It seems to have gone on a long time this year!

Halloween of course.

 Hubby dressed for work - yes truly leaning on our dear friend the invisible man!

Me looking dug up! Both cats refusing to pose! I have horrible cold, very little sleep (thanks to next door neighbours arguing outside their house and ours!) So I suppose looking a bit Zombie-fied is okay for this time of year.

Because I feel so wretched today, I won't be working. Just catching up with friends and trying to get better for the weekend. But in Overdown Evie is rising from the dead tonight and a cat kills a warlock. 

 Enjoy if you dare!

Halloween

A Farthing for Oxforde is out in paperback and Kindle, being reviewed by the Guardian newspaper sometime next week, and by the Witney Gazette and The Oxford Mail.

It has been a tortutous two years of writing and research, the stress of which gave me a minor stroke, called a TIA.  I was at Edgehill in full 17thC kit when it happened, on the living history, demonstrating how to get musket balls out of the wounded soldiers with my new musket ball remover. It was a stiflingly hot day, the event was crowded.  I had just stopped for a drink when my husband noticed my face had dropped on the left side, and I was speaking rubbish. 

I ended up in Warwick hospital with my husband and sister in full 17thC soldier's kit along with me.

I can't write any more about that because even thinking about it today brings on a panic attack.

It's a year since it happened, the book has been re-written three times. The research has been endless. It's strange as no-one actually sees you doing the research, they think it hasn't been done. 

I have been in long discussions with the Cromwell Museum in Ely, they questioned my research into the man. I actually managed to find things out about him of which they claimed they knew nothing. It was stressful and worrying, but I didn't have the time to re-find all my paperwork and hand it across to them, and why should I? Everything is out there if you look for it. It was just me doing the looking.

A friend who is not really interested in history said she couldn't believe what the women went through, and that the book was so exciting she couldn't put it down.

She loved the characters and said she could see it as a film.  I wish!

Anyway time to go. Have a good day, buy my book on Kindle £2.99 is a small price to pay for the work and pain it cost me.
 

Back to Work

My book, A Farthing for Oxforde, will be out on e.book sometime this week. Just in case you have forgotten what it looks like - here it is!

 Here's Oxforde by Wenslas Hollar

Have a good day - I will sometimes go off topic and use this page as writing practice as I have always done, but today I need some R&R!
 

The Veil between life and death.

As All Hallows Eve approaches, children will dress up as ghosts, witches, and skeletons, my son's favourite was a mad monk. He would take a magic 8 ball in his costume of a shabby grey cowl made from an ancient blanket, to tell his friends future.

When I wrote Halloween in Overdown, I did a lot of research into necromancing, ghosts, and life after death.

For children it's a game. For us it's a reminder of what's to come. 

In a 17th Century graveyard I saw a tombstone with a badly sculpted skeleton on it grinning. Underneath it said:

Passer by don't laugh at me,

for as I am now,

so you will be.

Today as the veil that separates the realms grows thin enough to pass through, I thought of my dear little cat who died eighteen months ago, missing him brought on a poem. I rescued him from starving to death with other animals on a farm in Tring. The RSPCA brought a successful prosecution and the farm was closed. Unfortunately so many of the animals were in such poor condition that the only way to help them was to put them to sleep. The others went on to find loving homes. When I picked up my little cat, he was a fur covered skeleton he had been trying to keep alive by eating horse poo, he was stinky, but had the most amazing Amber eyes. He put his paws either side of my face and kissed me on the nose, and the rest as they say is history.

This poem is for him

I miss your head on my shoulder and the way it fitted into the palm of my hand,

Your lovely little chirrups, to make me understand,

Your brilliant Amber eyes shone like torches in the dark,

I miss you my dear kitten and the way you used to lark,

Stealing bits of bacon, chasing ducky duck,

It was a shame my darling you were born to such bad luck.

You reached your paws around my face the first day that we met,

You took me as your mummy,

I took you to the vet.

Half starved and tiny, the vet gave me no hope,

but nearly ten years on my love proved he was a dope!

My bionic kitten cost a fortune at the vet,

seeing you playing in the garden in the sun and wet,

was worth the price I paid.

I'd do it all again my love if your life was saved.

How I loved my BoBo, my handsome little boy,

racing through Christmas wrapping to find your latest toy.

Your life ended as it started, me holding you in my arms,

I loved you so much little one, and all your funny charms.

I'll always always miss you because you belong to me,

I'll always always love you,

deeper than the sea. 

