Steven A. McKay's Blog, page 3

Free Kindle Book This Weekend: Faces of Darkness – a medieval winter mystery

If you haven’t read Faces of Darkness yet you can get it HERE for FREE on Kindle this weekend. Thank Santa!

This is one of my Winter Tales and was based on a true stalking case from Canada. While not set exactly at Christmas it does take place during winter, in the run up to Yuletide, so it’s ideal reading for this time of year. And it’s FREE, I mean, everyone’s a winner!

Is the Lady of Croftun Manor being stalked by an evil man, a demon, or is she perhaps making it all up? The bailiff John Little must find out before it’s too late, and he’s helped in his task by Friar Tuck, of course!

Grab your copy HERE and if you enjoy it please check out the rest of my Winter Tales. The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory is the latest and comes with a bonus story, The Christmas Hunt, but there’s a few to choose from. If you like them please leave a rating/review on Amazon!

“A gem of a story…Faces of Darkness offers an intriguing plot based around a real life event…add in the perfect pace and you’ve got a winner!” 5/5 – David’s Book Blurg

Winter Tales – Sworn to God. Exploring dark medieval cults in fiction!

The idea for Sworn to God (published in November 2020) came to me after listening to a true crime podcast (The Trail Went Cold). The episode covered a strange religious cult from 1980’s America and it had some elements I thought would translate well to a medieval “Forest Lord” setting, including the leader of the group encouraging her acolytes to fight evil, but invisible, “black lords”, and having those followers sign over their fortunes to her just before they mysteriously expired or simply disappeared without a trace. The ideal scenario for a bailiff like John Little to investigate and an opportunity to create an interesting female antagonist!

I’ve written quite a few short stories, novelettes, and novellas over the years and my Winter Tales generally run to about 12,000 to 25,000 words I believe. Sworn to God however is over 50,000 words so I guess it should be classed as an actual novel (a short one, but still).

Some of the stories in this series are a bit more whimsical (The Christmas Hunt for example), but Sworn to God is rather darker in tone which was inevitable given the subject matter. Historian Sharon Bennett Connolly said, “Sworn to God is not just a medieval mystery, but also a study of human nature and how these cults can develop, even today.”

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me in the book was Will Scaflock’s part in the story. I won’t spoil it, but he has to get more “hands on” with the cult than either John or Tuck and it’s always interesting when a character is thrown into situations that don’t suit their nature. Sworn to God was also the first winter tale to feature Will and he’s been in them ever since – he might have a terrible temper and be an enemy’s worst nightmare, but he adds some much needed humour to stories like this which deal with some grim subjects! I really do enjoy writing these three characters, they’re great fun.

If you haven’t read this particular tale yet you can read it free on Kindle Unlimited or buy it HERE. If you have read it, let me know what you thought in the comments at the bottom, or on social media!

WINTER TALES – Faces of Darkness.

Faces of Darkness was the third of my winter stories and the first to be based on a true story. I was still a gas & electric meter reader when I wrote this and I would spend a lot of time driving from job to job listening to audiobooks or podcasts. One of my favourite true crime podcasts, The Trail Went Cold, covered the creepy and unsettling case of Cindy James, a Canadian woman who was stalked in the 1980’s. I was, and still am, fascinated by this case, and I thought it would work well as a snowy medieval tale. The true story of Cindy James was harrowing, and did not end well for her – Faces of Darkness is a more hopeful book. We actually interviewed Robin Warder of The Trail Went Cold on Rock, Paper, Swords and discussed Cindy’s case as well as the case that inspired another winter tale, Sworn to God, check out our interview HERE.

You can buy Faces of Darkness HERE if you’ve yet to read it.

