The Cunning Man, by John Yeoman, Reviewed.

This ‘fictorial’ as the author calls it, should start a trend amongst authors with a desire to help other writers improve their craft. That is precisely what John Yeoman does in this collection of historical mystery stories. He tells a tale and inserts footnote links in the text, these lead to the footnotes, which explain what the writing sample has done, and how. It’s a fascinating and extremely useful tool for those wanting to become better writers of fiction.

The stories? Well, John Yeoman is an author with a very long history of writing both fiction and nonfiction. He’s a teacher and mentor who runs an excellent blog and he knows what he’s doing. These are great stories: amusing, full of historical detail, populated by characters with whom you can empathise and posing mysteries that will keep even the most jaded of readers hooked until the end.

Best read on a Kindle, as that will allow the links to work exactly as planned, but readable on any eReader you choose. I read my copy on an iPad and found the read a great experience.

This innovation, using great stories to illustrate writing practise and inform the editing process, is a great idea, and one I expect to be copied many times. If you love historical mystery, enjoy it as a reader. If you’re a writer seeking advice and inspiration, then read it with those aims in mind. You won’t be disappointed, whatever motivates you to read this one.

Taste of Treason, by April Taylor, Reviewed.

Taste of Treason is the second book in the Tudor Enigma series. The books are a mix of alternative history and fantasy, but that description fails to do them justice.

Well written and comprehensively researched, the stories take the reader back to the days following the death of Henry VIII. Except that in these stories, Henry has a male heir, Henry IX is on the throne, and Anne Boleyn is alive and well.

In Taste of Treason, Luke, an apothecary working not far from Hampton Court Palace, has been engaged as an Inquirer by Anne. He is an Elemancer; a man with certain magical powers. He is also a man with a conscience who gives his time and cures generously to the poor of the area. Young and handsome, he has yet to understand the joys and benefits to be had from female company, though he has admirers.

I won’t give a synopsis here, except to let you know that Royal lives are in danger and the future stability of the Realm is dependent on Luke’s success in discovering the nature, identity and purpose of the Sunderer bent on causing as much trouble as possible. He must fight this powerful evil whilst maintaining a low profile, defending his friends from an ambitious and unscrupulous witch finder, and dealing with the unreasonable demands of the Royals for whom he works.

As always with April Taylor’s writing, the characters are real and flawed. It is easy to empathise with the main protagonists, and the lesser characters are drawn with equal facility. The story moves at a good pace from the beginning and drives toward a stunning and increasingly intense denouement. Although I was initially obliged to read the story over a number of short sessions, I was unwilling to put the book down once I’d started on this last portion.

The author uses language that is both accessible and appropriate to the time of the story. She has developed a style that perfectly fits the story and its time. Her descriptions of the various potions concocted by the apothecary are full of detail, making the whole believable. Dog lovers will appreciate Luke’s loyal companion. And history buffs will enjoy the details that describe the society and way of life of the times. The romantics will love the developing relationships.

So, if you like a splash of romance and magic blended with some history you’ll love this book. I’ve read and enjoyed the first book, and now the second. I look forward to the next in the series.

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Court of Conspiracy, by April Taylor, Reviewed.

April Taylor’s Court of Conspiracy is the first in her series, The Tudor Enigma. This fascinating alternative history fantasy is crime novel set in a Tudor England where Henry VIII’s son by Ann Boleyn, Henry IX, is on the throne. Much of the action takes place in and around Hampton Court Palace. It’s clear that the location is very well known by the author, who makes the place live with her subtle descriptive passages intertwined in the action.

Her hero, Luke Ballard, is an apothecary; a combination of doctor and chemist in times when such separate professions didn’t exist. He’s also an elemancer; a person able to harness elemental powers for good. The opposite number of such a magic practitioner is the sunderer, who uses the same powers for evil. So, we have all the intrigue, prejudice, ignorance and jealous fear of an age when religious allegiance ruled, mingled with magical powers for good and evil. It makes for a powerful and intriguing mix.

April Taylor has a facility for selecting just the right tone and syntax to reflect the times she’s depicting, using unusual language in context so that it’s easily understood. The dialogue is of its time, but no barrier to comprehension, so the story flows easily and without pause. The reader is submerged in this imagined world, which feels historically authentic.

It’s a story that examines good and evil, but in the context of the underlying threat of religious conflict between established Catholicism and the newly founded protestant dogma. This is a world where torture is routine and justice is a concept based more on power than right. The King’s word is God’s word and you’d better make sure you don’t get on the wrong side of those with in authority.

In this atmosphere of fear and mistrust, where political intrigue is a daily reality, Luke is engaged by the Queen to discover who is plotting to kill the King. This is a task steeped in danger, fraught with difficulty, and hindered by the need to keep on the right side of authority: a wrong move can easily get a person into the Tower and put to the test of iron and flame.

