Hello readers! Today I’m pleased to share last Part of guest post series by Alan Camrose, author of Lost In Plain Sight this month. If in case you missed first and second part of this series here is the link – Part I | Part II| Part III | Part IV

Over to author…

Firstly, thanks to Yesha for agreeing to me guest-posting on the site. Much appreciated, and I hope that you all enjoy my Blog posts which are a sideways look at my writing and my book. 

The Gallery on my website (www.alancamrose.com), and my Blog generally, is intended to be a place that shows a bit about me as well as stuff about my work. 

I have just published my first novel, “Lost In Plain Sight”, a fantasy-thriller set in Brighton, full of action, magic, humour, where Sam, Pagoda and Meyra are on the case to track a demonic killer and find more than they bargained for. (Since Pagoda is a cat, she’d like to be in the case.) They encounter among other things a goblin fatale, a werewolf with exquisite dentistry and a sat-nav with personality issues. I’d love you to join me by the seaside for some ice cream and mayhem…

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Part 5 of 5

Pier Pressure – Brighton Beach Backdrop

Pinkie Brown is a psychotic and ruthless underworld figure in Graham Greene’s classic 1938 novel, Brighton Rock (and the classic movie in 1948 (Richard Attenborough), and the re-make in 2010 with among others Helen Mirren – Official Trailer. Pinkie would be an unlikely poster-boy for the Brighton tourist trade. The  brawling tribes of mods and rockers portrayed in Sixties Brighton in the movie Quadrophenia wouldn’t be on their shortlist either. (Official trailer) To give you an idea of the menace that is in this book and the movies, imagine you’re the teddy bear – are you feeling lucky, Teddy?

The city has not otherwise featured to a great degree in literature or movies (Brighton Beach Memoirs doesn’tcount), but does pride itself on its eclectic cultural scene. As an example, I went to see Mark Knopfler play at the Brighton Centre a while ago: magic! It hosts a challenging marathon (which I have witnessed, I confess, as a supporter rather than a participant), and the legendary annual Brighton Naked Bike Ride where riders struggle to stow their gear. Combined with among other things the Palace Pier, the towering Needle observation deck (the British Airways i360) and the barking mad architecture of the Brighton Pavilion, there’s clearly a lot to see.

I have been going to Brighton throughout my life with my parents, often to the pitch & putt on the front when I was a kid, and achieving a keen grasp of ’99’ tasting. Then I went with friends, and now family and friends. The city has changed from a more traditional seaside town of ice cream, sticky rock and fish & chips to the newer, more wide-ranging, place to be.

I found that it was a natural choice for me to use Brighton and its local area as the main backdrop to my new fantasy-thriller, Lost In Plain Sight. I was drawn to it by my familiarity with the place, the excitement that it still gives me to go down there and crunch over the beach and visit the Regency on the seafront for some hake and chips. And an edge to the place, created by the ebb and flow of visitors to the city. Never the same twice.

I think the West Pier is probably my favourite landmark in Brighton. Visit the webpage and you’ll see its allure. It used to be an elegant slice of seaside glamour, then fires and the elements conspired to bring it down before its redevelopment, leaving what now looks like a black rib-cage hovering in and above the sea, no longer a counterpoint to the Palace Pier, more a dwindling marker of past glory. 

I describe it in my book:

The sea and the sky danced on the horizon, impossible to tell apart, the view broken only by the brooding, spidery remains of the burnt-out West Pier, soaking up sparkles from the water with grim determination.  

All those years of my walking along the waterfront, visiting the Palace Pier, then further along to reach the Bandstand and the remains of the West Pier. all eventually coalescing into scenes in my book.

Pinkie would have attacked it with sledgehammers to finish it off, but it sits there now, crumbling into the sea. It’s a symbol of keeping going against all the odds. Like the investigation team in my book. 

And now it looks like the West Pier will rise from those flames and rival its neighbour again. 

That mirrors the way Brighton has changed and re-shaped itself over the years, its history a splendid backdrop for, well, everything.

