_Archer_The_Last_Necromancer?id=oBLhCQAAQBAJ
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-last-necromancer
July 2, 2015
Here’s the cover for the 2nd book of the Ministry of...
Here’s the cover for the 2nd book of the Ministry of Curiosities series. Release date will be August 24th, only a couple of weeks after book 1.
June 26, 2015
FREE Freak House story!This short story features Hannah and Jack...
FREE Freak House story!
This short story features Hannah and Jack Langley from the 1st Freak House Trilogy. STRANGE HORIZONS is available only to my newsletter subscribers - for FREE. So subscribe now if you haven’t already and read STRANGE HORIZONS.
~CJ