All of April Taylor’s characters are real people who come alive on the page. These are players with flaws to counterbalance their gifts, heroes and heroines who make mistakes. Proper human beings the reader can so easily empathise with. And the villains are deliciously evil, their motivations fully developed.

The mystery of the threat to the throne is revealed slowly through the actions, skills, mistakes and deductions of Luke and his various helpers. The author skilfully displays the underlying mistaken prejudices against women of the times, showing her heroines through the eyes of the distrusting young Ballard with his preconceptions borne of religious, political and personal bias.

The denouement is a real page-turner, as the action gains pace with the discoveries piling up evidence and increasing the danger to all concerned. The resultant ending is at once both satisfying and enigmatic, leaving the reader wanting more from this series, hungry to know what is in store for the reluctant hero and his helpers of both genders.

This is a book that will be enjoyed by readers who appreciate fantasy, historical mystery, romance and crime novels. You’ll find all of these elements in this tale that manages to successfully blend the genres. I thoroughly recommend it and look forward to the next in the series.

Girl With a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, Reviewed

In Chevalier's fictional account, the character Griet is the model for Vermeer's painting. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vermeer’s muse for his famous painting is brought to life in the fictional Griet, who narrates her story in a voice at once apt and accessible. The reader is quickly transported to the Delft of the mid 17^th century and plunged into a world where Protestant and Catholic are labels with real meaning.

The place of women in society has long been that of second class citizen, with even the relatively recent progress appearing mostly as lip service to equality. Here, in the Europe of 1664 to 1676, a time when the plague swept through the region and London was all but destroyed by fire, we learn at first hand what it must have been like to be a young woman from a less than wealthy background.

Tracy Chevalier has done her research, gleaned enough information and background to bring alive the times, the fears, the hopes and the dreams of the young woman who is her central character. Griet combines a natural naivety with a worldliness that makes her both courageous and vulnerable. In spite of the almost continuous thread of drudgery and usage, the injustices that visit her daily, her acceptance that this life is what she will live until the end, there is a spirit here that lifts her out of the ordinary, raises her above the mundane and portrays her as vital, intelligent and questing.

The maid’s acceptance of casual bullying and usage is hard for the modern reader to accept, yet it is written with such openness and confidence that the reality cannot be questioned. Her mixed attitude to minimal exposure and maximum concealment echoes the hypocrisy of the church in which she has been raised and which she accepts without question. No modern girl could be so accepting, in light of the many proofs regarding the lies, hypocrisy and dogmatism of the church, but the reader is persuaded that such considerations are not available for Griet. She has no opportunity to question society and its unjust traditions, merely accepting that this is the way things are.

The love story, such as it is, remains understated. Hints alone draw the picture as the self-obsessed painter, drawn sparely and shrouded in a false air of mystery by the skill of the author, finds a way to persuade the shy but willing maid to model for him. Her very willingness to perform difficult and dangerous tasks for him leads the reader to understand the feelings she never expresses. The claustrophobic settings and customs lend menace to a relationship that could lead to only a pair of outcomes. We can hope for the better of the two whilst understanding that the worst is more likely.

The novel explores themes of injustice, bullying, the casual and cruel superiority of the wealthy, familial loyalty and the pragmatism of the poor. I cannot describe this as a happy book, yet it is strangely compelling. And, although the pace rarely alters, there is a quickening of movement in the denouement. I found I was driven to finish the book in a final sitting once I’d reached a certain point in the narrative.

There is a film of this book. I doubt it does justice to the narrative, which maintains an honest and credible voice of the maid as narrator throughout. But I will make the effort to watch it, in the hope that the director illuminates the shadows and borrows the colours of the novel.

This is a book I enjoyed and one I happily recommend to all those who like their fiction steeped in history and character.  

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Featured Author, Linda Swift.

Linda Swift is currently contracted with seven digital publishers and has eight ebooks available, seven also in print. Two additional books, two short stories and a collection of Haiku are scheduled for release later this year. Linda writes both contemporary and historical fiction. Another historical, set in 1573 England involving Mary Queen of Scots is among her releases this year followed by its sequel in 2012.

