MEET RAE ANDREW - THE AUTHOR OF THE LAY OF ANGOR

HI THERE.

 This week I am pleased to bring you news of a remarkable book by Rae Andrew. It is a racy, Gothic fantasy that is reminiscent of JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones. I am sure that is bound to whet your appetite.

It smoulders, it fascinates and it intrigues.

THE LAY OF ANGOR, BOOK 1: GONDARLAN

By Rae Andrew

I give it a ***** rating

And I am pleased to welcome Rae into the office for a chat to tell you all about it.

Rae, welcome. I hope you don’t think I’m giving too much away by revealing your real name as Helen Cox. Tell us about yourself – or about you both!

Hello, readers. Well, I used to be an archaeological conservator and museum collection care advisor; then I met my husband and turned into a ‘writing housewife’ with a freelance publishing and lecturing business, Herstory Writing & Interpretation - Helen does factual history, and Rae makes it up! My special interest is the 15^th century, and I’ve written three non-fiction books on the battles of Wakefield and Towton (you can find out more on my website, http://www.helencox-herstorywriting.co.uk ). I also edit The Towton Herald, Towton Battlefield Society’s newsletter, act as Secretary of its Wars of the Roses re-enactment group, The Frei Compagnie, and I’m a pretty mean shot with a longbow!

Wow! You pack a lot into your life. Tell us about the book.

It’s an historical romance in a parallel world, more Gormenghast than Middle-Earth – dungeons without dragons and swords without sorcery, but plenty of black humour, political intrigue and nice juicy sex! The heroine, Princess Elinor of Gondarlan, is very moody because her father King Thorund is packing her off to marry a stranger – Jehan of Angor, a tattooed New Age hippie dressed in doublet and hose – and the running joke is the culture clash that happens when he arrives at the Gondaran court to woo her. Needless to say, the path of love doesn’t run smooth… not for Elinor and Jehan, at any rate.

And it is all in there, folks. How did you get the idea for the book? It must have taken a long time to imagine all that history.

Originally, from a rude story I wrote as a joke for a previous partner! His suggestion that I develop the characters and try to publish it got me thinking. I didn’t fancy writing contemporary erotica for the ‘adult’ market, or an historical ‘bodice-ripper’ tied to a real place and period - so I invented an Urth of my own, where I could bring in all sorts of personal interests and favourite themes from real-world history. I had the basic storyline roughed out in a couple of months – but it took nearly 10 years of further evolution, endless re-drafting and ruthless pruning to achieve the finished product!

How is the series developing? And how many books do you plan?

The second instalment, Breath of Gaia, has just come out on Kindle and Kobo, with the paperback to follow shortly. Book 3, Wolfsbane – which should be in print by early 2014 – is about a third of the way through. I’m planning one more, Children of Fafnir, to finish the saga, and I’d like to round off with an archaeological detective story linking a contemporary version of Urth with Princess Elinor’s world. But I could potentially write more - as Terry Pratchett has with his Discworld – if the demand is there! Meanwhile you can follow developments on the Lay’s own website www.lay-of-angor.co.uk or its Facebook page, The Lay of Angor.

I like that idea of the detective story and I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett.  Your background in archaeology has clearly been a big help. The story drips with facts and has great atmosphere. As a history re-enactor I guess that has helped. Can you give us an idea of how you actually picture a scene?

Thank you! Yes – it’s given me loads of ideas, experiences and material to draw from. Lots of the environments are ‘real’, either places I’ve visited or seen on TV – for instance, Gondarlan is a hybrid of Scotland, Scandinavia and Iceland, and the architecture, costume and so on loosely based on European medieval. Within that framework, the details fill themselves in as if by magic – I see it in my mind’s eye, and hear the characters speaking, as if I’m watching a movie. They’ve taken on such a life of their own, I feel like more of a conduit, or a secretary taking dictation, than a creator; the main challenge is capturing everything on keyboard as quickly as it flashes through my head!

Rae – I mean Helen, it has been a pleasure. I wish you well with the rest of the series.

Gondarlan is available as an e-book for £2.99 on Kobo and Amazon Kindle (Kindle Prime members can borrow it free). The paperback is available at £7.99 plus p+p from York Publishing Services – order from www.YPD-books.com, by phone on 01904 431213, email to enqs@yps-publishing.co.uk or order through any good book-shop. UK readers can also buy signed copies at the discount price of £7.50 inc. p+p direct from Rae Andrew – email your order to her.story@hotmail.co.uk.

LOOK OUT FOR ZOMBIE CAT

Zombie Cat

The Tale of a Decomposing Kitty   

By Isabel Atherton

Illustrated by Bethany Straker

For all of you zombie fans and cat lovers (well, perhaps I had better rephrase that, for all cat lovers who are also zombie fans) this brilliant book is a sheer delight. It is more than that, I believe that it has the potential to be a Christmas bestseller and may well attain cult status.

The book is written by Isabel Atherton, literary agent extraordinaire, and illustrated by talented artist Bethany Straker. It is a short picture book for adults about Tiddles, an everyday cat-about-town who is transformed into one of the undead.

The story is wittily told and beautifully, yet macabrely illustrated. It is short, but merits several readings. Each reading reveals a little more and each illustration tempts you back again. We predict that a copy in your house will gradually decompose, like Tiddles aka Zombie Cat, although not from decay, but from frequent readings by the family, guests and whoever else passes through your abode.

Jack Moon gives this book an unreserved ***** rating.

And now, here are the creators to tell us about themselves and about their journey among the undead.

Welcome, ladies.

