Brendan Carroll's Blog: Working my way back, page 9

What is it Really?

I have one agonizing worry about my books... not all of them, just the Assassin Chronicles series. I have wondered again and again what genre it belongs in. It's fantasy, of course, because as the series progresses, the various fantasy populations arrive gradually. Dragons, faeries, evil queens, story-book castles, mystical horses, necromancy, alchemy, magick. It's all there. There is also much history concerning the Templars and the Crusades. Then throw a little sci-fi in the mix with time t...

Wow! How Can It Get?

I know these blogs are usually book related, but this weather and the other 'whether', the 'whether' or not we are going into greenhouse or deepfreeze is giving me a headache. I'm looking at the temperature right now and it's 5:31 PM after a rainy/stormy afternoon and it's 85 degrees. The other day it was 102 degrees and the time was 7:52 PM.
I have my own ideas about greenhouse/deepfreeze, but I won't bore you with those. This is simply a thought about just how will it get before we (people) must migrate north or move underground? And just how long will this take?
I'm not a spring chicken any more and while I may have once considered myself a likely survivor in the case of some disaster on an epic scale, I no longer count myself in that number. I can only hope now that, if the end of things as we know them comes during my lifetime, I am gone quickly and relatively painlessly.
I used to go outside. I don't anymore. I used to want to go down and walk along the beach... not anymore. Now just the thought of going fishing is frightening due to the heat. It would have to be night-fishing or nothing... maybe ice fishing and it doesn't get that cold here... yet.

Well, enough said about that subject and on to better things.

Guest Blog at Sarah Hadad's "Lit and Laundry"

I have been featured on Sarah Hadad's blogsite today at "Lit and Laundry". Check it out:
http://litandlaundry.blogspot.com/

Thanks Sarah!

Guest Blog Post for Red Cross of Gold

Here is a reposting of a guest blog I did for Sarah Hadad's blogsite at: LIt and Literature

Today I'm pleased to introduce Brendan Carroll, who has an entire series available for you to enjoy. Leave a comment for Brendan and for any previous or future authors in this author party and you will be eligible to win a $50.00 Amazon.com gift certificate!

The Red Cross of Gold:. Assassin Chronicles leans toward fantasy, but is set in modern times and centers around a rather grumpy, semi-immortal knight left over from the Crusades. He is one of twelve members of the ruling Council of the Order of the Red Cross of Gold. His primary job as Knight of Death and assassin for the order makes him a rather dark character to start with. His secondary occupation as alchemist requires his attention in a dusty, musty old lab in Scotland making gold to support the Order’s financial needs. He considers himself a simple monk and wants nothing more than to be left alone, but fate has other things in store for him. The Order’s Grand Master sends him on a mission to America to retrieve a traitorious member of the Order who has defected to another Order. It should have been a simple snatch and grab mission, dead or alive, no problem, but he runs into trouble in Texas when he runs afoul of nasty little fellow who throws some sort of mysterious chemical in his face that causes him to temporarily forget who he is and why he’s there. By the time his memories return, he is in deep trouble.

I have always been interested in mystical subjects such as the mystery of the Templar Knights’ treasures, the Ark of the Covenant mystery, Freemasonry legends, mythology, conspiracy theories, ufo’s, quantum physics, time travel, cosmology and other subjects too numerous to mention. The myriad facts and trivia that I amassed over the years inspired me to attempt to tie everything together in one simple package.

I guess my favorite character has to be the Chevalier Mark Andrew Ramsay, Knight of Death. But I have a number of characters I am quite fond of throughout the series. I love to start off making the reader dislike the characters and then gradually cause them to fall in love with them. I wouldn’t ever classify the books as romance exclusively, but I have heard from a number of my female readers just how sexy my grumpy knight really is.

In addition to writing, I’ve done a variety of crafty things over the years from making birdhouses to oil painting (which I found much too expensive and messy to continue). I love to draw and paint and make things. I’m an amateur bird-watcher and I collect wind-up toys.

Right now, I’m attempting to read The Cost of Betrayal by David Dalglish. I have Gone for a Soldier by Jeff Hepple waiting in my kindle as well as a number of other indie books that sound very interesting. I am also reading a new book about faeries.

In the works is The Red Cross of Gold XVIII:. The Company of Women, the eighteen book in the Assassin Chronicles series. It should be out before the end of the month. I have written all the books in the series already and am now simply editing and formatting them for kindle, smashwords and paperback editions.

Here is a very nice review I received on The Knight of Death from one of my readers:

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I took my kids swimming, and sat there for 3 hours engrossed and on the edge of my seat. They had to beg me to take them home, because I didn't want to stop reading. Every time I got a free minute, I wanted to get back to this book. I am so glad there are many more in the series!

