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2015/09/22

The Princelings of the East by Jemima Pett

BOOK INFORMATION

TITLE – The Princelings of the East SERIES – The Princelings of the East AUTHOR – Jemima Pett GENRE – MG/Fantasy/Scifi PUBLICATION DATE – November 2011 (paperback June 2015) LENGTH – 158 Pages/ 37,300 Words PUBLISHER – Princelings Publications COVER ARTIST – Danielle English


BOOK SYNOPSIS

The Princelings of the East is an adventure set in a world of labyrinthine castles, bustling inns, and the curious Isle of Hattan.
Princelings George and Fred leave the security of their isolated castle to solve the problem of the Great Energy Drain, meeting the dubious businessman Hugo, the young barkeeper Victor, the impressive Prince of Buckmore, and other movers and shakers. Who should these two innocents trust? Their wits and teach other, for sure, but when something comes between them, each is left to his own devices, and some of those devices are very strange indeed – and time is of the essence.
The Princelings of the East is the start of a saga where friendship and intelligence are rewarded, even in the face of treachery and deceit.


 

 

 

 

 

EXCERPT

Fred sat staring at the tunnel, lost in thought. George waited. This might take a while. He could hear soft sounds of crackling flames in the fire on the other side of the wall, and in the distance the occasional pitter-patter of footsteps echoing down the corridors. He wondered what would happen if they ventured out of this castle into the tunnels. When he had been out in the marshes, he’d never gone a long way from home; the castle was always visible in the distance, light glinting on its spires. He’d never been out overnight, either. He identified a strange feeling inside him. They might be on the edge of a Great Adventure, but he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t rather be safely tucked up in bed. Fred stirred. “We need to go and investigate this Great Energy Drain,” he said. “We must find out whether it is a widespread phenomenon, and whether the causes are known.” George nodded; this was elementary procedure for an investigation. “And then?” he asked. “And then,” answered Fred, “we shall come up with some ideas for how to solve it.” “Good idea!” said George, knowing that you can never know exactly how you are going to do something until you have made the preliminary investigation and tested out a few theories. But the aim was set, and all they had to do now was decide... to go or not to go?

BUY & TBR LINKS


Today I have the honor to interview the author Jemima Pett
Did you format your own book? Yes, both because I'm something of a control freak and because it's not difficult. I've been preparing reports and papers for publication for years, and as long as you don't need anything too fancy (and you don't unless you've got equations in your text, which can be nightmares), just use simple styles like heading and normal, and leave it plain so the publishing software has nothing to muck up! There is a difference here between ebooks and paperback versions, but do the basic for the ebook, then play with it for the print version if you really want to, but use styles, it's safer.

What do you think of “trailers” for books? I was wondering about whether I should be doing them, and asked a question at a publishing conference about them. The advice there was: if you've got the technology and you know what you're doing, fine, but no trailer is better than a bad one – and don't spend money on them. I don't usually look at book trailers, so I'm not a good judge of them, but I'd rather just read the blurb – and the cover, which is very important. It may depend on your genre.

What are your ambitions for your writing career? To be an author that people like reading. I don't want to be famous, but I'd like to be well-enough-known to be asked to suitable events, on panels or something like that. Basically, I want to know that people are reading and enjoying my books.

What is your favorite motivational phrase? Keep calm and carry on

Did you get interviewed by local press/radio for your book launch? No, although I did send a press release. I've sort of forgotten about that, thanks for reminding me.

Do you have a muse? Originally, it was my guinea pigs, Fred and George, who were my muse(s) for the Princelings trilogy. Then the characters took over and demanded more storylines, so the books continued.

During you do book signings and if so do you have any dates coming up soon that your fans can come see you at? In the enormously competitive writing world that is my little corner of England, it's very difficult for independent authors to get into bookstores. I know one store that is sympathetic, and now I have the series in paperback, I'm planning to approach them. Any dates will be on my blog or the books' website, so follow me and you'll hear all about them!

How did you come up with the title? You know, it's so long ago (2008) that I have no idea! Once I came up with Princelings of the East, I followed it up with Princelings and the Pirates and Princelings of the Lost City as a series, rather than planning the plot then giving it a title. I wanted to do a trilogy, and thought a pirate adventure and a lost city would be interesting and give me plenty of scope. Little did I realise at the time, that it would be the characters who wrote the story. They often surprise me by doing things I hadn't planned for them. It makes the story twist in a very interesting way – for me, at any rate. I usually end up wondering how they are going to get out of their mess, but then, they use their initiative or a friend comes to the rescue...

It has been an honor interviewing you today.

Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure – and made me think a lot, too! Jemima Your friends at Here is what I read


AUTHOR BIO

I’ve been writing since I was 8 years old. I still have a small booklet I found in my mother’s box of treasures, written in a very childish hand, entitled The Little Stream. It reads very much like the story of Smetana’s Vltava, or The Moldau as it was called when I was young, so I must have been into classical music at an early age (I blame my brothers’ influence). My early fiction attempts failed for want of suitable inspiration: I couldn’t get characters or plot that seemed interesting, and my first attempts were derided by a ‘friend’. I had the bug for writing, though, and wrote articles and event reports for newsletters and magazines whenever I got the opportunity. My career in business and in environmental research kept me chained to a desk for many years, but also gave me the opportunity to write manuals, reports, science papers, blogs, journals, anything and everything that kept the words flowing. Finally the characters jumped into my head with stories that needed to be told….
I now live in a village in Norfolk, UK, with my guinea pigs, the first of whom, Fred, George, Victor and Hugo, provided the inspiration for the Princelings stories.

AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS


GIVEAWAY PRIZES

1 x $25 gift card/PayPal cash (paypal cash is much easier for me to deliver) 1 x set of the six Princelings of the East paperbacks 5 x 1 signed print of a chapter illustration of the winner's choice (approx. half letter-sized/A5, unmounted)

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES


TITLE – The Princelings and the Pirates SERIES – The Princelings of the East AUTHOR – Jemima Pett GENRE – MG/Fantasy/Scifi PUBLICATION DATE – January 2012 (paperback June 2015) LENGTH – Pages 181 / Words 39,000 PUBLISHER – Princelings Publications COVER ARTIST – Danielle English

BOOK SYNOPSIS

The second book of the Princelings of the East series shows our heroes, Princelings Fred and George, enjoying life with their inventions at Castle Buckmore. Oblivious to the kidnap of a princess from Chateau Dimerie, they are despatched there by Prince Lupin to discover why the wine hasn't been delivered and solve the case of the missing messengers.
What follows is the stuff of nightmares. Captured by pirates, sent off on different ships, Fred endures hardship and shipwreck while George has a dangerous night escape. They discover treachery at their home castle, and lead the people they have rescued to safety, only to end up fighting for their lives in the Battle of Dimerie.

EXCERPT

“Right, you lubbers!” said the black guy. “My name’s Frankie and if you know what’s good for you you’ll listen hard, work hard and keep your mouths shut.”
He passed round eight bits of stale biscuit and a bucket of fairly clean water and a scoop. They each took a drink, and some of them nibbled the biscuit. George found his stomach settled down a bit, and tried to see whether Fred and Victor were among the party in the darkness. He rather thought they weren’t, and frowned. The haughty guy refused the biscuit, saying it was disgusting, and one of the other guys took it off him, and wolfed it down.
Frankie waited for them to recover their senses a bit more, then started talking again.
“You are now aboard the Golden Guinea, the prettiest barque that ever sailed the seven seas. You will do as you are told, you will work hard, and if you don’t, you will walk the plank. That means you will find yourself swimming, possibly in shark infested waters, a thousand miles from the nearest land. You won’t last long.” And he laughed again. It was not a pleasant laugh.

BUY & TBR LINKS


TITLE – The Princelings and the Lost City SERIES – The Princelings of the East AUTHOR – Jemima Pett GENRE – MG/Fantasy/scifi PUBLICATION DATE – May 2012 (paperback June 2015) LENGTH – Pages 270 / Words 58,600 PUBLISHER – Princelings Publications COVER ARTIST – Danielle English

BOOK SYNOPSIS

Book 3 in the Princelings of the East series is the completion of the trilogy. A mystery is uncovered in the Prologue (which is unravelled in Book 5), then the story moves to more familiar territory as our heroes, Princelings Fred and George, wait at Castle Buckmore for the arrival of Princess Kira from Dimerie in a flying machine. George's power plant invention is overtaken by his enthusiasm for flying, but Fred is upset by Kira's strange behavious after the visit a legendary 'lost' castle in the middle of a forest.
What is the secret of the Lost City? Are the old wives' tales, of a civilisation ruled by females where no male dare set foot, true after all? Will Fred and his friend escape with their lives? How many times can Princess Kira be kidnapped in one story? The path of true love runs anything but smoothly in this tale of love, bravery, cruelty and loss.

EXCERPT

A strange noise crept into their consciousness, a sort of buzzing. It changed tone, skipped a beat and sometimes stopped altogether. The princelings looked out, straining to see what was making the noise. Fred stared down the road as far as the bridge; George gazed up into the sky as if he was dreaming.
“There ….there..they..ther….” he stuttered and pointed for Fred to locate.
“What?” said Fred, following the direction and wondering why he was pointing into the sky. There was some sort of bird flying towards them.
“I w-wond-ered … a ffly-ing ma-ma-sheen.” In his excitement, George was having trouble getting any words out at all. He slipped off the window seat and went over to a pile of papers beside his bed. He selected one near the top of the pile and brought it back to Fred.
“M. Bleriot demonstrates flying machine at Fortune,” read the headline. Underneath was a picture of a very dashing French person with a helmet and goggles standing next to a funny tube with two boards sticking out of it on either side.
Fred glanced at it, held it close to look at the machine in more detail and dropped the paper to look at the sky. A very similar machine was now approaching the last stretch of road before it turned to come into the castle itself.
“Oh my goodness,” said Fred, his eyes wide in panic. “She’ll be killed!”

BUY & TBR LINKS


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2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for hosting me here today. I really enjoyed the interview and I hope your readers do too!

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  2. Thank you for the wonderful interview and for participating in the Tour. Victoria at My Family's Heart

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