#extracts for inclusion in a #newspaperfeature

Happy late Sunday to you!

I'm now really, really hopeful that my blog hibernation is at an end and that my head is properly risen from the frozen editing and formatting state. 

I've caught up with a massive list of emails, and written 2 blog posts for guest blogging to appear int he coming weeks. My task this evening is to choose x 2 extracts to be included in a Scottish national newspaper (NE) feature, the extracts to follow on consecutive Saturdays after the main author interview. 

The book being featured is my latest  historical novel Agricola's Bane. 

Choosing extracts to showcase my work is something I find really difficult. There are parts of my story that I love more than others, and that's natural, I think, for any author. Since the newspaper coverage will be virtually the whole geographical area that's in my novel, i.e. Aberdeenshire and Moray, I have a dilemma. The novel is set almost 2000 years ago and the names used in the novel are the Scottish Gaelic equivalents of current locations in many instances. These may be readily familiar to some of the newspaper supplement readers, but not to all. 

• Is it important to choose extracts that hint at geographical locations that might be familiar?
• Should I just concentrate on choosing excerpts that bring my characters to life for the reader?
• Should I choose high action scenes involving conflict between the Ancient Roman invaders and my local Celtic tribal warriors?  

It's an exciting problem which just might take more than this evening to resolve - except I'm desperate to get back to the writing of Book 5 of my series tomorrow morning.

Details t follow about the newspaper closer to the time in February. Watch this space! 

Slainthe!