Fly, pages, fly

It’s good to be back in business

Photo: EasternLightcraft/Getty Images

Welcome to Not In The Script (NITS), musings about ancient history and the joy of writing historical fiction. Readers of NITS may have noticed I haven’t written much about my novels recently, mainly because my new publisher was working on my backlist.

Forgive a little self-indulgence now that the first of these, Sea of Flames, has been edited and republished by the lovely team at Sapere Books and I’m back in business (sigh of relief). Further novels will follow this year.

Now I’m a Leo, okay? So when I read a review like this one below, I just have to nudge everyone and suggest they cut short their efforts to save the world and read it out loud:

“Alistair Forrest clearly knows his sea battles, and every oar-stroke, every flight of fire from the bolt-throwers, every twist and turn of Eurycles’ ship rings true as the battle rages. A tremendous account of a pivotal battle, with engaging characters and a breathtaking and emotional climax.”

The battle, you see, was Actium in 31BC when Antony and Cleopatra managed to cock up their conflict with Octavian Caesar’s forces even though they outnumbered them on land and had some very large ships that served as floating fortresses.

Enter Agrippa’s new-look navy of smaller, faster ships and the latest aforementioned high-tech (for those times) bolt-throwers.

Naturally, Sea of Flames sets the scene for the epic battle that changed the balance of world power and set Rome’s new empire in motion. The story opens with a dastardly act by Mark Antony that will have a bearing on the outcome of the battle and that emotional climax.

The boozy Roman general chopped off the head an innocent Greek merchant by the name of Lachares. Word gets back to Lachares’ son, Eurycles, who quite understandably vows to avenge the ghastly crime. He gathers an equally outraged crew and decks out a nippy galley at his own expense, throwing in his lot with Team Agrippa.

Agrippa was always on the lookout for recruits to his spy network and reckons that Eurycles and his plucky crew are the perfect choice to sail right into Mark Antony’s nest of vipers where they’ll either get vital intel, or maybe kill the bad guy, or better still, both.

And the best spy yarns always have a love interest which we all know can muck up a perfectly simple plan…

Meanwhile, some more reviews:

“An exciting tale, based on real historical events, and told with style and panache.” 

“I was right there, back in the thirties BC, furious at the injustice and cruelty and egging on the [ship’s crew] in their search for justice.”

Starting with Sea of Flames, my novels are now trickling back onto the market this year, and there’ll be a new series next year set in Gaul and Britain as Julius Caesar eyes up his next get-rich-quick scheme (56-54 BC).

Watch out for Libertas, Viper, Line in the Sand and the new Britannia Conspiracy series, all with the expert know-how of Sapere Books who, by the way, have a rather exhilarating writing contest for aspiring writers.