The Small Dog has the Last Word…

“Anu, old boy, how did you get here?”

Frankly, as  a mention in their latest book, it isn’t good enough. Not only have they changed my name and gender, but I am pretty sure it is the only mention of me in the last of the ‘Don and Wen’ books.

I mean, the first three, the Triad of Albion? That was fine. They stuck to the facts, weaving the story of their adventures in the landscape and the old, sacred places with the things they were ‘seeing’ and discovering. And, as should be the case, I took a starring role. What would they have learned without me to guide them? To show them that Love was the true meaning of the Ball of Power?

They stuck to the plan with the second three books, the Doomsday series. Once again, they kept me centre stage… at least some of the time… as they continued letting ‘Don’ and ‘Wen’ tell their story and all the things they were learning to read in the landscape.  But  you know, when you have pups, whether they have two legs or four, and you send them out into the worlds on their own, you expect them to stand on their own feet, however many they have. So, if they made a  few odd choices and I wasn’t in those three books quite as much, that was understandable.

But then they decided there were some stories they could not really tell, not in quite the same way, not and expect to be believed. So, as they came towards the end of the Doomsday books, they a let a bit more fiction in. And, between leaving poor ‘Ben’ in jail and ‘Anu’ at home while they wandered through the ancient places of Scotand, England, Wales and Ireland,  they went completely off script as far as I am concerned… and me? I barely get a mention!

Now, pardon me for speaking out here, but does it not seem a little strange to leave your most valuable asset at home when you go off ‘on the run’? Or when you have a book to promote? Asking me to launch their book for them was, let’s be honest, only an afterthought… when I happened to wonder if I made it into the last of the Lands of Exile books, Kith ‘n’ Kin…at all…

They reminded me that these last three books contain a strong element of fiction. That they would never leave me behind, and that Don, Wen, Anu and Ben are all fictional characters… even if they do seem awfully familiar in a lot of ways. And that both Ben’s incarceration and my Anu’s absence are just literary devices… and that anyway, they would never mount and armed raid to steal repatriate a standing stone. Even though the mysterious Black Shade is real…

Lands of Exile:

KITH ‘N’ KIN

Stuart France & Sue Vincent

            The Beeley Stone, ‘liberated’ from the churchyard at Bakewell, stands proudly in the centre of its village green once more. While the locals enjoy the fruits of its restoration, Ben, who had led the daring raid against authority, still languishes in jail.

Don and Wen, arrested and released without explanation in Ireland, now plot an erratic course through the wild places of Wales, while Jaw-Dark and Kraas, seeking the legendary stone of Fergus Mac Roy, have been separated in the most uncanny of circumstances…

As the darkness closes around them, the Black Shade haunts the moors above Beeley and, in the shadowy rooms of the old tower, an ancient and even stranger story begins to unfold…

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Other Books in this series by France & Vincent

Available via Amazon UK, Amazon.com and worldwide,

for Kindle and in full colour illustrated paperback

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Triad of Albion

The Initiate ~ Heart of Albion ~ Giants Dance

Don and Wen thought it was just a day out in an ancient landscape wrought in earth and stone, walking the sacred ways of the Old Ones. They could not know what mysteries would unfold as the birds led them deep into the legendary history of Albion.

As the veils thin and waver, time shifts and the present is peopled with shadowy figures from the past, weaving their tales through a quest for understanding and opening wide the doors of perception for those who seek to see beyond the surface of reality…

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Doomsday

The Ætheling Thing ~ Dark Sage ~ Scions of Albion

What exactly were the Norse gods doing on a supposedly Christian artefact that looked more like a standing stone than a cross?

Don is drawn to investigate, questioning the history of the Blessed Isles of Albion, while Wen determines to restore the position of one particular stone.

Which would have been alright if Ben hadn’t gone back for the gun…

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Lands of Exile

But ‘n’ Ben ~ Beck ‘n’ Call  ~ Kith ‘n’ Kin

While Ben, fast becoming a folk hero, languishes in Bakewell Gaol, Don and Wen are on holiday… or ‘on the run’ if Bark Jaw-Dark and PC 963 Kraas, hot in pursuit, are to be believed.

From England to Scotland and Ireland, the officers of the Law follow the trail of the erratic couple.

But who is the shadowy figure, hovering beyond sight?

What is his interest in a small standing stone and just how many high-level strings can he pull… and why?