#AmReading

More listening this week! KJ Charles, Jez Morrow and Jude Lucens with three gay romances (one of which is also poly). All brilliant books.

Behind These Doors by Jude Lucens (audio)

I read Behind These Doors when it first came out and loved the complex, realistic description of a poly relationship and all the bumps and dips that need to be ironed out to make them work. The fact that it’s set in 1906 just made it easier for me to pick up!

The POVs are are Aubrey Fanshawe, in a fourteen year old relationship with a married couple and his new lover, Lucien Saxby, a journalist who’s family work in domestic service. He has casual sex with various men amd a steady lover in Ben. Its an interesting exploration of social expectations and mobility as well as a complicated and touching love story. I love poly stories, where the characters find their ways toward each other with painful honesty that requires introspection and self knowledge. The book delivered all this when I read it.

Now I need to confess… since I first read it, Jude has become a mate. So when she offered me a review copy of the audio I was a bit wobbly about it because I feel I can’t put a review up on Amazon or GR for her, only here on the blog. AND THEN, of course, Callum Hale is her narrator. Who also narrates for me. So obviously I’m incredibly biased. Please take this under advisement when reading on!

Yes. I think the narration makes a brilliant book even more brilliant, okay? When I started listening it was a bit weird, because I knew I was listening ‘Callum’s interpretation of….‘ each of the characters. I got stuck a bit for a while because I think I was listening in work mode rather than pleasure mode. When I came back to it though, my brain seemed to have got over that and I could accept the characters for themselves. Callum’s talent shines through and it made it all come to life. So, if audio interpretations of wonderful, historical, complex poly romances are your thing then you should put this on your TBR.

Think of England by K. J. Charles (audio)

Single POV historical spy thriller by the ever reliable KJ Charles. Poor Victorian wounded-hero archetype Archie is just so NICE and I love him. He exists in a perpetual state of bewilderment for almost the entire book, stolidly seeing what needs to be done and doing it. On the backs of such chaps was the British Empire built and eventually, when they realised what a rubbish idea it all was, their hands helped pull it down again. He’s just perfect. Not my type, I have to add…I’m much more attracted to Daniel, the billiard-playing, poetry-writing spy. I’m the Archie in this scenario, just so we’re clear. Unexciting, plodding along, getting the joke about half an hour after everyone else, strangely fixated on someone unsuitable’s buttocks in their tightly cut trousers.

Anyway. That’s enough of that. It’s an Edwardian country-house mystery with added gay romance, set in Northern England. The narration is an exact fit and it added loads to the story. Go for it.

Force of Law by Jez Morrow (audio)

I really like this novella. It was one of the first MM books I read, way back when I first got an ereader. The story is a sweet romance about a lowly mechanic being swept off his feet by a millionaire, with dark touch of distrust at the beginning, and depictions of homophobia and violence. It has a satisfying ending and the characters really jump out from the page.

Having said all that, the audio didn’t work as well for me as the written words. It seems to take me a while to get to grips with a new narrator and it might have been that…I am going to go back and re-listen and see whether I get on better second time round. Recommend the story, though–and there was nothing that I could put my finger on with the narration and say ‘I didn’t like it because…’ it was just that it didn’t quite click for me.

That’s the lot! Happy reading!

Anne Barwell: Working With History

Anne Barwell is here today to talk about the daunting aspects of historical research and how real events inspire plot. Please give her a big welcome!

Thanks for hosting me today as part of my blog tour for Comes a Horseman, the 3^rd and final book in my WWII Echoes Rising series.

One of the daunting things about writing an historical is the research involved. But, on the flip side, often real events can inspire plot, and get characters out of a tight corner. In Shadowboxing, the first book in my WWII Echoes Rising series, I needed to get my characters out of a heavily guarded building, and couldn’t figure out how. History came to my rescue! I adjusted the dates in the story by a few weeks, and the Allied bombing of that area at the time gave my characters the break they needed. Sadly one of their own lost his life during the escape.