Our hero is Mark Ramsay, immortal Templar Knight, alchemist and assassin, rough and tough and oh so gorgeous. He finds himself kidnapped and without his memory, and discovers who he is and what he is about, along with the reader. Just when you think things can't get any worse for our hero, his Brothers come to his......rescue? Murder and mayhem, sword fights and brawls, flashbacks to life during the Crusades, love and loss and sex and even some unexpected humor all abound in this terrific tale.

I highly recommend this series!


My books can be found at Amazon.com, smashwords and Barnes & Noble. They are also listed on KOBO and in the I-store and are available in a number of e-formats as well as paperbacks.

I have blogs at Blogspot, Wordpress & Author’s Den. I can be found on Facebook, LibraryThing, Shelfari and Goodreads.

5 Stars for the King of Terror (from a stranger)

It's strange how authors keep hoping that someone, somewhere will read their works, like them and write nice big reviews on Amazon and other places, but it seems that ill-will and procrastination are much stronger than good-will and enthusiasm. I know very well from my sells reports that there are people out there buying and reading (I assume) my Assassin Chronicles. And I know that they must have enjoyed them (or else the world is full of masochists) because I am selling copies of Book 15...

New 5 Star Review on Book II:. The King of Terrors

5.0 out of 5 stars The Assasin Chronicles have me HOOKED!, July 17, 2010
By Faith Michaels "Hope" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Cross of Gold II:. the King of Terrors: The Assassin Chronicles (Volume 2) (Paperback)
I was convinced when I read the first book that Brendan Carroll was onto something, but honestly did not think he could outdo himself... WRONG! This book is even BETTER than the first! The story moves forward with purpose. Not only did I get sucked-in with this one but I read it all in record time because I was preparing myself for the next book. I fell in love with the sexy knights and could not believe I was torn between which hero I wanted the sweet Texas girl to fall for. In this book I started hating characters that I originally loved and vise versa. Never has a book touched so many emotions in me as a reader... I caught myself wanting to make a phone call to the author to ask WHY he did THAT to this character or that... but only because I had already become so involved with each character I felt like I knew them...and of course books three forward were purchased BEFORE I finished this one. I just did not want to be somewhere wondering what in the world was going on with MY characters without being able to access them immediately...sad but true... I am hooked...DANG IT!

Books on Sale

Amazon has kindly put the Red Cross of Gold I:. the Knight of Death and Book II:. the King of Terrors on sale for only $1.99. How books are chosen for these sales or discounts is mysterious, but at least it helps the readers and the authors whenever they decide to discount books. I only wish that they would give the author heads up so that we can promote the discounts in our blogs and such.

Upcoming, the Red Cross of Gold XVIII:. The Company of Women is currently under final revision and will soon be released for sale at amazon.com.

Hello out there! Is anyone home?

I recently got a few of my books up and running in DTB paperback) and a couple more at Smashwords which allows greater distribution and more e-format downloading options. However, Smashwords has stopped selling for me altogether. I've gotten no sales according to my reports since early May. I wrote to them because I keep seeing numbers of downloads change though I see no sales. The answer was that they were working on it.


Working on what? I wonder. Some of my fellow authors, Mr. Patterson, for example say that they have many sales on Smashwords. I cannot believe that I've not sold a single book there in over two months. Strange.


What is really strange is that my book sales on Amazon in both ebook and paperback have increased and that means people are reading my books and coming back and buying the series. This naturally makes me think: "Hey! Someone out there likes the books!" This is good, but total silence in the review section and few, if any, emails makes me wonder if the books are being bought by robots or maybe from passing ET's who have sent emails and reviews from millions of light years away and I simply haven't received their wonderous comments yet. Or perhaps they are being purchased by Time Travelers who have posted in the future. Hmmmm? Am I onto something? Could it be that we are being studied as a race through the Red Cross of Gold series? How would that change the destiny of the human race I wonder?

Hello Out There! Anyone Home?

I recently got a few of my books up and running in DTB (paperback) and a couple more at Smashwords which allows greater distribution and more e-format downloading options. However, Smashwords has stopped selling for me altogether. I've gotten no sales according to my reports since early May. I wrote to them because I keep seeing numbers of downloads change though I see no sales. The answer was that they were working on it.
Working on what? I wonder. Some of my fellow authors, Mr. Patterson...

5 Star Review!!

In looking at some of my book sites over on Amazon, I found a very nice review on Book 5: Quinta Essentia.
Since this blog will not allow pasting, I will paste a link so that anyone interested in reading the review can go and look at it. It's a five star review and I'm very proud of it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001P5HBTM