Introducing the Blue Phantom and its gloomy captain - by Vijaya Schartz

 ANGEL SHIP, Book One of the Blue Phantom series
is an October 2022 release from BWL Publishing 
Universal link to your favorite online retailer HERE

There is a phantom ship that glows like a beacon in black space, appears and vanishes, and never registers on scanners. Rumors say it will save the righteous, the oppressed, and the downtrodden… and slay the unworthy without mercy. The space pirates fear it. Their victims pray for it... but its help comes at a price...

Desperate to save her people from the Marauders swarming her space freighter, Kefira prays for a miracle. Blake Volkov, legendary captain of the Blue Phantom hears her plea and deems her and her refugees worthy of his help. Grateful for the rescue, Kefira finds his price shocking.

Despite his glowing wings, handsome looks and impressive abilities, Blake admits he is no angel… although Kefira’s feline bodyguard strongly disagrees.

Meanwhile, an old enemy bent on revenge against Blake unleashed an unspeakable evil on the galaxy. Time to face past mistakes… time for innocent blood to flow. Nothing prepared Kefira for the upheaval ahead.

Can Blake find redemption? Can Kefira save her people? Can either of them ever trust again?

Cast of characters:

Kefira is a Sardar princess, the last descendent of a long line started by a goddess, to lead her people. Her name means “Young lioness” and she is loyal, fierce, and dedicated to take her people to the home of their ancestors, where they can live in peace and be safe. But travel is perilous. Since the collapse of the evil Galactic Trade Alliance, space pirates plunder, rape, kill, and trade slaves with impunity.

In this disorganized and lawless galaxy, Blake Volkov, captain of the Blue Phantom, is haunted by his past mistakes and doubts his self-worth. He vowed to redeem himself and erase the guilt of his shady past, by helping those worthy of rescue.

And, of course, there is a big cat named Karak, the heroine’s sturdy bodyguard. Their minds are linked, and his fangs and claws are deadly. He follows her in the boardroom and in battle. Karak’s devotion to his job and fierce protective instincts are only surpassed by his love for his human mom, who still calls him Kitten.

But in the shadows, a new evil power is rising to fill the void and take control of the galaxy. Matchitehew, Sorcerer Supreme of the Stygian Order, will stop at nothing to realize his ambitions, seeking revenge, ruling through fear, spilling rivers of blood, sacrificing the innocent…

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If you like science fiction, fantasy, action and danger, strong heroines, brave heroes, powerful villains, cats, robots, cyborgs, angels, and a touch of romance, you may want to also check out the other series in the Azura Universe: Azura Chronicles, set on an angel planet, and Byzantium, set on a space station.

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Happy Reading!

Vijaya Schartz, author

Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes, cats

http://www.vijayaschartz.com

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Queen Victoria--Tricia McGill

Find all my books on my BWL author page here.

As we move into a new era after the passing of our beloved Queen Elizabeth who lies in state as I write, prior to her funeral in a few days’ time, my thoughts returned to another long serving Monarch. Until her death in 1901 Queen Victoria’s reign of 63 years and 7 months was longer than that of any previous British Monarch. What was known as the Victorian Era was a period of industrial, political and scientific, not to mention military change within the United Kingdom. This era was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire and in 1876 the British Parliament voted to grant Queen Victoria the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn who was the 4^th son of King George111 and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Raised under the close supervision of her mother and comptroller John Conroy, Victoria did not have a particularly happy childhood. Inheriting the throne at the age of 18 she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. She was identified as having strict standards of personal morality. In later years Victoria described her childhood as melancholy under her mother’s set of rules and protocols devised along with the Duchess by Sir John who was rumoured to be the Duchess’s lover. Their main aim was to render her totally dependent on them.

Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 10^th February 1840 in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace and was apparently completely love-struck. She wrote in her diary the evening after their wedding: “I Never, never spent such an evening! My dearest dear Albert—his excessive love and affection gave me feelings of heavenly love and happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before. He clasped me in his arms and we kissed each other again and again. His beauty, his sweetness and gentleness—really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a husband! To be called by names of tenderness I have never yet heard used to me before was bliss beyond belief. Oh! This was the happiest day of my life.”

