Blog | Alison Morton Author

Second-hand book stalls – author's friends?

Some authors don’t like second-hand book stalls, whether run as a businesses or for a charity fête. In fact, they hate them. The author gets no royalty nor secondary right nor anything. The books are toted around, exchanged or traded like a lump of former tree for a pound/euro/dollar or two – virtually free. I heard one author say it was verging on piracy. A bit strong in my opinion, but I respect his right to say it.

However, consider this…

If you live in a non-English speaking country as I do in France, you can’t always find books in English. Sometimes, local media stores have a small display of international best sellers, lost amongst the local language acres of shelves of not only books but games, music, DVDs and small technology. My local library has no books, let alone fiction, in English except easy readers for school age children. Of course, there’s always Amazon… (Other online retailers are available, as they say.) But there’s nothing like handling ‘real’ books, your fingers wandering among hundreds of titles by authors you’ve never heard of as well as ones by familiar authors.

Second-hand bookstalls and book exchanges, plus the pop-up summer and Christmas fairs, are an opportunity to discover new reads, new authors and to talk about books to the person running them. Usually, they’re avid readers which is why they got into selling books in the first place.

That’s the cultural argument.

Of course, I would LOVE you to buy my books first-hand and give me a little direct remuneration – I share a few thoughts on author income here.

But there’s a parallel argument to consider. It could be that having discovered a new-to-you author in a tattered copy picked up second-hand or perhaps lent to you by a friend, you are entranced by the writing, the story and the new world the author’s words have drawn you into. You thirst for more. You are desperate to read more.

Chances are the bookstall/second-hand shop doesn’t have any more by that author. Possibly you won’t see that temporary stall until the same time next year – a whole 12 months away. Horrors!

You clutch your new treasure to your chest and dive on to the Internet and, notwithstanding the postage, order two or three more by the same author. I did exactly this after buying one book for 50 cents in a barn sale and promptly spent another £35.00 on Amazon on the rest of the series. I had discovered Vatta’s War and Elizabeth Moon netted another four full book sales.

So perhaps the second-hand bookstall or book exchange, its wares sprawled in boxes on a trestle-table once a month, aren’t demons from hell, but a spur to buying by keen readers.

Updated 2023: Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series.Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, a new Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, is now out.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Octavian and Bismarck – Visionaries of Empire

Today’s cracking guest post comes from Antoine Vanner – a regular guest here. His own adventurous life, his knowledge of human nature, his passion for nineteenth-century history and his understanding of what was the cutting-edge technology of that time, make him the ideal chronicler of the life of Nicholas Dawlish R.N.in eight volumes so far. Antoine spent many years in international business but now lives in Britain but continues to travel extensively on a private basis. His latest novel is Britannia’s Innocent (see below).

Over to Antoine!

Emerging from the ruins of the Roman Republic in 31 BC, the empire established by Octavian – later known as Augustus – was to endure for over four centuries in the West and a millennium beyond that in the East. By contrast, the string of empires proclaimed during the 19th Century in France (twice! 1804 & 1852), Haiti (1804), Brazil (1822), Mexico (twice! 1822 & 1864), Germany (1871) and British India (1877) were all to have much shorter life-spans.

The most spectacular “rise and fall” among these new 19th Century empires was to be that of Germany. Economically successful, by 1914 it was arguably the greatest single military power, but it would disintegrate, ignominiously, four years later.

As such, it seems to have little in common with Augustus’s great Roman creation. The link is however that both were brought about by the genius and determination of a single man who realised that current realities contained so many internal contradictions, and involved such instabilities, that a new reality must be imposed.

Almost a century of civil war had shown that the structures of the almost seven-century old Roman Republic were no longer “fit for purpose”. Augustus’ solution – “The Empire” – imposed order, fostered administrative efficiency, provided security against foreign threats and allowed a high degree of adaptation to local circumstances, religions and cultures. (Read more in Adrian Goldsworthy’s excellent Augustus: From Revolutionary to Emperor)

The German Empire’s creator, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), was no less clear-sighted and no less driven. He recognised that the patchwork of independent German states that still existed in the mid-19th Century (some 40 in 1860) was an anachronism. United, they could be Europe’s – if not the world’s – greatest economic and military power, guaranteeing stability at home and protection against enemies abroad.

Convinced that Prussia, already the strongest of the German states, should dominate such a union (an idea of which the King of Prussia was not convinced), Bismarck, Minister President – essentially Prime Minister – of Prussia from 1862, set about demonstrating the value of unity. The method employed was launching of three wars in six years:

– Denmark, 1864: an act of political stupidity by Denmark in 1863 violated existing treaty conditions and allowed Bismarck to launch an attack on her by Prussia, in alliance with the Austrian Empire, the only other contender for German leadership. Victory was fast and absolute.

