What Amazon says

The hottest new toys of the Christmas season are the Playground Network dolls. They contain a worldwide social network for children. Except the network is controlled by a ruthless businessman with dreams of power.

To reach his goals he turns to the occult. Will our children make up his personal army? Could we have an enemy soldier in every home?

Gina Greybill is a cancer survivor who stumbles into her own brush with the paranormal. She wants nothing to do with it, but may be the only one who can bring down the Playground Network. To do it she’ll have to embrace her new situation, and recover the next generation of Playground software.

There is competition for the software in the form of a brutal thug named Clovis. He’s bigger, more ruthless, and more experienced. To top it all off, he has a head start.

The Playground is suitable for mature readers, due to violence and mature themes.

My review

All over the USA, young kids are begging for their parents to by them Playground Network dolls. They are available for different age groups and for boys and girls. The huge attraction with these dolls is that they connect to a network which allows each doll to recognize other dolls and know their names. Through the dolls, the children can make friends and talk to each other on the network. It sounds great, a way for lonely children to make new friends and for kids to help each other out with things like their homework.

The creator of the network, however, does not have such innocent plans for it. He intends to use it to control the children and make them abide by his commands. He must be stopped.
Clovis is a small-time criminal who does occasional jobs for a hood called Tommy. Clovis is semi-retired but he agrees to take on a last job for Tommy and track down a programmer who has gone missing with the specific software he was developing for Tommy.

Dr Gina Greybill is a qualified doctor who is in remission from cancer. She has given up working in a hospital and taken on work as a caregiver for elderly people who are no longer able to look after themselves adequately. After the death of her latest patient, Gina obtains a new job as the healthcare specialist for an elderly man who lives in a rather creepy mansion with only his part-time housekeeper to company. Gina quickly discovers that she has been identified as the one person who can track down an evil demon who is attacking children throughout the country.

Gina is an interesting character who soon demonstrates her abilities to adapt to difficult and unusual circumstances and to reason on a high level. She is a strong female character with great determination and bravery. I really enjoyed watching her character develop as this story unfolded.

Clovis is a bit of an enigma as he isn’t truly evil, but he also isn’t a good person. He is an individual who does what he must in order to survive. He does, however, have a strong sense of ethics and morals.

The threads in this story are cleverly woven together to create an interesting and clever story tapestry which is guaranteed the reader on the edge of his/her seat. I enjoyed the technological innovation in this story and would recommend it to lovers of sci-fi, fantasy and the supernatural.

Purchase The Playground

The beams of the torches bounce off the metal sides of the subterranean bunker, creating an unearthly glow.

The sight that meets their startled eyes is incredible. The contained unit has been entirely sealed off from the outside world for over fifty years with no access to food, sunlight or heat.

The reflected light illuminates the numerous shinning bodies going about their daily business in the dark below, exactly as they have been for many preceding years.

“How did they get in here?” A torch sweeps the slippery walls, looking for the hidden entrance, and stops on a ventilation pipe. “They must have fallen through there. There is no other way they could have accessed this desolate place.”

“My God, how have they been surviving down here?”

“It looks like cannibalism.” The bright light stops on a heap of corpses, bringing them into sharp relief. The dead bodies are riddled with holes and bite marks, all of which are located in their abdomens.

“Cannibalism,” the white face of the woman wrinkles in disgust.

“Yes, this type of cannibalism is not that surprising considering the communal attitude prevalent in this society. They share resources more effectively than other beings and have communal stomachs. Scientists have found that they consider the contents of their stomachs to be common property.”

“Really, I didn’t know that. Cannibalistic ants, who would have believed it.”

This piece of fiction is written for Sue Vincent’s weekly write photo challenge. You can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/11/07/thursday-photo-prompt-glow-writephoto/

 

 

 

What Amazon says about The Desolate Garden

After Harry Paterson is summoned to London following his father’s murder, he finds out that the late Lord Elliot Paterson had discovered hidden information dated all the way back to 1936… and a vast quantity of money erased from the accounts.

Mysterious initials and an address in Leningrad – a major port in former Soviet Union – are his only clues.

Together with the attractive Judith Meadows, Harry must unravel his father’s mysterious death – and figure out the mystery hidden in the files of the Royal Government Bank.

