David P. Elliot's Blog

What a great follow up to ‘Under the Tree’: A Northland Tale, Michael T. Ashgillian’s first novel in The Northlander Series. Under the Tree was a great, primarily children’s book that could be enjoyed by adults as well, but The Fairey Flag takes the reader to a darker place as the heroes from the first novel are recalled to the Northlands to face a growing evil that threatens to engulf the beautiful lands as the evil Tseth, Queen of Hel, marshalls her dark forces to enslave the inhabitants. The story is also, at 302 pages, a full length read, whereas the first book was novella length. As a consequence this tale will appeal to older children and adults alike. If the first two are anything to go by, the next 8 which apparently are already drafted are going to be unmissable! I am already a fan of the Northland Tales. Recommended.

An article that appeared recently in the ‘inBusiness Magazine’ of the Oxford Times (15th August 2013) explains how an author can become a publisher without really trying – all you need is a desire not to be pigeon-holed by Trade Publishers and a desire not to be ripped off by self-publishing companies – Oh yes – and most importantly a love of books and reading that is not entirely driven by cash! Go to Page 27 for the story of ‘A Man with a Clan.’

In Business Magazine

WALLACE: For Freedom Alone!Due out on the 2nd September, the first in the great trilogy about Scotland’s greatest hero William Wallace by E.G, Spitzer has been translated into English by Monika J Becker and edited by David P Elliot (author of ‘Clan’, ‘The Gathering’ etc.) under the title of ‘WALLACE: For Freedom Alone’.

Published by Red Cap Publishing the book can be pre-ordered at £7.99 a saving of £2.00 on the retail price following the launch.

‘WALLACE: For Freedom Alone’ is the English language translation of the first part of the trilogy written by E. G. Spitzer of the legendary battle of the

hopelessly outnumbered Sir William Wallace, Chieftain of Ellerslie, against the English occupying power for the freedom of his beloved Scotland.

In the year of our Lord 1307, John Wallace, on the eve of his execution, is telling his own life story, and that of his brother William.

Scotland lies defeated at the feet of the English king, whilst marauding English soldiers rob, loot and set fire to anything that is left.

The Scottish nation is starving, dying and has given up.

Meanwhile, the path of the young William Wallace seems sketched out. As the second-born of the family he was traditionally destined to have a career as a priest and scholar.

Yet fate had very different plans for him …

The book is a fact based fictional account using the latest historical findings and tells the remarkable story of William Wallace’s real and furious assault to free his nation – for freedom alone.

Order now from Red Cap Books to be sure of being one of the first to own this exciting new take on the incredible story of William Wallace.

There will be two further titles on the trilogy to follow.

Two more reviews of ‘The Gathering’ by David P Elliot – the sequel to his novel ‘Clan’

Review



‘Like the other reviewers I have been desperately waiting for the sequel to Clan to be brought out. I bought it and made sure I had a weekend with nothing booked so as to make sure I could read it from beginning to end with no interruptions as I had found that Clan was a “could not be put down” book. I have to be honest – I was not disappointed, I could not put it down as the book is such an excellent page turner. I was hooked from page one, the story flows so well and has subtle references to Clan but does not over repeat the original story as I find some books do, which can spoil a good read. the twists and turns kept it exciting and I was not expecting such a good ending, I was kept guessing until the very end as to the finale and I cannot wait to reread it again as I always do with excellent books.

David, Keep up the excellent work and I cannot wait for the next book to appear – please don’t keep me waiting too long – I don’t think I could bear it!!’

Review

‘Like one of the other reviewers, I waited somewhat impatiently for this book, having read Clan more or less as soon as it came out. Hence the waiting period was not insignificant! I was just not sure at all what to expect by way of the follow up to Clan – what was there to write about? David captured my attention very quickly and, as with Clan, the book was never far from me. I needed to keep reading it to find out how things were going to be resolved. I was totally gripped! I am not sure if there could possibly be a 3rd book in this series, but if there ever is, I shall certainly be reading it!’

Available now from Red Cap Books

‘The Gathering’ – The long awaited sequel to the International best seller ‘Clan’ from David P Elliot has launched and all pre-orders have been despatched and will be landing on your doormats any day now if it hasn’t already.

You can order your copy at Red Cap Books and if you haven’t read ‘Clan’ you can get that there too!

It is also available from all major book outlets and in e-book formats.

The Gathering

’28 years after a young child is rescued from a supernatural attack the nightmares have begun.

Are these simply childhood memories emerging from somewhere buried deep in his subconscious? Or has the Evil really returned to attack him once more?

In David P Elliot’s sequel to his historical supernatural thriller ‘Clan’, Thomas Ralstone needs to turn again to his family to understand what is happening and why a Russian mercenary is stalking him and seems determined to return him to the scene of his childhood nightmares in the Borders of Scotland and the dark brooding menace of Hermitage Castle where it seems a 700 year old curse is once again unravelling to threaten him.’

