 Driving along the main road, I’m happy there are only 11 kilometres to home. I slow down to pass through a village of older cream stone grey-slated houses, interspersed with Roman tile roofed single-storey homes. Halfway through, I reach the open area to the side, not even a proper village square. A blue-uniformed armed figure steps into the road. He holds up one hand; his other grips a service rifle.
I have to stop.
No, I’m not writing as my heroine Carina, and this is not a Roma Novan custos, possibly an ex-colleague of Carina’s. This is France today.
 Faced with a mass slaughter of journalists from satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a siege with hostages in a small town where fugitive terrorist killers armed with Kalashnikovs are determined to die as martyrs, and another armed siege at a kosher supermarket in a densely inhabited eastern part of Paris, French forces of law and order mobilise throughout the country. Regular police, the military style gendarmes, special forces, the CRS, police judiciare, fire brigades, ambulances and the military swarm in large numbers. At the crisis sites, they encircle, they clear, they evacuate civilians. Defending free and open speech, they allow journalists in, but never at operational risk. Their determination and focus are Praetorian, their manner direct, robust, often brusk.
Today, I watch on the television as they take control and ‘neutralise’ both incidents.The operations are efficiently led and executed. The perpetrators are dead. And then as the hostages are released from the supermarket siege in the east of Paris, something very strange happens. Applause breaks out. Not from the traumatised ex-hostages – they are out of it – but from bystanders. This is weird because the police are not particularly loved, particularly in areas with largely ethnic populations.
 When the Kouachi brothers slaughtered 12 people in their attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, French people saw this not only as the brutal deaths of human beings, but as an assault on the freedom of expression – la liberté d’expression. As inheritors of Voltaire as well as children of the Revolution, they cherish this freedom above many others. And they are showing solidarity with Charlie Hebdo in their hundreds of thousands in fine French tradition of street demonstration. They wave signs, ‘Je suis Charlie’, and shout Liberté! And it will continue over the weekend.
And my roadside stop today? The gendarme bent down, looked through my window, then waved me on. I didn’t look like a security threat, then. To some, these armed officers of the state, solemn in their dark blue, may seem intimidating, but I feel safer for their presence and was glad to be stopped.
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.
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 Readers buy books from many places; paperbacks from ‘bricks and mortar’ bookshops, airports, souvenir shops at visitor sites, at events, launches, the charity shop, from the author direct as well as online. As for ebooks, there seems no end to the number and variety of e-tailers, the dominant one being Amazon.
Sometimes we forget that Amazon is not the only ebook gladiator in the arena; there are other choices, e.g. iTunes, Nook (Barnes & Noble) and Kobo, plus aggregators like Smashwords. An Ofcom study into consumers’ digital consumption has found that Amazon had a dominant 79% share of the e-book market in the UK (67% in the US – The Future of Ink).
 Apple’s iBookstore was the second most-used e-book platform in the UK with Barnes & Noble’s Nook giving iBooks a close contest in the US. And Kobo, the Canadian company was very much in marketing mode at the London Book Fair in April. New independent players such as Libiro are popping up giving readers another option.
Independent bookshops are the Aladdin’s cave, with knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff, from Foyles in London and Bristol to the smallest local owner/manager shop. You can find your local (UK) bookshop here:
So the choice is yours. Of course, all the Roma Nova titles are on these other platforms, here are the links for INCEPTIO to get you started:
Of course, if you’re an Amazon (Kindle) reader, don’t let me stop you… 😉
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.
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 No, I’m not making resolutions for 2015; they are easily made and easily broken. It’s a bit like dieting – it never works.
So what’s a writer to do? I have a few recommendations…
- Have your vision and write your story – tap, tap, tap.
- Make a beautiful world or an ugly one – it doesn’t matter as long as you know that world in your head and make it plausible and consistent.
- Make heroic characters or complete slimeballs and every type in between – don’t be afraid to create the characters you want to and as complex as you want them. Not all police are alcoholic depressives, not all decent ordinary people are upright citizens and not all heroes/heroines are ‘on duty’ 24/7.
- And have confidence in creating this new world – who says you can’t have a certain world? But remember to be logical and to do your research.
