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The Writers' Cooperative

Jana Petken

Today I’m delighted to welcome award winning author Jana Petken to my website. Jana recently won the silver medal at the Readers’ Favourites Awards. Jana writes wonderful historical novels with strong characters and a great sense of time and place. Her books are top quality and an excellent read.

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Q + A

Tell me about your past careers.

I joined the (British) Royal Navy at the age of seventeen. I was a leading Naval Policewoman, equivalent to a sergeant in the Military Police. After the Navy, I went to work for a travel company as an overseas representative. During the first Gulf War I was a security guard at the BBC World Service radio station. After I left the BBC, I spent twelve years as a bodyguard for a Saudi Princess.

My final career outside the house was with British Airways. I was a cabin crew member on the worldwide fleet, which allowed me to travel extensively to every corner of the world, at least two or three times. Unfortunately, I had an accident on board a flight. The aircraft, a Boeing 747, was flying at 39,000 feet above Africa when it was caught in clear-air turbulence. As the plane dropped my body flew upward causing my head to hit the cabin’s ceiling. As a result of this accident, I have had three major operations on my spinal cord and am now retired. I missed the busy and interesting experiences that my job had brought me, thus turning my attention to writing.

I’ve lived in so many countries, I’m dizzy. I’m a jack of all trades but master of none. I’ve made so many mistakes in life that I often wonder how I managed to survive all these years – But, I feel blessed to be able to call writing, my last stand. Long may it last x

Why historical fiction?

I can still picture the day my passion for history was ignited. I was a little girl, sitting with my mum in a cinema watching a re-run of, Gone With the Wind. Whether it was the costumes, dialogue, accents, or horses that caught my attention, I don’t know, but that was the moment my love affair with the past began.

Do you stick to the same historical period, and do you have a formula?

No. I don’t really have a favourite historical period, or event. I’m a Gemini, and as changeable as the weather. It will be impossible for me to cover all the historical periods that I would like to write about, in my lifetime, but I’ll get through as many as possible, because I want to share as many historical stories as I can. There’s an old saying: We are only passing through. That’s so true when you think about thousands of years, full of historical events that we can only read about.

When choosing my books’ themes, I think about where I’d like to be and what I’d like to be involved in. When I write, I see, feel, and go with gut feelings. I enjoy the journey, and rarely plan ahead. There are no outlines, notes, or list of characters. My preparation is negligible, and I rarely follow rules. Right or wrong, this is my method, and I guess I’ll continue adhere to the proverbial saying, ‘going with my flow.’

Reviews

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The Guardian of Secrets

“An epic in every sense, The Guardian of Secrets is War and Peace for a new generation. Jana Petken is a natural storyteller and in The Guardian of Secrets she weaves an engrossing, passionate tale of family life, of love, of betrayal, of war and redemption. These are classic themes and they are combined here to produce a classic tale in the finest traditions of historical fiction.”

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Dark Shadows: Mercy Carver Series

“Dark Shadows, is the first five-star book in Jana Petken’s exciting Mercy Carver series. This meticulously crafted and riveting tale had me captivated from the very first page.”

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Blood Moon: Mercy Carver, Book Two

“The author did a fantastic job weaving this story. I admit I was surprised at some twist and turns. Many times, I found myself holding my breath!”

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The Errant Flock

“A glorious read, I was totally captivated by this story. Her descriptions of the people, the country and the history put me right in the picture and I couldn’t put it down. She is a great storyteller with lots of depth to her writing.”

Links

Amazon page
http://www.amazon.com/Jana-Petken/e/B00I2WAUVC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1447360579&sr=8-1

Twitter @AuthoJana

FB https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJanaPetken/

Website
http://janapetkenauthor.com/

Categories
Sam Smith Mystery Series

The Hermit of Hisarya Pre-order

The eBook version of The Hermit of Hisarya is now available for pre-order from Amazon at the special price of $0.99/£0.99. The eBook will be published in December with print and audio book versions to follow in the New Year. Please follow this link for details.

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Some people will stop at nothing in their pursuit of wealth and power. Indeed, the greedy will often resort to murder.

“You’ve been through a stressful time recently,” my fiance, Dr Alan Storey said. “I’m off to Bulgaria to attend a psychology conference so why don’t you accompany me and we’ll throw in a holiday as well.”

Great idea, I thought. However, when I arrived in Bulgaria my inquisitive nature compelled me towards a mystery dating back to the Second World War. That mystery involved Emil Angelov, the Hermit of Hisarya. As I delved into the past I stirred up some ghosts, which led to murder and the prospect of spending the rest of my days in a Bulgarian gaol.

The Hermit of Hisarya – a story of corruption, of murder, of a woman and her seventy-year-old dream, offering proof that the past, the present and the future are all intrinsically entwined.

Categories
Sam Smith Mystery Series

Five Star Review

A Five Star Review for Ripper on Amazon

Ripper: A Sam Smith Mystery (The Sam Smith Mystery Series Book 4) by Hannah Howe is a well-paced engrossing, smartly-written read that is set in Wales with 33-year-old protagonist Sam Smith operating an inquiry agency. The story opens with a friend/client of Sam’s Julie, who works the streets, asking for her help in locating another call girl, Faye, who’s gone missing. Faye’s mother is rich which immediately introduces the question of why would the daughter of a wealthy woman who lives in a millionaire mansion be working the streets. Sam sets out to find Faye and the answer to that question. After visiting with Faye’s mother she obtains an address for Faye and the search begins. Referenced in the beginning pages is a murderer Cardiff Jack who is making it unsafe on the street. The intrigue is there, the plot is set, and the story is off to a great start. I particularly liked how we learned that Sam was a woman with a comment about a skirt she was wearing. We know for sure when we get to the chapter where she’s having a birthday dinner with her finance Dr. Alan Storey. Clever writing. And I love her cat, Marlowe who lives in her office.

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Sam follows the clues, which take her to Faye’s apartment in a ghetto neighborhood. There she runs into Faye’s pimp Blade, a threatening obnoxious man. While there she notices a name & address written on a pad of paper. It takes her to Mark Richmonds, a successful businessman and client of Faye’s. No leads have turned up anything of value as to Faye’s whereabouts and the plot thickens with the tension of a missing woman.

The story moves into a dinner scene with Alan, Sam’s fiancé (a psychologist) and the dialogue deepens with talk of psychological reasoning for why a women, especially from wealthy means, would become a call girl. Alan’s profession adds to the storyline later when Sam asks him to profile a serial killer. I particularly liked the dialogue about the difference between a psycho and sociopath, which served to deepen the characterization of the plot’s villain.

The story moves on and Sam goes out in the night looking for Faye. She senses she is being followed and there’s a creepy air flying off the page, wondering if it could be Cardiff Jack. It turns out to be a man named Mac, hired by Alan to protect her. She had been involved in a shooting altercation in her office at an earlier time and Alan wanted her protected. Mac’s character is well written and brings balance to the fear factor in the story, at times adding humor with how he tries to “reason” with Blade to get lost. He effectively makes his point.

As the tension is building Sam finds Faye and they go out in the night to look for Julie. It is here when a horrible traumatic shocking event occurs (no spoilers here) and the tone of the story, the intensity picks up to a pressure cooker tension. New clues and characters are cleverly introduced keeping the reader guessing as to who is Cardiff Jack and how does this all end.

Without retelling the rest of the story suffice it to say it continued to be mysterious, tense, riveting, and well written with unexpected turns right up to the end. I’m glad I happened upon this book. It did not disappoint.