Cover Reveal #2

 ~ 📚📚📚 ~

A couple of months back I posted the cover and blurb for Book #1 of my new apocalyptic series: INFECTED.  

The post is HERE if you didn't see it and would like to.

My plan is to publish the first two books together - I have decided on a publication date of June 25th.  Without further ado, here is the cover for Book #2! 

Infected will be priced at 0.99, permanently, while Darkness will be 0.99 for the first week, after which it will be £1.99 (or equivalent).

Book #3 is in progress, but I will publish both Infected and Darkness within two or three weeks - cross fingers and touch wood, as usual!

Historical Jaunt #3

Part 1: Hever Castle HERE

Part 2: Hever Church and Penshurst Place HERE

⚔

- The Tower of London -

Traitors' Gate.  

Imagine coming through here on a barge, knowing what your fate might be....

Entrance to the Bloody Tower, most famously the supposed last home of 12 year old Edward V and his brother Richard, before they disappeared.

'One day, Anne, man will travel by air, up in the sky, rather than 

by horse, wagon and boat'

The whole place was jam-packed all day, to the extent that it was impossible, much of the time, to get a photograph without someone walking by looking at their phone in the middle of it.  Apparently there were no less than 1000 school parties booked for the day.  Tried to get this doorway three times and then gave up, not least of all because I was aware of holding up the people behind me as I did so.  I would like to use this as the excuse for why all my Tower pictures are particularly crappy.

'Yeah, it's nice, but she was beheaded with a sword, not an axe.'

'Really?  D'you want me to do it all again?'

'Nah, leave it.  Nobody will notice.'

Anne is buried in the Chapel of St Peter Ad Vincula, below - alas, it was closed for some reason or other on this day, so we were unable to go and see her tomb.  I wonder what she would have thought had she been told that on the anniversary of her death, nearly 600 years later, people would travel to see where she was buried.

Beauchamp Tower, built around 1281, where many were imprisoned

Much prisoner graffiti exists within; some unknown person carved Anne's falcon into the wall.  It's all protected by glass, so hard to take a picture of.

Random doors that meant something when I took them, but now I can't remember what.  The one below is a corridor in the Martin Tower where prisoners went to pray (I think).

Re-creation of Edward I's bedroom

Where he prayed, presumably for forgiveness for hammering so many Scots.

I'm usually something of a sucker for gift shops and bought WAY too much stuff in the one at Hever Castle, but at the Tower it was 95% overpriced tat, such as boxes of fudge with a picture of Traitors' Gate on for 15 quid, and executioner dress-up outfits for the kiddies.  High spot was this jolly mirror thing that you could stand in front of, and a crown would appear on your head!!!  At least it was free.

⚔

Historical Jaunt #2

Part 1 HERE - Hever Castle

Part 3 - The Tower of London HERE

⛪

- Hever Church -

Here lies Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne, Mary and George

⛪

- Penshurst Place -

Where Henry VIII used to stay when he visited Mary Boleyn in the pre-Anne days, and later Anne; he used it as a hunting lodge.

The Barons' Hall, with ghost (Gemma).

I love this place.  Built in 1341 and said to be the best preserved example of 14th Century domestic architecture in England.

Actual Cromwellian armour

Julia took this one of me from the back, which I really like 

because I didn't realise my hair was so long!!

Historical Jaunt #1

🏰

A delightful couple of Anne Boleyn-orientated days away with sister Julia and friend Gemma, to commemorate Anne's death on May 19th, 1536.

We stayed in a lovely hotel, The Leicester Arms, in the ridiculously picturesque village of Penshurst in Kent.

'Shamed be he who thinks evil of it' (motto of The Order of the Garter - est. 1348 by Edward III.  Hanging outside the room I slept in on the second night)

⚔

Julia and me in our room :)

⚔

- Hever Castle -

You wouldn't think that Katherine of Aragon would have ever visited the Boleyn castle, but here she is taking a selfie with her portrait.

Ditto Anne, who doesn't look moost happi about Katherine's visit.

At the stairs going up to what is thought to be the bedroom shared by Anne and Mary when they were young.  

Wonder if the Boleyn sisters giggled under the covers and had midnight feasts of marchpane confections and comfits (Julia and I used to have a few pear drops and mint imperials held back from our weekend sweet allowance...)

⚔

Queen Elizabeth's coronation robe (obviously not the original!).  It stands in the room Henry VIII stayed in when he visited the castle - a shame he didn't know what a mighty and much-loved queen his second daughter would become, or he might not have been such a murderous git to Anne.

Part 2 - Hever Castle and Penshurst Place HERE

Part 3 - The Tower of London HERE