Cheers,

Alan

Alan Camrose

***

About Book:

This novel is a contemporary fantasy-thriller set in the UK around Brighton. There’s action, suspense and humour. And useful insights on cats. And magic. And magical cats.

Sam Franklin is a wizard from the real Magic Circle. Pagoda – is his cat familiar (or is it the other way round?). Meyra is a stroppy elf with teenage angst issues even after forty years in her teens. They are drawn into tracking a demonic killer on England’s south coast. The demon is not just at the seaside for the greasy doughnuts: its masters prey on the poor and vulnerable in society with the terrifying prospect of ancient dark magic (or rather Ma gic, the dangerous word with six letters, one invisible and silent) running wild once more.

Sam and Pagoda find themselves dragged into the plight of the local homeless community, Meyra into the vast dangers of drug-fuelled excess, all reach the same place with the clock ticking and cultists chanting, waiting for a terrible conspiracy to come of age.

But all this pales into insignificance before such questions as: can the three oddballs work together to save the day and get home in time for a good grooming? And why does Sam keep having a worrying urge to shred sofas, chase rodents and cough up hairballs? Why is Meyra worried about whether her Moncler Calypsos look good on her during a spot of burglary. And last but absolutely not least, why does Pagoda fret about the handball rule while she curls up in tiny places and tries to get some hard-earned (by cat standards) sleep?

NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ AND REVIEW THIS BOOK, PLEASE CONTACT AUTHOR FOR REVIEW COPY.

Let’s discuss!

What do you think about the book and post?
Are you going to add it to TBR?

HAPPY READING!!

booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com

Follow me on-

        

Hello readers! Today I’m pleased to share Part IV of guest post series by Alan Camrose, author of Lost In Plain Sight this month. If in case you missed first and second part of this series here is the link – Part I | Part II| Part III

Over to author…

Firstly, thanks to Yesha for agreeing to me guest-posting on the site. Much appreciated, and I hope that you all enjoy my Blog posts which are a sideways look at my writing and my book. 

The Gallery on my website (www.alancamrose.com), and my Blog generally, is intended to be a place that shows a bit about me as well as stuff about my work. 

I have just published my first novel, “Lost In Plain Sight”, a fantasy-thriller set in Brighton, full of action, magic, humour, where Sam, Pagoda and Meyra are on the case to track a demonic killer and find more than they bargained for. (Since Pagoda is a cat, she’d like to be in the case.) They encounter among other things a goblin fatale, a werewolf with exquisite dentistry and a sat-nav with personality issues. I’d love you to join me by the seaside for some ice cream and mayhem…

***

Part 4 of 5

Cats as an example of the ties that bind a writer

I holidayed with my family in Myanmar (Burma) in 2012, travelling from Yangon to Bagan, to Lake Inle in central Myanmar, via a couple of bracing air and road trips. The great thing is now we’re able to say that – like Nellie the Elephant – we met one night in the silver light / On the road to Mandalay. No traveling circus to run away from, although we did have our eleven year old twins with us.

In an earlier post, I mentioned the religious dimension of the exquisite reclining Buddhas. Now I’m going to talk about the exquisite Burmese cats there, which delighted and charmed us in equal measure.

Burmese cats in Burma? Who knew? Read on.

We found them at Lake Inle. It’s an almost supernaturally peaceful place of calm water and effortless fishing with nets by wiry boatmen. They work on long skiffs, their practices unchanged over thousands of years, balanced, more like perched, on one leg. Precarious but elegant. Their non-standing leg wraps around a long oar which they use to propel their boats, freeing their hands to manipulate long, thin bamboo poles and silky fishing nets. They look like eerie stick figures in the early morning mist, or complicated semaphore signallers. Magical.

We saw hand-weavers and metalworkers plying their trades in raised bamboo buildings on sturdy poles above the lake. Then we landed at an island jetty revealing the entrance to:

The entrance to a live-action feline wonderland. Do not enter here if you are not a cat-lover, or if you do then be warned (and wear a hat). There are lots of cats. Burmese cats. A silken wave. In fact a heat map of Myanmar would surprise you in terms of hits for Burmese cats, since they died out in Burma in the 1930s. No more Burmese cats in Burma, like no chocolate in a chocolate cake. 

