Come visit the South Seas with “The Necklace “

We are doing well with Covid-19 here in Australia, but we still have a long way to go tuntil we can lead our normal lives. Most of us are still spending more time away from our normal relaxation pursuits that involve mingling with groups.  We need distractions.  And reading must be near the top of list. It certainly is for me.

With this in mind the price of many of my ebooks remains at an all time low until the end of June, and available from most online retailers. Check them out at

iBooks https://apple.co/3dyfDbJ  

Kobo https://bit.ly/3829gfx

Amazon https://amzn.to/2B4jCQia

and all other online retailers.

To all my friends, here and in other parts of the world, I am thinking of you and wishing you a safe and comfortable time, and to take your mind off the virus for a short while, I am offering you another instalment of my latest w.i.p-

“The Necklace.”

Chapters 5-6
I hope you are enjoying the story so far. With all this enforced time at home, I am writing furiously and hope to be finished the book soon, but in the meantime, I will post more episodes as I proceed.

Follow the health care directions and stay safe.

http://www.kateloveday.com 

 

 

Celebrate with new chapters of “The Necklace”- a romantic novel

I’m happy today as South Australia has recorded its 14th day with no new Covid-19 cases. But it is too soon to be celebrating yet. We all know how easily these good results can change. However, the Premier is cautiously optimistic that we may see ‘moderate and measured’ easing of some restrictions in the weeks ahead.

However, that doesn’t mean we can go about our days in a markedly different manner than before – not yet.

We will still be reading more than in our pre-virus days, and so I am offering you another chapter of my new .w.i.p, The Necklace.”

It’s so close to being finished now, but life happens, as they say, to slow down progress. This last week saw Peter in the Emergency at Flinders Medical Centre for an urgent procedure. After two days in hospital he is now home, and feeling much better. But such events tend to silence my characters, and without their input nothing happens.

So herewith Chapter Three, click on the link:                           

chapter three 

As a bonus I am including Chapter Four:

Chapter Four

If you are enjoying the story so far I would love to hear from you. In the next instalment we will go to the South Sea Islands and meet Sebastian.

Stay safe and be happy.

In between why not check out my other ebooks on sale at extra low prices for a short time at most ebook retailers.  This includes Black Mountain,at aonce-onlyprice.

http://www.kateloveday.com

Sneak preview of new book “The Necklace”

We seem to be doing pretty well with the Covid-19 rates falling here in Australia at the moment. As our PM is wont to say “How good is that!”

Let’s hope we can keep up the trend!! Peter and I have been very strict about self-isolating, and as the figures are falling so well, so are most others. But I fear we still have a long way to go before we can relax and say we have beaten the virus.

In the interim we are all trying to do our bit and to remain safe, sane and, if not cheerful, at least thankful that we are safe.

My heart goes out to those who have suffered, and are still suffering, from this plague that has descended on us, whether here in Oz or elsewhere.

One of the things that affects everyone is what to do with all this time spent indoors, and I know reading is up there with many, including myself. For those of us who write, the enforced solitude can have the benefit of offering us more writing time and, as I said in my last post, I have used it to push ahead with my work-in-progress ,                             “The Necklace“. 

The end of this book is in my sight, but each time I believe ‘this is it!’, one of my characters clamours to say more, and so I’m still writing. 

In my last post I included a link to the first chapter, and in case you are interested to read further and see what is happening to Jessica, here is the link to chapter two.

The Necklace   Chapter Two

If you have enjoyed reading the beginning of this book and wish to read more I will post a link to Chapter Three next week.

If you are looking to read any of my other books you will find the three books of the  Redwoods trilogy, An Independent Woman, A Liberated  Woman, and An Ambitious Woman are all reduced as ebooks for a short time on Amazon, Apple Books and wherever you buy your ebooks. You can buy the three books for under $5. How good is that is that!

http://www.kateloveday.com

 

Writing in Covid-19

It  has been a long time since I’ve done anything more than write reviews here. Last year I had a severe dose of apathy (or maybe it was just self-indulgence!) brought on by surgery at the beginning of the year. I lost my motivation to do anything with books other than read them. Although I had the beginnings of two stories in the planning stage I had no enthusiasm, or the necessary inspiration, to continue them. My characters had deserted me!  I rarely participated in social media, and I lost touch with my readers.

I was coming to believe that my writing days were over. Then three quarters into the year I came alive again. And with that came the desire to write.

 So I revisited the story I had planned and begun a year before, ‘The Necklace’. My characters welcomed me back, eager to continue their stories, and I regained my enthusiasm to listen to them, so for the past months I have been writing again.