Historical events play a big part in Comes a Horseman. When I started writing the series, I knew I wanted it to finish with D-Day—the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6^th 1944. The lead up to that event is well documented, so my timing had to be perfect. I needed to have my Allied team in Normandy so they’d be there to hear the original coded broadcast to the resistance on 1^st June so they knew the invasion was coming. I also had to get the weather right, as that impacted the date which originally was going to be a couple of days earlier. Not only that, but I needed to find out when the area was bombed and the specific times—as well as dates—of the crucial events leading up to, and of, the invasion.

When I started reading up on D-Day I discovered a rather cool coincidence. The Paul Verlaine poem which was broadcast over the radio as the coded signal to the French Resistance contained a line about the “heavy sobs of autumn’s violins”, and one my characters—Kit Lehrer—is a violinist. It was as though everything fell into place and not only that, had meant to be this way all along. I’d love to say I planned it that way, but I didn’t.

The attitude of Standartenführer Holm towards the imminent invasion is taken from historical accounts too. The Germans weren’t expecting an invasion in Normandy, so their attention was elsewhere. And the idea that the Allies would broadcast to the resistance on the B.B.C.? Ridiculous.

The timing of the action of the last few chapters of the book was crucial. I needed to have the bombs drop on my characters at ground zero so the timing was historically accurate. I wrote those last few chapters with an historical timeline written in my notebook for the series, and adjusted the timeline of previous chapters so that everything meshed. It also solved several problems the characters needed to figure out in order to complete their mission the way they’d decided it needed to play out.

I’ve learnt a lot more about WWII while writing this series than I ever thought I would, and despite the work involved, I’ve really enjoyed it. I still have a notebook, a folder, and bookcase full of information about the period, and although this team’s story is told, I wouldn’t be surprised if that information proves useful in another story sometime.

I’ve spent so many years writing these guys, I doubt they’ll disappear altogether. I kind of hope they don’t.

Comes a Horseman

Echoes Rising Book 3

What if those who stand by you are the ones who betray you?

France, 1944

Sometimes the most desperate struggles take place far from the battlefield, and what happens in secret can change the course of history.

Victory is close at hand, but freedom remains frustratingly just beyond the grasp of German physicist Dr Kristopher Lehrer, Resistance fighter Michel, and the remaining members of the team sent by the Allies—Captain Matt Bryant, Sergeant Ken Lowe, and Dr Zhou Liang—as they fight to keep the atomic plans from the Nazis. The team reaches France and connects with members of Michel’s French Resistance cell in Normandy. Allied troops are poised to liberate France, and rescue is supposedly at hand. However, Kristopher is no longer sure the information he carries in his memory is safe with either side.

When Standartenführer Holm and his men finally catch up with their prey, the team is left with few options. With a traitor in their midst, who can they trust? Kristopher must become something he is not in order to save the man he loves. Death is biding his time, and sacrifices must be made for any of them to have the futures they want.

Author’s note: This is the second edition of Comes a Horseman. The first edition was released by another publishing house. This story has been re-edited, and uses UK spelling to reflect its setting.

Amazon US : Universal Link

Meet Anne

Anne Barwell lives in Wellington, New Zealand. She shares her home with Kaylee: a cat with “tortitude” who is convinced that the house is run to suit her; this is an ongoing “discussion,” and to date, it appears as though Kaylee may be winning.

In 2008, Anne completed her conjoint BA in English Literature and Music/Bachelor of Teaching. She has worked as a music teacher, a primary school teacher, and now works in a library. She is a member of the Upper Hutt Science Fiction Club and plays violin for Hutt Valley Orchestra.

She is an avid reader across a wide range of genres and a watcher of far too many TV series and movies, although it can be argued that there is no such thing as “too many.” These, of course, are best enjoyed with a decent cup of tea and further the continuing argument that the concept of “spare time” is really just a myth. She also hosts and reviews for other authors, and writes monthly blog posts for Love Bytes. She is the co-founder of the New Zealand Rainbow Romance writers, and a member of RWNZ.

