Beneath the Tor out in Kindle!

At last! The three books in the Shaman Mystery Mystery series are out in both Kindle and paperback editions. The third in the series,  Beneath the Tor, is now available from Amazon. The Kindle edition is only 99p and if you're with Kindle Unlimited, it's free to download. 

Now I'll be able to concentrate on seeing the fourth in the series through production and into both Kindle and paperback editions. Through the Floodgate, should be released in the early spring of 2021. 

The original idea of the Shaman Mystery Series, came to me one day, in the guise of Sabbbie Dare. She arrived, fully-formed and said;  'I'm a young therapist, a shaman, and sometimes I do get very strange people walking into my therapy room. Honestly, I could write a book about some of them...'

And so the idea for the first in the series, In the Moors,

was born.

I'm not at all like Sabbie; I can't add up, I doubt I could solve a murder mystery, and I'm not quite the 'cock-eye' optimist that she is. I'm far, far, shyer than Sabbie, who says it just like it is, and is unafraid of catching people off-guard. Sabbie is a very curious person and as she says herself..."you know what that did to the cat."

But like Sabbie, I follow a pagan path which takes me close to the earth and into the deep recesses of my mind. Shamanic techniques help me in my life - in fact they changed my life - although, unlike Sabbie, I’ve never set up a therapeutic practice...I’m too busy writing!  

Beneath the Tor had its seeds in my visits, over the years, to the town of Glastonbury. I have become firm friends with many of the people who not only live there, but use it as a sacred and spiritual base for their work. But I also can't help but think that there is a dark side to the town. Naturally, one has to made a living if one offers spiritual therapies, but in the past, I have met those who are not all they're letting on, and some who have been making a profit without really knowing what damage they might do.

Nevertheless, there are good points to the town. The sacred and the pagan do exist side-by-side, with the beauty of the Abbey and the lovely church central to the community, and the mysteries of the Chalice Well and Tor deep in its psyche. I wanted to include both these sides to Glastonbury, and celebrate it, as well as set a thrilling crime mystery there.

To get this book right, I spoke to a lot of people and read a lot of books. I should thank the generosity of Nicholas Mann, whose wide breathe of knowledge on Glastonbury was my foundation stone, especially his book The Isle of Avalon:

Mara Freeman on Glastonbury Tor

Sacred Mysteries of Arthur and Glastonbury, published by Green Magic, and Glastonbury Tor: A Guide to the History and Legends. Also by my side as I wrote was Grail Alchemy, Initiation in the Celtic Mystery Tradition  by Mara Freeman, an authority on the mysteries surrounding the Isle of Avalon. She had just finished writing  at the time I was completing Beneath the Tor. It's an inspirational book I recommend here. Of the series, Mara says…"A real page-turner, In the Moors cost me several hours of sleep because it was so un-put-downable! An engaging heroine, a landscape at once so real and so menacing, and an intriguing mystery had me enthralled into the wee hours!” 

Some of you may remember the launch of Beneath the Tor at the The Avalon Room in Glastonbury. 50 people gathered and it was a blast; everyone had a great time, there was standing room only, and as one attendee said on facebook…Ronald Hutton...Arthur ‘ZZ Birmingham’ on guitar...and chocolates!

While Arthur wowed us with the blues, Ronald Hutton, professor of history at Bristol University and a world authority on paganism, gave a talk on the history of shamanism, concentrating on how it arrived in the West and was taken up and made obtainable by the great exponents in this country and the US especially. He then very cleverly (well, he is clever!) explained how my books tapped this seam, explaining how readers nowadays like two particular genres of novel; crime fiction and fantastic fiction. By entering Sabbie Dare’s two worlds…as a 30 year old woman faced with dilemmas, worries and, sometimes, danger in the 'apparent world' – and her amazing journeys into the spirit world as a shaman, I had successfully blended the two. Thank you, Ronald, and thank you, too, for your kind review of the book...." Milton 

has become a mistress of plot-weaving, and above all, she pulls off the trick of setting the totally fantastic amid the totally everyday and making the two fit together with pace and excitement."

So, I hear you cry, what is the third Shaman Mystery about? Well, let's have a taster; 

…A handful of dancers were still going strong. Alys was among them, turboed up like a child who’d had too much ice cream, hollering and whooping, I could hear her from the far side of the summit.