During Victoria's first pregnancy in 1840, in the first few months of the marriage, 18-year-old Edward Oxford  attempted to assassinate her while she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert on her way to visit her mother. Oxford fired twice, but either both bullets missed or, as he later claimed, the guns had no shot. He was tried for high treason, found not guilty by reason of insanity, committed to an insane asylum indefinitely, and later sent to live in Australia. 

Her first daughter, also named Victoria, was born in November 1840. The Queen apparently hated being pregnant, viewed breast-feeding with disgust, and thought new born babies were ugly. Nevertheless, over the following seventeen years, she and Albert had a further eight children: Albert, Alice, Alfred, Helena, Louise, Arthur, Leopold and Beatrice.

After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning, avoiding the public. She came to rely increasingly on a Scottish manservant, John Brown. Rumours appeared in print of a romantic connection between the two, and some articles even went as far as calling her Mrs. Brown. Their relationship was the subject of the movie Mrs. Brown. Victoria praised Brown highly in the book she published titled ‘Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands.’

After her death in 1901 Victoria was succeeded by her son Edward V11 of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a last request, her favourite pet Pomeranian Turi was laid upon her deathbed. Among the mementos that she requested be put alongside her in her coffin was one of Albert’s dressing gowns, plus a plaster cast of his hand. A lock of John Brown’s hair along with a picture of him was placed in her left hand and concealed by a bunch of flowers. There was also a ring owned by John Brown’s mother that was given to her by Brown.

 

More information of her long and eventful life can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria

Tricia McGill Web page

The Queen

 

 

https://bookswelove.net/martin-paula/ 

The Queen

 Earlier this month we in the UK (as well as many people throughout the world) were shocked to learn that Queen Elizabeth II had died. Yes, she was 96; yes, she had just celebrated her 70th year on the throne. Maybe we should have been ready for it, but somehow we weren’t.

Only two days earlier, she had been photographed asking our new Prime Minister to form a government. True, she looked frail, but we still didn’t expect her to die two days later.

For the majority of people, she was the only sovereign they had ever known. I am actually in the minority, as I do remember her father, King George VI. The Brownie ‘Promise’ I made when I was seven included the words “To serve The King and my country.” About a year later, the head teacher came into my school classroom to inform us that the King had died. I only remember seeing black and white newspaper photos of his funeral.

The following year, there was great excitement about the Queen’s Coronation. Streets were decorated, and street parties were held. My mother had a wool shop and I helped her make a display for the window, with the Union Flag in red, white and blue balls of wool surrounding a photograph of the young Queen.

On the actual day people crowded into the homes of those who actually owned a television, which were few and far between at that time. My parents arranged for me to visit a friend of theirs who did have a television set, and so I watched the Coronation on a black and white, nine-inch TV screen. As a nine-year-old, I confess to becoming somewhat bored by the lengthy ceremony, apart from the actual crowning when everyone shouted ‘God Save the Queen’. After that a few friends and I went out to play in the garden, but we were called back to watch the newly-crowned Queen return to Buckingham Palace in the ornate state coach.

Ten days after the Coronation, we had a school trip to London, at that time a five-hour journey by train. I’m not sure how our teachers coped with about thirty excited youngsters, but we went to Westminster Abbey and also saw all the decorations in the streets, especially the huge arches in the Mall.

We were outside Buckingham Palace, where a lot of people seemed to be congregating on the pavements. One of my teachers asked a policeman what was happening, and was told the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were due to arrive back from a visit to Greenwich. The policeman then allowed us to climb into one of the VIP stands which had been erected outside the Palace for the Coronation. As a result, we had a wonderful view of the Queen when the open carriage came round the Victoria Memorial and entered the Palace forecourt.

That was my first sight of Queen. Since then, I’ve seen her three more times, and on one occasion I met and spoke to Prince (now King) Charles, but I’ll tell you more next time!

Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paulamartinromances

Link to my Amazon author page:  author.to/PMamazon  

Alberta History in My Writing by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/donaldson-yarmey-joan/

I began my writing career as a travel writer and I drove and camped through all of Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon and Alaska, writing about what there was to see and do in those provinces, and the territory and state. I learned a lot of history, saw a lot of beautiful scenery, and met a lot of wonderful people.

The following historical excerpt is about Fort Macleod, along the Crowsnest Highway, from my travel book the Backroads of Southern Alberta. Fort Macleod, coincidently, is the setting for the novel, Illegally Dead, the first book of my Travelling Detective Series.