Anne’s books have received honourable mentions five times, reached the finals four times—one of which was for best gay book—and been a runner up in the Rainbow Awards. She has also been nominated three times in the Goodreads M/M Romance Reader’s Choice Awards—twice for Best Fantasy, once for Best Historical, and once for All-Time Favourite M/M Author.

The Hunted & the Hind: Knitting a universe versus snappy dialogue

Cover, audiobook, The Hunted and the Hind

I thought I’d talk a bit today about the differences between writing historical stories and paranormal stories, with particular reference to The Hunted and the Hind, which is coming soon to audio. Most of my stories have magic and the paranormal in them, but I see myself as being more a historical writer than a fantasy writer—I try and get my history right and then throw in the extra ‘what if’ of the magic.

One of the things I like a great deal about my paranormal universe is that no-one, not even me, knows exactly how everything fits together. This is great as a writer because you can basically darn up plot-holes as you go along, but it is also a bit nerve-wracking, because you can write yourself into those same plot holes and it’s excruciating trying to dig out of them. Someone on twitter asked how I kept track of my magic system a while back and my answer was that I didn’t really, but in my head it looks like a room full of balls of wool and excited kittens. This is still true, although since that conversation I’ve started keeping detailed notes because it was all getting a bit out of hand.

Writing the historical parts of the stories is completely different. I like to have a clear idea of the period I’m writing in—for the 1920s now, I think I’ve got quite a grip on it. I started off with family stories about the period and then did lots of reading around, about specific areas of London, specific things that happened that I wanted to touch my characters in some way. It’s a much more measured approach. I sometimes get sidetracked by research into things that seem to blow up in my mind as immensely important and might only have a sentence in the finished book. In The Flowers of Time, for example, I became obsessed with how to make light in the Himalayas in the 1700s and ended up making not only my own butter-lamps, but my own butter.

For The Hunted and the Hind I got sucked down a sea-travel rabbit-hole that seemed to be endless. The characters take a liner home from Egypt to England and I needed to satisfy myself that I’d got the detail right before I started shoving magical happenings into the story. That seems to be the way it works for me—I get the historical period straight in my mind, I have my characters and then I say ‘what if this happened?’. It’s my own particular version of the writer habit of killing your darlings.

As the writer though, one of the most fun things about the 1920s books is the snippy dialogue between the main characters. It was really nice to get back into that when I began to write again. However, I didn’t want Hunted to be another Alec and Lew book, they’d had their turn and I wanted to focus on Fenn and Will. I ended up cutting quite a bit of Alec and Lew scenes because they were just there so I could write snarky dialogue that ending in shagging. Which is what I have as a deleted scene for you today!

The Hunted and the Hind is coming to audio in the next few weeks, narrated by the inestimable Callum Hale–catch up with the audios of Lost in Time and Shadows on the Border here.

The Hunted and the Hind

#3 in the Lost in Time 1920s series.

Inadvertently tumbling through the border into the Outlands after Fenn, Sergeant Will Grant of the Metropolitan Police has spent three months imprisoned by the Frem. When Fenn frees him, they step through the border to the Egyptian desert. It’s a two week ocean-liner journey back to England, with the possibility of magical pursuit. Will the journey give Fenn and Will time to resolve the feelings they have been dancing around since the day they met?

Listen to Angel Martinez reading an excerpt for Friday Reading Day.

#3 in the Lost in Time series. m/enby paranormal, historical, romantic suspense of 40,400 words set in 1920s London. Sequel to Lost in Time and Shadows on the Border, which should be read first. The Lost in Time trilogy.

