WHAT'S THIS THING WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY? - a guest post by Miriam Drori

Today my blog guest is the fabulous Miriam Drori.  Miriam and I have been friends and writing buddies for several years, and I'm delighted to welcome her back to talk about a cause which is very close to her heart: Social Anxiety.  Miriam has already written an excellent non-fiction book on this subject, and it has also inspired the plot of her brand-new novel Cultivating a Fuji, which is due out next week.  I've had a sneak peek, and I can promise you that it's an amazing story.
  

Welcome, Miriam!  Please, tell us more...

Thank you, Sue.

I’m not really obsessed with social anxiety. I have plenty of other things going on in my life, most of which make me happy, content and very thankful. And yet…

It was back in 2002 that I first heard the term ‘social anxiety’ and gradually realised it applied to me. It was when I joined an online forum for ‘sufferers’ that I realised that a lot of people who aren’t me have awful lives because of social anxiety. It was when I gradually came to the conclusion that a lot of people, in and out of the community of social anxiety sufferers, would benefit by knowing more about the condition, that I became passionate about raising awareness of it.

Writing was my clear preference of media, and I wrote a non-fiction book called Social Anxiety Revealed. 

I was lucky that other sufferers, who I met online, agreed to have their words quoted in the book, as long as they remained anonymous.  And so the book, which was finally published in an improved version in 2017, shows social anxiety in its many forms and from different viewpoints.

But back in 2004, when I finished the first version and tried unsuccessfully to find a publisher, I began to contemplate writing a novel in which the main character had social anxiety. In a novel, I reasoned, thoughts and feelings that real people would be ashamed to express could be freely observed in the fictional characters.

Several self-help books on novel writing later, I began my own novel about Martin, who was formed from a hybrid of some of the people I’d met online. I filled notebooks with my writing, most of which found its way to the computer, and eventually my story was complete. Then I joined a writing group, where my novel improved immensely and I learned a lot in the process. But not enough. It was only when I paid for a critique that I realised my plot was no good, because not much happened in it. I’m so glad I discarded it.

Then I attended an Arvon writing course. In one of the sessions, we had to describe a character. I described Martin, of course. Then the instructors said, “Put your character in a place you haven’t been to.” At the time, I hadn’t been to Japan, although we were due to visit the country soon afterwards. But I’d heard a little about it from my husband who’d been on work trips. On one of his trips, he’d been compelled to take part in a karaoke session.

That was the seed for my new and much more exciting story, which uses Martin and some of the other characters from the original story. It is this new story that will be published in just a few days, on Wednesday, 15^th May. In Cultivating a Fuji, Martin’s work trip to Japan triggers a long and difficult process of change. However, the novel is not all sad and serious. It’s full of hope and humour.

***

To celebrate the publication of Cultivating a Fuji, Social Anxiety Revealed will be free to download this weekend, 11^th – 12^th May.

And everyone is welcome to take part in Wednesday’s online launch party for Cultivating a Fuji. It will take place over two time periods: 7:00 – 9:00 and 18:00 – 20:00, UK time. If you go there now and click Going, Facebook will (hopefully) remind you on the day.

Cultivating a Fuji

Convinced that his imperfect, solitary existence is the best it will ever be, Martin unexpectedly finds himself being sent to represent his company in Japan. His colleagues think it’s a joke; his bosses are certain he will fail. What does Martin think? He simply does what he’s told. That’s how he’s survived up to now – by hiding his feelings.

Amazingly, in the land of strange rituals, sweet and juicy apples, and too much saké, Martin flourishes and achieves the impossible. But that’s only the beginning. Keeping up the momentum for change proves futile. So, too, is a return to what he had before. Is there a way forward, or should he put an end to the search now?

Gradually, as you’ll see when Martin looks back from near the end of his journey, life improves. There’s even a woman, Fiona, who brings her own baggage to the relationship, but brightens Martin’s days. And just when you think there can be no more surprises, another one pops up.