- And love it when it’s a success – don’t do the over-modest reserved thing. A mumbled ‘thank you’ or ‘it was nothing’ is not gracious. Your friends, colleagues and even your relations want to celebrate with you.
 Writers together  But let’s remember a few things…
- It’s a privilege to be able to present the inside of your head to other people.
- Be nice to other writers and exchange ideas freely with them, support them with promotion and cheer them up when they need it.
- Be polite to others in the writing and publishing field. Nobody is right or wrong – there are always options and the power to choose.
- Appreciate your readers, librarians, booksellers, bloggers and reviewers.
- And use your experience to help newcomers. Remember how others helped you?
Now, sit down and write the next damned book!
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.
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 I don’t want to sound specious, but I could say, ’They’ll be making them bishops next.’ Oh, they just did that.
UK defence secretary, Michael Fallon, announced on 19 December that he wanted to end the army’s ban on women serving in frontline infantry roles in the British Army by 2016. He pointed out that women were already deployed on the frontline of the air force and police. “There are women flying fighter bombers at the moment over Iraq and I don’t think it is right now to exclude women from considering any role that they want to apply for.”
Many women currently serve in the British Army in front line combat roles as medics, engineers, intelligence, communication and logistics experts. Initial training for male and female recruits is carried out to a common military syllabus in mixed units where they learn basic infantry/fieldcraft skills, weapon handling, communications skills, values and standards, self-discipline and professionalism, then go on to specialist training for their chosen trade in the same framework.
This is, in my eyes, a normalisation. No person willing to die for their country should be barred from any role purely on gender grounds. I served in a mixed unit with mixed education, abilities and temperaments. The esprit de corps and bonding were based on shared purpose, experience and achievements. The only criterion was ability to do the job.
But there are several points to consider…
– Not all women military are gagging to become ground close infantry where abrasive close quarter combat is the prime requirement. But those who want to should be able to.
– As with any role, the person must be up to the job specification and strongly motivated. Physiologically, women’s physical strengths are distributed differently. From my time in uniform I observed that although sometimes not as fast as men, women often had more stamina and endurance. Equality cuts both ways. Women will have to fulfil the high level of overall physical fitness demanded of the infantry specialist. There should be no concession.
– The standard ‘girlies will weep on the battlefield and go to pieces if their hair gets messy’ excuse shows how little faith people have in the extensive and intensive training of modern soldiers, whatever their mental and emotional make-up. In my own time in uniform in a specialist communications unit, I’ve seen solders of both sexes come unglued during exercises, as well as observed extraordinary fighting spirit and determination demonstrated by women as well as men.
– Operational effectiveness of any unit must be the overriding principle. Although consisting of trained soldiers, any unit from brigade down to detail level consists of people with differing abilities, strengths and experience. Skills, application, mental toughness and ability to think clearly under stress are as important in a technologically advanced military force as pure physical strength.
Opening up these roles to women will also lead the armed forces to re-examine their training methodologies, something that could benefit for all soldiers. Change is often a trigger for all-round improvement in any organisation.
But at the back of my mind, a little nag repeats itself – that old prejudice against ‘girls with guns’. Currently, armed women can serve on the front line, but not where the primary aim is to ‘close with and kill the enemy’. Is there still something lurking in the back of the male psyche that finds it difficult to deal with a woman who is prepared to fire a weapon with the intent of wounding or killing? And suppose she actually pulls the trigger?
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.
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 Whatever your take on midwinter, there’s always a celebration and authors love to party! Historical fiction author Helen Hollick has arranged a terrific bash.
When you’ve read my contribution below, hop over and take a virtual glass with some of the others – list and links below. You could be in medieval England, Revolutionary America or in amongst metrosexuals. But don’t hop off before you’ve read this…
Ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia rather than Christmas, and 21st century Roma Novans are no different. Here we join the Roma Novan Mitela family on a snowy day as they are preparing their Saturnalia feast. Welcome to the party!
From the journal of Carina Mitela
Roma Nova, 17 December – Saturnalia
 Temple of Saturn, Rome “Thirty-six hours later, we were snowed in. The newsies were having a field day with their graphs and charts. The ploughs and tractors were out soon enough despite it being an official holiday and were attempting to keep the main city roads cleared.