They were re-introduced to their native and spiritual home in 2008/9 from Australia and Britain to re-kindle the flame. Make the world right. Put that smooth, delicious chocolate back where it belongs.

The cats at the Cat Café won our hearts – as well as high ground in the picture opposite. Their now familiar to us complete lack of fear (common sense) of strangers had them cavorting around all of us in no time. 

It was an easy step to acquiring one when we got back to Britain. 

Pagoda.

She even now walks on my shoulders – not so much on my head, maybe – in the same no-nonsense way as her predecessors at, a link to the feisty cat familiar in my new book, Lost In Plain Sight. 

What felt like an inevitable starting point for my writing journey: that cat as one of the protagonists, allowing mere humans a periodic glimpse of what it means to be a cat. 

I was acting on the most consistent advice that I’ve seen, apart from the raucous screaming of the words “SHOW, DON’T TELL!” :”

“Write what you know”. 

Maybe something about law at some stage. I was a lawyer for a long time. However, for my first project I chose to write about a magical cat who naturally believes that her “owner” is her familiar while they hunt down a murderous demon. With the greatest possible respect, that was a lot more fun than writing legal opinions. 

I hope you read it and agree.

Cheers,

Alan

Alan Camrose

***

About Book:

This novel is a contemporary fantasy-thriller set in the UK around Brighton. There’s action, suspense and humour. And useful insights on cats. And magic. And magical cats.

Sam Franklin is a wizard from the real Magic Circle. Pagoda – is his cat familiar (or is it the other way round?). Meyra is a stroppy elf with teenage angst issues even after forty years in her teens. They are drawn into tracking a demonic killer on England’s south coast. The demon is not just at the seaside for the greasy doughnuts: its masters prey on the poor and vulnerable in society with the terrifying prospect of ancient dark magic (or rather Ma gic, the dangerous word with six letters, one invisible and silent) running wild once more.

Sam and Pagoda find themselves dragged into the plight of the local homeless community, Meyra into the vast dangers of drug-fuelled excess, all reach the same place with the clock ticking and cultists chanting, waiting for a terrible conspiracy to come of age.

But all this pales into insignificance before such questions as: can the three oddballs work together to save the day and get home in time for a good grooming? And why does Sam keep having a worrying urge to shred sofas, chase rodents and cough up hairballs? Why is Meyra worried about whether her Moncler Calypsos look good on her during a spot of burglary. And last but absolutely not least, why does Pagoda fret about the handball rule while she curls up in tiny places and tries to get some hard-earned (by cat standards) sleep?

NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ AND REVIEW THIS BOOK, PLEASE CONTACT AUTHOR FOR REVIEW COPY.

Let’s discuss!

What do you think about the book and post?
Are you going to add it to TBR?

HAPPY READING!!

booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com

Follow me on-

        

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Hello readers! Today I’m pleased to share Part III of guest post series by Alan Camrose, author of Lost In Plain Sight this month. If in case you missed first and second part of this series here is the link – Part I | Part II.

Over to author…

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Firstly, thanks to Yesha for agreeing to me guest-posting on the site. Much appreciated, and I hope that you all enjoy my Blog posts which are a sideways look at my writing and my book. 

The Gallery on my website (www.alancamrose.com), and my Blog generally, is intended to be a place that shows a bit about me as well as stuff about my work. 

I have just published my first novel, “Lost In Plain Sight”, a fantasy-thriller set in Brighton, full of action, magic, humour, where Sam, Pagoda and Meyra are on the case to track a demonic killer and find more than they bargained for. (Since Pagoda is a cat, she’d like to be in the case.) They encounter among other things a goblin fatale, a werewolf with exquisite dentistry and a sat-nav with personality issues. I’d love you to join me by the seaside for some ice cream and mayhem…

***

Part 3 of 5

Jezebel, the magic campervan 

I wanted to select a vehicle for Sam Franklin to drive. He’s one of the main protagonists in my new book, Lost In Plain Sight, available through Amazon in Kindle format and paperback – search under Alan Camrose.

