Guest Post: Marcus Alexander and the Keeper of the Realms

Well yesterday we had an entry from Joshua's diary from Susanne Winnacker's The Other Life, and today something just as exciting. When I received an email just before Christmas about a book called Keeper of the Realms, I did a little double take. Ooh. What an intriguing title. And upon reading further, both about the book and the author, a gentleman named Marcus Alexander, the more I knew I had to read this book! Well, now, here is Marcus to tell us a little about his awesome travelling which helped him to create the world in which his book is set...

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I'd like to say I'm a serious guy with a strong sense of discipline but the unfortunate truth is I like mischief and I can't stand staying put in one place for any length of time. The world is simply too big, it's definitely too funky and even though we're living in modern times with an expanse of media coverage there's certainly still a lot of adventure out there.

I started travelling overseas when I was sixteen; I'd sneak over to Paris or go tenting on a shoestring budget to Marseille. Eighteen saw me disappearing over to India and Nepal where I promptly got cheated by cardsharks, harassed by shysters and endured the light fingers of professional pickpockets. But nevertheless times were still sweet! I got to dangle my toes in the Ganges, walk in the shadow of Mount Everest, clamber across rumbling glaciers and run screaming from tarantulas in the jungle.

My early twenties delivered me to the Golden Triangle where I wriggled through constricting subterranean tunnels to emerge in crystal strewn caverns, crept through the tangled ruins of overgrown temples, fought in crowded stadiums and watched endless games of Tekraw.

All of this and more was born from early years of reading. It was science fiction and fantasy books that fired my passion and filled me with the need to travel. Reading about acrobatic heroes and enduring heroines was what filled me with the enthusiasm to jump into the sports of capoeira, parkour, gymnastics and snowboarding and ultimately they're what caused me to return home and put pen to paper to create the Keeper of the Realms series.

Having had my imagination kicked into overdrive through past experiences I've tried to create the kind of fantasy world that I would give an arm and a leg to walk (hobble) through. I'd like to pass on my thanks to the books that I read as a kid in the hopes that Charlie Keeper and her adventures throughout Bellania leave you, in turn, with a glimmer of excitement and a desire for travel.

Kindest of Regards,

Marcus Alexander

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Awesome stuff. Seriously need to read this bad boy! It's currently quite high up in the reading pile and cannot wait! Marcus also sent over this awesome pic saying thank you! Cheers dude! :D THANK YOU!

The Keeper of the Realms: Crow's Revenge is out today!

Buy from Amazon UK

Doc Mortis Tour: My Biggest Fear By Barry Hutchison and Doc Mortis Review!

Well, the day has finally arrived! Mr Barry Hutchison (got your name right first time this time Barry! ;)) is stopping by for a delightful piece about his fear here on EoB as part of the Doc Mortis Blog Tour - a 2 week long fest of blood, guts and Invisible Fiends!!! The book, Doc Mortis came out this week and you can check out my review below, but before that, a wonderful piece by Barry about his biggest fears...

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My Biggest Fear by Barry Hutchison

When I was a kid, I was scared of most things. Dogs. Cats. Birds. Goldfish. Confined spaces. Wide open spaces. You name it, I was scared of it.

Now that I’m older, I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to conquer most of the irrational fears I had during childhood.

Most.

But not all.

When I was seven-years-old I found a squirrel lying on a path in a park. It was a dead squirrel. I knew it was dead because of the way it was slumped on the concrete. And because its intestines had exploded out through its eyes.

Something had happened to that squirrel. Something terrible. My first thought was “aww, that’s a shame”, and for most people that would be the end of it. They’d step past the tangled mess of fur and innards and carry on with their day.

Not me, though. Not seven-year-old me.

The problem I had, and the reason I was so afraid of so many things, was that I had a very overactive imagination. Whenever I heard a noise from somewhere in my house, it wasn’t the wind, it was a murderer, intent on killing my family.

