Diamonds are delightful!

I've got some fantastic 'diamonds are delightful' news! 

There's a real treat in store for you throughout December, a tale every day from today onward that's just the right amount of reading for a FREE coffee break read. 

December is now underway and one of my daily December delights will be to dip into the Diamond Tales shared by my fellow author, Helen Hollick of the Discovering Diamonds blog. She is presenting excellent short stories and extracts written by a host of talented authors from today (December 3rd) onward all the way through to the 23rd of December.

All stories are original short stories or extracts from already published novels. The common link is DIAMONDS! To find out how diamonds are relevant to each story just click the link below.
(I'll be aiming to update the link each new day)
The very first story of the interlude before Christmas - Diamonds - from Richard Tearle can be read HERE It's a delightful, poignant read so don't miss it.

p.s. An extract from my novel Topaz Eyes will be featuring on the 18th December.

Follow the Tales…

and Discover some really delightful Diamonds

3rd December     Richard Tearle Diamonds

4th December     Helen Hollick  When ex-lovers have their uses

5th December    Antoine Vanner  Britannia’s Diamonds

6th December    Nicky Galliers  Diamond Windows

7th December    Denise Barnes  The Lost Diamond

8th December    Elizabeth Jane Corbett  A Soul Above Diamonds

9th December    Lucienne Boyce Murder In Silks

10th December    Julia Brannan The Curious Case of the Disappearing Diamond

11th December    Pauline Barclay Sometimes It Happens

12th December    Annie Whitehead Hearts, Home and a Precious Stone

13th December    Inge H. Borg  Edward, Con Extraordinaire

14th December    J.G. Harlond The Empress Emerald

15th December    Charlene Newcomb Diamonds in the Desert

16th December     Susan Grossey  A Suitable  Gift

17th December     Alison  Morton Three Thousand Years to Saturnalia

18th December     Nancy Jardine   Illicit Familial Diamonds

19th December     Elizabeth St John The Stolen Diamonds

20th December     Barbara Gaskell Denvil Discovering the Diamond

21st December      Anna Belfrage   Diamonds in the Mud

22nd December     Cryssa Bazos    The Diamonds of Sint-Nicholaas

23rd December      Diamonds … In Sound & Song

And as an added extra on some days I'll be adding a new post that about a special diamond. Look out for my next blog post on 'The Hope Diamond'.

Slainthe! 

Happy Saturday travels

Saturday update! 

The first official Book Fair that I've attended and taken a 'table' at was when I participated in yesterday's Auchterarder Book Fair!

It was great to be in the Aytoun Hall, Auchterarder, in the company of around sixteen other authors, with a few other authors' books being sold in absentia. There were a couple of other authors who write historical novels and were 'sort of' in direct competition to my Celtic Fervour Series, albeit that their eras were much later than my late first century novels.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos but it was a worthwhile day for me drive the distance to experience the BookWeek Scotland event.

I consider that selling 6 novels was not bad considering the visitor numbers were not high and those who were buying had specific types of books they wanted to read. I'm never able to predict which of my novels will sell best at small events but yesterday it was the 3 copies of The Taexali Game that
put it into the 'Bestseller' of the day category. 

My thanks go to Kathleen and Barbara who did the organising for the event- the coffee and cake was very welcome!

And now... I've got a few special December promotions to share. Look out for the details very soon.

Slainthe! 

Visits and more visits....

It's Friday of BookWeek Scotland!

BookWeek Scotland has been another exciting week for me. On Monday 27th November, I visited Hill of Banchory Primary School, Aberdeenshire, to give an author talk to the pupils of Primary 7 and Primary 6.

The kids were brilliant and listened attentively to my PowerPoint presentation about me as an author and the novels I write.  The reading from The Taexali Game, which was a suitable novel for the age group, seemed to be well received from some of the reactions to the attack by Ancient Roman soldiers on the Taexali tribe of Balbath. The faces of some of the Primary 7 girls was exactly what I was aiming for.  Sadly, my visit couldn't be long and I know that there were some pupils who had questions but didn't get to ask them. I'm hoping to be able to address that if the kids send along an email with some questions for me to answer for them.

Tomorrow, Saturday 2nd December, I'm off to Auchterarder down in Perthshire for the BookWeek Scotland Auchterarder Book Fair. I'll be meeting some other Scottish authors and signing/selling novels alongside them.

The snow has melted away and I'm hoping for a clear drive down early tomorrow morning, the journey to Aytoun Hall in Auchterarder expected to take around 2 and a half hours. 

I'll post updates on what is going to be my very first 'Book Fair' attendance - if you exclude going to the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2014 when my novel The Beltane Choice was one of those in the festival bookstore. 

Slainthe! 

ps I didn't forget about St. Andrew's day yesterday, 30th November. I have posted a number of times about St. Andrew's Day in years gone past, and though I didn't update anything on this blog, I did have my Haggis, Neeps 'n Tatties dinner last night. Yum. I love haggis and eat it all through the year.