The Only Shadow in the House is set north and east of Edmonton, Alberta, and Whistler’s Murder takes place in Whistler, British Columbia.

After the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to the Canadian Government in 1869, fur traders from Fort Benton in Montana travelled north into present day Alberta and set up illegally trading posts called Whiskey Forts. They brought wagon loads of whiskey and guns to trade for furs with the natives. The watered down whiskey, laced with any or all of Tabasco, red pepper, tobacco, ginger, molasses, tea, sulphuric acid and ink, drove the natives wild and they brutalized and killed their own tribesmen, other bands, and some whitemen. Sir John A Macdonald, prime minister of Canada at the time declared that the area should be safe for settlers moving west and he formed the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in 1874. They marched west and established Fort Macleod, which is southern Alberta's oldest settlement.

The downtown district, on 24th Street between Second and Third Avenues, was declared Alberta's first provincial historical site on May 14, 1984. There are many wood frame buildings that date back to 1890s and some brick and sandstone ones from the early 1900s.
The Empress Theatre opened in 1912 and was used for vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, silent films, political rallies and talking films. It has been renovated, but the original pressed metal ceiling, double seats in every second row, and the old radiators remain. The Empress Theatre Society presents movies or live performances during the summer.
The present-day Fort Macleod is a reproduction, but some of the log buildings inside the Fort Museum are original and house numerous historical native and North West Mounted Police-Royal Canadian Mounted Police artifacts. A Musical Ride is staged four times a day during July and August. Young men and women dressed in replica North West Mounted Police uniforms present an exhibition of horsemanship and precision, similar to the world famous Musical Ride.

Harry `Kanouse' Taylor, a former whiskey fort owner, set up a hotel in Fort Macleod after the arrival of the NWMP-the original name of the RCMP. Due to the changing times and transient population, there had to be certain rules in his hotel. They were:
1. Guests will be provided with breakfast and dinner,
but must rustle their own lunch.
2. Spiked boots and spurs must be removed at night
before retiring.
3. Dogs are not allowed in bunks, but may sleep
underneath.
4. Towels are changed weekly; insect powder is for sale
at the bar.
5. Special rates for Gospel Grinders and the gambling
profession.
6. The bar will be open day and night. Every known fluid,
except water, for sale. No mixed drinks will be served
except in case of a death in the family. Only
registered guests allowed the privileges of sleeping
on the bar room floor.
7. No kicking regarding the food. Those who do not like
the provender will be put out. When guests find
themselves or their baggage thrown over the fence,
they may consider they have received notice to leave.
8. Baths furnished free down at the river, but bathers
must provide their own soap and towels.
9. Valuables will not be locked in the hotel safe, as
the hotel possesses no such ornament.
10. Guests are expected to rise at 6:00 a.m., as the
sheets are needed for tablecloths.
11. To attract the attention of waiters, shoot through
the door panel. Two shots for ice water, three for
a new deck of cards.
No Jawbone. In God We Trust; All Others Pay Cash.

My Favourite Month by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE HERE

Of all the months of the year, September is my favourite month.

That might be because it is my birthday month. It is also the beginning of autumn, my favourite season. This, according to the poet John Keats, is the ‘Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness.’ I love watching the leaves on the trees change colour from the green of spring and summer to gold and bronze, russet and red.

Cool, crisp mornings can be followed by clear blue skies and balmy sunshine. There may be a spell of Indian Summer, that dry, warm period that can occur after the first frost and before the cooler temperatures of October set in.

Or the mornings might shimmer with a gossamer-light mist draping late-season blackberries on the
hedgerows or making spiders' webs glisten. French author Lea Malot says, ‘September was a thirty-days long goodbye to summer,' while Virgin Woolf wrote, ‘All the months are crude experiments out of which the perfect September is made.’ That seems about right to me.

But the weather, like fate, can be fickle. During my first visit to Canada over thirty years ago, I went out in jeans and a t-shirt on a beautiful sunny September morning. In the afternoon, the temperature plummeted, and a blizzard blew in. I had to buy a jacket and boots and found traffic had ground to a halt which necessitated taking shelter for the night in a hotel. These days I am prepared for any eventuality.

Now the evenings are beginning to draw in, it's time to cozy up to the fire and start thinking about the next novel.

​Victoria Chatham

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