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Summer reading - first in historical fiction series

Falling in love with a set of characters, a location and a period is a wonderful thing. Finding there is a series featuring the same three is heaven. You can plunge back into your favourite characters’ world and find out what happened next. You may want to grab a few moments’ peace during the holidays. Here’s a selection of first-in-series books that you may enjoy…

The Disappearing Dowry by Libi Astaire

When a crime wave sweeps through 19th-century London’s Jewish community, wealthy widower Ezra Melamed is forced to turn sleuth. His first adventure involves the mystery of The Disappearing Dowry: a family fortune is stolen, dashing the marriage hopes of a young lady—unless Mr. Melamed can find the thief before the young man’s family hears about her misfortune.

The Ezra Melamed Mystery Series currently has four full-length novels and two novellas, with the latest novel being The Doppelganger’s Dance.

Read more about the series at Libi’s website.
Buy the book at Amazon.com.

Kydd by Julian Stockwin

KYDD is the first in the Thomas Kydd series of historical adventure fiction set in the Age of Fighting Sail. In KYDD, a young wigmaker from Guildford is press-ganged into the Navy; despite the harsh reality aboard a man-o’-war he finds he is drawn to the sea life and takes up the challenge to become a true sailor.

The following titles take the reader on the rest of one man’s journey from pressed man to admiral – 15 titles published to date, of a projected 21.

Read more at Julian’s website.
Buy the book from Amazon (US and UK).

Sea Witch by Helen Hollick

In this first voyage of Captain Jesamiah Acorne, we learn that our hero has been a pirate from the age of fifteen. Then he meets Tiola (a healer, midwife and white witch) and his life changes forever. But there comes a day when he has to choose; the woman he loves, or his ship…? Swashbuckling adult nautical adventure that is a blend of Hornblower, Indiana Jones, Richard Sharpe and James Bond – with a dash of Jack Sparrow thrown for that extra bit of sexy spice.

There are three more ‘Voyages’ so far – Pirate Code, Bring It Close and Ripples In The Sand, with the fifth, On The Account to be published early in 2015.

Read more at Helen’s blog.
Buy the book from Amazon (UK and US).

Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Heiress of one empire and prisoner of another, it is up to Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra, to save her brothers and reclaim what is rightfully hers. Trapped in an empire that reviles her heritage and suspects her faith, the young princess struggles for survival in a Roman court of intrigue. But faced with a new and ruthless Caesar who is obsessed with having a Cleopatra of his very own, Selene is determined to resurrect her mother’s dreams. And what will it cost her in a political game where the only rule is win-or die?

A 3 book series including Lily Of The Nile, Song Of The Nile and Daughters Of The Nile

Connect with Stephanie on her site.
Buy the book (choice of retailers).

When Women Were Warriors Book I: The Warrior’s Path by Catherine M Wilson

Tamras arrives in Merin’s house to begin her apprenticeship as a warrior, but her small stature causes many, including Tamras herself, to doubt that she will ever become a competent swordswoman. Worse, the Lady Merin assigns her the lowly position of companion to a woman who came to Merin’s house, seemingly out of nowhere, the previous winter. This stranger wants nothing to do with Tamras.

When Women Were Warriors is a trilogy – Book II: A Journey of the Heart and Book III: A Hero’s Tale

Read more about the series. Book I is permanently free on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau

This first in series introduces strong-minded Sister Joanna Stafford and follows her dangerous quest to find a Dark Ages relic during the turbulent reign of Henry VIII.

The second novel, The Chalice, won the RT Reviews Award for Best Historical Mystery of 2013. The third and final book in the trilogy, The Tapestry, will be published in March 2015.

Read more at Nancy’s website.
Buy the book from Amazon.com.

A Rip in the Veil by Anna Belfrage #1 in The Graham Saga

On a muggy August day in 2002, Alexandra Lind was unexpectedly thrown backwards in time, landing in the Year of Our Lord 1658. Catapulted into an unfamiliar and frightening new existence, Alex could do nothing but adapt – how fortunate that Matthew Graham was around to help her!

