amwriting – Page 7 – A. L. Lester

As the Crows Fly

As the Crows Fly – 13th April

Paul Webster has come out the army after a twenty-two year stretch with a trick hip and no idea what to do with his life. He takes a few weeks walking along the Welsh coast to get his head on straight.

Kevin Davies is a veterinary nurse and an artist. He’s getting lonelier and lonelier in his cottage on the edge of the sea, kept company by his cats and a friendly flock of crows.

What happens when the two men hunker down together to wait out a wild March gale?

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Part of the Reworked Celtic Myths collection

Excerpt

When Kevin looked up again it was because the light was going. It had been overcast all day of course, but the oncoming evening combined with the stormclouds meant that even this usually light-filled perch was starting to strain his eyes

He’d done the best that he could with this one, he though, running a thumb over the grey lines of the picture. Waves rolled in off the page, mirroring the storm outside. In front of them stood Web, surrounded by the Murder, dipping and tumbling on the wind. Kevin had drawn him laughing.

He didn’t know if he’d seen him laughing properly yet.

Honestly, he couldn’t get the man out of his mind and he’d only known him going on twenty-four hours.

Said man was watching him over the top of his tablet, brown eyes curious. “Welcome back,” he said.

Kevin laughed. “Sorry,” he said. “I get into a bit of a fugue sometimes.”

“Can I see?” Web’s voice was diffident.

“Of course.” Kevin handed the sketchbook over to him.

“Sorry,” he said. “I should probably have asked first, before I started putting you in all my pictures.”

Web shook his head. “No, it’s fine,” he said. “Really. I’m flattered.” He examined the picture carefully, tilting it toward the remaining light coming in from the windows. “You draw the crows a lot,” he said. “I saw, downstairs, on the walls.”

Kevin nodded. “Yeah. It’s my thing, I guess? I don’t know why. And it’s for my own pleasure. So what does it matter if my repertoire’s a bit limited? He shrugged.

“This isn’t a limited repertoire,” Webster said to him, tracing the feathers on one of the pencil-crow’s wings with a finger. “It’s beautiful.”

Kevin felt himself blushing.

“I need to go and put some potatoes in to go with tea,” he said, busying himself unwrapping himself from the blankets and cushions. He nodded out of the window. “It’s not getting any better out there, is is?”

Webster shook his head, putting the sketch-pad down and looking out. “Nope.” He was succinct. “Pretty bad.”

“It’s supposed to go on all night.” Kevin padded over to the door and switched on the light.

Nothing happened.

“Bollocks,” he said. “I was afraid of that.”

“Power gone?” Web asked, unnecessarily.

“Yeah. Occupational hazard. We’re okay for heat and food and stuff because the range is solid fuel. I made a point of keeping it that way when I moved in. Annoying though.”

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character sketch: Fenn of the Hunters

The Hunted and the Hind, Fenn of the Hunters. Coming 30th December.

Fenn of the Hunters is a reluctant traveler from their world to London. At the beginning of Shadows on the Border, they are sent by the Council of Ternants to recapture and bring home an escaped carnas, on of the creatures that feed on magic the Ternants use to police the border between the worlds.

Fenn is a magical worker. The Frem call the energy they use to manipulate time and space kias. Fenn and their family are all very strong natural users. One of their special skills is to track strong sources of kias–in people, things or animals. That’s why they’ve been sent after the carnas. Fenn’s not sure what the carnas is doing lost in London; but it’s their duty as hunter to bring it home.

Will Grant’s London is very different to the Underhalls of the Frem that Fenn is used to and they are grateful for the help that Will and his team provide. Their growing connection with Will Grant himself is something that they didn’t expect and are not quite sure what to do with.

Fenn is tired of being manipulated by the Ternants. They want to finish this job, in this busy, crowded, mechanical world and return to their family.

Previously in Lost in Time character sketches… Will Grant, Lew Tyler, Alec Carter, Ella Fortune.

Cover Reveal: The Hunted and the Hind

Today, I am very, very happy to bring you the cover of The Hunted and the Hind. It’s the third in my Lost in Time 1920s London trilogy, although as you may gather from the cover, at least some of it takes place elsewhere.