Isabel, tell us a little about yourself and your background.

Hello readers! First of all, I am the director and literary agent at Creative Authors Ltd. You can read more about my agency here: 

www.creativeauthors.co.uk. 

Creative Authors prides itself on its eclectic list of authors. I only ever take on authors and books that I feel extremely passionate about. I’ve also recently started to write for pleasure myself. It’s been a very interesting experience sitting on the author’s side of the fence with Zombie Cat.

Bethany, give us the lowdown on yourself.

I’ve been illustrating magazines for a number of years now, and started working on books last year. Illustration has always been ‘The Thing That I Wanted To Do’ from an early age. It took persistence, some fairly unhappy years at university and a lot of worry – but I’m happy I can dedicate my career to illustration full time now. I like the weird and wonderful, the creepy, the odd and the funny – and I try to have these things as a base for my work and ideas. I love old scary movies like Robert Wise’s ‘The Haunting’ and their use of light and dark, which often comes out in what I do. 

Isabel, where on earth did this idea come from?

I’ve always been an ideas type of person and I love helping my authors develop their initial concept into strong book proposals. This led me to think what it would be like to experience what it feels like to be in the author’s shoes. I therefore decided, at the next stroke of inspiration, I would jot down the idea and follow it through. A little while later, just as I had been bemoaning to my husband about my own lack of personal creativity, and as I started to drift off to sleep – the words ‘zombie’ and ‘cat’ jumped into my head. I leapt out of bed and promptly sent myself a text, so I would remember the idea in the morning. 

Bethany, these illustrations are spectacular. How did you choose this style to illustrate Zombie Cat?

Thank you! Firstly, I decided on a colour palette. I wanted it to be grimy – so when it came to drawing it up I wanted the grime to be reflected in the amount of detail, too. I enjoyed adding little extra elements of humour and, of course, as much grisly gore as I could fit in! 

Isabel, what else have you got in the pipeline? Is Zombie Cat going to rise again? I think everyone will want to know what happened to good old Jake. Are you collaborating again?

Zombie Cat may rise again. It all depends on sales figures and whether the publisher feels they’d like to see a sequel. I wouldn’t rule it out. Right now,I am moving over into children’s picture books.

I have a title called ‘The Bad Easter Bunny’ out in February next year and I am working with a wonderful French illustrator called Stephanie Rohr. You can see a little more description here about the book:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bad-easter-bunny-isabel-atherton/1111970766

Beth and I are also collaborating again on a few more titles (we love working together!), which are coming out up until 2014. These include ‘Smelly Ghost’ (pub, Autumn 2013) - this is a story of a ghost who gets the toots from eating too much scary junk food, such as eyeball pizza, fizzy snot soda and beetles blood ice-cream.  ‘Springy Chicken’ (pub, Feb 2014) is the story of Martha, a Bantam chicken, who was so savaged by a fox she lost her legs. Her owner saved her by fitting her with springs for legs, so she is able to boing! around the place. Sadly the other hens don’t like the fact she’s different. Finally, Beth and I are collaborating on ‘Mr Cow’s Deep Sea Adventure’ (pub, Summer 2014). This is the tale of Mr Cow, a Friesian cow, who can’t make cheese or yoghurts and has no desire to. He wants to explore Aztec Mountains, scale tall sand dunes, but more than anything he wants to be the first cow deep sea diver. This one is inspired by Whitstable, my hometown, a small seaside town in Kent.

Bethany, if you are collaborating with Isabel again, will you be using the same style? What else are you working on?

Isabel and I make a great team. We are collaborating on several children’s books, which Isy explains above. All of them have my signature style, although I have made simplifications for each target age group. Of course, I have also left out the gore! Smelly Ghost will be out in 2013 and I can’t wait to see what the response will be. I love working with an author like Isy as she has such a great imagination and sense of humour in her work. I also have another picture book out in late 2013 – this one is called The Lonely Curiosity Rover and is about the Mars Rover. I’m collaborating with a new author called James Duffett-Smith and we’ve been influenced by the style of 1950s Soviet propaganda posters.

Ladies, it has been a pleasure. We wish you the greatest of success with Zombie Cat – and will be looking out for your next work.

Thanks so much, Jack.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET THE BOOK IT IS AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW AT THE BOOK DEPOSITORY. JUST HIGHLIGHT THE LINK AND GO TO THE ADDRESS: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Zombie-Cat-Isabel-Atherton/9781616088842

THE CURSE OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

The first of The Adventures of Jack Moon is out now, published by G-Press

LONDON, 1854

Hello, my name is Jack Moon and I want to tell you about my adventures  in grim old, fog-bound London.

 I am an orphan and I have to say that life has not been easy for me. I have no idea who my parents were or who left me at the St George-the-Martyr Workhouse in Southwark. There were two of us that they took in that night, and since there was a full moon they called us the Moon boys. They knew that I was Jack, because whoever had left me had pinned that name to my blanket. The other kid they called Danny.

We were like brothers, Danny and I. We ran away together to get away from that evil old devil Ezra Keats, and lived in a deserted old warehouse by an old wharf.

Until Danny died, that is. 

So there I was, all alone in the world - or so I thought!

That's when the first of my adventures started. And it started when a wierd old geezer called Professor Phineas E Stackpool took a fancy to my head!

That's when I came across  THE CURSE OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 

Check out this 55 second preview about the book.

I hope to meet you soon in my next adventure, with some of my spooky friends.


And if you want to buy a copy then it is available in all good book shops, or from Amazon, which you can get to just by pressing the link on the box on the right.