I’ll be uploading links on the days of the tour, and would like to thank all the hosts and Kelly Lacey for organising the tour.
Check out the Cragside page on the blog for photos of the beautiful estate.
Here’s the blurb
From the author of The Erdington Mysteries, a classic 1930s murder mystery house party.
Lady Merryweather has had a shocking year. Apprehended for the murder of her husband the year before, and only recently released, she hopes a trip away from London will allow her to grieve. The isolated, but much loved, Cragside Estate in North Northumberland, home of her friends, Lord and Lady Bradbury, holds special memories for her.
But, no sooner has she arrived than the body of one of the guests is found on the estate, and suspicion immediately turns on her. Perhaps, there are no friendships to be found here, after all.
Released, due to a lack of evidence, Lady Ella returns to Cragside only to discover a second murder has taken place in her absence, and one she can’t possibly have committed.
Quickly realising that these new murders must be related to that of her beloved husband, Lady Merryweather sets out to solve the crime, once and for all. But there are many who don’t want her to succeed, and as the number of murder victims increases, the possibility that she might well be the next victim, can’t be ignored.
Journey to the 1930s Cragside Estate, to a period house-party where no one is truly safe, and the estate is just as deadly as the people.
You can purchase the audiobook via the following link.
And I’m adding the links for all the fab hosts below.
Phew. I think I’ve caught everyone. Once more, thank you to all the reviewers to Love Books Tours, and of course, to my wonderful narrator Gill Mills, who completely smashed the narration for Cragside. Thank you.
All is not well in the village. The local meadows have been the pride of Bishops Well for hundreds of years, but now they are facing the sharp blades of developers. The landowner is a rich and reclusive author who is happy to see them destroyed, but the villagers – including Sam Dee and Maggie Kaye – are fighting back.
Until, that is, someone decides to silence one of their number permanently.
As Maggie and Sam soon discover, there is more than a quick buck to be made in the developers’ plans. There are age-old secrets and personal vendettas that could have deadly repercussions in Bishops Well today.
With Sam’s legal expertise and Maggie’s… well, Maggie-ness, they delve into the past, determined to unearth the truth. And, as sparks begin to fly, could there finally be something more between this sleuthing duo?
Here’s my review
Cause of Death is the third book in The Shires Mysteries, but the first one I’d read. I think this left me at a little bit of a disadvantage to begin with as Maggie has a quirk, that I didn’t know about, and it took me a while to work out what it was. Also, and this is a very personal complaint, so I apologise – this book has two points of view, but one is told first person, one third person and then there’a also an omnipresent narrator – I really struggle with books that don’t stick to one tense, and writing style.
That said, the story is intriguing, and I did want to know who the murderer was, so I continued reading, despite all my misgivings about tenses. Maggie is an intriguing character, but rather pushy and overbearing. Sam is a milder character, and more likely to apply reason to his conclusions. The story is quite twisty and there’s a touch of humour to it in places. The author has no qualms about making the resolutions quite complex and employing a large and diverse set of characters.
Overwhelmingly, this was an enjoyable and satisfying read, and I might just go back and read books 1 and 2:)
Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mystery series. Murder isn’t the only thing on her mind. She dabbles in a wide variety of genres, ranging from dark humorous comedy, through magic realism to dystopian. A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian. She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.
Twelve moving short stories inspired by the everyday lives of women.
A single woman on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Italian lakes still dreams of adventure. Can she find it closer to home?
A grieving widow finds comfort in the company of a stray cat that bears striking similarities to her dead husband.
An estranged daughter confronts an unspeakable tragedy from her past as she attempts to reconcile with her long-lost family.
Geraldine Ryan is a prolific short-story writer whose work has appeared in Woman’s Weekly and Take a Break’s Fiction Feast magazines. The women in this, her first published anthology, may be at different stages of life but all of them are experiencing the ground shifting beneath their feet. Their tales of love, longing and redemption will touch your heart and bring a smile to your face.
Review
Riding Pillion with George Clooney and other short stories is an engaging collection of short stories of women, many of them bitter sweet, but all empowering. A particular favourite of mine was ‘After Harriet’ a story of grief, guilt and the need for forgiveness.
