Way back in September 2021, I announced the publication of Autumn Paths—you can read that post here if you want to refresh your memory. Since then, we've gone on to produce more books, and today, I can tell you that the fourth, Summer Paths, will be hitting, shops and book websites very, very soon.
Yet again, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with my colleagues on the other side of the Pond and a new colleague who joined us for the last book, and although American, she lives right here in the UK. I am no longer alone on this side of the Atlantic! We have a fabulous cover for the book—see above—and the blurb is below. As with the other collections in the series, the stories are very varied, multi-genre, and very different from each other despite the linking theme of summer. It might make a brilliant beach read if you are looking for something to take on holiday with you in the next few weeks.
My story, Alice, features my character from previous books. Alice Tomlinson appears in The Booksellers Secret Octavo in the first book, Madame Beauvary's Curio Shop in the third. In this new adventure, Alice has to solve a mystery on a cruise ship.
If you read this blog regularly, then you will know that travelling long-distance by boat is not really my thing. I do suffer from seasickness, and I've never really been able to convince myself that travel over water—which is not in any way, shape, or form a solid commodity—is something with which I'm especially comfortable. But then I can't swim! Hence, my life's mission has been to keep my travels by sea at an absolute minimum. Two hours across the channel is usually quite enough for me.
At least, it was until I decided that a trip to Madeira and the Canary Islands in January was a jolly good idea. And yes, I know. Who in their right mind would cross the Bay of Biscay in January? However, I did, and I met some fascinating people while on my watery trip. I also picked up a snippet of conversation that lodged in my brain. As we travelled from island to island, those three words became a sentence, then a paragraph and then a whole story. As we had three sea days on the way home, I was able to complete my tale. By the time the ship had docked in Southampton, the scribblings in my notebook had been mentally restructured and the trip from the coast back to Yorkshire meant that I had time to refine words and phrases and whole paragraphs.
So, one of the last things I must do in relation to this story is to thank two of my fellow passengers. It was Allan and Lesley who told me about the overheard snippet of conversation. And it was Allan and Lesley who kept checking back with me about my progress. Allan, Lesley, if you are reading this, the story has moved on quite a bit from that first draft, but the key phrase that you gave me is still in there. Thank you for your numerous conversations whilst on board B— in January. Thank you for sharing what you heard and for listening whilst I rabbited on about my wild ideas. If you do see this and would like a signed copy of the book, please get in touch.
about the book ... This, the fourth and final selection of stories,
completes the Seasonal Paths series created by a consortium of best-selling and
award-winning North Atlantic writers
In this anthology, you will encounter unintentional consequences, love in later life, the pull of family dynamics, misguided assumptions, and murderous soulmates. These yarns will take you to new worlds, into a ghostly abyss, across an ocean in pursuit of truth, and into the darkness of
ancient beliefs.
Make yourself comfortable and surrender to these
multi-styled tales, all linked by the theme of summer, within the covers of
this book. You will be surprised and entertained by what you find.
You can find out more about the other anthologies on my Website
You can get all of the books on Amazon
Love the cover and the stories. Thanks for sharing it to us, Angela.
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