Although most of the public Saturnalia celebrations were cancelled, the priests would make the usual grand sacrifice and invoke Saturn’s blessings. I pitied them today; it was a Greek rite and they’d have to shiver in sleeveless fringed tunics, with heads bare instead of a warm woollen toga snuggly folded over the head. It was a sure bet they’d turn up the heating in the Temple of Saturn and have every open brazier burning hard.
My husband, Conrad, and our youngest daughter, Tonia, sat in silence at breakfast. Our eldest, Allegra, had called first thing to say she would join us just after two when she finished her shift. She looked tired on the screen; hopefully she’d get some sleep before tomorrow. She’d been called in with the rest of the military to help ensure vital services were kept running.
‘I’ll be there, Mama, as long as there are no further disturbances in the city.’
‘What do you mean “disturbances”?’
 ‘Unfortunately,’ she said in the driest tone I’d ever heard her use, ‘some people seem to think the custodes concentrating on the bad weather crisis means they can help themselves to what’s in the shops. I’ve been freezing my, er, extremities off in the Macellum district all night. We came across some kids with a crowbar in front of a smashed window, pulling stuff out of an electrical goods shop. The alarm was going, but so were others. As soon as they saw us, though, they ran like the Furies were after them.’ She chuckled.
The sight of half a dozen Praetorians marching towards you with intent and attitude would make anybody run.
‘But they’ve opened the basilica for the public banquet. My oppo, Sergilia, has caught guard duty there,’ she added, making a face. The law court hall was huge and could accommodate up to a thousand. But good luck to those trying to keep order.
After checking last details with the steward for the celebration meal later, I retreated to my office for an hour to check my messages and that nobody had found my stash of gifts for the 23rd. Sigillaria was important not just for the kids who loved new toys, but when adults gave each other something to compensate for the excesses that would surely happen today.
Normally on Saturnalia morning, my cousin Helena and I would sip a glass of champagne and exchange jokes and snippets of gossip. She had more than a finger on the pulse of city life; its lifeblood ran through her. She’d also forewarn me about any particularly risqué activities the household were planning for today.
Ceding my place at the head of the Mitela tribe for a day to the princeps Saturnalicius was all well and good, but even misrule and chaos had its limit as far as I was concerned. But for a few hours, the house would be overrun with noise, people, stupid but fun dares, overeating, games, theatricals and stand-up of dubious taste, arguments, falling in lust, laughter and progressive drunkenness. Helena would make sure the children were safe out of the way when the horseplay became a little too raunchy.
 By early afternoon the atrium blazed with light. Everywhere was covered in ferns, spruce and pine. In the centre was a large square table covered with linen, silverware, glasses, candles and the best china. I smelt roast pork, lemons and spices. In tune with the reversal of the day Junia, the steward, was enthroned in my usual place. Conrad handed me a glass of champagne. He was on waiter duty. His Saturnalia tunic was bright orange. He shrugged. Then grinned. Wearing over-colourful clothes was traditional, but a strain on the eyes.
‘It’s only for a day,’ he whispered.
‘I know,’ and smiled back. ‘But I wish Gil had been able to make it.’
Our thirteen-year-old son had been staying in the country with Conrad’s cousin and was caught in the atrocious weather. We’d be lucky to see him before Sigillaria. Gil loved the madness of Saturnalia. My geeky son would turn into a shiny-eyed imp of mischief, darting around, laughing and joking, pulling pranks I didn’t know he knew. Now he’d be holed up with Conrad’s serious cousin for days. I only hoped they had enough food and the electricity hadn’t been cut, like the phone.
‘Well, Tonia’s having fun.’ Conrad pointed to her skipping between people with trays of hors d’oeuvres, watched anxiously by the steward’s son, and me. I could see at least one of the trays coming to grief, contents slithering across the marble floor.
‘Io Saturnalia!’
I blinked at the hearty shout from the household and guests gathered around and raised my glass, then bowed towards the steward. She went to speak, but a blast of cold air and a loud thud interrupted her. All heads turned towards the atrium doors, now open. Allegra, in her military fatigues and winter parka, cheeks burning with the indoor heat, tore off her field cap and shouted, ‘Io Saturnalia’.
