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# Alison Morton's Thrillers

Thrillers with a difference...

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.alison-morton.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Blog](https://www.alison-morton.com/blog/)
- [The Praetorians – Our friends?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/07/17/the-praetorians-our-friends/) - Who were the ancient Praetorians, and why were they disbanded? Why did the Roma Novans choose to revive the corps and later admit women?
- [Cover reveal: Betrayal](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/10/15/cover-reveal-betrayal-stories-of-historical-fiction/) - A new Roma Nova story coming soon! The Idealist is part of an exciting new anthology of historical fiction. Twelve award-winning authors in five countries – the Historical Fictioneers – have pooled their storytelling powers with a collection of tales offering twelve takes on the theme of betrayal. Spanning eras from post-Roman Britain to the present day,
- [Betrayal officially published!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/11/17/betrayal-is-officially-published/) - A new Roma Nova story is now out in this anthology! The Idealist, a dual time-line story, is part of an exciting new historical fiction venture. Twelve award-winning authors in five countries – the Historical Fictioneers – have pooled their storytelling powers with a collection of tales offering twelve takes on the theme of betrayal. Spanning eras
- [Are 'what if' stories coming into fashion?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/11/18/are-what-if-stories-coming-into-fashion/) - Are 'what if' stories coming (back) into fashion? Speculation, imagination and creativity are the key elements combined with good writing (of course!).
- [Magdalensberg before Virunum](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/05/28/magdalensberg-virunum-before-virunum/) - Virunum became the capital of the important province of Roman Noricum. But its early origins on the Magdalensberg were fascinating. Traders will be traders!
- [Roma Nova updated!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/07/03/roma-nova-updated/) - The complete, updated official guide to the Roma Nova thriller series and it's free. Introduction and first chapters to each book, cover images, links and more.
- [The Bookseller's  Choice!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/05/in-the-bookseller-editors-choice/) - Stunned to see that SUCCESSIO in the Roma Nova thriller series had been selected as an Editor's Choice in The Bookseller's inaugural Indie Preview.
- [Courage: History, Mystery, Hope](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/06/22/courage-history-mystery-hope/) - Fifteen cracking short stories from deep history to present day by fifteen excellent writers. Perfect for quick reads and deep insights
- [Bancroft Roman Villa](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/06/08/bancroft-roman-villa/) - Would you connect the new town of Milton Keynes with a villa in 4th century Roman Britain? I didn't until a friend mentioned it. I had to visit!
- [Carina Mitela – HEROICA](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/05/10/carina-mitela-heroine/) - Who is Carina Mitela, the main character in 'Revolution?', a story in HEROICA, a collection of short stories set in Roma Nova? Here user some possible answers.
- [Statia Mitela – HEROICA](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/05/12/statia-mitela-heroica/) - Statia Mitela of Roma Nova discovers that altruism and courage might not be able to save the new Roman Republic and its creator Giuseppe Mazzini.
- [Honoria Mitela – HEROICA](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/05/11/honoria-mitela-heroica/) - In 1683, Honoria Mitela, descendant of Roma Nova's founders in the 4th century, rides to Vienna to save it. But she also makes a personal discovery...
- [HEROICA - Why three stories?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/04/28/heroica-why-three-stories/) - HEROICA – Why three stories? And why three centuries? Perhaps it's because of the courageous acts of the Mitela women in the face of outrageous danger.
- [HEROICA excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/05/07/heroica-excerpt/) - Taster from one of three stories of women from the Mitela family of Roma Nova – Honoria in 1683, Statia in 1849 and Carina in 2020 – who face dangerous choices.
- [Where Roma Nova titles come from](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/01/31/where-did-those-roma-nova-titles-come-from/) - Choosing book titles for Roma Nova - a task for Hercules? Unfortunately, Hercules wasn't available, so it was down to me.
- [Building Roma Nova (1)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/01/13/roma-nova-world-building/) - Building the story of the imaginary Roma Nova – The heroine, what Roma Novans eat, swearing and history
- [Building Roma Nova (2)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/01/13/roma-nova-world-building-2/) - More about building the imaginary Roma Nova – Where is it and what does it look like?
- [So what's 'Roma Nova' about?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/09/20/so-whats-this-roma-nova-about/) - The world of mysterious Roma Nova – It's essentially about people with the will to survive.
- [How the Romans celebrated spring](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/17/how-the-romans-celebrated-spring-2/) - How the Romans celebrated Spring with three festivals. Hares, eggs and fertility make their appearance!
- [Amazons: Myth, Fear, Long Memory](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/03/30/amazons-myth-fear-long-memory/) - Amazons – historical women warriors or myth? Why did the Ancient Romans both fear and respect the idea of them? what qualities do women bring to the fight?
- [Women as heroes – what if?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/03/12/women-as-heroes-speculation/) - Opening any book plunges you into a new world and releases you from the confines of your place and time, whether as reader or writer, especially so for women.
- [Women's history? Or herstory?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/03/16/womens-history-or-her-story/) - Is women's history at last coming into the limelight where it belongs? Historical fiction is increasingly paving the way.
- [IWD and the Roma Nova way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/03/08/iwd-and-the-roma-nova-way/) - Sometimes history recorded women's achievements; more often, it overlooked them. Roma Nova, where women are naturally equal, is fiction, but what if it wasn't?
- [Lupercalia – Not Valentine's Day](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/02/16/lupercalia-not-an-ancestor-of-valentines-day/) - What was Lupercalia? Why did it last over a thousand years and was it banned? (And it definitely was not the ancestor of the modern Valentine's Day!)
- [An amoral populist takes power](https://www.alison-morton.com/2026/02/10/an-amoral-populist-takes-power/) - When an amoral populist takes power, his political troops enforce tyranny and repression. The cult of personality spreads. Be warned.
- [Happy New Year? Um...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/01/02/happy-new-year-um/) - Felix sanusque sit novus annus! In the modern Western calendar, it's the beginning of the year, a time for renewals and resolutions. I wish you every luck in your health, goals and prosperity in the coming year. It was a much more confused picture for the Romans, but then, their civilisation did last for 1229
- [Roman dating essentials](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/17/roman-dating-essentials/) - Watching the countdown calendar to the publication day of INCEPTIO reminded me that the first of the month in the Roman system – the Kalends – ended up as our word for measuring the whole thing – calendar. In my Roma Nova thrillers, I use the standard Western system the world has agreed to use,
- [Speaking Latin in Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/12/11/speaking-latin-in-roma-nova/) - Sprinkling a few Latin words in the Roma Nova novels evokes the world the characters live in. But where did these words come from?
- [Saturnalia - Serious festival or free for all?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/12/16/saturnalia-serious-roman-festival-or-free-for-all/) - Serious Roman festival or just a free for all. I dig deeper than the modern stereotypes...
- [Black Friday? Cyber Monday? Wind back 2000 years to Ancient Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/11/20/black-friday-cyber-monday-wind-back-2000-years-to-ancient-rome/) - Shopping is a national obsession in many countries and December is the peak of the frenzy. But was it different in Ancient Rome?
- ["What if" stories – historical fiction?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/09/16/alternative-history-stories-historical-fiction-or-not/) - 'What if' stories fascinate us, especially about Ancient Rome. But are alternative history stories part of historical fiction?
- [A trip to Mel's Dresden](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/11/01/a-trip-to-mels-dresden/) - Follow-up research trip with Anna Belfrage to Dresden, Saxony in Germany, following in the footsteps of Double Stakes' heroine Mel.
- [60,000 miles more Roman roads!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/11/09/60000-miles-more-roman-roads/) - Scientific journal Nature has just published a high-resolution dataset of roads of the Roman Empire showing a more extensive road network than previously known.
- [PUBLICATION DAY!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/01/publication-day/) - Apologies for the capital letters - I'm not shouting at anybody, I'm shouting out loud to the world. Today is the end of a long, long process. My first novel, INCEPTIO, is published. Read about: INCEPTIO what it's about how I got here the thrill of my books arriving winning the cover competition making a
- [All that sewing was worth it – the HNS Conference](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/09/16/all-that-sewing-was-worth-it-the-hns-conference/) - Ruth Downie, Kate Quinn and I presented the Romans about the perception of Ancient Rome on screen and in fiction. We had fun!
- [Debunking the 'Roman salute'](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/01/30/debunking-the-roman-salute/) - A lot of nonsense is spouted about the so-called Roman salute. But the biggest myth is that it originated in Ancient Rome.
- [ChatGPTing about Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/04/03/chatgpting-about-roma-nova/) - I had a fascinating chat with my phone the other day. Fence-sitter that I am, I haven't really embraced AI and I voiced my guarded scepticism last year on my writing blog. However, encouraged by my family, I frivolously threw a question at ChatGPT. "Have you heard of Alison Morton?" I was expecting a 'who?'
- [Excerpt from Double Stakes](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/05/24/excerpt-from-double-stakes/) - Kidnap, conspiracy and corrupt politics – Mel fights them all in the newly published Double Stakes. Read the first pages!
- [Policing – A complicated subject for writers](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/06/09/policing-a-complicated-subject-for-writers/) - Policing across the ages is a difficult one for writers as values and customs change, whether it's in Ancient Rome, the imaginary Roma Nova or modern Europe.
- [Six striking sentences about Roma Nova|](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/09/10/19372/) - Write six striking sentence about each Roma Nova book – not as easy as it sounds. Nor is saying what's most important about their themes!
- [4th century Roman travel](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/01/16/how-far-is-the-road-to-rome-or-even-virunum/) - The options (and the pain!) of travelling from Britannia to Noricum in the late 4th century, especially if you don't really want to go...
- [The Via Flaminia](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/02/23/the-via-flaminia/) - Via Flaminia which ran across the spine of Italy was one of the great routes of the Ancient Roman Empire with its engineered roads and bridges.
- [Politics of extremism - Fiction, fact or both?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/06/19/insurrectio-whats-the-political-background/) - All countries go through unhappy periods which often provoke fear of 'the other' and of the unknown and generate extremism. How do fiction writers write this?
- [Slaves, damnati and freedmen in ancient Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/06/29/slaves-damnati-and-freedmen-in-ancient-rome/) - As in many early societies, slavery in Ancient Rome arose from poverty, crime and war. Yet there was considerable layering and mobility for those enslaved.
- [A taster of INCEPTIO: A revelation for our heroine](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/07/08/a-taster-of-inceptio-a-revelation-for-our-heroine/) - Sometimes, your past is a secret. Then one day, a Roma Novan spy opens the box. Can Carina deal with what is revealed? Will it change her whole life?
- [A way out for Carina. Or is it?  - An excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/07/28/a-way-out-for-carina-or-is-it-an-excerpt/) - Carina Mitela is a young Praetorian officer in Roma Nova and she's messed up big time. Her boss is offering her a chance to redeem herself. Will she take it?
- [PERFIDITAS excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/08/21/perfiditas-extract/) - Read an excerpt from PERFIDITAS when we meet Captain Carina Mitela who has to face a sudden emergency. she has no idea about the betrayals that will follow...
- [Roman emperors – The good, the bad and ugly](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/10/11/roman-emperors-the-good-the-bad-and-ugly/) - At a rough count there were a hundred Roman emperors in the West and another eighty-odd in the East after the West had shut up shop in AD 476. Who were they?
- [What is it about writing Romans?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/03/17/what-is-it-about-writing-romans/) - How often do you think about the Roman Empire? Quite a lot, it seems. What is it about them Romans that fascinates writers of fiction?
- [Why I wrote Double Stakes](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/05/20/why-i-wrote-double-stakes/) - Why I chose to write a political thriller like Double Stakes in Europe today where political ideologies are becoming so polarised.
- [Settings, settings, settings – Dresden](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/06/02/settings-settings-settings-dresden/) - Character and plot are the elements that drive a story for me, but neither can work properly without interaction with the setting in each scene.
- [What if Caesar wasn't assassinated?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/06/17/what-if-caesar-wasnt-assassinated/) - Suppose Fate had stepped in when the conspirators planned to assassinate Caesar? Would the future had been different for the world?
- [The AD 400s and the fall of Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/07/31/the-ad-400s-and-the-fall-of-rome/) - How the period around 400 CE gave a hearty shove towards the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire in the West.
- [Meet Aurelia Mitela – warrior, diplomat, spy](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/02/09/meet-aurelia-mitela-warrior-diplomat-spy/) - Meet Aurelia Mitela – warrior, diplomat, spy, fixer and lover, but also a mother. Devoted to Roma Nova, but haunted by her personal nemesis since childhood.
- [Fate – Stories to catch your breath](https://www.alison-morton.com/2025/06/16/fate-stories-to-catch-your-breath/) - In previous centuries, belief in fate was strong. Kismet, karma, destiny, the will of a god or gods were the ways people accepted good or bad fortune. Going further back, Greeks and (the especially superstitious) Romans were extremely wary of the Fates. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos were the three Moirai, the version of the Fates
- [Time and its alternative](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/06/21/time-and-its-alternative/) - Time – a strange thing, mysterious even. Past time could be yesterday or fifty years ago. Present time which we bumble through now is over in a nanosecond. Future time both fascinates and scares us. But what if time wasn’t quite what we think it is? What if we had made different choices at various
- [Who were the Roman cops?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/03/10/who-were-the-roman-cops/) - Thinking about police, gendarmes and emergency services in the past few days brought me to the law enforcers of Ancient Rome. Faced with terrorist attack (or riot, revolt and rebellion), they would have been robust in their attitude and actions. So who policed Rome? Vigiles as a public service were founded by Augustus as a new
- [Crossing cultures and 12 things to make it easier](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/02/09/crossing-cultures-and-12-things-to-make-it-easier/) - Disruptive didn’t begin to describe it. I would have a family there, I’d be comfortable materially, and I would be able to keep my father’s legacy. But every tiny thing would be different. I’d been forced, sobbing, from my East Coast home after Dad died, and dumped in the Midwest when I was twelve and
- [INSURRECTIO  – a powerful thriller speaks to our times](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/04/08/insurrectio-a-powerful-thriller-speaks-to-our-times/) - I was thrilled to receive this very thoughtful review of INSURRECTIO. BookBabe blog headed the review as "Meeting the challenge of keeping a prequel trilogy thrilling", which is a writing technique, and a trick I'm delighted to see that she says I've pulled off! However, it became clear as I read through her review that she'd
- [A tale of another Aurelia – the mother of Julius Caesar](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/05/29/a-tale-of-another-aurelia-the-mother-of-julius-caesar/) - Many of you will be familiar with Aurelia Mitela, the elder stateswoman of INCEPTIO, CARINA, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. We discover her career as a younger woman in her own trilogy set in the late 1960s to early 1980s – AURELIA, NEXUS, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. Although an honourable name in Roma Nova, Aurelia was one with
- [Meet Aurelia Mitela - woman and warrior](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/10/20/meet-aurelia-mitela-woman-and-warrior/) - Aurelia Mitela, archetype Roma Novan, came to life when I was writing the first Roma Nova book, INCEPTIO. Then, she was the clever, experienced grandmother of Carina, the book’s heroine. Let Carina tell you in her own words of her first impression of Aurelia: “She’d been so concerned for me, but not in a soppy way.
- [Power grabs and dictators](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/03/15/power-grabs/) - A post from 2017 but updated for 2024 and again for 2025 as little seems to change... It's March 2025 and here we are again. the war in Ukraine continues, the despot in the Kremlin is still trying to land grab like a gangster. Added to that, another unpredictable character, this time on the other
- [Helping to track the timeline of a story](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/13/helping-to-track-the-timeline-of-a-story/) - Writing the first book of my Roma Nova stories, I found I needed to develop a tracking system not only of the action but also of its timing. It’s so easy when engrossed in producing any story, let alone a thriller, to inadvertently get events in the wrong sequence or introduce a character to another
- [Mel and the French Army](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/03/22/mel-and-the-french-army/) - Mel/Mélisende is a sergent-chef in the French Armée de Terre (land forces), equivalent to junior warrant officer in the UK forces. She chose to join as a direct entrant at the non-commissioned officer (NCO) level at 18. She could have gone to the officer training school at Saint-Cyr, but she had itchy feet after leaving school
- [Roman dishwashing](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/11/09/roman-dishwashing/) - When our dishwasher broke down, we ended up washing and rinsing by hand – glass, cutlery, crockery, kitchen casseroles, pots and pans – and it provoked thoughts about Roman kitchens and cleaning the dishes two thousand years ago. Memories of camping washing-up in my childhood emerged; stack it all in a bowl and go over
- [Cursing the Roman way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/12/26/cursing-the-roman-way/) - The wish to curse a rival, a rip-off merchant, or somebody who cuts us up on the motorway or pushes in front of us in the queue for the first life-saving coffee of the day, is an age old instinct. Nowadays, when we ‘go postal’, we give a ‘load of verbal’, then calm down when
- [Isca Dumnoniorum, or Exeter to you and me](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/02/28/isca-dumnoniorum-or-exeter-to-you-and-me/) - I've been over in Devon staying with my writing friend Helen Hollick for a week and yesterday we visited Exeter, including the museum. Of course, I went for the Roman stuff! The Romans established a large castrum (fortified camp) named Isca around AD 55 at the southwest end of the Fosse Way as the base for the 5 000-man Legio II Augusta (Second Augustan
- [Jane Thynne and the allure of 1930s Germany](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/13/jane-thynne-and-the-allure-of-1930s-germany/) - Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Jane Thynne to my blog. Jane has worked as a journalist for the BBC, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Independent. She has been a panellist on the BBC Radio 4 literary panel game The Write Stuff on many occasions and was a member of the judging panel
- [Heroines' journeys - Not always physical ones](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/06/24/heroines-journeys-not-always-physical-ones/) - As readers, we like to see our main character progress in some way. She or he doesn't need to save the world, make a grand marriage with a duke or make a groundbreaking journey into space. But their story does need a resolution. It could be acceptance, it could be a move somewhere else, it
- [The big reveal - Inceptio book jacket](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/12/the-big-reveal-inceptio-book-jacket/) - SilverWood Books certainly pulled out the stops for me.
- [Look out, world, here comes INCEPTIO!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/14/look-out-world-here-comes-inceptio/) - INCEPTIO was launched in style on Tuesday evening. How to describe this feeling of elation still with me? Yes, it was hard work, yes, we had the worst March weather for years, but yes, it was fun! And the pleasure generated by the smiles, laughter and enthusiasm on Tuesday is still with me. They came,
- [Ostia Antica and its importance in Roman sea trading](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/09/16/ostia-antica-and-its-importance-in-roman-sea-trading/) - The Romans were organised, truly organised in complex ways not seen again until at least the 18th and 19th centuries. Trade was vital to Ancient Rome. The empire cost a vast sum of money to run and trade brought in much of that money. The population of the city of Rome grew to over one
- [Come into my Roman garden...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/08/13/come-into-my-roman-garden/) - Gardening and nosing around other people’s gardens are two of my favourite hobbies; my own is designed on Roman lines and I even have a Roman herb garden. You'll know that I often mention gardens, plants and flowers in the Roma Nova books; Carina has the key to a walled garden full of figs, vines,
- [Confession time: Descent from antiquity is a non-starter](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/05/17/confession-time-descent-from-antiquity-is-a-non-starter/) - Some Roma Novans, particularly the founding Twelve Families, pride themselves on their descent from named Roman ancestors such as Mitelus, Julia Bacausa, Apulius. As a small colony determined to survive in an unstable world, the children of those founders made a decision in the fifth century to keep records so that they did not intermarry
- [Living at the Roman dusk](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/05/15/the-roman-world-in-ad-395/) - In the Roma Nova story, over four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods trekked north out of Italy in AD 395 to a semi-mountainous area similar to modern Slovenia. Led by Apulius and his friend Mitelus at the head of twelve senatorial families, they established a colony based initially on land owned by Apulius’s
- [Why JULIA PRIMA is, and isn't, an alternate history story](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/10/24/why-julia-prima-is-and-isnt-an-alternate-history-story/) - I'm known as a writer of alternative history thrillers featuring modern Praetorian heroines, Carina and Aurelia. That's my "brand" and my deep interest. Not always a wise commercial decision, but these have been the stories I've itched to write. But since JULIA PRIMA came out in August, I've been asked frequently what made me go
- [Alternate history and steampunk - settling the ambiguity](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/19/alternate-history-and-steampunk-settling-the-ambiguity/) - When people ask me about my books, I say "Thrillers – alternative history thrillers. They're set in a world where the historical timeline changed in the past and a different looking world evolved." But the reactions can be interesting. Here's one typical conversation I had at a book event. Person browsing table with books for
- [Mos maiorum  – 'Doing the right thing' in ancient Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/08/21/mos-maiorum-doing-the-right-thing-in-ancient-rome/) - Unwritten codes of behaviour, maintaining standards, behaving 'properly' are as old as the hills, at least as old as the Seven Hills of Rome. The mos maiorum, loosely translated as ‘ancestral custom’ was the unwritten code of ancient Rome. It included time-honoured principles, behavioural models and social practices that affected every aspect of life in
- [Roman forearm handshake - true gesture or Hollywood codswallop?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/22/roman-forearm-handshake-true-gesture-or-hollywood-codswallop/) - Welcome to the home of the Roma Nova thrillers. Please look around while you are here. When two people meet formally for the first time, it's customary to shake hands. Similarly, it's something you do on parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement. In sports or other competitive activities, it's also done as a
- [Legion - Life in the Roman Army](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/05/20/legion-life-in-the-roman-army/) - It's that exhibition that Roman enthusiasts are clamouring to see. The British Museum is rather good at themed exhibitions; the Nero one was terrific as were those featuring Pompeii, the Celts and the World of Stonehenge. When 'Legion – Life in the Roman Army' was first announced in the members' newsletter, I wept bitter tears
- [Military or Civilians?  On becoming a knowledge resource](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/04/20/military-or-civilians-on-becoming-a-knowledge-resource/) - A lovely person who bought my non-fiction history ebook Military or Civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War was (in her words) blown away by the resources I had collected. Over the three years I accumulated and read every book I could find on the subject, I
- [Gender roles and ideology in Nazi Germany - a heady mix](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/03/14/gender-roles-and-ideology-in-nazi-germany-a-heady-mix/) - If you were young, German and female in 1939 you were at the poorer end of the gender scale. Unable to hold professional posts, ill-educated, your role was defined politically, ideologically and socially as a servant, assistant, mother. You'd taken part in political youth activities, but had no outlet for personal develop and no chance
- [Military women – in war and fiction](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/06/06/women-in-uniform/) - An updated post Several years ago now, I posted on my writing blog about my OU studies in history and how I turned my MA dissertation into a self-published book: Military or Civilians?The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War. This was my first venture into self-publishing when you had
- [Julian the 'Apostate' and that spear...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/06/03/julian-the-apostate-and-that-spear/) - Of all the 'what ifs' of history, the death of Emperor Julian in AD 363 has to be one of the most intriguing. He rejected Christianity, demoted its by then prominent place in the Roman state and promoted Neoplatonic Hellenism in its place. His aim was to reduce Christianity to one of many also-ran eastern
- [Roman doesn't mean one thing](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/28/roman-doesnt-mean-one-thing/) - Traditionally, ancient Rome was founded in 753 BC. It grew into one of the largest empires in the ancient world with roughly 20% of the world's population and an area of 6.5 million square kilometres at its height. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the western part of the empire broke
- [Roma Nova's Wikipedia page](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/05/16/roma-novas-wikipedia-page/) - Could this be the first paragraph of Roma Nova's Wikipedia entry? Of course, it's a spoof. Coming clean, I had to suddenly write it as an introduction to a recent guest post. But it was fun. Wikipedia has a particular style and not just the way it's set out on the screen. Each article
- ['Hidden history' is fun, but sometimes deadly serious](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/04/09/hidden-history-is-fun-but-sometimes-deadly-serious/) - In my last two books, JULIA PRIMA and EXSILIUM, I've taken a risk. A big risk. I've highlighted a very different side to the early Christians, one which many people may not have heard of. The late 4th century was a massive turning point, yet it's pretty well ignored, even hidden. And it's very unfashionable
- [The Roman home front](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/12/11/the-roman-home-front/) - Our first encounter with Romans is often a film or TV series depicting soldiers marching in armour, being tough, shouting and thrusting a sword into some barbarian in a dark, wet and enemy-infested wood. Or perhaps we think about the ruins left of magnificent imperial or public buildings? But what about the calmer side of
- [INSURRECTIO publication day!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/12/insurrectio-publication-day/) - Today, my fifth Roma Nova thriller is out in the world. Wow! I say that because when I published the first in 2013, I did not imagine that I would have written four more within the next three years. Sometimes I scare myself... It's a mixture of sadness and relief to close the gate at the end
- [The chaotic order of the Roma Nova series](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/03/22/the-chaotic-order-of-the-roma-nova-series/) - During a recent lively digital chat with cozy mystery author Debbie Young challenged me to list the Roma Nova stories in chronological order according to events and in the order they were written. As you may know, these sequences do not line up! I asked her if it was really necessary, but she gave me
- [So, Fräulein Barnes, vhat can you tell us?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/12/14/so-fraulein-barnes-vhat-can-you-tell-us/) - Today's guest, Denise Barnes, tells us not only about writing and her current novel, but how her year in Germany prompted her to write her hilarious book, from Bad to Wurst. How did you get started with writing? I’ve written since primary school; I wrote a chapter of a serial once a week and put
- [The end of book2](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/22/the-end-of-book2/) - No, I haven't killed off my second book. My self-edits are over and the typescript has gone to a beta reader. So what did the process involve? First of all, I check my event grid. This is my table of contents, a brief summary of events in each chapter; who says what to whom, what
- [Grammar Nazi or dilettante?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/12/16/grammar-nazi-or-dilettante/) - I'm reading a book at the moment full of "prithee, varlet" language. It's as irritating as Hades, but maybe that's just me. The atmosphere of fear is building, the characters are forming and the plot slowly emerging. But despite the over-elaborate language, the author's grammar is spot on. And that's what saves it. Writing is
- [Persecuting the Pagans](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/03/07/persecuting-the-pagans/) - Probably because of various Hollywood films, it's "general knowledge" that those nasty Romans spent all their time killing Christians. Well, no... Romans, for the most part, were comparatively tolerant in matters of religious belief and allowed countless religious sects, cults, saviours and redeemers to proselytise without restrictions. Most often, the local gods were integrated into
- ['Feeling' the Virunum Amphitheatre](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/06/17/feeling-the-virunum-amphitheatre/) - Last year, just before the launch of JULIA PRIMA, I wrote a post about Virunum, Julia's birthplace. After poring over research papers and reading Géza Alföldy's comprehensive and accessible Noricum, I was able to produce a reasonably informative piece for this blog. But... (You knew that was coming.) I had no 'feel' for Virunum. Yes,
- [Roman women in late antiquity - a slippery fish to catch](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/12/15/roman-women-in-late-antiquity-a-slippery-fish-to-catch/) - I set out to write a piece about women in the late Roman period - ambitious for a blog post I know, but I thought I could pull some threads out of a big subject and produce a digest. Not that easy, as I discovered... 'Late Antiquity' is a vague name for the period bridging classical antiquity
- [EXSILIUM  has been on tour](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/03/15/exsilium-has-been-on-tour/) - Even though I've been writing and publishing for nearly fourteen years, I'm still touched by the generosity, friendliness and willingness to collaborate of the writing community. Writing might be considered a solo task, but it's not. Launching a book certainly isn't. So here I want to publicly thank all those who have helped me launch
- [Who governs Roma Nova?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/07/who-governs-roma-nova/) - You may have gathered from the nine Roma Nova books that the small state has various bodies of government: head of state (imperatrix), upper house (senate), people’s assembly, local government (curia) offices, a legal system, a foreign ministry and other ministries, a strong diplomatic service, a central bank, army and police force (vigiles, later reformed as
- [Roma Novan heroines and gender pressure on men](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/02/26/roma-novan-heroines-and-gender-pressure-on-men/) - The Roma Nova heroines – Carina and Aurelia Mitela – are ‘tough gals’; dedicated, strong-willed, physically and mentally resilient and tied into their sense of history and duty. Underlying all this, their driving force is their self-belief. Carina, despite her disrupted childhood and separation from Roma Nova until she was twenty-four, has embraced Roma Novan
- [EXSILIUM published! What is it about a book launch?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/02/27/exsilium-published-what-is-it-about-a-book-launch/) - EXSILIUM is the eleventh in the Roma Nova series, thirteenth fiction and fifteenth full book that I've written. I'm not counting the four contributions to collections, although I should. ;-) My first Roma Nova story, INCEPTIO, came out in 2013 to a packed (standing room only at one stage) upper floor at Waterstone's in Tunbridge
- [Excerpt from EXSILIUM](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/02/26/excerpt-from-exsilium/) - Rome, September AD 392 [Lucius Apulius narrates. It's dawn and he's going to wish his friend and brother in arms, Gaius Mitelus, a good journey as Gaius goes off to join the rival emperor Eugenius's forces.] The Mitelus domus wasn’t far away, perched on the summit of the Mons Cispius, part of the Esquiline. The
- [Dealing with Rome - Always a tricky business...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/09/23/dealing-with-rome-always-a-tricky-business/) - When looking at Julia's home town of Virunum in an earlier post, I sketched lightly over Roman involvement. Never a good idea... Seriously, it was a long relationship lasting from the 2nd century BC through to the 5th century AD. Dealing with Rome The Celts of Noricum had discovered around 500 BC that their local
- [A passion for maps, and Julia's journey](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/11/18/a-passion-for-maps-and-julias-journey/) - I love maps. Even in the digital age, I still have a print road atlas. I was recently given an Ordnance Survey map of Roman Britain; I haven't seen one since I was a kid. And, yes, it did cost 7/6 in old money at a time when a standard OS map of your local
- [Can the Roma Nova thrillers be considered romantic?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/02/13/roma-nova-romantic/) - “I hate romantic fiction - I wouldn’t let my wife read it!” This was how one over-excited male member(!) of a writing group greeted my first pages of INCEPTIO where the heroine meets the hero. A real gladius point through my neck, but I toughed up like a true Roman and politely pointed out that
- [The Mysterious Youth of Magdalensberg](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/09/02/the-mysterious-youth-of-magdalensberg/) - When I was writing JULIA PRIMA, my research about her hometown of Virunum uncovered the story of the Youth of Magdalensberg (Der Jüngling vom Magdalensberg), an ancient Roman bronze statue dating to the first century BC. Now, Romans, statues – nothing new, you might think. There are thousands of them; we know the Romans left
- [Exile stories bag a great review from the HNS!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/02/12/exile-stories-bag-a-great-review-from-the-hns/) - Our group of authors contributing to Historical Stories of Exile was delighted to receive this warm review from the Historical Novel Society. I have to admit that I was particularly chuffed to see a special mention for my story 'My Sister' which features Marcellus Virus and his nightmare of a sister, Flavola, two characters who
- [Historical stories of Exile - A secret revealed!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/10/21/historical-stories-of-exile-a-secret-revealed/) - It's no longer a secret! In late summer, I wrote a story. I know, I'm always writing stories, but this one was written during a heatwave, in between Roman festivals and while I was knee deep in my new novel. I was invited to take part in a collaborative project called Historical Stories of EXILE –
- [Exile - what does it actually mean?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2024/02/01/exile-what-does-it-actually-mean/) - I expect we can all name a number of famous exiles without too much bother – Napoleon Bonaparte, Leon Trotsky, Benazir Bhutto, Roman poet Ovid, Marlene Dietrich, Aristotle, the von Trapp family, Albert Einstein, to name but a few. Exile is essentially a separation from your homeland and can be temporary or permanent. Sometimes it
- [Two Gold Medals!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/12/06/two-gold-medals/) - Completely unexpected, but thrilling news – two Roma Nova books have been given a gold medal each in the much esteemed Coffee Pot Book Club Book of the Year awards for historical fiction. Even I was rendered speechless for at least five minutes. This book club focuses on historical fiction across all sub-genres: JULIA PRIMA
- [Awards - do they mean anything?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/01/28/awards-do-they-mean-anything/) - When I began writing novels, I knew the value of recognition in the form of awards, prizes and third party endorsements; I'd owned and run a small business for over fifteen years and been very involved in the PR side of things. Recognition - the public acknowledgement of your ability, achievement, merits or services - is something most
- [Not all self-published work is grey in the night](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/06/15/not-all-self-published-work-is-grey-in-the-night/) - Not all self-published work is crap. Not all mainstream books are good. Many self-published works are excellent. Many mainstream books are dire. All true. But the demarcation between the two is blurring. A reader doesn't give a toss who produced a book they love. The things they do notice are rubbishy covers, unintelligible blurb, coarse,
- [Planes, trains and automobiles in Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/11/24/planes-trains-and-automobiles-in-roma-nova/) - Roman planes? Well no, but definitely Roma Novan ones. Air Roma Nova is the national carrier and mostly flies to other European capitals – Vienna, London, Paris, Rome – but also has a transatlantic service three times a week at the time of INCEPTIO. Like many smaller airports, PORTUS – Latin for port(!) – has
- [Exile - Thirteen historical authors tackle this thorny subject](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/11/11/exile-thirteen-historical-authors-tackle-this-thorny-subject/) - Today, I'm celebrating a book of beautifully written, poignant, triumphant, sad and personal stories of exile. Some end well, some brim with determination, others have a sad end or are personally satisfying. All will leave you wanting for more. I certainly went straight to buying several full-length books by my fellow authors even when I'd
- [Walking round Roman Emona](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/06/13/walking-round-roman-emona/) - After breaking out of Italy, Romans spread all over Europe. During the 1st century BC they looked north and east and a Roman military stronghold was built on the site of the present day Ljubljana in Slovenia. Construction of the Roman settlement of Emona (Colonia Iulia Aemona), fortified with strong walls, followed in AD 14.