The setting for this story veers between far north Queensland, a part of our country that holds a special place in my heart, and the South Sea Islands. The time swings between the present day and late nineteenth/early twentieth century. The story is about Jessica Wyld, a young woman of today and her ancestor, Sebastian Wyld, a pearl fisher, and how the past can influence the present.

These characters are still directing me how their stories will end, but as I have kept my readers waiting for so long I am going to post some chapters as I continue to write.  Reading is now one of the few pleasures we are still allowed to enjoy so I hope it will take your mind for a short time from the tedium of self -isolation or other worries that you are experiencing due to Covid-19. So here we go…

THE NECKLACE  

by   Kate Loveday

 

 

If you enjoyed reading Chapter One of The Necklace look for Chapter Two in a week or so.

For now you might like to check out some of my other books that are now selling at a bargain price until the end of May, or maybe longer if we are still confined due to Covid-19.

My ebooks The Trophy Wife and An Independent Woman are just 99cents (less if you are where you benefit from our exchange rate) and the others are at a reduced price from Amazon, Apple Books and wherever you buy your ebooks.

Stay safe, keep reading, be kind to each other, and try to SMILE.

http://www.kateloveday.com

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

This is a BIG book, both in size, at approximately 900 pages, and in scope. It is the first in a trilogy, and I am in absolute awe at the amount of research that has gone into the writing of this book.

It is a historical drama of life and love set in Europe before, during, and after World War 1, the Russian revolution, and women’s suffrage. It is told from the differing points of view of the characters involved in this incredible time of conflict and change in the world and switches between Britain, Germany, Russia, and America.

We meet ordinary people, from a mining town in Wales and workers in Russia, through to the aristocracy of Russia and England, and the people in the ‘land of the free’, America.

We read of the courage of many of the enlisted men in the trenches and the incompetence of some of the officers, in charge only because of their privileged birth status. We learn of the politics and intrigues in the corridors of power, behind the scenes in decision making that affects millions of lives.

Ken Follett is a master storyteller, and it is impossible not to be drawn into the lives of the characters, from the arrogant Earl Fitzherbert and his sister Maud, a champion of women’s rights, to Billy, who works down in the pits, his sister Ethel, who rises to housekeeper at the Earl’s home, Grigori and Lev, Russian brothers, and Walter von Uhlrich, a German attached to the German Embassy in London, who tries, unsuccessfully, to avoid the outbreak of war.

When the war ends life has changed for all of these characters, and it will never be the same again.

This is a huge story, and I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

http://www.kateloveday.com

 

Love at First Flight by Tess Woods

 

I read this book after reading ‘Love and Other Battles’, which I found to be an amazing book. I wanted to see if Tess Woods could write another story that moved me as much as that had. While ‘Love at First Flight’ didn’t quite come up to that, it is still a book that kept my interest.

The author has a deep insight into the complexities of personal relationships, and the characters come to life on the pages as a chance meeting develops into an affair.

When Mel and Matt meet on a flight between Perth and Sydney there is an instant attraction between them.

Boom!

But what starts out as a flirtation becomes far more serious when an instant sexual attraction develops into a full-blown affair.

Mel is married to Adam and they have two children. Matt is engaged to Lydia, and their wedding is only three weeks away. In spite of massive attacks of guilt, Mel cannot bring herself to stay away from Matt, and Matt is sure he can never be happy without Mel.

This is a story of obsessive love and lust, of infidelity and the consequences of an affair that has the power to rip a family apart.

http://www.kateloveday.com

Love and Other Battles by Tess Woods

I couldn’t put this book down. I just kept reading and I finished it in a single sitting.

Love and Other Battles by Tess Woods follows the lives of three generations of women in the same family. It begins in the time of the Vietnam war with Jess, a young, free-spirited hippie with strong anti- war views. She falls in love with a nasho, a conscripted soldier, who goes to serve in Vietnam.

Then we meet Jamie, her daughter, a much more conventional young woman, who wants marriage and a family. Jamie becomes a school principal.

The last of the three is CJ, Jamie’s daughter, a teenager of today. It is the story of this lovely and vulnerable young girl that pulled the most at my heartstrings, and moved me to tears at one stage of her battle.

The story is not told in chronological order, and at first I found this a little disconcerting, as I had to check the dates at the head of the chapters, but once I got into the book it all fell into place.