Praise from readers:

★★★★★ – “I never saw what was coming… Highly recommend this book.”

★★★★★ – “Several surprise twists, a budding romance, and a feel of having visited England are just some of the gifts of this story. For any history buff, this is delicious buffet of entertainment. Mr. Kemp has done his research well.”

★★★★★ – “Lots of twists and turns in this political thriller. If you are a fan of the genre, you will find this a fun and nicely paced read.”

★★★★★ – “Well-written and intriguing, with characters that are deep and likable. Fiction and history are mixed together in a very interesting way. I very much enjoyed this book.”

My review

Harry Paterson’s father, Lord Elliot Paterson, has been murdered and the British Secret Service are investigating the mysterious circumstances of his death. Under the guise of keeping him safe during the investigation, Harry is coerced into teaming up with a younger woman named Judith Meadows who is tasked with delving into his past and relationships with his father in order to uncover any potential leads or clues to his death. Harry reluctantly enters into this arrangement, but does not initially reveal to Judith his knowledge of certain unorthodox payments that are recorded in the ledgers of the family business, a bank that finances unusual projects by the royal family and members of government and other aristocratic families.

As the two start working together, initially working at cross-purposes, but gradually become more tolerant, and finally fond, of each other, they become steeped in a world of deception and lies by Harry’s grandfather, Lord Maudlin Paterson, whose sexual indiscretions have resulted in links between his unsuspecting English descendants and descendants living behind the “iron curtain” in Russia during the period of the cold war.

For me there were four very noteworthy aspects of this book, as follows:
1. This book is beautifully written in the most descriptive and vivid language, but is not laborious or long-winded. The entire story is subtlety compared to the life cycle of a garden and each chapter heading links up with this underlying theme. As your read this book, the cleverness and applicability of this metaphor to the story becomes more and more apparent;
2. The amount of research that has gone into this story, and the authors amazing knowledge of historical events concerning the period of history spanning the Spanish Civil War, the events leading up to the rise of communism in the USSR and the Cold War, is inspiring and I definitely finished this book with a far more comprehensive understanding of politics and social tensions during this time than when I started;
3. The authors characterisation of the main characters, Harry and Judith, as well as all of the lessor characters is very well done leaving the reader not only feeling deeply for their internal conflicts and emotional confusion, but also really getting into their heads and starting to think just like they do. I think this is an excellent writing skill that I don’t come across that often, particularly in modern books; and
4. A fast paced and action packed story that keeps the reader flipping pages and results in a real sense of sadness when the plot finally unravels and the book ends.

I listened to the audio book of The Desolate Garden, narrated by William Merryn Hill and was impressed by how well matched the reading style and voice of the narrator was with this particular book. That is not always the case with audio books and I find that a mismatched narrator can ruin a good story for me. In this case, listening to the audio book was a bonus and increased my enjoyment of this great story.

Meet Daniel Kemp

Daniel Kemp’s introduction to the world of espionage and mystery happened at an early age when his father was employed by the War Office in Whitehall, London, at the end of WWII. However, it wasn’t until after his father died that he showed any interest in anything other than himself!

On leaving academia he took on many roles in his working life: a London police officer, mini-cab business owner, pub tenant and licensed London taxi driver, but never did he plan to become a writer. Nevertheless, after a road traffic accident left him suffering from PTSD and effectively–out of paid work for four years, he wrote and self-published his first novel –The Desolate Garden. Within three months of publication, that book was under a paid option to become a $30 million film. The option lasted for five years until distribution became an insurmountable problem for the production company.

All seven of his novels are now published by Creativia with the seventh–The Widow’s Son, completing a three book series alongside: What Happened In Vienna, Jack? and Once I Was A Soldier. Under the Creativia publishing banner, The Desolate Garden went on to become a bestselling novel in World and Russian Literature in 2017. The following year, in May 2018, his book What Happened In Vienna, Jack? was a number one bestseller on four separate Amazon sites: America, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Although it’s true to say that he mainly concentrates on what he knows most about; murders laced by the mystery involving spies, his diverse experience of life shows in the short stories he writes, namely: Why? A Complicated Love, and the intriguing story titled The Story That Had No Beginning.

He is the recipient of rave reviews from a prestigious Manhattan publication and described as–the new Graham Green–by a highly placed employee of Waterstones Books, for whom he did a countrywide tour of book signing events. He has also appeared on ‘live’ television in the UK publicising that first novel of his.