- [Is it just a load of old stones and pots?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/06/03/is-it-just-a-load-of-old-stones-and-pots/) - Why do I insist on clambering over old stones, foundations, really, of buildings dating back 2,000 years? Or paving slabs, funny concrete, remnants of wall paintings or bits of mosaic? And looking at broken bits of pottery and metalwork? And sometimes staring at beautiful whole glass and marble creations that I can't possibly understand how
- [EXSILIUM cover reveal!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/11/04/exsilium-cover-reveal/) - Here it is! I'm delighted with this cover by Jessica Bell Design for EXSILIUM, the sequel to JULIA PRIMA. It's always exciting talking through the cover concepts and considering the first ideas that Jessica produces. She always happy to work through any changes or adjustments, but also saves me from having mad ideas! EXSILIUM (unsurprisingly
- [An apology and light at the end of the tunnel – EXSILIUM](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/10/16/an-apology-and-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-exsilium/) - To my horror, I spotted that I hadn't written a post since September. You have my apologies, my sincere ones. But I have a good excuse. Well, I think it's a good excuse. I've been in the last quarter of the 4th century (again!) but this time at the very end – the crunch time
- [Unlock your secret writing weapon: your memory](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/02/22/unlock-your-secret-writing-weapon-your-memory/) - Writing a romance, thriller, historical, whodunit, sci-fi adventure? Whichever it is, it's a depressing thought, but all the stories have been done before. There are only supposed to be seven plots: man vs. nature man and woman/man man vs. society man vs. machines/technology man vs. the supernatural man vs. self man vs. God ('man' obviously
- [Could this be what Roma Nova looks like?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/09/11/could-this-be-what-roma-nova-looks-like/) - When I placed Roma Nova, the setting for the Carina and Aurelia adventures, in 'Central Europe' (wherever that is), it was vaguely based on Austria and Slovenia. I was lucky enough to visit both countries this year (2023) and see some wonderful Roman archaeology. But what about the landscape – the places where people lived,
- [INCEPTIO 10th Anniversary hardback](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/02/16/inceptio-10th-anniversary-hardback/) - Yes, it's ten years since INCEPTIO burst into the world. For some full-on nostalgia, here's what happened in 2013 when it launched at Tunbridge Wells Waterstones with broadcaster SueCook speaking. Ten years is a long time for a book. Many don't make it into bookshops at all. Some only survive there for six weeks. The
- [New ebook omnibus editions now available!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/12/09/new-ombnibus-editions-now-available/) - The four stories of each Roma Nova heroine in their own new ebook box set Buy from: Amazon Apple Kobo B&N Nook Buy from: Amazon Apple Kobo B&N Nook The previous three volume box sets – INCEPTIO/PERFIDITAS/SUCCESSIO and AURELIA/INSURRECTIO/RETALIO – have now been updated and enhanced to include the novellas CARINA
- [Colchester Roman Festival - wind and all](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/08/04/colchester-roman-festival-wind-and-all/) - Yes, they let us back to the second Roman festival in Colchester (Camulodonum for Romans) on 29 and 30 July. The 'old crowd of authors – Simon Turney (S J A Turney), Ruth Downie, Alex Gough, Harry Sidebottom, L J Trafford, Mary Jarratt, Robin Price and I from last year were enhanced by historian, author
- [Amazon is not the only way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/01/05/amazon-is-not-the-only-way/) - Readers buy books from many places; paperbacks from 'bricks and mortar' bookshops, airports, souvenir shops at visitor sites, at events, launches, the charity shop, from the author direct as well as online. As for ebooks, there seems no end to the number and variety of e-tailers, the dominant one being Amazon. Sometimes we forget that Amazon is not
- [Writing a prequel - revealing secrets](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/06/01/writing-a-prequel-revealing-roma-nova-secrets/) - AURELIA, the fourth Roma Nova thriller, is out in the world now and drawing lovely compliments and reviews in the UK and from the US. Keep ‘em coming! One question I’ve been asked as a guest on blogs during May is why the story of Aurelia Mitela, and why the 1960s? Two things, really. Firstly, we
- [AURELIA - Editor's Choice at the Historical Novel Society](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/08/02/aurelia-editors-choice-at-the-historical-novel-society/) - High whoops as I discovered that AURELIA had been selected as an indie Editor's Choice when this quarter's Historical Novel Society's reviews were released on 1 August. To be chosen for an HNS review is the first step; not every book gets past this stage. To receive a good review from this well-respected society is wonderful. To be
- [AURELIA - Shortlisted for the 2016 Historical Novel Society Indie Award](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/01/01/aurelia-shortlisted-for-the-2016-historical-novel-society-indie-award/) - Oh yes! 2016 has begun in a spectacular way and I'm not talking about fireworks. AURELIA, the fourth Roma Nova thriller, first in a new cycle of adventures featuring Praetorian and imperial councillor Aurelia Mitela, has been shortlisted for the 2016 HNS Indie Award. *Jumps up and down with silly grin on face.* When AURELIA was selected
- [INSURRECTIO - Roma Nova V cover reveal!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/02/20/insurrectio-roma-nova-v-cover-reveal/) - Delighted to release the blurb and front cover for the next book in the Roma Nova alternate history thriller series! ‘The second fall of Rome?’ Aurelia Mitela, ex-Praetorian and imperial councillor in Roma Nova, scoffs at her intelligence chief when he throws a red file on her desk. But 1980s Roma Nova, the last province
- [Thriller, mystery, action adventure, suspense, or what?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/02/27/thriller-mystery-action-adventure-suspense-or-what/) - What's in a genre? More precisely, what's the difference between the genres in the title? Are there any hard lines between them? And what do we, as readers, get from each of them? Action stories feature a lot of movement-heavy exciting scenes including but not limited to fights, shootouts, car chases, foot chases, explosions, fast flying
- [Going Roman in Eboracum 2023](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/07/19/going-roman-in-eboracum-2023/) - What a fantastic weekend! Despite the rain on the Saturday, the atmosphere among the authors and reenactors was warm at the Eborcum Roman Festival. Many 'Fantastic to see/meet you's and 'Love your new costume's went along with 'Have you brought your new book with you?'s. Regulars such as Simon Turney, Ruth Downie, LJ Trafford and
- [A visit to Mediolanum Santonum (Saintes, France)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/09/18/a-visit-to-mediolanum-santonum-saintes-france/) - Having had my trip to 'Roma Nova' cancelled in June, I was thirsty for some Roman input. But it's not easy going on a trip in the middle of a raging world pandemic. However Saintes, in Charente Maritime, is only two hours by fast autoroute from where I live and still in the green zone
- [Alternative history isn’t just about Nazis!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/03/31/alternative-history-isnt-just-about-nazis/) - The Man in the High Castle (original story by Philip K Dick, 1962) and SS-GB (Len Deighton, 1978) have been the most prominent ‘what if’s on the screen recently. Apart from the terrific production values, these stories gripped our imaginations as the most horrific thing that could have happened to Western Europe/America in the modern
- [So, alternate history?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/07/27/so-alternate-history/) - What if the Nazis had won the Second World War (Fatherland - Robert Harris, The Man in the High Castle - Philip K Dick) or England had remained Catholic (Pavane - Keith Roberts, The Alteration - Kingsley Amis) or if Alaska rather than Israel had become the Jewish homeland (The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael
- [Roma Nova - a thought experiment?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/04/10/roma-nova-a-thought-experiment/) - Travel in the mind is a very popular concept at present as the Covid-19 global pandemic has put a stop to the great flow of personal physical travel. But even before that it was an idea familiar to writers. Indeed, blogger and podcaster Joanna Penn invited me to talk about Roma Nova as a place
- [Is the hardback's day done?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/03/25/is-the-hardbacks-day-done/) - Okay, I have an interest in this as the new special edition hardback of INCEPTIO came out in March. But the wish to mark a point in my book journey set me off thinking... Dangerous, I know! Traditional publishers bring out a hardback before the paperback as it's more profitable and they can recoup their
- [You have to know history before you can 'alternate' it](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/03/06/you-have-to-know-history-before-you-can-alternate-it/) - To write alternative history with authenticity, it's helpful to be as well-versed and researched as an author writing a more conventional historical novel. Let me unpick that... Alternate (or alternative) history is based on the premise that the standard timeline diverged at a certain point and followed a different path. In my Roma Nova stories,
- [Virunum – Julia's home town](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/08/15/virunum-julias-home-town/) - Julia Bacausa’s home city of Virunum, or more formally, Municipium Claudium Virunum, was founded under Emperor Claudius (AD 41–54) as the capital of the province of Noricum which covered more or less today’s Austria and northern Slovenia. It’s gone, but there are some fascinating ruins you can visit today. Virunum lay in the valley below
- [Coronae, acclamations and crowning](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/05/07/coronae-acclamations-and-crowning/) - According to legend, early Rome was ruled by kings (reges) from 753-509 BC. Apparently. Every country needs a foundation legend, however lost in the mists it may be. The king was said to have possessed absolute power over the people; no one could rule over him. The senate was a weak oligarchy, capable of exercising
- [Roma Nova trip was cancelled but now rebooked!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/05/08/roma-nova-trip-cancelled/) - (This post dates originally from 2020 – rinsed and repeated for 2021 and 2022, but the good news is that I AM going there in May/June 2023!) At last! I was going to Roma Nova for my holiday in June; from 8-23 June 2020 to be precise. Okay, I confess, not exactly Roma Nova –
- ["Valuable" research at the British Museum](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/04/22/valuable-research-at-the-british-museum/) - During my visit to the UK, I went for my usual research day at the British Museum. This time, I was looking at Roman jewellery, specifically Late Antiquity/early Eastern Roman (Byzantine). While fashions change as new cultural preferences develop, no one historical period suddenly stops and another begins. People were still wearing a tunic as
- [Launch!  INCEPTIO special edition hardback is now out!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/03/28/launch-inceptio-special-edition-hardback-is-now-out/) - Well, here it is. It's a big project for me – a celebration of 10 years publishing in a niche part of the book world. Although the 'alternative history' label could put people off, a thriller is a thriller is a thriller. But essentially, INCEPTIO is a story of people; young/old, tough/sensitive, daft/clever, thoroughly bad/honourable
- [Alternate history and the butterfly of doom](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/12/26/alternate-history-and-the-butterfly-of-doom/) - A butterfly in the Amazon jungle makes that little extra flutter of its wings and a few weeks later there's a storm or even a hurricane in the Caribbean that wrecks cities. That's a little crudely put, but this is the idea behind Edward Lorenz's chaos theory. In reality, the butterfly's flapping wing is just
- [What I did in Waterstones...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/08/23/what-i-did-in-waterstones/) - During my trip this month to the UK I spoke on the Geek Feminism panel and sold books at the NineWorlds conference and did a live interview on BBC Radio Kent. Always good fun! But I couldn't help popping into Waterstones Tunbridge Wells to talk about the launch date for the next book, PERFIDITAS. Oh yes,
- [A ROYAL report for INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/08/a-royal-report-for-inceptio/) - I've just received this scanned report in ROYAL magazine of the INCEPTIO launch at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells. What a superb write-up. And yes, we had fun! Deepest thanks to Sarah Bond who wrote it, Gaynor Edwards who masterminded the PR for the evening and the Kent & Sussex Courier ROYAL team for the beautiful production.
- [Clearing up confusion about the Roma Nova series...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/08/29/clearing-up-confusion-about-the-roma-nova-series/) - Many moons ago, I wrote a book, then a sequel and what I thought was the third of a trilogy. Set in the 'present', they featured a young woman, Carina Mitela, who had been brought up for the first part of her life as Karen Brown in the Eastern United States. INCEPTIO gave us a story of
- [Surprise (and pleasure) at a woman leading the action?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/12/06/surprise-and-pleasure-at-a-woman-leading-the-action/) - Recently, I attended a fair near where I live in southwest France. I chatted with local English friends, met real ones who had only been Facebook friends until then and made new ones. I had a fascinating discussion about Romans in France with a French philosophy teacher who also talked about the different English and
- [Alternate History Short Stories - It's out!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/03/02/alternate-history-short-stories-its-out/) - Last year, I was approached by Flame Tree Publishing to write the foreword to their new collection of alternate history short stories. I was deeply honoured as well as flabbergasted. Their collections are terrific! Now, I've been writing in the 'althist' sub-genre for over ten years. Yes, the Roma Nova stories are thrillers first and
- [RNA Conference pictures](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/07/28/rna-conference-pictures/) - Although it seems ages ago, the Romantic Novelists' Association Conference was only a couple of weeks ago! It took place at the Harper Adams University, a renowned agricultural college near Telford, Shropshire - a beautiful setting, plus a light whiff from the animal areas! Needless to say, our meals had the shortest food mileage ever and were
- [Indie authors united!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/27/indie-authors-united/) - Foyles Bristol was the venue for joining up with around thirty other SilverWood Books authors, plus a crowd of writers eager to learn about getting their books to publication. The writing and publishing open day was brilliantly organised by Helen Hart and her SilverWood team and run jointly with Rob Norton events supervisor at Foyles.
- [What inspired Roma Nova?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/10/11/what-inspired-roma-nova/) - I'm often asked this when I do interviews, talks or simply chatting to readers, but I don't think I've ever put it all in one place on this my own blog. Well, three things! The first was when I was on holiday in north-east Spain one summer. Here's the story... A small child, curls bobbing
- [JULIA PRIMA gets a top notch accolade from the HNS!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2023/02/02/julia-prima-gets-a-top-notch-accolade-from-the-hns/) - The Historical Novel Society has just released its batch of new reviews and JULIA PRIMA has not only been given a stonking review ("stunning"!), but also selected as Editors' Choice! https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/julia-prima-roma-nova-thriller-series/ It's a pleasure to have your book reviewed in the Historical Novels Review – a sign that the reviewers enjoyed your book, found it
- [Io Saturnalia! One big party or the ancestor of Christmas?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/12/17/io-saturnalia-one-big-party-or-the-ancestor-of-christmas/) - Saturnalia was THE most important Roman festival. Heavy on feasting, fun and gifts, it was originally celebrated in Ancient Rome for only a day around 17 December (today!), but it was so popular it expanded into a week or even longer, despite Augustus' efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula's, to five. Like
- [Pleb or patrician?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/14/pleb-or-patrician/) - In the past year in the UK, there has been a lot of talk on the news about "plebs". I'm not offering any comment on that, but listening to media reports and reading social media gossip, I started to wonder if people knew where the terms came from. Ah! It's those pesky Romans again. So
- [Vive Roma Nova!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/11/08/vive-roma-nova/) - In October, I was interviewed by the regional press La Nouvelle République. As soon as I received the email from the reporter, I dashed into town to grab a paper copy. Now I expected an eighth page at the bottom of the page. I'm an English author writing in English , even though I've lived
- [Julia's dilemma – Roman families, marriage and divorce in Late Antiquity](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/08/25/julias-dilemma-roman-families-marriage-and-divorce-in-late-antiquity/) - Our heroine Julia Bacausa’s problem in JULIA PRIMA is that she is caught between Roman law and Christian dogma; divorced legally under the first, but bound to her unpleasant (ex-) husband under the second. The late Roman family inherited its basic form from the high empire. Monogamy was a strong cultural value, whatever the personal
- [Double authors turn to crime](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/02/01/double-authors-turn-to-crime/) - Off on tour! Well, a virtual one. And it's a double one shared with renowned historical fiction writer, Helen Hollick! So far, so normal... Or is it? The backstory You know me as the author of the Roma Nova thrillers featuring heroines Carina and Aurelia in four books each. Basically, what if an Ancient Roman
- [JULIA PRIMA  is out today!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/08/23/julia-prima-is-out-today/) - And here's where you can see more... Readers have urged me to tell the foundation story of Roma Nova. this meant jumping on a time machine and going back to the 4th century. (Channelling H G Wells...) Not really, but it meant writing standard, straight historical fiction. And I loved it! I burble on about
- [JULIA PRIMA – Two excerpts](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/08/18/julia-prima-two-excerpts/) - From the Prologue – Siro, a tribesman from across the Danube border speaks... The tips of the oars paddle the water softly at each stroke. Rain obscures our passage as we cross the fast-flowing river. In the dark night, the only things I see are the steersman’s eyes in his blurred face. He’s swinging his
- [Colchester Roman Festival 2022 - The first one ever!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/08/08/colchester-roman-festival-2022-the-first-one-ever/) - Yes, it was Roman festival time again, this time Colchester, or Camulodonum on 30 and 31 July, organised by Food and Drink Festivals UK. Authors Simon Turney (S J A Turney), Ruth Downie, Alex Gough, Harry Sidebottom, L J Trafford, Mary Jarratt, Robin Price and I met some wonderful readers, talked Romans and signed books.
- [Roman CAPITALS](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/31/roman-capitals/) - Writing guest posts, emails and tweets about INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO and AURELIA, I've been asked why I write the titles in capitals. Some bloggers and respondees have written the book names with title case, e.g. Inceptio, Perfiditas and I've gently pointed out that it's not quite correct. So here's the reason...I’m not SHOUTING, but following classical Roman
- [Eboracum Roman Festival 2022](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/07/03/eboracum-roman-festival-2022/) - Hooray! Last weekend, after all the doubts about it happening, the festival celebrating Roman York was back. Romans everywhere, including a march through the city, kids staring goggle-eyed, adults fascinated by weapons, surveying, dyeing, medical practice, letter writing, cooking – all in the Roman way. And the sun shone on us. Two days of fun,
- [JULIA  first draft is finished!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/04/25/julia-first-draft-is-finished/) - Oh, the joy and the relief of finishing the first draft of a new book! Along with a sense of achievement comes a feeling of numbness. You've completed the story. No more sitting at the keyboard ready to plunge into the book world and typing to find out what happens next. No more writing (hopefully
- [York and the Romans](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/06/28/york-and-the-romans/) - I've been in York this weekend for the Eboracum Roman Festival. I'll be blogging about that next but on the Friday before I indulged in some historical tourism and visited the Yorkshire Museum. Eboracum was a fort in the Roman province of Britannia and, at its height, the largest town in northern Britain. The site
- [JULIA PRIMA - cover reveal!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/06/20/julia-prima-cover-reveal/) - Opening the email from cover designer Jessica Bell is exciting. But the moment I click to open the image file itself brings feelings of joy, fear, anticipation and hope. When it opens on the screen, I am enveloped in wonder and admiration. There's the heroine. There's her determination, her own fear, her courage. Here is
- [The Romans are coming to York!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/06/13/the-romans-are-coming-to-york/) - Yes, it's the time of year the Romans invade York. Along with the governor of Britannia and the mighty marching men of six legions (escaping from their humdrum 21st century lives) come a load of riff-raff and camp followers including a bunch of scribblers. But the good news is that these are nine of the
- [How to look like a Roma Novan Praetorian](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/06/20/how-to-look-like-a-roma-novan-praetorian/) - Egged on (albeit genteely) by fellow authors going to the 2019 Eboracum Roman Festival, I decided to try and put together the kind of uniform worn by Carina and Aurelia during their service in the Praetorian Guard Special Forces in Roma Nova. Others were wearing Roman dress of the period of their books so for
- [Action, adventure and ripping yarns](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/09/27/action-adventure-and-ripping-yarns/) - Boldly going? Adrenaline rush? Stepping in harm's way? When events or series of events explode into a character's ordinary life and are accompanied by a hefty dash of danger, often by physical action and a chunk of emotional stress, then you're in an adventure story. And they're not just for children, as we have seen in the Roma
- [What did Eboracum Roman Festival do for me?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/06/05/what-did-eboracum-roman-festival-do-for-me/) - Apologies to Monty Python for cannibalising their line, but what was a Roma Novan doing at the Roman festival last weekend in York? Being Roman, that’s what. Three days of immersed in Roman life and not having to explain that you are slightly crazy. Three days of sharing, laughing and learning about our favourite time
- [Confronting my first novel...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/07/27/confronting-my-first-novel/) - When I starting this scribbling business in 2009, I wrote the second part of my trilogy first. I didn't know I had at the time. I sat down one morning in front of my computer and typed for three months. As a professional translator, I knew it would have to edit anything I produced. I
- [2016 London Book Fair - launch, listen and learn](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/16/2016-london-book-fair-launch-listen-and-learn/) - So, 2016 London Book Fair. What a blast! As I sit on a train heading towards the Kent countryside for a few days’ recuperation, I’m trying to round up my brains. It’s a good thing we take photos, or I’d lose track. INSURRECTIO, the fifth Roma Nova thriller, was due to be launched on the Tuesday,
- [Romans and steampunk?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/06/14/romans-and-steampunk/) - Today, I don't only have a guest, I'm actually swapping blogs with Daniel Ottalini, another 'Roman nut' but with a difference... Daniel Ottalini is the author of The Steam Empire Series, a fantastical Roman and steampunk story brought to life in his debut novel, Brass Legionnaire. Daniel has been an avid reader all his life,
- [Reasons for the fall of Rome?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/03/21/reasons-for-the-fall-of-rome/) - Discussion of the the reasons for the 'fall' of the Western Roman Empire will go on forever and everybody will have their pet one. The classic book is The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. Rome didn't 'fall' it one cataclysmic day, week,
- [The Alternation of Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/08/15/the-alternation-of-rome/) - Rome fascinates us, bewitches us even in the high tech 21st century. It stretched for over 1229 years, it reached the heights (occasionally depths) of military achievement, produced the social, cultural and legal framework for the entire Western world, gave us its engineering genius and left us a richness in architecture, power politics, literature and
- [The Domain of Soissons - a Roman remnant](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/08/05/the-domain-of-soissons-a-roman-remnant/) - The Roman Empire didn’t ‘fall’ in a cataclysmic event as the movies and TV would have you believe – it localised and eventually dissolved like chain mail fragmenting into separate links, giving way to rump states, local city states and petty kingdoms. New, dynamic and often warring nations emerged - Goths, Franks, Alamans and Burgundians. But
- [Publishing the Roman way...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/16/publishing-the-roman-way/) - Money-­making booksellers, exploited and impoverished authors, celebrity book launches and the danger of writing controversily. Sound familiar? Although without the current technology of print-on-demand, digital publishing, even the lithographic or moveable type of not so long ago, the Roman world had a thriving publishing industry. Production was by teams of slaves (and some freedmen) who
- [NEXUS starts in (Roman) London...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/09/11/nexus-starts-in-london/) - At the beginning of NEXUS, set in the 1970s in the alternative timeline of Roma Nova, Aurelia Mitela is filling in as interim London nuncia (ambassador). She has the connections, she knows how to navigate the diplomatic and political waters, she's served in London before as political officer. The most dangerous thing is getting 'volunteered'
- [Off on the road to Rome...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/02/15/off-on-the-road-to-rome/) - When I recommended The History of Rome (THOR) podcast last December I had no idea that I would be joining the official THOR tour which starts in 10 days, on 24 February. I was listening to the regular podcast, wishing I could be there, but the application date had passed and I hadn't any pennies
- [Rome and the wolf](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/11/14/rome-and-the-wolf/) - The shocking news that the icon of Rome's foundation, a life-size bronze statue of a she-wolf with two human infants suckling her, is about 1,700 years younger than its city hit the headlines this summer. Scholars had long established that the bronze figures of Romulus and Remus feeding from their adopted wolf mother were added
- [The world of CARINA](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/12/08/the-world-of-carina/) - CARINA launched as an ebook in November amid lovely comments, tweets and posts and reviews are starting to accumulate (Exciting!). It's now available in print (Even more exciting!). Carina visits a number of places when she is sent to North America to carry out an important mission. It's not altogether a pleasant experience for her as she
- [Being a contributor: historical short story collections](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/12/27/being-a-contributor-historical-short-story-collections/) - You write a novel, say 80-90,000 words. It goes through a writing and editing process, acquires a cover, gets published and marketed. And hopefully, the money starts trickling in, at least to cover the cost of production and possibly some additional revenue. Shocking fact: 95% of writers don't make a lot of money. So why, when
- [Helen Hollick and stepping into alternative lives](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/01/20/helen-hollick-alternative-lives/) - As you’ve seen with the Roma Nova adventures, the whole idea of history taking an alternative path fascinates many people. I was delighted to be invited to join with a group of other authors a little while ago to explore that unique year in English history – 1066. Although there had been mingling of cultures
- [The next full-length Roma Nova story](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/08/31/the-next-full-length-roma-nova-story/) - Now I'm going back in time to AD 370... The Roma Nova series has two main strands: one with four books set in the 21st century featuring Carina Mitela and the other set between the late 1960s to early 1980s featuring Aurelia Mitela. The short story collection ROMA NOVA EXTRA includes a couple of stories
- [Short stories about Betrayal](https://www.alison-morton.com/2022/01/04/short-stories-about-betrayal/) - Do you ever wish things might have turned out differently in the past, or that we could know all those enticing titbits of hidden history? In all the short story collections I've participated in, I've always written on this theme. So in the two previous posts about short stories, we've looked at alternative outcomes to
- [Ave fabulae breves! (Let's hear it for Roman short stories)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/12/31/ave-fabulae-breves-lets-hear-it-for-roman-short-stories/) - In my previous post, I outlined four good reasons for joining with other writers to produce a book of short stories. an opportunity to stretch your writing muscles fun to join in a project with writing colleagues (new and old) a chance to strut your stuff to their readers and beyond sometimes you make a
- [Always expect the unexpected - Filofax](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/12/13/always-expect-the-unexpected-filofax/) - Did you ever own a Filofax or other personal organiser? Do you still own one? Contrary (perhaps) to popular belief, it's still going as an effective time management and even life management tool. A super-enthusiastic community worldwide is extremely active and knowledgeable. You may also ask how I and this blog about Romans and thrillers
- [How Filofax kept me organised at the RNA Conference](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/07/29/how-filofax-kept-me-organised-at-the-rna-conference/) - Remember Filofax? Like many people in the 1980s, I toted a black, approx A5 sized leather folder which not only contained my diary, notes and address book, but also expenses sheets, stamp and card holders, to do lists, maps, vocabulary lists - in short, my life. Came the electronic revolution, I waved it bye-bye. The
- [Historical research – it's a hard road.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/12/09/historical-research-its-a-hard-road/) - Drafting my new Roma Nova story set in the fourth century is slow, glacially slow at times. I know Roma Nova, I know its 'history', but when you get down to the nitty gritty of writing in a time and place that's completely alien, you need to check everything. And I mean everything. Every book
- [Double Pursuit is on its way...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/09/30/double-pursuit-is-on-its-way/) - If you fancy reading what happened next to Mel/Mélisende, you might like to highlight 19 October in your diary. That's publication date for Double Pursuit. (Yay!) Of course, you could always pre-order the ebook at this very moment. ;-) Ebook: Amazon Kobo B&N Nook Apple or even the paperback: Barnes & Noble UPDATE October 2021:
- [Excerpt from Double Pursuit](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/10/11/excerpt-from-double-pursuit/) - Mel turned over in the bed trying to find a cool spot. Even the thin cotton sheet felt hot and heavy. Her skin was damp with light sweat; everywhere, especially in her groin and under her breasts. Rome in a heatwave was purgatory. Not so much the temperature – she’d experienced over 40°C every day
- [From SilverWood to Pulcheria – Roma Nova steps out](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/01/16/from-silverwood-to-pulcheria/) - When I typed the last word of the first draft of INCEPTIO in 2009 I didn’t have a clue what to do with it. After advice, professional assessment, and submitting to a lot of agents whose response was “great concept, great story, great writing – not sure I could sell it” I decided to go
- [Mel and the Mediterranean](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/10/14/mel-and-the-mediterranean/) - (There is Roman stuff.) Mel/Mélisende does a lot of travelling round in Double Pursuit, often on the TGV (train grande vitesse) the high speed train famous in France. At a critical stage, she has to interview 'a person of interest' in Montpellier, a beautiful city, only eleven kilometres from the Mediterranean. One of the most
- [I've joined the Crime Writers' Association!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/10/16/ive-joined-the-crime-writers-association/) - I'm delighted to announce that I've been accepted into the Crime Writers' Association. You can guess what its members do... Ever since INCEPTIO, since Karen Brown was targeted, kidnapped and threatened, there has been crime running through the Roma Nova thrillers. Our heroine even served as a policewoman, or custos as they say in Roma
- [Poitou – Mélisende's ancient homeland](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/01/04/poitou-melisendes-ancient-homeland/) - In Double Identity, Mel’s surname – des Pittones – is based on the Pictones, a Celtic tribe in ancient Gaul, a tribe that gave its name to Poitou in western France. And her family has been settled in the area for hundreds and hundreds of years. So it was extremely tempting to make her surname
- ["Let me entertain you" with Double Pursuit](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/10/19/let-me-entertain-you-with-double-pursuit/) - I write because I want to entertain and intrigue people. I love telling a story and doing puzzles. Today, I've published my eleventh fiction book. That's enough about me! But I do hope you find Double Pursuit entertaining. It isn't the 'Great British Novel' although I hope it's a bit more than a fluffy wham-bang
- [Brussels, but not as you may know it...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/10/07/brussels-but-not-as-you-may-know-it/) - (There are even Romans in this post!) What comes to mind when somebody says ‘Brussels’? The EU, Grand-Place, Manneken Pis, the Atomium or perhaps its cultural institutions such as La Monnaie/De Munt and the Museums of Art and History. Due to its long tradition of Belgian comics, Brussels is also known as a capital of
- [A new look for Double Identity](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/09/11/a-new-look-for-double-identity/) - With Double Pursuit, the sequel to Double Identity coming out in October, I asked Jessica Bell Design to tweak the cover of the first book to match the fabulous new design for Double Pursuit. That will be on this site very soon! Mel has a strong personality, so I thought she should come out of
- [Roma Nova on Jo Frances Penn's Books and Travel podcast](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/03/05/roma-nova-on-jo-frances-penns-books-and-travel-podcast/) - Travel is a wide concept. It doesn't just mean trotting up the steps to a plane or sitting back looking out of a train window, or even visiting entrancing and exotic places. Travel can be in the mind, across hundreds or possibly thousands of years, into other realities and mentalities, even into an alternative time.