– Austrian Empire 1866: disagreement over details of settlement of the Danish War allowed Bismarck to trigger conflict with Austria. The resulting “Seven-Weeks War” resulted in a massive Austrian defeat. Superior Prussian strategy, use of new technology and mastery of railway transportation to concentrate its armies inflicted a humiliation on the Austrian Empire from which it never recovered.

– France 1870-71: Bismarck engineered a crisis with France that he intended would lead to war. Leading an alliance of German states, Prussia inflicted a series of French defeats that included the encirclement of an entire French Army and the capture of Emperor Napoleon III as well as the siege and surrender of Paris itself. The culmination was the proclamation of the King of Prussia as Emperor of a united Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles.

Largely forgotten today, the smallest of these wars, that against Denmark in 1864, inspired me to write my most recent novel, Britannia’s Innocent. Massively outnumbered by Prussia and Austria, Denmark’s army performed heroically although defeat was recognised as inevitable. The war was however a disaster in every sense for Denmark. It lost almost 3000 dead and slightly more than that wounded – a heavy toll in a population that was reduced from 2.6 million to 1.6 million by cession of territory under the peace terms. The only major Danish triumph was a naval victory over an Austrian naval squadron off Heligoland, in the North Sea, but it had no impact on the war’s outcome.

Small as the Danish War of 1864 was, by comparison with later conflicts, its tactical lessons were significant. Trenches and earthworks proved surprisingly resistant to artillery fire and allowed small numbers of rifle-armed troops to hold off much larger attacking forces. Massed assaults succeeded only at the cost of high casualties. The same was found across the Atlantic when, that same year, Confederate forces entrenched at Petersburg in Virginia imposed a virtual stalemate, that lasted some ten months, on Union forces.

On the naval front, Denmark’s only ironclad, the Rolf Krake, proved a very valuable asset in its operations against Prussian land forces. With her heavy turret-mounted guns, she represented the future of sea warfare, by contrast with the wooden broadside-frigates that fought each other at Heligoland.

My writing of Britannia’s Innocent reflects these matters and more besides, not least the first appearance in war of the newly formed Red Cross, a revolutionary concept at the time. While working on the book, I found the brutal realities of this conflict oppressive – the awareness that suffering and death for the combatants, and misery for their bereaved families, had been brought about by the wilful stupidity of Danish politicians and by the ruthless determination of a single man, Otto von Bismarck.

And by the time I finished, I found myself loathing him.

A succinct and powerful summary – thank you, Antoine.

Connect with Antoine
Find out more about the Dawlish Chronicles series: www.dawlishchronicles.com
To follow Antoine’s blog click: https://dawlishchronicles.com/dawlish-blog/

Britannia’s Innocent

1864 – Political folly has brought war upon Denmark. Lacking allies, the country is invaded by the forces of military superpowers Prussia and Austria. Cut off from the main Danish Army, and refusing to use the word ‘retreat’, a resolute commander withdraws northwards. Harried by Austrian cavalry, his forces plod through snow, sleet and mud, their determination not to be defeated increasing with each weary step . . .

Across the Atlantic, civil war rages. It is fought not solely on American soil but also on the world’s oceans, as Confederate commerce raiders ravage Union merchant shipping as far away as the East Indies. And now a new raider, a powerful modern ironclad, is nearing completion in a British shipyard. But funds are lacking to pay for her armament and the Union government is pressing Britain to prevent her sailing . . .

Denmark is not wholly without sympathizers however. Britain’s heir to the throne is married to a Danish princess. With his covert backing, British volunteers are ready to fight for the Danes. And the Confederacy is willing to lease the new raider for two months if she can be armed as payment for the lease, although the Union government is determined to see her sunk . .

Just returned from Royal Navy service in the West Indies, the young Nicholas Dawlish is induced to volunteer and is plunged into the horrors of a siege, shore-bombardment, raiding and battle in the cold North Sea – notwithstanding divided loyalties. In 1864, Dawlish is still an innocent, relatively raw. But to survive he will need to learn fast . . .

Buy here: https://amzn.to/386dd2A

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now out.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines… Download ‘Welcome to Roma Nova’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be first to know about Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Can a song inspire a story?

Can music inspire a story? It seems so!

I’m taking part in the December StorySong short story fest organised by Discovering Diamonds Reviews’ organiser Helen Hollick.

Each day, there’s a new story and a chance to guess the song/music that inspired it. There have been some crackers so far!

Mine comes on 17 December, the first day of Saturnalia (of course!). What exactly did Honoria Mitela and her troops do at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 when Europe was threatened with conquest by the mighty Ottoman Empire?

