tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41074504055995355632024-03-19T10:31:20.094+00:00Linda AcasterAuthor of Paranormal Thrillers, Writer of Historical Romance, Native American, Fantasy, Horror, Celtic, Writers' GuidesLinda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-29315125273091866702024-03-01T16:34:00.002+00:002024-03-01T16:36:39.668+00:00Where does the time go? It's certainly not Snail-paced. Wood carving by unknown artist, Stanton Country Park, Wiltshire. (c) Linda AcasterWhat happened to January and February? Apart from the eight weeks being lost to grey skies, rain and flooded roads, that is. This is the problem with more temperate UK winters. With a lack of snow in East Yorkshire it is all so dowly, damp and depressing, not helped at all by needing to be careful Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-84326244379957140402024-01-01T07:00:00.012+00:002024-01-01T07:00:00.149+00:00Of Health, Happiness and ReadingAnd a Happy New Year to you! I trust you enjoyed the end-of-year Festivities and are now feeling both replete and wide-eyed for the forthcoming year. Dry January, is it?Well, not here, at least not yet. We are a family which believes in the full ‘twelve days of Christmas’, even if it is more a midwinter celebration of Eat, Drink and Make Merry. There are malts and mince pies still to be Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-2282017750256957632023-12-22T07:00:00.001+00:002023-12-22T07:00:00.148+00:00All Things Christmas including Santa and NORADImage by Castleguard via PixabayOnce again I return with my traditional Christmas post, because, as with all good
Traditions, it has the right amount of fact while not taking itself too
seriously. And at the end of yet another tumultuous year, we do need a bit of not taking oneself too seriously!
Let it raise a smile as snippets are retold over a glass of something
warming and yet Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-73908397553630781982023-11-06T11:03:00.000+00:002023-11-06T11:03:16.559+00:00Of Apples, History and Annoying Utility Companies.A single morning's crop. Image by (c) Linda Acaster It was a busy month, to say the least, not helped by British Gas arbitrarily deciding to change the household billing system and then having the temerity to advise me – three times – that it had been corrected. Can you tell I’m getting ready to hit social media??October also means we have been inundated with apples. We are lucky to have Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-4654444076057717712023-09-30T22:46:00.002+01:002023-09-30T22:56:25.651+01:00Introducing New Newsletter “Portals to the Past” It’s been a rare couple of months. First I inaugurate a History themed publication on the digital platform, Medium, and now I set up a Newsletter on Substack. Is it too much – or perhaps a dearth – of sunshine? Haven’t I enough filling my days? After all, there is such a thing as overcommitment. But which creative ever owns up to that? The newsletter came about after I attended a Zoom Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-30193242657102542002023-09-10T22:22:00.001+01:002023-09-10T22:22:33.615+01:00Woodhenge - in the Stonehenge Sacred Landscape20th century concrete pillars at Woodhenge. White, light blue, & red tops showing. Image by (c) Linda AcasterWhat happened to August? In fact, where’s September disappearing to?Normally regarded as ‘high summer’ in the UK, in late August Summer finally arrived. Friends visited, the vegetable and flower beds went into true English Country Garden mode (and with them the weeds), and we did a bitLinda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-13218555907864483322023-07-31T22:27:00.002+01:002023-07-31T22:27:53.873+01:00Escaping Into HistoryPart of the Ring of Brodgar, Orkney. Author's image and draft cover of a digital publication.It's been quite a July. On the one hand, the weather has been anything but summer-like. On the other, and after much procrastination, I've finally taken tentative steps in opening my own digital publication on the Medium platform.For those who have not come across it, for a fee (monthly US$5 or annual US$Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-74349048135003573742023-07-01T12:49:00.009+01:002023-07-01T14:03:49.149+01:00It's the Great July Ebook Sale - 50% Discount! Smashwords - the Ebook distributor I use to reach Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Scribd - starts its Summer Sale today running throughout July. As well as epub format, it offers mobi for a Kindle.Great news! Many of my titles are included, offered at 50% discount.Link to my Smashwords Sale Page:https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lindaacaster(50% Discount automatically applied at Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-61572057004237762952023-06-02T16:10:00.004+01:002023-07-31T17:08:29.790+01:00Of