Mushroom eBooks Blog

The Silver Vortex has been relaunched as the fourth volume of the “Guardians of the Tall Stones” series by Moyra Caldecott. Originally published by Mushroom eBooks in 2000, before we had the rights to the first three books in the series — The Tall Stones, The Temple of the Sun and Shadow on the Stones — The Silver Vortex continues the story.

From beyond time and space they come to walk the earth once more - the Guardians of the Tall Stones, the Lords of the Sun…Deva is the beautiful and headstrong daughter of the High Priest of the greatest of the mighty stone circles. She seeks to master the arts of sorcery in order to reclaim her lover from a previous incarnation. Now, trapped by a desire she cannot control, she risks more than herself, and puts the whole community in danger…In a drama that takes place in Bronze Age Britain and 18th dynasty Egypt, ancient jealousies, hatreds and passions emerge to confront each other on the great journey to the higher realms.

The complete series is now available from all good ebookstores, and Sony Connect currently offers a bundle of all four books for $9.99, a saving of $10.97 off the list price.

The Ghost of Akhenaten, the fourth and final book in Moyra Caldecott’s Egyptian sequence, is now available from all good eBookstores (see the list on the right). This final book is mainly set in the present day, and tells the story of a group of people who travel to Egypt to finally lay to rest the ghost of Akhenaten by investigating the true circumstances of his death more than 3000 years ago.

The other titles in the series are Hatshepsut: Daughter of Amun, Akhenaten: Son of the Sun and Tutankhamun and the Daughter of Amun.

Here is the blurb:

Who dares challenge the might of the Priests of Amun?

A group of people are drawn inexorably together, and impelled by forces unknown to travel to Egypt to investigate what happened to the pharaoh Akhenaten who lived more than three thousand years before.

Jack is fighting strange and powerful dreams. Finn is convinced he is a reincarnation of Akhenaten and has a personal interest in denying that the ghost exists. Emma believes she was Akhenaten’s youngest daughter in a past life and longs to release her beloved father from the curse. Bernard, a medium, channels the voice of Akhenaten, pleading for help. Eliot won’t have any of it and does everything in his power to cast doubt on their beliefs. Mary draws the threads together, describing her own compelling and mysterious encounters with Akhenaten.

Their adventures are not what any of them expect, and have far-reaching consequences in their lives.

Here is yet another title that has only been available in one ebook format, namely Rocket eBook/Gemstar eBook until now. The Waters of Sul was originally published in paperback in 1997 by our sister imprint Bladud Books, and is still available in that edition (ISBN 1899142274).

The Waters of Sul is set in Roman Britain in 72 AD. Here is the blurb:

It is 72 AD, and most of Britain is under Roman domination. At Aquae Sulis, a place of pilgrimage and healing, hot waters gush ceaselessly from the earth. Since ancient times the waters have been associated with the supernatural, and are under the protection of the Celtic Goddess Sul. The Romans have renamed her Sulis Minerva, and have tamed the steaming waters to form a complex of public baths.

A statue of the hated Emperor Claudius is being erected in the precincts of the Temple of Sulis Minerva. The centurion Decius Brutus, a Celt, is ordered to return to his home town to protect the statue and prevent trouble. But the local people, led by his proud father and his fiery daughter, Megan, are threatening rebellion…

Meanwhile, Megan’s twin sister Ethne is torn between her destiny as Oracle of Sul, and her love for Lucius, who is caught up in his own quest for spiritual enlightenment, with the help of the Orphic priest Demosthenes.

Twenty miles away, on Glastonia Island, a small Christian community struggles to establish a new religion in a hostile land, away from Roman persecution.

Cults from Rome, Greece, Egypt and Judaea vie with the native Celtic beliefs and form a rich backdrop to the human dramas that unfold.

The Waters of Sul is set in a time of transition and adjustment, when beliefs are questioned and loyalties are tested. Love and hate, conflict and reconciliation, troubled romance and an uneasy traffic with the supernatural all feature in this brilliantly conceived novel from a masterful storyteller.