A campervan came to mind – iconic, different from Inspector Morse’s Jaguar or the Batmobile. A touch of Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo without the floral decorations…

Why did it come to mind?

As a family, we toyed for a while with the idea of owning a campervan, one of the originals, A while ago it was something to get out of our system, try it out, see how it fitted. We rented the beautiful van below from Pembrokeshire Classic Campers –  https://coolcamping.com/campervans/uk/wales/714-pembrokeshire-classic-campers/units/9165-lily – very helpful and accommodating when we dealt with them. Her name’s Lily (not Jezebel) and we all have a soft spot for her in our hearts – not just the damp camping ground on a sloping Pembrokeshire hill-top.

I was designated driver and we wanted to explore Pembrokeshire. The huge steering wheel was a challenge, like trying to steer a fork lift truck, and after the first long bend it was a lot less alarming! As long as the drum brakes – the old school type rather than new-fangled disc brakes – were employed with plenty of time to spare, the journey was a serene way to float through the Welsh countryside in smatterings of sunshine.

We stopped at a campsute for the night and deployed the ‘driveaway awning with the inner bedroom’ which clipped onto the side of the van as an extra bedroom. Cameron (my son) and I were turfed out onto the, er, turf under the awning, while Nicola (my wife) and Rose(my daughter) bagged the beds in the van. Happy memories of sleeping under the stars – until 6:30 am when a corner of the awning detached from its peg and started rhythmically slapping me in the  face with rain-soaked enthusiasm. 

And it’s still a magic memory – as a whole – even now…The freedom, the freshness and the howling wind on that hill-top. Nature’s magic, in fact. 

As writers, we are advised to write what we know, which is tricky when your novel relates to a magical cat, but it is a helpful starting point to let your Muse off its leash. I am grateful to Jezebel for her inspiration…

I’ll look at other images in later posts and see how they came to influence my writing or just me…

Cheers,

Alan

Alan Camrose

***

About Book:

This novel is a contemporary fantasy-thriller set in the UK around Brighton. There’s action, suspense and humour. And useful insights on cats. And magic. And magical cats.

Sam Franklin is a wizard from the real Magic Circle. Pagoda – is his cat familiar (or is it the other way round?). Meyra is a stroppy elf with teenage angst issues even after forty years in her teens. They are drawn into tracking a demonic killer on England’s south coast. The demon is not just at the seaside for the greasy doughnuts: its masters prey on the poor and vulnerable in society with the terrifying prospect of ancient dark magic (or rather Ma gic, the dangerous word with six letters, one invisible and silent) running wild once more.

Sam and Pagoda find themselves dragged into the plight of the local homeless community, Meyra into the vast dangers of drug-fuelled excess, all reach the same place with the clock ticking and cultists chanting, waiting for a terrible conspiracy to come of age.

But all this pales into insignificance before such questions as: can the three oddballs work together to save the day and get home in time for a good grooming? And why does Sam keep having a worrying urge to shred sofas, chase rodents and cough up hairballs? Why is Meyra worried about whether her Moncler Calypsos look good on her during a spot of burglary. And last but absolutely not least, why does Pagoda fret about the handball rule while she curls up in tiny places and tries to get some hard-earned (by cat standards) sleep?

NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO Read and REVIEW THIS BOOK, PLEASE CONTACT AUTHOR FOR REVIEW COPY.

Let’s discuss!

What do you think about the book and post?
Are you going to add it to TBR?

HAPPY READING!!

booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com

Follow me on-

        

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Hello readers! Today I’m happy to share Part II of guest post series. As I mentioned in first part, I’ll be publishing a 5 parts guest post series by Alan Camrose, author of Lost In Plain Sight this month.

Lost In Plain Sight is a contemporary fantasy-thriller. Author has written series of five short articles concerning aspects of his debut novel which are derived from incidents in or aspects of his life, serving as inspiration for some of the events portrayed in the book. I hope you guys enjoy this series.