Everybody shouted back, the noise filling the atrium. I hugged her to me, ignoring the cold and wet of her thick coat.
‘I’ve brought you something else, Mama,’ she whispered in my ear and nodded towards the double doors. On the threshold stood a lanky boy – pale, shivering and wide-eyed. He was enveloped in a survival blanket.
Gil.
‘I found him trudging through the city,’ Allegra said. ‘He’s walked the ten kilometres from Brancadorum to get here and –.’
But I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. I ran to the door and crushed him in my arms.
Io Saturnalia, indeed!”
———————————
Now, party on!
- Helen Hollick “You are Cordially Invited to a Ball” (plus a giveaway prize) – http://tinyurl.com/nsodv78
- Alison Morton “Saturnalia surprise – a winter party tale” (plus a giveaway prize) – http://tinyurl.com/op8fz57
- Andrea Zuvich No Christmas For You! The Holiday Under Cromwell – http://tinyurl.com/pb9fh3m
- Ann Swinfen Christmas 1586 – Burbage’s Company of Players Celebrates – http://annswinfen.com/2014/12/christmas-party/
- Anna Belfrage All I want for Christmas (plus a giveaway prize) – http://tinyurl.com/okycz3o
- Carol Cooper How To Be A Party Animal – http://wp.me/p3uiuG-Mn
- Clare Flynn A German American Christmas – http://tinyurl.com/mmbxh3r
- Debbie Young Good Christmas Housekeeping (plus a giveaway prize) – http://tinyurl.com/mbnlmy2
- Derek Birks The Lord of Misrule – A Medieval Christmas Recipe for Trouble – http://wp.me/p3hedh-3f
- Edward James An Accidental Virgin and An Uninvited Guest – http://tinyurl.com/o3vowum and http://tinyurl.com/lwvrxnx
- Fenella J Miller Christmas on the Home front (plus a giveaway prize) – http://fenellamiller.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/christmas-on-home-front-and-giveaway.html
- J L Oakley Christmas Time in the Mountains 1907 (plus a giveaway prize) – http://bit.ly/1v3uRYy
- Jude Knight Christmas at Avery Hall in the Year of Our Lord 1804 – http://wp.me/p58yDd-az
- Julian Stockwin Join the Party – http://tinyurl.com/n8xk946
- Juliet Greenwood Christmas 1914 on the Home Front (plus a giveaway) – http://julietgreenwoodauthor.wordpress.com/2014/12/19/christmas-1914-on-the-home-front/
- Lauren Johnson Farewell Advent, Christmas is come” – Early Tudor Festive Feasts – http://wp.me/p1aZWT-ei
- Lucienne Boyce A Victory Celebration – http://tinyurl.com/ovl4sus
- Nancy Bilyeau Christmas After the Priory (plus a giveaway prize) – http://tinyurl.com/p52q7gl
- Nicola Moxey The Feast of the Epiphany, 1182 – http://tinyurl.com/qbkj6b9
- Lindsay Downs O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree (plus a giveaway prize) – http://lindsaydowns-romanceauthor.weebly.com/lindsay-downs-romance-author/o-christmas-tree-o-christmas-tree
- Peter St John Dummy’s Birthday – http://jennospot.blogspot.fr/2014/12/dummys-party.html
- Regina Jeffers Celebrating a Regency Christmas (plus a giveaway prize) – http://tinyurl.com/pt2yvzs
- Richard Abbott The Hunt – Feasting at Ugarit – http://bit.ly/1wSK2b5
- Saralee Etter Christmas Pudding — Part of the Christmas Feast – http://tinyurl.com/lyd4d7b
- Stephen Oram Living in your dystopia: you need a festival of enhancement… (plus a giveaway prize) – http://wp.me/p4lRC7-aG
- Suzanne Adair The British Legion Parties Down for Yule 1780 (plus a giveaway prize) – http://bit.ly/1r9qnUZ
More about Saturnalia here
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.
Find out about Roma Nova news, writing tips and info by signing up for my free monthly email newsletter.
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