    I saw her dance.

    I saw her drop.

    She fell to the ground without a stumble or a cry.

    She fell awkwardly, one leg trapped under the other, her head thrown back.

    I stared for long seconds, waiting for her to rise.

    Alys didn’t get up. She didn’t move at all 

One Midsummer Eve on Glastonbury Tor, beautiful Alys Hollingberry dies suddenly after dancing through the night. After receiving sinister, anonymous emails about Alys, her grieving husband Brice approaches therapeutic shaman, Sabbie Dare. She turns to the spirit world for guidance but receives only conflicting and enigmatic answers. Meanwhile she follows the links from Alys to a killer who attacks in public yet seems to disappear at will. She must find the murderer before someone she knows becomes the next victim.

You can get a copy of Beneath the Tor HERE!

Get the Soundtrack of your Novel in Your Head

“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music” 

Walter Pater’s said that. It’s a famous quote of his, more famous than he is. When I first heard it, I checked him out, to find he was a nineteenth-century art critic and literary theorist who was born in the East End of London.

Some think that this quote is bunkum, and that art doesn’t move towards being music, but the idea resonates with me. Why else would Leonard Cohen have moved his writing sideways from prose and poetry to lyrics (oh! the money, maybe…).  Music often enhances reading; I played Bob Marley all the time when I was consumed by A Brief History of Seven Killings 

When I write, I’m always aware that certain scenes make a sort of music in my head. My characters, right from before I had anything published, always listened to music, often (this is possibly why these stories weren't published!) for long, closely-described scenes.

Then I read the critically acclaimed Teddy Wayne, and heard about how he created a ‘soundtrack’ to his most recent novel Loner, an unsettling story of obsessive desire. In his article, Wayne says…A great deal of pop songs are also about romantic obsession and loneliness (often in the same breath), and many ostensible love songs, when you examine the lyrics, are really avowals of stalker-like pursuit or thoughts of the object of desire; the British seem to have a particular fondness for this kind of ballad. 

Wayne chose ten tracks that informed his portrayal of his protagonist. I’m writing book four of the Shaman Mysteries, Flood Gate, and I'm doing the same thing. My chosen tracks each represent a character, and I’m finding wonderful inspiration from listening to these songs. Follow the links to hear the music.

In order of appearance:

Larry Waish is a small-time poultry farmer who recently lost all his hens in one of the many floods that plague the Somerset Levels. What he’s discovered, is that his neighbour is to blame for his loss, and he’s hopping mad. Larry really loves Country and Western and plays The Eagles Heartache Tonight  a lot, while he’s trying to cope with what happened between him and Jack Spicer at Harper’s Coombe 

Jack Spicer, who’s real name is John, farms 200 acres of Somerset land, as his family has for generations. He's recently lost his daughter, and is helping bring up her daughter, baby Olivia. He knows he's been driven to do wrong, and t’s tormenting him. He's a bit of a classical buff, and listening to the slightly sinister tones of Shostakovich’s first piano concerto helped me build his character. By the end of chapter one, Jack is dead.

Sabbie Dare is a young shamanic practitioner and therapist who knows it is her destiny to be of service to people on the very edge of life. The victims of evil…the perpetrators of it.  Sabbie’s mad about Pet Shop Boys and pagan music which can vary from folksy to rocking, and includes groups like Incubus Sucubus, Dahm the Bard and The Dolmen 

Kelly King was 28 when she threw herself off the Clifton Suspension Bridge. She’d never really recovered from her life in The Willows, a local authority children’s home where Kelly, Sabbie and Debs Hitchings all lived when they were children. Kelly was depressed, directionless, and addicted to chocolate cookies. In her last days, she plugged into the music of her childhood, such as Pink’s There you go.

Debs Hitchings is a beautician who wanders from boyfriend to boyfriend and job to job. Debs turned up at the very end of In the Moors, (Book One) where she cuts Sabbie’s tortured hair, and has a small part in Unraveled Visions. In this book Debs, and the story of her past, takes centre stage. She’s known for cracking out Beyoncés Crazy in Love 

at the top of her voice as her heels skittered across nighttime pavements.

https://www.milesdavis.com

Quentin Lachapelle is a thirty-five year old photographer with a nice studio, a pretty wife, and a flourishing career. He meets Sabbie and Debs at Kelly King's funeral, where he offers to take some glamour shots of Debs, although he finds Sabbie’s dark skin tones and angled face interesting. There is more to Quentin that meets the eye…or the lens of his cameras. Quentin is a Miles Davis fan, of course. 