Hello, Stuart. Thank you so much for inviting me back to tell you and your readers about my recently released historical. I have often heard the expression "the book of my heart." And THIS TIME FOREVER fits that description for me. I have been fascinated with the Civil War since I first read Margaret Mitchell's book and saw the movie of Gone With The Wind. Later, I avidly watched the TV mini-series North and South. And I think I knew even then that someday I would have to write my own story about the Civil War. You can well imagine my joy when the first review by Manic Readers (rated five stars) said:

"This Time Forever is a sweeping tale of two extended families as they endure the horrors of the American Civil War…I was reminded both of Gone With the Wind, and the TV saga of North and South. Both sides, thinking the war would be short and convinced of the rightness of their respective causes, continue for some time to have balls, parties, and generally live life as if there was no war, but a mere diversion in their neat little lives…It doesn’t take long before sense and sensibility are violated on both sides as the war encroaches on their lands, plantations, houses, money and food supplies…It is easy to ‘see’ the scenes described, from ballroom to battlefield, and to truly understand how this war, pitting families against each other, is a psychological challenge many cannot put behind them."

I think this is the most tragic period in the existence of the United States of America. Families were divided, with brothers fighting and killing brothers. The outcome changed the way of life in the South forever and its repercussions are still being felt even today.I do not pretend to be a scholar of history. However, I did research the facts in this book and I believe the times and events to be accurate but some Civil War buff will no doubt prove me wrong!

This historical has a history of its own. I began the story fifteen years ago and my agent sent a synopsis and first five chapters to a Harlequin editor. I met the editor at a national writers' conference and she asked me to send the complete manuscript. I was elated, but there was one small problem. I didn't have a complete manuscript, only the chapters already sent, however I promised to send it right away. I went home and began a marathon writing project. I work better under pressure but this was beyond my comfort level. I had not yet developed the habit of doing research online and I had thirteen books of Civil War history spread out on the bed in my office which also serves as the guest room. I would write furiously, come to a place where I needed information, search the books until I found it, and resume the story. In two weeks I completed seventeen chapters and sent them in. The editor wanted the story but lost the battle with superiors because the story was more mainstream than romance. She asked me to send it to another imprint and they kept it almost two years, finally rejecting it because I wasn't a "name" author which would guarantee sales.

My agent continued to send it out with various responses, most of which reflected the fact that Civil War books were not selling well. At one editor's suggestion, I cut the first seven chapters to have the H&H meet in Chapter One. It was finally accepted by an ebook publisher in 2006, who vanished overnight before I could sign a contract. I changed the name of the book three times, the last time when I submitted it to the publisher who accepted it with all the chapters intact.

As fate would have it, THIS TIME FOREVER, is being published in the first of four years commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. So I feel its time has come. There is currently a plethora of C.W. books, both new and reprints, on the market. It seems ironical that this story about the American Civil War is being published by a Canadian publisher. And I doubt that anyone outside the United States truly appreciates the deep emotions this war still elicits, especially for Southerners. (As an aside, an English publisher released Cold Mountain, another C.W. story).

  The 4th of July was a very special holiday for me, this year, as my Civil War saga, THIS TIME FOREVER, was due for release by Champagne Books. Its publication coincides with the four year commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial and although I didn't plan it this way the timing is perfect. And isn't it ironical that a story of such significance to Americans is being published by a Canadian publisher? The ebook is available now from the publisher for $5.99 at http://www.champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php and at Amazon. The print book is released in August.

  Instead of telling you about the story, I want to share part of the book's first review. If you only read one new book about the Civil War this year, I hope you will read this one. It will take you behind the battles into the hearts of both Yankees and Rebels as they live and die for the cause they believe in.

 MR Review
Rating: 
Reviewer: Alberta
Review:

This Time Forever is a sweeping tale of two extended families as they endure the horrors of the American Civil War. The primary characters are Philip, a newly minted surgeon who is enmeshed in the war as an idealistic young man, and Clarissa, an expectant mother in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They meet under extenuating circumstances as Philip is captured by the Rebel forces and made to act as a medic to southern forces for much of the war. He ends up with Clarissa as a medical assistant. He has left a fiancée in Oswego, New York and her husband is away acting as a courier for the Rebel side.

I was reminded both of Gone With the Wind, and the TV saga of North and South. Both sides, thinking the war would be short and convinced of the rightness of their respective causes, continue for some time to have balls, parties, and generally live life as if there was no war, but a mere diversion in their neat little lives.

The secondary characters are just as well-developed and fascinating as Philip and Clarissa. They move from feelings of patriotism to despair as the war causes more and more upheaval in all their lives. The order of things has turned upside down, and that which might have been unthinkable for ladies and gentlemen in the recent past, now becomes the norm as fighting rages on, leaders are questioned, and death becomes very personal for all the families.

It is easy to ‘see’ the scenes described, from ballroom to battlefield, and to truly understand how this war, pitting families against each other, is a psychological challenge many cannot put behind them.

THIS TIME FOREVER is available from: http://www.champagnebooks.com  and

 www.Amazon.com

Or you may find out more about it from my website at www.lindaswift.net