Indie Book Bargains | Alex Martin
I am thrilled to be chosen as the deal for the day and the featured writer on this important website.
You can get a free copy of DAFFODILS just for today and tomorrow… and they are going faaaaasst!
I get a lot of followers on this blog – so I\’m pleased to announce that those of you who have been interested in the progress of Daffodils can get a free copy today and tomorrow. Grab it while you can – it\’s just for 2 days.
Any positive reviews would make a nice thank you!
Got really excited today when I started to research the battle scene in the upcoming Rose Trail. The real facts fit the story uncannily well. I couldn\’t believe my luck when I started in earnest to unravel the real events that surround the key scene. Important military leaders are in exactly the right spot for the story and their relationship mirrors two of the fundamental characters in the book. Talk about neat!
I can\’t wait to get to grips with the writing phase but I\’m resolved on completing the bulk of the research first this time, having learnt from Daffodils.
Watch this space for more updates as they arise.
And thanks for your interest, if you are reading this!
Daffodils is going to be on free promotion for two days next week 25th and 26th June. If you\’ve been hesitating to buy it – it\’ll be a no risk purchase!
I think it\’s a shame we authors have to give our work away. Daffodils took me ten years to write and a ton of research. However that\’s the name of the game.
Dizzy C\’s Little Book Blog: Daffodils by Alex Martin: Today Alex Martin joins me to share an excerpt from her novel Daffodils Publisher: FeedARead.com (2 May 2013) ISBN-13: 978-178299…
Thrilled to guest on this great blog. Dizzy C is a reviewer and avid reader with a big following so this is a great honour. I\’ve put big fat chunks of Daffodils on the blog for people to get a flavour of the book. I worry that the beginning of the book is a little misleading in flavour but I\’m trying to show how narrow country lives in Edwardian England really were; how every problem was a big drama for villagers and then show how they became swamped with the global conflict of World War One. At its heart though, Daffodils is a love story full of poignant real life romance. Katy is torn in many directions but ultimately, arrives at her authentic self, after many trials and tribulations.
This novel is a historical romance which is thoughtful and absorbing. Once you start reading this book, you will not be able to put it down.
Katy Beagle is intelligent, fiesty and wants to travel and have adventures. But women from her social class are trapped in 1914 in thier small lives.
Katy is sacked from her job as a housemaid for cold heartless people. The villagers are living on the bread line and every day life is harsh in a village where typhoid stalks.
Katy doesnt have many options but is lucky to marry \”steady\” Jem who loves \”the natural rhythm of the countryside\” and adores \”flighty\” Katy. The passion they share is very touching, against the harsh realities of their lives and they face a shattering loss together.
The novel is set on the eve of WWI and the novel follows Jem and other young men as they go to France to fight. Alex Martin\’s descriptions of life in the trenches are brillant in their horror. Here the \”gagging stench of death\” changes them all and Jem is \”lifted up of his feet, floating in mid-air as if he was flying…..\” Can the will to survive and a sense of humanity save anyone in this hell?
Back at home, Lionel White, the local vicar is lusting after Katy but she realises that he is a man who has \”fine words but no real courage\” and Sir Robert and his mean spirited wife are left looking \”lost and too small in their big empty house\”. As the twentieth century sticks \”its bloody claws into their insular world\” and their son is killed.
Katy escapes the misery of her small life and joins the Women\’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Going to France, changes her life forever and here she meets people from all walks of life, on an open playing field. In chapter 51 of the book, Katy and her new friends swim together in the surf at the beach and this life enforcing moment allows her to \”feel young and alive\”. Here the screaming of wounded men and areoplanes dropping bombs is forgotten.
It is this sense of hope and survial in the face of all the maddness which is the key to understanding \”Daffodiles\”? The power of nature, love and endurance are key themes in this life changing book. Alex Martin, is a new writer of immense talent and historical observation. And this is an amazing and beautiful love story.
Martin\’s novel took me on a gentle journey of discovery through the years preceding and during World War One. The fresh approach to this timeframe, so different to recent Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, was that it was from the point of view of the villagers rather than the aristocracy. Their heartache and hopes were palpable in a story where the heroine was plucky and more importantly believable. I found each time I picked the book up, I didn\’t want to put it down and without issuing spoilers, I would say Katy\’s journey had me trussed and bound to the end. Each of Martin\’s characters were so very real and I believe this is the author\’s real skill. She can create a character so genuine, it\’s as if they are sitting opposite drinking tea. Her research into the timeframe is evidenced with a light hand and I commend this book to anyone wanting a love-story with honest depth and detail.
www.intheplottingshed.com 