DI Reynard Buckely. Fans of the Shaman Mysteries will be delighted to hear that and Rey and Sabbie are still an item. In fact, things hot up between them considerably! Rey made his musical preferences clear in In the Moors, so there’s only one group I could play, and that’s the Stones. 

Fenella Waish is Larry’s sister. Now in her forties, but still living in their childhood home, Fen seeks help from Sabbie for longterm Ornithophobia, her paralysing fear of birds which prevents her going anywhere near Larry’s poultry shed. Fenella loves her laptop, which is her window on the world. Scared to be Lonely might bring tears to her eyes, but she plays it again and again.

Tara Yorkman. Before she died, Kelly was fruitlessly searching for her friend Tara, who lived at The Willows from when she was little. Kelly, in need of someone to care for, always looked out for Tara, until she was a teenager. Then she disappeared. When Kelly’s spirit comes to Sabbie in a dream, she feels indebted to continue the quest for the missing girl. I listen to Taylor Swift and other noughties music to get in touch with Tara.

Victor Doyle is a successful Bristol business man, a builder of local housing. Now 55, he's loaded, charming and still handsome in a chiselled way, although he’s put on a bit of weight. In the community, he’s a well-loved philanthropist, but underneath, the man is pure, unadulterated evil. I think he’d be rivitted by Pretty Women from Sweeny Todd.

If you're writing a novel, or a series of short stories, try finding and playing the soundtrack that perfectly accompanies the story and the characters. It can make a tremendous difference to the outcome. 

Gold-Starred Rules for Shy Networking Writers

Nina Milton, speaking and reading at the Wells Literary Festival

Blogpost fans who know me personally, would probably say I’m a bit of an extrovert, and can happily walk onto a stage and address a crowd, especially if it’s on the subject of books…especially if it on the subject of my books. 

Click to see more

In public, or among friends, I come across as bubbly, gregarious and confident. But actually, folks, I’m not an extrovert at all. Like many writers who love their own company and that of their characters, I’m actually a bit of a trembling flower. But I can do a conjuror’s magic trick which allows me to walk into a company of strangers and look outgoing, which I learned at the age of fifteen. 

As a kid I was painfully shy, which I blamed on my first name. In an age when unusual names were not common, I was teased mercilessly about mine. My mother had called me Nina – not after the famous Nordic singing duo or the ‘high priestess of soul’, but after her friend’s daughter, who for no reason I can fathom, pronounced the name to rhyme with nine, rather than teen. From my earliest memories, I hated my name. Kid’s called me ‘nine-o’clock instead of Nina Crane, or counted up across the street at me…’one-a, two-a three-a… 

Me at the Carmarthen Book Fair

When I took my first part-time job, I swore to change all of that. I went to work behind the sock and tie counter in a local department store. I was asked what my name was and I simply introduced myself as ‘Nina’  pronounced as in Nina Simone. Now, instead of bizarre and laughable, my name was singular and cool. A tiny alteration in pronunciation which did wonders for my ego, and taught me an interesting lesson…we can pretend to be more remarkable than we really are.

I’m telling you all of this because it’s Christmas Fayre season again, and I’m off to events  all over Wales to promote the Shaman Mystery Series. Last Saturday I was at Carmarthen library to promote my books and myself as a writer.

And on Saturday December 10th, I’m in the pretty town of Llandeilo, at the Llandeilo Book Fair.

Landeilo is tucked at the foot of the Black Mountains in South Wales, not far from Swansea, and is packed with lovely shops, as well as holding a book fair. 

Book events are not only great for selling your books, it’s also a place to meet other authors.goint to share them with you!

NIna at the Llandeilo Book Fair

I put on my ‘Neena, not Nine-a’ face and pretend to be fearless and undaunted, despite still being that trembling flower inside. To help me, I use my gold-starred rules for shy networking writers, and I'm

Here are my gold-starred rules of networking for the writer who is shy at heart. I find they help a lot.