Press cuttings:

“Moyra Caldecott’s latest book is one of her best ever! A well-crafted and moving story that brings Roman Britain to life in all its dramatic glory. Subtle characterisation, human dilemma and the age old struggle of one religion against another make this a powerful, moving and exciting read.” John Matthews, author.

“…fascinating and engrossing …” Anne McCaffrey

“Like all the best fiction, [The Waters of Sul] can be enjoyed on many levels … a well-researched and well-plotted novel … page-turning action and a wealth of characters.” Quality Womens’ Fiction

“… the author is so immersed in her subject that no trace of fantasising or contrivance is apparent. Like Joan Grant, she lives her work. Because it is so well done it is believable… The civilisation pictured here is based on many sources: historical, mythological and frankly speculative. A good novel.” The Glasgow Herald

Until now, Crystal Legends by Moyra Caldecott has only been available for Gemstar/Rocket ebooks. It is now available in all the usual eBook formats from all the usual e-book stores.

In Crystal Legends, Moyra Caldecott retells 26 stories from myth, legend and folklore that are concerned with crystals and gemstones. Each story is followed by a Commentary by Moyra, and a list of Sources. It is extremely well researched, and the author is considered an authority in her field.

Here is the blurb:

Crystals and gemstones have been a source of fascination since Neolithic times; they endure when the bones of those they have adorned have turned to dust. Such was the profundity of crystal lore that ancient peoples incorporated crystals and gemstones as dynamic and potent symbols in their legends and myths.

In Crystal Legends Moyra Caldecott approaches crystals from a new angle, retelling stories drawn from world mythology which show the significance of crystals and precious stones as symbolic icons in a variety of traditions. In addition, she gives in-depth commentaries on their esoteric meaning and significance for us. From Buddhist and biblical texts, European and Egyptian tales, Arthurian and Atlantean legends, this fascinating collection will appeal to anyone with an interest in the power of crystals and the eternal journey of the soul towards enlightenment.

Breaking the Gaze by David Meade Betts is a well-written, highly readable, amusing and fascinating account of draft dodging during the Vietnam war, the birth of the hippy movement, and protest against government. It is a true story, an autobiography. I thoroughly enjoyed this, even though I was too young during the ’sixties to appreciate what was going on, and recommend it to anyone who wants to understand this period in American history through the eyes of someone who was ideologically opposed to it.

This book is another one that has been hidden away in a couple of ebookstores, but now is as good a time as any to make it more widely available. It is now available from the usual online ebookstores, or very soon will be.

The blurb…

A true story of transformation: intriguing, humorous and irreverent! An entertaining real life adventure which takes place in the US during the tumultuous sixties. As the protagonist zig zags across the US in his bid to obey his conscience and dodge being drafted by the US Army, the reader travels with him. Through this fascinating true tale readers come to understand what created the hippy phenomenon and why a generation rallied in protest against their government.

Crafted in a fast paced humorous style, readers take a trip through the sixties without leavin’ the farm!

The Winged Man by Moyra Caldecott, set in Celtic Britain and Ancient Greece during the Olympic Games, this is the story of King Bladud, the legendary father of King Lear.

Previously availability of this great story has been limited, but it is now available in all the usual eBook formats immediately from eBookAd, Cyberread, eBookMall and Mobipocket, and will soon be available from Fictionwise, Amazon and hundreds of other ebookstores.

Here is the blurb:

To this day, throughout the ancient city of Bath, there exist statues and images of the man who was the legendary founder of the city, and the father of King Lear. A leper and a swineherd… a necromancer and a wise king… his memory lives on.

Restless at the royal court, the young Prince Bladud sets off to consult an oracle in the west country - a wild wooded place near a mysterious hot spring that gushes from a cave. There the priestess tells him that he will be a great king, and that one day he will fly like an eagle.

