The Messenger Misadventures: the Dylan, Deirdre and Dougall Collection, is featured on Sally Cronin’s website Smorgasbord Invitation today.
There’s an extract, and some illustrations, as well as my bio etc.
The Princelings Books: Jemima Pett
All the news of the Princelings of the East books – fantasy for all ages
The Messenger Misadventures: the Dylan, Deirdre and Dougall Collection, is featured on Sally Cronin’s website Smorgasbord Invitation today.
There’s an extract, and some illustrations, as well as my bio etc.
The Messenger Misadventures: the Dylan, Deirdre and Dougall Collection is now published. You can find it on all your favourite online retailers.
Four short stories (c 5,000 words each) for 8 years and upwards, set on the Isle of Mull, and starring my guinea pigs, Dylan, Dougall and Deirdre (who looks exceedingly like Victor on the cover).
Deirdre is pure invention. The first thing I did was write her own story in the Castle Haunn world — Deirdre and the Mermaid. I couldn’t think of a title more whizzy than that, I’m afraid! Then I rewrote the other three tales to include her in key elements.
The book starts with Dylan’s Yuletide Journey, although it’s the least magical. Dylan, the castle’s Messenger discovers some people doing strange things with stolen strawberry juice, and gets himself into big trouble. Dougall is in trouble for trying to find a substitute for strawberry juice in their power system, and ‘borrowing’ various items to test his theories. Personally I think he’s justified, since they haven’t got enough power for a Yuletide hot meal!
After Deirdre saves Dylan from a fate worse than death – with the help of a mermaid, she’s with the brothers most of the time in their other adventures. In the third Dougall helps a reindeer recover his compass, even though he doesn’t know what the reindeer means. And Deirdre takes the lead when she does some things better than them in the final story, Dylan and the Lights of Ulva, which is quite mysterious!
These stories have not been available individually on Amazon, so this book is new for Amazon fans. You can find it here.
It’s also on Apple Books, B&N for Nook, Kobobooks, and Smashwords in any format at the equivalent of $2.99.
It’s arranged as four chapter books, (4-6 chapters in each), totalling 30,000 words. Suitable for age range 8-12 (and possibly upwards for teens that like flying reindeer and mermaids).
Chapter illustrations in their original black /white or colour: available on the Blurb website here. Price £8.25 ($ 12.57)
Note the preview is in the UK store – select your preferred country in the drop-down box top right on the Blurb store page.
The budget version with all greyscale chapter illustrations, is available from your online retailer via the Ingram distribution system. Check the link from your ebook retailer. RRP £5.99.
The Messenger Misadventures has the subtitle ‘the Dylan, Deirdre and Dougall Collection’. So, apart from the introduction of Deirdre, fans of the Princelings of the North have seen most of these before.
Deidre was clearly needed to balance out the ‘boy bias’ in these stories. That crept in because I have only male guinea pigs. They are left behind for some reason, when people are adopting guinea pigs, and for obvious reasons I prefer a same sex group. So my instant characters are boys.
Deirdre is pure invention. The first thing I did was write her own story in the Castle Haunn world — Deirdre and the Mermaid. I couldn’t think of a title more whizzy than that, I’m afraid!
Then I rewrote the other three tales to include her in key elements. She’s not so obvious in Dylan’s Yuletide Journey, which remains the first in the collection, although it’s the least magical. I placed it second to give Deirdre a good introduction, and a reason for the boys to take up with her. Then she’s with the brothers most of the time in their other adventures, and takes the lead when she does some things better than them!
These stories have not been available individually on Amazon, so this book is new for Amazon fans. You can find it here.
It’s also on Apple Books, B&N for Nook, and Kobobooks, all available for pre-order at the equivalent of $2.99.
You can also get it on Smashwords in any format after the publication date on 8th April 2021.
It’s arranged as four chapter books, (4-6 chapters in each), totalling 30,000 words. Suitable for age range 8-12 (and possibly upwards for teens that like flying reindeer and mermaids).
Paperback to follow.
I’ve mentioned before that I have plans to bring out a Dylan and Dougall omnibus. A collection of their stories, that is. I even got the title – The Adventures of Dylan and Dougall.
The other week I was reading a book for middle grade readers that starred some boys. The only women in the book were over forty at the very least. And I found it odd.
Then I realised that I do the same thing. There is mention of a couple of princesses in the first story, and of course Lady Carolyn features large, but she’s an adult. Where are the adventurous girls?
So I’ve decided that Dylan and Dougall are going to find a friend and share their adventures with her. I wanted to review the stories for sentence and word length anyway, but this will involve rewriting all three of the novellas to include Deidre. I think that might be her name. I always liked it, and its vaguely Celtic – I must check for really Scottish names beginning with D.
Does she have to be a D? Does a third D name become confusing? I don’t think it will, as long as its not Dilly, or something really close to theirs.
And I’m also planning a short story for her in the leading role. So that’s four stories in the book. I hope a collection of 20,000 words or so will fit just nicely in the children’s Adventure market.
I have a new beta reader, a ten year old. By the time I’m ready, I might have a nine-year old one, too. And they’re both girls. Anyone got a boy beta reader of the right age? 🙂
But this won’t be out in time for this Christmas now. It’ll be better, though!