Steven A. McKay's Blog, page 10
August 20, 2021
Wolf’s Head 99c in the USA, 99p UK!
Book 1 in The Forest Lord series, Wolf’s Head, was already 99p in the UK as part of the Kindle August Deals, but, for a few days only, it’s now also 99c in the USA! Some of the other books are also reduced in price by 50% or more so, if you need to complete your collection, or finally get around to starting it, now is the time.
Get your copy of Wolf’s Head at the links below, and enjoy…
If you’re waiting to read my new Druid novel, Bear of Britain, my editor will be going over it next week so it should be complete soon afterwards. I hope you all enjoy it! Keep an eye out here, or join my email list HERE to make sure you get updates on my new books and chances to win cool prizes like signed copies, posters, even mugs sometimes!
August 10, 2021
Wolf’s Head just 99p in the UK!
Yep, as part of Amazon’s Monthly Kindle Deals book 1 in The Forest Lord series, Wolf’s Head, is only 99p HERE! Pretty insane bargain, right? If you haven’t read any of these books yet, now is the time to do it, especially when buying the Kindle edition for such a low price ALSO lets you get the Audible edition for practically nothing. What are you waiting for, head over to Amazon UK and grab this now! 
If you’re interested in my Warrior Druid of Britain Chronicles, well, I’ve now completed Book 4, Bear of Britain, and it’ll be edited in the coming weeks so….If all goes to plan, you should be able to buy it this September or October. I hope you all enjoy the continuing adventures of Bellicus, Duro and Cai.
July 8, 2021
All 3 Warrior Druid of Britain novels on special offer (USA)!
The first three books in my Warrior Druid of Britain Chronicles are on special offer for just a few days on Amazon.com’s Kindle store. If you haven’t read them yet, now is the time to start! Each novel is usually priced at either $3.99 or $4.99 so this is a good chance to complete your collection before book 4 comes out later this year! On top of that, if you use Audible, you’ll get the audiobooks for each of these at a greatly reduced price if you buy the Kindle edition first – bargains galore, eh?
CLICK HERE to go directly to the series page.
Book 4 in the series, Bear of Britain is coming along and I’m just writing the final battle sections just now before sending it off to my editor. Look out for it coming soon!
July 3, 2021
Old Kilpatrick Antonine Wall Distance Stone
As you may know, the village I live in, Old Kilpatrick, was once part of the Antonine Wall – the very last fort on the western end in fact and, as such, an important site for the Romans. A distance stone was found here over three hundred years ago and, while that’s now safely in a museum, a replica has recently been placed beside the canal. It’s an impressive, and extremely interesting piece depicting the goddess Victory, and a boar which was the emblem of the 20th Legion who dedicated the original stone on which the reproduction is based. Carved by students Zenith Orr, Jamie McLaughlin, and Callum Grieve of City of Glasgow College, they did a fantastic job!
I mention Old Kilpatrick in my novel, The Druid, giving it the name which it might have been known by the Romans around two-thousand years ago, CREDIGONE.
Coroticus jerked his head at the druid and Bellicus, noting his king’s wordless command stood, drawing in a great lungful of air.
“Silence!”
His voice seemed to fill the hall from end to end, reverberating from the rafters as if they were in one of the Christians’ stone churches with their clever acoustics. But this was merely a ramshackle old long hall, its wooden walls and rafters rotten and tired, and the druid’s voice, so incongruously and unnaturally loud, brought a stillness to the gathering that made Nectovelius’s face pale.
“Your lord would speak with you.”
Bellicus gestured with his left hand and Nectovelius peered up at him, wide-eyed and bemused, until at last the druid’s words penetrated his drink-addled brain and he pulled himself upright, forcing a smile back onto his bearded face as he addressed the now-silent gathering.
“My friends,” the lordling smiled, then looked down at the table, searching for his mead cup which he found and drained quickly, nervously, before continuing. “Tonight, we are honoured by the presence of our High King and his retinue.”
There were cheers at his proclamation – Coroticus was a popular king from a long line who had kept the marauding Saxons, Picts and Dalriadans mostly at bay since the Roman garrison that had been based in nearby Credigone departed sixty years ago.
“A royal visit is cause for much celebration,” Nectovelius continued when the babble of appreciation had died down. “So, eat and drink your fill, and enjoy the hospitality of my hall this night.”
