New Release Spotlight and Extract: The Raided Heart by Jennifer C. Wilson

The Raided Heart by Jennifer C. Wilson

Meg Mathers, the headstrong youngest sibling of a reiving family on the English-Scottish border, is determined to remain at her childhood home, caring for the land and village she’s grown up with. When an accident brings her a broken ankle and six weeks in the resentful company of ambitious and angry young reiver Will Hetherington, attraction starts to build. Both begin to realise they might have met their match, and the love of their lives, but 15th century border living is not that simple, as Meg soon finds herself betrothed to the weakling son of a tyrannical neighbour, Alexander Gray. When tragedy strikes, can Meg and Will find their way back to each other, and can Will finally take his own personal revenge on Gray?

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 Hello, and thanks so much for hosting an excerpt of The Raided Heart on your blog today – I hope your readers enjoy it!

Here, we are with Meg, when she hears the news that her brothers have been plotting her marriage. Not the best news, when you’re in love with somebody else…

The Raided Heart, Excerpt Three

“What did you think of young Henry, then?” asked Robert the next morning as they broke their fast. As Lizzie had reported, the Cliffside group had set off just after midnight, keen to make the most of the possible advantage at the western fringes of their territory.

“Well, he’s young, you’re right about that,” replied Meg, risking a glance at Will to see whether he knew where this conversation might be leading. He shook his head, out of Robert’s line of sight.

“Not too young,” replied Robert.

“Not too young for what?”

“Marriage.”

Meg spluttered. Crumbs caught in her throat as she began to choke on pieces of bread, on air, on what she feared her brother was suggesting. “Not for me?” she practically squeaked.

“Well obviously for you – Judd won’t give up the lovely Hannah, and I can’t go offering the maidens of the village these days, can I, like some ancient tyrant? Their menfolk would object, and none of us would want that.” He chuckled at his words, then stopped when he noticed his sister wasn’t joining in.

Meg caught Will’s glance as she caught her breath. “But, you never said anything,” she managed, in a hoarse whisper.

“I wanted to see you together. We both did, Gray and me. He’s in agreement, it seems an excellent match.”

“An excellent match for you two perhaps, but not for me!” Meg exclaimed. “He is little more than a child, what, sixteen years old? A whole five years younger than me! And completely undermined by his father on all counts. You must have seen the way they were together? Alexander is a monster, a bully, and his son is completed cowed. And besides, apart from civil greetings, I hardly spoke to him. You couldn’t possibly have seen how we were together to make such a judgement on whether we are remotely suited for each other.”

Meg could hear the mix of anger and panic rising in her voice, not caring whether her brother could hear it too. Henry Gray was not the man she intended to marry – even if there were no other options presently available to her, that her brothers would readily agree to.

“I cannot marry somebody who appears to have no voice, no thought of his own. You must see that?” Despite the residual ache in her ankle from the forced merriment and activity of the night before, she rose and rushed out of the room, leaving her brother and Will with eyes wide.

Jennifer C. Wilson is a marine biologist by training, who developed an equal passion for history and historical fiction whilst stalking Mary, Queen of Scots on childhood holidays (she has since moved on to Richard III). Enrolling on an adult education workshop on her return to the north-east of England for work reignited her pastime of creative writing, and she has been filling notebooks ever since. In 2014, Jennifer won the Story Tyne short story competition, and has been working on a number of projects since, including co-hosting the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle. Her Kindred Spirits novels are published by Crooked Cat Books and her time-slip novella, The Last Plantagenet?, by Ocelot Press. She lives in North Tyneside, and is very proud of her approximately 2-inch sea view.

Website: https://jennifercwilsonwriter.wordpress.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jennifer-Wilson/e/B018UBP1ZO/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifercwilsonwriter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/inkjunkie1984

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifercwilsonwriter/

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Book Blog Tour Stop & Guest Post: The House That Sat Down Trilogy by Alice May.

The House That Sat Down Trilogy: Omnibus Edition by Alice May

A walk-in wardrobe at The House That Sat Down

By Alice May

It is an often brushed-under-the-carpet fact that, for a large family to function in any practical sense, there has to be at least one person taking overall responsibility for certain basic needs. I am referring, of course, to those duties that fall to the chief-cook and bottle-washer, as well as the general laundry and clothing maintenance factotum.

In the past, such a person might be referred to as the housewife - or indeed, the househusband - but I am reluctant to use either term because of certain sexist connotations. Suffice to say, that person upon whom the onerous duties outlined above fall in our family is definitely me; due entirely to the fact that I give in, and do what needs to be done, way before anyone else does.