Seven books on, and in Whither Thou Goest Alex and Matthew face new adventures in a 17^th century Caribbean setting.

Find out more on www.annabelfrage.com.
Buy the book (Amazon US).

The Midwife’s Secret: The Mystery of the Hidden Princess by Linda Root

After the Queen of Scots flees to England in 1568, her mortal enemy, the Earl of Morton, searches the shores of Loch Leven for human remains hoping to disprove rumours that one of the twins the queen allegedly miscarried survived. A child named Marguerite Kirkcaldy is kept hidden from outsiders by Abbess Renée de Guise, Marie Stuart’s aunt, who suppresses evidence that the knight Kirkcaldy never sired a child named Marguerite. Who is La Belle Ecossaise and who wish her dead?

There are a total of three books in the Legacy of the Queen of Scots series to date including 1603: The Queen’s Revenge, and a fourth coming in January.

Read more about the author at http://lindaroot.blogspot.com.
Buy the book at Amazon.com.

The Bride Prize: Allan’s Miscellany 1839 by Sandra Schwab

A medieval tournament in Victorian Britain, two unlikely lovers, a very grumpy editor, and an unfortunate dearth of umbrellas: In their first adventure, the reporters of Allan’s Miscellany travel to Scotland to attend the infamous Eglinton Tournament of 1839.

So far, there are three novellas in the series, with the latest being Devil’s Return and more to come in 2015.

Visit Sandra’s website to find out more.
Buy the book at Amazon.com (currently free).

Feud by Derek Birks

1459 – The Wars of the Roses have brought chaos to England. Ambitious lords, like the Radcliffe family, seize the moment to overcome local rivals, in this case the Elders. With their father and older brother dead, it falls to young Ned Elder and his sisters to fight back. But they are young, they make mistakes and they will need help if they are to survive the feud.

Feud is the beginning of a story – the story of the Elder family’s struggle through the Wars of the Roses – and the story continues in A Traitor’s Fate and Kingdom of Rebels, the second and third books of the 4-book series, Rebels & Brothers.

Find out more at Derek’s website.
Buy the book at Amazon UK.

Britannia’s Wolf by Antoine Vanner

1877 and the Russo-Turkish War is reaching its climax. To protect Britain’s strategic interests an ambitious British naval officer, Nicholas Dawlish, is assigned to the Ottoman Navy to ravage Russian supply-lines in the Black Sea. In the depths of a savage winter, Dawlish confronts enemy ironclads, Cossack lances and merciless Kurdish irregulars, and finds himself a pawn in the rivalry of the Sultan’s half-brothers for control of the collapsing empire. And unexpectedly, Dawlish finds himself drawn to a woman whom he believes he should not love…

Read more about the Dawlish Chronicles.
Buy the book at Amazon.co.uk.

Sultana by Lisa J Yarde

In thirteenth-century Moorish Spain, the realm of Granada is in crisis as a royal wedding destroys a fragile alliance between families. When bitter civil war threatens the bride’s and groom’s future, they discover the bounds of love, trust and family.

The Sultana series will comprise a total of six novels. The fourth, Sultana: The Bride Price is available now.

Visit Lisa’s website to find out more.
Buy Lisa’s books.

And here’s me…

INCEPTIO by Alison Morton

Hunted by a killer, New Yorker Karen Brown flees to Roma Nova, her mother’s mysterious homeland. Founded sixteen hundred years ago by Roman exiles and ruled by women, Roma Nova gives Karen safety, at a price, but the killer pursues her and sets a trap knowing she has no choice but to spring it…

The first of three books. Numbers four, five and six are in the pipeline…

You are already on my blogsite!
Buy INCEPTIO here (numerous retailers)

Happy reading!

Update 2017

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO. The sixth, RETALIO, came out in April 2017. Audiobooks now available for the first four of the series

Get INCEPTIO, the series starter, for FREE when you sign up to Alison’s free 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.

