I’m hosting a giveaway on Amazon (United States only this time). Until April 14th or the maximum number of entries is reached, you can enter for a chance to win a copy of the Kindle edition of Robin Hood: Wolf’s Head. I’m giving away 10 copies.

As a way of avoiding having to come up with a new, creative blog entry today, I’m re-posting my recent review of ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell’ on Goodreads here. I tried to match the book’s style (complete with footnotes). There are mild spoilers here, but it’s really people who are already familiar with the book who will (hopefully) appreciate it the most. In my case, I was listening to the audiobook version, which kept me entertained through many days of commuting (26 discs!)
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Miss Clarke has achieved something truly remarkable with her novel, which relates the circumstances surrounding the recent wars on the Continent and the return of magic to England. Inevitably, we find ourselves in agreement with those reviewers who have likened her work to that of Miss Austen. Nor can we deny the possibility of influence from Mr. Dickens as regards the darker or more humourous elements of the story; notwithstanding the trifling circumstance that he has yet to publish and in fact, only recently succeeded in being born.[1]

In any case, Miss Clarke has rendered a unique service to the friends of English magic. Her work contains many insights and anecdotes that fail to appear even in the pages of Mr. Segundus’ excellent biography of Mr. Strange[2]. Likewise, she illuminates Mr. Norrell’s life and character to a surprising degree, presenting many scenes where only the great man and his closest advisors play a part. She even provides an explanation, fantastic though it may seem, for the strange disappearance of Sir Walter and Lady Pole’s most trusted servant, Stephen Black.

The seeming omniscience of Miss Clarke’s narration has given rise to various speculations. Some opine that she was a frequent participant in the dances at Lost Hope and obtained much of her information there, while others suggest that she was actually a confidant of the two magicians from the beginning, and is suppressing her own part in the narrative out of natural modesty.

It seems unlikely, however, that she has actually met either gentleman, inasmuch as Mr. Strange is bound by various promises to his wife regarding the fairer sex[3], and Mr. Norrell is well known for his aversion to female society. As for the Lost Hope conjecture, there is no evidence that Miss Clarke’s family tree includes any ancestors from Faerie. Nor does she exhibit the demeanour of one who is under enchantment. Those stolen away by fairies do not, as a rule, have sufficient leisure time for writing a novel, much less the inclination to do so.

The likeliest explanation, then, is that Miss Clarke is herself a magician. This accounts for her wide knowledge of spells and the lore of the Raven King, as well as her story’s manifest powers of enchantment. But regardless of where the truth lies, it is our decided opinion that discerning readers will find a visit to Miss Clarke’s magical world both diverting and improving.

Footnotes

1. We are reliably assured by Mr. Vinculus that Mr. Dickens’ first novel will appear in 1836.
2. We refer, of course, to ‘The Life of Jonathan Strange’, John Murray, London, 1820.
3. Among other things, Mr. Strange has undertaken to avoid contact with any young lady who has been, is now, or has ever considered sojourning in Venice or indeed, any other city in Italy.

My Hel-ish giveaway on Goodreads ended Sunday night, and over 800 people requested a copy–an amazing response (at least to me). Thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners!

To celebrate, I’ve discounted the print version of ‘The Road to Hel’ –it’s now $9.99 on Amazon, down from $13.70. If you don’t get free shipping with Amazon, it might make sense to get it for 8.99 by going to Createspace and using coupon code NDDFF7WW. (Catchy, isn’t it? You’ll notice if you read it backwards it becomes…well, never mind.)

The Kindle version is still only $2.99, and there are comparable deals in the UK store.

I’m also offering similar deals on  ‘Robin Hood: Wolf’s Head’. The print version is down to $11.99, and with coupon code NDDFF7WW you can get it for 10.99 at my Createspace e-store.In Kindle format, it’s just 2.99.

Well, more like a lamb, at the moment. Things seem very springlike and it makes me think about the call of the greenwood (i.e. a Robin Hood sequel). That won’t happen for a bit because of other projects.

But in the meantime, I’m running a price promotion on the Kindle edition of Robin Hood: Wolf’s head in the Amazon US and UK stores! It goes from March 2nd  to March 9th.

“The Road to Hel” is now available through Amazon in both print and Kindle editions here.

Also, from March 2nd to 13th the book will be available through a giveaway on Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Road to Hel

by Eric Tanafon

Giveaway ends March 13, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

I’ll let the narrator, Sean Cornwell, introduce the story in his own words:

“Sean here. When wolf-riding trolls attack our house, my sister Fiona and I find out the hard way that we’re destined to be heroes. That goes for our friends Arturo and Parvati, too. Next thing we know, we’re all enrolled in the last hero school on Midgard (that’s hero speak for ‘Earth’). In fact, we’re the entire final freshman class.

“It’s not all bad. We get to go to school on an enchanted island. The girls get to ride flying horses, Arturo gets to go berserk, and I get to learn more about swordfighting than I ever wanted to know. We also get our own personal bard who sings our praises in deathless…well, verse that you wish would die, but it won’t.

“You’d think we’d also get to save the world. But as it turns out, there are about a million prophecies guaranteeing that Ragnarok is right around the corner and the world is literally toast, so all we get to do is die (heroically, of course).

“In the meantime, our mom winds up in Hel while trying to rescue our dad from, believe it or not, an even worse place. And for some reason even Odin won’t explain, we’re the only ones who can bring them back.

“Well, that takes care of summer vacation. I can’t wait for the school year to start!”

I was recently interviewed on TJ Talks Writing.

In September I won a micro fiction contest sponsored by Amid the Imaginary.
My winning entry can be read here.

I actually took an idea I’d had for a novel to see if I could condense it to fit within the contest’s 500-word restriction.
I guess it worked.
Probably this makes it more likely that I’ll get to the book length version someday. The idea of a disposal/recycling business in a magical context has a lot of possibilities.

“Robin Hood: Wolf’s Head”, my first book, is my version of the Robin Hood legend. It answers the burning (well, to me, anyway) question “What if Robin was actually a werewolf?”

Other than that small twist, I’ve tried for historical accuracy. The story is set in the fourteenth century. It’s really an interwoven series of stories, and stories inside stories. Among them is the story of John (no, not Little), who is wounded by a nameless enemy and saved from death by a hermit who nurses him back to health. In return he passes on the true tale of Robin, and in the end, the story of his own journey.

Along the way the stories tell of loyalty, love, sacred kingship, the hard life of a Sheriff, how men and women half animal can become more truly human, and a strange kind of redemption.

“Robin Hood: Wolf’s Head” is available in print and Kindle editions.

It’s also on Goodreads here.