Thus, when the house collapsed, the insurance company rejected our claim and we found ourselves living in a tent in the garden, it never occurred to anyone else to worry about how on earth we were going to wash our clothes. Admittedly, there were a lot of other things that needed dealing with at that time too; like how on earth we were going to find the money to rebuild the cottage, not to mention our lives, but let’s just stick with the clothing conundrum for now. (I have a word limit!)

From my self-imposed position as general dogs-body, my mind immediately started to melt at the practical pitfalls of a prolonged tented lifestyle. How on earth was I going to ensure the kids were properly turned out for school every day?

It was a logistical nightmare of epic proportions.

To begin solving this problem, my first task was to crawl through the wreckage of my house looking for clothes – specifically school uniform – and I will admit that this was a genuinely insane thing to do. After the initial collapse of two load-bearing cob walls, the part of the property that remained upright was still moving in miniscule increments. We had absolutely no idea if it might completely collapse at any given moment. Going inside to salvage belongings was utterly crazy. However, I challenge anyone to think straight under such circumstances. Don’t worry, though, we did have the good sense to keep the children well away from the danger zone.

I was determined to make sure that some semblance of normal life could continue for my chicks. How deluded I was! There was nothing normal about our situation, but, in some ways, focusing on the smaller details kept me from obsessing about the wider problems that we faced; problems we had no solutions for.

Eventually, I amassed a large pile of dusty clothing on the patio. The next job was to shake the worst of the dirt and rubble from these items before finding a way to wash them. This wasn’t going to be as tricky as you might think, because the one bit of the house that was still standing included our back door which opened directly into to a teeny, tiny utility room. This was where the family washing machine lived. Even better, that particular bit of our domestic plumbing was still intact and working. A minor miracle! The fact that we had no idea if this area of the property was actually stable wasn’t going to stop me from using that machine. I merely had to open the back door, lean in, shove clothes into the drum, add a dollop of non-bio and we were half way to having clean laundry.

Following that significant success, the rest of the job got a great deal easier. After all, the washing line is in the garden – a nice, benign location - and our tumble drier has always lived in the garage - a suitably safe and supremely stable structure. Thus, both drying facilities were several meters away from the collapsing house danger zone. Phew!

A kind friend lent me some temporary clothes rails and hangers, which meant that our clean, dry clothes could be hung up as soon as they came out of the drier.

In a very short space of time, I achieved a life-long ambition, because I then owned what was effectively a walk-in wardrobe. I had simply never anticipated that I would ever have such a luxury in my garage.

But then again, I also never thought that my house would fall down.

Life is full of surprises!

Love Alice x

Inspired by a true story, The House That Sat Down Trilogy is a tale of triumph over tragedy. It is an astonishing account of sudden, first-world homelessness in the heart of the New Forest, and the unexpected consequences. Written entirely from a mother’s point of view, following the collapse of her family's home, it is an uplifting and positive read in spite of the subject matter, with a thread of wry humour throughout. Follow this ordinary woman on an extraordinary journey of survival and self discovery as she reels from disaster, before picking herself up and coming back stronger and wiser than before.
Packed with humorous observations about what it is like to live in a tent in your garden with your husband and four children after a significant part of your house falls down out of the blue one day, this story takes you from the depths of despair right through to the satisfying heights of success against the odds, with lots of tea and cakes on the way.

Follow this crazy family as they cope with disaster in their own truly unique and rather mad way, and celebrate each small triumph along the way with them.

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I am a multi-tasking parent to four not-so-small children, and I am fortunate enough to be married to (probably) the most patient man on the planet. We live in, what used to be, a ramshackle old cottage in the country. Our house began to fall down out of the blue one day, which resulted in the whole family living in a tent in the back garden for quite some time, while we worked out how to rebuild our home.

A few years afterwards, I decided to write a book and, once I started, I found I couldn’t stop.

Inspired by true-life events ‘Accidental Damage – tales from the house that sat down’ wouldn’t leave me alone until it was written.

Within six months of self-publishing my novel, I was delighted to learn that it had won two ‘Chill with a Book Awards’. This was a massive honour and motivated me to continue writing. Accidental Damage became the first book in a trilogy.

The Omnibus edition of all three books in the House That Sat Down Trilogy is now available via Amazon in both paperback and kindle format.

Website: www.AliceMay.weebly.com

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