Roman counts

Carina, the heroine of the first three Roma Nova books, has an honorary title of ‘Countess Carina’ as her grandmother’s heir. As the head of the family/tribe, Aurelia is called ‘Countess Mitela’. Now why do the descendants of Romans have these titles? And how does the relationship work between the imperatrix, the ruler of Roma Nova and the leading families?

For much of the Roman civilisation, people’s, i.e. men’s, status was denoted by the antiquity of their family, whether they were patricians, plebs, equites, nobiles, novi homines, etc. Power came through connections, wealth and political or other influence. Kings had existed in early Rome, but royalty had been thoroughly renounced in 509 BC when Tarquinius Superbus was thrown out. Military leaders were granted the title of ‘imperator’ as the need arose, but power was in the hands of the consuls, senators, tribunes.

Augustus

Until Augustus.

He maintained he was merely a ‘princeps’, the first amongst men, but he was the first of many emperors who were kings in all but name. In the late Roman Empire, in the ‘Dominate’, emperors became more autocratic and remote and established the practice of personally appointing loyal servants to key posts, resulting in the creation of the rank of ‘comes’, (pron. co-mays, plural comites).

The comites became leading officials of the later Roman Empire from the army to the civil service, but always retained their direct links and access to the emperors. Constantine took the final step of certifying the posts, as comites provinciarum, ‘counts of the provinces’. You can find a full list for the beginning of the fifth century in the Notitia dignitatum.

Senior Roman officials (Trajan’s column)

Emperor Theodosius – the one who banned all pagan worship in 395 AD and started the Roma Nova story – served as a young man in Britain with his father who was the Comes Britanniarum, tasked with the defence of Roman Britain (Britannia). This post expired circa AD 410, when the last Roman troops left.

The very first Roma Novans in my novels had been led by Apulius, a young senator. He was elected as leader of the exodus and given the traditional title of imperator (war leader) by the heads of families who trekked out of Rome with him. They became his comites, or companions, pledged to support and serve him and he promised to lead them but listen to their advice.

It was no mere hierarchical arrangement; in the early, grim times when they founded their new country, it was a case of ‘hang together or hang apart’. They needed a bonding mechanism to stay united to fight off outsiders.

The companions went on to found the Twelve Families, and formed the basis of the imperial council which advises the imperatrix today, and functions as a check and balance to her executive power. In English, the title of comes becomes count/countess.

More about how Roma Nova is governed here.

The head of each of the Twelve Families gives an honorific title and a measure of power and responsibility to their heir, so that in the event of sudden demise, the transfer of power and responsibility to the new head of family is, in theory, smooth.

Since the earliest times, the leader of each of the Twelve Families is personally accountable for their family members’ behaviour and is also expected to respond positively if the imperatrix asks them to carry out a task or mission.

So there you have it, citizens, chapter and verse!

Updated 2020: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.

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.

In The Bookseller - editor's choice

I was stunned to see that SUCCESSIO had been selected as an Editor’s Choice in The Bookseller‘s inaugural Indie Preview on Friday.

I was checking Twitter – having a break after wrestling with an article – and saw my name mentioned by journalist, Porter Anderson, associate editor for TheFutureBook.net — the world community for digital development in publishing, and part of The Bookseller. Clever and insightful, his tweets are always worth reading. I stopped, read it and clicked through.

.@alison_morton‘s “Successio” is one of @CaroSanderson‘s #Indie #Author Editor’s Choices #FutureChat 4pGMT http://t.co/xUhx0LzYsq

— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) December 5, 2014

Surprised? Excited? Dull words for how I felt.

Here’s what they said:

“Carina Mitela is the heir within a leading family, but has chosen the life of an officer in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces. When a blackmailing letter arrives from a woman claiming to be her husband’s lost daughter, a youthful indiscretion turns into a nightmare which threatens to attack the core of the imperial family itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this classy thriller, the third in Morton’s epic series set in Roma Nova, a breakaway Roman colony established in AD395, which has survived to the present day. The series came about because the author—a self-confessed “Ancient Roman nut”—wondered what a modern Roman society run by women would look like.”

