Marching on!

The next book in the Women of Maiden's Creek series is on preorder... and other news.

Greetings from a very warm Melbourne! The last gasp of what has been quite a hot summer!

February was crazy. I did a flying trip to the UK to attend my uncle’s funeral. While I have no regrets about making the trip and keeping those all important family connections alive, the jet lag on top of the jet lag was a bit of a killer! Happily I think I’m finally over it.

Large and disparate branches of my family tree come from the area around Birmingham (where my uncle lived) and once again as I trundled my suitcase onto the train at Marylebone, I felt my DNA memory singing to me… ‘You’re going home, You’re going home’. I shall miss that trip!

The next big trip is to the USA in June. Sadly, the Historicals on the High Seas cruise was canceled (disappointing but unsurprising). However, travel arrangements are too advanced to unwind so I am still planning to go on the cruise and I will be attending the Historical Novel Society Conference in Las Vegas. The rest of the time in the US will be catching up with family and friends and having a holiday.

NEWS

• The ebook of THE GOLDMINER’S SISTER (Book 2 in the The Women of Maiden’s Creek series) is now up on preorder on Amazon for readers outside Aus/NZ. Preorder price is just 99c so grab it while it is this price. It goes live on 26 March and I am hoping the print edition will also be available around that time. More details on THE GOLDMINER’S SISTER HERE. While it does carry on from the first book, it can be read as a stand alone.

• I hope to have THE HOMECOMING out soon (with its gorgeous new cover). I am also experimenting with a new print distributor so if you are after a print copy of THE POSTMISTRESS, try this link… I particularly like the flat US$5 shipping.

• The audio of AGONY IN AMETHYST is now finally up on Audible/Amazon as well as other distributors (eg Kobo, B&N, Apple etc) and directly from me.

OUT AND ABOUT

• I will be ‘in conversation’ with my friend Nicola Marsh on 26 March at Bunjil Place Library, talking about her new book WHERE THE HEART IS. More information HERE.

• I will be attending the ROMANTIC RENDEZVOUS event in Melbourne on Saturday 29 March).

• Friday 4 April, I will be hosting a panel for a SISTERS IN CRIME event, talking about the allure of Regency murder mysteries. We will be discussing two fabulous books! More information HERE.

SPECIAL OFFERS

Over the weekend 21-23 March I will be participating in another ‘Stuff your Kindle with Aussie and NZ Authors’ event. I will be setting my fun time travel story, SECRETS IN TIME to 99c across all platforms (not just Amazon) so watch out for the price drop over the next week.

And if you are dying to see the other authors over that weekend, the link is below!

And what am I reading/listening/watching…?

Reading: After seeing the film I read Robert Harris’s book CONCLAVE - very close to the movie which was refreshing. With the upcoming panels there is a lot of reading to catch up on. I loved Nicola Marsh’s gorgeous new Aussie romance WHERE THE HEART IS and now I am thoroughly enjoying the two Regency Murders: Alison Goodman THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF ILL MANNERED LADIES and Kelly Gardiner/Sharmini Kumar’s MISS CAROLINE BINGLEY PRIVATE DETECTIVE.

Listening: I finished THE BELVEDERE MURDERS by Karen Baugh Menuhin and SHARDLAKE and it’s time for something new!

Watching: I have been bingeing TRAITORS and also Australian SURVIVOR (although I am not loving this year’s crop of contestants). I ended up watching SCHOOL SPIRITS only because I wanted something easy to have on in the background while I did a mindless task and found myself hooked - good writing and compelling characters and some good twists! Unfortunately it ended on a cliff hanger (don’t you hate that?). Mercifully they made a second series unlike others I could name!

Finally…

A word about online book retailers in the current climate… As an author I am heavily reliant on Amazon and I am acutely aware of calls to boycott Amazon - that is entirely an individual’s prerogative but the reality is that it is us authors who bear the brunt of such a boycott and we are beginning to feel the pinch in our book sales :-(

I therefore have some suggestions for alternatives to Amazon you might like to explore.

• I am a huge fan of KOBO which is a Canadian based distributor. They sell digital books (audio and ebook) and are a delight to work with. From the reader’s perspective they have a subscriber offering similar to KU (KOBO plus). It covers ebooks AND audiobooks and it is not exclusive so you often find books on Kobo that are available elsewhere. And they have their own Kobo ereader.

• Then there are the biggies like Barnes and Noble, Apple and Google Play.

• There are also smaller distributors such as Booktopia (in Australia)

• And then there are the author’s own direct stores. Many authors are now ‘going it alone’. You can be guaranteed that all the royalties go directly to the author and not to line the pockets of big tech. My own little bookstore is HERE.

• And for audio: Have a look at Libro. All my audiobooks are on this platform and they offer a subscription similar to Audible. Also Kobo Plus offers access to audio books.

All from me… please feel free to comment directly on the Substack post :-) I love hearing from you and if you are not already a subscriber, consider subscribing to my posts and look out for a link to a free download of the Harriet Gordon prequel novella THE UMBRELLA in your inbox :-)

Best regards

Alison