When friends tried to get me to climb fences I refused because, I believed, I would fall and shatter my spine. Or tear a leg off. Or somehow lose an eye.

And when I looked down at the gooey remains of that squirrel, I didn’t just think “aww, that’s a shame”, I also thought “WHAT IF IT COMES BACK TO LIFE?!?”.

I ran then, my head filled with visions of this… this… zombie squirrel coming back from the dead and hurling itself at my face in a frenzy of teeth and claws and exposed digestive tract. My heart began to race, sweat began pouring from my skin and – yes – I believe I started to cry, so vivid was this image of the undead squirrel attack.

Fortunately, squirrels are easy to avoid (dead ones are even easier) and I’ve managed to go through the two and a half decades since then without really encountering too many of them.

All that changed last year, when I stepped out of my house to take my son to school one morning, only to find this thing clinging to the wall:

In case you can’t see the picture, allow me to explain. IT’S A GHOSTLY WHITE SQUIRREL WITH DEMONIC RED EYES!

A ghostly white squirrel with demonic red eyes that appeared to be staring deep into my very soul. I managed to snap that photograph, before bundling my son into the car and driving away with tyres

screeching. When I got home, the squirrel was gone, although it reappeared several more times over the next few months, often brandishing a gun*.

But my main concern wasn’t the freaky Albino squirrel. My main concern was how the freaky Albino squirrel ended up at my house. I’ve done research, and there are only an estimated 25 Albino squirrels in the whole of the UK. How many grown men have a squirrel phobia? Probably half that amount, tops.

So, I refuse to believe that it’s coincidence that the thing tracked me down. I reckon the other squirrels got together and planned the whole thing. Maybe this one is just painted white with contacts in, I don’t know, but I think there was motive behind it. The squirrels plotted the whole thing, just to wind me up and make it impossible for me to leave the house for the next six months without ducking and covering my head with my hands.

Because they do that, squirrels.

The gits.

*this is a lie

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Brilliant. Thanks Barry! Now time for me to do my bit...

Written by: Barry Hutchison.

Published by: HarperCollins.

Format: Paperback.

Released: 4th August 2011.

Rating: 4.5/5.

Official synopsis: "Kyle wakes up in hospital – which is strange, because he doesn't remember being ill. And that's not all. He's also deliriously flitting in and out of the Darkest Corners, and in the shadow version of the hospital the surfaces aren't clean, and the sharp instruments aren't used for healing. It's Kyle's most terrifying experience yet, and it's about to get much, much worse. The doctor will see him now…"

Despite owning the first book in the Invisible Fiends series, Mr. Mumbles, I've never gotten around to reading the series for one reason or another and decided not too long ago that I would aim to get all four books that'd be out by the end of this year and read them in one go, if not sooner then over the Christmas break when it'll be pants tv and the hours start to drag as everyone else sleep the days away... but then I got the chance to take part in this blog tour and it just seemed the perfect opportunity to get into the series.

I decided that I'd read the book of it's own merit rather than read the first three books first. I loved the sound of this one, even more so than the previous novels in the series and the cover is simply amazing and creepy, I just had to. Eventually, I read the book in one sitting on a day off from work. And what a day it was. The feelings I went through when reading this book. Horror, sadness, revulsion, compasion... and there was the odd laugh or two. Barry blends the horror with the humor perfectly. Just when your stomach feels all funny and gurgly with the blood, guts and gore, you have a little chuckle and all is well again, only for that sickening yet addictive feeling to build again.

The characters are well rounded and really seem to complement one another. Doc Mortis himself has to be one of the creepiest characters I've ever come across. As someone who actually does have a bit of a fear of doctors and hospitals... anything medical in general this book really touched a nerve. Let's just say that I am put off going to my GP for any ailments at the moment for the very foreseeable future. The fact that one of my doctors actually does look a bit like Doc Mortis, although a thinner version doesn't help. Thanks Barry, thank you very much!

