Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Today, Brook Cottage Books’ friend Alison Morton launches SUCCESSIO, the third novel in her
award-winning Roma Nova series featuring sassy detective Carina Mitela. As writer and broadcaster Sue Cook says, it’s a “A real edge-of-the-seat read, genuinely hard to put down.”
So how does she do it? Over to you,
Alison!
“Thanks, JB! All the
usual good ‘craft’ rules: cracking story, engaging, and hopefully slightly
quirky characters, emotional pressure, dilemmas and conflict, snappy and
purposeful dialogue and, of course, a badly tangled love life.
Writing thrillers means keeping your imagination going at
full belt, but setting it in an alternative timeline means you have to use some
of the same tools as writers of regular historical fiction. More on my
blogsite.
But
the main things, apart from a solid plot, are thinking through the setting that
has formed your characters and making sure your characters live, and
love, naturally within their world.”
What’s
SUCCESSIO about?
SUCCESSIO continues the story of Carina, whom we
met in the first two books in the series, INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS. What’s a little
different is that the next generation steps up to take an important part in the
action.
Roma
Nova – the last remnant of the Roman Empire that has survived into the 21st
century – is at peace. Carina Mitela, the heir of a leading family, but
choosing the life of an officer in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces, is not
so sure.
She
senses danger crawling towards her when she encounters a strangely
self-possessed member of the unit hosting their exchange exercise in Britain.
When a blackmailing letter arrives from a woman claiming to be her husband
Conrad’s lost daughter and Conrad tries to shut Carina out, she
knows the threat is real.
Trying
to resolve a young man’s indiscretion twenty-five years before turns into a
nightmare that not only threatens to destroy all the Mitelae but also attacks
the core of the imperial family itself. With her enemy holding a gun to the
head of the heir to the imperial throne, Carina has to make the hardest
decision of her life…
Alison’s bio
Alison Morton
writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with strong heroines. She holds
a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics, a masters’ in history and
lives in France with her husband.
A ‘Roman nut’
since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics
at Ampurias (Spain) that started her wondering what a modern Roman society
would be like if run by women…
Both INCEPTIO, the
first in the Roma Nova series, which was also shortlisted for the 2013
International Rubery Book Award, and PERFIDITAS, the second in series, have been
honoured with the B.R.A.G. Medallion®, an award for independent fiction that
rejects 90% of its applicants. Alison’s
third book SUCCESSIO is being launched now!
SUCCESSIO
is available through your local
bookshop (paperback) and online as ebook and paperback at multiple
retailers.
You can read more about Alison,
Romans, alternate history and writing here on her blog at www.alison-morton.com
or on her Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
Twitter: @alison_morton
Thank you, JB, for a wonderful launch. Lovely to celebrate with friends on this special day.