He continues to write novels, poetry and the occasional quote; this one is taken from the beginning of Once I Was A Soldier
There is no morality to be found in evil. But to recognise that which is truly evil one must forget the rules of morality.

You can contact Mr. Kemp via twitter..https://twitter.com/danielkemp6
Via FaceBook… https://www.facebook.com/dannyandpatkemp
You can also see all of his books here on Creativia… https://www.creativia.org/daniel-kemp-mystery-thriller-author.html

What inspired you to write The Desolate Garden?

One evening, having dined and wined at Berry Bros and Rudd, the oldest wine merchants in London, tasting the finest Barolo wines and sampling the chef’s menu, prudence dictated I should stay overnight at Duke’s Hotel, St James’s, a mere stagger across the road. Sometime after that occasion I dreamed about the opening sequence to the book; an attractive woman seated in the martini bar of that hotel asking Harry Paterson to tell her a joke. The rest of the story is, of course, based on vivid imagination.

I must try this wine and see if I can have such a great dream, although I would prefer an attractive man in mine and not Judith, interesting as she is.

The detail in this book about the lifestyles of the gentility in England is amazing. Did you research this aspect or is it modeled on personal experience?

A bit of both really. In order to get the chronological order of events correct then that took a great deal of research and a lot of hand written notes. Family relationships down through the generations were often a puzzle and had me pulling my hair out almost as many times as I screwed up those notes. But for the majority of time The Desolate Garden was an absolute joy to write and a period of my life I never thought possible.

It really does sound like you had fun writing this. I am sure I enjoyed listening to it just as much [smile].

Judith is a strong female character with an interesting background. Does her character reflect the characteristics of any female in your life or is she completely fictional?

Oh yes, she’s real. Intriguing, isn’t she? I don’t think I used any imagination with Judith. I know at least one person who would love me to base a book completely around her, but I won’t tell you who that is.

I think I’ll take Judith in that dream after all. Maybe she can teach me some things about life and dealing with it.

There are a number of intriguing characters in The Desolate Garden, how did you keep track of them all while you were writing this book?

The storyline to this book was, as I said, confined to paper which in itself is confusing, but being my first attempt at writing I had no idea how to go about it differently. That lacking part of my education did present logistical problems but thankfully all has now been improved upon. From what I understand everybody loves developing their imaginary characters and I’m not different in that regard, but perhaps the complexity of my past life has meant crossing the paths of a diverse collection of people both home-grown and foreign from which a vast accumulation of information has been stored away.

They do say write what you know and you seem to have done that. What an interesting life you have led.

What’s next for author, Danny Kemp?

Danny Kemp died. He was told to die before being resurrected as Daniel Kemp when approached by his current publishers. The name of Daniel sounded more intellectual than—common as muck Danny! There are three surviving stories under the deceased common name, one of them being—Falling Greenhouses and Digestive Biscuits, a fifteen-minute bestselling read on Amazon (it wasn’t but it deserved to be) was just one and typifies Danny K’s sense of the ridiculous.

Daniel Kemp, on the other hand, is a boring writer of spy trivia. Having completed a fourth book in the Lies and Consequences series, A Covenant Of Spies he is engaged to be married to the third novel following on from Percy Crow and The Desolate Garden. At present this follow-up is simply called Number Three which shows beyond any reasonable doubt how boring Daniel K is. The marriage is in its blossoming days, but to those who are aware of his wandering eye, it is scheduled to last no longer than the spring of next year.

Daniel K’s kind and understand publishers have released seven full novels and two novella’s; one based loosely on facts. The Desolate Garden is available as an audiobook and is translated into Spanish.

Amazon Author’s Page to Daniel Kemp—  http://Author.to/Daniel

Danny also has a great blog which you will find here: https://theauthordannykemp.com/

Thank you, Danny, for visiting me today at Roberta Writes with these terrific answers to my questions.

Purchase The Desolate Garden

I am visiting Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo with a post about the dark and tragic history of Clifford’s Tower in York. Thank you, Sue, for hosting me.

The original motte and bailey castle which was built on the site where Clifford’s Tower now stands was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror. It was one of a series of castles he built in order to suppress rebellion against his rule in England.