 Amber Evans April 2007-October 2017

  

Bookshop Frenzy!

Really happy to have my book, 'A Farthing for Oxforde' in Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford yesterday.

Also in the Mad Hatter's Bookshop in Burford

And in the window of The Woodstock Bookshop 

I really hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Last night in Oxford, the other half of Nuova Stella was attending Publishing lectures held by
the Young Publishers Society and found it very enlightening.
 
 
 

The first bite is with the eye...

This is my book, wrapped in parchment, tied with red ribbon, and sealed with sealing wax.
Sent to the Guardian newspaper for review, in the hope that a little 17thC magic will grab their attention.

Edgehill weekend re-enactment. Another chance to honour the 2000 young men and women who died fighting for their beliefs. Yes there were old soldiers as well, but the majority of the men who died in the first battle of the English Civil War were young.

As the Kings Guard of the 21st Century regiment form up to go on the battlefield the cross section of men and women would have been pretty much the same. Computer analysts now would have been statisticians or librarians then. Car salesmen would have been coachmen or horse dealers.

Young mothers would have picked up their husbands army coats and become soldiers or drummers to feed their family. Whereas now they have their own careers.

Computer games artists would have been court painters, illustrators, print makers.
Same but different.

Nothing much seems to change over time, we still fight on different sides for what we believe in. We don't seem to learn that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Book release tomorrow A Farthing for Oxforde hits the shops in Oxford and the surrounds and is out on Amazon.

Hope you enjoy your adventures with Anne Farthing through the English Civil War.
 
 

The truth is out there...if you look for it.

Nuova Stella scandal!!

On my twitter page I have been getting grief from the Cromwell Museum on social media because I said they were glorifying war at Dhogheda where Cromwell killed over 2000 people.

They also put up a Victorian painting of the raising of Basing House also saying it was a great victory - even though through research I found that Cromwell left some of his worst wounded soldiers in the basements, then burnt the house to the ground with them in it.
The villagers report hearing their screams.

They denied this and asked where I got my information from, so I sent them links some from the Imperial War Museum, which stated that it was the first War Crime and genocide of Catholics.  

Anyway this started a whole thing of others having a go at me,  asking where I found these things out.

As I have a book to write. I haven't got time to state where I got all my 25 years or so of research from. What papers, what libraries, what Museums, what living source. So anybody who keeps asking me questions should do the research themselves.

Try the Bodlien Library, go to the large country houses, talk to living relatives about their ancestors. I am at the moment in discussion with an Oxfordshire family about their famous Civil War relatives. I also mentioned that point scoring is also bullying, and it was time to draw a line under this now.

History is a strange and interesting subject, people will always "know for a fact" without anything to back it up, and yes history is mainly written by the winners.

That is why I spend my time digging up the untold stories of heroic women, as history was written by the men, and these women made history too.

A Farthing for Oxforde was written based on research of the facts of what it would be like to live during that time as a women, and it's not good.

Another Nuova Stella day

Our Logo is based on a 17th Century compass. A new star showing us the way. 

 

In the last two weeks our little company has gone from success to success, it's exciting and scary in equal measure - it's all happening so fast. 

Today the bookmarks arrived - looking spectacular - I might add. Just waiting for the books to arrive from the printers now.  This coming weekend our "Farthing for Oxforde" will be in the bookshops. Out on Amazon as an e.book and paperback later in the week.

 Anne, Lady Halkett (née Murray) (1623–1699

 

This is a waxwork of the real "Anne Farthing" - Lady Anne Halkett in her 80s just before she died in Scotland. Sitting at her desk at The Abbot House, Dunfermline in Fife. Unforunately she sits alone waiting for the house to re-open as a museum. Whereas our version of Anne made it back to Oxford.

 

The book is based on some of Anne's life, and some lives of other women who wrote letters,day books and diaries as they lived through the war.  

This is my take on what Anne Farthing looked like in her late twenties. Like many of the women I write about, there is no portrait of them that I could find.

 

Amazing Halloween Book Offer starts Monday!

 Halloween Special

All Halloween horror books reduced in price from Monday.  Scare yourself silly!

Also as a special treat - ALL The Hilary Long Mysteries series will  be reduced to 99p 

 Get to know Hilary, Overdown and her new friends.  As Stacey says "You wouldn't buy a bag for life if you lived in Overdown!"

Magic in the Air

The Cotswolds. A romantic view of a typical village. The last resting place of Agatha Christie, the place where M.C.Beaton and her Agatha Raisin mysteries live. It's a place many stars call home, handy for London, Oxford, Stratford on Avon, Birmingham, Bristol. also The Chipping Norton set. 

