Tag Archives: new novel

Home From Nowhere

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Home From Nowhere

Hello everyone. I thought it was about time for another blog post, just to check in and let you know what I am up to.

As usual, I have been writing. In this case, I have been working on a new Clearwater mystery, ‘Home From Nowhere’ (book seven). I don’t know how long a series is meant to go on for, but I am enjoying writing this one, so I’m carrying on regardless. However, I felt the murder and mayhem, wild adventures and on-going battles of the Clearwater Crew needed a breather, so book number seven will be different.

This chap reminded me of Thomas Payne, Archer’s best friend and butler.

I thought it was time we saw the crew from someone else’s point of view, and experienced life at Clearwater House from a new character’s perspective. So, ‘Home From Nowhere’ breaks from the two-word titles from the past and starts us on a different kind of mystery; no ‘meet a deadline or be dead’, no nasty villain, just a gentle mystery and the start of a love story that will continue in part eight. The sort of story you can put your feet up and relax with, and come away from with a sense of feel-good, like watching an episode of Downton Abbey.

This doesn’t mean there’s no mystery to solve, and Archer, James and Silas are the ones to take the mystery and work out the clues, but they are doing it on behalf of the new character who, if you have read ‘Artful Deception‘ you would have briefly met at Kingsclere House.

As usual, I have mixed real people, times, events and facts with some fictional ones, and there is a background theme, in this case, it’s music.

‘Home From Nowhere’ is currently in draft one stage, which means I’ve told myself the story on paper and now need to rest it for a few days before I return to it and a) check the mystery ties up, b) check consistency generally, c) see to as many of my typos as I can find, and d) improve, edit and cut.

Clearwater House ground floor (click to enlarge)

Meanwhile, my cover designer is working on a cover image and, to give myself a break from typing, I set about drawing a floorplan of Clearwater House. As you will see, I am no technical drawer or architect, though I based some of the details on a book I have that gives floorplans and elevations of Victorian houses – none of which fitted Clearwater House exactly. I doubt that if a house was built to my plans, it would stay up for very long! Still, I thought I would share my amateur attempt to give you an idea of how I see the house laid out (sorry about it being a bit squiffy and blotted with smudged felt-tip pen). I’ve only done the ground and first floors so far, I still have the basement and top floor to go. The shaded areas are the servant’s department, the backstairs and servery etc.

Clearwater House 1st floor plan (click to enlarge)

As for other news… Over here in Greece, the island on which I live is very quiet. We are starting to see a few tourists arrive, and we have had no cases of you-know-what, so people are worried about visitors coming from more infected countries. My husband, Neil, is working back at the bar he looks after seven afternoons per week until October, but so far, has had only local customers, while I am carrying on as usual, at home, writing. Which is what I will get back to now.

There’s no definite release date for ‘Home From Nowhere’ yet, I’ve only just let ‘Artful Deception’ out of its cage, but I am going to try and be more regular with my blog posting, so there will be updates as we head deeper into the year.

Stay safe, stay well and most of all, stay reading (and putting up helpful reviews on Amazon and social media if you possibly can).

Thank you for reading
Jackson

My Facebook page

Thank you, suzunh, for the 1st review of ‘Artful Deception’

I love this series
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020
All of them are good. Sure, they’re a little wild sometimes but they are a heck of a lot of fun. I like that the same characters return for every book and I’m excited they are going into business together. Can’t wait to read the next one.

Clearwater’s London

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Welcome to Clearwater’s London

It has been a while since I posted on my site. That’s because I was away for a while and spending much of my time working on the sixth instalment of The Clearwater Mysteries.

Book six is now going through its second draft, and it’s a bit of a belter. A twisting tale of deception as Archer battles to outwit his arch-enemy and stay one step ahead of the game. Titled, ‘Artful Deception’, this one brings back some of the more popular characters from previous books such as the barrister Creswell and young Jake, half-brother to Silas’ sisters. The action takes us from Kingsclere House in Berkshire to Clearwater House in London and on to the Netherlands where Archer has no option but to release his murderous brother and reinstate him to the title of Viscount Clearwater.

Or does he?

There will be more information about the book’s release in time.

Meanwhile, as I was passing through London earlier this year, I took some photos of locations used in the Clearwater Mysteries and thought I would share them with you. They’re not the best photos, sadly, but I thought it was a fun exercise to see places Archer and his comrades have trod. Things look very different now to 1888 and 1889 when ‘Artful Deception’ is set, but you can still feel the original Victorian grandeur of these places.

So, just for amusement, here are some of the locations I found when I was there.

The Royal Opera House where Silas nearly dies in Unspeakable Acts.

Bow Street police station opposite the Opera House. Fallen Splendour.

