New Year Mood

sue bentley

2024 - the year of the mighty dragon!

January is always a challenging month of short gloomy days and long nights. A perfect time to curl up under a soft blanket with a mug of hot chocolate, and a good book. If that’s not possible for you, libraries are warm welcoming spaces, packed with books which are free to read and to borrow. I’m a huge, life-long fan of them.

 

2024 is also the year of the mighty dragon. In Chinese astrology the dragon represents qualities of power, ambition, passion, and creativity. What an auspicious and exciting time then, for my novel Second Skin to enter the world on widespread armoured dragon wings.


The characters in this book are very dear to my heart. I cannot wait for readers to meet them. I enjoy writing about strong women, who take their lives into their own hands. That’s not to say they don’t make mistakes, bad decisions or wrong choices. But they find a way to succeed, and survive, sometimes in entirely unexpected ways. Just like my heroine in Second Skin.

Here is a brief outline of the story.


Eighteen-year-old Lady Aledra is Drakkoni — a race of shape-shifting dragons who brutally conquered the Esran lands. Drakkoni are fiercely protective of their pure bloodlines. Aledra’s father is the powerful Lord Commander Artor Jewel-Wing. Aledra was told her mother is dead, but really she was banished for being part-Esran. Aledra is raised on a remote farmstead, away from the prying eyes of the Drakkoni court, and mentored to control her secondskin. Which is where her dragon form hides.


Your firstskin is what you allow the world to see and your secondskin is the true expression of your soul.


When war breaks out between the Drakkoni and the Esrans, Aledra is imprisoned and learns the truth about her mother. She escapes and meets Jubal, an Esran whose family were slaughtered by Drakkoni warriors.

Aledra conceals her heritage and against all odds they fall in love. Will their love turn to ashes if Jubal finds out who she really is?

 

Second Skin.

TWO MOONS, TWO HEARTS, TWO SOULS. 


I am currently reading Yang Sheng by Katie Brindle – The Art of Chinese Self-Healing and Get Well Stay Well by Dr Gemma Newman, GP.

From these excellent books I’m getting inspiration wisdom and expertise about healthy living for mind, body, and spirit from both an Eastern and Western perspective. I highly recommend both books.


For pure escapism, I’m loving E. S. Thomson’s excellent crime novels set in Victorian London. That's all for now...

Thoughts and ramblings for the weekend.

By sue bentley • March 16, 2024
It's almost proper Spring - lighter mornings making it easier to get up, and head straight to my writing desk. My book in progress The Making is going well, after a lot of cuts, and re-writes. I'm planning on delivering it to my agent before too long. There are bound to be more changes that need making, some tightening up that needs doing. But I'm a perfectionist, and have learned to expect this work which will make my book come alive. I want my reader to empathise with my characters, feel immersed in the world they inhabit. It is though, one of the things most authors struggle with. I doubt any one of them, even a winner of the Booker prize, is ever completely satisfied with their finished book. When I pick up one of mine that has sold very well - sometimes around the world, had great reviews, even been featured on the Sunday Times best-seller listing, I still criticise the writing. Making imaginary new edits. Wishing that I'd chosen this word over that one. That's the thing about being meticulous, and I know I owe my readers that level of detail. Only my best is good enough. It comes with the writing territory! Or it should, if you're doing your job well?

World Book Day

By sue bentley • March 24, 2022
Hello Readers!

Work In Progress

By sue bentley • November 29, 2021
Lastville Hello again readers, writers and fellow book-lovers! Today I want to share a little about my current WIP. The book is set in Lastville, a fictional town in Northamptonshire, and centred around the death of a brutish and unpleasant shoemaker. Miss Minerva Shaw, twenty-six years old, opinionated, stiff-necked and resigned to being a spinster, forms an unlikely friendship with the dead man's son. Their investigations lead them into the very heart of a secret club, where death itself is currency.
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