1. Use the four-pronged approach. First brought to the fore by Dale Carnegie, just remember to…

• SMILE, 
• ASK A QUESTION, 
• LISTEN,
• LEARN THE NAMES.

2. Be interested. Being actually interested in the other person stops the stench of desperation coming across and keeps that smile in place…naturally. It will also allow the right questions to pop into your mind – questions like, “what brought you here today” and “what sort of writing do you do”, and remind you to listen to the answers while getting that person’s name into your head (asking for their card really helps!)

3. Have no agenda. This springs naturally from being interested in the people around you. Concentrate on finding out about them, look keen to know more. No one wants to be in the same space as the ‘hard-selling, self-obsessed person’ for long.

4. Sort your plan. This is essential for hiding shyness and projecting confidence. Before you leave the house, get your ‘one minute blurb’ for your latest writing project clear in your mind. Look at my blogpost on elevator pitches to help you with this one. Remind yourself of your particular talents and strengths. It's important to map out what you want to talk about, because (rightly) be concentrating on rules 1-3 may take such things out of your mind. With rule 5 in mind, tell yourself all the ways your writing is wonderful – get your list prepared.

5. Be your passionate self. Having sorted your plan, you won’t need to look pushy because you’ll have more confidence in yourself. You’re smiling, so you’ll already be feeling happier. So now you can drop any artificiality and allow your lovely self to show through and demonstrate what you feel passionate about – I promise you, that’s always a winner. 

Do not say sorry. Okay – if you tip your wine over the books on your neighbour’s table, you might have to ask their forgiveness, but you should never apologise for your writing or make excuses for your books, or admit that you’re not sure how good they might be. Your stories have value. When you sort your plan, put these values in the list. If you are selling your book, whether to a punter or a publisher, do not start with ‘sorry, but…’ That makes it sound like you’re asking for a favour, when in fact, you're offering to show them some marvellous work.

Have your cards ready. All writers should have some sort of business card. If you already have a book in print, there are fun alternatives, too. I like to use bookmarks, with the covers of my books, a short blurb and my contact details. Other writers use postcards. I have also seen greeting cards using the jackets of novels, but these are too costly to give away and should instead be there to raise revenue.

Try for generosity. You’ll be wanting people to be generous to you, to give your work a chance by stocking, reading it or publishing it! So you can afford to offer something in return, even if it’s only turning up an hour early to help put out all the tables.

Follow the leads. You’ve come home with a dozen cards from other writers, agents, booksellers and publishers. Follow them up, even if it’s only an email to say how nice it was to meet them. Keep those links going, as you never know where they might take your writing. And they'll remind you just how much you enjoyed the event, even though you're a shy networking writer

Seamlessly Blends the Mystical…

An extremely original and engrossing novel - highly recommended…seamlessly blends the mystical with the realities of every-day life

Thank you, Indie Shaman for you marvellous review of the third in the Shaman Mystery Series.

Beneath the Tor is a compelling and well-paced mystery which contains recognisable and authentic diverse characters…an absorbing and intriguing murder mystery.

I was so delighted when June Kent, editor of the Indie Shaman Magazine review my latest novel, because I love that magazine! Every issue is packed with articles on spirituality and shamanism, laid out in a colourful and well-balanced way, with regulars, such as Plant lore, a poem, Community News and always contributions from the elders of the shaman world. Book reviews are a regular in the mag, and I was proud – honoured – to be among them.

Almost as important, I can buy Indie Shaman as a hold-in-the-hand magazine. I spend enough time on that computer – I like to flop down in comfort to read…especially when the mag says lovely things about my writing…

Set in the West Country, Beneath the Tor is the 3rd of author Nina Milton's  Shaman Mystery series in which therapeutic shaman Sabbie Dare uses her shamanic skills to solve murder mysteries. 

I write my crime thrillers for all readers, but as Sabbie Dare, my central character in the series, is a  shamanic practitioner by trade, the opinion of those who live a shamanic way of life is crucial to me. I aim to make my books, and my heroine, authentic, and so I was quite relieved when the review reinforced this, saying how the book…features many of the issues that affect contemporary shamanism including the serious as well as the amusing (one of my favourite phrases is from a potential workshop participant stating, "I'm already a shaman. I've done all the courses.")  The book also contains excellent descriptions of Sabbie's shamanic journeys and of her work with her guide, an otter called Trendle.