- [Nero: The man behind the  myth exhibition at the British Museum](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/08/17/nero-the-man-behind-the-myth-exhibition-at-the-british-museum/) - "Nero is known as one of Rome's most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty, debauchery and madness. The last male descendant of the emperor Augustus, Nero succeeded to the throne in AD 54 aged just 16 and died a violent death at 30. His turbulent rule saw momentous events including the Great Fire of Rome,
- [The next Mélisende thriller is on its way!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/08/06/the-next-melisende-thriller-is-on-its-way/) - Confession time... I've been so absorbed in writing that I've neglected this blog. That's a tad unsatisfactory. However, I have been entertaining some fascinating 'writers abroad' on my writing blog. I included myself but all the links are there to writers in Spain, France, Switzerland, Sweden who use their transferred homeland for inspiration. Of course,
- [Limonum or Lemonum? (Poitiers to you and me)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/10/07/limonum-or-lemonum-poitiers-to-you-and-me/) - Earlier this week I took an afternoon off and went visiting Romans in Poitiers, about an hour's drive south of where I live. France is rich in Roman archaeology and you can trip over remains in almost every town even if the experts can't quite agree the site of the signature battle of Alésia! Despite
- [Conquest, occupation, resistance, liberation](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/05/31/conquest-occupation-resistance-liberation/) - Seeing this title, many people immediately think of the Second World War in Europe – the fall of France in 1940, the harsh German occupation, the bravery of the resistance and the Allied liberation in 1944/45. In the Far East, it was as brutal, but in a different context. Life under occupation for most people
- [Anna Reviews: PERFIDITAS by Alison Morton](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/07/28/anna-reviews-perfiditas-by-alison-morton/) - Sometimes, somebody writes a review that knocks your socks off. Sometimes it's about a book that YOU wrote. I submitted PERFIDITAS to 'The Review'. Read what happened... Anna Reviews: Perfiditas by Alison Morton Review by Anna Belfrage To write alternative history carries some likeness to writing fantasy, in that the world creation is a fundamental part of
- [So what does SUCCESSIO mean to me?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/26/so-what-does-successio-mean-to-me/) - Writing a book is hard work but a privilege. Sitting down, slogging away, oblivious to neck and shoulders becoming rigid, you ignore the blurring eyes, the ache creeping up over the crown of your head because you are lost in the imaginary country of your book's world. Your characters smell the pines, shiver at the fresh mountain air
- [Ampurias - one of the inspirations for Roma Nova’s existence](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/03/14/ampurias-one-of-the-inspirations-for-roma-novas-existence/) - A small child, curls bobbing on a head she’s forgotten to cover with the sunhat her mother insists on, crouches down on a Roman mosaic floor in north-east Spain. Mesmerised by the purity of the black and white pattern, the craftsmanship and the tiny marble squares, she almost doesn’t hear her father calling her to
- [Book trailers – a good idea?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/03/19/book-trailers-a-good-idea/) - If it doesn't display properly (sigh) click here: https://youtu.be/DpBVLxTGrQ0 Last week, I released the book trailer for my new novel INSURRECTIO due out on 12 April. Hooray! But are they worth the effort of making them or the cost of commissioning them? And do readers watch them? A trailer is basically a short video introducing
- [RETALIO - the book trailer is here!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/08/retalio-the-book-trailer-is-here/) -  https://youtu.be/vsmszrYXyXQ Yes, the book trailer (with the exciting music) is now on YouTube. Enjoy! Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy,
- [The Aurelia/Caius grudge match](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/26/the-aurelia-caius-grudge-match/) - "Dramatis personae" – you may have seen this at the top of the cast list in those plays you read at school. "Personae" is Latin for people and "dramatis" means of the drama or play. For the Roma Nova novels, it seems entirely appropriate in a world of people who are definitely dramatic! So who are the
- [Swedes and Romans](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/06/17/swedes-and-romans/) - Visiting Sweden on holiday recently was personally enormous fun, especially as my hostess was the ABBA singing historical fiction writer Anna Belfrage. But in a way it was spooky. Something was missing - big time. Sweden brims over with history and its impact on my home country can't be underestimated; half of Britain has its
- [Location, location, location](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/04/26/location-location-location/) - Readers who are kind enough to write reviews for my stories have often mentioned the settings. You can see (speculative) views of Roma Nova here. But Double Identity is set in the 'real' world. I've changed the names of some buildings, but kept their characteristics. 'Friars Green' Police Station Modelled on the former Paddington Green
- [Seven Roman sites you might like...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/03/31/seven-roman-sites-you-might-like/) - I've clambered over, through or on a fair bit of Roman Europe. Let me share a few with you... My first Roman mosaic floor, Ampurias/Empúries, Catalonia I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and touching. The tiny exquisite tile pieces, the faultless geometric patterns, the vast expanse of it and the stunning setting by the Mediterranean
- [A note for those subscribed to the blog by email](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/04/15/a-note-for-those-subscribed-to-the-blog-by-email/) - If you subscribed to this blog by email, you probably used a little sign up box which was managed by Feedburner (owned by Google). Well, Feedburner/Google have decided to stop this ‘subscribe by email’ service. :-( If you wish to continue following my blog by receiving an email when something (hopefully exciting and interesting) appears
- [Historically logical or completely bonkers? The sliding scale of alternative history](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/23/historically-logical-or-completely-bonkers-the-sliding-scale-of-alternative-history/) - Basically, alternate history is a type of speculative fiction where stories are set in a world where historical events have unfolded differently from the way they did in the real world. The event that changed history (point of divergence or PoD) must be in the past from when the story is set and have affected
- [Changing a book cover  and admitting your mistake – CARINA: a case study](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/04/05/new-look-for-carina/) - CARINA seems to be a fidgety type, just like her namesake main character and has just gone through a transformation similar to the one our heroine goes through in her first story, INCEPTIO. In 2019, I decided that the Roma Nova series needed a make-over as the prominent eagle motif had been around since 2013. Times
- [Why is CARINA (just) a novella?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/11/17/why-is-carina-just-a-novella/) - Good question! I'll try and explain... We're still in Roma Nova, the remnant of the Roman Empire that has toughed it out into the modern age. It's an alternative 21st century with many aspects exactly the same as in our own timeline, but some are very very different; Praetorian Guards for one. They guard the
- [All change at Roma Nova!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/01/22/all-change-at-roma-nova-2/) - “I knew it was one of your books – you have such a strong brand.” This kind reader tweeted this a year ago and my little heart swelled. The gold futuristic eagle on a dark background had spread its wings everywhere. Scroll back to 2013. Excited in the run-up to the publication of INCEPTIO,
- [Double Identity has had itchy feet...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/03/16/double-identity-getting-itchy-feet/) - Is it really fair? Double Identity went on tour round a series of respected blog hosts and I've been stuck at home, curfewed at 7pm. Well, that's what we have to do at present. But where has lucky Double Identity gone? Here's her road trip and some of the complimentary things her hosts said. Click
- [Tough heroines](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/12/tough-heroines/) - ‘Tough’, ‘feisty’, ‘kick-ass’ - clichés, ironic or signposts? And, provocative question, would you apply them to men? Perhaps the first one and possibly the third, but I can’t remember reading about a ‘feisty hero’. That aside, how do you recognise a tough heroine? Boudica, queen of the British Iceni tribe - led an uprising against
- [100 years of women at war (in uniform)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/07/07/100-years-of-women-at-war-in-uniform/) - It's been a hundred years since women were allowed(!) to join the armed forces in the UK. I was very proud of serving my six years and doing all sorts of exciting and interesting things! Of course, women have been attached to or even commanded armies and navies in historic times since at least the
- [Roma Nova is not forgotten!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/01/28/roma-nova-is-not-forgotten/) - I had a message from a Roma Nova fan in distress the other day. He's bought Double Identity (for which I thanked him). He said he was enjoying it immensely, but he fervently hoped this new book didn't mean Roma Nova had disappeared like the Roman Empire itself. I reassured him – a new Roma
- [Double Identity awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/03/04/double-identity-awarded-the-b-r-a-g-medallion/) - The Book Readers Appreciation Group (B.R.A.G.) are a tough lot. When my first book, INCEPTIO, went forward in September 2013 for their consideration, they were rejecting 90% of submissions. Luckily, I didn't know that at the time or I might have been a GREAT deal more nervous. But Carina would have told me to 'gather
- [Just a photo – Gallo-Roman arena, Gennes, Western France](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/07/21/just-a-photo-gallo-roman-arena-gennes-western-france/) - Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Download 'Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly
- [Introducing Mel and McCracken from Double Identity](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/01/01/introducing-mel-and-mccracken-from-double-identity/) - Double Identity starts a new thriller series featuring Mel, and McCracken, but who are they? Mélisende des Pittones, known as Mel, 29, daughter of a French father and English mother, just left her French Army job as an intelligence analyst in a special forces team. She's tall, athletic build, dark blonde shoulder length hair, worn up
- [Double Identity launches!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/01/07/double-identity-launches/) - Today's the day! Although I've launched nine fiction books before, all in the Roma Nova thriller series, this tenth one feels different. I know the world of Roma Nova inside out (and there's another book in draft), but the new Mélisende series is set in the real world. Well, as real world as any fictional
- [On the road to Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/12/18/on-the-road-to-rome/) - I do love a good Roman road. In ‘The Idealist’ my contribution to the recent Betrayal anthology, Statia Mitela could not have fulfilled her mission in 1849 Rome without these roads built by her ancestors and which have endured as routes and often the only properly paved road in the area through the millennia. You
- [Double Identity excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2021/01/06/double-identity-excerpt/) - Mel shivered. A cold breeze drifted over her bare backside. Dieu, the window must be open. Stupid in late November in London. But windows had been the last things on Mel’s mind last night. Still drugged with sleep, she stretched out her hand towards Gérard’s face. His eyes were closed, the lashes resting on his
- [What’s in a (Roman) name?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/08/18/whats-in-a-roman-name/) - An awful lot! This is only a brief introduction, but hold on tight because this may seem a little confusing… Even in the earliest times, Romans used a different system of names from most other European and Mediterranean countries. They used two names, one of which became a hereditary surname. Over time, this expanded to
- [Saturnalia surprise - a winter party tale](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/20/saturnalia-surprise-a-winter-party-tale/) - Whatever your take on midwinter, there's always a celebration and authors love to party! Historical fiction author Helen Hollick has arranged a terrific bash. When you've read my contribution below, hop over and take a virtual glass with some of the others - list and links below. But don't hop off before you've read this... Ancient Romans celebrated
- [Revolution! More like crime...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/11/25/revolution-more-like-crime/) - While the Roma Nova thrillers are set in an imaginary remnant of the Ancient Roman Empire, they remain at heart thrillers – action, suspense, twisty plots, courageous characters and bad guys of every description. And every character has multiple layers, talents, abilities, hang-ups and failings. Well, I was challenged a few years ago by Conn
- [Where the senators lurk...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/03/31/where-the-senators-lurk/) - Roman senators: men in white togas, lots of waffle, drama, hot air and the odd good speech. Such is the (often wildly inaccurate) impression that we gain from television and film of Rome's Senate. The senatus romanus was one of the most enduring institutions of the Roman period, all 1229 years of it in the West,
- [Trust, betrayal and the Roman way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/18/trust-betrayal-and-the-roman-way/) - Betrayal – personal, professional and political – is the theme of PERFIDITAS. How does betrayal change the individual? What are the underlying values of Roma Nova that Carina fears to betray? Some thoughts... Betrayal, treachery, treason, deceit, perfidy - all names for the calculated violation of trust. Trust is something we build up gradually, firstly, in
- [The Roman way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/05/13/the-roman-way/) - Yes, this is a Roman road. And yes, it does eventually lead to Rome, the centre of the world at that time. It was part of a superhighway network that replaced mud tracks with paved, drained and fast roads which not only facilitated conquest but also economic expansion through the Roman world. Imperial couriers raced
- [What are publishing services providers?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/11/10/what-are-publishing-services-providers/) - Publishing services have come a long way since the old vanity publishers. In fact, the best of the providers aren't even on the same ruler, let alone somewhere along the scale. Simply put, it's effectively a cross between traditional publishing and self-publishing. Worth noting - publishing services providers (PSPs) should not be confused with subsidy
- [New Romans for old?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/03/28/new-romans-for-old/) - Legate, senate, imperial secretaries, centurion, people’s tribunes, praetor, vigiles? All terms we may know from ancient Rome. What are they doing in the 20th and 21st centuries? Well, they're used in Roma Nova, the (imaginary) last Roman province in the West that survived into the modern age. Roma Novans have kept many of these words
- [How to build an alternative history story](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/06/28/how-to-build-an-alternative-roman-story/) - Romans in the 21st century? Possibly provocative, but a perfectly feasible venture into alternative history fiction. How do you do this with no historical foundation? Setting a story in the past or in another country is already a challenge. But if you invent the country and need to meld it with history that the reader already
- [Addicted to adventure fiction?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/10/addicted-to-adventure-fiction/) - Brought up on Treasure Island, Children of the New Forest, The Eagle of the Ninth, the Narnia books, it was hardly surprising that I developed a taste for adventure, spy and thriller books. I did enjoy Heidi, What Katy Did and Little Women which were recommended reading for little girls at that time, but apart
- [The Antonine Plague - the germs that killed an empire](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/11/10/the-antonine-plague-the-germs-that-killed-an-empire/) - Welcome to the home of the Roma Nova thrillers. Please look around while you are here. Nails and horses, a stitch in time, plugging a hole, greasing a cartridge, dropping a letter, not changing the batteries – all tiny things which can spark off heavy consequences. And a great technique for writers to plant an insignificant
- [1066 and all that has landed!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/08/01/1066-and-all-that-has-landed/) - Buy now from Amazon Kindle Nook Kobo Apple 1066 Turned Upside Down – a collection of stories by nine historical fiction writers – is now out! Now what does 1066 have to do with Roma Nova? Good question. Suppose there had been a Roma Novan around trying to intervene in 1066 between Harold’s Saxon England and William’s Normandy? Could she have influenced
- [Taxing times the Roman way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/20/taxing-times-the-roman-way/) - As I sit down to fill in my tax return I'm looking for any distraction. This year in France, it's compulsory to do it online. Aurelia and Carina have their own business managers in Roma Nova with some poor souls in their office tasked to complete the wretched things. Anyway... My mind wandered off to
- [Rome and Washington DC](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/06/21/rome-and-washington-dc/) - As I walked past the colonnaded white buildings around the Capitol, the National Mall and the Federal Triangle, I knew I couldn’t be the first visitor to make a connection between Washington DC and ancient Rome. Both sat/sit on a series of hills and both were/are centres of world power. The massive scale of prestigious
- [Taking the plunge - Roman baths](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/01/09/taking-the-plunge-roman-baths/) - Baths were such an intrinsic part of the Roman world that we can’t think of one without the other. Everybody went to the baths – everybody. Today we see bathing as something we do privately in the home, but bathing in Rome was a communal, social activity. While wealthy Romans could afford to build bathing
- [Bored little Romans at home?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2020/04/06/bored-little-romans-at-home/) - I haven't written anything here on the Roma Nova blog about the current havoc wreaked across the world by Covid-19, the coronavirus. You can read a few of my thoughts here and here on my writing blog. But as you probably know, Rome had its fair share of rampant disease not least the Antonine Plagues of the
- [Obiter dicta, or something to say in Latin](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/02/06/obiter-dicta-or-something-to-say-in-latin/) - Latin isn't dead; it's everywhere, perhaps more than we realise – alibi, agenda, consensus, versus, homo sapiens, veto, alias, via, affidavit, vademecum, an item carried around, especially a handbook, and those indispensables i.e. (id est) 'that is', and etc. (et cetera) 'and the rest'. Maths lovers and problem solvers like putting Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum) 'that which is to be demonstrated' after their
- [Why is NEXUS 'just' a novella?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/08/19/why-is-nexus-just-a-novella/) - Good question! I'll try and explain... Firstly, what's a novella? Essentially a short novel, but with a difference. Currently immensely popular as an ebook, ”…it allows for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the elaborate structural demands of the full-length book. Thus it provides an intense, detailed exploration
- [Are the Roma Nova books feminist?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/08/11/are-the-roma-nova-books-feminist/) - Yes, but ‘feminist-lite’. Let me explain… First, where do I stand? I believe that women and men should be treated equally. We are different from each other biologically and studies have shown that we have broadly different aptitudes, strengths and approaches dating back well beyond the Stone Age to when we were evolving from the primates. But there’s
- [Telling Roman stories - the audio of its day](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/01/06/telling-roman-stories-the-audio-of-its-day/) - The recent release of four Roma Nova audiobooks prompted me to look into ancient Roman oral storytelling traditions. Here’s what I found… Storytelling in Roman societies covered stories (fabulae) from the classics through philosophy, politics, religion and travel to sheer entertainment. Professional storytellers would be hired to entertain after dinner parties and other special events.
- [12 Days of Christmas – includes Saturnalia!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/12/03/12-days-of-christmas-includes-saturnalia/) - Well, I've managed to sneak Saturnalia in to two Christmas online book celebrations. It's when authors have a bit of fun. First is a video and I'd bet you've never seen or heard a 'Twelve Days of Christmas' song quite like this! Well, it's 'Twelve Books of Christmas' if we're being accurate. Look out for
- [The SUCCESSIO launch - the video!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/09/the-successio-launch-the-video/) - The lovely Sue Cook interviewed me - what a privilege! http://youtu.be/56IL5BPB1p8 The video is just a snippet taken by my son with his iPhone. I didn't know he was doing it! More photos here SUCCESSIO book trailer (Updated 2019) Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO.
- [RETALIO publication day!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/27/retalio-publication-day/) - Today, RETALIO goes out to the world. An ebook at the moment with the paperback to follow soon. Is it as exciting as the first? Yes, of course, but in a different way. It's a sense of completion for me, bringing readers the third part of the AURELIA trilogy and discovering for myself what exactly
- [RETALIO - excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/22/retalio-excerpt/) - The first page ... ‘Betrayal and collaboration used to lead automatically to a death sentence. You should be grateful this is the 1980s.’ She refused to look at me and instead jabbed her spoon into the coffee cup, almost scraping the glaze off as she rattled it round the tiny amount of liquid at the
- [Governing Britain the Roman way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/06/governing-britain-the-roman-way/) - Ever since Julius Caesar had a pop at the northern isles in 55/54BC as part of his Gallic Wars campaign (and didn’t get very far), Britain has been difficult to govern. Whether wars of succession or civil wars, barons or peasants v. kings, Saxons v. post-Romans, constitutional government v. chartists, Fenians, suffragists, unions or agitators,
- [Why INSURRECTIO?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/11/why-insurrectio/) - Good question! It's about characters under pressure, their failings and struggles. Strong, sincere characters like Aurelia Mitela, although worldly wise, think that everybody has good intentions and are ready to do their best. This may seem naive; they consequently become frustrated and angry when things turn out differently. Those who exercise power in a consensual and
- [NEXUS – Book of the Month!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/10/06/nexus-book-of-the-month/) - Well, reviews have been coming in for NEXUS in a very satisfactory way, including from Discovering Diamonds Reviews which specialises in reviewing historical fiction. If you love historical fiction and are looking for good reads by new voices, you'll find a treasure cave there. Everything is read by well-vetted and, frankly, tough reviewers, so you will
- [Lingua latina in Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/06/16/lingua-latina-in-roma-nova/) - Salvete! Fear not, I’m not going to write this post all in Latin, but I thought I’d make a glossary of words used in the Roma Nova novels. Some are Latin, some derived from Roman customs or functions. You'll only find them sprinkled here and there in the books, something novelists do to add authenticity
- [Who is Carina Mitela?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/02/27/who-is-carina-mitela/) - When you invent a character like Carina Mitela, you need to know who she is, where did she come from, what does she want, and fear? What's stopping her? What does she like? What are her values? What are her strengths and weaknesses? Carina had to go through a 'birthing' process or perhaps even a regression;
- [Sunday picture - Villa Jovis, Capri](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/09/01/sunday-picture-villa-jovis-capri/) - Villa Jovis, Tiberius's palace on Capri, completed in AD 27 and from where he then ruled until his death in AD 37. The entire complex spanned several terraces with a difference in elevation of about 40 metres and covered 7,000 m² (1.7 acres). Reconstructions by Carl Weichardt (1846-1906), German architect - Das Schloß des Tiberius
- [NEXUS - The first chapter...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/09/05/nexus-the-first-chapter/) - ‘I’ve lost him, Aurelia.’ Harry Carter’s voice was low, toneless, but I could hear the despair in his restrained British voice. Given the time of day, he must have been calling from his panelled office at the British Foreign Ministry. ‘Are you absolutely sure?’ I said. ‘He could just be on one of his
- [Arrival of NEXUS!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/08/26/arrival-of-nexus/) - Yes, the author proofs of the NEXUS paperback have arrived! And they are looking good! Thank you, Ingram Spark/ Lightning Source. I'm sending out advance copies to bloggers and reviewers at the moment, but I'll be running a competition for signed giveaways during launch month 12-30th September. And it's just as exciting sliding your fingers
- [RUBICON – 10 acclaimed authors, 10 Roman stories](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/07/06/rubicon-10-acclaimed-authors-10-roman-stories/) - STOP PRESS! Rubicon is now a 'Discovered Diamond!' "An engrossing mix of style, pace and subject: political, warfare, greed, sacrifice, alternative, mischief, humour... " --------- A few months ago, I was invited to join a writing project organised jointly by the Historical Writers Association and Sharpe Books. Yesterday the result, a collection of ten
- [1960s research and an alternate German federation](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/05/01/1960s-research-and-an-alternate-german-federation/) - The most difficult things about writing a story in the late 1960s/early 1970s weren't the clothes, hairdos, lack of traffic, old fashioned weaponry or spying techniques, but the technology and social attitudes. Mobile phones, laptops and social media just weren't available. If you wanted people to know something, you put a notice up on a board,
- [Comparing Roma Nova with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/01/13/comparing-roma-nova-with-the-grand-duchy-of-luxembourg/) - This is a treat from a reader in Luxembourg! How does Roma Nova measure up against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg? Dylan Harris has kindly given me permission to reproduce his post https://dylanharris.org/blog/2017/b8.shtml Roma Nova is Alison Morton’s series of alternative history novels set in a surviving remnant of the Roman Empire, also called Roma Nova,
- [Alternate history stories - personal or grand scale?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/25/alternate-history-stories-personal-or-grand-scale/) - Roman-themed stories and alternat(iv)e history stories could drive you to visualise a grand scale; empires lost and won, heroes and heroines fighting in their thousands, declaiming and sacrificing on battlefields and forum, unimagined tragedies and triumphs that turned the world's, possibly the galaxy's, history on its face. Epic events with epic challenges and epic poems to celebrate them
- [History? Um, we know the ending...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/09/30/history-um-we-know-the-ending/) - All writers sneak a look at their reviews - we are so human (Not sure I completely believe those who say they don't ;-) ) Looking at INSURRECTIO's, I was struck by this one: "Although I enjoyed the first three, IV and V are disappointing; particularly this one. Because they are 'backstory', I already knew who did
- [The theme in a book - what in Mercury's name is that?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/01/14/the-theme-in-a-book-what-in-mercurys-name-is-that/) - Mercury (or Hermes in the Greek pantheon of gods) is said to be the inventor of the written alphabet, god of writing/literature, speech, travellers, treaties and dreams amongst other things but is best known as the gods' messenger. He's also is the one invoked by thieves and tricksters... I invoke him on the subject of
- [Choosing the colours of book covers](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/02/04/choosing-the-colours-of-book-covers/) - It’s a well-worn statement, a cliché even, that it's the book cover that sells the book. I'd refine that a little. What a cover does first is grab a browser's attention, nothing more. You've made them pause, even stop to investigate further. If they pick it up or click on its image, that's a second
- [Double orange label – Thank you, Canada and Australia!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/02/25/double-orange-label-thank-you-canada-and-australia/) - Okay, I admit it, this is a (slightly) bragging post, but I was thrilled when INCEPTIO hit the #1 Best Seller spot on the Australian and Canadian Amazon stores this weekend. And it didn't do too badly in the UK one! This ranking is much coveted by authors, but is often extremely ephemeral, so poor
- [INCEPTIO goes on a blog tour in its new clothes!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/03/06/inceptio-goes-on-a-blog-tour-in-its-new-clothes/) - INCEPTIO went off on a blog tour last week in its new cover and attracted a lot of attention as well as some detailed and thoughtful reviews. It's such a pleasure opening the world of Roma Nova to new readers! Do have a look at these bloggers – they are dedicated, probably voracious, readers and
- [Lutetia, Roman Paris](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/04/16/lutetia-roman-paris/) - Written in homage to the city and people of Paris the day after the destructive fire at Notre Dame de Paris cathedral on 15 April 2019. (Reconstruction donation details at the end) The Roman city of Lutetia (also Lutetia Parisiorum or Lutèce in French) was the predecessor of present-day Paris, but nobody's entirely sure where that
- [Romans are gathering at Eboracum...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/23/romans-are-gathering-at-eboracum/) - Yes, it's the time of year the Romans invade York. Along with the governor of Britannia and the mighty marching men of six legions (escaping from their humdrum 21st century lives) come a load of riff-raff and camp followers including a bunch of scribblers. But the good news is that these are seven of the
- [Silent Sunday –  Aurelia and Caius](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/26/silent-sunday-aurelia-and-caius/) - Read about the Aurelia/Caius grudge match Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, will be out on 12
- [AURELIA on virtual tour!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/06/11/aurelia-on-virtual-tour/) - AURELIA went off on a blog tour last week in its new cover and attracted a lot of attention as well as some detailed and thoughtful reviews. It's such a pleasure opening the early episodes of the Roma Nova story to new readers! Do have a look at these bloggers – they are dedicated, probably
- [Silent Sunday – Porticus Octaviae, Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/06/16/silent-sunday-porticus-octaviae/) - Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, will be out on 12 September 2019. Download 'Welcome to Roma Nova', a
- [ROMA NOVA EXTRA singles are out!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/07/12/roma-nova-extra-singles-are-out/) - Realising that not everybody wants a whole book of short stories, I've sent four of them out to the world as single short reads on Kindle. New readers might like to dip into Roma Nova this way, just to see what it's about... Originally published in the ROMA NOVA EXTRA collection, the individual stories reflect
- [Day at the Museum](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/08/08/day-at-the-museum/) - No, not the reverse of the Ben Stiller movie, but a completely self-indulgent day at the Museum of London which is where I took these photos. Whenever I view Roman rooms/galleries anywhere, I'm always struck by just how much 'stuff' the Romans left behind. Moreover, what we've unearthed was what people threw away, dropped, left
- [Reconciling 'real' Romans and Roma Novans](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/04/05/reconciling-real-romans-and-roma-novans/) - I’ve been fascinated by all things Roman since I walked on my first mosaic in northern Spain. At age eleven, I wanted to know who the people were who had lived in houses with such beautiful floors: what did they eat, what did they work at, what were the children and parents like? As I
- [Silent Sunday – Pantheon](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/04/28/silent-sunday-pantheon/) - Just a picture... Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Download INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you gift when you sign up
- [Silent Sunday in Ostia Antica](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/12/silent-sunday-in-ostia-antica/) - Just a photo… Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Download INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you gift when you sign up
- [Silent Sunday – Up on the Palatine Hill](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/05/silent-sunday-up-on-the-palatine-hill/) - Just a photo... Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Download INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you gift when you sign up
- [Silent Sunday  –  Pompeii domestic](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/05/19/silent-sunday-pompeii-domestic/) - Just a photo… Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Download INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you gift when you sign up
- [Silent Sunday – Three ages of Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2019/04/14/silent-sunday/) - A new feature with no text, just images... Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Download INCEPTIO, the series starter, FREE as a thank you
- [SUCCESSIO excerpt I](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/29/successio-excerpt-i/) - It was far too quiet. Only an occasional owl call, the odd flutter of feathers and pitter-patter of a small night creature. Sure, the training area was literally kilometres from anywhere, somewhere called Norfolk, but a hundred people couldn’t stay that quiet, not even – arguably – the best special forces in the world. Beside
- [Sex and marriage in Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/07/04/sex-and-marriage-in-roma-nova/) - Well, yes to sex – they are Romans – but not so much marriage, more informal family arrangements. Marriage in the majority of cultures has meant one man and one woman, with the woman leaving her father's family and joining the man's family, often taking his name. Her property rights would, until recently, be transferred
- [An 'Extra' piece of Roma Nova...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/09/22/an-extra-piece-of-roma-nova/) - Delighted to announce that the ebook of ROMA NOVA EXTRA is now available on Amazon, B&N Nook and Kobo. The official publication date is 19 October 2018 when the paperback edition will be available from online stores (Amazon, The Book Depository, etc.) and through bookshops. Eight stories – four historical and four present day and