Throughout his life, people have laughed at ‘weirdo’ Martin; and you, as you read, will have plenty of opportunity to laugh, too. Go ahead, laugh away, but you’ll find that there’s also a serious side to all this…

Miriam Drori has decided she’s in the fifth and best stage of her life, and she’s hoping it’ll last for ever. It’s the one in which she’s happiest and most settled and finally free to do what she wants. 

Miriam lives in a delightful house and garden in Jerusalem with her lovely husband and one of three children. She enjoys frequent trips around the world. She dances, hikes, reads and listens to music. And she’s realised that social anxiety is here to stay, so she might as well make friends with it. On top of that, she has moved away from computer programming and technical writing (although both of those provided interest in previous stages) and now spends her time editing and writing fiction.

Neither Here Nor There, a romance with a difference set in Jerusalem, was published in 2014. The Women Friends: Selina, co-written with Emma Rose Millar, is the first of a series of novellas based on the famous painting by Gustav Klimt. Social Anxiety Revealed (non-fiction) provides a comprehensive description of social anxiety from multiple viewpoints. Cultivating a Fuji is an uplifting tale of combating difference. 

Future books will include a sequel to Neither Here Nor There.

Miriam Drori can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram, Wattpad and on her website/blog and social anxiety blog.

Cultivating a Fuji is available as a paperback or can be pre-ordered as an ebook from Amazon.

THE SUSPECTS - a guest post by Katharine Johnson

Tomorrow (May 10th) is publication day for The Suspects by Katharine Johnson.  She's here to talk about why she wrote the book.
  

Welcome, Katharine!  Please tell us more...

Thanks Sue.  Here's the blurb:

Shallow Grave meets The Secret History in this quirky psychological thriller.

Bristol, 1988. Five young graduates on the threshold of their careers buy a house together in order to get a foot on the property ladder before prices rocket out of their reach. But it soon becomes the house-share from hell.

After their New Year’s Eve party, they discover a body – and it's clear they’ll be the first suspects. As each of them has a good reason from their past not to trust the police, they come up with a solution – one which forces them into a life of secrets and lies. But can they trust each other? 

Why I chose to write about the house-share from hell

Like my other books, The Suspects is about a life-changing decision. My characters aren’t evil, but are responsible for what happens because they make decisions which determine their fate. As Emily says: “We aren’t bad people, we just made a bad choice.”

Although The Suspects is about a crime and is quite angst-ridden, it’s not a blood-and-guts thriller or police procedural and is far more about the psychology of the characters.

I chose a shared house for the setting because I wanted the story to take place in a small, claustrophobic environment with a limited number of characters, to maximise the tensions between them.  

Buying a house with four strangers obviously isn’t ideal, but Emily, Stuart, Xanthe, Zak and Imogen are all new to the town and have just started work in the same company on a journalism training scheme and have been unhappy with their current accommodation. They’ve shared houses before as students and they don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to buy somewhere before it’s too late.

The shared house is in Clifton, a very desirable part of town, and they’d never be able to afford a house like this on their own. The plan is to own it for a short time and then sell and go their separate ways.

To begin with they’re on their best behaviour, but the cracks in their relationship soon start to show. But as co-owners rather than tenants of the property, the five are trapped by the house and are jointly responsible for the increasing mortgage payments, which piles on the pressure. Because of the economic climate they have no chance of selling up.

And then of course they find the body…

It’s the 1980s, so they spend a lot of their time playing Scruples, but they’re now forced into making a huge moral decision. They don’t choose to find a body after their party but they do make a series of decisions as a result.

Just at the point where they find how incompatible they are they’re suddenly forced together, and depend on each other to stay ahead of the police, but at the same time they’re starting to question whether one of them knows how the body got there and whether they’re safe in the house. One lie leads to another, secrets are uncovered, and the climate of mutual suspicion escalates.

Will they stick together as agreed or save themselves?