In the meantime, here are the other stories (I’ll add the new link each day they appear on the Discovering Diamonds Reviews site)

2^ndM.J. Logue First Love

3^rd Richard Tearle Chips and Ice Cream
4^th Helen Hollick Promises, Promises

5^th Paul Marriner Memories
6^th Pam Webber One Door Closing
7^th Louise Adam Hurt Me Once

8^th Barbara Gaskell Denvil Sticks and Stones
9^th Judith Arnopp Secrets
10^th Erica Lainé Silk Stockings
11^th Anna Belfrage Hold Me, Love Me, Leave Me?

12^th Annie Whitehead Frozen
13^th Tony Riches Alas, My Love
14^th Clare Flynn, Zipless

15^th J.G. Harlond The Last Assignment
16^th Elizabeth St John Under The Clock

17^thAlison Morton Honoria’s Battle
18^th Jean Gill The Hunter
19^th Patricia Bracewell Daddy’s Gift
20^th Debbie Young It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas

21^stRuth Downie  Doing It Properly
22^nd Nicky Galliers What God Has Joined
23^rd Elizabeth Chadwick The Cloak
Image result for red cloak white cross 24^th / 25^th HAPPY CHRISTMAS
26^th  Helen Hollick Ever After
27^th Barbara Gaskell Denvil Just The One… Or Maybe Two
28^thDeborah Swift Just Another Day
29^th  Amy Maroney What The Plague Brings
30^thCryssa Bazos River Mud

31^stHAPPY NEW YEAR!

Enjoy!

How to whitelist with GMail

(Other email programs are available…)

GMail is a very accessible way of instantly creating an address and enjoys a high level of security. Its layout is clear and easy to navigate, especially when you’re searching for an old message.

(You can hear the ‘but’ coming…)

However, Gmail’s security sometimes works a bit too efficiently. I approve of good security; we have back-ups, spamcatchers and firewalls ad nauseam here), but a few subscribers to my mailing list have reported receiving my newsletters showing a red warning, or not at all.

This is obviously not good: readers are not getting what they signed up for, or are being put off by that red warning.

Roma Nova newsletters have photos and links to articles which I think may interest or amuse subscribers. Like anything in this world, there’s no guarantee, but I do my utmost to ensure they don’t contain anything ‘icky’ in the digital sense.

GMail and spam emails
The ‘spamcatcher ‘function in your email program works by identifying messages that are likely to be spam and sending them directly to a spam folder, so you never have to see them. But this function can become problematic if it works too well, such as when Gmail identifies a message as spam that really isn’t. When that’s the case, you might continue to miss email messages from a certain sender because they always end up in your spam folder.

If Gmail keeps sending messages from a certain sender to the spam folder, you can make it stop by telling Gmail the email address is safe. This action, called whitelisting, puts the address on your safe sender list and allows those messages through the spam filter and into your inbox.

How to whitelist a sender

1. Open Gmail. In the upper-right corner, select the Settings (gear) icon. From the menu, choose Settings.

2. Select Filters and Blocked Addresses.

3. Select Create a new filter. If you already have many filters, you’ll have to scroll down to find this link.

4. A dialog box appears. In the From field, type the email address you want to whitelist. Be sure to type the full email address, like example@yahoo.com. To whitelist every email address from a particular domain, type just that domain name, like @yahoo.com.

5. At the bottom of the dialog box, select Create filter.

6. On the next screen, tell Gmail what to do with the email address or domain you just indicated. To do so, select Never send it to Spam. To finish the process, select Create filter.

7. And breath!

If you fancy subscribing to my Roma Nova newsletter, here’s the link: https://eepurl.com/ckNeFL
Oh, and there are freebies to download when you sign up. 😉

Discovering gold - a critique writing partner and how to find one

I enjoy a ‘writerly’ Skype with another novel writer, Denise Barnes – my critique Writing Partner (CWP). We swap hints and tips, recommend and exchange books, encourage each other about courses and competitions. But the best thing is that we read each other’s work and critique it. Now you have to get on well to do this, so well that you can say things that may seem harsh. But we have to be completely, and sometimes brutally, honest. It’s a pointless exercise otherwise. With both of us going through the same process, we can empathise as well as criticise.

Her current novels are heartwarming Second World War stories with romantic themes, mine are alternative history thrillers. While our imagined worlds are ridiculously different, we drill down and become thoroughly enmeshed in each other’s characters and worlds. It’s spooky when she turns round to me and says about a piece of my heroine’s dialogue,’You know, Carina wouldn’t say it like that.’

Luckily, we both have outgoing personalities and having both owned businesses in a tough commercial environment, we have had to make difficult decisions and say things that were not always welcome. We’re quite nice really!