All of the stories are told with skill, ensuring the reading understands the characters they meet. Riding Pillion with George Clooney might well be the story that snags the attention of the reader, but all of the women we meet are endearing to the reader, highlighting struggled which many of us might understand only too well.
A delightful collection of short stories, that I highly recommend.
Geraldine Ryan is a proud Northerner who has spent most of her life in Cambridge – the one with the punts. She holds a degree in Scandinavian Studies but these days the only use she puts it to is to identify which language is being spoken among the characters of whatever Scandi drama is currently showing on TV. She worked as a teacher of English and of English as a second or foreign language for many years, in combination with rearing her four children, all of whom are now grown up responsible citizens. Her first published story appeared in My Weekly in 1993. Since then her stories have appeared in Take-a-Break, Fiction Feast and Woman’s Weekly as well as in women’s magazines abroad. She has also written 2 young adult novels- ‘Model Behaviour’ (published by Scholastic) and ‘The Lies and Loves of Finn’ (Channel 4 Books.) This anthology of previously published short stories will be, she hopes, only the first of several.
The green world overwhelms all of Yaz’s expectations. Everything seems different but some things remain the same: her old enemies are still bent on her destruction.
The Corridor abounds with plenty and unsuspected danger. To stand a chance against the eyeless priest, Eular, and the god-like city-mind, Seus, Yaz will need to learn fast and make new friends.
The Convent of Sweet Mercy, like the Corridor itself, is packed with peril and opportunity. Yaz needs the nuns’ help – but first they want to execute her.
The fate of everyone squeezed between the Corridor’s vast walls, and ultimately the fate of those labouring to survive out on ice itself, hangs from the moon, and the battle to save the moon centres on the Ark of the Missing, buried beneath the emperor’s palace. Everyone wants Yaz to be the key that will open the Ark – the one the wise have sought for generations. But sometimes wanting isn’t enough.
THE GIRL AND THE MOON is the third and final volume in The Book of Ice trilogy.
Review
I’ve been reading Mark Lawrence’s books since the very beginning. I have a paperback copy of Prince of Thorns, which I noticed the other day actually says ‘map forthcoming’ on the map page:) (Check out my previous reviews here; The Girl and the Stars, The Girl and the Mountain (Book of the Ice 1 and 2). Red Sister, Grey Sister, Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor Trilogy). One Word Kill, Limited Wish)
Never once, in all the books I’ve read, has he finished a trilogy the way I wanted him to do so. He is infuriatingly consistent with this, and still, I hope, each and every time, to have the answers to all I want to know. And now, with the end of the Book of the Ice, I find myself not only without the ending I ‘thought’ I was going to get, but much, much worse, feeling as though I need to go back and read ALL the books again to unpick the ‘threads’ and perhaps find the answers I want for myself. Grrrr.
To me, this means Mark Lawrence remains at the top of his game, and while I might find it all very frustrating, that doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the books, and the universe(s)? he’s created.
A fine end to another great trilogy, and one I took my time with because, quite frankly, I didn’t want it to end, not in the end:)
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.
Follow Mark here – and just to say, if you’re not yet sure, his Patreon is fab, and a great way to keep up to date with all he’s doing. And he’s not shy with his book giveaways either. Twitter.
It’s not very often that I actually get to visit the places I write about. Very little of Saxon England remains as it would have been. But for Cragside, I could visit as often as I liked, and I did. I’m going to share some images of the interior of the house with you. These were either taken during December 2021, so might be a bit Christmasy, or were taken in August 2021. (apologises to people I’ve accidentally snapped).
The Dining RoomThe Study (I think)BookcaseInformation about the statue I mention in the bookWhat’s up there?Map of the upper floorView from inside to the famous bridgeOnce of the bedroomsOne of the many, many paintings The Billiard RoomView from the bridgeSome of the magnificent trees (I’m unsure if they still stand:()View of the arch from the carriage driveExterior view of the servants quartersThe Butler’s PantryIrons:)The kitchenThe kitchenThe KitchenThe kitchenThe kitchenThe kitchenGlass work in the dining roomImages of CragsideThe wonderful doorWhat you might see from the rockerySome of the trees that fell in Storm Arwen. How old were they!View from the formal gardensWhat might have been seen from the formal gardens, looking towards the main house
Cragside: A 1930s murder mystery is now available in ebook, hardback, paperback and audio.