By the way, if you're reading this, and wondering what a shamanic journey is, and how a person's
guide can be an otter with a name, then dip over to my explanatory Page in this Blog; British Shamanism

Writing a review for good fiction…the editor's review continues…is difficult due to the tendency to get absorbed in the story, carrying the book with you everywhere, staying up late 'just finish this bit'…and totally forgetting about the review…And this was certainly the case with Beneath the Tor!

I'm full of gratitude for this endorsement from Indie Shaman, but also dead chuffed that June Kent couldn't put my book down!

If you'd like to read a bit of Beneath the Tor, you can do so. By clicking here, you will find yourself on my Amazon "Look Inside" Page where you can click on the cover of the book.

Meanwhile, have a look at Indie Shaman. It's not just for people with rattles and eye fringes, but for anyone interested in living ethically according to shamanic principles. The 48-page full-colour magazine can be ordered via snail mail or, for a mere £10 (UK) per year, downloaded as a PDF.

Thanks again, Indie Shaman!

Motive for Murder–Change or Status Quo?

In Unraveled Visions, the 2nd of my Shaman Mystery Series, a character says…“Ninety-nine percent of murders only have one of two true motives. Change, or status quo.” 

Is that so? Rey Buckley,  detective and love interest in the Shaman Mysteries Series believes so; I’m still unsure; I never pretend to hold the same views as my characters. 

Detective Reynard Buckley meets Sabbie Dare – the 30 year old heroine of the series – at the start of Book One, In the Moors. D.S Buckley is investigating a child abduction and murder when he knocks on her door. Rey is the archetypal humourless, maverick policeman who quickly brands shamanic therapist Sabbie as a crank. He considers her profession ‘mumbo jumbo’, finding its lack of objective evidence perplexing. Sabbie is equally hesitant…As a bloke, a copper and someone who wore their hair as if they were about to pull on flying goggles, I hadn’t put ‘listening to women’ anywhere on his priorities list.  Even so, she can’t help finding him…interesting – there’s a wriggle of lust in her belly. This makes for a relationship a bit like an upmarket cocktail – bitter, and full of ice, but with a sparkler fizzing at the edge that gets deeper as the books continue.

Sabbie walks in the spirit world to find answers to people’s problems and comes back with images and symbols which manifest each client’s underlying issues. Meanwhile, Rey Buckley clears up crime through old-fashioned police work and hard facts. But they understand they have something in common. They both solve things using what Sabbie would describe as her link to the spirit world – Rey would more likely call it ‘a hunch’.

When Rey tells Sabbie that he thinks all murders are due to one of two motives, ‘change’, or ‘status quo’, she challenges this immediately. What about money? Crimes of passion? Suicide bombers? What about madness? But Rey’s answer is unequivocal. He believes all killers crave one of two things. Either they want change – the big win, a new political situation. Or they are desperate that things should not change – they kill their lover’s spouse, or kill to stop a crime being discovered. Sane or mad, Rey concludes that the motivations which drive people to kill is not complicated at all.

Well, he would, wouldn’t he. Reynard Buckley worked his way up through the ranks and by book three he's having trouble fitting into the ethos of the modern UK police force. Sabbie survived an extreme childhood; she never knew her father, and after she lost her mother at six years old, she was brought up in children’s homes. She believes she’s the stronger for this background. She gained that strength with the love of two elderly couples; her foster parents Gloria and Philip, and Rhiannon and Bren, two cunning folk she lodged with while taking her degree. 

On the Gallows (Unraveled Visions in the US) is the second of the Shaman Mysteries. Recently re-released on Kindle at 99p (free on Kindle Unlimited). This book focuses on the dark underworld around bringing migrant workers from other countries. Sabbe meets Kizzy and Mirela, Bulgarian Romas who are working in slave conditions. Mirella's sister is missing…

       “Kizzy say we move on. Go find better thing to do. More money. She say, save and go back head high. She say, Mirela. take little risk. I don’t like. She say, ‘Mirela, you so uncool’.”