Yorkshire, England, AD 1328. Winter.
Lady Isabella de Courcy is found alone, in a room bolted from the inside, unconscious, and injured. Pinned to her is a note bearing a shocking statement of intent, but this is just the latest in a line of similar, terrifying events.
For months now Croftun Manor has apparently been stalked by a shadowy figure who leaves little trace of their movements and has never been clearly seen by anyone, even Isabella…Some suggest the lady is harming herself, while others believe a sadistic demon must be behind it all.
As more incidents occur and fear builds within the manor, can the bailiff, John Little, along with his friend – the legendary friar, Robert Stafford – uncover the truth? And more importantly, will they be able to help the troubled young woman before she ends up dead?
This fast-paced standalone winter tale from the author of Wolf’s Head sees the return of two much-loved characters and is based on a shocking real-life stalking case from the 1980’s which remains unsolved to this day. Faces of Darkness is the perfect winter story for true crime and historical fiction fans.

“A gem of a story…Faces of Darkness offers an intriguing plot based around a real life event…add in the perfect pace and you’ve got a winner!” 5/5 – David’s Book Blurg

“There were several points where I thought I had solved the mystery, only to be disabused of my theory a few pages later, which, of course, makes the book even more riveting! It was enthralling!” – Sharon Bennett Connolly, author of Heroines Of The Medieval World

Winter Tales – Friar Tuck and the Christmas Devil

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People sometimes ask if I write winter/ Christmas stories to “cash in”. I wish that was true! Truth is, people only really buy these books around December so I don’t really make much money from them. Why do I write them? Because they’re great fun! I like the Forest Lord characters and didn’t want to forget about them when the main series wrapped up with Blood of the Wolf, so this seemed a good way for them to live on. The first one, Friar Tuck and the Christmas Devil, only had Tuck solving the mystery before celebrating Xmas day with a bit of wassailing. It was a really fun story to write so I eventually decided to do some more. Over time, Little John, and then Will Scaflock joined in with the adventures. Sometimes the tales are light, with a bit of humour or even slapstick in them as in The Pedlar’s Promise, but other times they can be pretty dark, like Sworn To God. As with all my books, they tend to finish on a hopeful note, for the main characters at least, if not the baddies!

With Friar Tuck and the Christmas Devil I was blessed to have Phil Rose – who played Tuck in the incredible British TV series Robin of Sherwood – write the foreword and even narrate it for the audiobook.
Some people have told me they read this novella EVERY year as it’s become part of their Christmas tradition and that, to me, is a dream.

Phil as Friar Tuck with Michael Praed (Robin Hood)

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Have YOU read Friar Tuck and the Christmas Devil? How does it compare to my other winter tales in your opinion? Comment below, or on my Facebook page!

BUY IT HERE (or get it on Kindle Unlimited) if you’ve not read it yet.

Merry Christmas all!

Winter Novella: The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory Released!

THE HERETIC OF HALTEMPRICE PRIORY is out NOW! I’m sure you all know by now that I like to publish a winter novella/novelette every year starring my Forest Lord characters Tuck, John, and Will Scaflock. Sometimes I end up writing something even longer, like I did with Sworn to God and I’ve done it again with this new one which is more of a short novel at 47,000 words and, when you include last year’s tale The Christmas Hunt in the package you’re got more than 60,000 words of reading!

People seem to be enjoying it so far and, as you can see, the cover art looks incredible. I had asked my designers to include the little robin on the front originally but I felt it just didn’t quite fit with the story. I liked it too much to get completely rid of it though, so there it is on the back and I really love it. The bird does make an appearance in the tale, just as it did way back in the first of these winter stories, Friar Tuck and the Christmas Devil. It might be a cliché, but hey, it’s Christmas and everyone loves a robin, right?! It also has some extra significance as anyone who’s finished the book will know by now. I hope you liked that twist – I’m kind of terrified about it now!

Anyway, please do buy the book HERE and if you enjoy it leave a 5 star rating. If you’d like to buy a signed copy please let me know. A nice Xmas gift for someone who likes to read? Or just for yourself! Free Rock, Paper, Swords bookmark with each purchase! 

Writing a Winter Novella: Inspiration from Kilwinning Abbey

As you probably know, my 2024 winter novella is The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory. Haltemprice was once a real medieval priory but it’s long gone nowadays so I thought I’d just drive to somewhere similar near Glasgow. There’s a few places that might fit the bill, but Kilwinning Abbey looked great in pictures and I knew it was a nice road to get there, one I was quite familiar with from my days installing data loggers on gas meters.