- [ROMA NOVA EXTRA - Fame at last!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/10/09/roma-nova-extra-fame-at-last/) - Jumping up and down with excitement! Barnes & Noble (yes, them) are featuring ROMA NOVA EXTRA in their new releases promotion, B&N Press Presents. Okay, Bella André is on the first row of four and I'm on the sixth, but all the same... And here it is! So if you buy your books
- [A very peculiar feeling – spooked and thrilled](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/12/30/a-peculiar-feeling-spooked-and-thrilled/) - A week before Christmas, something very strange happened to my first book. The main character, Karen, stepped out from the covers and started talking. I mean, really talking, and in a young American voice (Caitlin Thorburn). I listened and a tingle ran across my shoulders. I was spooked. There's no other way to describe it. But
- [The RETALIO blog tour!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/14/the-retalio-blog-tour/) - The RETALIO publication date is fast approaching. Some very generous people are hosting us on their blogs with interviews, giveaways, guest posts and reviews. Quite a tour for Aurelia Mitela and her nemesis, Caius Tellus! 20 April Joanna Courtney History Matters Interview + giveaway (finished) 24 April Henry Hyde
- [Eating the Roman way](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/12/05/eating-the-roman-way/) - Food is one of the most powerful ways of conveying information about characters. It shows readers not only status and wealth (or lack of either), how time rich or poor characters are, the level of complexity in a society, what crops are grown, their traditions and expectations. A real window into the world. Ancient Roman food varied
- [Guns n’ things in Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/04/24/guns-n-things-in-roma-nova/) - This could be a tricky subject, but if your stories have spies, special forces, military and special police units with a robust Roman attitude, you are going to get weapons of one sort or another. Anything else would be unrealistic. However, my books are about people, not a way of seeing how much technical research
- [Serious stuff - GDPR and your data](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/05/25/serious-stuff-gdpr-and-your-data/) - You've probably been getting a load of 'We're changing our privacy setting/terms of service' type emails recently as today, 25 May 2018, is the deadline for the new EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) coming into force. Some organisations ask you to re-subscribe, some ask for confirmation, some advise you of the new regulations and their updated privacy
- [From pirate to emperor](https://www.alison-morton.com/2018/08/02/from-pirate-to-emperor/) - Pirates have fascinated people for several centuries, but the fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is somewhat different to the reality, but where does fact end and fiction begin? Helen Hollick has written a series of nautical voyages based around her fictional pirate, Captain Jesamiah Acorne and his ship, Sea Witch, but
- [America in the world of Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/01/08/america-in-the-world-of-roma-nova/) - In summer 2015, I visited the USA and part of Canada. It was seven weeks of hectic fun. In Washington, one of the highlights was a visit to the Library of Congress, specifically the Jefferson Building. It was 'all kinds of awesome': the magnificent colourful entrance hall and sumptuous steps, Jefferson's book collection, an original Gutenberg Bible,
- [What have the Romans ever done for us?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/30/what-have-the-romans-ever-done-for-us/) - One of my dear friends, the British Airways first officer who helped me with the complex flight regulations over Washington DC, sadly cannot make it to the launch event at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells on 12 March, but says he's looking forward to reading INCEPTIO. He quipped at the end of his email: "So just what
- [Simon Scarrow endorses PERFIDITAS!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/29/simon-scarrow-endorses-perfiditas/) - At the Harrogate History Festival, I was thrilled to be photographed with Simon Scarrow, author of the famous Eagle (Macro and Cato) series of Roman historical fiction. But that's not the end of the story Along with Sue Cook and Jean Fullerton, Simon endorsed PERFIDITAS, the second Roma Nova thriller. Apart from the strapline on
- [Roma Novan family trees](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/28/roma-novan-family-trees/) - The principal families in my Roma Nova families are the Mitelae, the Tellae and the Apuliae, so as we approach publication of the fourth book, I thought I’d do some diagrams to clarify how they interrelate. Language note: Latin is inflected, i.e. it changes the ending of nouns and adjectives depending on the word’s place and function
- [Maps and Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/11/08/maps-and-rome/) - The old clichéd saying that 'Rome wasn't built in a day' is true, but so was its 'decline and fall' equally slow. Going from its traditionally accepted date of foundation the Roman Empire in the West of 753 BC, it lasted 1229 years in the West until the abdication of Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD. Maps
- [RETALIO is awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/10/04/retalio-is-awarded-the-b-r-a-g-medallion/) - You see the subject line at the top of the email: "BRAG Medallion Award" You gnaw your nails. You read the first line of the email: 'We have completed the review process for your book “RETALIO” Oh, gods on Olympus! You gnaw your nails down to the quick. You read on: "...and I am pleased
- [Black days under occupation in Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/22/black-days-under-occupation-in-roma-nova/) - The morning after the power grab by Caius Tellus on the night of fires (INSURRECTIO), people woke to find the following proclamation pinned on noticeboards, on the doors of public buildings and in the forum in Roma Nova city. By order of First Consul Caius Tellus Due to the national crisis, the provisional government will apply
- [Bookmuse gives RETALIO its seal of approval](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/05/05/bookmuse-gives-retalio-its-seal-of-approval/) - The esteemed Bookmuse site has reviewed RETALIO and I was so moved by it I almost cried. Their reviewer understands RETALIO and the Roma Nova books in her gut as well as her heart. "A read so painfully pertinent you could almost wish it were true. If you haven’t come across this alternative history series
- [Thank you, Douglas Jackson](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/05/14/thank-you-douglas-jackson/) - No ruin in Roman Europe has been safe from me from the age of eleven. I've dragged members of my family along ancient cobbled roads, up towers and aqueducts and into theatres and arenas. But sharing this thirst/lust/obsession with similarly-minded is a joy. I love being a Roman writer and being seen as one. I’ve talked concrete, ball-bearings,
- [Thank you, Matthew Harffy, JJ Marsh and L J Trafford](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/05/17/thank-you-matthew-harffy-jj-marsh-and-l-j-trafford/) - Writers are strange people. They live in the Middle Ages, Ancient Rome, sometimes in Victorian India, on the high seas, during the Age of Enlightenment or just down the road at number 24. I count myself lucky to know some remarkable ones who’ve been kind enough to provide endorsements for RETALIO. Matthew Harffy is the author of The
- [One of my favourite Roman fiction authors – Lindsey Davis](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/09/13/one-of-my-favourite-roman-authors-lindsey-davis/) - I was lurking in Waterstone’s Tunbridge Wells one day in the mid 1990s. (It had an apostrophe in the name then so I’ve left it in for authenticity.) My favourite genres were historical fiction, sci-fi, thrillers and crime. Wandering round the tables and shelves, nothing struck me, nothing shouted ‘Me! Me! Me!’ I was in
- [RETALIO London launch](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/06/05/retalio-london-launch/) - I was delighted when Triskele Books invited me and Jessica Bell to join them for a joint launch. Four of the five were launching books – JJ Marsh (Bad Apples), Gillian Hamer (Sacred Lake), J D Smith (The Rebel Queen) and Liza Perrat (The Silent Kookaburra). Jessica was launching her tough memoir Dear Reflection. Triskele Books has some
- [RETALIO gains a 'Chill with a Book' Readers' Award](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/08/09/retalio-gains-a-chill-with-a-book-readers-award/) - The most fearsome reviewers of your book are readers. They are the ones who shell out their money and, more importantly, devote their precious reading hours to consuming your writing. And if they like your offering and give it a review, they have connected with and appreciated the random thoughts and wierdnesses that inhabit your
- [Licensed to thrill!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/09/licensed-to-thrill/) - I am absolutely delighted to have become an author member of the International Thriller Writers. *Happy dance around the office* The presidents are M J Rose and Lee Child and their membership list includes James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Karin Slaughter, Peter James, Kathy Reichs, Ken Follett and many many other wonderful adrenaline-bursters like Adrian Magson
- [A tale of two trilogies](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/04/13/a-tale-of-two-trilogies/) - One day I decided to write a book of high adventure set in an alternative, modern Rome, including a hunky hero, but with the story driven by a young woman who transformed from a prickly twenty-five year old nobody into somebody she'd been waiting all her life to become. She, Carina, went on in the next fifteen years to
- [Summer reading - first in historical fiction series](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/17/summer-reading-first-in-historical-fiction-series/) - Falling in love with a set of characters, a location and a period is a wonderful thing. Finding there is a series featuring the same three is heaven. You can plunge back into your favourite characters' world and find out what happened next. You may want to grab a few moments' peace during the holidays. Here's a selection of first-in-series books that you
- [Weekend in Wales - A bit of a Roman(tic) holiday](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/07/14/weekend-in-wales-a-bit-of-a-romantic-holiday/) - Last weekend, I was in Caerleon, South Wales attending the Romantic Novelists' Association conference. It's a joyous event, where you re-affirm old friendships and form new ones, where you're are reminded of old things you've forgotten and learn new ones. Talks on characters, publishing contracts, marketing; presentations by those who have made it and those
- [EXCERPT for Mother's Day: Aurelia and her daughter Marina](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/03/26/excerpt-for-mothers-day-aurelia-and-her-daughter-marina/) - We should celebrate mothers every day, of course. Aurelia is fierce in her protection of Marina her only child; it's her greatest strength and her greatest vulnerability... ------ Caius smiled at me this time, but it didn’t reach his eyes. ‘Your mother’s right, you know. You have a duty to look after your rather, er, small
- [Thank you, Conn Iggulden](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/04/thank-you-conn-iggulden/) - You may have read how infected I’ve been with the fascination for Ancient Rome since at least the age of eleven. I’ve clambered over Roman Europe ever since, dragging members of my family along ancient cobbled roads, up towers and aqueducts and into theatres and arenas. But sharing this thirst/lust/obsession with similarly-minded is a joy. I love being a
- [Roman holidays?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/24/roman-holidays/) - A ‘holiday’ today means is a specific trip or journey, usually for the purpose of recreation or tourism. But the concept of taking a vacation is a recent invention, and has developed through the last two centuries. Historically, the idea of travel for recreation was a luxury only wealthy people could afford. Ancient Romans travelled
- [Roma Nova goes audio!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/26/roma-nova-goes-audio/) - You may remember that in January this year I asked Blake Friedmann Literary Agency to handle my ancillary rights Well, exciting news – and you are the first to know it – they've negotiated a contract with Audible to produce audio versions of INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO and AURELIA. Of course, I rushed for my champagne glass! Audiobooks are a great
- [Roma Nova hits the big time!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/12/16/roma-nova-hits-the-big-time/) - In September, I visited Audible who were producing the first four Roma Nova stories as audio books as arranged by Blake Friedmann. The lovely Robin Morgan let me rattle on for a while about my favourite subject – Roma Nova. Now he and his team have produced the interview as an 'audio session' which you can download for free! Click the
- [Shining a light - women in historical fiction](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/10/13/shining-a-light-women-in-historical-fiction/) - My writing friend Helen Hollick, a powerhouse of fiction production and historical fiction champion, is hosting a month long blog tour featuring heroines in modern historical fiction. She's enlisted nine others, including me, to take part. Each Tuesday, Helen will talk about one of her heroines and introduce two further ones. Last week (6 October), Helen gave
- [Is an author name a feminist issue?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/29/is-an-author-name-a-feminist-issue/) - A new fan I met today who said she loved thrillers with a difference, asked me why I used my obviously female name and not initials. She thought I would gain more credibility as A M Morton than Alison Morton as I would sound like a man. I gave a stock answer and buried my
- [Women in combat roles?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/22/women-in-combat-roles/) - I don’t want to sound specious, but I could say, ’They’ll be making them bishops next.’ Oh, they just did that. UK defence secretary, Michael Fallon, announced on 19 December that he wanted to end the army’s ban on women serving in frontline infantry roles in the British Army by 2016. He pointed out that
- [INSURRECTIO – Book of the Month!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/03/01/insurrectio-book-of-the-month/) - Against stiff competition INSURRECTIO has been selected as Book of the Month by the ‘Chill With a Book’ Readers' Award. The silver badge goes rather well with the silver font on the book cover! More seriously, I'm very pleased about this particular award as it's one judged by readers. Here are a few of the things they said:
- [Women’s history?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/06/womens-history/) - Wikipedia defines women’s history as follows, ‘Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history, together with the methods needed to study women. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, the examination of individual women of historical significance, and the effect
- [Naples underground](https://www.alison-morton.com/2017/01/09/naples-underground/) - The BBC's series that started last week with fabulous film and virtual reconstructions of tunnels and monuments under present day Naples (#invisiblecities #italy) reminded me of my mini-excursion underground in 2012. Roman remains are built into the arteries of underground Naples and I was fascinated to see how Roman walls and arches were criss-crossed with later
- [The audiobooks of INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO and AURELIA are out!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/12/18/new-audio-versions-of-inceptio-and-perfiditas/) - Yes, they're here! POWER BETRAYAL NEMESIS Meet Carina Mitela, 21st century Praetorian in Roma Nova, as she challenges all three. Meet Aurelia Mitela, her precursor – Praetorian, spy, mother and thief taker in the 1960s. Transformation, deception, rebellion, vengeance, comradeship, duty and epic love stories in these adventures in a new Rome founded sixteen hundred years ago by
- [INSURRECTIO is Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/05/03/insurrectio-is-historical-novel-society-editors-choice/) - Talk about unexpected! You write a book, possibly the fifth in a series, launch it, get some lovely reviews, some friendly blog guest posts and general congratulations then you go back to writing the next one. Imagine when an email pings into your inbox saying this book has been reviewed by the Historical Novel Society and chosen
- [Friends, Romans, Londoners](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/01/22/friends-romans-londoners/) - I visited the Museum of London last weekend, something I hadn't done for several years. The displays are very attractive, well-labelled and intelligently set out. Rooms had been reconstructed painstakingly following decoration and description from original sites or authors, but the artefacts in them are original. (Photos taken on my phone, so apologies for the
- [The 3G Kindle has landed!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/09/26/the-3g-kindle-has-landed/) - I've been given a fab birthday present - a 3G Amazon Kindle. Thank you, Steve xx As a writer, I read a huge number of books; our house is groaning with them. As a plane passenger, it's agonising trying to sift out the books to take (or, worse, leave behind). As a Luddite, it's been
- [Celebratory photos!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/09/celebratory-photos/) - Unusually, it's photos only today, but they are celebratory... We happy bunch - the 'class photo' from the Open Day at Foyles, Bristol that I wrote about here. I'm at the back in the centre. The day after I heard PERFIDITAS had been awarded a B.R.A.G.Medallion®, I shared the news with Jan Smith our local
- [Bridging sensibilities...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/02/27/bridging-sensibilities/) - Simon Scarrow always succeeds in letting me into his tough, male Roman world without alienating me from an environment so different from my own. His heroes, Macro, the blunt-speaking grizzled veteran, and Cato, the educated and younger soldier, bash their way through numerous adventures (including Eagle in the Sand) in the time of Emperor Claudius.
- [INSURRECTIO awarded the BRAG Medallion!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/11/01/insurrectio-awarded-the-brag-medallion/) - Yes, it's official! I am delighted, no, I'm jumping up and down with elation, that my fifth Roma Nova thriller has been awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion. And it's up on the IndieBRAG website. This is a prestigious award for indie only books and is a HIGH honour. Around 90% of books are rejected (gulp), so you can imagine the nail
- [Ruth Downie and Vita Brevis](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/10/06/ruth-downie-and-vita-brevis/) - Today, I'm delighted to welcome Ruth Downie back to the Roma Nova writing world. She's talked before about historic truth and donkey poo, and wrote a poignant account 'from below' at the court of Boudica as part of A Year of Ravens. Of course, Roma Novans know her as the name on the endorsement for AURELIA. In 2004 Ruth
- [Carina, Aurelia and the Pompeii gladius](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/09/24/carina-aurelia-and-the-pompeii-gladius/) - Twenty-first century Roma Nova military train with state of the art weaponry; their firepower and weapon handling are undoubted. But they also train on a 'volunteer' basis with a modern carbon steel version of the traditional Pompeii gladius, a short sword in use from at least AD 79 and not uncommon in the 4th century AD.
- ["Renschman is a psycho villain" - what a lovely thing for a reviewer to say!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/04/02/renschman-is-a-psycho-villain-what-a-lovely-thing-for-a-reviewer-to-say/) - Yesterday, INCEPTIO went to Texas. Yes, Roma Nova 1 was the guest of Jamie at 'Books and Beverages - because this girl loves books' who wrote a lively and incisive review. She said of yours truly: "she’s a natural storyteller and this fast-paced, suspense novel is the perfect example of that talent." After I inserted
- [INCEPTIO is officially “awesome”](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/12/05/inceptio-is-officially-awesome/) - What? A while ago, I applied for INCEPTIO to be listed on the Awesome Indies list, a prestigious indie book evaluation site. Determinedly and fearsomely focused on ensuring only the best self-published titles are included, they have an equally fearsome submissions process. And this is A Good Thing. With the huge growth of self-published, sometimes
- [1066 and all that, or not...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/06/09/1066-and-all-that-or-not/) - Suppose there had been a Roma Novan around trying to intervene in 1066 between Harold's Saxon England and William's Normandy? Could she have influenced either of these tough, ambitious and determined men? No, I'm not veering off and writing a new book – I'm too immersed in drafting RETALIO, Book 6 of the core Roma Nova series.
- [AURELIA down to the final four of 2016 HNS Indie Award!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/03/30/aurelia-down-to-the-final-four-of-2016-hns-indie-award/) - Great excitement in Roma Nova! AURELIA was selected as Editor's Choice by the Historical Novel Society Indie reviews in autumn 2015 and went forward to be longlisted for the 2016 HNS Indie Award along with 37 others. In January, a shortlist of nine was selected and today (30 March), the final four were announced and AURELIA
- [Historical fiction set in the ancient world](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/05/25/historical-fiction-set-in-the-ancient-world/) - INSURRECTIO featured in the Historical Novel Review!
- [Who owns your story?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/25/who-owns-your-story/) - At book club yesterday, we discussed many things. Books, obviously, but the conversation wandered on to reader expectations and I threw out the question about who owns the story in the book - the author, the reader, both or none of the above? My stories start in my head, but they are the result of
- [Roman counts](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/11/roman-counts/) - Carina, the heroine of the first three Roma Nova books, has an honorary title of 'Countess Carina' as her grandmother’s heir. As the head of the family/tribe, Aurelia is called 'Countess Mitela'. Now why do the descendants of Romans have these titles? And how does the relationship work between the imperatrix, the ruler of Roma Nova
- [When is a hero myth manufactured?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/27/when-is-a-hero-myth-manufactured/) - At the RNA SE meeting on 24 April, Nicola Cornick gave us valuable insights on constructing heroes. Taking Robin Hood as an example, she showed how universal the hero values attached to him were: anti-authoritarian, good versus evil, romantic, skilled in fighting and weaponry. The mythic Robin Hood was a construct, an icon, created mainly
- [Roman taxing times](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/07/roman-taxing-times/) - As I sit down to fill in my tax return, I'm looking for any distraction. I wondered how the ancient Romans were taxed. Today we have income tax, company/corporation tax, sales taxes/VAT, excise duties (road fund licence (UK), alcohol, cigarettes), local taxation, inheritance tax, to name but a few. But how similar are our taxes
- [INSURRECTIO excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/08/insurrectio-excerpt/) - From the first chapter... Plico sat down without invitation and pulled a folder out of his briefcase – a red one. Hades. Red files usually contained a maximum of half a dozen sheets, often only one. Each sheet had a unique log number. The penalty for copying anything from a red file was a minimum of
- [Thank you Elisabeth Storrs, Douglas Jackson and E M Powell](https://www.alison-morton.com/2016/04/07/thank-you-elisabeth-storrs-douglas-jackson-and-e-m-powell/) - Writers are strange people. They live in the Middle Ages, Ancient Rome, sometimes in Victorian India, on the high seas, during the Age of Enlightenment or just down the road at number 30. I count myself lucky to know some remarkable ones who've been kind enough to provide early reviews for INSURRECTIO. Elisabeth Storrs is obviously
- [Huge news!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/23/huge-news/) - I have signed a publishing agreement with SilverWood Books. INCEPTIO will appear in paperback and ebook format. We are looking at Spring 2013. If it changes, I'll let you know! So what is my book about? Romans, alternate history, romance, action-adventure, loss, self-growth, recognition? All of those. Suppose you're an ordinary young woman in New
- [Friends, Tweeters, countrymen...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/09/14/friends-tweeters-countrymen/) - Thanks to Twitter, we've been able to organise some terrific visitors in the last few weeks. Jean Fullerton (@EastLondonGirly) author of No Cure for Love, A Glimpse at Happiness, Perhaps Tomorrow is a friend and colleague from the Romantic Novelists' Association. She, her husband and three grandchildren came and spent the afternoon with us. Despite
- [AURELIA awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/10/09/aurelia-awarded-the-b-r-a-g-medallion/) - You know when there's a 90% chance against, but you do succeed? Well, that. Book 4 in the Roma Nova series, AURELIA, has just been awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion. The what? In the large sea of self/independently published work, there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam and, sadly, a good proportion of it that isn't worth picking
- [Not the Booker prize, but something to B.R.A.G. about?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/26/not-the-booker-prize-but/) - Self-publishing is expanding exponentially; it has long ceased to be a minority interest. But along with the glorious freedom of writing any genre, mixed genres or no genre and the ability to control every aspect of a book’s production comes responsibility to the readers. Some authors write books purely for their own pleasure and that’s
- [Developing Carina's graphic](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/11/09/developing-carinas-graphic/) - When I decided to put Praetorian Carina Mitela's adventures together in a box set, I thought about the publicity materials to go with it. There are over 1,000 pages combined in INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO and the stories span fifteen years. So I needed an image to sum up the spirit of all three books, a
- [Io Saturnalia!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/12/24/io-saturnalia/) - Now on eighth day of Saturnalia. The poet Catullus called it "the best of days." In ancient Rome, private festivities of Saturnalia had expanded to seven days by the late Republic, but during the Imperial period it varied from three to five days. Caligula extended official observances to five. We do ten days in Roma
- [An alternate 'Christmas' - or not](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/12/16/an-alternate-christmas/) - Welcome to an unusual stop on the indieBRAG Christmas bloghop! Throughout December, the B.R.A.G.Medallion authors are presenting readers with a seasonal blog tour. In the UK and most of the Western world, we celebrate Christmas on 25 December. But ancient Romans started their festival on 17 December – today! Saturnalia was THE most important Roman festival. Heavy on feasting,
- [Meet Carina Mitela, main character...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/15/meet-carina-mitela-main-character/) - Antoine Vanner, who writes the Dawlish Chronicles, cracking naval adventure stories in the 19th Century, has invited me to participate in a blog-hop about meeting writers' main characters. I asked Carina, the heroine of INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS, if she’d like to take part and she said, ‘Sure’. What is the name of your character? Is
- [Holiday Historicals!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/12/01/holiday-historicals/) - What better than a good read over the Saturnalia/Christmas/Hanukkah period? And being slightly biased, I'd suggest a historical novel, so I'm banding together with some fellow writers to showcase a selection for you - all available at 99 cents/pence. Of course, I couldn't resist putting INCEPTIO forward as my contribution! Alternate history is the child of a
- [A new step  - the Roma Nova box set](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/10/25/a-new-step-the-roma-nova-box-set/) - As Book 5, INSURRECTIO, starts on its editorial journey and I’m mapping out Book 6 in my head, I realised I’d written over half a million words. And that’s not counting the two non-fiction books, Military or Civilians? and The 500 WordWriting Buddy, now in its second edition. Perhaps the over 400 posts on my
- [Robert Harris, one of the inspirations for Roma Nova’s existence](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/02/02/robert-harris-one-of-the-inspirations-for-roma-novas-existence/) - When I first picked up Robert Harris’ Fatherland in my local independent bookshop in 1992, I was fascinated by the concept of 'what if Nazi Germany had won the war?’ What would have been the alternate path of history? Fatherland was intrinsically a political thriller. In 1992, the whole of Europe was attempting to realign
- [Why litfests are important](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/08/13/why-litfests-are-important/) - I was delighted and flattered when I received an invitation to speak at the Charroux LitFest here in deepest Poitou-Charentes in France. This is my home area, and being part of the inaugural year of a new litfest is thrilling. You see, I love conferences, book fairs, launches and literary festivals whether I'm a delegate, helper, speaker, panel member or chair,
- [History, mystery and derring-do - a reading selection](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/09/03/history-mystery-and-derring-do-a-reading-selection/) - "A cracking tale" - an expression I often use. Stories that make your pulse hammer, your gut grip and your breath catch. You are chasing renegades, fighting in the Peninsula, sailing on the high seas, plotting new conquests, spying for your country, in the arena sword in hand, escaping to a new colony, engulfed in a mystery, falling in
- [The Historical Novel Society and Facebook](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/08/24/the-historical-novel-society-and-facebook/) - "Historical" and "Facebook" might sound like a conundrum, but they are intimately linked. Facebook launched its site in February 4, 2004. Historical novels have been going on for a little longer. La Princesse de Clèves, published anonymously in March 1678 is considered the beginning of the modern tradition of the psychological novel in Europe, and as a great classic
- [High-concept - what's that?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/07/16/high-concept-whats-that/) - Nearly five years ago, the late Paul Sussman, Egyptologist and thriller writer, told me on my Arvon Foundation course that INCEPTIO was high-concept. I didn’t really have a clue what that meant, but I nodded and thanked him. Did it mean it was highbrow? No, despite all the Roman content, it was an adventure story,
- [Quebec - a hub of history](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/07/23/quebec-a-hub-of-history/) - I’m delighted to have visited Québec, a city at a pivotal geographic and historic place. I’m told it’s the oldest established city in North America. Well, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula in 1534, claiming the land in the name of King Francis I. But although French fishing fleets sailed to the
- [INCEPTIO selected as Indie Book of the Day!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/06/16/inceptio-selected-as-indie-book-of-the-day/) - Delighted to discover that INCEPTIO had been nominated for the IDB award and even more so when I received an email saying it had been selected as Indie Book of the Day today, 15 June 2015! They sent me a shiny certificate... and a personalised badge: Unexpected and so more pleasurable! Alison Morton is
- [Telling people about your treasure](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/06/08/telling-people-about-your-treasure/) - Having mixed with book people - writers, editors, agents, publishers, literary consultants and commentators - for three years before I published my first book, INCEPTIO, I knew it would be a slog to make it known to the reading public. Amongst others, Catherine Ryan Howard's excellent blog gave me wisdom, knowledge and tough love about
- [A historically festive weekend in Harrogate - Part One](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/27/a-historically-festive-weekend-in-harrogate-part-one/) - Conferences can be stimulating, fun or exhausting, or possibly all three. It’s wise to prepare beforehand, not just your travel tickets and hotel bookings, but which sessions you want to go to. Then you find out you want to go to all of them. Then you discover the conference clashes with a promised speaking engagement.
- [Rossiter Books - an evening of writing alternatively and fun!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/05/16/rossiter-books-an-evening-of-writing-alternatively-and-fun/) - Liesel Schwarz and I had such a fun evening last Thursday in Ross-on-Wye enthusing with a great audience about steampunk and alternative history that we haven't been able to stop talking about it! Very well attended, there was even had a 13-year old aspiring author who came up and ask us about writing which, as Liesel says,
- [Speaking at Foyles Bristol](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/05/14/speaking-at-foyles-bristol/) - Never have your event on the sunniest and balmiest evening of the year! We were a small, but select, group that met in Bristol Foyles to talk about 'Writing Alternatively'. We had the most fascinating conversations about steampunk, alternative history, constructing a completely artificial world and enticing the reader into it.
- [AURELIA cover image!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/09/aurelia-cover-image/) - Yesterday, I signed off this beautiful, beautiful cover for AURELIA, the fourth Roma Nova alternate history thriller. SilverWood Books have done it again! The sharp-eyed will see the new mosaic pattern in the inner shield echoed around the eagle itself. The silver lettering and eagle mark out a change: the next three books shift back in time, this first
- [Book giveaway for AURELIA!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/26/book-giveaway-for-aurelia/) - GIVEAWAY NOW FINISHED But you can find out about more about AURELIA here. And buy it at these retailers Goodreads, the site for serious/serial readers, is running the draw. Simply click below to enter. Good luck! Goodreads Book Giveaway AURELIA by Alison Morton Giveaway ends May 04, 2015. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter
- [Thank you, 'Romans' Ruth Downie and Russell Whitfield](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/27/thank-you-romans-ruth-downie-and-russell-whitfield/) - I love being a Roman writer and being seen as one. Imagine how delighted I was to be included in a list that my writing friend Ben Kane gave to a reader seeking Roman fiction authors. Last year at the Historical Novel Society conference, I had the privilege of taking part in a workshop with Douglas Jackson
- [Thank you, writing colleagues Liesel Schwarz, David Ebsworth and Anna Belfrage](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/29/thank-you-writing-colleagues-liesel-schwarz-david-ebsworth-and-anna-belfrage/) - I think history runs through my veins. The past is, in the cliché, a foreign country and maybe that's what attracts us. It's distant so it's safe to travel there vicariously. No lobster-back Hanoverian British soldier or Greek hoplite is going to grab us, nor are we going to be press-ganged or sent to India as
- [AURELIA - excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/30/aurelia-excerpt/) - I left my side-arm in the safe box in the vestibule and walked on past the marble and plaster imagines, the painted statues and busts of dead Mitelae from the gods knew how many hundreds of years. Only the under-steward was allowed to dust them; I’d never been allowed to touch them as a child.