Find out more

There will be extracts, info and fun facts at The Suspects Online Launch Party on Facebook tomorrow – just click this link and select Going.

https://www.facebook.com/events/998754480515495/

You can read the opening using the Look Inside feature or buy the book here https://mybook.to/thesuspects

Book details

Publisher: Crooked Cat Books www.crookedcatbooks.com @crookedcatbooks

Publication date: 10 May 2019

Number of pages: 316

ISBN 9781091512429

About the author:

Katharine Johnson writes psychological and historical suspense set in England and Italy. She grew up in Bristol and now lives in Berkshire. She’s worked as a journalist on lots of magazines and has written a history book which will be published later this year. When not writing you’ll find her with a book in one hand and a coffee in the other, restoring a house in Italy, walking her spaniel, or playing netball (although not usually at the same time.)

https://www.facebook.com/katharinejohnsonauthor

https://www.twitter.com/@kjohnsonwrites

https://www.instagram.com/katharinejohnsonauthor

https://www.pinterest.com/katharinejohnsonauthor

https://www.katyjohnsonblog.wordpress.com

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/katharine-johnson

DEFEATING WRITER'S BLOCK - a guest post by Martin Cavannagh

Journaling As a Way to Defeat Writer's Block

Along with llama-shape coin jars and unicorn piñatas, journals seem to be one of the most common items you’ll find in a gift store these days. They’re certainly not a new development: people have been keeping journals for centuries. Just ask Samuel Pepys.

However, in this age of smartphones and short-hand texting, journals can be a great way to express yourself through a semi-physical action. To some, it can even be downright therapeutic! The practice of keeping a journal also helps people organize their thoughts: mixing their reflection on the day with to-do lists and random ideas. And If you’re a writer, journaling can also help you fight off that most dastardly gremlin of all: writer’s block.

There are countless ways to fight off writer’s block, as you know. From free-form writing and using creative writing prompts to taking long walks through the woods, there’s no fool-proof strategy for combating an inspirational dry spell. But here are a few extra benefits you can expect from starting a journal:

1. You’ll never run out of things to write about

The beauty of journaling is that you’re not under any pressure to make it interesting or to imbue it with meaning. You can simply recount the past 24 hours or describe a specific incident that happened during the day. What if your New Year’s Resolution is to read 100 of the greatest sci-fi novels and you’d like to record your progress to motivate yourself? Turn to your journal. If a memory springs to mind or you want to get a rant off your chest, then you’re free to do that, too!

There’s no wrong way to journal: if you ever draw a blank, you can simply revert to writing down what you ate for breakfast.

2. It will help you refine your voice

There’s a reason why plenty of authors choose to write in the first person for their debut novel: it’s a great way to show off a writer’s unique voice. When you first start journaling, you might yourself writing a bit self-consciously – using florid prose that you hope will elevate your journal to the level of art. This habit will pass. After a few weeks, you’ll likely settle into a groove and start using a more natural voice.

A big part of developing your craft as a writer is to burrow down to what makes your work unique. A daily blast of journaling will help you find your voice quicker than staring at a blank screen – that I can promise you.

3. It will give you perspective in the long run

One of the greatest tools a writer can have is human empathy. If you understand why people behave a certain way and how they can change, then you’re one step closer to creating characters who do the same. And perhaps the best way to get this kind of empathy is being able to see the change in yourself.

This particular benefit of journaling won’t come until you’ve been journaling for at least a year, maybe two. But at some point, you’ll sit down and look through your early entries. Be prepared to cringe – as there’s bound to be a lot of things you wrote early on that you no longer believe. Given enough time, you won’t remember writing most of what is in your journal. You’ll start reading it as an outsider and getting some perspective on this character you’ve written; the person who happens to share your name.

You will also see how far you’ve come as a writer. You’ll see writing tics drop off over time; long passages of waffle transform into tight prose. You’ll be able to track your evolution as a writer, in chronological order — something that will inspire you as you defeat the next wave of those wretched writer's block gremlins.

