The Havilfar Cycle, the second omnibus in “The Saga of Dray Prescot”, is now available in eBook formats from all good eBookStores.

eBook formats include Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, eReader, PDF, Mobipocket, Rocket eBook, Microsoft Reader, and others, and can be obtained from any of the stores linked on the right.

The Havilfar Cycle is also available in two volumes in paperback and hard cover from all good book stores, such as Amazon.

The volume contains books six to eleven by Alan Burt Akers:

Manhounds of Antares
Arena of Antares
Fliers of Antares
Bladesman of Antares
Avenger of Antares
Armada of Antares.

The blurb:

Together, the six books in this volume make up the Havilfar Cycle of the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen.

Dray Prescot is launched headlong into another series of adventures upon the planet of Kregen, that marvelous and beautiful, mystical and terrible world four hundred light-years away beneath the Suns of Scorpio. A new life opens for Dray, but that new life is cruelly different from all he expected and dreamed, hurling him into fresh adventure and danger among peoples and places far removed from those he knows and loves.

Hamal, the greatest power in Havilfar, is bent on conquest, and Prescot hates the Hamalese because he slaved in their diabolical Heavenly Mines. His mission is to discover the secrets of the Hamalese airboats for his own people.

The prices of all Mushroom eBooks titles on Scribd have been reduced by at least 30%, so now might be a good time to catch up with all those books you were going to buy…

Many many thanks for your support and custom over the year, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and an excellent 2010.

Renai LeMay has published a great interview with Roger Taylor over at Keeping the Door. Here’s my favourite bit:

When I speak to fantasy fans about your work, a common comment is that it has more “heart” or is “more human” than a lot of other fantasy series out there. What would be your reaction to this statement, and where do you think that sense of “heart” came from in your work?

That’s really good to hear. Ironically, one – well, me, anyway – has only limited control of how stories unfold, but it was always my very clear intention to have ‘ordinary’ people in them. Superheroes can be fun, but it’s ‘plain folk’ in extraordinary circumstances that make for real drama. I can remember when I read The War of the Worlds, it was as if Wells had placed one of those towering fighting machines in the little square at the end of the row of houses where I lived – it gave me the shivers. Very ordinary, very vivid – great stuff.

Pamela Buckmaster, speaking on behalf of Ken Bulmer’s (Alan Burt Akers) family, has asked me to send their apologies for the delay in making available the final few Dray Prescot books (volumes 46 to 52) for publishing. This is due to ongoing illness in the family, and the difficulty of finding the manuscripts, which have been moved about a lot over the years and are therefore difficult to locate. They are confident that the manuscripts will be found, but ask for our patience for a few more months.

I am sure we all wish the family well and hope for a speedy recovery.

Please leave your comments below and I will pass them on to Pamela.

The Delian Cycle, the first omnibus in “The Saga of Dray Prescot” is now available in eBook formats from all good eBookStores.

eBook formats include Kindle, Sony Reader, PDF, eReader, PDF, Mobipocket, Rocket eBook, Microsoft Reader, and others. The Delian Cycle is also available in paperback and hard cover from all good book stores, such as Amazon.

The volume contains the first five books by Alan Burt Akers:

1. Transit to Scorpio
2. The Suns of Scorpio
3. Warrior of Scorpio
4. Swordships of Scorpio
5. Prince of Scorpio

The blurb:

For the first time ever, the first five books in the Saga of Dray Prescot of Earth and of Kregen are brought together in this omnibus edition. Together, these five books make up the Delian Cycle, in which Dray Prescot comes to terms with finding himself on the alien world of Kregen. Here he tries to make sense of his situation: the Star Lords, the Savanti, the marvelous places, strange beasts and stranger people. And here he pursues his greatest love of two worlds, Delia of the Blue Mountains.

Containing five books: Transit to Scorpio, The Suns of Scorpio, Warrior of Scorpio, Swordships of Scorpio, and Prince of Scorpio.