- [Carina's discovery of Aurelia's diaries](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/05/03/carinas-discovery-of-aurelias-diaries/) - I originally started AURELIA with Carina, the heroine of the first three books, discovering her grandmother Aurelia's personal diaries at their family farm in the country near Castra Lucilla. I loved bringing Carina and Conrad back in for a ‘guest appearance’. But then I looked at those scenes again, as did my structural editor and
- [AURELIA PUBLICATION DAY!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/05/05/aurelia-publication-day/) - Apologies for the capital letters – I’m not shouting at anybody, I’m shouting out loud to the world. Today, my fourth novel in the Roma Nova thriller series is published. Am I as fired up as when I published the first one? Strangely, yes. Yes, it's sheer relief to close the gate at the end of a long road of writing, reviewing, editing, honing,
- [Russell Whitfield and the Roman Walk](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/20/russell-whitfield-and-the-roman-walk/) - Today, I'm delighted to welcome Russell Whitfield (Just Another Freaking Roman Author or "JAFRA"). Russell was one of Roma Nova's early supporters and endorsed INCEPTIO. Gladiatrix, Russ's first novel, was published in 2008 by Myrmidon Books. The sequel, Roma Victrix, continues the adventures of Lysandra, the Spartan gladiatrix. A third book is planned for release
- [SilverWood Selection Box - A selection of tantalising tasters](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/04/02/silverwood-selection-box-a-selection-of-tantalising-tasters/) - Belonging to a group of authors not only means you enjoy the company of colleagues, but it improves your writing. I belong to several groups and associations - you’ll see some of the logos below - but one I treasure is the community of SilverWood Books authors. The genius of Helen Hart and her team
- [Writing Alternatively events!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/03/29/writing-alternatively-events/) - Delighted to announce two fun events in May, one in Bristol, one in Ross-on-Wye, where the delightful Liesel Schwarz 'the high-priestess of steampunk' and I will be in conversation. We'd love to see you, so book your tickets now! Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. The fourth book, AURELIA, is due out
- [SUCCESSIO PUBLICATION DAY!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/03/successio-publication-day/) - Apologies for the capital letters – I’m not shouting at anybody, I’m shouting out loud to the world. Today is the end of a long process. My third novel in the Roma Nova thriller series is published. Is it as exciting as publishing the first? Yes and no. Yes, it's the end of a long road of
- [2014 Historical Novel Society conference (1)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/08/2014-historical-novel-society-conference-1/) - Hot, tired and stressed out after flight delay and snail-slow taxi ride from Liverpool Street Station, I arrived at Marylebone Hall, the accommodation block at the University of Westminster, fit to drop. I flung on a clean shirt, combed my hair and abandoning unpacking, I hurried down to the lobby. The sound of chatter and
- [Subscribing to my blogs](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/02/14/subscribing-to-my-blogs/) - If you have subscribed to this Roma Nova blog, thank you! I really appreciate your interest and commitment. Here you will find info about the Roma Nova thrillers, Ancient Rome, events I'll be at (speaking and cavorting) and more about the mysterious Roma Nova itself. If you would also like to read about writing techniques, (independent) publishing,
- [SUCCESSIO launches in London - the official report!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/07/successio-launches-in-london-the-official-report/) - Friends, Roma Novans and colleagues lent me their hours. The bubbly flowed in the glorious library at the University Women's Club in Mayfair as we gathered to celebrate the publication of the third thriller in the Roma Nova series. I'd asked long term Roma Nova fan Sue Cook to sit in conversation with me and ask
- [Ben Kane and A Day of Fire](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/11/13/ben-kane-and-a-day-of-fire/) - Today, I don't have one special guest but six! My writing friend Ben Kane has been working with a group of other historical authors to write a collaborative novel in six stories. This venture could have been as risky as the eruption of Vesuvius, the volcano at the centre of their story, A Day of Fire... Pompeii
- [What the Historical Novel Society says about PERFIDITAS](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/01/what-the-historical-novel-society-says-about-perfiditas/) - Well, PERFIDITAS made it to the HNS Indie Reviews Editor's Choice Shortlist which was rather thrilling. I'm so pleased that the HNS includes alternate history in its remit - it just shows what an ecumenical and friendly society it is. So what did they say about PERFIDITAS? PERFIDITAS (Roma Nova) By Alison Morton "Not strictly an historical
- [Site-splitting](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/01/30/site-splitting/) - So, split the atom time. Well, as I’ve created two blogs out of one, it’s more a case of splitting the byte. Being an author today means developing entrepreneurial skills, especially marketing ones. I’m not talking about selling - although that’s ultra important - but about making people aware of your book’s, or books’, existence. It’s a slippery concept,
- [Winter Solstice Blog Hop - Shedding light on the Roman dusk](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/12/20/shedding-light-on-the-roman-dusk-4/) - A post about darkness and light to mark the longest night in the northern hemisphere... “The Fall of the Roman Empire” was a 1964 epic film starring Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason and Christopher Plummer. Emperor Marcus Aurelius was dying and did not want his unpleasant son Commodus to succeed him. The
- [My London Book Fair - Day 1](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/08/my-london-book-fair-day-1/) - Where to begin? It was a corker of a day! Sipping my glass of wine, I am trying to review the fizzing day. Let me share it in pictures because in my shattered state, it’s going to be easier… Here I am at the Kobo stand. Thrilled to see INCEPTIO was included in the graphic
- [Why my books are published in paperback](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/05/why-my-books-are-published-in-paperback/) - Although I couldn’t manage without my practical ereader (Kindle Keyboard 3G) and downloaded ebooks, I still love physical books. The cover, the colour, the weight, flicking the pages and smelling the paper - mmm! See a pile of books and I’m instantly lost. Apart from the pleasure of holding a beautiful object, the smell of
- [Using your reader report](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/01/19/using-your-reader-report/) - This is one for the writers, but readers might be interested in a vital part of the process that goes to producing a story. I say producing, because like a piece of pottery, a story starts as a heap of dull, wet mud. Writing the first draft is like throwing that heap on to the
- [So what makes a good read?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/07/16/so-what-makes-a-good-read/) - As I promised in the previous post, I've turned my beady eye to current bestsellers and read through some of the Amazon bestselling rankings reviews. These are some of the words the readers and critics used about them: The Thread - Victoria Hislop Twin timeline, discovery, history, fast narrative, sense of pace, fresh, intrepid storytelling,
- [Why do you buy the books you do?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/07/11/why-do-you-buy-the-books-you-do/) - Wouldn't every publisher, agent and writer want to know the answer to that one? I've been on the Goodreads site, rating the books I've read. Analysing my own behaviour as a reader, I've been surprised by what I've picked out: historical fiction, adventure, romance, thriller, literary, fantasy, young adult, psychological, crime, contemporary, epic, speculative/science fiction,
- [Writing about recognition - Writing News](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/01/16/writing-about-recognition-writing-news/) - It's a funny time to be pursuing a writing career, but an exciting one. All authors, apart from the biggest names, need to publicise their own books whether they're self-published, small press or even big house published. Writing Magazine commissioned me to write a piece about how to seek and find recognition in today's fiercely competitive
- [Stopped by the forces of law and order](https://www.alison-morton.com/2015/01/10/stopped-by-the-forces-of-law-and-order/) - Driving along the main road, I’m happy there are only 11 kilometres to home. I slow down to pass through a village of older cream stone grey-slated houses, interspersed with Roman tile roofed single-storey homes. Halfway through, I reach the open area to the side, not even a proper village square. A blue-uniformed armed figure
- [Writers' resolutions? Er, no](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/31/writers-resolutions-er-no/) - No, I'm not making resolutions for 2015; they are easily made and easily broken. It's a bit like dieting - it never works. So what's a writer to do? I have a few recommendations... Have your vision and write your story - tap, tap, tap. Make a beautiful world or an ugly one - it
- [Diversion, FTI or accidie?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/02/21/diversion-fti-or-accidie/) - What is that strange feeling when you schedule work in that day, but at 6 pm and the nth cup of tea, you wonder what happened. Many people suffer from this. Especially writers, it seems. Diversion is a word that comes up a lot. Doesn't sound too bad: something that distracts the mind and relaxes
- [Take all the free help you can find](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/20/take-all-the-free-help-you-can-find/) - Monday mornings I spend a little time catching up on my favourite blogs. Even if I spend an hour of writing time, I always pick up at least three new tips. Today, from Your Writer Platform I found out about the marvellous editorial calendar for Wordpress which I promptly installed. On the Smashwords blog, I
- [The Arvon experience](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/10/13/the-arvon-experience/) - What magic turns sixteen anxious wannabees with doubts a hundred feet high into confident, capable producers of good writing within a week? In February this year, I booked the Arvon Foundation course 'Popular Fiction' 4-9 October at Lumb Bank, Yorkshire. It was to run from 4 to 9 October, with tutors Mavis Cheek and Paul
- [Meet David Ebsworth's Napoleonic women warriors](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/11/06/meet-david-ebsworths-napoleonic-women-warriors/) - A welcome return visit from my writing friend David Ebsworth telling us about his next project ... 1815. The 200th anniversary is looming. A passion for the Napoleonic period is tugging at my writing hand. Yes, I thought, my next one will be about Waterloo. But from what angle? I began looking for the real-life experiences
- [Sparking a controversy with period words](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/03/23/sparking-a-controversy/) - My friend and fellow writer, Liz Harris whose book The Road Back is out later this year, has recently started blogging Welcome to my World In her last post, she asked for help from fellow authors. It's such a good question, I'd like to ask something similar. She'd introduced some well-researched period vocabulary in her
- [Is it wrong to tweet on Christmas Day?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/12/25/is-it-wrong-to-tweet-on-christmas-day/) - The immediate reaction is hands raised in horror. How crass, how selfish, how insensitive! But is it? I remember as a kid having 'quiet times' on Christmas day. We had the ecstasy of early morning present-unwrapping - scarf, pencils, jigsaw, books, new jumper - then breakfast, followed by the first 'quiet time' when we looked
- [Antoine Vanner - Britannia's Shark](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/04/antoine-vanner-britannias-shark/) - Today my blog guest is Antoine Vanner, a man of many parts. Before writing historical naval fiction, he spent many years in the international oil industry and travelled extensively. He has survived military coups, guerrilla warfare, a militia attack, storms at sea and life in mangrove swamps, tropical forest, offshore platforms and the boardroom. His passion for
- [My top ten blog posts](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/12/01/my-top-ten-blog-posts/) - Now it's December, I thought I'd look back to see what the most popular posts have been. Is it a competition? No, it's a mystery! In 2013 and 2014 combined (in traditional reverse order) 10. The Alternation of Rome - About creating an alternative timeline and how Roma Nova was born 9. PERFIDITAS book trailer - As it says! 8.
- [What's an ethical author?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/11/20/whats-an-ethical-author/) - You may have spotted a new green badge in the righthand column of widgets ...... An author program facilitated by the Alliance of Independent Authors but open to any writer who has published a long-form work of fiction or non-fiction, either via a trade publisher or self-publishing platform. About its origins So here's the code itself - mostly
- [Meet Alison Morton - the video!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/11/24/meet-alison-morton-the-video/) - Yes, I have succumbed. It's all the fault of my new smartphone; I love exploring the features and I've just discovered the superb quality video facility. So here you have a few thoughts about my writing, my heroines, writing in general, and what I think of reviews and interacting with readers. http://youtu.be/5VgQPdFWKpA For the techies among
- [Writing buddies a.k.a. critique partners](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/07/writing-buddies-aka-critique-partners/) - I enjoyed a 'writerly' evening with another novel writer, Denise Barnes who is also preparing her first fiction work. She's already published a non-fiction book which can be seen at her site. We swap hints and tips, recommend and exchange books, encourage each other about courses and competitions. But the best thing is that we
- [Adventurous, empowering, high-concept, kick-ass, human](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/11/01/adventurous-empowering-high-concept-kick-ass-human/) - Perhaps I should add fun... What in Hades am I talking about? I stumbled upon this post from Author Learning Centre called 'Brand Development for Authors: Discovering Your Visual Identity'. It encouraged you to list five words that sum up your book or series in order to help develop a visual image to firm up your 'brand'.
- [What interests readers?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/01/what-interests-readers/) - Authors write books. Books get published. Then it begins... Authors, publishers, publicists and promoters go into full swing, telling the world about the new book, the author's lifestyle, their children, garden, holiday. Background posts about the book's setting, the author's journey, research discoveries, insights, writing hints are posted. Facebook profiles and pages are populated with
- [PERFIDITAS UK launch!  ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/11/09/perfiditas-uk-launch-2/) - Friends, bubbly, books - what could be better? Arriving at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells on a chilly, damp November night with boxes of bubbly, large photos, banner stand, a bag of nibbles from Waitrose and a fair bit of nervous energy, we soon set up. One or two guests arrived early and
- [Harrogate History Festival (2)  - Romans, shopgirls and Vikings](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/11/03/harrogate-history-festival2-romans-shopgirls-and-vikings/) - After my awayday in London, I arrived back on Saturday evening at The Old Swan in Harrogate in perfect time for a glass of red with Conn Iggulden, Simon Turney, Angus Donald, Harry Sidebottom, Derek Birks and Giles Christian. And what a sparky group that was; Viking axes, Roman ball-bearings and medieval sex! This
- [Conferencius interruptus](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/30/conferencius-interruptus/) - Last weekend (well, from Thursday evening), I attended the Harrogate History Festival, but I took a break on the Saturday for an awayday to London. And I wasn’t in the bar at The Lamb in Conduit Street just for the mouthwatering steak & kidney pie and chips! Upstairs in the meeting room, Christina Courtenay
- [Meet Ruth Downie - historical truth and donkey poo](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/23/meet-ruth-downie-historical-truth-and-donkey-poo/) - Ruth Downie read too much Jane Austen at university, emerged with an English degree and a plan to get married and live happily ever after. As a backup she learned typing and shorthand, in the mistaken beliefs that people would always need secretaries and that she might be quite good at it. Finally escaping into
- [You don’t want to be alone!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/20/you-dont-want-to-be-alone/) - Sitting by yourself, in a spare bedroom, study, or even at the dining room table, and tapping away on a keyboard can be a lonely business. People wonder why you don’t go outdoors on a sunny day or wander into the village for a leisurely drink at the local bar or browse around the market.
- [Writing people or writing stuff?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/13/writing-people-or-writing-stuff/) - Talking online with some colleagues about historical and alternative historical writing, the conversation inevitably turned to research and how it was woven in or dripped into the story. We all declaimed against the dreaded info dump when the poor reader gets a JCB bucket size load of history book content poured on them. But how
- [Liesel Schwarz, steampunk queen](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/27/liesel-schwarz-steampunk-queen/) - My guest today is Liesel Schwarz, writer extraordinaire of steampunk adventures. Her heroine reminds me a great deal of Karen/Carina: young women who know their minds, courageous and who try to make sense of the different (to us) worlds they live in. A life-long fan of 19th Century Gothic literature, Liesel is a hopeless romantic
- [Win Jessica Bell’s thriller, White Lady!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/06/win-jessica-bells-thriller-white-lady/) - To celebrate the release of her latest novel, WHITE LADY, my writing friend Jessica Bell is giving away an ebook (mobi, ePub, or PDF) to the first person to correctly guess the one in the three statements below. Two statements are false and one is true: Jessica Bell’s first ever job in Australia was as a ...
- [2014 HNS Conference - bonus photos! ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/12/2014-hns-conference-bonus-photos/) - Some photos that didn't get into the previous posts... My first HNS conference post Second HNS conference post Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out. Find out about Roma Nova news, writing tips and info by signing up for my free monthly email
- [2014 Historical Novel Society conference - Part Deux](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/10/2014-historical-novel-society-conference-part-deux/) - Maybe it was adrenaline, but I started the second day of the HNS conference with an energy surge. Maybe the coffee was stronger than I thought. After chatting with friends, I set up the indie table for the day. Managed by the inestimable Helen Hollick, it showcased the finalists' books for the HNS Indie Novel Award
- [Casualty and being ecumenical](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/10/casualty-and-being-ecumenical/) - Yesterday I had a health scare and spent a significant part of the day in Casualty/ER/Urgences (take your pick), so I don’t have a prepared post. Lying hooked up and waiting for blood test results, the next ECG, whatever, I had time to think. And this morning in the shower, my random thoughts solidified. No,
- [Meet Lorna Fergusson - winner and tutor!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/10/02/meet-lorna-fergusson-winner-and-tutor/) - Today, I'm delighted to welcome acclaimed author and HNS Conference Short Story winner Lorna Fergusson to Roma Nova. Born and brought up in Scotland, Lorna studied English at Aberdeen and Oxford Universities. She now runs Fictionfire Literary Consultancy. In addition to her own workshops, she teaches at the Winchester Writers’ Festival and for Oxford University. Her
- [Short story shortlistee](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/29/short-story-shortlistee/) - Try saying that title fast! Last year I entered a story in the Writing Magazine 2013 New Subscribers' Short Story Competition. Not being a natural in the short story writing department, I'd given it a go anyway. Writing in a mode that's difficult for you is excellent practice and really exercises your writing muscles. I didn't
- [Yay for libraries!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/13/yay-for-libraries/) - After the success of the INCEPTIO evening in Pembury Library in 2013, Susan Rogers, the community librarian, had long wanted me to give a talk in the area central library in Tunbridge Wells, so we arranged it to coincide with the publication of SUCCESSIO, the third of the Roma Nova stories. Susan was delighted to
- [The SUCCESSIO London launch - early photo](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/05/the-successio-london-launch-early-photo/) - Yes, it was fab! I'll post more later, but here's an early photo of the wonderful Sue Cook interviewing me at the University Women's Club. Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out. Find out about Roma Nova news, writing tips and info
- [Applying research](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/07/07/applying-research/) - Research. Yeah, I know, a sticky subject in more ways than one. Writing of any sort needs research whether it’s a modern shoes-and-shopping story, crime thriller or a historical magnum opus. Almost every story written hinges on a set-up or a problem the writer has purposefully created, but it must be plausible. Readers will engage
- [Debbie Young - marketing superstar](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/07/24/debbie-young-marketing-superstar/) - Today, I'm delighted to welcome Debbie Young as my guest. Author, journalist and blogger, she's especially keen on short-form writing, such as flash fiction, short stories and blog posts. Commissioning editor of the Alliance of Independent Authors' (ALLi's) blog of self-publishing advice at www.selfpublishingadvice.org, she has co-authored ALLi's groundbreaking new book, "Opening Up To Indie Authors". She has a
- [Via Domitia - the background](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/28/via-domitia/) - Several people have commented on the new look of this blog (which is lovely of them) and asked me about the background. Of course, it's a Roman road and in particular it's the Via Domitia at Ambrussum, near Nimes in southern France. The Via Domitia provided a fast and sure link from Spain to Italy. constructed
- [Carole Blake on ‘Does a writer still need an agent?'](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/23/carole-blake-on-does-a-writer-still-need-an-agent/) - I'm delighted to welcome my friend Carole Blake to my blog today to give an insight into one of the hottest questions in the publishing today. Carole has just celebrated 50 years in the publishing business, so she probably knows a thing or two. In 1977, after 14 years in publishing, Carole started her own literary
- [Collaborating authors](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/07/15/collaborating-authors/) - Writing is a solitary thing - it's you, the writing medium and hard graft alone together. Your imagination/brain/mind/muse and the pen or keyboard are it. Perhaps you have a writing buddy, known sometimes as a critique partner, or belong to a writers' circle or a writers' association, but if you're an independently published author, you
- [The Historical Novel Society picks SUCCESSIO!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/08/07/the-historical-novel-society-picks-successio/) - Well, this is exciting! The Historical Novel Society indie review team has reviewed SUCCESSIO and given it a wonderful write-up. But the cream on the cake is that it has been awarded the accolade of "Editor's choice"! http://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/successio/ Not only is there that glory, but SUCCESSIO will automatically be longlisted for the HNS Indie Award
- [Summer vacuum (or the time of little writing)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/08/30/summer-vacuum-or-the-time-of-little-writing/) - Hooray! Summer is here; warm, lazy days, extra wine, days out with the family and friends, a holiday away, mmm. But you still have a deadline looming, your fans are waiting, your muse is bashing away in your head with fantastic scenes you simply must write. And then you are speaking or attending conferences and
- [A local litfest in France](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/09/04/a-local-litfest-in-france/) - Last weekend, I spent two lovely days at a local literary festival at the village of Saint-Clémentin in the Deux-Sèvres. Guests included Michèle Roberts, Leigh Russell and Blake Morrison, plus a number of local writers and poets. There were walks with poetry, writing projects with local schools, participative poetry readings, interviews, workshops, local
- [INCEPTIO storms up the Amazon.com rankings](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/06/inceptio-storms-up-the-amazon-com-rankings/) - Very exciting this morning. INCEPTIO has been doing well on Amazon.co.uk with 41 reviews so far - 34 5-star and 7 4-star - and at time of writing has a sales rank hovering around #15,000 in the paid Kindle store. In July, it even hit #6,773. All very satisfactory for a first book by an
- [Shortlisted for the 2014 Self-Published Book of the Year Award](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/07/03/shortlisted-for-the-2014-self-published-book-of-the-year-award/) - Several months ago, I entered INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS for the Writing Magazine self-published book award. With all the work finalising SUCCESSIO, I almost forgot about it. Imagine my pleasure when I came home after the SUCCESSIO launch trip, browsed the July issue of Writing Magazine and found that both books had been shortlisted for the award.
- [How long does it take to develop a story idea?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/07/how-long-does-it-take-to-develop-a-story-idea/) - I've been asked many times how I came to think up Roma Nova and the thriller story behind INCEPTIO. When I mention it started when I was memerised by a Roman mosaic at the age of eleven, people are surprised to say the least. The full story is here in a guest post I wrote
- [Latin, eh?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/11/28/latin-eh/) - What connects a Wallsend metro station, an ATM in the Vatican City, Asterix and Wikipedia? Latin, of course! Originating in Italy, it was spoken in Ancient Rome and spread through the Mediterranean into much of the then known world. Although now considered a dead language, many students, scholars, and members of the Christian clergy speak
- [INCEPTIO - Excerpt III ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/28/inceptio-excerpt-iii/) - For previous excerpt click here I stared at the screen. I felt like I’d been struck in the face. This couldn’t be happening. I wasn’t a terrorist or criminal. Sure, my mother had been born abroad, but she’d been dead for twenty-one years. My father was born in England but had been a naturalised American
- [INCEPTIO - Excerpt II](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/26/inceptio-excerpt-ii/) - For previous excerpt, click here ‘You are dismissed from the Conservancy Corps, with immediate effect. Hand your uniform, ID and any other park property to your supervisor and leave within the next thirty minutes. You have become an embarrassment to the Autonomous City of New York. We cannot stop you as a member of the
- [INCEPTIO - Excerpt I](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/24/inceptio-excerpt-i/) - I The boy lay in the dirt in the centre of New York’s Kew Park, blood flowing out of both his nostrils, his fine blond hair thrown out in little strands around his head. I stared at my own hand, still bunched, pain rushing to gather at the reddening knuckles. I hadn’t knocked anybody down
- [Game of Sevens](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/27/game-of-sevens/) - I’ve been tagged by historical fiction author Antoine Vanner in a game of Lucky Sevens. It's a bit of online fun for writers that pulls us out of our sheds where we sit scribbling away for hours on end and lets us reveal a little our our current work in progress. Here is how it’s done: Go to
- [Cupid’s Way – the new romantic comedy from Joanne Phillips](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/29/cupids-way-the-new-romantic-comedy-from-joanne-phillips/) - Now, I don't normally do book blasts, but this time I'm delighted to make a very special exception. Joanne Phillips is a talented writing friend of mine who's studying for a creative writing MA and has several successful and very enjoyable books to her credit. She's also a colleague from the Alliance of Independent Authors, so one
- [SUCCESSIO goes on a blast!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/17/successio-goes-on-a-blast/) - SUCCESSIO is in the very capable hands of the Historic Fiction Virtual Book Tours (HFVBT) who are organising a mini book tour, called a book blast. It's mainly to let readers know that the third Roma Nova book is now available. Follow the Successio Book Blast June 16: Flashlight Commentary & Princess of Eboli June 17: Kincavel Korner, Mina’s Bookshelf,
- [Scenes from the British Museum](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/07/scenes-from-the-british-museum/) - Out into the rain this morning on my way to the British Museum to see the Vikings, I walked down Earls Court Gardens and spotted sets of bicycles chained artistically to the railings. I guess there’s nowhere else to store them. After fairly mundane ride on the Picadilly Line, I arrived at the British Museum,
- [SUCCESSIO excerpt III](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/06/02/successio-excerpt-iii/) - ‘C’mon, Bruna, wake up!’ We’d been practising for fifteen minutes now and I wanted a break. My breath was rasping through my lungs in shorter and shorter gasps. Blood thrummed around my system as my superfit opponent exerted every gram of his formidable strength against me. I was more skilled and agile than him which
- [SUCCESSIO excerpt II](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/31/successio-excerpt-ii/) - Fifteen minutes later, Livius stopped, held his hand up. We dropped to the ground as one. Between the trees, I could see the edge of the clearing housing the exercise headquarters. After a long five minutes, Livius sent Gorlius and Pelo forward to check out the approach. It was such a classic trick to stake
- [Launching SUCCESSIO ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/30/launching-successio/) - As well as the London launch next Wednesday (4 June), I'm giving a talk at the Tunbridge Wells Library on 10 June at 7pm about writing the Roma Nova stories. SUCCESSIO, PERFIDITAS and the Roma Nova series starter, INCEPTIO may feature... There'll be wine before, and book signing afterwards with all three books. I'd love to see
- [Nik Morton - We are history](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/22/nik-morton-we-are-history/) - Today, I'm delighted to welcome Nik Morton (no relation!), who also writes as Ross Morton and a few other names besides... Ex-Royal Navy, ex-IT, expat living in Spain, he works as an editor and writer of short stories, articles and novels. Added to this he draws cartoons and illustrates comics, stories and magazine covers. To date, he has 20 books
- [SUCCESSIO news...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/20/successio-news/) - Oo-er! The SUCCESSIO paperback is starting to appear in online shops... (It's in euros because that's my local currency ;-) ) Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is out June 2014.
- [Meet Sue Cook](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/24/meet-sue-cook/) - I am delighted to welcome a very special guest to my blog today, somebody who has supported Roma Nova since its earliest days. Sue Cook is one of the UK’s most experienced and popular broadcasters: You and Yours, Nationwide, Breakfast Time, Children in Need, Holiday, Crimewatch and most recently Making History and The Write Lines.
- [Meet Leigh Russell](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/05/15/meet-leigh-russell/) - Today I'm welcoming the fabulous Leigh Russell to the blog. Hailed as 'a brilliant talent' by Jeffery Deaver and 'a deeply human voice' by Peter James, Leigh writes the internationally bestselling Geraldine Steel series of psychological crime thrillers. Her first novel, Cut Short was shortlisted for a CWA Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel.
- [PERFIDITAS is on tour!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/18/perfiditas-is-on-tour/) - Interviews, reviews, spotlights and giveaways along the way. See you there! Virtual Book Tour Schedule Monday, April 14 Review at Flashlight Commentary INCEPTIO PERFIDITAS Tuesday, April 15 Interview at Flashlight Commentary Wednesday, April 16 Interview at Bibliophilia, Please Thursday, April 17 Spotlight & Giveaway at Broken Teepee Monday, April 21 Review at Book Nerd Wednesday 23 April Review and
- [A conflict](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/05/10/a-conflict/) - Conflicting advice is the very devil, especially if it's given by different well-respected and hugely experienced writers. Especially when you've paid for it from a well-researched and carefully selected specialist or it comes via a highly professional writing organisation. Like most newbie writers, I am passionate, energetic and in love with my story and characters.
- [How do you know it's a thriller?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/26/how-do-you-know-its-a-thriller/) - Would you recognise one on a dark, deserted bookshelf at midnight? Generally, thrillers contain the following: The hero(ine) faces death, or destruction of their way of life or sanity, either their own or somebody else's, sometimes by accident, sometimes because it's their job. The 'bad guys' whether the mob, sinister government enforcers (see INCEPTIO ;-)
- [How to get the reader to read your book](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/21/how-to-get-the-reader-to-read-your-book/) - Unless you write for the sole purpose of personal fulfilment, you probably hope other people will read your work. When you publish a story, either as a freebie or commercially on multiple channels (Amazon, Kobo, Waterstones, iBooks) and in multiple formats (paperback, hardback, ebook, audio), you are making a contract with the reader. The reader
- [London Book Fair - Day 2](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/10/london-book-fair-day-2/) - As I walked down Earls Court Gardens to start Day 2 at the London Book Fair, I still felt the buzz of Day 1. Or maybe it was the warmth of the sunshine on my face… The Roma Nova badges seem to be catching on... I met up with Romantic Novelists’ Association members
- [Anna Belfrage imagines a different time, a different place.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/10/anna-belfrage-imagines-a-different-time-a-different-place/) - When I was young, I was quite convinced I was a reincarnated medieval soul, so closely connected did I feel to all those kings and knights I read about. These days, I lean towards blaming my vivid imagination for all those déjà vu experiences, such as the time I created my own medieval costume “from
- [Day 3 at the London Book Fair](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/10/day-3-at-the-london-book-fair/) - Today was a ‘lighter’ day. After the ALLi celebratory party yesterday we were all a little quieter, but still kept up a busy routine. My first 'appointment' of the day was to talk through the fine detail of book production with SilverWood Books' publishing director, Helen Hart. The third book in my Roma Nova thriller series,
- [A pre-London Book Fair meet-up](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/07/a-pre-london-book-fair-meet-up/) - Energised by meeting a terrific group of other writers last night. No, 'energised' is not a euphemism for hangover. The atmosphere really did fizz. Writers are used to listening, observing and absorbing, and they are genuinely interested in each others' progress. And, of course, their problems and successes. And as lonely creatures, musing and tapping
- [On the way to the 2014 London Book Fair](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/06/on-the-way-to-the-2014-london-book-fair/) - Although I have a guest as usual on Thursday, I'm going to be posting pictures when I can of my trip this week to LBF. It's going to be a mix, but this is posting 'on the hoof' or if you want to be arty, 'performance posting'. I flew in today on Ryanair from Poitiers.
- [Victoria Lamb - amo, amas, amat: Latin in Tudor England](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/04/03/victoria-lamb-amo-amas-amat-latin-in-tudor-england/) - Today, I'm delighted to welcome Victoria Lamb, historical novelist of some repute as well as fun-loving person. Her exciting Tudor series for adults beginning with The Queen's Secret is centred around the enigma of Shakespeare's 'Dark Lady' while her Tudor Witch series for Young Adults has been described as 'Twilight meets The Other Boleyn Girl'.
- [Must-have writer's aids...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/29/must-have-writers-aids/) - Yes, essential to the writing environment are: a working computer with appropriate software a supportive chair warmth light peace But the most important adjunct is CHOCOLATE. So what does chocolate do for the writer? 1. Flavonoids Chocolate is chock-full(!) of flavonoids—naturally-occurring compounds found in the cacao plant, as well as in red wine, tea, fruits,
- [HNS Short Story Award 2014 - a reminder!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/03/17/hns-short-story-award-2014-a-reminder/) - Deadline 1 April 2014! The Historical Novel Society seeks to support writers of new historical fiction by the HNS International Awards – a series of competitions for previously unpublished short stories and novels. The 2014 Historical Novel Society International Award, with a prize of $2,000, will be for an outstanding historical short story. There will
- [Distractions](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/11/distractions/) - What? Oh, yes. I just have to finish my coffee, load the dishwasher, clean the cat's bowl, check my Facebook author page, nip on to Twitter - but only for five minutes - do the filing, have a Skype with my critique partner… Um, what book? Even writing this blog is a distraction. So why
- [My writing process](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/03/my-writing-process/) - My thanks to Liz Harris for inviting me to be part of the My Writing Process blog tour. Her own blog is so engaging and full of photos (www.lizharrisauthor.com). Do go and visit, but not quite yet. So, I have to answer four questions... What am I working on? I’ve just finished the revisions to
- [The place where I work](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/19/the-place-where-i-work/) - I hope you didn't expect a tidy and sleek office? My office is a place full of paper, books, notes, pens, files, cup of coffee, lights, noticeboard, etc. Our super-tough birchwood work stations came over to France with us, plus the IKEA office cupboards which used to adorn my UK office when I ran my
- [PERFIDITAS giveaway!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/26/perfiditas-giveaway/) - Enter the Goodreads giveaway by 3 March 2014 to win a FREE posted to you signed copy of PERFIDITAS! Goodreads Book Giveaway Perfiditas by Alison Morton Giveaway ends March 03, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in
- [Meet Helen Hollick](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/20/meet-helen-hollick/) - My first special guest this spring is Helen Hollick, author of The Pendragon's Banner trilogy (The Kingmaking, Pendragon's Banner, Shadow of the King), a re-telling of the King Arthur legend where Arthur Pendragon is a post-Roman battle-hardened warlord. Before that, she wrote The Saxon Series (Harold the King (US - I Am the Chosen King)
- [Revamps and updates - do we like them?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/17/revamps-and-updates-do-we-like-them/) - Are an American high school or the subcontinent an appropriate place for Jane Austen’s stories? Do we want to imagine what Penelope thought about Odysseus? And should Sherlock Holmes use a smart phone? I love Pride and Prejudice and have read it so many times I know exactly what line or comic twist is coming
- [PERFIDITAS joins INCEPTIO as a B.R.A.G. Medallion honoree!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/13/perfiditas-joins-inceptio-as-a-b-r-a-g-medallion-honoree/) - B.R.A.G. Medallion® - what's that? In the large sea of self/independently published work, there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam and not all of it is worth picking up. How to tell? Well, IndieBRAG, a privately held organization has brought together a large group of readers, both individuals and members of book clubs, located
- [Publishing attitudes](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/02/11/publishing-attitudes/) - I’m a simple soul who likes writing. I quite like people and know agents, publishers, editors, writers from big publishers, small publishers, independent and small presses, aspiring writers, independent and self-published writers, not to mention commentators, bloggers, tutors and booksellers. As a recent arrival on the scene (2009), I’ve striven to learn as much as
- [INCEPTIO awarded the B.R.A.G. Medallion!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/19/inceptio-awarded-the-b-r-a-g-medallion/) - (Don't miss the update at the end!) The what? In the large sea of self/independently published work, there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam and not all of it is worth picking up. How to tell? Well, indieBRAG, a privately held organization has brought together a large group of readers, both individuals and members
- [Double memories](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/01/08/double-memories/) - Finding something that you know will give somebody else a great deal of pleasure is a smiley moment. Nothing is the same as watching the other person's eyes widen. Their look of immediate disbelief dissolves as you hand it to them and they receive it with a huge grin on their face. I decided to
- [Harrogate HistoryFest - early report](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/27/harrogate-historyfest-early-report/) - A first-time event here at the Old Swan, treading a little in the footsteps of Theakston's Crime Fest, the new history festival is going very well. Friday evening, Rose Tremain gave the first, fascinating, talk about her new book, Merival, characterisation, writing from the inside out and how much she did, or didn't, include of
- [Hallowe'en Blog Hop ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/31/halloween-blog-hop/) - Hallowe'en Blog Hop Trick or Treat giveaway Do you dare to read something a little different, possibly alternative, and discover a whole new world? A touch of fear, lust or danger? Fantasy or thrillers? As Halloween is a tricksy time, it's perfect timing to chance it. Halloween, or All Hallows' Eve, has Celtic origins rather
- [Harrogate History Festival - Part Deux](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/11/01/harrogate-history-festival-part-deux/) - Well, I can't hope to be as eloquent as Sally Zigmond in her lovely post 'Being a historical pioneer' She described the sense of delicious enjoyment from the high calibre talks, the friendliness of everybody attending, the temptation of book-buying and the happy chats around bar tables. Yes, of course wine was drunk... The clocks
- [BBC Radio Kent welcomes PERFIDITAS.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/11/05/bbc-radio-kent-welcomes-perfiditas/) - Going on local radio is something all writers hope to do. Not only does it reinforce local roots, or reconnect to them, but it's a chance for them to chat about their latest book. Radio stations, especially the BBC, have a remit to 'inform, educate and entertain' and need a continuing supply of interesting content,
- [A beautiful blog...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/11/20/a-beautiful-blog/) - Today, I'm on author Jessica Bell's blog as an "Artist Unleashed" with a guest post "Write What You Really Really Want". I hope you'll visit and read a little more about my writing motivation. ;-) But the treasure of Jessica's blog is the gorgeous bubble girl... Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova
- ["Tom-ah-toes, tom-ay-toes" could wreck your book.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/11/30/tom-ah-toes-tom-ay-toes-could-wreck-your-book/) - Reviews are lifeblood for any author and I fall on the ground worshipping any reader who has taken the time to compose one. Sometimes, they're posted independently, on people's blogs, or a group's or writing association blog, or on the "big beasts", Goodreads and Amazon. If you're really, really lucky you'll get in the national
- [Character building, or what?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/12/12/character-building-or-what/) - The most frequent question readers have asked me since the launch of INCEPTIO in March has been: how did you work out the characters? Karen/Carina has been buzzing around in my head for a while – about fifteen years. So in the end it was a choice between seeing a psychiatrist or becoming a writer!