---

Martin Cavannagh is a writer at Reedsy, a network connecting authors and publishers with top editorial, design and marketing talent. When he’s not writing fiction, he works to educate authors by curating a series of free online courses and live webinars.

MEET MY NEXT VICTIM - a guest post by Joan Livingston

Today I have the great pleasure to welcome back my dear friend and fellow-author Joan Livingston, who is here to tell us more about the latest adventure of her intrepid detective, Isabel Long.  Checking the Traps, the third book in this amazing series, is due for release this coming Friday (22 March 2019).

Welcome, Joan!  Please tell us more!

My mysteries always have a victim. And it’s Isabel Long’s mission to find out what really happened to that person.

Isabel, a longtime journalist turned P.I., focuses on solving cold cases in the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. In the first, Chasing the Case, a woman had disappeared 28 years earlier. In the second, Redneck’s Revenge, a junkyard owner supposedly died in a fire because he was too drunk to get out.

And in Checking the Traps, the victim is a highway worker by day and a poet by night. The official ruling was that Cary Moore jumped from a bridge known for suicides. His half-brother, Gary Beaumont, doesn’t believe it. For years, Gary has been trying to get someone to look into it, and now that Isabel has solved two cases, he turns to her for help.

It’s not as if Isabel and Gary have had a friendly relationship. After all, he and his brother, Larry, are drug-dealing bad boys who terrorized Isabel a bit in her last case.

But Isabel has a fondness for those men who take care of the roads, especially in snowy winters.

Plus, she is intrigued by the story of a poetry-writing truck driver. Cary hand-wrote his poems in composition books, and as Isabel goes through them, she sees a vast improvement. Perhaps that is the influence of the famous poet who was his neighbor. And as the case goes on, she finds the poems he wrote as gifts to people.

His poetry certainly reflects the person Cary was. Here’s an excerpt:

As I read Cary’s poems, I get an image of the self-taught poet. Or perhaps he was a natural and only needed practice to get it down. He wrote about the world around him. I smile when I read in one he calls “Close to Home” that he’s never traveled more than a hundred miles from where he lives and doesn’t feel he needs to go any farther.

Cary wrote about cutting wood, apologizing to these grand beasts, as he calls the trees on his land, but his family needs to keep warm this winter. In one poem, he finds a pair of old skates in his barn and remembers as a child, gliding on ice, if only life was still that easy.

Cary was married to a woman, Cherie, who runs a hair salon in their home. They were expecting a child when he died. He was a handy guy and a hard worker. But he’s also a bit of a boozer and drug user, so he’s got problems. And as it turns out, he was a bit naïve, especially concerning his famous neighbor.

In this scene, Isabel and her ‘Watson’ – her 93-year-old mother, Maria – visit Cherie. Isabel wants to know more about her late husband’s poetry. Cherie works on Maria’s hair while they talk.

"I think he got ideas for poems when he was drivin’ truck for the town, especially when he was plowin’ in the winter. He’d keep his eyes on the road, but his mind would wander. He started keepin’ a notebook in the cab of his truck, and on his breaks, he scribbled stuff down.” She laughs. “The other guys on the crew kidded him about it, but he didn’t care.”

"When did he write?”

"At night usually, on the weekends some. He did it at the kitchen table. He wrote on paper. He didn’t use a typewriter or computer. When he was finished with a poem, he’d write it down in one of his notebooks.”

"Did he show you his poems?”

"All the time. He read them out loud, too. They changed over the years. You’ll see. They get more serious.”

"One of the notebooks looks like it caught on fire.”

"I came home one day and saw Cary throwing it into the woodstove. I grabbed the book and put out the fire. I think he was going to burn ’em all. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he was upset about somethin’.”

"How long was that before he died?”

She holds the scissors above a strand of hair as she thinks. She turns, blinking toward me.