Below is the Prologue for ‘The Gathering’ the sequel to ‘Clan’ by David P Elliot – paperback due for launch 30th June 2013 – e-book versions already available!

Prologue

February 2007 – Branxholme, Roxburghshire, Scotland

‘So where is he?’

Susan Coltrane’s usually fine features showed untypical signs of tiredness, the dark rings below her eyes attesting to the sleepless night she had endured following the horrific events of the previous night.

She studied Sir Ronald Robertson, who suddenly looked older than his 70 plus years and she noticed his hands were shaking as his thin, bony fingers clasped the large crystal whisky tumbler, the deep amber liquid trembling as he shook.

She had never seen him drinking at this hour of the morning or witnessed his usual practiced elegance and courtesy to slip.

She looked around at the others. Clemenza, the short and stocky dark-haired Columbian, was standing looking out of the huge window across the manicured lawns of Branxholme. Stefan Erikson, the naturalised American ex-Swede sat in a comfortable armchair, sipping espresso, and the young Russian Vladimir Romanski was pacing up and down, nervously wringing his hands, obviously still traumatised by the vivid memory of his father’s slaughter the night before.

The group seemed happy to leave Susan to question Robertson.

He took a deep swallow before answering. ‘I have no idea where he is now. He left to pick up Soulis early this morning, as you know. He didn’t tell me where, originally, but he phoned me later to tell me he was out at a place called Hermitage Castle and he seemed shocked to find the place overrun by police.’

‘So he was meeting Soulis at this Hermitage Castle? Where the hell is that?’

Robinson continued to stare into his glass as he carried on. ‘It’s a derelict castle, 30 minutes or so from here, outside a place called Newcastleton. I have no idea if or why they were meeting there. Andrea seemed very upset when he called me. He wanted me to find out what the police were doing there. He then apparently left Hermitage and went to a hotel in Newcastleton called The Grapes. He called me from there and wanted me to use my connections at the Home Office to find out what was going on at Hermitage. I spoke to a contact of mine. He telephoned the Chief Constable to find out.’

‘I’m not sure I like the idea that the police are involved in our business.’ Clemenza spoke without turning from the window as he pulled on a large Cuban cigar, blowing blue smoke in a steady stream and watching it disperse against the glass of the window.

‘We have no reason to believe they know anything about us.’ Robertson responded, ‘my contact at the Home Office told the Chief Constable it was a security matter, there was no need for him to mention any of us.’

‘Nevertheless….’ Clemenza responded, leaving the statement hanging in the air.

Robertson continued: ‘It seems there was some kind of investigation into some local murders. Some police officers and a couple of civilians were killed. It appears just a coincidence that their investigations took them to just the place where Andrea had arranged to meet Soulis.’

‘I do not believe in coincidence,’ Clemenza responded, ‘and any involvement with the police is unhelpful. So where the hell is Dettori now?’

‘I don’t know,’ Robertson replied, his voice pitching higher with frustration. ‘As far as I can tell, he met with the investigating officer, a Superintendent Munroe, and went back up to Hermitage with him. I could question the Superintendent more, but as far as I can tell, Dettori disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. It seems something odd happened up at the Castle. Dettori’s disappearance was, on the face of it, the least surprising element.’

‘Surprising? What do you mean surprising?’ Clemenza turned to face Susan and Robertson, ‘What I call surprising is what I witnessed last night. What were those creatures? I have never seen slaughter like that. They tore Romanski to pieces, what could be more surprising than that!’ He spat out the words, his face colouring with anger.

‘I mean, it seems there was some kind of mass hallucination up at the castle, apparently strange warriors were seen, horses, children – it doesn’t make any sense; the police seem to be loathe to talk about it.’ Robertson had a real tremor in his voice as he took another swallow of the whisky.

‘Look, none of us understand what happened last night, but we have to remain calm, consider what we do next. There is too much at stake for us to panic now.’ Susan placed a hand on Robertson’s arm, gently trying to calm his shaking.

She looked at her colleagues in the highly secretive Soulis Foundation. Only two of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees were absent: Andrea Dettori and William Soulis after whom the Foundation was named. Oddly, only Dettori had ever met Soulis and of course now Dettori was missing.

‘I don’t like this,’ she eventually said, ‘I agree with Clemenza. The police involvement is, shall we say, unfortunate. I think we should leave here as soon as possible. We can let Ronald here make discreet enquiries. In the meantime, I think, the further we all are from here and from each other the better. The Soulis Foundation pretty much runs itself, as far as I can see, and we all run our own parts of it as well as our own businesses. I think we should leave Ronald to look into this, and in the meantime wait to see if Dettori contacts us. Once we know what has happened here, we can consider the future of the Foundation. In the meantime, I think we should not meet again until we have a clearer idea of what we are dealing with. Agreed?’

Her colleagues nodded in turn.

‘Ronald, let’s stay in touch and if everyone is okay with it, I will take responsibility for keeping everyone updated. The less individual contact we have, the less likely we are to be associated with each other’.