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square. This appears in Artful Deception.

The National Gallery

The Criterion. Now a theatre, Silas and Jake had lunch here (Piccadilly) in Bitter Bloodline.

The Ivy, Seven Dials, which in my books is called ‘The Grapevine’ at Five Dials. Archer and Quill lunched here in Deviant Desire.

The side of the Lyceum Theatre from Bitter Bloodline. Silas found Jake homeless on this street corner.

The side of the Lyceum Theatre from Bitter Bloodline. I imagined Stoker’s office was at the top/back (round window), but I have no idea where it really was in the building.

Charing Cross railway station will appear in Artful Deception

The Garrick Club, Archer’s club in Covent Garden. It is mentioned in several of the books.

This street doesn’t appear in the books, but it is called Archer Street. Perhaps it was named after the viscount? The Windmill revue theatre beside it is famous for its nude revues. Silas would have approved; Thomas would not have done!

The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge

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The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge

Over the New Year, I took a break from writing The Clearwater Mysteries and wrote ‘The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge.’ I’m not sure why it decided to pop out just then, but it did. I wrote the novel, ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge’ a couple of years ago, and for a reason I’ve yet to fathom, it did better than any of my previous releases. It still does well, I am pleased to say, and maybe it was that which inspired me to write ‘The Students…’

This novel took me back in memory to the age of seventeen/eighteen, and to the issue of what we’d now call bromance. I wanted to explore the idea of when a bromance is something more, but neither party has the way with all to admit they want the friendship to develop further because they fear rejection. The strength of young, male friendships, the intensity of them, and how it is easy to confuse platonic love of a friend for something deeper, is a theme that runs through many of my novels. Or, if not ‘easy to confuse’ then difficult to separate the feelings of being mates from the feelings of being in love and what that can lead to; self-denial, lost love, missed opportunities…

In ‘The Students…’ Liam and Casper are the two main characters, and they are pictured on the front cover. Casper is the dark-haired, Greek/English man and Liam is the blond one, both musically brilliant, both suffering doubts in their own way. They take off on a camping trip which Liam has designed because he wants to have Casper on his own to make his ‘confession’, i.e., come out. He has chosen to visit Inglestone (or, Ingleton as it is in real life) and walk up Fellborough (Ingleborough) one of the three peaks. He is also there to see the famous Ribblehead Viaduct for reason of his own which don’t become apparent until the end. However, bad weather gets in the way and leads to a life or death emergency towards the top of the fell. That’s where the characters from ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge’ come in…

John Hamilton and Gary Taylor from ‘The Mentor…’ appear in this story as the mentors of the two younger men, and as ‘The Students…’ is set two years after the first book, their lives have moved on a pace. So, if you enjoyed the first book, ‘The Mentor…’ you can continue John and Gary’s lives in this, the second in the series. You will find drama, action, adventure, mountain rescue, rock climbing, some laughs and plenty of sweet moments during the story, and who knows, there may even be a third instalment in the future.

For now, though, I am back to The Clearwater Mysteries, my most successful venture to date, and I am working on part six, with a working title of ‘Artful Deception.’ There will be more about that in due course. Meanwhile, look out for news of a blog tour for ‘The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge’, and check out my Facebook Page for more information. If you do go to the page, please give it a like, and if you do read any of the books, please give them a review.

I’ll leave you with the first review of ‘The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge’ which, when I read it, completely made my day.

What a beautiful novel… A perfect sequel to The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.
This novel tells a story of 2 people discovering more about themselves and discovering more about each other. It’s touching, exciting, filled with adventure, and will take you on the most incredible journey. The characters are so well developed it’s like you’ve known them for a long time.
Re-introducing John and Gary from the first novel was such a nice treat.
This novel is highly recommended. Another beautiful novel by Mr. Jackson Marsh.

[The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge – Amazon.com (and other Amazon outlets) Kindle, print and KU.)

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year

2019 was a busy year for me as I brought out the Clearwater Mysteries books one to five and started work on the sixth. I have put that on hold for the time being as I began work on a new Barrenmoor Ridge book in the Mentor series. I am now up to 60,000 words of that first draft, and it’s going well, I am pleased to say.

‘The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge’ is more of a coming of age story than anything else, in a way that ‘The Mentor of…’ was, but there is still love, drama, mountain rescue, a little humour and a baddy who messes things up. The two main characters from Mentor (Gary and John) are back, but whereas John mentored Gary in part one, in ‘The Students of…’ they are both mentors to the new characters. The action takes place two years after book one, in the same location and, again, in winter – but not in snow this time.

