Monday, August 28, 2017

Erin Eldridge ~ 2nd guest post and her novel ~ Days of Insult


TITLE: “Days of Insult”
RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2017
AUTHOR: Erin Eldridge
CATEGORIES: Historical Fiction/Romance
PAGE COUNT: 264
ISBN: 978-1543006971
IMPRINT: White Stag



KEYWORDS: War, Partisan, Love, Betrayal, Canada, Refugee, Explosives


ONE LINER:
Hitler’s troops invade Russia and Sacha Mikhailov’s life is changed forever. Forced into early manhood, he joins his country’s bitter struggle against the Nazi invader.


SYNOPSIS:
When the Germans invade his country in 1941, Russian youth, Sacha Mikhailov, becomes a part of the titanic struggle on the Eastern Front. Fighting first as a partisan, operating with his detachment from deep in the forest, he learns the skills of sabotage and ambush. He makes friends, falls in love, and endures the enemy’s vicious onslaught to wipe out the partisans once and for all. As the Russians push the Germans back, Sacha joins the Red Army and his war continues on into the capitals of Europe where he formulates a plan which will set his life on a radically different course.


GUEST POST:


As a writer, I thoroughly enjoy the whole process from start to finish. I’m always amazed what hard work writing is, even when the ideas and inspiration flow freely. Sometimes I feel really drained, especially after I’ve written a very difficult passage involving a death or a loss. My characters are like real people to me. And, yes, I do cry over my laptop. Ernest Hemingway claimed to have read a manuscript 60 times before he was satisfied, and while I’m not quite there yet, I know what he means.

I’ve also learned the importance of notebooks. I carry a notebook everywhere: in my handbag, my work satchel, my car, and have them placed strategically on my writing desk and beside my bed. Ideas can arrive unannounced at any time and I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t write them down quickly they evaporate like morning mist.

Music’s important. I always write to a background of music. Nothing highbrow or sophisticated, just my favourite radio station which plays all the old hits of my youth.
Breaks are important too, even if it’s just a walk around the garden with a coffee or a play with the cat. I have a huge garden and I would hate to ever lose it because I have some of my best ideas while pottering in its environs. That’s when I have to rush indoors and grab one of those notebooks!

I’ve always loved the Russian authors because their writing has such a strong spiritual dimension that speaks to the soul. I read Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn. Russian history has always been a passion, especially the Romanovs and the years leading up to the Russian Revolution. World War 11 is another era I have explored in depth. There are so many stories to be drawn from that rich vein and I’ve only written two so far. I started to think about how little is actually known of what the average Russian went through during those terrible years. The whole of Russian history is an account of the suffering of ordinary men and women, the peasants who toiled the land under the Tsars, were brutalised and dispossessed by Stalin and then bore the brunt of the catastrophic German invasion. And so it all came together and I began writing Days of Insult. The title is paraphrased from a poem written by W. H. Auden.

I hope readers will enjoy the book and I hope I have done justice to Sacha’s story and the stories of so many like him.


Below is a photo of me showing my adventurous side with my friend, Julie, aboard an elephant in Thailand. I’m wearing the green hat and the elephant is probing for more bananas! I made sure she got plenty.


AUTHOR BIO:
I live in Christchurch, New Zealand. The city is still rebuilding after the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. I have been a teacher for most of my life, most recently, a teacher of deaf students. Currently, I do part time support work with International students at a boys’ college. I’ve taught overseas as well, in Africa and in Brunei. I have two children, one of who, my daughter, lives in the UK and the other, my son, lives around the corner! I started writing two years ago and have completed four books: a contemporary romance, two war stories and a medieval fantasy. I have many more ideas for stories yet to come.


AUTHOR LINKS:


BUY LINKS:
AMAZON US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCFXTVS3
AMAZON UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XCFXTVS
AMAZON CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B06XCFXTVS
CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/6920449
  
 
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