Mushroom eBooks are now available on Scribd. You can buy the books there, and also preview them — up to 40% of each book is available for preview.

You will find that prices for Mushroom eBooks on Scribd are typically lower than most ebookstores, although you may still get a better deal at Fictionwise.

About Scribd, Inc.

Scribd is the world’s largest social publishing company with more than 60 million readers each month. Scribd is changing the way people discover, share and sell original writings and documents on the Web. Its innovative document reader technology, iPaper, enables anyone to easily upload PDF, Word, PowerPoint and other document types and share on Scribd.com or embed on thousands of other websites. Scribd is backed by Charles River Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Paul Graham’s Y Combinator, the Kinsey Hills Group and several prominent angel investors. For more information about Scribd, visit www.scribd.com.

The Cotton Run is now available from all good ebookstores. Daniel Wyatt, bestselling author of the Falcon File series, The Mary Jane Mission and The Last Flight of the Arrow, has written another excellent thriller in The Cotton Run. Set during the American Civil War, it tells the story of the blockade runners, who shipped much needed supplies to the Confederates through the naval blockade off Cape Fear.

Here is the blurb:

Captain Joshua Denning is a veteran of the nighttime cotton runs through the Union blockaders off Cape Fear, near Wilmington, in 1863.

During a confrontation on the high seas outside Nassau, Denning clashes with an old adversary, Captain Robert Carlisle, from his days at Annapolis Navy Academy ten years before. The next time they meet, when Denning takes on one final blockade run, the greatest shipment of them all, only one will be victorious…

But Denning becomes distracted by Marie Keating, a beautiful, French-born woman who runs an organization that’s supplying clothing to Robert E. Lee’s army at the front.

The Cotton Run gives a different insight into the American Civil War, a story of love, hate, greed, and double-dealing that takes us deep into the exciting and dangerous world of naval combat, and the controversial blockade-running trade through the strategic Confederate port of Wilmington, North Carolina.

The Jikaida Cycle by Alan Burt Akers is now available from all good bookstores worldwide in paperback.

Get The Jikaida Cycle from Amazon.co.uk

Get The Jikaida Cycle from Amazon.com

Beyond the Gyre, the fourth and final book of the “Song of the Arkafina” series by Suzanne Francis, is now available in paperback edition from all good bookstores around the world, both offline and online.

Here is the blurb:

The island of Asaruthe has sheltered the Dawnmaid, Myriadne, for the past sixteen years, but Yr has fallen prey to a deadly plague, and it is clear she must leave soon. Katkin du Chesne and her daughter Poppy travel with Myriadne and help her free the Firaithi from Maggrai’s diabolical laboratory in the former Infirmarie on Isle St. Valery.

Meanwhile, Gunnar Strong Arm’s twin sons, Jakob and Lut, are feuding with each other. When Jakob carelessly gap shifts, he leaves a trail that Maggrai’s minions can follow back to Asaruthe. The death and havoc they wreak will send Lut on a mission of vengeance against Maggrai — and his brother, Jakob.

In the final battle, the Dawnmaid must find a way to converse with her enemies, the Angellus, before they attack the secret haven of the Firaithi with their unquenchable fire. What is it they have been defending through all the turns of the Gyre? The answer astonishes both Amaranthine and human alike…

The “Song of the Arkafina” series consists of Heart of Hythea, Ketha’s Daughter, Dawnmaid and Beyond the Gyre. Suzanne is currently working on more books and stories set in the same universe, including Wintermoon Ice, which will be available later this year.

Please take a look at the new “Moyra Caldecott: author, poet, artist” website at www.moyracaldecott.co.uk. The site promises to be “for all things Moyra Caldecott”. It has been completely re-created, and new articles, excerpts, poetry, art are posted at least once a week.

There is a separate page for each of her books, although these still need some work.

You can subscribe to the site, either by RSS or by email, to get updates. And the site is social, so you can leave comments or discuss the posts.