“Uncool?”

“Like I will never dip my toe.”

“In case the water’s too cold?”

“In case the water poison.”

What Sabbie uncovers is a sickening trade in which life is considered so cheap, bodies are simply discarded. This, too, is “change”…and these despicable people are making a lot of money. 

As the Trilogy of the Shaman Mysteries progress, Sabbie begins to realize that it is not entirely coincidence that she constantly encounters these shadow sides. By walking into the otherworld – the spirit realm that shaman enter in a trance state – she has encountered profound philosophies of life. It has made her understand how we carry two sides to our nature. There is always a shadow side to our psyches; inside us is the possibility of hate, greed, envy – the things that lead to wrong-doing, hurting others…murder. It’s her business, as someone who walks on both planes of existence, to help where she can, even when her own safety is threatened.

In Beneath the Tor – book three of the series – a sudden death becomes a catalyst…Alys was dancing as the stars reeled, dancing on Glastonbury Tor on Midsummer Eve. She danced as if the drumbeats were bursting out of her. As if her feet were charmed to never rest.
        I saw her dance.

I saw her drop.
She fell to the ground without a stumble or a cry.

What or who as killed Alys? As Sabbie begins to investigate, she discovers that someone is killing and maiming in Alys’s name. Is this revenge or sudden madness? Is it change or status quo? 

I love puzzling out the mystery aspect of my crime fiction, to baffle and amaze the reader, and love to spring surprises on them to keep them on the edge of their seat. My readers say they stay up all night, turning the pages of the Shaman Mysteries; I’m awake at night sorting out the permutations of each murder. How did they do it? Where did they do it? What happened after they did it? And most importantly why did they do it – what brought them to that moment they kill another human being? Was it change, I ask myself? Or status quo?

Right now, I'm writing book four, and this time we definitely have status quo causing the murder we witness see right at the start. At the same time Sabbie is helping her old friend Debs through a terrible time, which will involve finding a missing girl…and the men who are holding her prisoner…

Even I get terrified when I read my books

Nina Milton’s  Shaman Mystery novels, published by Midnight Ink, are available online from Amazon

“Sabbie Dare is the most compelling protagonist I’ve met this year . . . Milton’s tale is riveting.”…Library Journal starred review 

“Nina Milton has created a unique fictional world in her Shaman Mystery Series, featuring Sabbie Dare as a young shaman. With Beneath the Tor  she passed the ultimate test of a writer, that of causing me to put off useful jobs which I really should have been doing, in order to see what happens next. She has become a mistress of plot-weaving, and above all, she pulls off the trick of setting the totally fantastic amid the totally everyday and making the two fit together with pace and excitement”.…Ronald Hutton, author of Pagan Britain and The Triumph of the Moon.

Seven Acts of Kindness for your Favourite Author

Seven Acts of Kindness
 to Show Your Favourite Author
How Much you Love their Books

I’m a reader, as well as an author. I frequent bookshops,

Readers, writers and photographers at the Hay

hang around libraries and love literary festivals (just back from the Hay Festival). I try to get to author’s events. But it wasn’t until I became a published writer, that I began to understand just how important is a reader’s support. Before this, I didn’t do much more than pass books I’d loved onto friends, but, if you really love a book, (and especially if you love mine), there is so much more you can do to help your beloved authors – and it’s far easier that you might think. Here are seven little acts of kindness that are quick and free, and could mean so much to those poor, half-starved writers who have grown pale and thin in garrets, while they created the books you love.

ACT OF KINDNESS ONE 

Recommend their books!  

Recently, I explained to a new fan who was asking me when number four would come out, that publishers don’t continue with series which aren’t selling steadily. “Oh, my goodness,” she said. “I’ll get my friends to order it.”

Pop into your local bookshop to ask them if they’ll stock the series you’re reading so avidly. Tell them how you loved this book and how you know people in the neighbourhood will too. Take a copy, show them how the cover worked for you.

ACT OF KINDNESS TWO 

Be there for them

Events, workshops, signings, readings, launches…it is awful to do one of those,

and find only your sister and a few close friends in the audience. Recently, I held a launch for the third of my series, and the place was packed; so I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone again for taking time out to be there. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves.

ACT OF KINDNESS  THREE

Write an honest review. 

