Monthly Archives: July 2019

A Clearwater update

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A Clearwater update

My wonderful designer, Andjela, has come up with some banners and images for me for use on my Facebook page and the blog. I thought I’d share a couple now just to let regular readers know that I am still here and haven’t forgotten about my website. I’ve just released Fallen Splendour, the 4th Clearwater Mystery and am at a bit of a crossroads. I need to get back to my other series, The Saddling, and finish the final part of that. You won’t find The Saddling Mysteries under Jackson Marsh though, they are released under my real name, James Collins.

If you want to view them, head to my James Collins author page. They need to be read in order: The Saddling, The Witchling, The Eastling and… the one I’ve yet to write. They are not MM Romance as such, though the three main characters are men.

One comes to terms with being gay through part one, finds love with the second character in part two and onwards, and the third main character is ambiguous – and may turn out to be gay in part four. But… The series is set in a village (in the 21st century) on the Romney Marshes – Kent, England, that still lives by its own ancient lore and teaching – a non-Christian, non-religious place where nature and the supernatural are the driving forces. I wrote these three before I wrote the Clearwater Mysteries and they are different, though similar (no sex), and to be honest, the Saddling started off as a one-off, but was so popular, people asked for a second and then a third, so the pressure is on to produce the fourth.

They have themes – a lot of family and other history, but also, more subliminally, the number four is important: four seasons, four festivals (two solstice, two equinox), four points of the compass and, in part four, four men banding together to save the day…I think.

I’ll leave it there and go to the writing desk to dream up some ideas. Meanwhile, thanks for your support, please share this blog and whatever you can on Facebook, Insta-what’s-it and elsewhere. If you enjoy the novels, I need your support to help others enjoy them too.

Thank you all!

Fallen Splendour

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Fallen Splendour

Part four of The Clearwater Mysteries, ‘Fallen Splendour’ has just been released on Kindle and KU. There will be a print version available in the next few days.

For me, it feels like I’ve finished a sequence of four books, but there are more to come. The first four in this series take place in London 1888 and introduce us to the main five characters, Archer (Lord Clearwater), Silas (his lover), Thomas (his butler), Fecker (Silas’ bestie) and then, in part two, James (his footman).

Things laid down, mentioned or seen in one part lead to bigger things in the next, as the stories develop, usually taking two of the MCs as the main POV characters in each book. Book one, Archer and Silas, book two, James and Archer, Book three Silas and James, book four James and Archer (and Fecker), and so on.

Without giving too much away, here are the mysteries you can expect.

Deviant Desire: ‘The Ripper’ is killing rent boys as a way to lure Archer to a confrontation.
Twisted Tracks: The team of five must decipher a code to reach the endgame in time
Unspeakable Acts: A murder, on stage during an opera house gala, is threatened.
Fallen Splendour: The clue is in a verse by Alfred Lord Tennyson…

Actually, there are two stories running in Fallen Splendour, two connected theatres that must be dealt with and I’m rather thrilled with what I’ve done with the story. Some of it comes from a poem I fell in love with at school, and the clues in the story are wrapped up in one verse. Basically: Where is this location?

The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.
[Alfred Lord Tennyson]

You will have to read the book to find out and, as with most of my other novels, there’s adventure, tears, feel-good, a little sex and a lot of male bonding and strong friendships that are in danger of boiling over into romance. It’s all very romantic in the general sense of the word and my boys do love each other in one way or another.

Here’s the link to the .com and .co.uk pages. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please leave a helpful review!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V522JR3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07V522JR3

All the best
Jackson

The book blurb for Fallen Splendour:

“We have his sisters. Involve your catamite, and they will die before the shortest day.”

A kidnapping, a threat and a deadly showdown force Lord Clearwater and his coachman, Andrej, on a secret mission to save two innocent girls. But where are they? The clue to the location is wrapped up in a Tennyson poem, and time is fast running out.

Left at Clearwater House to crack the code, James finds himself with another ominous responsibility when Inspector Adelaide makes an arrest. With his master missing, it falls to the footman to crack the code, fight a court case, and save Archer’s reputation.

With only three days to find the answers, all evidence points to a location known only to Tennyson himself, and an enemy thought dead.

But what if James is wrong?

An interconnected double mystery, Fallen Splendour is the fourth in the Clearwater Mysteries series. The books are best read in order.