I have to say that the book more than surpassed my expectations for the series and I really am looking forward to reading the other books already out and of course continuing with the series. With the publication of The Beast early next year, I better get a move on in anticipation. I'd also really like some kind of TV/movie adaptation for these books. There's a real cinematic feel in your head when reading the book and I'd love to actually see it with my own eyes, rather than my minds eye. But until such an adaption might happen, I will just have to imagine extra hard the gore that is still to come!

My thanks to Barry for such a cracking read and for stopping by today, it's been an honour! And to the lovely folk at HarperCollins for my copy of the book!

Buy from Amazon UK

Summer Reads (1): The Book Zone For Boys

When I first received the email from Ryan asking if I would be interested in writing a piece about my favourite summer reads my initial thought was that I wouldn't be able to do this as I do not have specific summer reads. This is even more the case these days when I have such a huge To Be Read pile that I'm not sure I have the time to choose something specific for the summer. However, I ponded on this for a while and finally came to the conclusion that summer has always been of huge importance in my reading life.

I come from a large family, me being the oldest of five. Foreign holidays were not an option both logistically or financially with so many of us and for most of my childhood we went to one of two places: the Isle of Wight or St Ives, Cornwall. As a child these were both fantastic places to go to on holiday, and we spent a lot of our time on the beach. And this meant huge amounts of reading time, and for me as I grew up summer reading was all about series. I have vivid memories of scouring the beachfront shops for the next Famous Five book or Five Findouters book I didn't have, and then when I was a little older, the next Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators book, and although funds were tight this is what I would buy over anything else. But one book was never going to be enough for me for a whole fortnight so a couple of days before we were due to go away we would always visit the local library and I would walk out with about twenty books – ten on my library card, and ten on my mum's card. My local library was awesome – it had vast quantities of the books I loved – those already mentioned, The Hardy Boys, Conan, and later on Agatha Christie's mysteries. I yes, I would generally manage to get through most if not all of those twenty books before they were due back to the library.

Many years later I spent most of the summer working on a kibbutz in Israel. I took one book with me, The Lord of the Rings, thinking that it would last me some time even though I had read it several time before. I read it within the first week or so and was beginning to despair, until I stumbled across the 'library' – a room full of books that previous volunteers had left behind in order to free up space in their luggage. Again, I was in series heaven: amongst the stacks I discovered large quantities of Saint books by Leslie Charteris, and this discovery sparked off a love for these books and their enigmatic main character that I still harbour today.

And yes, despite my initial conclusion that I do not have time to have summer books these days, the evidence of last summer would suggest otherwise. My wife and I booked a very last minute week in Menorca (booked it Friday evening, flew out Tuesday); I tend to get bored very quick if I am just lying on a beach, and so I set a condition on the holiday: only if I could take loads of books. And yet again, I found myself having the time to read a series as part of my summer holidays, this time being for four books that had at that point been released in Michael Scott's absolutely brilliant Nicholas Flamel series. It felt so good to read the books back-to-back, although the one draw back was that I have since had to wait a year for book five to be released.

This year I don't think we will be going away for a week, but if we were (or if we do) then I think the series books would win yet again. I would love to find the time to re-read all of the Harry Potter books back-to-back now that the final film has been completed, so maybe this would be my choice. However, there is competition: Jonathan Stroud's original Bartimaeus trilogy is crying out to be read in one go, as are the books in Tom Becker's brilliant Darkside series, and those in Mark Walden's fab H.I.V.E. series (although as Mark has got a new book coming out in September and he tends to write three book story arcs I may leave this until Book Nine is published). If we don't go away then I think I will just concentrate on my TBR pile which is on the verge of avalanching – with six weeks of school holidays ahead of me I reckon I can clear quite a few of them and have great fun doing so. So yes, summer is still hugely important as far as my reading life is concerned, and long may it be so.

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Thank you Darren. What a cracking start to Summer Reads!!! Be sure to check out Darren's awesome blog right here!!! Next week it's the turn of the lovely Jenny from Wondrous Reads!