Warrior and combat medic, Titus Cervianus, must lead a legion and quell the uprisings in Egypt in a new Roman adventure from Simon Turney. Egypt. 25 BC.
Titus Cervianus and the Twenty Second Deiotariana have been sent to deal with uprisings and chaos in Egypt. Yet the Twenty Second is no ordinary legion. Founded as the private royal army of one of Rome’s most devoted allies, the king of Galatia, their ways are not the same as the other legions, a factor that sets them apart and causes friction with their fellow soldiers.
Cervianus is no ordinary soldier, either. A former surgeon from the city of Ancyra, he’s now a capsarius – a combat medic. Cervianus is a pragmatist, a scientist, and truly unpopular with his legion.
Marching into the unknown, Cervianus will find unexpected allies in a local cavalryman and a troublesome lunatic. Both will be of critical importance as the young medic marches into the searing sands of the south, finding forbidden temples, dark assassins, vicious crocodiles, and worst of all, the warrior queen of Kush…
I really enjoyed The Capsarius. I’ve read some of Simon Turney’s Roman fiction in the past, but this book, without its focus on Roman Rome, is a little different, and very enjoyable.
I didn’t read this book quickly – rather I enjoyed it slowly, taking delight in reading a small amount each day over an extended period. It’s a story rich with detail, as our main character, The Capsarius, travels through a land he is clearly excited to visit, being so very strange to his birth lands, and yet one he understands is filled with danger. The heat, the lack of water, and the need to stay close to the great river Nile, bring into play some very dangerous enemies, the crocodiles of the delta.
The Capsarius is not your usual Roman warrior. He’s a skilled and widely read individual, keen to hold on to the ideals he has as a medic in the Roman army, even though he’s pitted against just about everyone in the legion, and his superiors really don’t seem to like him a great deal – not that it worries him. He’s a man of reason, and yet one who’s thrust into a strange land, with even stranger gods, and gods who seem to speak to him. The interplay between the reasoned man forced to question his beliefs because of the pervading Egyptian religion is skillfully drawn.
This is a slow burn, which rewards the reader with two really quite different battle scenes in the second half of the book when our Roman hero finally encounters his elusive enemy, and I’m already looking forward to book 2.
A wonderful read – with just the right amount of humour and peril – set in a wonderfully drawn land of intrigue and danger.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my review copy, and for inviting me onto the new release blog tour.
Meet the author
Simon Turney is from Yorkshire and, having spent much of his childhood visiting historic sites, fell in love with the Roman heritage of the region. His fascination with the ancient world snowballed from there with great interest in Rome, Egypt, Greece and Byzantium. His works include the Marius’ Mules and Praetorian series, the Tales of the Empire and The Damned Emperor series, and the Rise of Emperors books with Gordon Doherty.
Today, I’m releasing the ebook, paperback and audiobook of Cragside into the wild. I loved writing this book, and I want to say that my narrator, Gill Mills, has done an amazing job of bringing the character of Lady Ella Merryweather to life. Thank you.
But, why Cragside?
Cragside is a National Trust property in North Northumberland. During Lockdown, it was one of the places that was allowed to remain open (the grounds were) for locals. What started as a single visit because it was just amazing to go somewhere that wasn’t home, or the walk down the road, became a regular weekly haunt. Every week, just about without fail, and no matter the weather, we walked around the estate, exploring places I’d never seen before. And what an absolute joy it was. Cragside, the house, is majestic, but it’s the estate and all of its wonderful nature that really called to me. It’s not unusual to see a deer on the vast estate, or to watch birds, ducks and even some fish, in their natural environment. And some of the ducks like to have a proper little scrap, which really echoes.