Just in case you missed first part here is the link- (The pics in first post somehow didn’t appear so I’ve updated the post, if you haven’t seen them please check it out)- HERE.

Over to author…

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Firstly, thanks to Yesha for agreeing to me guest-posting on the site. Much appreciated, and I hope that you all enjoy my Blog posts which are a sideways look at my writing and my book. 

The Gallery on my website (www.alancamrose.com), and my Blog generally, is intended to be a place that shows a bit about me as well as stuff about my work. 

***

Part 2 of 5

Giant Reclining Buddha – a kind of magic, a kind of fantasy

I have just published my first novel, “Lost In Plain Sight”, a fantasy-thriller set in Brighton, full of action, magic, humour, where Sam, Pagoda and Meyra are on the case to track a demonic killer and find more than they bargained for. (Since Pagoda is a cat, she’d like to be in the case.) They encounter among other things a goblin fatale, a werewolf with exquisite dentistry and a sat-nav with personality issues. I’d love you to join me by the seaside for some ice cream and mayhem…

Those magic-filled eyes follow you round the temple like in spooky fantasy books, but this time for real! 

The Chaukhtatgyi (much easier to write than pronounce) Temple in Myanmar’s capital, Yangon,contains an absolutely stunning Buddha statue, huge and reclining gracefully, like a stretched out cat in the warmth of the Sun (even though it’s in fact inside and hemmed in by ornate fencing). We had been to Thailand several times, Laos and Cambodia but the scale of this reclining Buddha was something else. 

And its feet! Mesmerising in a way that is difficult to comprehend, not least given the cultural issues surrounding pointing of feet at people in parts of South-East Asia; this Buddha stunningly ignored any such considerations and beautifully gloried in its feet, especially the soles. You can see the detail from the picture below. One small part of the statue, one big impression on onlookers standing quietly around it, an amazingly peaceful setting in the vibrant and bustling city.

Here’s hopefully a feeling of the whole thing, pulled together:

Myanmar deeply affected me. Putting to one side the political issues, the country is a place of wonder, from Yangon to Bagan’s pagodas (awe-inspiring) to the supernatural calm of Lake Inle in the North. That’s one of the reasons that we acquired a Burmese cat and named her Pagoda.

Every time I look at her, I’m reminded in a tiny but powerful way where she came from – well, her spiritual birthplace rather than a pedigree cat-breeder in Surrey. It was a short step to incorporating her into my novel, Lost In Plain Sight, as one of the protagonists…

Cheers,

Alan

Alan Camrose

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About Book:

This novel is a contemporary fantasy-thriller set in the UK around Brighton. There’s action, suspense and humour. And useful insights on cats. And magic. And magical cats.

Sam Franklin is a wizard from the real Magic Circle. Pagoda – is his cat familiar (or is it the other way round?). Meyra is a stroppy elf with teenage angst issues even after forty years in her teens. They are drawn into tracking a demonic killer on England’s south coast. The demon is not just at the seaside for the greasy doughnuts: its masters prey on the poor and vulnerable in society with the terrifying prospect of ancient dark magic (or rather Ma gic, the dangerous word with six letters, one invisible and silent) running wild once more.

Sam and Pagoda find themselves dragged into the plight of the local homeless community, Meyra into the vast dangers of drug-fuelled excess, all reach the same place with the clock ticking and cultists chanting, waiting for a terrible conspiracy to come of age.

But all this pales into insignificance before such questions as: can the three oddballs work together to save the day and get home in time for a good grooming? And why does Sam keep having a worrying urge to shred sofas, chase rodents and cough up hairballs? Why is Meyra worried about whether her Moncler Calypsos look good on her during a spot of burglary. And last but absolutely not least, why does Pagoda fret about the handball rule while she curls up in tiny places and tries to get some hard-earned (by cat standards) sleep?

Note: If you would like to review this book, please contact author for review copy.

Let’s discuss!

What do you think about the book and post?
Are you going to add it to TBR?

HAPPY READING!!

booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com

Follow me on-

        

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