- [Winter greetings - Io Saturnalia!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/12/24/winter-greetings-io-saturnalia/) - A hearty winter greeting from Rome - have a great holiday! (Actually, it was taken in February 2012 at the time of the Great European Freeze a couple of weeks before my own study tour there, but doesn't the Colosseum look good in snow?) Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Minchilli, http://www.elizabethminchilliinrome.com/2012/02/snow-day-rome.html Read more about Saturnalia here.
- [WINNER! Winter Solstice Blog Hop - Shedding light on the Roman dusk draw](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/12/26/winner-winter-solstice-blog-hop-shedding-light-on-the-roman-dusk-draw/) - I ran a giveaway draw with my post about the Roman dusk - part of the Winter Solstice Blog Hop. Let me say, it was incredibly difficult to decide, so I put all the names in a hat and the name of the winning paper was ... (drum roll) Nicole Evelina! Read about her here...
- [So, how was 2013 for you?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/02/so-how-was-2013-for-you/) - 2013 was a life-changing year for me; two books published, one shortlisted for the International Rubery Award and awarded quality marks for self-published work (B.R.A.G. MedallionTM and Awesome Indie), conferences, London Book Fair, radio interviews, fantastic launch events (March and November), invitations to speak and appear on countless blogs, writing (paying!) articles and a raft
- [INCEPTIO - Amazon US bestseller! ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/06/inceptio-amazon-us-bestseller/) - This last weekend, something very exciting happened. INCEPTIO reached bestseller ranking on Amazon.com, #1 in the Alternate History and Alternative History categories and #2 in Historical Thrillers. At this stage, I had even knocked Stephen King off first place! So I did this... Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and
- [Meet Geri Clouston of IndieBRAG](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/09/meet-geri-clouston-of-indiebrag/) - Today, I’m delighted to welcome Geraldine Clouston, founder and president of IndieBRAG, an organisation whose mission is “to recognize quality on the part of authors who self-publish both print and digital books.” One fearsome, but in a way reassuring, statistic is that IndieBRAG rejects 90% of books that it considers. Not quite two years old,
- [Meet Helen Hart of SilverWood Books ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2014/01/17/meet-helen-hart-of-silverwood-books/) - Today, I’m delighted to welcome Helen Hart, publishing director at SilverWood Books. She has written novels under pseudonyms for Scholastic, Virgin Books, OUP and HarperCollins. One of her Young Adult novels, written as Maya Snow, was shortlisted for the Solihull Children's Book Award 2010. Helen was on the judging panel for the 2010 and 2011
- [Winter ebook sale - 50% or even less!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/12/29/winter-ebook-sale-50-or-even-less/) - INCEPTIO (ebook) is on sale until 20 January only. Now, I don't do free - I think writers should be paid for their creativity, the sweat of their brows and their sheer persistence. ;-) But offering readers a good deal is quite a different thing... Where and how much? Click the link below to go
- [Struggling to write in the promo sea](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/13/struggling-to-write-in-the-promo-sea/) - Those Who Know say the best way to keep your work in front of readers is to write another book. As I'm in the middle of letting everybody know about (let's be honest, marketing) my new book and trying to reach as many potential readers as possible, I've snatched a few minutes out to think
- [PERFIDITAS  arrives!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/08/perfiditas-arrives/) - PERFIDITAS was on track to arrive tomorrow, but at 4.30 this afternoon, the doorbell rang. 'Bonjour, madame j'ai un colis pour vous,' a cheery voice said. She set down a cardboard carton covered in address and barcode stickers on the tile floor. I signed the LCD screen, hand not trembling too much. Somehow, I managed
- [Saturnalia Christmas present solutions…](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/11/23/saturnalia-christmas-present-solutions/) - Offer 1: Two-book bundle A signed paperback copy of each of INCEPTIO and PERFIDITAS UK - £18.50 Europe - 22.00€ US - US$ 29.50 All prices include postage (second class/economy) and packing. Please ask for rates to rest of world. Offer 2: Individual paperback gift service A seasonal greetings card with personalised message from the author
- [PERFIDITAS very relaxed blog tour](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/15/perfiditas-very-relaxed-blog-tour/) - To celebrate its publication, PERFIDITAS is off on a virtual, fairly relaxed tour... Click here for all the tour stop details, regularly updated. And, of course, there'll be the UK launch at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells on 6 November - all welcome. ******** Missed INCEPTIO? You can buy it here from a variety of retailers. ********
- [Women writing books](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/14/women-writing-books/) - Today starts a very special month when I'm featured in the online literary magazine Women Writers, Women's Books. And I'm very excited to be in the company of Isabel Allende, Nicola Morgan, Roz Morris, Joanne Harris, Claire King and Judith Kinghorn, to mention a few. It started with a tweet. My critique partner, Denise Barnes,
- [INCEPTIO stickered ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/08/inceptio-stickered/) - The stickers arrived from IndieBRAG today. INCEPTIO is now proudly wearing its new status as a B.R.A.G. MedallionTM honoree. More about B.R.A.G. MedallionTM here. But that's not all that arrived today...
- [PERFIDITAS giveaway competition](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/05/perfiditas-giveaway-competition/) - In the eleven days before PERFIDITAS is published on 17 October, you can enter a competition to win a signed copy of the paperback. You could be amongst the first to read it, and also receive one of the specially designed bookmarks. More about PERFIDITAS Watch the trailer To enter, click
- [INCEPTIO IS ON SALE 2-8 OCTOBER](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/10/03/inceptio-is-on-sale-2-8-october/) - In the run up to the publication of PERFIDITAS on 17 October, INCEPTIO is on special offer on Amazon until 8 October at the promotional price of 99 cents/99 pence. If by some strange chance you don't have a copy, now is the time to buy!
- [PERFIDITAS UK launch](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/22/perfiditas-uk-launch/) - All are welcome! Here are the details: An evening with Alison Morton Wednesday 6 November 2013 at 7pm Waterstones 32-40 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells TN1 2TD Alison will talk about and read from her new novel, PERFIDITAS, an alternate history thriller, the second in the Roma Nova series, and sign copies afterwards. “Sassy, intriguing, page-turning…
- [Amazon v. Goodreads?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/12/amazon-v-goodreads/) - Recently, I've heard mixed things about Goodreads and Amazon, so I thought I'd explore a little more. My initial and anecdotal impression has been that Goodreads encouraged fairly considered and balanced observations, while Amazon often offered either blatant adoration of a book or a flippant rejection. Goodreads reviewers were tied to a social profile where
- [INCEPTIO summer tour](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/03/inceptio-summer-tour/) - STOP PRESS: Now you can vote for INCEPTIO in the Hall of Fame. The poll lasts until 1 September. INCEPTIO is off on tour, this time over the summer. Here are the stop-offs and activities: 29th June – Book Feature at Peace from Pieces 30th June – Book synopsis & Author Interview at Mommy Adventures 1st July
- [PERFIDITAS cover reveal, pub date and launch](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/09/04/perfiditas-cover-reveal-pub-date-and-launch/) - At last! At last! I have been swayed by pleas and begging to release information about the next book, so here's the latest cover proof... PERFIDITAS will be published on 17 October in ebook and paperback. The French launch will be at the Journée du Livre on 13 October and the UK launch at Waterstones
- [INCEPTIO in New York!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/08/29/inceptio-in-new-york/) - Woo-hoo! Karen, the heroine of INCEPTIO has arrived in New York, her home town. (Of course, this is the real New York we know in our timeline...) After the terrific success of its trips around the tube as a Book on the Underground in London in the real world, INCEPTIO is hitting New York's subway.
- [The Wonder of Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/08/11/the-wonder-of-rome/) - Coming soon! The Wonder of Rome blog hop Over the weekend of 15-19 August, you will be able to visit eighteen sites displaying the wonder of Rome and trying to solve the mystery of why we are so attracted to a society that disappeared over 1600 years ago. Or did it? Come back here on
- [RNA Conference - Part Deux](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/08/01/rna-conference-part-deux/) - Due to total camera fail, I didn't have many photos to show you when I wrote my first post. Hurrah for friends! Liz Harris (The Road Back) has emailed some over.
- [Vote for INCEPTIO!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/08/09/vote-for-inceptio/) - INCEPTIO is shortlisted for the Orangeberry Hall of Fame Best Thriller category. The poll is running through August, but it would be great if you could vote now to get it in the front runners. Here's the voting link: http://orangeberrybooktours.com/expo/2013/07/31/hall-of-fame-best-thriller/ And here's the general Hall of Fame page
- [Romantic Novelists' Association Conference 2013](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/16/romantic-novelists-association-conference-2013/) - Fun, friendship and some serious talk - these were the keys of this year's conference at the University of Sheffield's The Edge campus. We'll take it as read that the evenings were convivial, that was much exclaiming of "How lovely to see/meet you in the flesh!" and comparisons with previous conferences. Two hundred women and
- [INCEPTIO shortlisted for book award!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/23/inceptio-shortlisted-for-book-award/) - INCEPTIO has been shortlisted for the International Rubery Book Award. There, I've managed to type that correctly with trembly fingers. It's so exciting! Here's an extract from their site about the award: "The Rubery Book Award is the longest established book award based in the UK for independent and self published books. The key to our
- [Self-publishing times are a-changing...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/19/self-publishing-times-are-a-changing/) - Maybe my RNA colleagues were being polite at the annual conference this last weekend, but I didn't get one remotely pointed remark about my self-published debut novel, INCEPTIO. That sounds defensive, I know, but what a change from even 12 months, let alone 24 months ago. Are we all now 'published' rather than self/independent/mainstream/traditional? Have
- [What I did at London Book Fair 2013](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/04/19/what-i-did-at-london-book-fair-2013/) - Three years ago, I spent a day at London Book Fair as a wide-eyed newbie writer. I loved it! This year, with INCEPTIO published, I went as part of the SilverWood Books author team to answer potential new clients' questions from the author point of view. Very courageous and transparent of SilverWood Books (SWB) to
- [What did I learn from preparing Book 2?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/06/24/what-did-i-learn-from-preparing-book-2/) - Last Thursday, I finished the edits on the second Roma Nova book, PERFIDITAS. SilverWood Books' editor made some excellent recommendations and sparked off other ideas that I incorporated in the final, final edition. Good books go through many revisions and edits, but at last it was done. So how was it for me? 1. Strange
- [New week, new stuff](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/07/01/new-week-new-stuff/) - Keeping abreast of new developments is important, but so is gathering information now to use later, as is thinking about how how you dealt with challenges and what inspired you. Today, I'm giving you one of each. The new development Now I'm really pleased with my publishing services provider SilverWood Books who do the whole
- [INCEPTIO at Oxford Circus](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/06/04/inceptio-at-oxford-circus/) - INCEPTIO is at Oxford Circus! You can't get more central than that. I wonder where its next stop will be travelling around the London Underground. Books on the Underground is a fabulous scheme - books travelling around the London Underground network waiting to be read. Apart from some publicity for the author, the other benefit
- [Call Jean Fullerton!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/25/call-jean-fullerton/) - Born into a large East End family, Jean was brought up in the overcrowded streets clustered around the Tower of London. Her Victorian stories shining with authenticity have delighted both readers and critics. Jean's fifth book, Call Nurse Millie, set in 1940s London, draws on her own experience as a district nurse in East London.
- [Matt Mitrovich and a Clockwork Tale](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/30/matt-mitrovich-and-a-clockwork-tale/) - Today, we concentrate on alternating history. I'm delighted to be hosting Matt Mitrovich, the founder and editor of highly rated Alternate History Weekly Update and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake’s Monthly, The Masquerade Crew and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful
- [INCEPTIO is a Book on the Underground](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/29/inceptio-is-a-book-on-the-underground/) - Quick post today in between scheduled ones... INCEPTIO is off travelling around the London Underground (metro/mass transit system). Books on the Underground is as simple as it sounds. Books travelling around the London Underground network waiting to be read. How exciting is that?!? If you see INCEPTIO, be sure to take a photo and send
- [I've been awarded the Liebster Blog award](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/06/02/ive-been-awarded-the-liebster-blog-award/) - My thanks to Henriette Gyland for awarding me a Liebster Blog Award ('Liebster' is German for ‘favourite’). The rules of the Liebster Award are: Thank your Liebster Blog Award nominator on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you; Answer the eleven questions from the nominator; List eleven random facts
- [Carol McGrath and The Handfasted Wife](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/17/carol-mcgrath-and-the-handfasted-wife/) - Today, I'm welcoming a special guest to my blog. Carol McGrath writes historical fiction and has recently achieved her MPhil in Creative Writing from the Royal Holloway University, London. Hearty congratulations! A member of the Romantic Novelists' Association New Writers' Scheme with me, Carol has graduated to full membership on the publication of her debut
- [What does reading do for you?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/19/what-does-reading-do-for-you/) - People nowadays have to work more and get less time to think. Thinking and learning is an important aspect of self development, it is also essential for professional success. Reading is a vital basic skill for life. Poor reading skills tend to go hand in hand with social exclusion (Guardian, 2007, Does Reading Matter?). That's
- [Over at Victoria Lamb's blog today](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/09/over-at-victoria-lambs-blog-today/) - Victoria Lamb is a very well-known, if not downright famous, writer of historical fiction. Fellow Romantic Novelist Association member and Latin-lover (no, not that sort!), she's been one of my staunchest supporters on my writing journey. She even offered me a fantastic endorsement to go in the front of INCEPTIO which I grabbed before she
- [Post INCEPTIO launch questions](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/05/03/post-inceptio-launch-questions/) - The INCEPTIO launches in the UK and France were terrific, the French one small, intimate, the UK one a grand affair at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells - I loved both. I basked in the enthusiasm, well-wishing and sheer fun for days. People bought the book at the events and afterwards in shedloads and then the reviews
- [How to have a successful blogtour](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/04/25/how-to-have-a-successful-blogtour/) - It's the old five-Ps adage: Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Whether you do it yourself, contract a PR company or your publisher organises it, the same things apply. Stage 1 - Planning Plan your tour length and frequency - five days, ten days, a month; everyday, every other day or three a week for a
- [To blogtour or not to blogtour?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/27/to-blogtour-or-not-to-blogtour/) - I live in France so it's not easy to do a traditional bookshop tour. A virtual blog tour is a very attractive idea, especially as I hope to connect with potential readers worldwide. My publisher, SilverWood Books, has organised the stop-offs and the impressive logo, so a big thank you to them. Preparing the posts
- [INCEPTIO goes down a storm in Portugal!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/04/08/inceptio-goes-down-a-storm-in-portugal/) - I am thrilled out of my socks by this review from book review site Pedacinho Literário in Portugal. Review: Wow, what a story! I don’t think I have enough good words to fully express how special this book is—at least, not yet. It’s not only spectacular—for me—because it’s part of my first ever Blog Tour,
- [INCEPTIO passes the Jaffa review test with 5 stars](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/04/10/inceptio-passes-the-jaffa-review-test-with-5-stars/) - Jaffareadstoo There's a little bit of book love going on ....as the cat crept in, and curled at my side, read with me, read with me, softly he sighed ... What a lovely review for this the last day of my blog tour! Thank you Jaffa (and Jo). "In present day New York, Karen Brown’s
- [A great opening line...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/04/07/a-great-opening-line/) - I just had to post this: Pacy thriller with fascinating alternative history setting, 6 April 2013 By Mrs. Deborah Young "Debbie Young By Name" Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?) This review is from: INCEPTIO (Roma Nova) (Kindle Edition) "The boy lay in the dirt in the centre of New York's Kew Park..." A great opening
- [French launch of INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/02/french-launch-of-inceptio/) - A French bar, book lovers and my publication day - what a combination! When Paperback Jan (Jan Smith) who runs the paperback exchange in the Deux-Sèvres urged me to have a mini-launch in France, I wasn't quite sure. The bash at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells on 12 March was to be the official UK launch. Would
- [INCEPTIO - The big launch cometh!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/08/inceptio-the-big-launch-cometh/) - Bubbly, great company, a fun 'book do', author signing, the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, Sue Cook and other book world luminaries - what's not to like? Come and join me!
- [INCEPTIO - Pembury Library talk](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/22/inceptio-pembury-library-talk/) - When I was planning the launch of INCEPTIO at Waterstones in Tunbridge Wells, I was very keen to go and talk at my local library on the same trip. I lived in Pembury for over 24 years and spent many happy hours in the library when my son was small (storytime) and when looking for
- [The Assassin's Mark](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/20/the-assassins-mark/) - I'm delighted to welcome fellow SilverWood Books author, David Ebsworth, to my blog today. Dave began to write seriously in 2009 and his debut novel, The Jacobites' Apprentice, was critically acclaimed by the Historical Novel Society who deemed it "worthy of a place on every historical fiction bookshelf." But he's here today to tell us
- [Pre-launch nerves?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/03/11/pre-launch-nerves/) - INCEPTIO launches at Tunbridge Wells Waterstones tomorrow at 7pm. If you've been watching this blog, you probably know this. ;-) Am I excited? Nervous? Confident? My honest answer is that I haven’t had time to think about it. All I can focus on right now are the things still to do: pack my notes, get
- [INCEPTIO won the 'We've Got It Covered' competition](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/27/inceptio-won-the-weve-got-it-covered-competition/) - 'We’ve Got It Covered', an Indie Cover Hall of Fame competition asked readers to nominate and vote on their favourite indie-author cover. There were 23 nominations. Joanne Phillips who ran the competition on her blog, commented,' What is fascinating to me, seeing them all lined up next to each other, is the breadth of design
- [Giveaway winner ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/27/giveaway-winner/) - Christina Courtenay's publisher ChocLit kindly donated a copy of The Scarlet Kimono to accompany her guest post on this blog on 19 February. I'm delighted to announce the giveaway winner is Linda Mitchelmore, who lives in Devon. Congratulations to Linda and thank you to all participants to commenting on the post.
- [Official launch - update ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/12/official-launch-update/) - I'm delighted to announce that Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster, will be introducing me at my book launch on 12 March in Tunbridge Wells. Sue is one of the UK’s most experienced broadcasters. TV viewers know her from many BBC shows – such as Crimewatch UK, the annual Children in Need appeal and Holiday. To
- [The exotic Christina Courtenay ...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/19/the-exotic-christina-courtenay/) - I’m delighted to welcome Christina Courtenay to my blog today. She's currently Vice Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a member of The Historical Novel Society. Her debut novel, Trade Winds, was short-listed for the RNA’s Pure Passion Award for Best Historical Fiction 2011. Her second novel, The Scarlet Kimono won Best Historical Fiction
- [A box of books - INCEPTIO arrives](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/08/a-box-of-books-inceptio-arrives/) - Today, twenty minutes after I had finished a lunch with an amusing, gregarious and fun group of women from the local area, a white van drew up outside our gate. A man in a red fleece with yellow logo opened the back doors. What was it? It couldn't be the delivery I was longing for?
- [A gallop through my publishing journey](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/10/a-gallop-through-my-publishing-journey/) - I've had one or two requests to tell you about my publishing journey. Okay, more than one or two. Please feel free to go and look at another post on this site if you feel a mild attack of boredom approaching, but for those who are still with me, here's the story. So what happened
- [Official launch!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/25/official-launch/) - An announcement: 1 March - Publication day of paperback and ebook of INCEPTIO (34 days to go) 12 March - OFFICIAL LAUNCH at Waterstones Tunbridge Wells at 7pm: 'An Evening with Alison Morton' where I'll give a talk and read from INCEPTIO. The Mayor of Tubridge Wells, Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster, will be there
- [Support stuff - and we're not talking corsets](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/02/04/support-stuff-and-were-not-talking-corsets/) - These lovely cards and bookmarks have arrived and the eagle still looks stunning. My box of books will be here next week. I am going to weep with excitement.
- [Is this what happens in a meeting between an author and his literary agent? ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/01/26/is-this-what-happens-in-a-meeting-between-an-author-and-his-literary-agent/) - Mitchell and Webb's portrayal of an author discussing his oeuvre with a literary agent. This was tweeted by Jonny Geller of the famous Curtis Brown agency . Tears streamed down my face from beginning to end. Of depression? Or frustration? No, of laughter. I hope.
- [Alternate history at the Historical Novel Society Conference 2012](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/02/alternate-history-at-the-historical-novel-society-conference-2012/) - That the HNS included a workshop on alternate/alternative history at the 2012 was a factor in my signing up to go. Christopher Cevasco (editor/publisher of the award-winning, but now sadly defunct, Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction), led it with verve and patience. My earlier post on this blog on alternate history gives
- [Know thyself?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/23/know-thyself/) - At the moment, I'm completing notes about my book, my writing journey, the world of Roma Nova and myself in the PR work prior to book launch. Some of the questions and topics are straightforward - I could bore for Europe on Roma Nova - but some are quite complex, even personal. It's a long
- [New year, new blog title!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/01/new-year-new-blog-title/) - What? When I first started this blog on World Book Day not quite three years ago (4 March 2010) I had just signed my indentures as a mad newbie writer, so the title Write a Novel? I must be mad! was an appropriate one. While I will never give up learning - no human being,
- [(Im)plausibility and telling whoppers](https://www.alison-morton.com/2013/01/08/implausibility-and-telling-whoppers/) - Now I've started telling people about my first alternate history thriller coming out in March, one person said, 'Oh, you're lucky, you can make up anything!' Er, no. It's about plausibility. Merriam Webster gives one definition: 'appearing worthy of belief '. Synonyms include credible, creditable, likely, believable, presumptive, probable.
- [On pitching at parties...  ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/11/25/on-pitching-at-parties/) - The scene: A book industry party Present: New authors, multi-published authors, agents, editors, publishers, guests, even spouses A first conversation: Sensible and friendly author to agent: "Don't worry, I'm not pitching because my book isn't ready yet." Sensible and savvy agent: "If I was worried about people pitching to me I wouldn't come to a
- [It's raining, it's pouring!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/12/09/its-raining-its-pouring/) - One of the first things we notice in the mornings is the weather. How many of those first tweets go something like this: 'Brrr - cold as I crawl out of bed - not LOL' 'The sun. At last. Damn, I have to go to work.' 'DH now in garden shed building an ark. Blasted
- [The Next Big Thing...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/11/07/the-next-big-thing/) - Last Wednesday I was tagged by the marvellous writer Victoria Lamb for The Next Big Thing. This week, it's my turn to answer the following questions and tag a few other writers in my turn. What is the title of your next book? INCEPTIO Where did the idea for the book come from? INCEPTIO is
- [In defence of round-robins ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/12/20/in-defence-of-round-robins/) - Oh, the sneering! Oh, the superiority! Even Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots and Leaves) is on BBC Radio4 broadcasting a series of witty ripostes to round-robins (RRs). Now some RRs are painful: long-winded, which goes hand-in-hand with boring; poorly composed and/or typed; with scattered blurry photos; and produced with tight margins in tiny, coloured or weird
- [What's new(s)?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/09/12/whats-news/) - First of all, I want to thank my loyal subscribers - direct and by RSS - who follow my blog posts. I hope I've entertained and possibly informed you. Now I'm stepping it up and will be sending out a monthly email newsletter. It'll contain news, updates, comments, tips and competitions. If you'd like to
- [10 things for a good read?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/09/24/10-things-for-a-good-read/) - Yep, it's an old question, but a good one and here's my personal take on what makes a good book for me. A well-paced story, with a clever plot so I’m intrigued about what happens next. A clean and clear style that flows easily. Enough detail to trigger my imagination, one or two small things
- [Liz Harris's Road Back](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/31/liz-harriss-road-back/) - I’m delighted to welcome Liz Harris to my blog today. With law and English degrees under her arm and experience of living in California and teaching teenagers in the UK, Liz started writing. She belongs to the Romantic Novelists' Association, The Historical Novel Society and is a member of the Oxford Writers’ Group, where she
- [Retribution from or for Adrian Magson?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/09/26/retribution-from-or-for-adrian-rmagson/) - I’m (literally) thrilled to welcome Adrian Magson to my blog today. A freelance writer, reviewer and creative writing tutor, he's the author of the Riley Gavin & Frank Palmer series of crime novels set in London and is currently writing two new series, the Harry Tate spy thrillers and the Lucas Rocco French police stories.
- [The journey home](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/17/the-journey-home/) - Lagos, Portugal, six a.m. Luggage bundled into the car, fumbling in the dark with the satnav. Farewell waves from my magic circle, then eighty kilometers to Faro Airport. The ex-pat South African banters as the receives my hire car back into his fold. I escape from the wrong passport queue - I'm in Schengen, unlike
- [A little drop of magic and spellbinding](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/26/a-little-drop-of-magic-and-spellbinding/) - My fellow writer, Janice Horton, is throwing a "Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party" today and as a little light relief, I'm joining in. Magic was an integral part of Roman life - astrology, amulets, incantations, spells, healing and cursing formulas. Pliny's conclusion, however, was cautious: though he dismissed magic as ineffective and infamous, it nevertheless contained
- [Dominion](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/11/03/dominion/) - A tough and powerful word, but an appropriate title for C J Sansom's new book. Famous for his Shardlake Tudor series, here Sansom brings us to 1952 in an alternate, authoritarian Britain which made peace with Hitler in 1940. Not formally occupied, Britain is nevertheless dominated by the Nazi regime. Its home-grown "milice" - a
- [Drivers of the metal fish](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/12/03/drivers-of-the-metal-fish/) - Not steampunk, but creative imagination expanding our ideas of exploration... Lagos, in the Algarve, was the harbour from which Prince Henry the Navigator's maritime explorers set off in the early 1400s to discover the unknown world. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of this European Age of Discoveries during the 15th and 16th centuries, finding
- [My thoughts about "The Alteration" by Kingsley Amis](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/08/11/my-thoughts-about-the-alteration-by-martin-amis/) - It's 1976 and in the world of The Alteration England is dominated by a pervasive and morally twisted Catholic theocracy with a suspicion of but willingness to exploit science. Martin Luther became the radically reforming Pope, Germanian I, and the English succession skipped the man we know as Henry VIII and passed to Prince Stephen,
- [Can you combine genres?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/09/05/combining-genres/) - As I settle down to read Nemesis, the latest escapade of Marcus Didius Falco, Lindsey Davis' quirky Roman detective, I remembered why I was attracted to the very first one, The Silver Pigs, and the other eighteen titles in the series. Living in Vespasian's reign (69-79AD), the protagonist is irreverent, clings to his plebian Aventine
- [Photo contest - WINNER!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/10/21/photo-contest-2/) - I decided to have a new author photo to use across all platforms. Sometimes, I may use it in black and white, other times colour. Like a true Libran, I was dithering. So I ran a poll to ask readers which did they think was best. STOP PRESS 26 OCTOBER 2012: The winner is Photo2!
- [What to do after your first draft is written](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/02/08/what-to-do-after-your-first-draft-is-written/) - Update on the last post: I have written the final sentence of the first draft of book3. All the work starts now: 1. Transfer the file to Kindle as personal document/print it out to read it through; 2. Go back and do the research fine points (Do you know the difference between a carabiner and
- [Wielding the red pen - catharsis or disaster?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/05/wielding-the-red-pen-catharsis-or-disaster/) - I like the red pen. Many say it's crushing, demeaning, aggressive. I find it's clear and an excellent contrast to black type on white paper. and at this stage, I want clear. As an unpublished writer, I haven't had the experience of my work being edited by a professional publishing house editor, but as a
- [Toys for the girls? ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/08/28/toys-for-the-girls/) - We girlies must celebrate. That lovely company, Bic, has come to our rescue. No longer must we struggle to lift those heavy, huge Bic pens, chip our nails on them or cry with disappointment when, because of our weaker fingers, we drop them. Bic have brought out "BIC For Her Amber Medium Ballpoint Pen ".