Autumnal view of the estate looking out towards Rothbury
The Basin Tank, Cragside
One of the many, many paths through the Estate and leading to the house
And the more I walked around the estate, the more I started to see possibilities for a new story. The basin tank, dark and brooding, seemed like a perfect place to find a body, and that was just the first of the thoughts I had about a potential new story. And, of course, I also made the decision to set the story in Autumn, because while the spring and summer are beautiful, I’m a huge fan of Autumn colours, and it’s not just because the estate tends to be quieter over the cooler months:)
The Basin Tank. This was the first place that really made me think about writing a murder mystery set here.
My main character, Lady Ella Merryweather, developed along with my walks and I enjoyed crafting the story of a woman already suspected of murder trying to prove her innocence in the 1930s.
A deer on the EstateThe fireplace in the Drawing RoomSpringtime at CragsideSpringtime at CragsideCragside TreesCragside view from Debdon Valley
I hope you’ll enjoy my 1930s murder mystery inspired by my love of Cragside and Agatha Christie novels.
I’ve been reading Catherine Coles previous series for a while now. I do love a Golden Age mystery novel, so I was really pleased to see she was becoming a fellow Boldwood Books author, and that there was going to be a new series as well.
Here’s the blurb:
With the war finally over the residents of Westleham village are trying to reclaim a sense of normality and the upcoming village show is proving to be a popular event!
Newcomer, Martha Miller, has high hopes for the village show. Since her husband Stan left for work one day and never returned, some of the villagers have treated Martha with suspicion – why would a good man like Stan simply up and leave? Was it something Martha did?
All Martha knows is that she’s hoping that she can win people over and hopefully they’ll but her delicious homemade plum gin, too and she’ll be able to make ends meet.
But as glasses of Martha’s gin are passed around, disaster strikes. Alice Warren, Chairwoman of the village show slumps to the ground after taking a sip. It’s clear she’s been poisoned!
Martha is shocked, but not surprised, when fingers of suspicion once again point her way. Determined to prove her innocence, Martha sets about trying to find the real culprit. But who would kill Alice and why?
Ably helped by the new vicar, Luke Walker, Martha quickly tries to get to the bottom of this mystery. But with the villagers closing ranks it quickly becomes apparent that the only person with a motive is Martha herself….
Will Luke and Martha discover who is behind the poisoning before it’s too late?
Here’s my review
Poison at the Village Show is a charming mystery set in a small village in the years after the Second World War, featuring Martha Miller, her sister Ruby, and the new vicar, Luke Walker.
I’ve already read all of Catherine Coles Tommy and Evelyn books set in the aftermath of World War I and love the depictions and the characters of Tommy and Evelyn. Fans of those books will not be disappointed with Martha, Luke and Ruby. They are all excellent creations and make for an engaging read.
The story really gathers pace as it continues, and the ending is both satisfying, and I confess, slightly unexpected for me. It’s always good not to guess who the real perpetrator was.
I really look forward to reading more of this series and returning to the charming village of Westleham with its cast of eclectic busy-bodies in the years after the war when a sweet cup of tea is the solution to everything.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.
The daughter of a military father, Catherine was born in Germany and lived most of the first 14 years of her life abroad. She spent her school years devouring everything her school library had to offer! Catherine writes cosy mysteries that take place in the English countryside. Her extremely popular Tommy & Evelyn Christie mysteries are set in 1920s North Yorkshire. Catherine lives in northeast England with her two spoiled dogs who have no idea they are not human!
The wolves of Odin sail to the centre of the world: Constantinople.
AD 1041. After successfully avenging the death of his father, Halfdan and the crew of the Sea Wolf seek adventure in strange new lands, far from their Scandinavian home.
They join the fleet of Harald Hardrada, the legendary Viking commander, sailing back to Constantinople from the battlefields of Georgia. There they join the Varangians, the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors populated almost exclusively by Viking warriors. But Constantinople has changed during Hardrada’s long absence.
The Emperor, Michael IV, is ailing visibly, and powerful factions in his court are setting their plans in motion ahead of his inevitable demise. While courtiers scheme, elements even within the Varangian Guard are picking sides.
