#AmReading

#AmReading, Ally is reading.

This week, some sci-fi with The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal; and two gay romances, Green Tea and Pink Apples, a short, sweet contemporary from R. Cooper and the werewolfy Night Shift Series from T. A. Moore.

The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. A Lady Astronaut Novel.

The premis of this story is that a metorite hits Earth in the 1950s. It asks the question what happens next?

It’s told from the POV of a well off, educated, married female pilot with wartime flying experience.
I found it fascinating. I was irritated on behalf of the MC by the intrangency of the male establishment in recognising the skills and experience women could bring to the operation to save the earth’s population. And I was cross about the assumptions made about their competence.

I was completely sucked in by the question of how a situation like this would have been dealt with given the tech of seventy years ago. I have always been told–and believe–that the perfect sci-fi story takes one or two aspects of life as we know it and asks what if? And this book does it perfectly.

It’s probably the only historical science fiction story I’ve ever read and I recommend it!

Green Tea and Pink Apples by R. Cooper
Green Tea and Pink Apples by R. Cooper

Another comforting read from R. Cooper, who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writers.

This is a gentle short contemporary about two men who have known each other for years and who finally find their way toward each other. It’s a beautifully drawn picture of perfectly ordinary humanity and I loved it. Everything I read by this author makes me like their work more.

The Night Shift series by T. A. Moore
Shift Work by TA Moore. Night Shift #1

I’ve read the first two of these in quick succession this week. They’re definitely not stand alone – they both end on cliffhangers, so if that bugs you, steer well clear. I really liked the format though, it has the feel of a newspaper or TV tune-in-next-week serial that worked very well for me.

The world is a reversal of the usual small population of werewolves universe. Wolves are in the majority, and the Night Shift, where one of our MCs works, are all drawn from the twenty percent of the population who are null and stay sensible instead of changing. Wolves have no memory of the savage things they do over the nights of the full moon, which can include eating their spouse and children. Of course, our MC falls for a wolf, who is also an asshole in human form. They are thrown together in an attempt to solve police corruption, against a background of unsupportive colleagues and lots of snark.

I loved the world-building, which is steady and leaves a lot behind the scenes that is drip-fed in. I am having a mild amount of trouble suspending my disbelief about how society evolved to the point where they have mobile phones etc if most of the population are busy tearing each other apart for a few nights every month, but not to the point of it stopping me really enjoying the story!

The third one is out later this month and I’m really looking forward to it. Recommend!

That’s the lot for this time. Happy reading!

#AmReading

#AmReading, Ally is reading.

This week, three gay romances. Dystopian sci-fi from Manna Francis, alt-historical magic from Jordan L. Hawk and a reworked fairytale by Kim Fielding.

Mind Fuck, The Administration #1 by Manna Francis
Mind Fuck by Manna Francis

I’m so late to Manna Francis–they’ve been recommended to me time and time again and I’ve only just taken the plunge because I suspected that when I did I’d end up having to buy the lot. They’re definitely my bag… spy stuff, ethical dilemmas, a dystopian future that you can see has roots in how we are now. I love the world-building and I like the way the characters are grey, but still likeable. Thoroughly recommend, like the other two thousand plus people who’ve left reviews :).

Blind Tiger, The Pride #1 by Jordan L. Hawk
Blind Tiger by Jordan L. Hawk

This is a new series set in the the Hexworld universe. You don’t need to have read any of those for this to make sense, although obviously if you have, you already have a handle on how the universe works. This is a slow-burn romance between two very different people who are both hurt and vulnerable, set against a background of an alt-1920s Chicago run through with shifter-magic. Shifter big cats running a speakeasy? Yes please, sign me up. Wounded heroes finding love that they had given up on? A tick in that box, too. A happy ending? Yep. And more books in the series to come… yay!

Gravemound by Kim Fielding
Gravemound by Kim Fielding

This is a reworked fairytale in a sci-fi, magical setting, which sounds odd until you read it. A space-crash survivor comes to terms with the loss of his partner and is welcomed by the low-tech society he finds himself marooned in. It’s a story of loss and renewal and finding your family and your place in the world after displacement. It’s a lovely little novella. I really liked the blending of high-tech and magical/paranormal elements. As is often the case with Kim Fielding, there’s a bittersweet coming-to-terms element to the happy ending.