The Bookseller is the UK publishing trade magazine and has taken an innovative step, in conjunction with Nook, in introducing the Indie Preview. I am so proud that SUCCESSIO was included in the inaugural selection.

Here’s the full post on The Bookseller site.

UPDATE: Here’s the follow-up post on The Bookseller site with details of the discussion about the preview and self-published/indie fiction standards required for success.

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.

Antoine Vanner - Britannia's Shark

Today my blog guest is Antoine Vanner, a man of many parts. Before writing historical naval fiction, he spent many years in the international oil industry and travelled extensively. He has survived military coups, guerrilla warfare, a militia attack, storms at sea and life in mangrove swamps, tropical forest, offshore platforms and the boardroom.

His passion for nineteenth-century political and military history and first-hand experience of their locales provide the background to his historical novels based on naval officer Nicholas Dawlish’s life. The first to be published was Britannia’s Wolf, in which Dawlish is attached to the Ottoman Navy as the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 enters its critical final stage. The next book, Britannia’s Reach, finds Dawlish enmeshed not only in a vicious river war in the heart of South America but also an ethical dilemma where he must make a terrible choice if he is to return to Britain with some shreds of integrity remaining.

Now I like a good heroine or hero particularly in a uniform and serving their country. But usually there’s a human being underneath with frailties we may not suspect and one who has to learn about themselves as well as take risks in the personal sphere. I’ve read the first two Dawlish adventures and am burning to find out more…

Welcome, Antoine! The Dawlish Chronicles are in the relatively rare genre of Victorian naval fiction. What attracts you to this era?

Two reasons. One is from the naval and historical point of view. As an engineer, I find the Victorian era fascinating in terms of its developing technology as well as its political and intellectual ferment. The other reason is more personal. For my generation the Late Victorian age is almost the day before yesterday. Our grandparents grew up during it so we learned much about it from people with first-hand experience. In addition, much of the infrastructure and technology still with us was built or developed during that time. But there was rapid change – urban electrification had arrived and radio and flight were almost realities. These aspects come together for me – the fascination of the politics and technology, the expansion of western nations to global power status and our own ability to reach back through our grandparents and almost touch it.

Your protagonist Nicholas Dawlish is tough, no doubt of that! He has a high moral character and thus torn between duty and doing the right thing, as we saw in Britannia’s Reach. He’s driven by ambition, but does this make him vulnerable to pressure? Tell us more about this complex man.

Through the early books of the Dawlish Chronicles we are meeting Dawlish in his mid-thirties, and by this time he has already established himself professionally. He is a good seaman, a good officer and a good leader of men. But now he is on the cusp of senior command. As he reaches more senior levels the challenges become much more complex. It was easier to be ethical when he was a lieutenant or sub-lieutenant following relatively simple orders. But at a more senior command level, it’s no longer just a matter of getting the job done in purely technical and operational terms, it’s one of taking into account political, ethical, financial and other considerations also. That’s what he is facing right now, and he’s confronted with hard choices, difficult compromises and fine balances if he is to move ahead.

Dawlish was deeply attracted to Florence Morton in Britannia’s Wolf, but ambivalent about her servant origins. She proved as tough and resilient as him. We know of outstanding Victorian women, such as Florence Nightingale and Mary Kingsley, but these were from privileged backgrounds. What made you write Florence against the usual perception of Victorian women?

I was aware that many Victorian women of humble background managed, against all odds, to educate themselves. They achieved great things, but often had to go overseas to do it, for example as missionaries, where social class was less important. I spent many years in Nigeria and became intrigued there by the personality of Mary Slessor. She was a Scottish mill girl from a poverty-stricken family. She was self-educated and went to Calabar in Eastern Nigeria as a missionary, staying for some 40 years. Still revered there for wonderful work among the local population, she became the first female magistrate and vice-consul in the British Empire. Florence is of similarly humble origin and in Britannia’s Wolf she thrives on the challenges of assisting wartime refugees in Bulgaria and Turkey. Dawlish recognises and admires her character and courage – which he might never had an opportunity to do in Britain – and decides to commit to her, difficult it may be in pure social terms for a man of his class.

