Authors who help Authors: Mary Anne Yarde & The Coffee Pot Book Club

This week in the mini-series about supportive authors, I'm delighted to welcome Mary Anne Yarde, founder of the Coffee Pot Book Club:

AW: Welcome Mary Anne! Firstly may I ask what inspired you to set up the Coffee Pot Book Club and how does it work?

MAY: The Coffee Pot Book Club (formally Myths, Legends, Books, and Coffee Pots) was founded in 2015. I wanted to create a platform that would help Historical Fiction, Historical Romance and Historical Fantasy authors promote their books and find that sometimes elusive audience. The Coffee Pot Book Club soon became the place for readers to meet new authors (both traditionally published and independently) and discover their fabulous books.

I became a professional editorial reviewer in 2016, and by 2017 I became an influencer for the Historical Fiction genre. Since then, The Coffee Pot Book Club has grown from strength to strength. With a dedicated team, The Coffee Pot Book Club helps their clients get their books in front of the right audience. We offer everything from Editorial Reviews to Instagram Weekends, Tweet Blasts to Blog Tours. We also bring our clients exclusive deals from other book marketing companies such as BooksGoSocial, Readers’ Favorite and MockupShots. All of our promotions are affordable and there is something for every budget. 

AW: Sounds like a comprehensive service! Can you explain a little more about blog tours - how do they work and how do they help authors? 

MAY: With the age of the internet and modern technology, the way books are marketed is changing. Unlike conventional book tours, a blog tour is a virtual tour on a number of relevant blogs. Virtual tours are a fabulous way to get your book in front of the audience you want to target.

We are slightly different from other tour companies because we will promote each tour stop through our own social media networks - Twitter, #Bookstagram (Instagram), Facebook, LinkedIn and Goodreads. The focus of all our tour is for our clients to gain exposure and to help build a fan base.

AW: Of course, you are also a writer of an acclaimed series of books. Can you tell us a little about them, and do you have anything in the pipeline? 

MAY: The Du Lac Chronicles are a series of books based on the generation after King Arthur, following the lives of Lancelot Du Lac’s sons. What was originally meant as a trilogy is currently sitting at five books and the story is not yet complete. I have always been fascinated with this era of history and started writing the series many years ago, with several stories that never saw the light of day. The Du Lac Chronicles was finally published in 2016 and the books continued from there, with characters that hadn’t been in the original plans making their ways into the story and creating integral roles for themselves.

I am currently taking a break from writing, due to the popularity of The Coffee Pot Book Club and the time demands that it puts upon me. Therefore, unfortunately, I do not have any plans to publish this year, for book six has barely begun, and the story deserves not to be rushed.

AW: Thanks so much for talking to me today!

You can find out more about The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour Packages here: https://www.coffeepotbookclub.com/blog-tours

If you have any questions about any of our tour packages, drop us a line: https://www.coffeepotbookclub.com/contact

The Coffee Pot Book Club is always on the lookout for hosts to join our Blog Tour Team. If you would like to become a host, then please drop us a link:

https://www.coffeepotbookclub.com/contact

The Du Lac Chronicles Buy Links

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Du-Lac-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B01CDK2MK0

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Du-Lac-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B01CDK2MK0

  

Mary Anne Yarde is a multi award -winning author of the international bestselling Series—The Du Lac Chronicles. Born in Bath, England, Mary Anne Yarde grew up in the southwest of England, surrounded and influenced by centuries of history and mythology. Glastonbury—the fabled Isle of Avalon—was a mere fifteen-minute drive from her home, and tales of King Arthur and his knights were part of her childhood.

Links

The Coffee Pot Book Club Website: https://www.coffeepotbookclub.com/

The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog: https://maryanneyarde.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/maryanneyarde

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coffeepotbookclub

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maryanneyarde

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/maryyarde

12 Authors, 12 stories, 1 theme: Betrayal!

Have you downloaded your copy of our free anthology yet? If not, let me see if I can tempt you...

Betrayal

Spanning eras from post-Roman Britain to the present day, the stories bring to life both legendary moments of deceit as well as imagined episodes of treachery.

Readers will encounter princes, soldiers, noblewomen, knights, highwaymen, pirates, and ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. All of these characters have something in common, though: betrayal. Collectively, these stories illustrate the truth that whatever its source—family, foe, lover, comrade—betrayal has devastating consequences.

Here are the blurbs for each story:

Death at the Feet of Venus—by Derek Birks

Spring 455. Having made a mortal enemy of Vortigern, the High King of Britannia former Roman Dux, Ambrosius Aurelianus retreats to a ruined Roman burgus near Vindocladia in south-west Britannia. A diverse company of refugees joins him there, including not only some of the local Durotriges people, but also a handful of renegade Saxons. Though Ambrosius is keen to make alliances with other leaders in the region, some see him as a Roman interloper who might be a dangerous rival. Ambrosius must negotiate, but whom can he trust—even among his own people?

