They are lining up for a book fair for readers who like stepping back in time...and in the case of SECRETS IN TIME, literally!
When you were a child did you dream of waking up and finding yourself magically transported back in time? I did...I would squeeze my eyes tight shut and wish and wish and wish. Of course I woke up still firmly in the twentieth century and with the benefit of hindsight, I can't imagine anything worse than finding myself in the seventeenth century without a flushing loo or a toothbrush!
Or what if you come forward in time...what would you make of the flushing loo, a toothbrush, television, cars...and cricket. These are the dilemmas facing my hero, Nathaniel Preston in SECRETS IN TIME, a dashing seventeenth century cavalier who, with a healthy dose of witchcraft to help, finds himself in 1995...
When
a seventeenth-century cavalier hurls himself over her garden wall, Doctor
Jessica Shepherd is more angry than surprised. Although she ís no stranger to
military re-enactors, there ís something different about Nathaniel Preston. If
he ís to be believed, something…or someone…has sent him forward in time from
the midst of a civil war to the quiet English countryside of the twentieth
century.
With
time working against them, Nathaniel has to convince Jessica why fate brought
them together before he ís forced to return to his own era and certain death in
battle.
Can
the strength of love overcome all obstacles, even time itself?
Of course, Nat has a very good reason for his time travelling...he just didn't reckon on falling in love...or the dangers of foreknowledge. Can you imagine knowing the exact time and method of your death or the cause you will die for is doomed?
In the following excerpt, Nat wrestles with these questions:
I cannot sleep.
Every time I close my eyes I see this new world and all its wonders. The noise overwhelms me. Even now in the dead of night, I hear the carriages racing past and see the bright lights illuminate the curtains over the windows. Light. There is so much light.
I try to order things in my understanding, relate them to my own time, but I fail. My own ignorance fails me. I am a savage in this land. Jessica the Witch must think me a veritable fool, and that concerns me. I think of her warm, sun-touched skin on that day I first saw her, and the courage with which she faced me. I want to touch her. I need that touch of a warm, living being to remind me that I am still a man and not an object of pity.
The knowledge of my death tugs at my mind. I keep pushing the memory of that cold stone in the chapel away. I don’t believe I am to die. I am only thirty years old. I have two small sons. Who will care for them? Who will protect my sister and my grandmother?
Alice. Help me. I can’t live with this knowledge.
I hear her voice coming through the mist of my mind. “You must find the strength. Remember why you are there. Learn as much as you can of this new world Nathaniel,
and you will have a chance to set things in order.”
I close my eyes and remember all we talked about, Alice and I. She is right, I have to acquire the knowledge needed to set my world in order. But to do that I will return to my time. To do that, I must die.
To read a longer excerpt and for buy links, click HERE. Available in eformat only at Lyrical Press (all formats), Barnes & Noble and Amazon
If you, like me, love the seventeenth century, then don't miss my two full length novels set in the English Civil War, THE KING'S MAN and the award winning BY THE SWORD or if you like a ghost story with a bit of a mystery, history and romance, then GATHER THE BONES is the book for you (set in the 1920s world of Downton Abbey)
Whether it is Spring (and you are looking for great reading for your summer holidays) or autumn, as it is here in Australia (and you are looking for a good novel to curl up with on a cold winter afternoon), then don't miss the HISTORICAL NOVELISTS BOOK FAIR (12-15 April). To find more fabulous authors market stalls, see the list below
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And for a chance to win a $25 Amazon Voucher, enter the SECRETS IN TIME CONTEST by clicking HERE
Come and visit the wonderful historical authors hyperlinked below!