It’s quite difficult writing and researching books about medieval buildings because there’s certain things not mentioned in books, and obviously many of them, including Kilwinning, are now ruins or even include modern building work on top of the older parts. Much of my new novella takes place in the priory undercroft for example, but there was no mention of one at Kilwinning, and I was surprised by one of the panels that said the Warming Room was the only place the monks were allowed a fire, when there was a very obvious fireplace in a different part of the complex. Still, walking around, just looking at the sheer scale of the buildings and how impressive they were really gave me a feel for what life must have been like for the monks. Imagine living in such a place in the dead of winter, wind whistling through gaps in the doors, only a little candlelight to brighten things as you were woken at midnight or 3AM to go and sing your prayers in the freezing cold church…Perfect setting for a spooky winter tale, eh?!

One thing that really caught my eye was a grand tomb with carved skulls and Latin inscriptions. These could easily be used on a heavy metal album cover, they were incredible and, again, really creepy!

Kilwinning Abbey is not staffed and free to walk around. Well worth a visit in my opinion, especially since there’s a lovely restaurant just a minute’s walk away, The Corner House, where we had a hearty Scottish breakfast before heading home.

On with the photos, and please do pre-order The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory HERE to see how Tuck, John, and Will enjoyed their time (or not) in a similar building, filled with Gregorian chants and strange happenings!

Remember you must die! Death hastens! Time Flies! Judgement is coming!

COVER REVEAL & Pre-order – The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory

If you’re a fan of my winter novellas (the ones where Tuck, John, and Will Scaflock spend the Christmas period solving mysteries and having adventures) you probably weren’t happy that I didn’t publish one last year. Well, I did, but The Christmas Hunt was only available for readers on my Email List. Praise Santa, because this year I’m publishing TWO winter tales on November 15th! The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory is available to pre-order NOW and it comes with The Christmas Hunt as an added bonus so it’s a good value package I think. There’s also a very exciting (and scary for me) twist at the end of Heretic which I hope you all really enjoy!

—>>>Pre-order the book HERE worldwide.<<

Here’s the artwork and, as always, my cover designers at More Visual have outdone themselves. I love it! What do you think? The paperback edition will hopefully be available to order around the same time as the Kindle edition publishes on November 15th.

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TWO EXCITING WINTER TALES IN ONE COLLECTION!

England, c. AD 1330
Winter fast approaches in East Yorkshire and the dark, cold nights have brought more than just frost to the newly founded Haltemprice Priory. An oppressive pall hangs over the area like a smothering blanket, prompting one of the anxious monks to seek help from an old friend.
Robert Stafford, a friar from nearby Wakefield, has some experience in dealing with strange mysteries, having helped solve a number over the past few years. As he settles into Haltemprice however, things begin to escalate and the friar fears he might have bitten off far more than he can chew this time. Calling on his friends Will Scaflock and the bailiff John Little to work with him it seems they may face more than just earthly enemies as they battle the gloom crushing the spirit, and perhaps the very life, from the inhabitants of the priory.
One monk with a library of eldritch books seems to know much about the progressively more deadly troubles afflicting windswept, frostbitten Haltemprice, but is he a lunatic, a heretic, a murderer, or perhaps something even more terrifying?

The Heretic of Haltemprice is the ideal story for a stormy winter evening beside the fire, but if that’s not enough, this collection also includes a second, bonus tale, The Christmas Hunt!
Will Scaflock has gone missing after chasing outlaws off his property and, as the day draws to a close with no sign of his return two old friends arm themselves and set out in the midst of a blizzard to find him. There’s sure to be a Christmas miracle in this fast-paced, snowy adventure, but it might not be what John Little and his friends expected!

New Release: _The Vengeance of Merlin_ Is Here!