Amazing History and Annoying TechOne of the immersive World War II exhibits at Eden CampEarly May was full of the Coronation of King Charles III. The Union flag bunting saw another airing, the Pimm's stood ready, and smoked salmon & cucumber sandwiches were indulged. I sat glued to the TV throughout, not so much awed by the pageantry, but by the weight of history behind it. I'd chosen a good channel to follow, hosted byLinda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-4823155478093516592023-04-30T07:00:00.002+01:002023-04-30T17:51:30.682+01:00Spring has finally sprung with Covid, Orwell’s 1984, and King’s FairytaleOne of our front borders. Spring has sprung while I've been busy coughing.Hello! Yes, I know it’s been a while. Despite rumours to the contrary we haven’t emigrated, we have had Covid. And no, it wasn’t me who brought it home. Omicron is supposedly endemic now, so I guess we’ve done well getting this far before embracing our first bout.Was it bad? Not particularly. I’ve had worse influenza in theLinda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-31985586185662800542023-02-10T00:30:00.006+00:002023-02-10T07:27:27.569+00:00Valentine's Promotion on TWO Romances For the love of Romance, from 10th until 15th I have stepped price promotions via Amazon UK and Amazon USA on both my Historicals. Beneath The Shining Mountains is set in the region now known as Wyoming and Montana in the USA; the date the early 1800s. For the Apsaroke people, the place is Apsaroke lands; the time, the good years between the coming of the horse and the arrival of Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-12533653623645165282023-01-31T17:19:00.004+00:002023-02-02T18:26:34.743+00:00Nothing New About Story-TELLING Here we are at the end of January with the first blogpost of the month. If Christmas was quiet, January has been manic for all the wrong reasons. Despite this, I actually managed a few non-fiction shorts for Medium and attended a couple of writer events.The Romantic Novelists’ AssociationHalfway through the month was a digital meeting of the Northern Chapter of the RNA – Romantic in name Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-41615260911395428002022-12-23T07:00:00.010+00:002022-12-23T07:00:00.244+00:00All Things Father Christmas - including Santa and NORADImage by Clker-Free-Vector-Images via PixabayHere I am, back again with my traditional Christmas post, because, as with all good
Traditions, it has the right amount of fact while not taking itself too
seriously. And at the end of yet another tumultuous year, we do need a bit of not taking oneself too seriously!
Let it raise a smile as snippets are retold over a glass of something
Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-51496288743840661772022-10-31T22:07:00.001+00:002022-10-31T22:07:14.875+00:00Garlic and Silver Bullet at the Ready: It's Halloween!Image courtesy of PixabayHalloween fiction, as its contemporary street "decorations", can be cute or can be gory. Or thoughtful. Or unsettling. Its aim is not to make readers flinch, but to make them read on, knuckles tensing, while the hairs on the back of the neck prickle and rise. Slowly. Its main ingredient is dread, the anticipation of the inevitable, signalled at Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-14312980705753671872022-09-08T20:54:00.002+01:002022-09-08T20:55:13.356+01:00 The British Monarch's Royal StandardIt is with sadness, and inevitability, that we hear of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96 years. She was the longest ever reigning monarch of these islands, and will be sorely missed. Her sense of country, and of duty and of service to her country, will not be surpassed. “The Queen is dead. Long live the King!”Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-14929920204904554602022-09-05T06:00:00.066+01:002022-09-05T06:00:00.153+01:00The mystery of the missing Mystery - launching the paperback of THE FOREVER HOUSE
The paperback of The Forever House is finally live! Hurrah!! And yes, it is a Mystery, the first of my titles which can truly be placed in the genre, though mysteries have been woven through the subplots of a number of my novels, as has History. The two come together in The Forever House. ...Reading the inked imprints
of a manual typewriter was like going back in time: the conveyance
Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-34274138396194592832022-07-31T20:31:00.003+01:002022-07-31T20:31:51.701+01:00Some skills we hone. And some we mess up. After taming new wordprocessing software to my will (ooh, calm down there...) the good news is that the interior of the paperback of The Forever House is finally finalised: headers, footers, blank pages, et al. Hurrah! and all that jazz. Do you like the Half Title page? I thought I did quite well with that.However, just as when reading a good-news missive from an agent or editor, we Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-17722472766532993972022-07-01T22:01:00.001+01:002022-07-01T22:13:37.543+01:00A Brilliant Break and a Brilliant ReviewWe've had a few days down London way - Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens, Stratford-up-on-Avon - and doubtless I'll be writing about the visits when I get myself back on an even keel.I returned to a mountain of washing and a garden going rampant after much-needed rain, but found awaiting me a brilliant review for The Forever House by Terry Tyler, writer of dark suspense and member of Rosie Amber's BookLinda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-38571899795426375172022-05-31T16:33:00.003+01:002022-07-01T21:15:32.757+01:00Ebk Launch: THE FOREVER HOUSE and its first #Review Hang out the flags! Yes, Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee is upon us, but so is the release of The Forever House, on Amazon Kindle at least. Subscribers to Kindle Unlimited can download it free. What's not to like?Global Amazon link: https://mybook.to/ForeverHouse Moreover, it has its first review, and a 5* at that!"Linda
Acaster writes with great elegance and tension. In this story Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-47696422087205033162022-05-13T07:00:00.010+01:002022-05-13T08:45:36.522+01:00Book Launch: THE FOREVER HOUSE #psychologicalthrillerThe Forever House is now available for pre-order via Amazon – global link: https://mybook.to/ForeverHouseMany thanks for all the good wishes received after last month's heads-up. It's good to know so many are interested in my up-and-coming novel, which will be – traa-laa! – launching to a less than unsuspecting world on Monday 30 May. Originally, it was scheduled for the first week in June, but Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-35248479859958464902022-04-30T23:18:00.002+01:002022-05-02T23:05:50.149+01:00Announcing the Cover Reveal for a new #PsychologicalThriller - THE FOREVER HOUSEAnd about time, I hear you shout. Well, here it is, the cover reveal for The Forever House. How far is too far to right a wrong? While family members think Carrie should sell the too-big house she and her late husband began to renovate, Carrie is determined to carry through their shared project to prove she can manage alone.And she can, until a discovery beneath old wallpaper chills herLinda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-4656962644509881412022-02-28T21:54:00.001+00:002022-02-28T21:56:15.834+00:00Writing News: yes, there is some, finally.Image by Olga Volkovitskaia via PixabayI’m a right one for crossing genres in my writing; I never learn. The mystery cum psychological cum women's fiction novel I have been working on, seemingly for an aeon, finally passed its finishing post last week. Or it would have if I’d managed to hit all the steps for a satisfying ending. Unfortunately, the initial read raised questions, and critique Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-58923938788817084762022-01-20T21:43:00.000+00:002022-01-20T21:43:18.351+00:00Welcome to 2022 and MORE Reading with Kindle Unlimited!Image by Ri Ya via PixabayAnd here we are, already sighting the end of January in a brand new year. How did that happen? Well, there have been issues: health (meh…), slothfulness (definitely). I’ve written a couple of articles for the Medium digital platform since the New Year, but the current Mystery novel, so close to its ending, is still tapping its foot in frustration. Then I was Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-22155227438887365022021-12-23T07:00:00.012+00:002021-12-23T08:31:43.033+00:00All Things Father Christmas - including Santa and NORADImage from PixabayHere I am, back again with my traditional Christmas post, because, as with all good
Traditions, it has the right amount of fact while not taking itself too
seriously. And after yet another year of Covid do we need a bit of not taking oneself too seriously!
Let it raise a smile as snippets are retold over a glass of something
warming and yet another mince pie.
Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4107450405599535563.post-29549705184271182032021-11-24T08:18:00.001+00:002021-11-24T08:18:27.214+00:00Medieval Romance #Free Amazon Ebook Hostage of the Heart - a medieval romantic suspense set on the English-Welsh borders - is enjoying a five-day free promotion on Amazon. Download it now, while it's available:Global Amazon link: https://viewBook.at/HostageOfHeartBook Description:England, September 1066: the northern militia has been raised to support the new English king, leaving the Welsh marches dangerously unprotected. Rhodri Linda Acasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03096791092366530129noreply@blogger.com0