That’s it for this time!

Exclusive excerpt for newsletter subscribers: The Fog of War

The Fog of War
The Fog of War. A 1920s lesbian romance. With magic and suspense. And tea. The first of a new trilogy set in the Border Magic universe.

Will her friend Lucy’s visit to Bradfield be the catalyst that allows Dr Sylvia Marks to put her wartime hospital experiences to rest? Unbelievable magical happenings at a local farm—lights, mysterious illness and a patient with hallucinations—give her hope that her dead lover Anna is still alive. But what does that mean for Sylvia’s nascent relationship with Lucy?

Bradfield Trilogy #1, Border Magic Universe. 51k words. Low heat.

Sylvia Marks is thirty-four. She qualified as a doctor in 1910 and has just spent four years in a field hospital in France staffed entirely by women. She is DONE with dealing with people who don’t realise she’s the best battlefield surgeon of her generation, male or female. She wears trousers when she feels like it. She’s 5’8-tall for a woman-and has long brown hair she wears in a coil at the back of her head. She’s thin and slightly stooped because she’s used to hiding her height and trying not to intimidate people, and wears glasses to read. Brown eyes. Drives a big car and a motorcycle. She smokes French cigarettes and drinks brandy.

Lucille Hall-Bridges is twenty-three. She’s spent three years as a nurse in France. She’s enjoying the freedom from responsibility that the end of the war has brought her. She’s got bobbed brown hair and brown eyes. She’s discovered clothes again and is very chic. Has an astonishing collection of hats. She’s not quite bad-mannered enough to be a flapper, but she understands why they’re so raucous. Likes to drive fast. Can’t see a wrong without trying to right it.

Excerpt
Sylvia Marks is coming soon! A 1920s lesbian romance. With magic and suspense. And tea. The first of a new trilogy set in the Border Magic universe.

It was a beautiful late August day when Sylvia motored down to Taunton to collect Lucy from the railway station. The sun shone through the trees as she followed the lane down the hill from the village and the sky above was a beautiful summer blue. She had left the all-weather hood of the Austin down and wore a scarf and gloves against the wind, topping her trouser outfit off with her new hat, which she pinned firmly to the neat coil of her long hair.

Walter had watched her fussing with her appearance in the hall mirror, stuffing his pipe. “Are you sweet on her?” he asked, somewhat acerbically.

“It’ll be cold with the hood down,” she said, crushingly.

“Yes, yes, so it will be.” He turned his attention back to his tobacco, face straight. “Be careful on the bends.”

“I will,” she said. “She’s a beast to drive, smooth on the straights and handles well on the corners, but I’ve no desire to end up in the ditch.”

She’d bought the big Austin coupe late last winter when she’d got fed up riding her motorcycle out to some of the more remote houses she was called to in the dreadful weather. It was huge, far bigger than she needed really, although the back seat was useful to transport a patient if she had to. She still preferred her ‘cycle, but it wasn’t exactly suitable as a doctor’s vehicle. Not very staid at all. The Austin wasn’t very staid either, in that it was huge and expensive; but one of the benefits of a private income was that she could afford it; and so why not be comfortable?

She pondered all this and more on the drive down to Taunton, mind floating along with no real purpose. She loved to drive and for some reason it calmed her thoughts and allowed them to drift.

It would be lovely to see Lucy again. As Walt had said, she was a sweet little thing. Although Sylvia didn’t want to revisit the grim minutiae of some of the worst times at Royaumont, it would be lovely to reminisce about some of their happier moments of camaraderie. It had been four years of extreme stress and grim terror lightened with moments of laughter and fun. Working with a team of competent women all pulling together for one purpose had been extraordinary. She’d never experienced anything like it before and she doubted she would again. She was delighted some of the staff had set up a regular newsletter so they could all  stay connected.