- [Writers have an easy life. Or do they?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/08/21/writers-have-an-easy-life-or-do-they/) - Listening to or reading about how other writers "did" it can sometimes sap your enthusiasm. They've given up the vile and/or boring day job, they get up at 5am and rattle off a couple of chapters before a long walk. A quick cup of coffee and they're back to it. They give us a vague
- [Conflict for characters - how to make a decision](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/08/01/conflict-for-characters-how-to-make-a-decision/) - How do you make a decision? Whether it's buying a new pair of shoes, going to law or plunging into a new life in a different country and culture, it's a complicated question. First of all, there's an instinctive reaction to the decision: you see, you want, you say yes. Then your brain kicks in:
- [A "good" rejection](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/07/25/a-good-rejection/) - Agents are busy people - we know that - so when I read this (handwritten) note, I was strangely pleased: "Please forgive my incredibly slow response, but I liked your writing and had put it aside to get back to. It's not right for my list, but I'm sure you will find an agent to
- [Security for the Olympics - a perspective](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/07/13/security-for-the-olympics-a-perspective/) - I don't get ranty very often, but the anti-rant barrier broke this morning as I listened to the mouthings on Yesterday in Parliament on BBCRadio 4. The Olympic Games security plan looks poorly planned and executed, so further military personnel have been brought in to help. Several points: Thank goodness we have professional, well-disciplined forces
- [What do readers really want?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/07/08/what-do-readers-really-want/) - A fun thing around Twitter #thingsnottosaytoawriter recently had some wry and clever responses from writers, some tinged with irony, even bitterness. Some were made up, but some were things that had been said to them in true life: Does this sort of thing sell, then? Where can I download your book for free? Since you
- [A transgressive Roman](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/06/28/a-transgressive-roman/) - My last Roman post was in January this year, although I have sneaked in a few pictures here and there. I took this photo (right) in February this year in the courtyard of the Capitoline Museum - a near holy place for any 'Roman nut'. I was intrigued by the assured pose of the obviously
- [How to write a novel in 30 lines](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/04/28/how-to-write-a-novel-in-30-lines/) - Now I've finished the first run through of edits on book3, I've finished my heroine's story. I'll leave her for 6-8 weeks at least until I even glance at her again. So, book4. Yes, I'm acquainted with the main character and I want to tell her story. But that's it. I need to let her
- [Why I started writing novels](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/06/19/why-i-started-writing-novels/) - I started writing novels all of a sudden in May 2009. Why? To tell a story, of course, a story that had been squatting in my head and slowly brewing for over ten years. It was sparked into life by a visit to the cinema. I'd always fancied the second male lead in the film
- [Sharing hordes of information treasure](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/06/16/sharing-hordes-of-information-treasure/) - Dashing around visiting sites/blog/articles, I sometimes forget to tell others about the hordes of treasure I find, so here are two articles on promoting your book that I've found or visited recently. 50 Simple Ways to Build Your Platform Christina Katz writes: "Writing rules. Self-promotion drools. Isn’t this how most writers think? But as long
- [Tackling the cat sick](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/06/13/tackling-the-cat-sick/) - My Twitter swarm and Facebook groupies will know that a few weeks ago I had a pretty serious operation on my foot which reduced my gadding about ability to minus 20. No more supermarket shopping, housework, gardening for a few weeks. I was also relieved of all cat-nurturing duties except for hugging and stroking. The
- [In Mslexia - national (and international) fame! ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/06/06/in-mslexia-national-and-international-fame/) - Shortly after Military or Civilians? was published, Danuta Kean invited me to submit a short piece for the Mslexia magazine's spot called How I Did It. In a bit over 200 words, under headings The Book, The Long Haul and The Advice, I outlined the experience of publishing my ebook. A frisson of excitement rose
- [How I did it](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/06/10/1251/) - Here's a copy of my article in Mslexia magazine (as promised in my previous post ): It's a great mag - worth every penny. Here's how you can subscribe.
- [What's a thriller? ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/05/30/whats-a-thriller/) - When I mentioned to a new friend that I wrote thrillers with an alternate history setting, she batted aside (or maybe ignored) the alternate history bit and asked, "What do you call a thriller, then?". Er, isn't it obvious? Apparently not. Merriam-Webster defines a thriller as "a work of fiction or drama designed to hold
- [Money, money, money! ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/05/26/1200/) - Yesterday, I danced round the house. I'd received the following email: (Parts have been removed to protect their modesty.) The following payment is related to digital royalties for Amazon.co.uk. It will be paid by bank transfer directly into your bank account. Please allow up to five business days for the funds to appear in the
- [Did the books you loved make you into the writer you are?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/05/15/did-the-books-you-loved-make-you-into-the-writer-you-are/) - Drafting my latest query letter, I did a little exercise. No, not twenty press-ups on the floor, but one prompted by this particular agency's submission guidelines. As part of the marketing approach, I was asked to thinking of two to three (i.e. three) comparable books. That wasn't a problem, but it started me thinking about
- [Researching – how to behave](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/05/07/researching-how-to-behave/) - Two years ago, I wrote a post on research, setting out five steps to getting a best result. During the past two weeks, I've been following that same methodology to assess service suppliers and have narrowed my search to two possibilities. I googled then sifted the results, gathered reports, opinions, financial data (from the sycophantic
- [Finis - the end of the story](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/04/24/finis-the-end-of-the-story/) - I didn't know I'd feel so bereft. Now I've done the first run edits on fiction book3, the last in the trilogy, I've finished my heroine's story. No, really finished. After the relief of completing the red-pen exercise, sadness crept up on me and now has me in its grip. I've lived with my heroine
- [Sobering thoughts and rebalancing](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/04/11/sobering-thoughts-and-rebalancing/) - Ten days ago, my mother-in-law died. Born in 1929 in a working class family in Birkenhead, she'd lived a modest childhood, endured separation from her parents and siblings as an evacuee during wartime, returned to a bombed-out city, married, had a child at the start of the space race and witnessed the technological age from
- [Self-publishing - total confusion for a newbie writer](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/03/31/self-publishing-total-confusion-for-a-newbie-writer/) - I'm not going to list, discuss or make any judgement about self-publishing - plenty of people have done that; blogs, conference workshops, books, newspaper articles abound. Just enter "self-publishing" in the search box on Google and wait for the flood. I want to write about the confusion facing a fledgling writer. Me. I've drafted three
- [An itch coupled with an opportunity](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/03/18/an-itch-coupled-with-an-opportunity/) - Since I published my first book, a non-fiction title called Military or Civilians? The curious anomaly of the German Women’s Auxiliary Services during the Second World War on Amazon last Wednesday quite a few people have asked me why I did it. Comments have included: "I thought you wrote alternate history thrillers with a Roman
- [Writers' locations or does the earth move for you?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/03/09/writers-locations-or-does-the-earth-move-for-you/) - I stood on the rounded road stones, warmed by spring sunshine under a deep blue sky, and gazed up the road as it rose to the horizon. Red-tiled and grey stone shop fronts each side of the road. I steadied my breath, shut my eyes and heard the noises of nineteen hundred years ago. This
- [On the home run](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/02/04/on-the-home-run/) - At 82,000 words of my 90,000 target, I'm fast approaching the end of book3. My heroine is about to confront the source of her problems and deal with her definitively. And she's going to save the day. Obviously. The knitting is nearly knitted. The pudding is nearly boiled. But it's almost unbearable. I want to
- [Beta readers](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/01/18/beta-readers/) - When I opened up an email today after a long weekend away, I was thrilled to find to read this from a beta reader: (All character names changed - you'll have to buy the book when it's published.) "Finished part 1 and having a great time! I like X's character. She is much less headstrong
- [Shorts](https://www.alison-morton.com/2012/01/05/shorts/) - I write novels. Sure, I'm waiting for my big publishing deal, but I love the long fiction structure: the opportunity to develop characters at length; to weave sub-plots; to plumb the depths; struggle to the surface; heap mounds of stuff on my protagonist; the false climax; to be a master of the universe. But short
- [Book3 and why I’m brutal to my heroine](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/12/20/book3-and-why-im-brutal-to-my-heroine/) - Stories about the life of a well-off happily married woman with a sexy husband, three adorable, perfectly behaved children and a responsible, challenging, but enormously fulfilling job she adores would be tedious. Who wants to read about Miss Perfect? Typical reactions would be: know-it-all, snooty cow and bor-ing; feelings would be envy, resentment and can’t-be-arsed
- [The peerless History of Rome podcast](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/12/10/the-peerless-history-of-rome-podcast/) - For all Roman 'nuts' out there, I have to tell you about a fantastic podcast called The History of Rome. Mike Duncan, a political science and philosophy graduate from Western Washington University, has the knack of neatly dissecting the political and imperial essentials of the Kingdom, Republic and Empire and communicating them with clarity and
- [Reading allowed. Or not](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/12/03/reading-allowed-or-not/) - Writers are encouraged to read their ms aloud. You arm yourself with a long drink, fend off all household pleas and settle down with the ms or screen in front of you and a notepad to jot down quick notes. Hopefully, the rest of your family hasn't called the white coat men as you mumble
- [Are some genres more equal than others?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/11/27/are-some-genres-more-equal-than-others/) - I love bookshops. I love bookstalls at charity dos and the second-hand paperback club. I love the book table at conferences. The second and third are informal; the offer is either serendipity or confined to the books written by speakers (and certainly in the case of the RNA) attendees. Running my hands over the spines
- [Rejection - why it shouldn't be followed by dejection](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/11/13/rejection-why-it-shouldnt-be-followed-by-dejection/) - I'm busy writing book3 but in the meantime, I sending book1 out into the world. I've polished my manuscript, I've hand-crafted my cover letter and honed my one-page synopsis. My critique partners, beta readers, expert publishing professionals, even the odd agent here and there have given me excellent feedback. So, you think, why haven't I
- [How well do you know your character? Part Deux](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/11/15/how-well-do-you-know-your-character-part-deux/) - Following my previous post with questions to help you to dig down into your characters, here are a few more: 20. Which schools did your character attend? 21. How did they do at school? 22. Did they have a nickname? 23. Did they go on to university? 24. What did they study? 25. Why did
- [Christmas cake and childhood memories that make us... and our characters.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/11/05/christmas-cake-and-childhood-memories-that-make-us-and-our-characters/) - The minute I announced on Twitter that today I was going to make The Christmas Cake, memories of cinnamon, oranges, brandy and cake mix poured into my head. I saw myself aged six or seven standing by my mother at the kitchen table. It was half-term and my mother, a teacher, had that precious week
- [The mysterious Lesley Cookman...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/31/the-mysterious-lesley-cookman/) - I’m delighted to welcome author Lesley Cookman to my blog today. Born in Guildford, Surrey, Lesley spent her early life in south London, before marrying and moving all over the south-east of England. Lesley fell into feature writing by accident, then went on to reviewing for both magazines and radio. She writes for the stage,
- [Competition: Write about your filofax memories ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/18/competition-write-about-your-filofax-memories/) - Write 300-500 words about your favourite filofax memory and you could win a brand new oganiser. Now enjoying a strong revival, filofax is regaining the worldwide popularity seen in the 1980s. This October, filofax and Philofaxy would like to invite you to share your favourite filofaxmemory. Whether it’s a tale about your first filofax, the
- [Constantly evolving...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/17/constantly-evolving/) - You may notice that this my blog has changed a little. It's going to change even more soon. Like writing itself, blogs must evolve.
- [Take a blank sheet of garden...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/09/07/take-a-blank-sheet-of-garden/) - Talking about muck-raking, sorry, rock-raking, reminded me about the parallels of writing a novel and creating a new garden. With a novel, you start with a blank sheet of paper, or a blank computer screen, with a garden you start with something like this. You carry out a survey and draw
- [Insane or inspired? The fabulous Kate Johnson](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/10/insane-or-inspired-the-fabulous-kate-johnson/) - I'm (literally) thrilled to welcome Kate Johnson and her alter ego, Cat Marsters, to my blog today. Buckle up! How did you get started? And how old were you when your first book was published? Really it's a total lack of skill or training in any other area! I knew I wanted to write from
- [Sorting out a boring paragraph...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/10/07/sorting-out-a-boring-paragraph/) - I'm currently editing my second book, a speculative fiction thriller (see previous post). I came upon one of those paragraphs I must have written at midnight after a very busy day with irregular meals and a lot of alcohol. It got the characters from A to B, a conversation of two lines ensued and a
- [What if?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/09/29/what-if/) - Ever mislaid something, convinced you’d left it on the kitchen table and then found it on the bed? Or been somewhere completely certain of having made the journey before? One answer could be that you did and you have, but you've shifted a nano-interval into another reality, according to a short story I’ve been reading
- [The remarkable Ms Jacobs](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/09/26/the-remarkable-ms-jacobs/) - I am thrilled to host author Anna Jacobs on my blog today. When I last looked she had 54 books published. It may, of course, have gone up while I was writing this blog post... So how did you get started? I’d always wanted to write, but only dabbled until Georgette Heyer, my favourite novelist
- [Rock-raking is the new editing.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/09/04/rock-raking-is-the-new-editing/) - Friends who follow me on Twitter (@alison_morton) have been hearing about my rock-raking in recent days. Let me explain. We live on top of a chalk cliff. The view is magnificent, but the soil is crap. That's a bit harsh. The soil is fertile, fine, and the weeds grow as if on Viagra. But there
- [Oh,  and the answers to the quiz](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/28/oh-and-the-answers-to-the-quiz/) - The correct answers were... How many numbered tips did I give you when researching? 4 numbered tips What speed was my heroine doing in her Giulietta? 130kph How many attended Lumb Bank? 16 'students', including me How many things do we learn when taking it on the chin? 7 things What page had I reached
- [And the winner is...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/28/and-the-winner-is/) - Thank you all for entering the competition - you were brilliant! The winner was Liz Harris from Oxford and a signed copy of Elizabeth Buchan's Light of the Moon will be on its way to her, courtesy of La Poste's (cheap) 'cultural service'. Yes, the French post office has a cheap rate for books, manuscripts,
- [The secret numbers competition...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/19/the-secret-numbers-competition/) - You've read the fascinating interview with author Elizabeth Buchan. For a chance to win a copy Light of the Moon and read about Evelyn St John’s secret wartime life and work in France, answer the questions below. All the answers are somewhere in my blog! Many codes in the Second World War and later were
- [Elizabeth Buchan talks about undercover work, daughters and separate beds](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/19/elizabeth-buchan-talks-about-undercover-work-daughters-and-separate-beds/) - I am thrilled to host author Elizabeth Buchan on my blog today. When I asked for suggestions for my brand new Kindle reader, Separate Beds was recommended of Carole Blake of Blake Friedman Literary Agency. Tweeting with Elizabeth, I discovered one of her novels was about a female SOE agent in war-time France, Light of
- [A secret and a competition...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/18/a-secret-and-a-competition/) - Excitement is bubbling up here at Madness Towers. Tomorrow (Friday), as the first of an occasional series of guest appearances, I will be talking to an Important and Famous Author about her writing life. And ... a signed copy of one of her books will be the prize in a competition afterwards. Watch this space...
- [Record visits - thank you!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/08/02/record-visits-thank-you/) - Overwhelmed. An over-used word. But I am. Thank you for all the interest nearly 200 of you have shown in the past 24 hours and are still showing in my blog, especially on the Filofax Flex. A special thank you to those shared by leaving a comment. I hope you found it useful/enlightening/informative. Or even
- [Submission, submission, submission](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/07/17/submission-submission-submission/) - This morning, I wiped away a tear when I re-read my post last March about the first time I submitted my three chapters and synopsis to agents. I think I was partly touched by my cheerful optimism and partly sad that I had fallen into the classic mistake of submitting too early. Looking through my
- [Sorting out your Romans from your Visigoths, Carolingians et al.](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/19/sorting-out-your-romans-from-your-visigoths-carolingians-et-al/) - Doing a bit of research into the post-Roman world, I came across Chris Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. It's brilliant! From the first page, I was enthralled. Now, I'm a self-confessed Roman nut and intrigued by that mysterious time in Europe after the mid-400s AD until the
- [Second-hand books - unfair to authors or an enticement to buy?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/07/01/second-hand-books-unfair-to-authors-or-an-enticement-to-buy/) - Some authors don't like second-hand book stalls, whether run as a businesses or for a charity fête. In fact, they hate them. The author gets no royalty or secondary right or anything. The books are toted around, exchanged or traded like a lump of former tree for a pound/euro, so virtually free. I heard one
- [A new writing critique group where cake always matters](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/06/16/a-new-writing-critique-group-yippee/) - This afternoon, I launched a rocket-fresh new writers' group. When I arrived in my new home in France, I eagerly searched out existing groups. Like any new relationship, it takes a while to mesh with established groups, so I went to several meetings, full of optimism and using my best networking and charm skills. I
- [Taking it on the chin](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/06/10/taking-it-on-the-chin/) - Who'd be a critic? I'm not talking about the flesh-tearing but insecure ego-tripper as in Sebastian Faulks' A Week in December, but more somebody who assesses manuscripts and/or mentors writers. Sending your baby out for review produces numbing fear in a writer; desperate for feedback, but scared the reviewer/assessor/critic will deem it a heap of
- [How could I forget FOW YorK?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/04/13/how-could-i-forget-fow-york/) - How very strange! I forgot to blog about the Festival of Writing at York. Actually, I didn't forget. I've been so busy implementing things I learnt in the workshops, integrating wise pieces of advice I received and remembering stimulating and thoughtful conversations I enjoyed. York was about people: authors, publishers, agents, to be sure, but
- [Obsession or addiction?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/03/31/obsession-or-addiction/) - You start your novel, get the scenes down, complete the first draft. Fine so far. Any writer knows the first draft is not a work of art, or even saleable. So the real work begins; enhanching, slashing and burning, sweating over that love scene, ramping up the fight scenes, checking pacing, inserting tension, moulding and
- [Twenty quid for Japan](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/03/15/twenty-quid-for-japan/) - Nobody can fail to be shocked by the devastation in Japan. Word like apocalyptic and cataclysmic are flying around. Historians recall the Minoan civilisation was one destroyed by a tsunami. The threads of modern life are multiple and complex, but fragile, vulnerable to stretching and snapping in seconds. Futurologists predict that tiny individual incidents in
- [Saving libraries day](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/02/05/saving-libraries-day/) - Today, the book world moves. It's out there saving libraries for you and the next several generations. If you do nothing else this dull and cloudy weekend, go and take a book out. Or audio book. Or CD. Or DVD. Go and browse the Internet for free. Ask those incredibly clever librarians for information, guidance
- [Surviving the emotional foot-stomp on creativity ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2011/02/03/surviving-the-emotional-foot-stomp-on-creativity/) - The renowned Nicola Morgan, famously proud to be the first Google result for "Crabbit Old Bat" and an award-winning author of around ninety books, never fails to offer diamonds to aspiring writers. Frankness and occasional brutality are her hallmarks. But she's usually right. So, in my morning scan of blogs, I found her post today
- [Sad, cross and guilty - the story of an unfinished read](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/12/08/sad-cross-and-guilty-the-story-of-an-unfinished-read/) - My reading tastes are pretty wide-ranging. I like a challenge. I like a good story. I'm nosy as well as persistent, so however poor a start, I'll plough on with most books because I want to know what happens. I'll read almost anything: from Pascal Mercier's Night Train to Lisbon and Kafka's The Trial to
- [The RNA Winter Party](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/11/27/the-rna-winter-party/) - Nicola Morgan, Alison Morton, Liz Harris sharing a joke (Photo courtesy of the Romantic Novelists' Association) Dressed in my best party-cardi (it was bitterly cold), I made my way to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers' building on Birdcage Walk, London. Several other well-bundled up figures were hurrying up the steps, eager to be out of
- [The big print](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/12/30/the-big-print/) - Post-machete, post-rewrite of scenes, post-restructuring, I may possibly have kneaded the flabby dough of my master-work into some kind of presentable product. The plot has changed, the tension ramped up, the prose decimated and a sting in the tail (tale?) injected into the ending. I've printed the whole thing out, double-spaced, ready for the tooth-comb.
- [A brain flash...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/12/09/a-brain-flash/) - Perhaps I've been a bit slow, but I had a light bulb moment when munching my croissant this morning. I've been playing around with some ideas for a one-sentence 'hook' for my novel INCEPTIO and have been researching, scribbling, thinking about it over the past few days. Scanning the Radio Times at breakfast, I read
- [Talli Roland takes on Amazon!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/12/01/talli-roland-takes-on-amazon-2/) - My writing friend Talli Roland is a clever girl. She's come up with a 'wizard wheeze' to get her debut novel THE HATING GAME to hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book
- [I wrote my first car chase!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/10/25/i-wrote-my-first-car-chase/) - Not a big scene, but which framed a confrontation, added a little pzazz as well as demonstrating my heroine's hot temper. As we cruised along the peripheral at max speed limit, setting citizens a good example, a silver Mercedes flew past us, cutting us up. We weren’t traffic cops, but I was incensed. I looked
- [So how well DO you know your main character?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/11/01/so-how-well-do-you-know-your-main-character/) - On my Arvon Foundation course in early October, we had a workshop on characterisation led by Mavis Cheek and Paul Sussman. They showed us how well we must get to know our main character(s) if we want to ensure they are fully-developed. Ask them questions! Here are a few they suggested... 1. What is your
- [Colour me red...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/10/28/colour-me-red/) - My Kindle reader has become indispensable. Not only can I download books wherever I am (I have the 3G version), but it's so easy to use. Slim enough to slip into a handbag, light enough not to cause heart failure when my suitcase is weighed at check-in. But I've been worried about its susceptibility to
- [The importance of feedback](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/06/the-importance-of-feedback/) - In January, I was accepted on the New Writers' Scheme of the Romantic Novelists' Association. I feel honoured to be in the company of proper published authors whose members have sold aeons of books. I've found it a friendly, inclusive group whose members do not differentiate between published and newbies. On the contrary, they are
- [What a day to start - it's World Book Day!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/04/what-a-day-to-start-its-world-book-day/) - Here starteth my blog... I'm a newbie novel writer. I've been a translator for many years and have had articles on translation, business and French property published plus I've written an academic thesis for which they gave me a distinction :) I currently write a French property blog at http://ltps-fr.blogspot.com/ which seems to please a
- [Getting Published - London Book Fair Masterclass ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/19/getting-published-london-book-fair-masterclass/) - On gloriously sunny Sunday 17 April, my writing buddy, Denise, and I attended the pre-Fair Masmasterclass entitled 'How to Get Published'. Whilst we knew some of it already, conned from amongst other places, the inestimable Carole Blake's book From Pitch to Publication: Everything You Need to know to Get Your Novel Published, we found the
- [Crime and Romance - any connections?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/21/63/) - I went to an RNA London South East meeting yesterday with fellow newbie Rachel to hear Alison Joseph, author of the 'Sister Agnes' series, compare story structure in the two genres. She observed that while crime and romance in the same story may be rare, there were similarities in the framework and essential elements. Both
- [Sweating over my cover letter to agents...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/23/sweating-over-my-cover-letter-to-agents/) - It's a cliché, but it's damn right! The business of getting an agent, getting your book published and sold is definitely as hard, if not harder, as writing the novel in the first place. Similar to when you're pregnant. You think being pregnant is bad (sickness, lassitude, ruined feet, stretch marks, galloping appetite, pan-galactic weight
- [Helpful books](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/10/helpful-books/) - I think I'm getting the hang of this Wordpress blog (Okay, I hear the experts and cynics laughing, but at least I'm trying...). I've created a new page today called 'Writing and publishing books' which lists some of the books I've found useful so far in my novel writing. Just click at the top right
- [Apple turnover - electronic book publishing evolves](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/10/apple-turnover-electronic-book-publishing-evolves/) - If you want to read about e-publishing and the effect of Apple's iPad, I recommend you read Danuta Kean's article here on the London Book Fair website
- [RNA meeting today](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/13/rna-meeting-today/) - The Romantic Novelists' Association had its spring meeting today and speaker Adèle Geras gave a witty and down to earth account of how she got into being a published author. Apart from over 95 children's books, she has produced four novels for adults, including Facing the Light. Tea and biscuits afterwards, plus excellent conversation, networking
- [A good paranormal romantic thriller](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/13/a-good-paranormal-romantic-thriller/) - I've just read Jayne Ann Krentz's Sizzle and Burn which I found on the local library shelves by accident. The female protagonist, Raine, is cut in a different mould to many other heroines - she's tall, intelligent and independent, but her character avoids suffering from 'goodgirlitis'. Love interest Zack Jones is tough, sel-assured and pretty
- [First submission made!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/27/first-submission-made/) - Yes, I've got my synopsis, three chapters with a (fabulous!) letter out to an agent. It's quite emotional, letting the A4 envelope disappear into into the postbox slot and hearing the 'thunk' as it hits the bottom of the cage inside. At that stage, my first thought was 'Oh, God, the postbox is empty -
- [Synopsis done!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/15/synopsis-done/) - No novel writer likes doing the synopsis, a tool for planning and marketing their work. When you've written 100,000 words of carefully crafted prose, it's a bit of a sweat to distil it down to a couple of pages. But it does concentrate the mind... From the advice I've been given or read, the essentials
- [My first RNA lunch](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/03/17/my-first-rna-lunch/) - As a brand new member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, I’m keen to take part in as many events as possible this year. I’d enjoyed myself (and learnt a lot) at the January and March meetings and had been impressed and touched by the very warm welcome given to not-yet-published ‘newbies’. I was therefore looking
- [Tightening and shaving...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/01/tightening-and-shaving/) - I'm editing the second part of my trilogy and it's causing some blushes of embarrassment. No, not the romantic scenes, but the proliferation of bland and/or superfluous words. However did I include so many 'just's, 'I wondered's, 'I thought's, 'suddenly's and 'Well,..'s? Well, I thought I'd just bash the story out, then suddenly I wondered
- [Translating – don’t you just press a button on the computer?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/05/translating-dont-you-just-press-a-button-on-the-computer/) - Maybe not strictly a creative writing matter, but when fellow writers ask me about my previous life and I say I was a translator for over 20 years,they seem interested to learn more. The main thing I tell them is about quality. Google's great for getting the bare bones out of something, but if you
- [Musings on my first rejection letter](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/12/musings-on-my-first-rejection-letter/) - I arrived back from my holiday and found my first rejection on the doormat. It was a polite letter, but a standard, non-personalised one. Of course, I was disappointed (swallows hard and sobs), but I feel I have passed a milestone, lost my publishing virginity, joined the ‘normal’ throng of writers. Of course, I sent
- [My London Book Fair…](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/04/22/my-london-book-fair/) - Wrecked for many publishing professionals this year by volcanic ash, the LBF was for me an exciting first. I followed the distress of others on Twitter as flights from every conceivable part of the world were stopped, particularly those from South Africa, the 2010 Fair's market focus. But despite myriad appointments with Australians, Finns, Germans,
- [A Party, but was it Summer?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/05/15/a-party-but-was-it-summer/) - I went along to the RNA Summer Party held at the library of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Birdcage Walk, in London. The weather has been dreadful; thankfully it was a sunny, but still blooming chilly, evening. As at the lunch in March, the atmosphere was genial, friendly and lively; the sound of chinking glasses,
- [Variety is the spice of life...](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/05/18/variety-is-the-spice-of-life/) - Although I'm working hard on my third novel (in between packing boxes!), and I think it's important to focus on your main work, I've found it useful to tackle other, smaller projects. It stops you getting fixated, helps you draw breath mentally and makes you use different writing muscles in your head. You use different
- [Bonjour la France!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/05/30/bonjour-la-france/) - On 26 May, we waved good-bye to the removal van, stuffed the poor cat into his travel cage and headed for the Tunnel. Nothing desperately exciting happened on the way, but we stumbled into the house on arrival, did the minimum and didn't emerge until the following day. The removal van arrives here in two
- [Writing bootcamp at the Circle of Missé](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/06/13/writing-bootcamp-at-the-circle-of-misse/) - Never having taken part in a creative writing course, I was excited, but a trifle anxious, when I was invited to join a 'writing bootcamp' at the Circle of Missé, a creative centre near my new home in France. Lead by Annie Kirby, a renowned short-story writer who is also working on a full-length novel,
- [Researching - a transferable skill](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/05/31/researching-a-transferable-skill/) - Working out how to get from Poitiers in France to my son's graduation in Nottingham, I found myself treading a familiar research path. I'd always been able to dig info and knowledge out of the corners they were lurking in, but these abilities were honed into concrete skills when I was studying for my MA
- [Conference fever mounts](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/07/01/conference-fever-mounts/) - The Romantic Novelists' Association conference in London is fast approaching. Flowing over the 9-11 July weekend, it's already promising to expand into a five day event, with many delegates arriving Thursday and not leaving until Monday. Twitter has been alive with anticipation and discussion of details not only of sessions but also shoes; a special
- [Subscribing to this blog…](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/07/14/subscribing-to-this-blog/) - Got some very polite feedback that it was a little unclear how to subscribe, so I've added a special plugin. I always take note of sensible and helpful feedback. :-) Destructive and carping moaning - no.
- [RNAConf10/11 – Practical tips for a successful time](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/07/19/rnaconf1011-practical-tips-for-a-successful-time/) - In the euphoria following a successful conference, participants write many exciting and insightful posts about the content, speakers and atmosphere. But taking a few minutes to look at the sheer practicalities gets overlooked. Perhaps you are a logistics master-planner, perhaps a ditzy swanner-along. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, it's worth reflecting for a few
- [Golden lessons from rejections](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/07/31/golden-lessons-from-rejections/) - I count myself very lucky to have an occupation where learning and change are crucial parts. I'm referring to writing (of course!). Not only do you have the hard sweat and joy of bashing out your story, but the endless hours of lovingly trimming and tightening to get it into some kind of presentable shape.
- [Getting help: the writer’s dilemma](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/08/30/getting-help-the-writers-dilemma/) - Okay, you've done your first draft, you've edited it, your aunt Mabel who taught English has checked it, your mate Bev says 'It's great!'. You've left it for a few weeks, come back, tightened the manuscript, checked for shockers and you've even written your synopsis. You're on the starting blocks for publication, fame and fortune(!).
- [Weird, or what?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/08/10/weird-or-what-2/) - Driving back from swimming today, I was carefully navigating the narrow road between old stone buildings in a village on my route, when the road gently rose to the level of the railway crossing. It's an unprotected level crossing, from the road user's point of view perched on a rise in the road. The barriers
- [My RNA box of books – my reviews (Part Deux)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/08/19/my-rna-box-of-books-my-reviews-part-deux/) - Here's the next batch of my mini-reviews on books recommended to me by fellow members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. I asked them for the ‘book of their heart.’ All are romances, but oh so different in subject, range, tone, pace and language. Jean Fullerton very kindly sent me a signed copy of her fabulous
- [Writing codswallop](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/09/03/writing-codswallop/) - When you begin a new piece of writing, be it article, short story, press release or a 100,000 word novel, you start off with ideas, insights, energy which can sustain you to the end. Sometimes the oomph fades part-way through. Sometimes you start with a dragging reluctance because you have a deadline, a target or
- [It’s and its](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/09/17/its-and-its/) - Despite the sight of rich red geraniums flowering on my kitchen windowsill, the fresh, strong sunshine and the delicious cup of coffee at hand, I am grumpy. Pourquoi? Looking through my tweets this morning, I saw an anouncement from a famous bookshop part of which ran: "...is on it's way for review." My teeth couldn't
- [A surreal evening…](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/09/25/a-surreal-evening/) - The 1990s ride again. No, really. At a meeting yesterday evening for autoentrepreneurs (small business creators), I was dragged back to a business style that I thought had disappeared. By the end of the evening, I was having difficulty hiding my amusement. John Cleese's Video Arts training company would have relished it as a 'how
- [RNA Conference - where to start?](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/07/14/rna-conference-where-to-start/) - The Twitter and blogspheres have been full of praise for the Romantic Novelists' Association Conference at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich last weekend. Rightly so. Jan and Roger masterminded the conference, the RNA stalwarts gave talks, introduced and chaired discussions and seamlessly supported the whole framework. Joanna Trollope gave the keynote speech and she
- [My RNA box of books - my reviews (Part Un)](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/08/14/my-rna-box-of-books-my-reviews-part-un/) - Before I moved to France, I asked my fellow members of the Romantic Novelists' Association to tell me which of their works was the 'book of their heart.' The answers flooded in and some even sent me a copy of their book - signed as well! I've read six so far and enjoyed them thoroughly.
