I’m doing a Friday Reads post today…on a Saturday. I had every intention of writing it yesterday but I was knackered after work and those Fridays my husband isn’t away working the girls and I take a sauna. So I went with a sauna with the daughters instead of blog writing.
But, what I’d meant to write about yesterday was Tuluscan Six and the Time Circle by Anne Brooke. I picked this story up a couple of days ago, I wanted something short to read after having put the kids to bed and I admit I grabbed it mostly because of its length and that I’ve read Anne Brooke before.
I’m not big on time travel, I mean I dream about it at times – oh to be young again LOL – but I seldom read books with a time travel plot. It confuses me. In Tuluscan Six and the Time Circle Tuluscan has travelled back in time to save his planet but that also means he might not meet Karlan, the man he loves.
Despite stepping out of my comfort zone with the time travel part I enjoyed this story a great deal. I liked the characters, they had me laughing several times.
It’s been around for quite a few years, was first published in 2010 but there was a second edition in 2016…I think. Anyway, if you like some lighthearted sci-fi with a little love, check it out!
Whilst finishing up a good day’s work in the Earth Interplanetary Administration Office, Karlan Staithley is disturbed by the appearance of a strange alien called Tuluscan Six. Tuluscan tells him that in one year’s time, Earth will make contact with his people, the Lamarians, and unwittingly destroy them due to an anomaly in the planetary time lines.
He himself has come back to warn Karlan, partly to save his people and partly as in the real time line Karlan and Tuluscan will become lovers. The two men join forces to try to save their futures, but can they in fact change time? And, if they do, how can their mutual passion ever survive?
* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I thought it would be fun to start 2018 with a book release, so today Worth His Salt – A Ghost Story (Tattooed Corpse Stories #2) is available to the world!
The Tattooed Corpse Series is a series of short stories that have nothing in common except that there at some point during the story will appear a body, the same body as in the previous stories and it has a snake tattoo on its forearm… These stories vary in genre and length (though they’ll all be pretty short) and the characters have nothing to do with each other – it is as it says on the cover ‘Different Time. Different Place. Same Body.’
I love being a writer, I love creating my own worlds, but sometimes you’re the only one in that world – apart from your characters, of course. Therefore it’s fun to take part in something that’s bigger than your own stuff, or at least I think so. We haven’t decided on how many stories there will be in the series but Amy Spector wrote the first one, Pink Slip – A Halloween Romance and now it’s time for Worth His Salt – A Ghost Story.
Worth His Salt is a paranormal little tale about Eldred Henstare, a not so powerful witch, and Mo Vin, a man living next to an abandoned lighthouse.
Two and a half year ago we bought a house in Småland, Sweden (Where Astrid Lindgren came from if you’ve read Pippi Longstocking or any of her other stories), and it’s lovely. I don’t regret moving here but, and that’s a big but, there is no sea.
I grew up on the west coast, I walked along the coastline every day with my dogs, I come from a long line of fishermen, maritime pilots, and lighthouse keepers. When I was a kid my dad use to take me to the ruins of a house on the cliffs where his grandparents used to live. My great-grandfather was manning the pilot look-out tower when it still was in use. It’s high up on the cliffs, the fall down is several metres and they lived there, far away from any civilization and it was even farther back then, with their children. I would worry myself to death, but I guess it was different times back then.
Anyway, I wanted to write a lighthouse story, so I did. There is nothing that fills you with such awe as seeing the sea, dark and grey when a storm is brewing.
Eldred Henstare is a not so powerful witch who’s been left in charge of helping the city’s lingering spirits to move on. He usually handles it pretty well, but something’s wrong with the spirit leading him to the abandoned lighthouse.
Mo Vin likes his quiet life in the cottage next to the lighthouse, at least it’s quiet until one night when Eldred Henstare—young, beautiful and crazy—arrives. After that night things aren’t the same. A man is found dead on the beach outside Mo’s cottage, and he’s almost sure he’s the one who killed him, except it doesn’t make sense. Why would he kill anyone?
Eldred needs to get rid of the ghost haunting Mo. If he doesn’t Mo’s life is in danger, but to do it he needs both Mo and his brother Lachtin to help out.
* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I think one of the reasons I write is that it lets me create a reality different from my own. I’ve always been one to read a lot of paranormal books – urban fantasy, a little sci-fi, a few ghost stories, the occasional horror story, too. I love the raised stakes in a paranormal world, not that this world isn’t terrifying enough but at least you don’t have to fear for vampires when walking the dog at night.
Reading about supernatural beings helps me escape my own reality and sometimes I need a break. I love my life, but some days the laundry pile seems a little too high, the dirty dishes overtake the kitchen, and it feels like I’m not doing anything except preparing food, on those days I willingly let a werewolf drag me away from the normal world.