Deleted Scene from The Hunted and the Hind

“No,” said Alec, very firmly.
“I think you should,” said Lew, mildly. “It would be very helpful.”
“No,” said Alec, again.
“Please?” Lew tried.
Alec sighed. He was going to lose this battle. “Honestly, I have no idea what I’m going to do about it,” he said. “We can’t go on much longer…his mother…,” he trailed off.
“Well, yes,” Lew said. “You’ll have to speak to her. But…,”
“What?”
“She must know about the border, mustn’t she? Grant had training from his father.”
There was a thoughtful pause.
“Yes…,” Alec said, finally.
“So, and forgive me if this seems in any way less simple than it seems…we could just tell her the truth.”
That honestly hadn’t occurred to Alec. He stared at Lew.
“The truth?”
“Yes. The truth.” He paused. “Horrific thought that seems?”
There was a relatively long silence.
“Well…,” Alec was just making noises with his mouth whilst his brain processed.
Lew turned his head on the pillow and looked at him enquiringly. “Yes…?”
“The truth? I suppose…,”
“Yes…,” Lew’s tone was one of exquisite patience. Alec realised he was taking the mickey.
“Oh, do be quiet,” Alec conceded. “Fine. We’ll tell her the truth.”
“Will said she was away,” Lew said. “Can you find out when she’s back?”
“I’ll telephone her house,” Alec conceded. “And make some inquiries.”
“Good plan,” Lew said. “Well done for coming up with it!”
Alec punched him in a friendly fashion on his naked shoulder and things quickly deteriorated in to activities that meant words weren’t very necessary.

#AmReading

This week we have two old favourite gay romances I’ve rediscovered in audio by Harper Fox and Z. A. Maxfield and a brilliant dystopian sci-fi with a tentative background sapphic love interest by Micaiah Johnson.

Seven Summer Nights by Harper Fox (audio)

Another comfort-read for me that I have discovered included with my renewed Audible subscription. Beautifully narrated by Chris Clog, it’s a two-part novel set just after World War 2. Archie is a car-mad vicar without vocation. Rufus is a disgraced, shell-shocked archaeologist sent to investigate his church. It’s a story evocative of the shattered period after the war ended, bombed out houses still standing stark in London streets, men and women bent out of shape by years of fighting trying to fit back in to a more ‘normal’ life. Rufus and Archie are both damaged and hurt in different ways and Harper Fox’s delicate, precise writing paints them as perfect creatures with depth of character and emotion. The rural idyll of Archie’s village is laid over the top of past horrors in the same way the veneer of normality is starting to be laid over the horrors and displacement of the war. It’s one of my favourite books and I really recommend it, both in written form and narration.

The Long Way Home by Z. A. Maxfield (audio)

I really love these ‘cops and psychics’ stories and am digging into as many as I can find at the moment. This one has a big hurt-comfort plot as Kevin, an ex cop who has become psychic because of an accident, tries to help cop Connor track down a child murder. Things are complicated because Connor’s childhood boyfriend was also taken and murdered by the same person. (I don’t think this is a spoiler, it’s pretty obvious right from the start where it’s going). Both men are vulnerable and hurting and the audio just hit the spot for me when I picked it up on Audible Whispersync. Recommended.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

Wonderful far-future multiple worlds story. A brilliant scientist on Earth Zero (Our world? Who knows?) has discovered how to slip people between universes that have a similar vibration to ours…ie, that aren’t too different. But people can only traverse to another universe if their counterpart there is dead. Climate deterioration has split the world–all the worlds accessible to our characters–into haves and have-nots. And because the have-nots are less likely to survive in each world–poor food, no protection against the heat of the sun, poisoned water–they tend to be the traversers. There’s a fantastic plot, a tentative background sapphic love story and brilliant worldbuilding, all wrapped up in truly lyrical prose.

That’s all for this week!

The Flowers of Time: Jones and Gender

Let’s talk about gender with regard to Jones in The Flowers of Time today, just because, including a deleted scene.

It got to the point as I was writing where I felt there was altogether too much pondering and self-examination by Jones in the early part of the book. Although she’s doing a lot of self-examination, there’s another part of her that just wants to get on with things. And I began to feel as if I was making her an info-dump type of character and the book was becoming a bit more of an examination of how she felt about herself than a road-trip with botany and monsters who melt people.

So… generally speaking, Jones is pretty grumpy at having to make any sort of choice about gender. She never really had to think about it before she went to London. She was extremely reluctant to carry out the death-bed promise to her father to travel to England and try out being a lady of good family. Coming home to the mountains was a huge relief and she now has mixed feelings about her budding friendship with the Mertons if it means she has to behave in a particular way to meet their social expectations.