For the past 4 years it has been home to my fictional runaway millionairess called Hilary Long.

I wrote the Hilary Long mysteries when we moved to the Cotswolds, the mixture of honey coloured houses, and the interesting people living in them filled me with inspiration.

Hilary wasn't mean to be a sleuth. She was just trying to prolong her life after a court case found her business partner trying to undermine the City of London. She knew he would be out for revenge. In my research I found out that people who go into witness protection usually only survive two years. Shocking. So my character had to become someone else that no-one knew, not even the police.

Unfortunately she ended up in Overdown, a place where one of my minor characters, Stacey, says "you wouldn't buy a bag for life if you lived here!"

Where does the magic come in you ask?  Well all my books have supernatural events in them. When we first moved here I noticed the trees in the Cotswolds reach their arms to sky, the knots in the wood, have faces, dark things race across corners in my house. There are goblins and fairies that you almost see. Sometimes the cats catch something and you really don't know what it is. It has wings, green mostly, as they die they disappear.

I work in historic houses, sitting in a bedroom where the lady of the house commited suicide, I as a room guide, could feel her pain, near the window by her dressing table. Tangible, real.

So the paranormal crept in and stayed, involving research that scared me silly, but based on real spells, real events, even real people that I have met here.

Halloween is coming up, so as a treat a week before all the Hilary Long e.books will be reduced in price. Look out for:

Hope you enjoy these two. There are two previous books that lead up to these, but they also stand alone. So get a glass of wine, light a candle, and snuggle down to be scared witless!

 

Nuova Stella - PEARS!

Why Choose Nuova Stella as a name for our Publishing business?  A new star is rising, that's why!   Our Logo is derived from a 17thC Compass face in the Ashmolean Museum. A new star leading the way to the future.

Onwards to the pears!

!7th Century Cookery today, we have a glut of pears from our garden and I will be trying out a recipe from a very old Cookery book on how to preserve them for the winter. 

Basically pears in sugar syrup. The American puritans called it "canning pears" even though they put them in jam jars.

So this will go in the 17th Century Recipe book that will be released next year. I'm looking for a printer that will print colour photos of the final dishes that will not make the recipe book unaffordable.

The recipe book is taking longer as the weights and measures have to be altered for modern palates.

Hardly anyone these days uses six dozen eggs in a recipe!

So I have to leave it there as the pears await. I'll let you know how I get on.

Another day at the Office with Nuova Stella

The Office at the moment my dining room table. A bit homespun but in Oxford, living in a house with space for an office is expensive. We are talking London prices here.

Doesn't stop us doing the work though, at the moment we have:

info@nuovastella.co.uk
www.nouvastella.co.uk
twitter @NuovaPublishing
Facebook Nouva Stella publishing

We have a few problems working from home:

 Even though I was in the house, my book proofs were delivered in wet mud under a bush!

The boxes once emptied are apparently not big enough to hold a medium sized cat. Look at the face!  How cross?

Today I am updating our social media, which takes longer than you might think due to the interesting things you find on Twitter - like this surprise photo of my husband!



 
Have a good day everyone!

Welcome to Nuova Stella Publishing

Welcome to the new Nuova Stella Blog page.  It's me, yes it is, but it's time to really go for it!  I have an illustrator and designer and a new publicity officer on board, and me, the writer.

Today is super Thursday when 544 books are being released today. 

A Farthing for Oxford will be launched on Wednesday 24th October, just to be different. We will be visiting little bookshops and big bookshops in and around Oxford today, with FREE proof copies.

You can pre-order on info@nuovastella.co.uk - join us on Twitter @NuovaPublishing - it's already very busy.

The website just has a holding page at the moment, but more exciting information will be coming soon.  www.nuovastella.co.uk

We are looking for reviewers, bloggers and history enthusiasts.  So contact us.

Based on the loosely on the life and diaries of Lady Anne Halkett, 

a thoroughly researched fictional history based in the turbulent years of 

The English Civil War in Oxfordshire.

The daughter of the Kings' tutors, Anne has been sent to Oxford in disgrace. She is to have a new life living with her aunt Susannah and to learn the skills of a midwife. Her mother believes it to be a punishment. 

Anne sees it as freedom from her mother's tyranny.

She writes, scandalous for a woman, but as her life races through the years of the brutal

English Civil War, she finds she can survive, love and live, in spite of the times.