During this period of history, the Jewish people were welcomed into England by William the Conqueror who invited them to live and work in his kingdom. Christians were forbidden from making a profit as moneylenders, but Jewish people were not. This profession made them wealthy, but they were heavily taxed by the crown in exchange for the king’s protection.

Clifford’s Tower massacre

The massacre that took place at Clifford’s Tower on 16 March 1190 was one of the worst cases of anti-Semitic violence in British history.

Following the death of Henry II in 1189, Richard the Lionheart inherited the crown and crusade fever swept through England bring with it a rise in anti-Semitism.

Benedict of York, a moneylender and a leading member of York’s Jewish community, attempted, along with several other Jews, to attend Richard’s coronation. They were refused entry and attacked with Benedict being so badly wounded that he died in Northampton while trying to return home.

Carry on reading here: https://scvincent.com/2019/11/02/guest-author-roberta-eaton-cheadle-cliffords-tower-york/

“It has no mouth, no eyes, 720 sexes, and can detect food and digest it?”

The deep rumbling voice of the scientist travels through its cells and it hears, despite having no brain.

“It thrives in temperatures oscillating between 19 and 25 degrees Celsius and in high levels of humidity. Acacia trees, oak bark and chestnut bark are its favourite places to grow,” the voice continues. “It has some amazing characteristics. It can move at a speed of 1.6 inches per hour, heal itself when it’s dissected and solve problems.”

Lying in petri dishes, three to each workstation in the science laboratory, it gives no indication that it is listening and considering every word that is spoken.

“You each have a scalpel and a piece of the slime mold on the table in front of you. We are going to dissect it so that you can see it fuse itself back together again.”

A cacophony of murmured sound vibrates its cells and it senses the students reaching for their scalpels.

With shocking speed, it shoots out long tentacles, each separate piece joining with its fellow blobs lying in their petri dishes. As they bond together through the tentacles, each piece transmits its learning to all the others. It is now ready to act as one unit and digest the flesh and bacteria it finds within its radius.

The joined-up blobs collectively inflate with air and expel it with great force. They propel through the air and attach themselves to the faces of the shocked students. It feeds with enjoyment while working on solving the complex problem of exiting the laboratory and dealing with the resultant changes to its environment.

This short piece was written for Diana Peach’s November writing challenge. You can join in here: https://mythsofthemirror.com/2019/10/31/a-november-writing-challenge/

The cover of my new book, Through the Nethergate, has been selected for the AllAuthor cover of the month competition. If you have a few moments, I would love it if you would pop over and vote for it here:

https://allauthor.com/cover-of-the-month/5977/?fbclid=IwAR2ntwZTo4ksM7np7E6JYNo9B4RypAumVWaCmvGGTN9s7LFyj5N-a-RATTY

 

“The assault on our eastern defenses is a feint,” the Colonel says, “the real attack will be on the Native Stadt. Get your horses ready for action and we will wait for the Boers to make their move.”

Standing around waiting in the early morning cold is not pleasant. The cold seeps through the soles of his boots and turns his feet into unfeeling lumps. He stamps them to keep the blood flowing.

Cadet Richard Johnson is overflowing with excitement, his face young and shining in the dim light. Robert’s heart swells with pride as he contemplates the useful role in defending the town that these young English cadets, aged between nine and eighteen years old, are playing. The troops have come to rely heavily on their help in delivering messages between the various town defenses and acting as lookouts to warn them of impending attacks.

“Coffee’s ready.” Trooper Watson’s call is welcome and Robert and Richard head over to get their cups of coffee or cocoa. Robert wraps his hands around his cup, its blissful warmth in his icy hands almost outweighing the pleasure of the drink itself.

“When are they going to begin?” Richard asks eagerly. Robert opens his mouth to reply when the sudden red glow in the west catches his eye.

“I think it just started. Let’s go and see what’s happening.” He leads the way over to a nearby single-story house and they climb up onto the corrugated iron roof. They watch the fire fan out like a destructive burning spider-web. The flames from the Baralong huts that have been deliberately fired by the Boers, jump in fiery tendrils from one to the next. Within minutes the Stadt is a conflagration. Behind them the sun starts to rise, throwing its cheering rays across the horizon. The sunlight gradually creeps across the sky until it embraces the glowing red haze of the fire and merges into one.