She’s a bit confused all round, really, and she resents having to put thought in to these messy, human relationships rather than concentrate on her work. She’s definitely a person who sees her mind as important rather than her body. I love her dearly and it hurt a lot to have to delete this scene about her deliberations–it had to go because it was slowing down the pace of the story. It was part of her growth as a person and it still definitely happened in my Jones-head-cannon!

Deleted Scene: Jones’ Preparations

So by the time the Mertons arrived, she was ready. They took a week to make their own preparations for the mountain trails, but Carruthers and Merton seemed to be competent and she left them to it, mostly spending her time with Miss Merton. Initially she felt that it might be a chore, but her initial impression of Edith as a correct English Miss had become modified as the days progressed and she showed her around the lakes and rivers of the city. Jones had always liked Srinagar. It was one of the places she and her father crossed through fairly regularly, both to send communications south to Bombay and several times to take a house there for a few months. Miss Merton’s excitement and pleasure in the scenery and her interest in talking to the residents and attempting to learn their language as she spoke with them meant the time went much more quickly than Jones had anticipated.

Likewise, the party seemed perfectly content with her natural choice to dress as she pleased. Carruthers’ young assistants simply accepted her as a male. She didn’t have much to do with them regardless, but it was pleasant not to be looked at with askance as she had feared when she had seen Miss Merton’s face on the road outside Srinagar. Edith had quickly schooled her expression, and her treatment of Jones had not changed. She had invited her to call her by her first name that evening and that seemed a mark of confidence in their budding friendship. Neither had Carruthers and Merton spoken to her with any caution or disapproval and their example had led to the rest of their party treating her as she wished, which was to essentially ignore her sex and rather pay attention to her thoughts and wishes.

It was very nice to feel that she might have made a friend in Miss Merton. They had been few and far between in her travels with her father, particularly with women, simply because they had been almost constantly in motion and when not in motion, absorbed in the work. She had never had the opportunity before simply to have a friendship that was not also complicated with the bonds of family- as with Dechen, Sonam, Amit and Kishor- or overshadowed by her discomfort at being forced in to female apparel as she had been on her long round trip to England.

Thinking about it now, she had a led a lonely sort of existence based entirely around her father’s obsession with the cause of her mother’s death. And it seemed that Jones might be taking up his mantle. Did she want that? She wasn’t sure. But she was sure that she needed to know what had been driving his obsession. He had been such a rational man. It seemed ridiculous that he had died believing in magic. That he had believed in it all this time and not said a word to her.

Her whole life has changed. Not only did she lose her father; but when he sent her to England ‘to find her roots’ he actually cut her off from her life in the mountains…her source of independence and strength.

She had to re-evaluate her sense of self and the way other people saw her whilst she was in England. And now she’s home, but because the Mertons are following her she may not be able to settle back in to her comfortable old way of doing things where she just toddles along thinking about history and people and plants. She’s gaining friends and a social network. But she may have to give up some of her independence of thought and self-definition as part of that social contract.

I do want to revisit this part of the universe at some point in the future because I do love the characters; but in the meantime there’s also a short story called A Small, Secret Smile that is almost stand-alone if you’re feeling brave, but probably makes more sense if you’ve already read the book.

The Flowers of Time is available in ebook, audio and paperback

"Jones was written perfectly. As a non-binary person I felt seen, and may have shed a tear once or twice"

"I loved Flowers. It's sweet and sexy, but also fascinating and creepy!"

Now in audible.

A determined lady botanist and a non-binary explorer make the long journey over the high Himalayan mountain passes from Kashmir to Little Tibet, collecting flowers and exploring ruins on the way. Will Jones discover the root of the mysterious deaths of her parents? Will she confide in Edie and allow her to help in the quest?

It’s a trip fraught with perils for both of them, not least those of the heart.

A stand-alone f/enby romance set in the Lost in Time universe, in the Himalayas in 1780. About 50,000 words.

Buy here