"It was a few weeks before. I hadn’t thought of that.”

More about Checking the Traps:

Isabel Long is a bit banged up from her last case with a broken collarbone and her arm in a sling. But that doesn’t stop her from pouring beer at the Rooster Bar or taking her third case with Gary Beaumont, a local drug dealer who once terrorized her. Gary is convinced his brother didn’t jump off a bridge known for suicides. Somebody pushed him.

Gary’s brother was a boozer who drove for a highway crew. But what interests Isabel and her ‘Watson’ – her 93-year-old mother who lives with her – is that the man wrote poetry.

The chief suspects are one of Gary’s business associates and a famous poet who plagiarized his brother’s poetry for an award-winning book. Yes, he was that good.

As a journalist, Isabel did regular meetups with her sources for stories. She called it checking the traps. She does the same as a private investigator, and this time, she’ll make sure she doesn’t get caught in one.

More about Joan:

Joan Livingston is the author of novels for adult and young readers. Checking the Traps, published by Crooked Cat Books, is the third in the mystery series featuring Isabel Long, a longtime journalist who becomes an amateur P.I. The first two are Chasing the Case and Redneck’s Revenge.

An award-winning journalist, she started as a reporter covering the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. She was an editor, columnist, and the managing editor of The Taos News, which won numerous state and national awards during her tenure. Recently, she was named editor of the Greenfield Recorder.

After living eleven years in New Mexico, she has returned to rural Western Massachusetts, which is the setting of much of her adult fiction, including the Isabel Long Mystery Series.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Chasing the Case: http://mybook.to/chasingthecase

Redneck’s Revenge: http://mybook.to/rednecksrevenge

Checking the Traps: http://mybook.to/checkingthetraps

Website: www.joanlivingston.net. 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JoanLivingstonAuthor/

Twitter: @JoanLivingston

Instagram: www.Instagram.com/JoanLivingston_Author

Goodreads: www.Goodreads.com/Joan_Livingston

A GHOSTLY PUB-CRAWL - a guest post by Jennifer C Wilson

My guest today is a regular visitor to my blog: my dear friend and fellow-author Jennifer C Wilson.  Once again I had the pleasure of working with Jen as editor of the latest addition to her wonderful Kindred Spirits series.  Not that it needed very much editing - she's really excelled herself this time.

Welcome back, Jen!

Hi Sue, and thanks for inviting me on to your blog today.

The launch of Kindred Spirits: York is just around the corner, and once again, this all started with some very intense research ‘on location’. I’ve said so many times that for me, getting under the skin of a place is so important. You can read so much about the history of a location, but there’s nothing quite like wandering around, picking up the atmosphere and feel of it.

Having spent so much time in York as a child, I genuinely thought that, apart from a couple of specific visits to historic locations, to ‘check’ what I thought I remembered about them, there wouldn’t be much to the day. How wrong I was. Not having had a day out with my mum for a while, we decided to head down together, and make a day of it. Doing some pre-visit research, it struck me just how many of York’s ghosts liked to frequent pubs (kindred ‘spirits’ indeed!), and having never been in many of them, it seemed sensible to add one or two into our route around the various museums and buildings.

Ok, fine, my mum and I went on a pub-crawl.

And it was great! Obviously, when you’re a child, pubs don’t really feature in days out, but this time around, it was great, visiting places like The Black Swan, on the edge of the city centre, which I had decided would be a key location in the novel. To make things even, we visited The White Swan too, and that’s made its way into the book as well. There were also some more quirky locations to visit, such as The Blue Boar, reputed to be the place where Dick Turpin’s body was moved to, following his execution.