Gunnhild, the seer among the Sea Wolf crew, has struck out on her own in the big city. Unable to join the all-male Guard alongside her friends, she establishes herself in a small side-street near the port as a healer and soothsayer, offering cures to the sick and glimpses of the future to the desperate, or the conspiratorial. But in all her visions she sees a wolf, a boar and a golden bear fighting together to support the Byzantine throne. The Norns aren’t finished with them yet…
The epic second instalment in the Wolves of Odin series, taking us to the heart of power in Constantinople and the desperate machinations of the Byzantine emperors. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Giles Kristian and Angus Donald.
My Review
The Bear of Byzantium is a fabulous book.
From the opening chapter, which focuses on Harald Hardrada, I knew this was my kind of book – if not just because of the occasional – and it is occasional for anyone who doesn’t appreciate it quite as much as me – use of a little bit of fruity language.
What follows is a journey through Constantinople at a particularly perilous time for emperors and impresses.
The two characters of Gunnhild and Halfdan, who are the main POV throughout the story, are intriguing and have very eventful stories, and the ending is exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author brought the city of Constantinople to life – something he’s extremely good at in his Roman-era books as well – as well as the customs, regulations, and also, all the paperwork (it’s much more exciting than it sounds:))
A firm favourite for me now and I look forward to continuing the story of Gunnhild and Halfdan – and I will assume Harald Hardrada at some point in the next few books in the series.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy. The Bear of Byzantium is available now from Amazon and all good booksellers. Just a note that while this might be book 2, I haven’t read book 1, although I have it to read. If you want to jump right in, as I did, it won’t be a struggle to engage with the characters.
Today, I’m delighted to welcome Elizabeth R Anderson to my blog, to talk about the inspiration behind her The Two Daggers Series.
I hate flying. But, on a flight from Prague to Seattle in 2018, it was not a fear of dying in a fiery crash that bothered me; it was an idea that had entered my head and would not leave.
What would happen if a Medieval nobleman was falsely accused of being a leper and lost everything?
Some people just watch a few movies and fall asleep until they land at their destination. Oh, to be one of those people!
I had 10-hours of flying time, so I opened my laptop and got busy writing a few exploratory chapters about a knight returning from a stint on crusade in the Levant (the area roughly compromising the Middle East today). Eventually, an evil bishop would poison him, accuse him of being a leper, and seize his property. This was so easy! Knights in shining armor! A ready-made conflict and resolution. A cookie-cutter villain!
Can you spot the problems with this idea already? Hint: Everything about this idea is a problem.
I am so grateful that when I was back on the ground, my research led me to understand how wrong my premise was and how it was time to rethink everything about the way I viewed the Middle Ages, from racism and religion to personal hygiene.
Setting aside the fact that it’s really not easy to fake leprosy (now referred to as Hansen’s Disease), there is ample evidence that people afflicted with the disease were treated with compassion and even viewed as blessed by God because of their earthly suffering. King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was notable for being a leper. There was even a brotherhood of leper knights living in the Holy Land – the Order of Saint Lazarus. So there went that idea.
I dug deeper. If lepers weren’t as badly treated as I had thought, was that also the case with other people? What about Jews and Muslims? Here is where things became even more interesting. As the pilgrims, fighters, and settlers of the West (France, the Holy Roman Empire, and the city-states on the Italian peninsula) arrived in the Levant, they were indeed bigoted and horrendous to the local citizens. But the more time that these settlers spent with their Levantine neighbors, the more accepting they became. Few of the villages surrounding the large cities of Jerusalem, Tyre, and Tripoli were heavily mixed. But curiously, the towns around the city of Acre on the coast did seem to have a mix of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other religious people who tolerated each other relatively well.
What was it about this place?
This was when I became engrossed in the history of that city – a melting pot of cultures, races, religions, and intrigues. I want to acknowledge that bigotry and racism did exist in Acre (and everywhere else). Jews were still forced to work in jobs considered undesirable for Christians, such as moneylending and tax collecting. Muslims could still be enslaved – and often were – in the homes of Christian nobles. Captives from the territories south of Cairo received the worst treatment – a tragic indication of what was to come later as importing slaves to the Americas became common practice.
Acre. This lively, filthy, cosmopolitan city thrived with wealth and trade that benefitted Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the year 1291. So why was it attacked? How could the peace that existed between the Crusaders and the Mamluk army disintegrate so quickly?