And so what if Lucy was sweet on her. Sylvia wasn’t interested in that kind of complication anymore. She didn’t want to cause gossip in the village for a start…although she supposed people wouldn’t make any assumptions about two women living together these days after so many men hadn’t come home from France. But anyway, even if it wouldn’t cause gossip, she didn’t think about Lucy like that. And she doubted Lucy thought about Sylvia like that, despite Walter’s teasing. He was stirring the pot a little to see what bubbled up, that was all.

Those musings took her to the station.

The train was on time and was just pulling in as she got out of the car. She walked out onto the platform as the smoke was clearing and through the clouds, she made out Lucy.

She was beside the guard’s van, directing the guard and porters to what seemed like an unnecessarily large pile of luggage. Despite the clement August weather, she was wearing an extremely smart velvet coat with a fur collar over a beautiful travelling suit that hung to mid calf, topped with an extraordinary confection of a hat.

She looked competent and sophisticated and exceptionally beautiful. Not at all the slightly scapegrace young person of 1916 who had persuaded the hospital powers-that-be she was a suitable candidate for France, although she’d been only twenty-one and inexperienced as a nurse.

Well. Gosh.

Sign up here to be considered for an ARC!

The Fog of War will be released on 10th July 2021 by JMS Books!

Coming Soon: Sylvia Marks!

Sylvia Marks is a minor character in Inheritance of Shadows. She’s a doctor, who was part of the Scottish Women’s Hospital at Royaumont, France, during the First World War. Down entirely to the encouragement of my lovely editor Lourenza Adlem, she is now about to have her own trilogy set in the little English village of Bradfield in the early 1920s.

Cover: An Irregular Arrangement, four people in 1920s dress.

I don’t have a title for any of the books yet, but I’m sure something will spring to mind before too long!

You can read about other inhabitants of Bradfield if you are a subscriber to my newsletter, in An Irregular Arrangement, a 10,500 word free story.

Read on to find out a bit about Sylvia and her friend Lucy.

Excerpt

“Sylvia! Are you coming?” Lucy called up the stairs.

Sylvia Marks is coming in July! 1920s England! Lesbian Romance! Mystery! Paranormal Shenanigans!

“Nearly ready, just a moment,” Sylvia’s voice was muffled. “My hair isn’t behaving.”

Lucy trotted up the stairs to her bedroom. They were going to be late for the beginning of the film at this rate.

“Let me help,” she said.

Sylvia sat in front of her mirror, mouth full of hairpins and arms cocked up behind her head, shoving them into her coiled hair.

“It’s got to look half-way neat if I’m going to take my hat off,” she said.

“You can keep your hat on,” Lucy said.

“It always seems rude to the people sat behind me,” Sylvia said. “The seats aren’t very well laid out.”

“Hang on, then,” Lucy said.

She stood behind Sylvia and wrested her hands away from her head. “Give me the brush,” she said.

Sylvia’s hair fell in a curtain to below her waist and was thick and wavy. It was brown, a delightful range of shades from light to dark. Some of the women at Royaumont had cut their hair—bathing facilities had been rudimentary—but Sylvia had kept hers long, wound up in a chignon every day.

She handed the brush from the dressing table back to Lucy and Lucy began to run it through from crown to ends. It didn’t really need much brushing, Sylvia had already done that, but she used the brush to gather in all up into one hand, a heavy tail of soft raw silk in her palm. The faint scent of rosemary that she had always associated with Sylvia was from her hair, Lucy realised. 

Sylvia removed the hairpins from her mouth and watched Lucy in the mirror. Her eyes were soft. “No-one’s brushed my hair for years,” she said quietly.

“It’s beautiful,” Lucy said.

She began to wind it into a rope around her hand, twisting it up onto Sylvia’s head as she went. She pinned as she twisted, making a flattish coil that would sit easily under Sylvia’s beret. She focused on what she was doing, getting it right. The hair was fine and thick against her palms and she could hear Sylvia’s breathing slow and soften.

As she tucked the last pin in, securing the ends, she said “All right?” and dropped her hands to Sylvia’s shoulders.

Sylvia met her eyes in the mirror and nodded. She was relaxed and pliant under Lucy palms.

The moment hung in time.

Sylvia arrives on 10th July from JMS Books!

Coming 30th December 2020!

The Hunted and the Hind, 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!