Helen’s Journal
Welcome to my newly designed website! I hope you like the format.
I’m delighted that Captured is now out on the shelf. It has a great cover! I was looking at the newspaper the other morning (to improve my knowledge) when I flipped over to the back page and was hit by a report about a body building competition. It had photos from the men’s division and I swear contestant number 85 had the same set of abs as appear on my book cover.
OK, that’s not realistically possible, but it just underscored for me the point that Boda’s story is about someone with unusual strength, not just of body, but of mind and spirit. This hero starts out with nothing, in fact you will see if you read to the end of his story, that he had less than nothing. The theme that I love writing is one where someone who has no resources but their own courage can win their way through to happiness.
Boda was just such an unusual and compelling hero - the bad boy who makes good, the tough warrior with the kind heart and the wry humour. It was Boda who found the words to express the theme when he was at his lowest ebb - “It had to be possible for the despised and the placeless in this world to be worth something.”
Those words were written, in fact, in a previous book, A Fragile Trust. You’ll know if you read my last journal entry, that I had no idea that Boda would become a hero when he found his way into my first book, and now he has his place. You don’t have to have read A Fragile Trust to enjoy Captured. But if you are interested, my contest this month is for the double book prize of signed copies of both Captured and A Fragile Trust.
If you have your name down to receive my newsletter, you are automatically entered in the draw. If you would like to have a go for the contest and are not on the list, please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)
Catch you again soon - with my new, improved website, I’ll be updating my journal more often, so stop by again before too long!
Contest
One winner will be drawn from subscribers to my e-newsletter. The winner’s name will be announced on my website.
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Latest contest:
I’m giving away a copy of Captured - Boda’s tale. This is the story of the outsider who has no advantages but his own formidable strength, and the woman whose courage matches his.
With Captured, comes a signed copy of A Fragile Trust - Ash’s story. This is the book which began the “Warriors of the Dragon Banner” series and details Boda’s first appearance in King Alfred’s world four winters earlier.