I’m aiming to have the book ready for February, after which, I will decide what comes next. Another Clearwater mystery? Another Mentor/Student sequel – possibly for Lostwood Hall or Lonemarsh House. (Unlikely to be Wildhill Farm as that was more about sexual fantasy than the mentor/student roles… Or was it?) We will have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, here’s wishing you a great New Year from over here in Greece where it’s wet and cold, 3and thank you for following me, buying the books and leaving the reviews.

[The photos are the models for the cover which Andjela K is currently working on.]

Complete list of Jackson Marsh books

Bitter Bloodline

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Bitter Bloodline

Book five in The Clearwater Mysteries series is now available on Kindle, in KU and in paperback. (Links below.)

This is the first story set at Larkspur Hall, Archer’s rambling country house in Cornwall, but even down there, the ‘crew’ are not safe from the conspiracies against them and their friends, as you will see.

 

 

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZXD5KXS

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1704638399

Remember, if you like one of my books, please do leave a review at Amazon, mention it on Facebook pages and share the news around your FB readers’ groups if you belong to any. Your support means so much! You can also follow my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/jacksonmarshauthor/

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.

Unspeakable Acts is on its way

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Unspeakable Acts is on its way

Hi

I thought it was high time I updated you with what I have been doing. Writing of course! Actually, I have been away for a week writing a block of part four of The Clearwater Mysteries (which I will tell you about in a moment). While I was doing that, my wonderful proofreader was working through Unspeakable Acts, book three in the series.

This series launched in March with Deviant Desire, and that has already become my top-selling title, outselling even the Mentor series – more or less, in the last two months alone. It is followed by Twisted Tracks, another mashup romance, adventure, mystery, historical novel, and that will soon be followed by Unspeakable Acts.

 

I don’t want to give away any spoilers of course, and it’s hard to tell you what’s happening in parts two and three without spoiling the end of part one, Deviant Desire, so you will have to bear with me. Where Deviant Desire is about the Ripper killings of East London in 1888 – but not the real killings, they were just the inspiration as my story concerns rent boys as victims – Twister Tacks saw our band of four become a band of five. Archer (Lord Clearwater), his new, younger lover, Silas, his best mate the Ukrainian hulk, Andrej (Fecker) and the lithe and lush footman, Thomas (red hair, slim body, big dick, right up my street) are joined by the new love of Thomas’ life, James. Twisted Tracks takes them to the North York Moors and a chase involving a stream train; very exciting.

My writing desk at home

Part three takes place a few weeks later. Archer is launching his Foundation to assists street boys of the East End with a gala performance at the City opera house. There’s nasty work afoot though as a villain, or villains seeks to discredit Archer and his charity, expose his homosexuality and bring the house down on his success and fortune. His team, of course, have other ideas and in this story, it’s Silas and James who take the lead, bonding as new friends and perhaps finding themselves a little more attracted to each other than their boyfriends would like. I’ll say no more, except Unspeakable Acts will be out later in June.

My writing table while I was away

I was away on a Greek island called Tilos, where I sometimes go to write away from home distractions. I live on the next island across so it’s easy to get to. While there, over my six-day stay, I managed to write the first 35,000 words of the first draft of book four. I also had to invent clues for the mystery, research Victorian railways and times and do a lot of other research. When you have only the sea view and a few tavernas for company, it’s amazing how much you can get done. Book four, Fallen Splendour is still only a quarter first-drafted, but the story is plotted. I have my nephew staying with us at present, so writing is on hold for the rest of this week. After that, Unspeakable Acts will be formatted and released, and I will get back to Fallen Splendour, aiming to have it ready for you by August or September.

My morning view ( my home island is in the distance)

Thanks for reading the blog and the books and remember, if you like what you read, please post reviews and tell everyone in Social Media groups. Thank you.

Tilos

And home again

‘Twisted Tracks’ is ready for you!

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‘Twisted Tracks’ is ready for you!

Twisted Tracks, The Clearwater Mysteries book two

Part two of The Clearwater Mysteries, this adventure sees the viscount and his band of faithful servants setting off to the Yorkshire Moors to hunt down a killer. A new footman (hunky), an old crush, devious enemies and some twisted clues lead the way to a thrilling climax.

The interesting development for me is the way the servants are fast becoming friends, not only of each other, but also of the viscount. He’s a man who wants to cross social boundaries, the trouble is, where will it all end?

There’s no end in sight as I now go back to part three ‘Unspeakable Acts’ while plotting out future developments in part four, as yet untitled, and beyond to more action/adventure, friendship and love, mashup thrillers and romance.

As with all my books, Twisted Tracks is available in Kindle and comes free with Kindle Unlimited. The print version will be available soon. Available in all Amazon stores.