Two years after I published Wrath of the Picts – Bellicus, Duro, and Cai are back! Today The Vengeance of Merlin is released and you can buy it/ read it free with Kindle Unlimited at the link below!

https://mybook.to/VengeanceOfMerlin

I had a lot of fun writing this novel. It was really good to be back in Dun Breatann with the warrior druid and his companions, even if there’s some pretty nasty stuff going on and some horrible people. Some of them might finally get what they deserve but you’ll need to read the book to find out who!

It’s always a nerve-racking experience when your new book comes out and you wait to see if people like it or not. Thankfully Vengeance of Merlin has already had a fantastic review from David’s Book Blurg, so I know at least one person enjoyed it! “Has your heart in your throat from the first page to last…the emotion pours off the page affecting the reader as much as those within the tale”, says David – check out his fantastic full review HERE.

You may also notice one of the biggest names in historical fiction has endorsed the book too. I first spoke with Griff Hosker when we interviewed him on our podcast Rock, Paper, Swords and his work ethic is so inspiring. He doesn’t just write FAST, he writes great stuff, so I was overjoyed when he read The Vengeance of Merlin and left a great review for it on Goodreads.

I love the cover art!

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THANK YOU very much if you’ve already pre-ordered or bought TVOM. I really hope you enjoy it as much as the previous Warrior Druid of Britain novels! If you do, PLEASE leave a 5 star review on Amazon and/or Goodreads if you can, it truly is a great help and very much appreciated.

Next up will be a new winter novella starring Tuck, John, and Scarlet. You can find out the title of that if you check the “Also By Steven A. McKay” section at the back of The Vengeance of Merlin. Look out for it publishing sometime in November!

Cheers all!

Steven

Meeting Literary Legends: My HNS Conference Experience

Being a full-time author for the past couple of years I don’t get out the house as much as I used to so it was quite an adventure for me to travel all the way to Devon for this year’s Historical Novel Society Conference 2024 which was held on September 6-8. I was there with Matthew Harffy and Rock, Paper, Swords! as the official podcast partner, access all areas! Heading down on the train from Glasgow I first went to Matthew’s house on the Thursday where we visited a Saxon church and a medieval tithe barn near his house (meeting an artist called Robbie Murdoch, check his work out on Instagram under robbiemurdoch.co.uk) made sure we had our equipment all working, had a beer, and he thrashed me at FIFA on the Playstation.

Matthew did not enjoy it when someone commented on me being taller than him so every other photo after this one he stood on tiptoes or even a step in one case!

On Friday we drove to Dartington Hall in Devon but on the way we stopped to visit one of Wessex’s huge white horses (as featured on the cover of my forthcoming novel King of Wessex), went to Wells Cathedral where we recorded us walking around and talking about it only to discover Matthew hadn’t turned on the mics! Doh! Had lunch in Exeter at the Ship Inn and then Matthew almost crashed on a roundabout before we arrived safely at the conference and found our way to our accommodation.

Who recognises this staircase in Wells Cathedral? Robin Hood connection! Chained books in the cathedral library! A normal sized door with a hobbit in front of it.

As you can see, the accommodation wasn’t fancy – a bed, desk, shared toilets and shower room, but it was clean and comfy and did everything we needed. Michael Jecks was in the same accommodation – we’d interviewed him on the podcast before so it was great to see a familiar face. We had a few beers with him on the Friday night (and the Saturday night!) and he was great company.

We’d been invited by Sharon Bennett Connolly and Derek Birks (hosts of the Slice of Medieval podcast) to have dinner in the White Hart pub on the Friday. It was a great end to the first day and we were really looking forward to starting our interviews on the Saturday!

And just look who we chatted to after his keynote speech – Bernard Cornwell! We met him when he first arrived and he actually recognised us which was nice. We never got to talk to him for long because he’d delivered his speech then signed a ton of books for people then had to head off, but it was fantastic to meet our hero in person and he was as kind and friendly as he’d been when we interviewed him ages ago on the podcast. He even found it funny when we forgot to remove his lapel microphone and Matthew had to chase after him to get it back (something which also happened with Elizabeth Chadwick and I spent ages hunting all over for her before finding her in the same building we were in originally)!