- [Go away, spammers!](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/07/25/go-away-spammers/) - My RNAConf10 posts seem to be attracting a lot of spam about handbags, singers, search engine optimization, sleeping disorder tips, auto loans and government grants. My blog is about writing, writers, and books. Genuine comments are welcomed at all times with open arms; they enrichen the blog. Silly spam comments are not; it spoils it
- [A blog vacuum ](https://www.alison-morton.com/2010/05/11/a-blog-vacuum/) - Confession time. I wrote my last two blog posts on 26 April, posted one straight away and scheduled the last one (with chocolate!) for three days later. Many bloggers do this so that when they put fingers to keyboard and inspiration flows from brain down arms and into fingertips, they don't end up flooding the

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.alison-morton.com/) - Welcome to the thriller worlds of alternative 21st century Roman heroines Carina and Aurelia and of contemporary French special forces soldier Mélisende.
- [Books](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/) - A page to quickly link to all the books written by Alison Morton as well as contributions she has made to collections and anthologies.
- [Official Roma Nova Reading Guide](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/the-official-roma-nova-reading-guide/) - The ultimate guide to the Roma Nova thriller series, fully updated for 2026. Cover pictures, links, why Alison wrote the books and first chapters.
- [Independent reviews for HEROICA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/heroica/independent-reviews-for-heroica/) - Independent reviews for the latest book in the Roma Nova thriller series – HEROICA: Three women, three centuries, three reckonings
- [Where to buy ROMA NOVA EXTRA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/roma-nova-extra/where-to-buy-roma-nova-extra/) - You can buy ROMA NOVA EXTRA in the following ways: – you can order the paperback through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) or from the retailers below – order both formats online by clicking the appropriate link below: Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook (US) Barnes &
- [Where to buy RETALIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/retalio/where-to-buy-retalio/) - You can buy RETALIO in the following ways: – you can order the paperback (ISBN 9791097310004) through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) or from the retailers below – order both formats online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook (US) Barnes &
- [Where to buy INSURRECTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/insurrectio/where-to-buy-insurrectio/) - You can buy INSURRECTIO in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310127) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order both formats online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook (US) Barnes & Noble (US)
- [Where to buy NEXUS](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/nexus/where-to-buy-nexus/) - You can buy NEXUS in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310202) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order both formats online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook Barnes & Noble
- [Where to buy SUCCESSIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/where-to-buy-successio/) - SUCCESSIO, the fourth Roma Nova featuring Carina Mitela, throws her into blackmail, heartache and the consequences of a past that could destroy them all.
- [Where to buy PERFIDITAS](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/where-to-buy-perfiditas/) - You can buy PERFIDITAS in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN 9791097310141) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order all formats online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Audio book Amazon (Kindle) (worldwide) Amazon (worldwide) Audible B&N Nook (USA) Barnes & Noble (USA)
- [Newsletter](https://www.alison-morton.com/newsletter/) - Subscribe to my newsletter and receive free two short stories as your welcome gift. The newsletters are only monthly so you don't become flooded out!
- [Independent reviews for EXSILIUM](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/exsilium/independent-reviews-for-exsilium/) - From the Historical Novel Society https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/exsilium-a-roma-nova-foundation-story-roma-nova-thriller-series/ "Alison Morton is the author of the Roma Nova series of thrillers, in which a fragment of the Roman Empire survives to the present day in a small Alpine country. Exsilium tells the story of how that nation came to be. In the late 4th century, people who worship
- [Where to buy HEROICA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/heroica/where-to-buy-heroica/) - You can buy HEROICA in any of the following ways: – you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310394) through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) – order both ebook and paperback online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook
- [HEROICA – Short(ish) stories](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/heroica/) - A collection of three stories spanning three centuries from Roma Nova featuring three women from the Mitela family. Out in May 2026
- [The 500 Word Writing Buddy](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/the-500-word-writing-buddy-25-inner-secrets-for-the-new-writer/) - New updated version - ten additional articles, including a completely new section on genres. Ebook: Amazon, Kobo, Apple (iBooks) and B&N Nook Paperback Burning to write your novel? And publish it? But don’t know where to start? This book will reveal how to: structure your book develop your characters introduce conflict weave setting and plot
- [Double Identity](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-identity/) - Deeply in love, a chic Parisian lifestyle before her – Mel is very happy. Then she’s facing prison for murder and recruited by an enigmatic spy agency.
- [Double Pursuit](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-pursuit/) - Mel is hunting arms smugglers. One dead body later, two badly injured operatives and five crates of hijacked rifles complicate her case. But who is hunting her?
- [JULIA PRIMA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/julia-prima/) - In AD 370, Julia makes a perilous journey from Roman outpost Noricum to the heart of the empire – Rome itself. But a vengeful figure from the past follows her.
- [Where to buy Double Stakes](https://www.alison-morton.com/where-to-buy-double-stakes/) - You can buy Double Stakes in any of the following ways: – you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310394) through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) – order both ebook and paperback online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N
- [INCEPTIO 10th Anniversary Hardback](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/inceptio-10th-anniversary-hardback-edition/) - INCEPTIO – A young woman learns that to survive she must stand her ground. But this is Ancient Rome re-imagined in the 21st century. Bonus content included.
- [EXSILIUM](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/exsilium/) - Convert or die is the choice for Lucius, Maelia and Galla, who worship the traditional Roman gods at the end of the 4th century. But is exile the only choice?
- [Double Stakes](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-stakes/) - A kidnapped daughter. A rigged election. A family under siege. Mel and partner Jeff must plunge into the world of hard right European politics.
- [The Roma Nova story](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/roma-nova-history/) - What if King Harold had won the Battle of Hastings in 1066? Or if Julius Caesar had taken notice of the warning that assassins wanted to murder him on the Ides of March? If Washington hadn’t crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776? Suppose Christianity had remained a minor Middle East cult? Or the Ottomans
- [Speaking and media participation](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/speaking-and-media-participation/) - Alison gives talks/workshops/panels on writing, self-publishing, alternative and historical fiction, thrillers, research and social media at writers’ conferences, tutorial groups and associations in the UK, US, Ireland and France. Recent events include: Self-PubFest (online) 25 January 2026 Panellist on crime fiction and historical fiction panels https://self-pub-fest.co.uk/online-jan-july/25-jan-2026-festival/ Society of Authors (France Chapter) 25 June 2025 Online
- [CARINA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/carina-a-roma-nova-novella/) - Carina Mitela, a young officer in the 21st century Praetorian Guard is sent on a simple mission to the Republic of Quebec. But conspiracy is never far away...
- [Book trailers](https://www.alison-morton.com/trailers/) - Watch book trailers for JULIA PRIMA, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO and the SUCCESSIO launch. Also AURELIA, NEXUS, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO.
- [About Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/) - All about the mysterious Roma Nova – its history, a tourist guide, photos, a downloadable postcard and more.
- [Contact](https://www.alison-morton.com/contact/) - All the ways you can contact Alison, especially to subscribe to her monthly newsletter when you will receive two FREE short stories as a welcome gift.
- [INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/) - Fast-paced thriller where a courageous young woman learns that to survive she must stand her ground. But this is Ancient Rome re-imagined in the 21st century.
- [Where to buy INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/where-to-buy-inceptio/) - You can buy INCEPTIO in any of the following ways: – you can order the paperback (ISBN 9791097310134) through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) – 10th Anniversary special edition hardback (ISBN 9791097310363) in the same way – order all formats online by clicking the appropriate
- [RETALIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/retalio/) - Is resistance always futile? RETALIO is a story of resilience, heartache and retribution in a New Rome – the endgame between aurelia and Caius
- [INSURRECTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/insurrectio/) - Third Aurelia Mitela Roma Nova story. What lies behind the deadly personal grudge match between Aurelia and Caius – enough to bring a country to near ruin?
- [NEXUS – Independent reviews](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/nexus/nexus-independent-reviews/) - A selection of non-retailer reviews for NEXUS, the second Aurelia Mitela adventure in the Roma Nova thriller series.
- [NEXUS](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/nexus/) - "Fans of Morton’s Roma Nova series will adore this battle of might and personality. NEXUS is House of Cards meets Game of Thrones. A taut European novella to make you catch your breath." – JJ Marsh, author of The Beatrice Stubbs Series "From the very first sentence, with her immaculate research and knowledge of army
- [SUCCESSIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/) - The fourth Carina Mitela story in the Roma Nova thriller series Editor's Choice, The Bookseller inaugural indie preview. Longlisted for the HNS Indie Award
- [Independent reviews - SUCCESSIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/independent-reviews-successio/) - A selection of independent (non-retailer) reviews for SUCCESSIO, the fourth Carina Mitela adventure in the Roma Nova thriller series
- [PERFIDITAS](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/) - PERFIDITAS – The third Carina Mitela adventure. A story of betrayal – personal, professional and political in a New Rome.
- [AURELIA (Roma Nova)](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/) - Aurelia Mitela – Soldier, spy, mother, daughter, diplomat, fixer, lover. But can she save her beloved Roma Nova while battling her personal nemesis?
- [Where to buy AURELIA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/where-to-buy-aurelia/) - You can buy AURELIA in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310165) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order all formats online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Audiobook Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide Audible B&N Nook Barnes & Noble
- [Independent reviews - AURELIA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/independent-reviews-aurelia/) - AURELIA, the fourth Roma Nova thriller independent reviews
- [Blogtour reviews – INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/blogtour-reviews/) - From Eclectic Ramblings of Heather Osborne review blog – 25 April 2023 https://heatherosborneauthor.com/2023/04/25/blog-tour-inceptio-by-alison-morton/ A fantastic alternate historical fiction novel, Inceptio kept my attention from page one. I absolutely adored the characters as well as the play on the old Roman traditions and names. The evolution of Karen’s character made the novel that much more enjoyable.
- [Independent reviews - INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/independent-reviews-inceptio/) - This is just a selection... From Kath Middleton – 5 December 2023 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6016221477 Imagine a last outpost of the Roman Empire existed to this day, in its own Roma Nova territory north of Italy. Karen's mother was from there and she's forced to flee there from the Eastern United States in this excellent and exciting
- [Independent reviews – Double Stakes](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-stakes/independent-reviews-double-stakes/) - From The French Village Diaries (Reviewer of books with a French theme) – 11 June 2025 I wouldn’t say I was a thriller junky, in fact I’m a wimp and usually prefer my reads to be warm, fuzzy and uplifting, however, this series of books has changed my mind. Maybe it is Alison Morton’s attention
- [Where to buy JULIA PRIMA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/julia-prima/where-to-buy-julia-prima/) - You can buy JULIA PRIMA in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310356) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order both ebook and paperback online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide Barnes &
- [Future events](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/events/) - Nothing imminent, but you can read about my previous speaking experiences. Do visit the photo gallery (There are even famous authors there! :-) ) Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for
- [Melisende thrillers](https://www.alison-morton.com/melisende-thrillers/) - Mélisende des Pittones (Mel) is the daughter of a French father and English mother. Her comfortably off family have been settled in Poitou in western France, even weathering the French Revolution. She was sent to a top Parisian private school and although she did sufficiently well in her exams, she did not turn out as a
- [Independent reviews - PERFIDITAS](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/independent-reviews-perfiditas/) - These are only a few, but give you a flavour... JaffaReads Too book reviews https://jaffareadstoo.blogspot.com/2013/11/author-blog-tour-alison-morton.html As good, if not better, than the first... Perfiditas is the clever continuation of the story which began in Inceptio, and follows the story of Captain Carina Mitela of the Praetorian Guard Special Forces as she continues her life with
- [Independent reviews for Double Identity](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-identity/independent-reviews-for-double-identity/) - From the BookLife Prize by Publisher's Weekly – 2024 Plot/Idea: Morton kicks off with an arresting hook that immediately spirals into an intriguing mystery, as Mélisende des Pittones wakes up next to her dead fiancé and finds herself facing an intense investigation—with her as a prime suspect for his murder. The plot is brisk, the developments well-planned,
- [About](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/) - Even before she pulled on her first set of combats, Alison Morton was fascinated by the idea of women soldiers. Brought up by a feminist mother and an ex-military father, it never occurred to her that women couldn’t serve their country in the armed forces. Everybody in her family had done time in uniform and
- [Where to buy Double Pursuit](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-pursuit/where-to-buy-double-pursuit/) - You can buy Double Pursuit in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310318) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order both ebook and paperback online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon (worldwide) B&N
- [Where to buy Double Identity](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-identity/where-to-buy-double-identity/) - You can buy Double Identity in any of the following ways: - you can order the paperback (ISBN: 9791097310288) through your local bookshop, independent or chain - click the red arrow at the right (UK only) - order both ebook and paperback online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook
- [Photo gallery](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/photo-gallery/) - Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now out. Download 'Welcome to Roma Nova', a FREE eBook, as
- [Roman and history reference books](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/roman-and-history-reference-books/) - I've read hundreds of books on Roman life, customs and history, general, alternate and women's history and have forgotten the titles of many of them, but here are some I've found useful in writing the Roma Nova books. The First Ladies of Rome: the women behind the Caesars - Annelise Freisenbruch Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman
- [Praise for SUCCESSIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/praise-for-successio/) - "I thoroughly enjoyed this classy thriller" - The Bookseller “Alison Morton has done it again. SUCCESSIO is the latest in her series of powerful tales of family betrayals and shifting allegiances in Roma Nova. Once again, I was gripped from start to finish.” Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster “If there is a world where fiction
- [Aurelia Omnibus](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/roma-nova-box-set-2/) - Roma Nova, a modern country powered by the Ancient Roman mindset but ruled by women Aurelia Mitela is courageous, loyal and passionate, but the shadow of her life-long nemesis Caius Tellus hovers over her. Whether as Praetorian soldier, spy, diplomat in the late 1960s and mid 1970s or imperial councillor in the early 1980s, Aurelia
- [ROMA NOVA EXTRA – Short stories](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/roma-nova-extra/) - "I was expecting intrigue, powerful women, action and excitement as an avid reader of the Roma Nova series, but the romantic element took me by surprise. Here is love: for one's family, country, potential partner and even a statue. It is touching and moves you when you least expect it." –Bookmuse Reviews "Vignettes are so
- [Carina Omnibus](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/roma-nova-box-set/) - Roma Nova, a modern country powered by the Ancient Roman mindset but ruled by women Carina Mitela, 21st century Praetorian, is courageous, fallible and sassy. Can she defeat treachery, conspiracy and a dark nemesis while keeping an enduring love burning? Transformation, deception, rebels, vengeance takers, comradeship and an epic love story in these four award winning adventures with nearly
- [In media](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/in-the-press/) - My name and words mentioned in The Guardian no less! Self-publishing lets women break book industry's glass ceiling, survey finds While men still dominate the traditional books world, among DIY writers women are publishing and selling more Alison Flood Friday 6 March 2015 13.37 GMT http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/06/self-publishing-lets-women-break-book-industrys-glass-ceiling-survey-finds If a woman writing fiction needs “money and a room of her own”,
- [Independent reviews for Double Pursuit](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-pursuit/independent-reviews-for-double-pursuit/) - From a Quintillion of Words 15 January 2022 Full (detailed!) review: https://aquintillionwords.com/2022/01/15/double-pursuit-book-review/ After finishing the book, I had to sit in silence for a while to process everything Mel had gone through – what a journey! It seemed each book in the series was just getting better and better, and I have no doubt that
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/privacy-policy/) - This privacy policy applies to http://www.alison-morton.com, https://pulcheriapress.com and http://alisonmortonauthor.com (“these websites”) and governs the privacy of those who choose to use the two sites. The owner of these websites is Alison Morton. Any personal data collected through these websites (located in France) will be treated as confidential in line with the principles of the French
- [Where to buy EXSILIUM](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/exsilium/where-to-buy-exsilium/) - You can buy EXSILIUM in any of the following ways: – you can order the paperback (ISBN 9791097310387) through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) – order both ebook and paperback online by clicking the appropriate link below. If the link is greyed out, the book is
- [Claudia Dixit's tourist guide to Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/claudia-dixits-tourist-guide-to-roma-nova/) - Roma Nova is trending as one of the (virtual) must-see destinations this year. Sol Populi travel journalist Claudia Dixit reports on what’s on offer for visitors. Visiting Roma Nova? Well, you won’t find too many orgies – such a myth! – but you will receive a very warm welcome. Roma Novans love showing visitors round their city
- [Buying links for Alison's books](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/buying-links/) - Each book has its own page of where to buy links, but here are some quick links to find your favourite! Click on 'More links' for more retailers and for where you can buy paperbacks. INCEPTIO Amazon (worldwide) B&N Nook Kobo Apple More links* CARINA Amazon (worldwide) B&N Nook Kobo Apple More links PERFIDITAS Amazon (worldwide) B&N Nook Kobo Apple More
- [Military or civilians?](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/military-or-civilians-the-curious-anomaly-of-the-german-womens-auxiliary-services-during-the-second-world-war/) - Nearly 500,000 young German women served in uniform with the German armed forces in the Second World War yet their history is rarely recalled in Germany and is virtually unknown in the Anglophone world. Recruited into the military against Nazi ideological norms to meet a desperate shortage of manpower, the status of these Wehrmachthelferinnen (armed
- [Roma Nova photos](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/roma-nova-what-it-could-look-like/) - I've often been asked what Roma Nova looks like. A few photos that could give an idea...
- [Independent reviews for JULIA PRIMA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/julia-prima/independent-reviews-for-julia-prima/) - From the Historical Novel Society – 1 February 2023. Editors' Choice "This is a stunning historical novel set in the 4th century. Julia, the daughter of the ruler of the provincial town of Virunum, worships the Roman gods at a time when Christianity has become the official religion of the Empire. She considers herself divorced,
- [Audio](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/audiobooks/) - POWER BETRAYAL NEMESIS Listen to Carina Mitela, 21st century Praetorian in Roma Nova, as she challenges all three. And then listen to Aurelia Mitela, her precursor – Praetorian, spy, mother and thief taker in the 1960s. Transformation, deception, rebellion, vengeance, comradeship, duty and epic love stories in these adventures in a new Rome founded sixteen hundred years ago
- [Podcasts](https://www.alison-morton.com/about/podcasts/) - You can listen to me on various podcasts where hosts have been kind enough to let me ramble on about writing and Roma Nova. Joanna Penn's Books and Travel 'The Roman Empire And Alternate History With Alison Morton' The early genesis of an idea for books about an alternative history based on Ancient Rome How
- [Praise for AURELIA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/praise-for-aurelia/) - "A racing climax and a fully satisfying ending" – Kate Quinn “What if the Roman Empire hadn't fallen? Alison Morton handles this intriguing premise with her customary panache in AURELIA." Ruth Downie, author of the Ruso Medicus series "Morton raises the bar on her Nova Roma series with a thrilling and intriguing history of what might
- [Praise for INSURRECTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/insurrectio/praise-for-insurrectio/) - “INSURRECTIO - a taut, fast-paced thriller and I enjoyed it enormously. Rome, guns and rebellion. Darkly gripping stuff.” Conn Iggulden, author of the Emperor series “Exploring the insidious spread of totalitarian ideals that undermine the social fabric of Roma Nova, INSURRECTIO is an excellent novel that builds to a fast paced, tense climax that keeps the
- [Independent reviews – INSURRECTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/insurrectio/independent-reviews-insurrectio/) - A few reviews from non-retailer sites to give you a flavour… From Dave's Book Blurg https://davidsbookblurg.co.uk/2017/05/31/insurrectio-by-alison-morton-review/ When we left Aurelia a lot had happened to her and I wondered how easy it would be for her to pick up the pieces.. well now we know. Some time has passed since the events with Caius Tellus and
- [Double Identity blog tour reviews](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-identity/double-identity-blog-tour-reviews/) - Some wonderful reviews from the DampPebbles tour... (Click on the title to read the full review) Nevs Book Cave "I fell in love with Mel instantly - she’s strong willed and able to take care of herself. You don’t want to get on her bad side as one of her fellow officers finds out... I found
- [Postcard from Roma Nova](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/postcard-from-roma-nova/) - Download the official postcard from Roma Nova! Click here for the high resolution version (PDF). Once loaded on your screen, just click on Save As and save it on your system wherever you wish. You may need to resize (or trim) it if you wish to print it out on card. By the way, the
- [The Big Thrill feature on Double Identity](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/double-identity/the-big-thrill-feature-on-double-identity/) - By E.M. Powell One could be forgiven for thinking that a happy-ever-after awaits Melisende des Pittones, ex-intelligence analyst with the French special forces in Alison Morton’s new espionage thriller, DOUBLE IDENTITY. When the novel opens, Mel has thrown in her job just three days previously to marry financial trader Gérard Rohlbert. She’s deeply in love,
- [Writing blog](https://www.alison-morton.com/alisons-author-site/) - Link to Alison Morton's Writing Blog For much, much more about writing and publishing - writing craft, skills and techniques, independent publishing, marketing, fabulous guests, research, author-entrepreneur skills, writing life, events and opinions - do visit my dedicated writing site. Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and
- [Writing in an alternat(iv)e history setting](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/writing-in-an-alternative-history-setting-2/) - Here's my handout from a recent presentation on writing in an alternative history environment: Alternative history (AH/althist) handout (Download as a PDF – see the end of the post) Alternate/alternative history stories: • The historical timeline has split at a ‘point of divergence’ in the past. • The new timeline follows a different path forever
- [Rome tour](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/rome-tour/) - A few photos from my Rome, Pompeii and Cannae tour in February/March 2012 All photos except this group shot are my copyright. If you are desperate to copy any of the images, please ask me first. Contact me here. PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING FROM ANY OF THESE GALLERIES ON PINTEREST. I've split it into
- [Where to buy CARINA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/carina-a-roma-nova-novella/where-to-buy-carina/) - You can buy CARINA in the following ways: – you can order the paperback (ISBN 9791097310066) through your local bookshop, independent or chain – click the red arrow at the right (UK only) or from the retailers below. – order both formats online by clicking the appropriate link below. Ebook Paperback Amazon (Kindle) worldwide Amazon worldwide B&N Nook (US)
- [INSURRECTIO excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/insurrectio/insurrectio-excerpt/) - From the first chapter... Plico sat down without invitation and pulled a folder out of his briefcase – a red one. Hades. Red files usually contained a maximum of half a dozen sheets, often only one. Each sheet had a unique log number. The penalty for copying anything from a red file was a minimum of
- [Praise for ROMA NOVA EXTRA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/roma-nova-extra/praise-for-roma-nova-extra/) - “One of the reasons I am enthralled with the Roma Nova series (aside from the skilfully written plots, excellent writing and professional standard of production) is the concept of the whole thing.” – Helen Hollick, Discovering Diamonds Reviews “There's something quite intriguing about reading a set of short stories which have links to a book
- [SUCCESSIO book trailer](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/successio/successio-book-trailer/) - The new SUCCESSIO book trailer video (Updated 2019). Enjoy! http://youtu.be/310iz0pPdPM Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now
- [PERFIDITAS book trailer](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/perfiditas-book-trailer/) - (Updated 2019)  Where you can buy PERFIDITAS Read about the making of this video Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an
- [Praise for RETALIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/retalio/praise-for-retalio/) - “RETALIO is a classic tale of resistance and resilience as an exiled Aurelia Mitela leads an army of the dispossessed to free Roma Nova from the clutches of the despicable Caius. As always Alison Morton's alternative world where a fragment of the Roman Empire has survived to the present day feels utterly authentic and Caius's
- [INCEPTIO book trailer](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/inceptio-book-trailer/) - New 2019 version! Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, is now out. Download 'Welcome to Roma Nova', a FREE
- [Praise for INCEPTIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/praise-for-inceptio/) - “Terrific. Brilliantly plotted original story, grippingly told and cleverly combining the historical with the futuristic. It’s a real edge-of-the-seat read, genuinely hard to put down.” Sue Cook, writer and broadcaster "Grips like a vice. Excellent pace, great dialogue and concept. A writer to watch out for." Adrian Magson, author of the Harry Tate spy novels
- [Praise for CARINA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/carina-a-roma-nova-novella/praise-for-carina/) - "Carina tasked to apprehend an alleged traitor in Quebec and return her to Roma Nova. A straightforward task for a member of the elite Praetorian officer corps. However, things turn out to be a bit more complicated and she is plunged into a web of deception and intrigue. The author has given the reader another
- [Independent reviews – RETALIO](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/retalio/independent-reviews-retalio/) - From the Historical Novel Society https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/retalio/ This is the sixth in Alison Morton’s alternative history series set in Roma Nova—a recent-history world in which a remnant of the Roman empire has survived. By this stage the key characters are already well developed, so it is even more of an action adventure than the earlier books.
- [Praise for PERFIDITAS](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/praise-for-perfiditas/) - “Alison Morton has built a fascinating, exotic world! Carina’s a bright, sassy detective with a winning dry sense of humour. I warmed to her quickly and wanted to find out how she dealt with the problems thrown in her path. The plot is pretty snappy too and gets off to a quick start which made
- [Independent Reviews – CARINA](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/carina-a-roma-nova-novella/independent-reviews-carina/) - From David's Book Blurg – 27 February 2019 https://davidsbookblurg.co.uk/2019/02/27/carina-by-alison-morton-review/ Carina is part of the Roma Nova series by Alison Morton. I came late to the series but was instantly hooked in by the uniqueness of the plots. Think alternative fiction and strong female leads mixed with intriguing and well planned plots.. yeh, you’re on to
- [CARINA - an excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/carina-a-roma-nova-novella/carina-an-excerpt/) - ‘I should flay you both for this. It’s a bloody good job we’re not back in the Ancients’ times. A good Roman punishment officer would have sorted you both out.’ I winced at the laser-like words. ‘I can see no reason why I shouldn’t throw you both out this instant. You’ve disobeyed standing orders, your
- [Military or Civilians? bibliography](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/military-or-civilians-the-curious-anomaly-of-the-german-womens-auxiliary-services-during-the-second-world-war/military-or-civilians-bibliography/) - BIBLIOGRAPHY PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES Gersdorff, Ursula von, Frauen im Kriegsdienst 1914-1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1969) Himmelstoß, Elisabeth, …und ich konnte nichts ändern!: Odydssee einer Nachrichtenhelferin, (Herford: Mittler, 1994) Killius, Rosemarie, Frauen für die Front : Gespräche mit Wehrmachtshelferinnen, (Leipzig: Militzke 2003) Schmidt, Ilse, Die Mitläuferin: Erinnerungen einer Wehrmachtsangehörigen, (Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1999) SECONDARY SOURCES Abrams, Lynn
- [First glimpse: Carina and Conrad’s Roman Holiday](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/roma-nova-extra/first-glimpse-carina-and-conrads-roman-holiday/) - I took another deep breath. Juno knew why – the room stank of stale urine, the mattress was probably full of bugs and I wasn’t sure I’d be alive in the next hour in this Roman hole. My shoulders ached from having my hands tied behind me. But spinning round my head along with the
- [AURELIA excerpt](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/aurelia-excerpt/) - I left my side-arm in the safe box in the vestibule and walked on past the marble and plaster imagines, the painted statues and busts of dead Mitelae from the gods knew how many hundreds of years. Only the under-steward was allowed to dust them; I’d never been allowed to touch them as a child.
- [AURELIA book trailer](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/aurelia/aurelia-book-trailer/) - The AURELIA (Roma Nova IV) trailer. Enjoy! Direct link to YouTube Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS and SUCCESSIO. The fourth book, AURELIA, is due out on 5 May 2015. Find out Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways by signing up for her free monthly email
- [PERFIDITAS blog tours](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/perfiditas/perfiditas-blog-tours/) - To celebrate its publication, PERFIDITAS is off on a virtual, fairly relaxed tour... 14 October until 13 November, I'm delighted to be supporting Women Writers, Women(s) Books 16 October Brook Cottage Books 17 October Glynis Smy - Historical Romance with a Twist 19 October The Romaniacs 21 October Fenella Miller's Blog 22 October Of
- [Goodreads reviews](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/goodreads-reviews/) - Inceptio by Alison Morton (Goodreads Author) **** Rick Bayles' review Mar 19, 13 4 of 5 stars This is an excellent debut novel from Alison Morton. Alternate History is a difficult genre to get right but this is bang on the money; Roma Nova is a brilliant creation, well thought out and well realised on
- [Amazon US reviews](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/amazon-us-reviews/) - Here's a selection... An extraordinary world, October 9, 2013 By The Kindle Book Review This review is from: INCEPTIO (Roma Nova) (Kindle Edition) Alison Morton had me hooked from the very first page of the novel. Taking the reader from present day New York to Roma Nova an alternative Roman World in Northern Italy, both
- [Rubery Award review](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/rubery-award-review/) - Although INCEPTIO didn't gain a prize place in the 2013 International Rubery Book Award, it was shortlisted and the judges wrote a lovely review: "This science fiction thriller is set in an alternative world, where modern New York resembles our twenty-first century New York, but Europe has been redrawn. Roma Nova was set up sixteen
- [Rome](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/rome-tour/rome/) - ROME All photos are my copyright. If you are desperate to copy any of the images, please ask me first. Contact me here. PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING FROM ANY OF THESE GALLERIES ON PINTEREST. Museum of Roman Civilisation. Many items are copies of things retained in their original locations, but a fascinating overview. Rome
- [Amazon UK reviews](https://www.alison-morton.com/books-2/inceptio/amazon-uk-reviews/) - I haven't kept these up to date, so apologies. Here are some sparkling new ones: A great story and a convincing and internally consistent alternate world, 2 Jan 2014 By Antoine Vanner - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What is this?) This review is from: INCEPTIO (Roma Nova) (Kindle Edition) Alison Morton pulls off
- [Pompeii](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/rome-tour/pompeii/) - All photos are my copyright. If you are desperate to copy any of the images, please ask me first. Contact me here. PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING FROM ANY OF THESE GALLERIES ON PINTEREST. You know what Pompeii is, so no explanation needed... Visit Rome, Capua, Capri, Cannae and Naples
- [Capua, Capri, Cannae and Naples](https://www.alison-morton.com/roma-nova/rome-tour/capua-cannae-and-naples/) - All photos are my copyright. If you are desperate to copy any of the images, please ask me first. Contact me here. PLEASE DO NOT PUT ANYTHING FROM ANY OF THESE GALLERIES ON PINTEREST The hidden secret of the amphitheatre in Capua (south of Rome) Cannae - Where Hannibal trounced the Romans Capri - Retirement

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