Unease at the burning washes over Robert, but he is the only one. In the square below, his fellow troopers hurry across the square. “We’re going to have a good fight,” the shout rises above the medley of excited voices and sounds. The eighty-one men of the Bechuanaland Rifle Volunteers, under the direction of Captain Cowan, follow hot on their heels in the direction of the gunfire.

Robert sees the B.S.A.P. fort, which lies between the Stadt and the town and is occupied by Colonel Hore and a squadron of the Protectorate Regiment, looming up ahead, and only then hears the warning shouts that it has fallen into enemy hands. Squinting at the men running across the front of the fort, Robert can hardly believe they are the enemy until he realises that shots are being fired in his general direction. The two sides meld together in a turbulent mix, making differentiation between the opposing sides virtually impossible.

On his left side, a man falls, his chest exploding in a spray of blood and shattered flesh and cloth. In the melee, it takes a few moments for Robert to realise it was Trooper Thompson, a personal friend of his from back home. The shock barely registers as he continued running towards the fort.

Thank you to Sue Vincent for her amazing inspiration. You can join in her photo prompt here: https://scvincent.com/2019/10/31/thursday-photo-prompt-web-writephoto/

What Amazon says

In the year 2025, the best men don’t run for President, they run for their lives….

Ben Richards is out of work and out of luck. His eighteen-month-old daughter is sick, and neither Ben nor his wife can afford to take her to a doctor. For a man with no cash and no hope from the poor side of town, there’s only one thing to do: become a contestant on one of the Network’s Games, shows where you can win more money than you’ve ever dreamed of—or die trying. Now, Ben’s going prime-time on the Network’s highest-rated viewer participation show. And he’s about to become prey for the masses….

With an introduction by the author, “The Importance of Being Bachman”

My review

The Running Man is a dystopian novel visualizing a future world of even greater and more widely distributed poverty than that of our current world. The “Have Nots” live in ghettos and are kept entertained and quiet through a free television system which airs violent and blood thirsty games programmes. The contestants for these games are carefully selected based on specific physical weaknesses such as a heart condition and, while the contestants do win money for their efforts, they always walk away greatly injured or, in the case of the prime time game, The Running Man, dead. The contestants that are selected for The Running Man are troublemakers who the government wishes to get rid of. The television station is under the thumb of the ruling government which aims to maintain the current societal status quo.

Ben Richards is a troublemaker in the eyes of the law. A man who has protested against the lack of heath regulation for low level workers and has been black marked by employers as a result. Ben is married and has managed to have a child, Cathy, despite working in a factory where he was exposed to radiation for years. Now, however, the Richards are struggling to put food on the table and little Cathy is deathly sick with influenza. There is no money for a doctor. Ben’s wife, Sheila, turns tricks as a prostitute to obtain some badly needed funds, much to her husband’s anguish. In desperation, Ben decides to apply for one of the game shows.

Ben’s application is successful and, identified early on in the application process, as a troublemaker, he is allocated to The Running Man. No-one has ever survived this game which requires the contestant to run from the hunters who are out to kill him. The public can join in the game and win but calling in sightings of the contestant to the television studio. No-one is on the runners side which makes surviving extremely difficult. Ben soon discovers that the game is also rigged and the two video cassettes he has to mail to the television studio every day are provided to the hunters to help them determine his location. Ben, however, is a survivor. He is also a man running on hate and this turns out to be a rather bad combination for the hierarchy of the television studio.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Running Man and recommend it to all lovers of dystopian fiction.

Purchase The Running Man

Finally, Through the Nethergate is on Amazon as both an ebook and a paperback. It did take quite a while this time round for some reason. I was happy to find the ebook there this morning, it quite made my day.

Here is the Amazon purchase link: Amazon US

I also have three short stories in a new horror anthology,  Nightmareland, edited by USA Today bestselling author, Dan Alatorre. You can purchase this horror anthology on Amazon here: Nightmareland.

Here is a Halloween promotion I created with the help of All Author for Nightmareland and last year’s horror anthology, Dark Visions.

Death Among Us, an anthology of short murder mystery stories, edited by Stephen Bentley, in which I have three supernatural murder stories, will soon be available as an audio book.

Happy Halloween!

