Thursday Morning
I went wandering up the road yesterday, the road out of the village on my aiming-to-be-regular walk. Because of the early morning getting-up that I have become use to, I was out at a different time of day than I have been. Recently it was an afternoon walk, but yesterday it was around 8.30, mid-morning, for me at least. That gave me different lighting for a change, hence the photo below of the sun coming through the trees beside the road and the silhouetted goats. I have to say, it did remind me of something out of a horror film. I reckon they were waiting for their goatherd to come along and deliver their order-in feed.
I was listening to music, the soundtrack from 1492 by Vangelis; very hard not to sing along to the rather Russian sounding central theme. Mind you, I only passed one person on the road to To Vrisi, and I am sure she wouldn’t have minded, the goats didn’t.
Back at home, I set about finalising the blurb for ‘The Eastling’ the third in the Saddling series of mystery novels that I am working on. As I’ve mentioned it, here it is, including another a quote from another author who writes fiction based on Romney Marsh. Emma’s novels are historical fiction, and you can find her author page on Amazon. Here’s the .uk link to Emma Batten in case you are interested. The nice thing about this is that Emma’s mother was my piano teacher for a while, a long time ago and far, far away…
Here’s the blurb. I am aiming to have the book published in early November, in time for Christmas shopping.
The Eastling
At harvest tide no place to hide as Eastling passes through
The spectre of revenge stalks Saddling, and the Eastling is hungry for a victim. At some time on autumn equinox night, someone in the village will die.
Tom Carey fights to hold a divided village together while racing to unlock the riddle of a boy long dead. But pages of the Lore are mysteriously missing, and all he has to work with are a looker’s spoketale and a blind woman’s poem. As solstice approaches and the vengeful grey-hang thickens, Tom realises who the victim could be. Him.
The Eastling is the third in the Saddling series, following The Saddling and The Witchling.
“Believable characters, gripping atmosphere and tension, all skilfully woven into an absorbing mystery set in the eerie landscape of Romney Marsh.”
(Emma Batten, author of Romney Marsh historical fiction)
Praise for the Saddling series.
“Gripping from the start.”
“A real page turner right to the end.”
“Just keeps on twisting.”
“A compelling tale from the first page.”
James Collins author at Amazon
where you can find The Saddling and The Witchling.