“‘Oi, give us back our mic, Bernard!”

Matthew was on a panel with Sharon BC, Derek B, Elizabeth Chadwick, and David Gilman on the Saturday afternoon before they signed copies of their books for readers. The double doors to the right in the pic above are where we were conducting our interviews, off in the library, nice and secluded.

Chatting to David Gilman, friend of the show and lovely guy!

We interviewed quite a few people on the Saturday (I’ll list them all at the end with links to listen or watch the videos) and then it was time for the gala dinner in Dartington’s great hall. The food was great, as was the company as we were at a table with AD Rhine, MJ Porter, and Kate Quinn. Historian Ian Mortimer delivered a fun speech and then there was some music from the Sea Gals singing sea shanties.

We had a good night on the Saturday again, sharing drinks with some of the other authors as well as Craig Lye, one of the editors at Canelo who was also in our accommodation!

On the Sunday we interviewed Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series! She was staying in Dartington so we were able to talk to her for a good quarter of an hour in our library studio and she was just lovely. She told us she listens to DWARF METAL when she writes her books which we thought was brilliant – the band’s called Wind Rose, check them out it’s fun stuff.

The Conference was finally over on Sunday afternoon and we gathered up our equipment, said our goodbyes to everyone (sharing a drink with David Gilman) and then headed back to Matthew’s house where I spent the night again before catching the first of 4 trains back to Glasgow!

I believe he’s actually wearing his wife’s high heels in this photo.

My 9 hour train journey home was a bit of nightmare with late and crowded trains and the Carlisle – Glasgow service cancelled! This guy with his Wolf’s Head livened things up though.

I have to say, I had an absolutely FANTASTIC time at the Historical Novel Society Conference. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many people who are interested in, and write about, the same things I do. The setting was beautiful (I regret not taking a ton more photos of the grounds but we were busy pretty much the whole time), the attendees were friendly, the food was good, and the drinks were flowing. I honestly spent most of the time there just laughing, it was brilliant.

I’d like to thank Matthew and his wife for putting me up twice and making things nice for me at their place. HUGE thanks also to Conference organiser Tracey Warr for inviting us, and also to Richard Lee, founder and chairman of the HNS, for being a great host. I’ve been Facebook friends with him since Wolf’s Head and he’s been helpful and kind that whole time so it was good to meet him at last. If you were ever wondering if you should go along to an HNS Conference – DO IT! You will have the best time and meet a ton of lovely people. You can find out more about the Historical Novel Society and become a member HERE.

If you haven’t already listened to/watched all our interviews we recorded below is a list of them all with links to the Rock, Paper, Swords! podcast feed and also a YouTube playlist with them all handily gathered together.

YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaX8sVJntF4BHO8nT9a94wZGdi9wujpYG

Ian Mortimer – historian and novelist. Time Traveller’s Guides!

Bernard Cornwell – HUGE NEWS about Uhtred and the Last Kingdom?!

MJ Porter, prolific histfic author!

David Gilman – master of war!

Elizabeth Chadwick!

Jane Johnson – George RR Martin, LoTR movies, and novelist!

3 Roman ladies – Kate Quinn, Alison Morton, Ruth Downie!

Diana Gabaldon – Outlander, Red Ant’s Head, Dwarf metal!

Roving interviews 1 – A.D. Rhine, C.C. Humphrey’s, Tracey Warr

Roving interviews 2 – Michael Jecks, Christopher M. Cevasco, Kelly Urgan, Victoria Hopkins

Roving interviews 3 – Patricia Bracewell, Elizabeth R. Andersen, Jan Foster

You thought I was lying about him standing on a step didn’t you?

Next up for me, The Vengeance of Merlin will be published on October 7th! Pre-order your copy HERE, and get ready for another exciting adventure with Bellicus, Duro, and Cai!

HNS Conference interview with Matthew Harffy and yours truly

Conference Interview: Rock, Paper, Swords! Podcast with Matthew Harffy & Steven A. McKay