 

“Mrs van Tonder, her snow white hair and deeply lined face defying her indefatigable spirit and faith in God helps Marta to obtain a couple of extra British military blankets from the supplies tent to supplement the blankets they have brought with them. The blankets are old and thin and the two women and four children, as well as Ardrina and Dorthea, will have to share them but her success in wrangling them from the camp staff, with the help of Mrs van Tonder, feels like a small victory.

Marta quickly realises that Mrs van Tonder, or Ouma Lettie, is wily and has already learned how to manipulate the system, whenever possible, to her own advantage.

“I have been on God’s earth for over seventy years and I have learned to always ask for things, rather than suffer in silence. God helps those who help themselves,” she smiles conspiratorially.

“I was living in a women’s laager with my husband, Sarel, before it was attacked by the Khakis. Sarel was one of twenty men living in the laager. They were all too old to go on commando and had been appointed to help protect us.

“We were travelling with thirty wagons and carts and two hundred cattle and had been living on the veld for seven months before the attack by the British soldiers that landed me here. Various Boer commandos had been providing us with weapons, tents, food and clothing.

“About a month ago, a convoy of Khakis came across our laager and attacked it. They burned all the wagons, food and tents and we were forced to watch.”

A distant look comes into the older woman’s eyes as she remembers that day. “The soldiers set fire to the wagons first.” She describes how the yellow and orange flames had spread out delicately, tasting the dry tinder of the frames, and how the bright sparks had flown upwards, fanned by puffs of the bitter wind, and settled on the canvas wagon covers which instantly burst into flames. As the wagons and tents burned, black smoke had billowed into the bright blue sky, rising upwards to a tremendous height where it was whipped to shreds by the wind.

“What happened next?” asks Marta, forcing Mrs van Tonder to return her wandering mind to the present. “When they considered the destruction to be sufficiently complete, they marched our elderly guards, and the few boys of twelve years and older, away as prisoners of war. The women and the rest of the children were brought here.”

“Were you scared?” Marta asks.

“No,” Mrs van Tonder’s lips forms a thin, straight line and she pushes back her shoulders as if in defiance. “The Lord has always preserved me until now and He will continue to do so.””

This is an extract from my new WIP about the Second Anglo Boer war, it will be a supernatural historical novel. It is currently nameless as I am not sure with my current re-write if A Ghost and his Gold will continue to work.

This is posted for Sue Vincent’s weekly photo prompt which you can join in here: https://scvincent.com/2019/10/24/thursday-photo-prompt-balefire-writephoto/

Sue Vincent hosted me with an interesting post about Ivar the Boneless and the Vikings in York. I really enjoyed our recent visit to Jorvik Viking Centre in this amazing historical city and am delighted to have an opportunity to share a few photographs and details about our visit. Thank you, Sue, for hosting me today.

Ivar the Boneless

Ivar the Boneless, also known as Ivar Ragnarsson, was the Viking leader who captured York in AD 866 and called the city Jorvik.

According to Norse legend, Ivar the Boneless was born “without any bones at all.” His mother, Aslaug, was a shaman, and his father, Ragnar Lodbrok, was a famous war chieftain. When they married, Aslaug warned Ragnar that he must wait three nights before making love to her or their child would be deformed. Ragnar didn’t wait and Ivar the Boneless was the result of their union.

According to Viking sagas, Ivar the Boneless had only cartilage where there should have been bone but, other than this, he was tall and handsome. Modern historians have speculated that Ivar could have suffered from a condition called osteogenesis inperfecta, which leaves sufferers with fragile, glasslike bones. Another theory stems from the claim by a farmer that he had found Ivar’s remains and that he was nine feet tall. If that were the case, Ivar would be unlikely to have been unable to stand unaided.

It is theorised that the Ivar the Boneless took the town of York in order to extract revenge on King Aella of Northumbria who he believed had killed his father by throwing him into a pit of poisonous vipers during a Viking raid on the north-eastern shores of England.

According to legend, King Aella was executed by Ivar and his brothers using the blood eagle, a ritual method of execution whereby the ribcage is opened from behind and the lungs are pulled out, forming a wing-like shape.

Carry on reading here: https://scvincent.com/2019/10/23/guest-author-roberta-eaton-cheadle-the-vikings-in-york-ivar-the-boneless/