Kindle: $2.99
Print $9.99

Deviant Desire Book Tour

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Deviant Desire Book Tour

Deviant Desire Jackson MarshHey! The great news is that for the next two weeks, ‘Deviant Desire’ is going to be touring around the world on various MM Romance and Gay Lit blogs. There will be a series of interviews and behind the scenes articles about the writing of this novel, the characters, the setting and background, as well as some interviews with me about writing and personal life.

The book tour runs from April 29th to May 12th, and has been arranged by Other Worlds Ink– click for their website.

The first day of the Deviant Desire book tour gets underway with four appearances on four different blogs.

Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

“Mission Statement For nearly three years, Book Review Virginia Lee has been a significant part of the book community. Our goal is to help in sharing the love for all Indie Authors and their books.”

I love Books and Stuff

“I’m a lover of anything paranormal and fantasy whether it be books, movies, pictures, etc… I love to read and wanted to share some good books and support amazing authors.”

Viscount Clearwater, previously the Honourable Archer Riddington

Those two blogs will also be of interest to anyone who wants to promote their own books, and to readers who want to widen their choice of reading.

MM Midnight Café

The title of this blog makes me think of late-night meetings with other avid MM Romance readers, gathering together in a dark café where everyone is safe and into the same reading. I notice they already have a book by Jay Northcote and other writers I have read or follow on Facebook. MM Midnight Café will be publishing a unique article from/about me and ‘Deviant Desire’, so if you want more background on the novel, there’s your starting place.

Matt Doyle Media

The Deviant Desire book tour also starts off at Matt Doyle Media. “The site is also home to a collection of various pop culture pieces. As it stands, you can find reviews, random thoughts on whatever takes my fancy, and a whole load more for you to explore.”

Silas Hawkins, street-rat and renter

The blog has a ‘newsy’ appearance and covers MM Romance, Paranormal, Mystery, Sc-If and many other genres, but all with a MM romance theme or feel.

I’m not sure which of my nine specially written articles and interviews will appear on each blog, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Some of the article titles and questions asked include:

Is Deviant Desire about Jack the Ripper?
How historically accurate is Deviant Desire?
Jackson marsh, what is your writing routine?
Jackson Marsh the mentor
This is the first in a series, what’s next?

Look out for further posts here as The Clearwater Mysteries – of which Deviant Desire is book one gets underway. I’ll post more information about other appearances over the coming days.

Deviant Desire- The Clearwater Mysteries book one
Amazon Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and print.
(Available in your local Amazon store)

Deviant, Twisted and Unspeakable

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Deviant, Twisted and Unspeakable

Twisted Tracks, The Clearwater Mysteries book two – available in May

I have the proof of ‘Twisted Tracks’ back from my proof reader but I’ve not gone through it yet. I am up to about 55,000 words on ‘Unspeakable Acts’ (The Clearwater Mysteries book three) and want to get to the end of a first draft of that one before going back to ‘Twisted’, book two. Meanwhile, book one, ‘Deviant Desire‘, has a blog tour from 29th April until 12th May (articles and interviews appearing every day on different MM Romance blogs), and I want ‘Twisted’ out around the time that ends, so there’s no rush and I have plenty of time to have it laid out.

I was really blocked for about a week on ‘Unspeakable.’ I am kind of making it up as I go, but I knew the ending. The thing was, I got to about half way and had lft myself two days to fill before the climax – the characters were saying, ‘The gala is on such and such a day’ and I was sticking to that while wondering what they would be doing during those two days while they waited. Of course, I woke up one morning and said, ‘Why make them wait? Just move the gala forward.’ The gala at the City Opera House is the climax of the thing. Once I’d realised that, I was off again, and I reckon I’ve got around 30,000 words of what’s essentially an Act Three still to go.

Deviant Desire, The Clearwater Mysteries book one – available now on Amazon, print, Kindle and KU

I expect I will go beyond that as there’s a lot of madness and mayhem to get through, and then I can go back and edit and get the job done properly. For now, I’m steaming ahead into the world of German opera (an invented composer, a contemporary of Wagner) and backstage at the Opera House, while someone of great importance has arrived unexpectedly to witness the performance, during which one of Archer’s best buddies will be killed, on stage, if he doesn’t make a speech ‘outing’ the viscount. Silas and the new footman, James, have to work out the clue as the show is running and then find a way to stop a demented boy-whore murdering Cadwell Roxton, famed countertenor, while preforming ‘Aeneas and Dido’ – a retelling of the classic take where Aeneas kills himself (rather than Dido). Anyway… All rather mad but now I am unblocked, I’m back on track. Rather ‘Twisted Tracks’, I suppose, but then, that is a good name for a story.