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Showing posts from February, 2018

The classic duel

As a kid I always loved those classic movie fights on the stairs - Rathbone Vs Flynn - and parodied in films such as the Princess Bride . So, of course in Bridge of Souls I had to have my own classic duel on a staircase.. but not swords (that has been done to death - if you will excuse the pun), instead 21st century Krav Maga Vs 18th century Japanese Bushido ... old school death match. Experience the duel on the stairs Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Duel #MartialArts

Scotland

Bridge of Souls starts in Scotland, because I enjoyed some wonderful years living in Edinburgh and creating a Scottish hero was very easy, as history is so full of them. Join the adventures of the Ultimate Scottish Hero Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Edinburgh

The Lost World Genre

I always loved the “Lost World” genre within Action/Adventure tales.   Think of Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World” and H. Rider Haggard’s “She”.   I tried to include all the classic elements of the genre in the setting for the climax of Bridge of Souls .   A legendary city that emerges only once every life time and holds the very secrets of creation... all buried in the remains of an ancient civilisation that would rewrite Human history! Join the adventure to discover the secrets of the lost city Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #LostCity #Action #Adventure

Improving the Accessibility of Bridge of Souls

I have made sure that the kindle version of Bridge of Souls has WordWise (to provide explanations for complex words), Enhanced Text (to allow resizing and better readability) & Text to Speech. I did all this so as many people as possible can enjoy the Epic Adventures of Tavish Stewart! Join the Epic Adventure  Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #amwriting #accessibility #author #helpingothers

The Silk Route

Ever since I first read Marco Polo’s account of his travels to Cathay (China) I have wondered at the amazing stories that must be buried along the most ancient of our trade routes. When I started to plan Bridge of Souls I had intended that my characters would travel along the Silk Road to get to their final destination. As it turned out, by the time I reached the closing chapters, I had a quite different vision about how they should travel. Discover the secrets of the lost city hidden on the Silk Route Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BoS #SilkRoad #MarcoPolo #BridgeOfSouls

Kindle X-Ray "Easter Eggs"

I h ad some great fun with Amazon's Kindle's X-Ray  - adding hyperlinks for characters and item descriptions in the Bridge of Souls Kindle edition.  This feature adds a whole new dimension to the writing, like adding giant footnotes everywhere. I ended up loading the entire book with X-Ray "easter egg" extras. Let's hope the reader enjoys them.   Discover the hidden extras Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #KindleVersion #X-Ray 

Inspiration

I have always enjoyed classic action adventure stories but, of late, I had noticed that they have all become fixated on troubled former special forces operatives.  I prefer the old fashioned type of hero, one that can be admired, as a role model.   So I invented Tavish and imagined the kind of opponent who would challenge him.  Bridge of Souls then emerged. Join Tavish's adventure  Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls #BridgeOfSouls #Action #Adventure

A Different Kind of Hero

Every author has to decide how they are going to show that their primary fictional character is credible in terms of their action hero “qualifications”. James Bond is a secret agent, with a license to kill. John McClane was a cop and former Marine. Cordell Walker was a martial arts expert and a Texas Ranger. Jason Bourne was a genetically and psychologically enhanced deniable operative. Frank Martin, the transporter, was a former SAS soldier. Jack Reacher was a US Military Policeman. John Wick was a professional hitman . All of these are seriously “badass” in terms of their action hero qualifications and are a hard act to follow. I wanted my fictional hero to be clearly a gentleman, in the classic sense of being bound by ethical standards of behaviour, who does not have an enormous organisation backing him up with staff, expertise and endless resources. So, how does my Bridge of Souls hero, Tavish Stewart, show his action hero credentials? I did not