We have different strengths; mine is history, plotting and action (quelle surprise!), hers is the emotional side of life. But we are both grammar Nazis and she’s particularly good on flowing writing. We do disagree on commas, though… 😉

It’s a bit like any serious relationship: you go on a few (book) dates, get to know them find shared values, then take a leap as you move in with them (a.k.a. hand your whole manuscript over to them). Then you settle into an almost telepathic partnership and get to know every last secret about your partner’s writing…

Like any relationship, it takes honesty, nurturing and above all listening. Trust is key: you are handing over your ‘baby’ for another to look at, assess and critique. But hopefully that person will stand as a godparent/patron/responsible adult and help the infant mature into a full-grown adult.

We’ve been doing this for ten years now and both have nearly that number of books under our respective belts, let alone countless posts, short stories and articles.

I expect to be still going on like this for the next ten.

So how do you find this writing soulmate, ally, confidante and critic?

Join a local writing group – large or small – and get a feel of the different writers, their personalities, experience and goals
Join larger writing societies and associations such as the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Alliance of independent Authors (ALLi) and the Historical Novel Society and talk to people at their parties and conferences.
Go on writing courses to improve your craft. You’ll meet other like-minded people serious about achieving their goals because they’ve laid out money for such tuition.
Be open – Both of us were small business owners with no (apparent) literary pretensions, but both secretly bursting to be novel writers

You might have found a person who would be a good fit. Check the following:

The two of you must be on the same wavelength for goals and have personalities which gel. The personality and character of the other is as important as her critique writing skills. As the relationship develops between the two of you, you will both find your rhythm, your style, your way of maintaining a close and comfortable relationship. The person who you think might be the right one could be a great match for another writer but in the end not suit you.
It’s fine – often better – if the other person writes in a different genre from you as you will have fresh eyes for your partner’s work and they will for yours. If you both write, for instance, cosy crime, you might find it becomes rather competitive and you will always think your partner’s work is superior to your own. And she will think the same about yours!
If they live a long way away, don’t rule them out. You can always Skype each week and arrange to meet occasionally in person.
Know what you want/expect from your CWP. Is it help on plotting, characterisation, emotion, cliff hangers, layout, social media promotion, structure, early proof-reading for grammar, punctuation, typos etc., a sounding board, or cheer leader? You’ll find you both have various strengths and weaknesses just as in a business partnership

Vital dos and don’ts

Do schedule in longer pieces of work such as a novella or a novel; agree together when you’ll be sending it to her and approximately when you’d like it returned. Keep to agreed deadlines.
Never resent the time you spend critiquing each other’s work. It will highlight possible weaknesses and potential improvements in your own work.
Remember it’s your work in the end. If you don’t agree with something your CWP suggests, then don’t do it. But before completely disregarding it, think about it.
Be prepared to disagree. It’s part of the very nature of the relationship
Never say the other’s work is good if, in your opinion, it’s not, but you’re afraid to hurt her feelings. Being kind won’t help her to be a success.
Contact the other regularly even when you have nothing for her to critique, especially if you feel depressed with yet another rejection. She can remind you of past successes, even if it’s a short story that was long-listed, give you a kick up the bum if you haven’t been producing any writing lately, and say just one thing to get your creative juices going again.
Resolve any disputes fast. Be honest, but accept that you might be wrong.
Celebrate together and have fun!

Trust is the most important element of all. You have to trust that they’re good at writing, that they are serious about their writing, and most of all that they ‘get’ your work and critique it with what we call ‘Brutal Love’. This does not mean criticise them personally or diminish the other.

Good CWPs genuinely want the best for you. They want you to grow, to improve, to have successes. They are happy for you when you reach various milestones, and sympathise when you’ve had rejections, when you think you’ll never make it as a proper writer they will gee you up, cheer you on, and make you feel ready to face it all again.

Being recognised from your writing by the public is one of the most difficult things to achieve, but when it happens it’s so exciting. And your CWP will enjoy being part of your success – as you will hers!

Happy writing!

A bit about Denise

Denise Barnes has written and had published two memoirs, but was desperate to write a novel. So in 2005 she sold her business and began what was to become the award-winning historical trilogy: The Voyagers. She is now writing a second historical series for HarperCollins. The first one, An Orphan in the Snow, published Nov 2017, shot into The Bookseller’s top twenty chart. Currently, she’s writing about Bletchley Park after completing a series about the three Linfoot sisters during the Second World War.

It’s nearly a decade ago when Denise tentatively put her first horribly-rough manuscript into Alison’s hands, but happily admits she wouldn’t be where she is today without “the best CWP ever.”
www.denisebarneswriter.com https://mollygreenauthor.com/

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series.Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, a new Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, is now out.