Love them or hate them, they are a massive component in book sales. Reviewing on Amazon can really help books you loved rank higher in the Amazon search engines.  My kind reviewers have help me keep five stars for my Shaman Mysteries, reviews like this one for the latest in the series; 

5.0 out of 5 stars  Flowing into the myths of past times and with a clear base line in modern times.  

By Sandy on 5 April 2016 Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

This is innovative and interesting. The writing is excellent. The weaving of the Arthurian legends into the book adds quite another dimension to the Sabbie Dare stories. It is mystical and intriguing. The atmosphere of 'otherness' works well. I really enjoyed the smooth transition from what is - to what might be. Hidden among the ancient tales in the mists of Avalon. The plot is complex, and dare I say devious, it twists and turns to the final climax. Nina Milton is to be congratulated on this most original and intriguing story.

Amazon reviews don’t need to be long, but if you end up writing a lot, you could think about sending your review to a magazine you take. Recently I had a lovely review In Indie Shaman, a magazine for modern shamans, which was also kindly posted on Amazon by its writer – here’s an extract:

Beneath the Tor seamlessly blends the mystical with the realities of every-day life into an absorbing and intriguing murder mystery. Set in the West Country, Beneath the Tor is the third of author Nina Milton’s Shaman Mystery series in which therapeutic shaman Sabbie Dare uses her shamanic skills to solve murder mysteries. But the Otherworld rarely gives a direct answer, as discovered by many a contemporary shaman…https://indieshaman.co.uk/index.html

ACT OF KINDNESS FOUR

Sign up your support.

Your cherished author will have a Facebook Page you can ‘like’, a twitter account you can  ‘follow’ and a website – or, like me,  a blog site where you can sign up to receive each blog as a regular email. My followers have signed up because it prevents them missing out on news and great reviews of other books, as well as hints and tips for writers. Just go to the top of this page and fill in the very short form. And nothing is permanent; you can cancel just as easily.

ACT OF KINDNESS FIVE 

Ask your local library to carry their books.

jobs.trovit.co.uk‎ Bristol Central Library new wing

So long as you recommend my books to others, I really don’t mind whether you get my stories from a library, a charity shop, an online order or a visit to a local bookshop. What’s important is telling others to read too. A friend of mine recently recommended a crime fiction author I’d never heard of, and I’m reading his book, borrowed from the library, but if I enjoy it, I’ll probably buy the next one. Librarians are always on the lookout for new works, so go ahead and ask for them to stock the writers you love.

ACT OF KINDNESS SIX 

Share the love on social media!  

Authors rely heavily on social media to spread the word about their work.  When you read something they’ve shared, pass it on, with a share on Facebook, a retweet, or a pin on Pinterest. I get a real buzz when I post something and someone comes back saying - “just reading your book and loving it” - that’s happened several times. And don’t forget the book-loving social media sites, like Booklikes (independent) or Goodreads (Amazon-owned), My most recent review on Goodreads  was by Facebook friend by Sue Hewitt; I was charmed to read this well-written novel full of diverse characters reminiscent of people I have met on my own life journey. Shamanistic elements of the story merge seamlessly with the more mundane day to day lives of these characters. It does not matter whether you believe in the ability of a Shaman to travel between the physical and the spiritual world. For sceptics, suspend your disbelief for a while, and just go along for the ride. The twists and turns of the plot kept me guessing throughout and the various threads are drawn together in an unexpected climax. Thanks so much Sue!

ACT OF KINDNESS SEVEN 

Go really crazy!

I know a doggie-loving fan of  Shiela Webster Boneham's Animals in Focus Mystery Series, who pinned up photocopies of the book covers at her local vets, where she works as an animal nurse. It's up on the board amongh dog food adverts and notices about pet-sitters. I have a lot of lovely support in the pagan and shamanic communities, with people recommending my books by taking their copies to moots and festivals and showing them around. Thanks so much for that!

I use bookmarks to share with my friends and I’m always happy to hand more out (I’m at kitchentablewriters@live.com). After all, many authors make little profit from their books - they write because they have a story to tell. Send the ones you admire the most an email saying how much you appreciate their work. Add a picture of yourself reading their book! If you do that for me, I will love you back forever!