We did visit some places not serving alcohol too, in case you’re wondering – including two religious buildings which were a complete revelation to me: Holy Trinity Church on Goodramgate, and St Margaret’s Chapel, in The Shambles. Both of these are so tucked away, hidden in plain sight really, and both discovered through sheer luck. I knew about the chapel in The Shambles (thanks Sue!), but finding it was another matter – it just looks like any other shopfront. But Holy Trinity, that was a fluke. We happened to see a group of people walk through an open gate, and, seeing a sign for a craft fair inside, decided to follow them. It was simply stunning, and I can highly recommend a visit. I’d never seen box pews before, and this is apparently a fantastic example of them.

See, I can do culture too!

So please, come and follow my explorations, and those I’ve sent the lovely ghosts of York on, from the 31^st January, but available to pre-order now.

About the books:

In the Kindred Spirits series, we meet the ghosts of historical characters, in a range of contemporary settings. Have you ever wondered what Richard III and Anne Boleyn might have in common, what Mary, Queen of Scots is getting up to now, or what happens when the visitors leave some of the most popular attractions in the country? Well, here’s your chance!

In the fourth of the series, we’re heading to York, and a whole new community of ghosts are ready to greet us, including some visiting favourites, taking advantage of a much speedier transport system than they were ever used to…

Kindred Spirits: York

Release date: 31^st January 2019

Publisher: Crooked Cat Books

Genre: Paranormal historical fiction

In the ancient city of York, something sinister is stirring...

What do a highwayman, an infamous traitor, and two hardened soldiers have in common? Centuries of friendship, a duty to the town, and a sense of mischief – until they realise that someone is trying to bring chaos to their home.

Joining forces with local Vikings, the four friends keep an eye on the situation, but then, disaster strikes.

Can peace be restored both inside and out of the city walls?

Sales link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindred-Spirits-York-Jennifer-Wilson-ebook/dp/B07KKLZ4DT/

Praise for the Kindred Spirits series:

“A light-hearted, humorous, and at times tender read which you'll enjoy whether you like history or not.”

“This light-hearted, imaginative read is a new take on historical fiction but make no mistake, this is not only a fun read but an educational tool.”

“A brilliantly unique idea from a distinctive new voice in fiction.”

“A darn good read.”

Praise for Kindred Spirits: York

Another joyous ghostly romp from the pen of Jennifer C.Wilson.  The nightly ghost walks around the ancient city of York will never seem the same again after you read this - with its tales of kings and queens, saints and sinners (Dick Turpin and Guy Fawkes, anyone?), spending their afterlives among the iconic streets and sites of the town they frequented in life.  But this is no sleepy existence: unruly spirits are disrupting the lives of both the living and the dead.  With Romans, Vikings, medieval warriors and traitors to the Crown never the most natural of companions, it takes little to stir them up to wreak some light-hearted ghostly havoc - until, that is, events take a shocking turn...

With early special guest appearances from some of my own favourite Yorkists (and a less-agreeable Tudor hanger-on) visiting a city they once loved, the book offers another sparkling cast of the dearly (not-quite) departed. What’s not to like? Except thinking once again ‘I wish I’d had that idea!’ – Alex Marchant, author of The Order of the White Boar.

I love this series and it’s going from strength to strength. This one was great; the author has created a little gem. From Richard III taking a day trip to Harry Hotspur, Dick Turpin and Guy Fawkes protecting their city, this is probably my favourite so far. Really looking forward to seeing where the author has us visiting next. – Amazon Reviewer. 

About Jennifer:

Jennifer C. Wilson is a marine biologist by training, who developed an equal passion for history and historical fiction whilst stalking Mary, Queen of Scots on childhood holidays (she has since moved on to Richard III). Enrolling on an adult education workshop on her return to the north-east of England for work reignited her pastime of creative writing, and she has been filling notebooks ever since.

In 2014, Jennifer won the Story Tyne short story competition, and has been working on a number of projects since, including co-hosting the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle. Her Kindred Spirits novels are published by Crooked Cat Books, and her timeslip novella (The Last Plantagenet?) by Ocelot Press.

She lives in North Tyneside, and is very proud of her approximately 2-inch sea view.