When he returns to his father’s hill-fort at Trinovantum, ancient London, Bladud’s head is full of magnificent dreams… until trickery entraps him in a loveless marriage. His unquenchable thirst for knowledge, sharpened by a mysterious experience at the burial mound of his forefathers, takes him away from his home and wife on a dangerous journey to faraway Greece. There he meets and falls in love with a woman who has appeared to him many times already in dreams and visions.

On returning to his own country, he finds his father dying and his wife conspiring with his brother to disinherit him. Then, found to be suffering from a disease believed to be leprosy, he is driven from the court and shunned by his people. In this dark time he becomes a swineherd. One day, he notices his pigs are free of sores after wallowing in hot mud. He tries the healing waters of Sul himself, is cured, and returns to claim his throne…

His was a golden age of wisdom and magic, where Otherworld beings mingle freely with the people of this world, and where swans and ravens and owls take on their own special mysterious significance.

Full of brilliant imagination, this colourful fantasy draws its strength and inspiration from the strange and beautiful realms of Celtic and Greek myth and legend.

The Tall Stones, the first book of The Guardians of the Tall Stones series, and one of Moyra Caldecott’s best books, is now available in multiple formats from all the best ebookstores (see the list on the right — though there are many more). We had previously only published it as a Mobipocket title. It is considered one of the best esoteric novels of all time, and has been continuously in print since its first publication in 1977 (quite impressive in these days of short-lived “bestsellers”).

Here is the blurb:

The first of four novels set in Bronze Age Britain, a society focused around the great circles of Sacred Stones scattered across the landscape. It tells the story of a community threatened by the evil designs of Wardyke, a corrupt and ambitious priest, and its only defence, the courageous young psychic, Kyra. But to defend her community, Kyra must enter the forbidden circle of stones and call upon its unseen, mystical powers…

And this from the Introduction:

This is a story set in Bronze Age Britain, c.1500 BC, when the great circles of standing stones that were such a feature of the Neolithic Age were already more than a thousand years old, yet still in use as sacred temples. Hundreds of stone circles have been found throughout Britain, the most famous today being Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire. That such a homogeneous culture flourished in communities so widely separated by dense and dangerous forests, mountains, and wild and stormy seas, is extraordinary.

The Tall Stones begins in a stone circle in Scotland where a young girl, Kyra, finds that she has psychic powers usually only possessed by the Priesthood. She is thrust into a situation of great danger in order to attempt to rescue her community threatened by a dark and menacing evil. She is forced to ‘spirit travel’ before she is ready, to seek the help of the mighty Lords of the Sun.

Go on, give it a try…

Etheldreda by Moyra Caldecott is now available much more widely and in the full range of our formats. All the usual eBookstores (see the list in the right-hand column) will be carrying it, whereas it could only previously be found at a couple of retailers. Samplers are available from the Etheldreda webpage.

The book is a fictionalized retelling of the life of Etheldreda, the seventh century Anglo-Saxon saint, written in the exciting and believable style for which Moyra Caldecott is so renowned. As one critic has said about her work: “…the author is so immersed in her subject that no trace of fantasising or contrivance is apparent. Like Joan Grant, she lives her work. Because it is so well done it is believable…” (The Glasgow Herald).

The blurb goes something like this…

Etheldreda, Princess of East Anglia, Queen of Northumbria and Abbess of Ely, was a remarkable woman who lived in restless, violent times when old beliefs were dying and new ones were struggling to emerge. Pagan clashed with Christian as the seven kingdoms of the Germanic tribes warred against each other and against the native Celts. Occasionally an uneasy peace was bought by the skilful use of the ‘diplomatic marriage’, and twice Etheldreda, though vowed to chastity, submitted to marriage for political reasons. When her second husband refused to accept the ‘arrangement’ between them, she fled south to the Island of Ely. But this is not just the story of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon saint. It is about the general human struggle to comprehend the enigma of existence and to come to terms with Christ’s God, faced as we are by a violent and cruel world. This edition also contains several pages of chronology, genealogy, place names, notes and a map.