You bring in historical characters: John Philip Holland, inventor of the modern submarine, and Adam Worth, described by Scotland Yard as “The Napoleon of Crime” and the inspiration of Conan Doyle’s Professor Moriarty. What is the biggest challenge of mixing real and fictitious characters in novels?

John Philip Holland

When you do so, you have got to make sure they think and act in character. You are obviously putting them into fictitious situations and it’s important that they react as that individual would have done in real life if confronted with the same challenges. A good example here is Adam Worth in Britannia’s Shark, is a man totally without any ethical standards, and yet in his own way quite an attractive character. Holland on the other hand was something of a naive genius. Similarly, in Britannia’s Wolf we met the devious Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the exuberant Hobart Pasha. In each case the challenge was to make them behave in a way which is credible and consistent with their actual personalities. That demanded me knowing a lot about them and being able to imagine how they would have reacted to the situation in the story.

Have we lost the opportunity to have real adventures today? And with heroes like Dawlish?

Adventures are “challenges confronted”. If we sit about waiting for them to come to us we won’t have many. There are always indomitable souls who will seek out challenges willingly. They’ll either prevail, or they’ll fail heroically. The challenges can be in any sphere and a dogged resolution never to be beaten can make heroes of the most unlikely people. Heroes will always be with us and it is largely by them that Mankind advances.

So what’s Britannia’s Shark about…
1881 and the power of the British Empire seems unchallengeable.

But now a group of revolutionaries threaten the economic basis of that power. Their weapon is the invention of a naïve genius, their sense of grievance is implacable and their leader is already proven in the crucible of war. Protected by powerful political and business interests, conventional British military or naval power cannot touch them.

A daring act of piracy draws the ambitious British naval officer, Nicholas Dawlish, into this deadly maelstrom. Drawn in too is his wife Florence, for whom the glimpse of a half-forgotten face evokes memories of earlier tragedy. For both a nightmare lies ahead, made worse by a weakness Dawlish never suspected he had. Amid the wealth and squalor of America’s Gilded Age, and on a fever-ridden island ruled by savage tyranny, and manipulated ruthlessly from London by the shadowy Admiral Topcliffe, Nicholas and Florence Dawlish must make some very strange alliances if they are to survive – and prevail.

Britannia’s Shark continues Nicholas Dawlish’s story. Daring and initiative can earn him the advancement in the Royal Navy which he hungers for. But is the price too high, for himself, for his principles and for the woman he loves?

Find out more about Antoine and about the Dawlish Chronicles on his website: http://dawlishchronicles.com/home-page and follow his blog at http://dawlishchronicles.blogspot.co.uk

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.

My top ten blog posts

Me and Forum Romanum

Now it’s December, I thought I’d look back to see what the most popular posts have been. Is it a competition? No, it’s a mystery!

In 2013 and 2014 combined (in traditional reverse order)

10. The Alternation of Rome – About creating an alternative timeline and how Roma Nova was born

9. PERFIDITAS book trailer – As it says!

8. How Romans celebrated spring – part of a spring blog hop organised by the SilverWood Books authors

7. Applying research – an essential skill for writers

6. My London Book Fair – Day 1 – a gas of a day!

5. Shedding light on the Roman dusk – Was there any light for Europe when the Roman Empire ended?

4. Roman dating essentials – Your think your diary is complex?

3. INCEPTIO – about the first Roma Nova book

2. Does a writer still need an agent? – Carole Blake, super agent, speaks

And the surprise winner is

Marcus Aurelius

1. The Antonine plague – the germs that killed and empire
(I have enquired about this and apparently, my post is now used as a source for students writing history essays!)

The top category visited was ‘Writing skills‘ and the favourite page was ‘About‘, i.e. me!

I wonder what will be 2015’s top post will be…

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.

Summer reading - first in historical fiction series

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Summer reading - first in historical fiction series

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Roman counts

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In The Bookseller - editor's choice

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Antoine Vanner - Britannia's Shark

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