The Crow House is FREE this Saturday

Front cover of The Crow House

Do help yourself to a FREE copy of The Crow House this Saturday 24 November.  You can download it for nothing to your Kindle/mobile devices/humble PC by clicking here.

Reviews appeal!  Earn my undying gratitude by posting a review on Amazon!  I gather that's what's needed to help The Crow House er, fly. 

"No decent people in this town would have you", he reminds her.  His voice grates on her ears.  "As you bear the Mark, so is your nature fixed." He sighed.  "Yet in Christian charity I took you in, and so must bear this cross with patience.  Stand by the door."  He bends again over his work.  

Time passes.  She stands by the door.  She is biting her lip, gnawing at it, her hands tight clasped behind her back, fingers interlaced.  What he says is true.  She bears the Mark.  She is evil.

How I published the 'The Crow House' for Halloween

'The Crow House' by Jean Atkin

As it's a mystery/horror novel for 9 to 12 year olds Halloween seemed a good moment to unleash it on the world.

Time travel was never this inconvenient - or terrifying.  Holly and Callum have to cope with a dangerous old book, a witch (perhaps) and worst of all, the cold-eyed Hermetic Doctor of Wigtown: Jared Sliddery, inhabitant of The Crow House.

The website is live too, and the Facebook Page, which has been picking up lots of Likes from kind people.  And you can download it to your Kindle, your mobile devices or your PC by clicking here.

Reviews very much appreciated!  I really would love to hear from readers.

... and do you know, this e-book was published by a person without any broadband in her house?  Is this a record? Thank God for public libraries.   (It's been two months +.  We've abandoned BT for the Phone Coop, who are friendly and remember to update you, but even they still have to deal with Open Reach, known to our weary household now as 'Totally Out of Reach')...

New desk, new networks, new book

After a mighty slice of luck which enabled us to buck the house sales trend, three generations of us plus a hundred-and-something boxes of books have come to rest in a tall Victorian house in Ludlow, Shropshire.  I have a whole box room to work from!  And a sunny pergola to have coffee in.

I'm busy making contact with new networks here, in particular just now with immensely active Writing West Midlands.  I shall be off to their Writers Toolkit day next month.  The programme looks great and it's a chance to meet people.

Time travel was never this inconvenient - or terrifying.

And while I write up some Dumfries and Galloway projects, and scamper up and down country to complete work there, I'm also gearing up to publish my new novel for 9-13s.  The Crow House is a horror mystery set in Wigtown, Scotland's Georgian book town by the sea.   The Crow House website will be launched shortly, followed by the Kindle edition.