Continuing down the research spiral of broken truces, spies, political plots, and miraculous events that led to the final siege of the city, I came across a line in the account of the Templar of Tyre that referenced a single, unnamed viscount and his disastrous mistake outside the walls of Acre.
That’s when I realized I had found my story.
The year 1291 is when the Christians were ousted from the Levant and no longer held significant territory near Jerusalem. This began the glory of the Mamluk period when powerful Muslim families founded by Turkish slaves started to form, put down roots, and create dynasties. There was so much happening at this time, and yet, sandwiched between the death of Saint Louis and the beginning of the Plague in 1348, the Siege of Acre is often a side note in the historical record.
Two years later, I published The Scribe. The book follows four young people with seemingly opposite backgrounds as they come of age in Acre: a kidnapped slave soldier, a feisty orphan girl, a rising star in the Mamluk army, and a spoiled viscount. The first book builds the history of these characters and sets the scene for the siege in book two (The Land of God, pub August 2021). After that, these characters must make their way in a world where any fleeting tolerance that did exist was snuffed out by fear of disease, economic hardships, and religious extremism.
The fact that this story started completely different from what I had planned is what I love about it. The characters in the books are twisted and molded by tumultuous events that they cannot escape. Their challenges are still ours today; how to think about the world, whether to go along with injustice or fight it, love, lust, hate, family, and friends.
In 800 years, humans haven’t changed all that much.
The Two Daggers series will contain five books in total. Elizabeth wants to get to the end as quickly as her readers do and is researching and writing at breakneck speed!
Sources: The list of sources for The Scribe and The Land of God are available on Goodreads. For this article, the following sources were used:
Medieval Leprosy Reconsidered, Timothy S. Miller and Rachel Smith-Savage, International Social Science Review, Vol 81, No 1, (2006)
Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Ellenblum, Ronnie, Cambridge University Press, 1998
Thank you so much for sharing your story with me, and for providing a bibliography. I like that:) Good luck with the series.
The Scribe (Book 1)
All Henri of Maron wanted was to stay with his family on his country estate, surrounded by lemon groves and safety. But in 13th century Palestine, when noble-born boys are raised to fight for the Holy Land, young Henri will be sent to live and train among men who hate him for what he is: a French nobleman of an Arab mother. Robbed of his humanity and steeped in cruelty, his encounters with a slave soldier, a former pickpocket, and a kindly scribe will force Henri to confront his own beliefs and behaviors. Will Henri maintain the status quo in order to fit into a society that doesn’t want him, or will fate intervene first?
The first book in The Two Daggers series, The Scribe takes readers on a sweeping adventure through the years and months that lead up to the infamous Siege of Acre in 1291 CE and delves into the psyches of three young people caught up in the wave of history.
The Land of God (Book 2)
Pain. His sister’s screams. And a beautiful face in the jeering crowd. When Henri of Maron woke, he had only a few memories of his brutal flogging, but he knew the world had changed. He had changed.
Now, as he grapples with the fallout from his disastrous decisions, war with the Mamluk army looms closer. To convince the city leaders to take the threat seriously, Henri and the grand master of the Templars must rely on unlikely allies and bold risks to avoid a siege.
Meanwhile, Sidika is trying to find a way to put her life back together. When she is forced to flee her home, her chance encounters with a handsome amir and a strangely familiar old woman will have consequences for her future.
The Land of God weaves the real historical figures with rich, complex characters and an edge-of-seat plot. Readers who enjoyed the Brethren series by Robyn Young and The Physician by Noah Gordon will appreciate this immersive tale set in the Middle East in the Middle Ages.
Trigger warnings:
Torture, violence, sexual assault, sexual content.
Elizabeth R. Andersen’s debut novel, The Scribe, launched in July of 2021. Although she spent many years of her life as a journalist, independent fashion designer, and overworked tech employee, there have always been two consistent loves in her life: writing and history. She finally decided to do something about this and put them both together.
Elizabeth lives in the Seattle area with her long-suffering husband and young son. On the weekends she usually hikes in the stunning Cascade mountains to hide from people and dream up new plotlines and characters. Elizabeth is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Alliance of Independent Authors.
MJ Porter 