The Hunted and the Hind, #3 in the Lost in Time 1920s trilogy. Coming on 30th December. — The Hunted and the Hind, coming 30th December

At the end of book number two, Shadows on the Border, poor Sergeant Will Grant got sucked through the border after Fenn, who returned to their home in the Outlands with the murderous creature they’d finally captured with the help of Will’s police team. It took me ages to work out what I wanted to write in Hunted because I never actually set out to write a trilogy–this is one of the downsides of discovery writing, which I have now rather learned to my cost. There were so many loose ends I wanted to tie up to feel that I’d satisfactorily ended the series, for both readers and for myself. It took me three rewrites to get the story knocked into a shape that I feel happy with.

Without further ado…here’s the cover (and the blurb!) for…

The Hunted and the Hind

Inadvertently tumbling through the border after Fenn and then thrown into the middle of the internecine political disputes of their people, Sergeant Will Grant of the Metropolitan Police has spent three months in prison in the Underhalls of the Frem. When Fenn comes to free him and return him home through the border, he has very little time to work out what’s going on before the sudden appearance of Fenn’s missing younger sibling Keren throws Fenn for a loop.

Instead of returning them to London as planned, the trio step through the border to the Egyptian desert. Once they work out where they are, it’s a two week trip back to England with the possibility of pursuit both onboard ship and when they reach home.

Will the journey give Fenn and Will time to resolve the feelings they have been dancing around since the day they met? How will they keep Keren from recapture by the faction who tried to persuade Fenn they were dead? And has Will’s friend Alec forgiven Fenn for lying about their motives when they first traveled to London four months ago?

Preorder from the publisher, JMS Books!

Coming 30th December 2020!

Finally, I hear you say! On December 30th, the third and final book in the Lost in Time 1920s series will be published!

Lost in Time was my debut novel. Initially I self-published it, without professional edits, and the faults got deservedly called out in reviews. I had no idea what I was doing and was learning as I went along.

After a few months, Mr AL suggested I withdraw it and submit it to publishers for consideration. I was lucky enough for JMS Books to pick it up despite it’s previous release, and it came out with them in January 2018. I’ve always felt that it had a satisfactory ending–a happy-for-now, which is about the best one can hope for in a historical set in London in the early 1920s with the second world war looming.

But…I ended up writing a sequel, Shadows on the Border, which I think brought more resolution? However, it also introduced a new character, who then ended up with a love-interest of their own.

The Hunted and the Hind finally ties up all the loose ends and resolves Fenn and Sergeant Will Grant’s story. It’s had two rewrites, I’ve gone through months of loathing it; but I’ve now got to a place where it all feels right. I have honestly never felt so relieved to type THE END in my entire life.

For this weekend, Lost in Time is $1.99 (or your equivalent currency) across all the major ebook platforms: you can find it here!

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Deleted Scene: Taking Stock

I’ve got a little deleted scene for you from Taking Stock, today. Laurie is in hospital and he wants to come home. Scroll down to read.

I’m so pleased with some of the lovely things people have said about the story:

“A quiet, beautiful story about decency, love and finding your family.”
“Laurie and Phil have a chemistry that is quite beautiful.”
“a thoughtful, delicate story…very refreshing.”

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Deleted Scene

“What do you mean, I can’t go home?” Laurie was almost crying with frustration. “I can go home if I like!”

Sally glared at him. “And how are you going to get up and down the stairs? Or even down the hall to the bathroom?” she said. “And wash when you get there? And turn over properly in bed? And what happens if you actually fall out of bed in the night and can’t get up? And come to that, who’s going to take you home, you idiot? You can’t drive!”

He glared back. “I thought that you might!”

“No! Not me!” her glaring was so much better than his.

He pushed against the pillows, but because he was unable to brace properly with his weak leg, he couldn’t make himself sit up any further. She stood up and hauled him forward with competent strength, shoving more pillows behind him to support his bad arm and shoulder. Damn her.

When she sat back down, he lowered his gaze to his lap. His hand lay across his legs, curled and useless. He imagined moving his fingers and he felt it happening in his head. But in his lap, they lay dead and still, obvious betrayers of his helplessness.

“Laurie…,” her voice was kind. “You need to stay in here for a bit and let them help you. They say at least some of the use of the your arm and your leg should come back quite quickly, specially if you work at it. And then we can get you back home.”

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