Such an exhortation brought, predictably, more raucous cheers from the gathered villagers who were always pleased at the suggestion of a feast. It didn’t take a skilled orator to bring a crowd to heel, Bellicus mused. The promise of free meat and drink was ever enough to win the masses over.
And why not? The druid lifted his own cup which had just been refilled by a serving girl and drank deeply. It was a fine moonlit night, they were safe here in this poorly maintained yet comfortable enough hall, and – he glanced sideways at the figure between himself and King Coroticus – they were with good companions.
The queen must have felt the druid’s piercing gaze as she turned then to look directly at him, meeting his eyes, a small smile tugging at the edges of her mouth. He returned Narina’s stare but his attention was rudely drawn away as he heard Nectovelius continue his drunken address to the people of Dun Buic.
“…in their party is the renowned bard, Bellicus,” the lord was saying. His words didn’t draw cheers this time, only excited murmurs. People were wary of the giant who was known to be as much a warrior as he was a druid.
Bellicus never called himself a bard, however. He tossed a piece of fatty beef to the slavering dog beneath the table and waited, irritated, for the noble to continue.
“Perhaps you will sing for us this night?” Nectovelius said, looking blearily at the druid, a slack-jawed smile on his face. “A song of battle, and honour?”
“And love!” a female voice broke in from the crowd, bringing laughs.
“There’ll be plenty of time for that later,” a man leered and everyone raised their drinks aloft, cheering, men hungrily eyeing the women and girls serving the drinks.
Bellicus considered the request. The Romans had tried to obliterate the druids and their teachings but those in the north, far from Imperial rule, carried on their traditions. Specially chosen young men like Bellicus still learned the lore and skills of ages long past from their elders. So, of course he could carry a tune, but he didn’t particularly welcome the chance to do it this night.
You can READ MORE in The Druid, where things are about to go sideways for Bellicus and his feasting companions!
For such a small place, Old Kilpatrick has some interesting history (being the possible birthplace of St Patrick, who also gets a little mention in my Warrior Druid of Britain novels…). Find out more, including a link to an altar to Jupiter found here, on the Wikipedia page. Feel free to edit it and add me as one of the notable people 
More distance stones are to be erected all the way along the Antonine Wall and I welcome this renewed interest in the area’s rich history, along with the playpark I mentioned in another post. Ideally, I’d love some lottery funding to be allocated for the building of something like a reproduction of one of the actual forts, perhaps at Castlehill. Maybe one day…
June 21, 2021
Duntocher Roman Fort
If you’ve read my novel The Druid you’ll remember the hero Bellicus riding through a place called Dun Tochair. There was once a Roman fortlet there, along the Antonine Wall between Old Kilpatrick and Castlehill in Bearsden (I posted a short blog about that one HERE).
Here’s an extract from the novel:
So the druid tried to find the tracks left by the Saxons’ boots and, at first, it had been simple enough. They had followed the course of the massive old turf wall which the emperor Antoninus had ordered built years earlier. Despite its age, and the fact the legions had long-since deserted it, it was still an impressive feature that dominated the landscape. It also boasted a road running parallel to it and that was the route Catia’s captors had taken, at least as far as Dun Tochair, a few miles to the east.
That was when things became confused. Dun Tochair had boasted a small fort in Roman times and, although tumbled into ruins now, the road here retained most of its stones, rendering the Saxons’ tracks impossible to read.
Bellicus gazed out across the landscape – Dun Tochair sat on a hill which afforded fine views of the whole area he’d just ridden from – but, despite the lofty vantage point, there were no obvious signs of the raiding party.
Sighing irritably, knowing every second he wasted would take the princess further and further away from him, his eyes settled on a pair of low hovels not far from the road. Smoke rose from one of the buildings and the breeze brought the delicious smell of porridge to him.
Well, the local authorities have built a great new children’s playpark on the site, including a couple of massive centurions to guard it! I took my little boy there on Saturday and we had great fun. Check out the photos below.
Not exactly Uchaf the Raven…
Bellicus (lol) and Duro
Not sure even Catia could fit on this never mind Bellicus!
On the right, at the side of the houses, you actually see the next fort along the Antonine Wall, Castlehill. It was located at the stand of trees you can just make out a mile or two in the distance. A signal or beacon would be spotted easily on either of these sites if the Roman soldiers needed help from their comrades in the next fort.