Within an hour a procession of black Mercedes limousines with darkened windows crunched to a halt on the wide gravel drive at the front of Branxholme and the colleagues took their leave of each other at the front of the house, each leaving in separate cars.

As Clemenza leaned forward to kiss Susan Coltrane on the cheek, they both looked at the young Russian, Vladimir Romanski, as he climbed into the back of one of the Mercedes. The thin and dishevelled young man was still visibly shaking.

‘Watch him,’ Clemenza said quietly into Susan’s ear. ‘Watch him, he’s the weak link here.’

As the limousines swept out of the driveway, servants hurried out of the front door, carrying luggage which was quickly loaded into a van to be taken to the airport and sent on to the various locations the Foundation members called home.

Susan’s car was the last to leave and she turned in the comfortable rear seat to look back at the imposing edifice that was Branxholme, a double towered castle in the heart of the Scottish Borders, a few miles from the town of Hawick. At a small window at the very top of the tower to the left of the main entrance she thought, for a second, that she saw a small grey face with black soulless eyes and vicious yellow teeth. On its head was a foul-looking, matted dark-red cap. She closed her eyes tightly and then she opened them again and refocused. If there had been anything at the window, it was no longer there.

She shuddered uncontrollably as her mind returned to the horror of the night before. Had she stared into the eyes of a Red Cap? Or was her mind playing tricks on her? Was she so traumatised that she was hallucinating?

As the dust from the gravel drive rose in a cloud behind the limousine, obscuring the receding building in its manicured grounds, she turned to face forward again, tears flowing down her cheeks. She pressed a button to close the tinted screen that hid her obvious distress from her driver and she stared at her tear-streaked reflection in the glass panel before her.

The new title ‘Clan’ by David P Elliot from author David P Elliot, ‘The Gathering’ is due out at the end of June. ‘The Gathering’ is a sequel to his novel ‘Clan’ that has sold in 16 countries and has also been translated into German.

If you have not read ‘Clan’ yet, there is a special deal available immediately for anyone who would like to read it – it is half price here for a limited time – so if you want to get ahead of the game and enhance your enjoyment of ‘The Gathering’ you might like to take advantage of this half price offer from Red Cap Books!

‘The Gathering’ is the sequel to the international best seller ‘Clan’ from author David P Elliot and is now available for download on Kindle from Amazon.

Other non-Kindle format versions are available from Smashwords and will shortly be available from your chosen online store (Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble & etc.)

The paperback version can be pre-ordered at Red Cap Books at discounted prices along with special deals on ‘Clan’ if you haven’t already read it.

‘The Gathering’ if pre-ordered will be delivered after the official launch of the paperback version from the 30th June 2013.

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington

chemistry mid-term.

The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it

with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have

the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic

(absorbs heat)?



Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law -

(gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some

variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we

need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate

at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a

soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different

religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state

that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.

Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not

belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to

Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number

of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of

change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order

for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of

Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls

enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase

until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in

Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes

over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year

that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take

into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two

must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already

frozen over.

The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it

follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore,

extinct…..

leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being

which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

Years ago I used to drink in a wonderful pub and restaurant on the Thames, in Pangbourne. The pub is still there, but it is not quite so lovely I’m afraid as it got “done up” as they say, and turned into one of those soulless eateries where everything comes frozen off the back of a lorry and the only equipment you find in the kitchen is a microwave and a chip pan!

However, I remember several drinking sessions in the place in the 70’s (when I first saw ‘Life on Mars’ I thought it was a documentary!) one particularly spectacular one when I was a Detective Constable and I called in for “a quick one” with a good friend, Bill, my then Detective Sergeant.

The session started normally enough with, a few beers, and then out of boredom we rather foolishly decided to invent a new drink.

We used great logic to come up with various combinations, finally settling on a drink based on the classic “Black Velvet” which is, to the uninitiated, a combination of Guinness and champagne.

Instead of Guinness, however we used a bottle of an extremely potent stout called “Imperial Russian Stout” which has a similar specific gravity to Barley Wine, about 9.5% proof. To replace the champagne, we used something called Moussec, which was a ‘ladies drink’ (we had those in the 70s) and came in little bottles – it was imported and made in the UK from champagne grapes and was 21% proof!

We even gave it a name, we called it ‘Imperial Russian Velvet’.

So what had we got to lose?

Well I lost my wallet and three days and Bill’s wife didn’t speak to me for weeks.

So, you’re asking – what has all this got to do with love?

Well, framed on the wall of that pub was the loveliest love poem I have ever read – it still brings a tear to the eye when I think of it, it went (from memory):

Love

The beautiful love of a fair young maid,

And the love of a staunch true man.

The love of a baby unafraid,

Have existed since time began.

But the greatest love,

The perfect love,

Much greater than that of a Mother.

Is the infinite, timeless, endless love,

Of one drunken sod for another.

Anon.

Ain’t that the truth?