This is an emotional story that draws you in. It is both heart-wrenching and heartening. The characters are real and very much alive as each woman faces the troubles that come her way. I found it a wonderful story and I thank Tess Woods for it.

http://www.kateloveday.com

 

 

The Birth of a Book

When I decided to write my first novel, ‘Inheritance’ I had been up in far north Queensland for several months, and had come to love the area. We were based at a little place called Flying Fish Point, a few kilometres east of Innisfail, bounded by the mouth of the Johnstone River on one side and the ocean on another.

A glorious place, where the forest is lush and deep green, the golden beach is long, and the cerulean sea and sky almost seem to merge.

From here we made trips to the Daintree rainforest, to the huge plateau of the Tablelands, up to Cairns, Port Douglas and as far north as Cooktown. All wonderful places. And wonder of them all, we went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.

But there was a downside to this paradise, for we were all aware that in the waters of the Johnstone River and the myriad creeks and rivers nearby lived that most fearsome of creatures, the saltwater crocodile.

I knew my book had to be set in this superb place, and in such a place the story needed to have elements of adventure, and mystery, and to reveal something of the soul of the place. It should also include some of the lore of the aboriginal people who were the original inhabitants of the land.

I set the story on Yallandoo, a cattle station. But I was born and bred a city girl, with little knowledge of cattle stations, or how to brand a steer, or rodeos, or aboriginal culture and spiritual beliefs, and their burial rites. Or the habits of crocodiles.

What I do know a lot about is life, people, and human nature. The rest I had to research.
That included how to brand a steer, how points are allotted at a rodeo, the Aboriginal Dreamtime, how immigrants to the Snowy River scheme were housed on arrival, how a fire is fought without piped water.

And just how dangerous is the “saltie”, as the local crocs are called? I found the answer to that one is “very dangerous”!

I had the most wonderful time for weeks and months, delving into all these fascinating subjects – in books and papers, in libraries, and on the internet. I love research, but I am so easily led from my subject into interesting by-ways, which runs away with the time!

I have tried to keep things authentic, and if you pick up any irregularities in the facts of the story, you must blame it on the fact I’m really just a city girl!

Once I started writing my characters dictated the story, as they always do, but when Inheritance was published  I was apprehensive about what readers would think of it. Had I done a good enough job?

Inheritance is available as an Ebook in all formats from all online e-tailers, and in your local library as a print book. If you read it I would be grateful if will you let me know what you think.

Book Details

www’kateloveday.com

 

Review of Kitty by Deborah Challinor

I always enjoy reading a Deborah Challinor book, some more than others, and this was one of the best. Kitty is the first book in the series of The Smuggler’s wife. I have read the Convict Girls series, which I loved, and I think Kitty rates up there with that.

Set in the 1840’s in New Zealand and Sydney it brings to life the early European settlement in New Zealand, and looks at the missionary families and also the Maori tribes at the time of the signing of the Waitangi treaty. It is rich in history as well as being a story of adventure and romance.

When Kitty Carlisle commits an ‘indiscretion’ that tarnishes her reputation she is sent to New Zealand by her widowed, and impoverished, mother, in company with her uncle and aunt, who are missionaries. What follows is not quite what her mother envisaged, but it makes for great reading, with an interesting cast of characters. These include the dashing Rian Farrell, captain of the schooner Katipo, and his engaging crew, as well as Wai, a Maori girl who becomes Kitty’s  friend, and Huanui, Wai’s uncle.

If you like history, romance and adventure with plenty of drama and tension, you will enjoy this book.

 

https://bit.ly/2FlP6jA

 

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley is a romantic historical novel, and is loosely based on the mythological stories of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, star constellation.

At 626 pages it is a big book, in every sense of the word. It is the first book in a series of six books about six young women who had all been adopted as babies and brought up by a very wealthy man, known as Pa Salt, on a beautiful estate in Geneva, Switzerland.

Each book is about one of the sisters.

Maia, the eldest sister,is the only one still living on the estate in Geneva. When Pa Salt dies the other girls all return home for the funeral, only to find he has already been buried at sea. Then they are all given letters written by their father with clues to their natural parents.

This first book is about Maia, and the story of her search to find her natural mother and family. Her story takes us to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil during the late 1920s, at the time of the building of Christ the Redeemer statue. It uncovers  the life of a young woman, Izabela, who lived in the shadow of the mountain.

 I found it an absorbing story, if a little long-winded at times. It is well written with interesting characters and vivid descriptions of life, in  Brazil and in the artists’ world of Paris, in the 1920s.

Lucinda Riley is a great storyteller. Once you are into the story you might find it hard to put down, as I did. I look forward to reading the other books in the series.