This is a great place to take your kids if you’re nearby. I wish the authorities would do more to celebrate our rich heritage here in Scotland. Building a replica of one of these Roman forts along the Antonine Wall would be ideal and draw in the tourists I’m sure…
If you haven’t read my Warrior Druid of Britain books they include locations like this, Dunadd, Dumbarton Rock, Dunottar and even Stonehenge. Check them out HERE if you enjoy exciting historical fiction set in post-Roman Britain!
June 7, 2021
New Robin Hood podcast available
I recently appeared on a brand new podcast all about Robin Hood, called INTO THE GREENWOOD. We chatted about my writing, research, and the new video game Hood – Outlaws and Legends which I wrote for. It was a lot of fun and I think makes for an entertaining and even amusing listen! Check it out here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1727735/8658776
May 20, 2021
HOOD – Outlaws and Legends out now!
Available on PC, Xbox One & Series S/X, and Playstation 4 & 5, Hood – Outlaws and Legends is the game I was writing for a couple of years ago. It’s finally out and I’m really impressed – it’s a LOT of fun, and the developers used, as far as I can tell, everything I wrote for them. It’s a multiplayer game, there’s no real “story” as such, but each of the four characters (and the Sheriff) have their own legends which are unlocked the more you play, the maps all have backstories, and there’s little collectable trinkets which players get for assassinating State guards. It’s so cool to see my name in the credits, with a page of its own too!
I must admit, I’m not amazingly good at the game but it doesn’t really matter. I can put it on my Xbox for an hour or two once the kids are in bed and run around smashing people with John’s great hammer – it’s quite cathartic after a hard day! If you own one of these gaming platforms you should check it out – it’s quite cheap to buy and the developers promise continuous bug fixes and gameplay tweaks to make it even more fun, along with new maps (wait until you see Mount Storgramand, it looks incredible and was really interesting to write a backstory around).
I really hope it does well – if so, perhaps the developers will ask me to write more which would be great but, on top of that, having seen their enthusiasm and excitement for this project all the way back when they were starting to design it, I’d love their hard work to be rewarded. So, if you DO check it out and enjoy it, be sure to let others know. Leave a review, tell your gaming buddies, share it on social media, all the usual stuff. Now, I might get a few games of HOOD in later tonight but, this morning I have to get on with writing Bear of Britain before recording an interview about all things Robin Hood at lunch time. Have a great day all!
PS – if you found yourself here because you were interested in the game but have no idea who I am, check out my books HERE.
May 13, 2021
Conn Iggulden – PROTECTOR review
I was sent an advance copy of this novel by the publishers, Penguin/Random House and I was very happy to accept it as Iggulden was one of the writers who got me into this historical fiction stuff with his Emperor series. I enjoyed those immensely but must admit I’ve not read anything else by him as the periods he was covering didn’t really interest me. That is, until now. Protector is actually book two in his Athenian series and I really would have liked to start with the first, The Gates of Athens, but I simply don’t have time to read much fiction these days.
You will all know who Conn Iggulden is since he’s one of the biggest names in histfic alongside the likes of Mr Cornwell and Simon Scarrow and, when you start reading Protector it hits you pretty quickly just WHY he’s held in such high regard. The writing is excellent, with many sentences popping out at you and catching the attention because they’re so well crafted. The same goes for the little snippets of historical detail that tell you a) the author really researched this period and b) he has the ability to effortlessly slide these into the text without it ever feeling like a dry history lesson. Rather, you feel enriched by his knowledge. Well, I did anyway. I love that kind of thing.
Similarly, we learn just how difficult it was, logistically, to keep a massive army on the move every day. One chapter starts with a description of the incredible amount of water needed to quench the thirst of thousands upon thousands of men and horses and it really does drive home the monumental task facing the leaders of the Persian army, or any other huge army. “Like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in it,” is the line used to sum it up I believe and it’s really interesting for the author to take the focus away from the more obvious aspects of war – battles! – for a moment, to make the whole thing seem more realistic and less about heroism and simple skill with a blade.
That’s just one section, though, so don’t worry, there’s lots of fighting and killing to whet your thirst for violence! The sea battles at the start are very well described as are the fights we see on land later on. There’s a duel near the end which I really enjoyed as it ends a little differently than I expected but all the fight scenes are visceral and exciting.
