Paths of Exile - now available
Britain, 605 AD. When his homeland of Deira is invaded by a powerful neighbouring kingdom, Eadwine finds himself on the run for his life. Homeless, penniless and friendless, literally with a price on his head, he must evade his enemies, avenge his brother's murder and rescue his betrothed. Along the way, he will lose his heart to another woman and discover a shattering secret that challenges all the ideals he holds dear.
Paths of Exile is now available for download as a free e-book and as a paperback. As usual, the PDF download from my website is free of charge, and if you prefer to read on paper you can either print out the PDFs, which should print neatly on either A4 or US Letter, or pay Lulu to print it for you as a paperback.
If anyone would like to test the download links and let me know of any problems, that would be very helpful. As ever, comments are always welcome. I hope you enjoy the story.
If anyone would like to test the download links and let me know of any problems, that would be very helpful. As ever, comments are always welcome. I hope you enjoy the story.
Edit: Paths of Exile was published by Quaestor2000 in January 2009 (details on my website), so the free download is no longer available. The book can be bought from online suppliers such as Amazon or ordered from bookstores. Free sample chapters are available on my website.
11 comments:
well done! Now, I just have to find time to read the first one,, and then I will get the second one!
PDFs downloaded just fine!
A question from your historical note: what's the slight evidence from Bede that he knew of and admired Britain's Roman heritage?
Bought :-) Will you be offering it for review to the Historical Novels Review Online?
Alex is right. You should offer it for review to the Historical Novels Review. That would be awesome!
Looks fascinating, Carla. Now there are two books of yours I can look forward to reading! (Ingeld's Daughter is also high on my TBR list). I feel cold just thinking about The Wanderer with all its imagery of the ice-cold sea and freezing feet, etc - or is it The Seafarer? I always confuse those two.
Thank you, everybody! I hope you enjoy it.
Alex - they have a UK printer operational now, so hopefully it shouldn't take long to arrive. I hope you enjoy it.
Alianore - The Seafarer and The Wanderer have quite a lot in common; and I think both refer to the ice-cold sea!
Rick - It's very slight. Bede, Book II Ch 16, "...the standard known to the Romans as a tufa and to the English as a tuf was carried in front of him."
There doesn't seem to be a scholarly consensus about what exactly a tufa/tuf actually was (I shall have to figure that out if I take Eadwine's story that far). I reckon that if Bede, writing a century later, knew it was a Roman-style standard King Eadwine would also have known that at the time, and I also reckon that someone who chooses to use a Roman-style standard has some respect or admiration for what it represents, or at the least wishes to associate himself with it. It may have been no more than a desire to copy known symbols of power, or it may have indicated a feeling of being the inheritor of the Roman past. Or any number of other interpretations!
Congratulations. Looks like this is going to be a trilogy. ;)
It's an interesting time period to place a novel in, and definitely not over-used. *grin*
Carla -
An interesting hint. It's possible that tufs/tufas were in general use, but then why would Bede make a point to mention it? It does suggest some distinctiveness in using it.
Related to what a tuf/tufa was, is in precisely what sense it was Roman? I suspect (but purely a guess) that we today would call it Byzantine. Rome itself might be the center of the western church, but for over a century in Eadwine's time and two centuries in Bede's, all Roman military and civil authority had been exercised from Constantinople.
Congratulations Carla.
I thoroughly enjoyed Ingeld's Daughter and will look forward to reading Paths of Exile. I found the UK arm of LULU excellent to deal with. I ordered 2 books and they were with me within 9 days. I like the jacket too - stylish! As before I will order from Lulu as I prefer to have a book in my hand...although reading at lunchtime and in the bath has its hazards!
Looking forward to reading it, Carla.
If it's half as good and action-packed as Ingeld's Daughter...
(even though I forgot about the curse...)
Gabriele - thanks. I don't know if it's a trilogy, but there's certainly more story to tell.
Rick - yes, I think the mention implies something distinctive. When Bede refers to 'the Romans', it's usually in the context of the people who ran Britain before his time and built the roads, cities, forts, the Wall, etc, that he knew, i.e. the Western Empire. He may have included the Emperor in Constantinople in his own time as a 'Roman', though I can't immediately think of an example where he uses the term. I personally interpret his hint as suggesting long-standing federates who had stayed on and acquired power after coming to Britain to work either for the Late Roman army or for a post-Roman successor state that still followed Roman forms of military organisation. There are very early Anglian burials around York that would be consistent with this possibility. You can also (as I have) roll it in with the speculation that the semi-legendary Coel Hen Godebawc might have been the last Dux Britanniarum and ended up as de facto ruler of Britannia Prima after Constantine the usurper went off to stake his claim to the western empire and never came back. But any number of interpretations are possible. (Fiction means you have to choose!)
Elizabeth - many thanks, and if you read it I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your kind word on the cover - I was quite pleased with the way it worked out. It's my own design, adapted from the Lindisfarne Gospels and the dragon on the Sutton Hoo shield, transferred onto fabric and embroidered in chain stitch etc, then scanned. (Yes, a double-headed dragon/serpent in gold is significant in the story).
Bernita - hope you enjoy it. It worked out as a different sort of story this time.
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