The cover for author Nicholas J. Ambrose’s upcoming release, book 2 of the Ruby Celeste series, “Ruby Celeste and the Dire Kraken”.

Look for it coming soon to print and ebook!

*****

BLURB: Captained by Morris Flute, the two-man trade ship Exceptional Luck has lived up to its name—at least until coming under attack in a sprawling floating rainforest. In his last moments, Flute desperately fights to drop a beacon—and then something streaks from the abyss and his world turns black.

Meanwhile, on the Harbinger, Ruby Celeste’s crew are enjoying the height of summer. All except for Francis, who finds himself victimised by the awkward pursuit of Brie Channing, one of the ship’s night-shift technicians. It is her he thinks has woken him one morning; but instead he finds a drone affixed to his window, issuing a brief distress call.

The drone leads to an abandoned weather station and its sole remaining inhabitant, Tesla Wong, who tells of the Exceptional Luck’s beacon. Allured by the promise of rare gemstones, Ruby decides to investigate. Now she and her crew press forward in search of the downed trade ship and its lost cargo. But the Exceptional Luck’s last details were scant, and neither Ruby nor her crew know they are flying straight into danger, destined for conflict with a terrifying beast: the dire kraken.

The Print Edition:

Keep an eye out for a post on the covers for Book 1 and 3!

Writer Alan Wilkinson asked me to redo the cover of his novel “The Red House on The Niobrara” using images from his time there.

Watch for the change over coming soon to print and ebook!

BLURB: This is a lavishly illustrated narrative that takes you right to the heart of the Great Plains landscape. Fascinated by the writing of Mari Sandoz (1896-1966), British writer Alan Wilkinson had visited her home state a dozen times over twenty years. He read a great deal about the early days on the Nebraska frontier, but wanted to know more. What would it be like to live on the western Great Plains for a season? Could he still get a sense of what those pioneers went through, a century ago?

When a ranching couple offered him the use of an hundred-year-old hunting lodge, built by settlers on the banks of the Niobrara river, he shook hands on the deal before they could change their minds.

The week after he moved in he was hit by an April blizzard. A month later his road was washed away by a thunderstorm. Determined to act out a part of the pioneer experience, he planted a garden. The first was wiped out by hailstones, the second by grasshoppers. He spent the spring and summer hiking the hills, exploring the riverside and digging into the history of the Danish immigrants who graduated from a dug-out to a sodhouse, then built the little red house that was now his home. He socialised with local ranchers, hit the bars and the rodeo, rode the range with Department of Agriculture surveyors, worked on the spring round-up and cut hay. In between he re-considered the life and work of his heroine, Mari Sandoz, re-visiting what remains of her home and camping out at her gravesite.

This is a thoughtful work, a lyrical appreciation of place that remains firmly rooted in the author’s elemental relationship with a unique landscape, one peopled with a cast of genuine western characters, living and dead.

The Print Edition (minus back text)