Website:              https://jennifercwilsonwriter.wordpress.com/

Amazon:              https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jennifer-Wilson/e/B018UBP1ZO/

Facebook:           https://www.facebook.com/jennifercwilsonwriter/

Twitter:                                https://twitter.com/inkjunkie1984

Instagram:          https://www.instagram.com/jennifercwilsonwriter/

NEW YEAR, NEW BOOK!

The Unkindest Cut of All (a cosy murder mystery set in a theatre) was first published in 2016 by Crooked Cat Books.  Now, after a few revisions to the original text, it has been reissued under a new imprint.  Find out more by clicking here.

Ocelot Press is a new publishing venture and I'm really thrilled to be part of it.  To find out more, take a look our website.

AGRICOLA'S BANE - a guest post by Nancy Jardine

My guest today is my dear friend and fellow-writer Nancy Jardine.  Welcome back, Nancy.  It's lovely to see you here again - and I believe you have some news?

Hello Sue, and thank you for inviting me to revisit your blog!

I’m absolutely delighted that I have something brand new to share with your readers. Agricola’s Bane, the 4th book in my highly acclaimed Celtic Fervour Series was published yesterday with Ocelot Press. Both ebook and paperback are now available to buy on Amazon. The ebook launched yesterday but there will be a local (to me) paperback launch event on the 22nd November at the Garioch Heritage Centre, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. At this event, I’ll be giving a PowerPoint presentation on Roman Aberdeenshire before the Book Signing session.

Book 4 continues the tales of my Celtic Garrigill warrior clan – this time featuring Enya, one of the younger Garrigill clan members. The date at the outset of Agricola’s Bane is mid-November AD 84 and the location is Caledon territory (Aberdeenshire/ Scotland). The Late Iron Age tribal warriors who have survived a very recent battle against the Ancient Roman armies take refuge in the hills. General Agricola continues to march northwards in his quest to claim even more territory for the Roman Empire, yet discovers he is thwarted by more than the local warriors who continue to be very adept at guerrilla warfare. Going near the Roman legions means risking a stabbing death under a Roman gladius, but Enya of Garrigill and her companions must also evade the traitorous Vacomagi who have signed up for Roman coin!

Here is a little bit more from the blurb….

AD 84 Northern Roman Britain

Nith of Tarras aids Enya of Garrigill in the search for her kin, missing after the disastrous battle at Beinn na Ciche fought between the Caledon warriors and the mighty Legions of Rome. Enya soon has a heartrending choice to make – should she tread Vacomagi territory that’s swarming with Roman auxiliaries to find her brother? Or should she head south in search of her cousin, who has most likely been taken captive by the soldiers of Agricola? 

General Gnaeus Iulius Agricola – Commander of the Britannic Legions and Governor of Britannia – is determined to claim more barbarian territory for the Roman Empire, indeed plans to invade the whole island, but finds not all decisions are his to make. It increasingly seems that the goddess, Fortuna, does not favour him.

The adventures of the Garrigill clan continue...

To Buy: http://mybook.to/ABsherenow

Nancy Jardine writes contemporary mysteries; historical fiction and time-travel historical adventure. Her current historical focus is Roman Scotland, an engrossing pre-history era because her research depends highly on keeping abreast of recent archaeological findings.

A member of the Romantic Novelists Association, the Scottish Association of Writers, the Federation of Writers Scotland and the Historical Novel Society, her work has achieved finalist status in UK competitions.

She lives in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with her husband, but life is never quiet or boring since her young grandchildren are her next-door neighbours. She regularly childminds them, those days being cherished and laughter-filled.

You can find her at these places:

Blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.co.uk  

Website: www.nancyjardineauthor.com/   

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XeQdkG & http://on.fb.me/1Kaeh5G

email: nan_jar@btinternet.com  

Twitter https://twitter.com/nansjar

Amazon Author page http://viewauthor.at/mybooksandnewspagehere

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5139590.Nancy_Jardine