But, I fear, that if I would be part of a magical world for real I’d be like Eldred Henstare…or worse. Eldred is my newest character, and he’ll see the light of day on January first. Eldred is a not so powerful witch who will teach you to always carry salt and preferably your twin brother wherever you go. He’s very dear to me, but…and there is always a but, isn’t there? Things don’t always go the way Eldred had planned.
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Eldred Henstare rubbed his neck for the hundredth time since he’d left home. The strap of his messenger bag dug into his shoulder, and the salt and candles in it grew heavier and heavier with each step. A long time had passed since he’d jumped off the bus and started walking.
He didn’t know where he was going, or rather he knew precisely where he was going, could walk there with his eyes closed, but he didn’t know what the end destination was.
The wind whipped his face; raindrops bounced off his skin with enough force for him to suspect they were hail. He shivered under his too-thin jacket and cursed his stupidity of not donning rainwear. The ghost calling him wouldn’t care what he was wearing, and the risk of running into a living soul out there was minimal. To this day Prince Charming had never appeared when he’d been out chasing ghosts—one day he would, though. With Eldred’s luck, it would probably be the ghost of Prince Charming he’d have to guide into the light.
He sighed and shielded his face as he climbed a dune and was greeted by the white foam riding the crashing waves of the sea. A thread of moonlight managed to shine through the clouds, and he stopped to catch his breath for a second…or five.
The ghost Eldred is chasing isn’t Prince Charming, it will lead him to a living man instead. Mo Vin is living in a small cottage next to the old lighthouse and normally he doesn’t get visits on rainy nights.
Mo stared at the stranger. There was something not right with him. As he held the door open, the man drew a sign in the air, blew out a breath, and then crossed the threshold.
“Rough night?” Mo took in the soaked clothes, his reddish hair clinging to his forehead, and the wide hazel eyes. He was young, smallish, and entirely out of place in Mo’s cottage.
The man shrugged. “Not the best night for a walk in the moonlight.”
He had that right. “Do you want me to call a taxi for you? Or perhaps you have someone who can come pick you up…your mother?” How old was he? He could still be living with his parents.
“My mother? No thank you; I’m trying to avoid her at all costs.”
“Oh…” Mo tried to decipher the look the man gave him.
“You’re alive? I mean you’re living here?”
“Yes.” Mo crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t need some kid judging his home. It wasn’t much, but it had been in his family for generations, and he loved his cottage.
“What’s your name?”
“Mo Vin.”
“You’re moving?”
“No, my name is Mo…Vin.”
“Oh, there is no luck in the world, is there?” The kid grinned, and Mo ignored the way heat rushed to his groin. He was far too young for him anyway.
I had a laugh writing this little story, Eldred managed to capture my heart without me noticing. Worth His Salt is the second story in the Tattooed Corpse series, but you do not have to have read the first story (Pink Slip by Amy Spector) to read it. The Tattooed Corpse series is a series of short stories which all have one thing in common, and only one thing – the same body appears in each story – apart from that, anything can happen.
Eldred Henstare is a not so powerful witch who’s been left in charge of helping the city’s lingering spirits to move on. He usually handles it pretty well, but something’s wrong with the spirit leading him to the abounded lighthouse.
Mo Vin likes his quiet life in the cottage next to the lighthouse, at least it’s quiet until one night when Eldred Henstare—young, beautiful and crazy—arrives. After that night things aren’t the same. A man is found dead on the beach outside Mo’s cottage, and he’s almost sure he’s the one who killed him, except it doesn’t make sense. Why would he kill anyone?
Eldred needs to get rid of the ghost haunting Mo. If he doesn’t Mo’s life is in danger, but to do it he needs both Mo and his brother Lachtin to help out.
* By clicking the Books2Read link you’ll be taken to an external page. Links to Smashwords, Kobo U.S and Amazon contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
But, what I’d meant to write about yesterday was Tuluscan Six and the Time Circle by Anne Brooke. I picked this story up a couple of days ago, I wanted something short to read after having put the kids to bed and I admit I grabbed it mostly because of its length and that I’ve read Anne Brooke before.
Whilst finishing up a good day’s work in the Earth Interplanetary Administration Office, Karlan Staithley is disturbed by the appearance of a strange alien called Tuluscan Six. Tuluscan tells him that in one year’s time, Earth will make contact with his people, the Lamarians, and unwittingly destroy them due to an anomaly in the planetary time lines.
The Tattooed Corpse Series is a series of short stories that have nothing in common except that there at some point during the story will appear a body, the same body as in the previous stories and it has a snake tattoo on its forearm… These stories vary in genre and length (though they’ll all be pretty short) and the characters have nothing to do with each other – it is as it says on the cover ‘Different Time. Different Place. Same Body.’