Love to Hatred Turn’d—by Annie Whitehead

AD940. Alyeva and Dunstan have grown up together. Dunstan’s calling to serve God and king means he must leave their childhood home, but his path is not easy and she wants to protect him. Dunstan’s ambitious brother will do whatever it takes to further his own career, something that Alyeva learns to her cost. There are powerful factions at court, and murderous plots afoot. Alyeva is entangled in them and she must try to break free and, more importantly, attempt to prevent a killing that will have far-ranging repercussions. In the court of the Anglo-Saxon kings, danger lurks around every corner and the skill is in learning whom to trust...

[Those who've read Alvar the Kingmaker will be familiar with some of these characters]

A Knight’s Tale—by Charlene Newcomb

April 1185. Stephan l’Aigle is eighteen years old, the third son of a Yorkshire baron with no hopes of inheriting land or titles, probably a good thing as he has no interest in women, nor any desire to marry or produce heirs. He finds pleasure in the arms of other men, and believes men like himself cannot love. Against Lord Richard’s enemies, Stephan will hone his sword arm, and learn about comradeship, duty, and honor. Will his relationship with one of Richard’s knights crack his hard-hearted armor?

All Those Tangled Webs—by Anna Belfrage

It is 1330. England has a young king—but the power resides firmly with his regents, Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. Not everyone is happy with this. In fact, most of the kingdom’s peers resent Mortimer. None more so than Edmund of Kent, half-brother to the deposed and supposedly deceased Edward II. When rumours reach Edmund that Edward II is not dead but instead held captive, Edmund decides to act. Reinstating Edward II will end Mortimer’s rule—and hopefully make Edmund his brother’s righthand man. Assuming, of course, that the rumours are true…

Family or Fealty—by Mercedes Rochelle

July 1403. Thomas Percy, the most able but least flamboyant member of the family, finds himself drawn into the crucial events surrounding the fall of Richard II and the turbulent reign of Henry IV. A man of principle, he is tormented by calamitous choices he must make—regardless of the consequences to himself. How does a man justify the betrayal of his sovereign in order to spare himself from fighting his kin?

Heart of a Falcon—by Amy Maroney

Rhodes, Greece. 1457. The King of Cyprus invites young Frenchwoman Estelle to join his court. At her parents’ urging, she overcomes resistance to the idea and begins to imagine a glamorous new life. But when the true nature of her journey across the sea is revealed, Estelle realizes she has been the victim of a great deception—and must summon all her courage to survive.

Road to the Tower—by Elizabeth St.John

England, 1483. When Lady Elysabeth Scrope receives an urgent summons to escort her godson Prince Edward to London, she makes an impulsive decision that will change England forever. The sudden death of the king has thrown alliances into turmoil, and the safety of the twelve-year-old heir is at stake. Protecting the young prince from the ambitious Woodvilles is one thing. Defying Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and her half-sister, Margaret Beaufort, is quite another. As Elysabeth and the prince near London and their ultimate destination, the Tower, she begins to question the wisdom of her decision…and her family’s hidden motives.

House Arrest—by Judith Arnopp

April 1484. Placed under house arrest after conspiring against King Richard III, Margaret Beaufort contemplates her path to treason and the likelihood of betrayal in the future.

Drake — Tudor Corsair—by Tony Riches

May 1577. Devon adventurer Francis Drake has made his fortune stealing silver and gold from the Spanish in the West Indies, and is summoned to meet Queen Elizabeth in secret. He becomes an admiral, and sets out on a high-risk venture to follow Ferdinand Magellan’s route to the Southern Sea. One of his captains, Thomas Doughty, challenges Drake’s authority to command the mission, yet what should be the price of Doughty’s disloyalty?

Honour of Thieves—by Cryssa Bazos

An ill-gotten treasure, an old betrayal and an impenetrable castle. Can James Hart, a Royalist highwayman, break into Warwick Castle and prevent a nemesis from destroying a friend?

A Not So Bonny Betrayal—by Helen Hollick

Pirate Calico Jack Rackham and his lover, Anne Bonny, are familiar names to many, but, beyond the romanticised version of their time at sea, published by the anonymous author, Captain Johnson, not much is known about them. What if there was more to their tale than we realise? What if their lives were intertwined with a fictional pirate hero—Jesamiah Acorne, Captain of the Sea Witch? And what if the capture, and subsequent hanging, of Calico Jack, was not merely because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?

The Idealist—by Alison Morton

Imagine a tiny state surviving through sixteen centuries from the dusk of the Roman Empire… Roma Nova.

In this alternative historical fiction tale, Statia Mitela, patrician and idealist in the 1840s, follows her heart and her principles, but naïvely lays herself open to ruthless opportunists, blind to the peril threatening her beloved Roma Nova. In the 21st century her many times great-granddaughter, Carina Mitela, must pick up the pieces or her family will face permanent and total ruin.

A dark secret in Roma Nova’s past which comes to haunt its present. But who is the betrayer and who the betrayed?

Have I whetted your appetites? You can get your FREE copy of Betrayal HERE

And if you'd like to find out more about the authors, scroll back up and click on their names and you'll be transported to their dedicated websites.