The tale told here is massive in scope – you’re looking at armies numbering in hundreds of thousands! That’s quite a difference to many historical novels, especially my own which usually have warbands of a few hundred or even just a dozen. I think the author has made a choice in writing this book to make the whole thing feel BIG – there’s very little dialogue and we flit between characters without ever really seeing them as normal people. We’re TOLD about them, but there’s not many scenes of basic human interaction like men sitting drinking together, sharing jokes and songs, couples being intimate or the like. I can’t be sure, obviously, but I think Iggulden must have decided to avoid scenes like that – avoided making the people too minutely detailed – because he wanted to focus on the greater overall picture. These events were momentous and we do get a vivid sense of how incredibly powerful these nations were. Sparta’s incredible fighting prowess, Persia’s sheer numbers and ambition, and Greek cunning and resilience.
Can’t beat a good book and a beer in the garden when it’s sunny!One issue I had with all this, however, is the fact there’s just so much prose. I like reading dialogue (unless we’re talking about an HP Lovecraft story) and I felt Protector could have used more. I missed a sense of camaraderie between the characters and it’s a very long book to have so much unbroken text. I mean, I’ve just opened the book at random to look and chapter 28 has no dialogue at all. Like I say, I believe this must have been a decision the author took on purpose and I think it certainly works in terms of imparting a sense of the enormous scale of this conflict – this novel is about PEOPLES rather than PEOPLE – but I think it took me longer to finish the book as a result.
With that gripe out of the way, I have to say I enjoyed Protector, it is truly epic, and I expect fans of the aforementioned Scarrow and Cornwell will too, especially if this historical period interests them. Might be best to start with the first book in the series though!
Buy a copy at the links below:
May 2, 2021
The Abbey of Death UK & Australia Kindle Deal
My Will Scaflock novella, The Abbey of Death, is just 99p in the UK and $1.49 in Australia this month. I expect everyone here has already read it, but tell your friends!
UK link – https://amzn.to/3ecB4Tj
Australia link – https://www.amazon.com.au/Abbey-Death-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B074J3XVVV
He wanted to find peace in prayer, but some men serve God best with a sword in their hand.
Will Scaflock wants only to live in peace. He had more than his share of adventure when he went by the name Will Scarlet and fought corrupt authority alongside Robin Hood. Now widowed and alone, and estranged from his adult daughter, he has taken holy orders and sought refuge in a remote Benedictine abbey.But even there, trouble and violence follow him. The abbot, John de Wystow, is a good man but a weak leader, and easily undermined by a faction of dissident monks.
When the rebels, led by Brother Robert de Flexburgh, run riot in the local community—stealing, drinking, fornicating—Scaflock’s old instincts return. Reluctantly taking charge of the abbey’s moral defence, he finds himself embroiled in a series of fierce clashes with de Flexburgh’s rowdy gang. As the abbey’s tranquility is shattered, its cloisters stained with blood, Scaflock is forced to reconsider the direction of his life. Has he really left Will Scarlet behind him—or has he simply been running from reality?
April 30, 2021
Warrior Druid of Britain Book 4 – title AND cover reveal!
If you watched the livestream chat I did with Matthew Harffy you’ll already know the name of my next book, since I mentioned it in passing on there. Bear of Britain is the title and this follows on from The Northern Throne with Bellicus, Cai, Duro, and Eburus joining Arthur and Merlin in an attempt to take the fight to the Saxons. It was never my intention to make this series “Arthurian” as such, and I will continue to focus on Bel and Duro mostly, but some of the famous characters like Arthur and Lancelot do play a bigger part here, hence the title.
The cover art was done, as always, by my designers at More Visual but I actually contributed more than just the concept this time: the bear on the shield.
I found a similar bear picture in some online clipart and drew a version of it myself on a piece of paper which was then scanned, turned into a transparent image, and placed onto the shield by the designers. Since it’s supposed to be a shield belonging to, and painted by, a warrior rather than some highly skilled artist, I think it fits well! Who knows, I might give the drawing away along with a signed copy of the book to someone on my email list, so make sure you’re signed up by clicking HERE.
I’m expecting Bear of Britain to be published in the summer, around July/August although that all depends on how the pandemic pans out over the coming months and how much free time I get to work on it. Even when I’ve had a fair bit of time recently, it’s hard to get into the right frame of mind to be creative or this might have already been completed. But I do hope to put the book out in the summer, and then publish another Forest Lord novella around Christmas time, just as I’ve done the past couple of years. It’s becoming something of a Yule tradition!
If you still haven’t read the Warrior Druid of Britain books, check them out at the links below:
