Drumbeats
It’s 1965 and 18 year old Jess escapes her stifling English background for a gap year in Ghana, West Africa. But it’s a time of political turbulence across the region. Fighting to keep her young love who she believes is waiting back in England, she’s thrown into the physical dangers of civil war, tragedy, and the emotional conflict of a disturbing new relationship. So why do the drumbeats haunt her dreams?
This is a rite of passage story which takes the reader hand in hand with Jess on her journey towards growing into the adult world.
Drumbeats Purchase Link http://myBook.to/Drumbeatstrilogy
Jess happily marries the love of her life She wants to feel safe, secure and loved. But gradually it becomes clear that her beloved husband is not the man she thought him to be. She survived civil war and injury in Africa, but can she now survive the biggest challenge of her life?
Walking in the Rain purchase Link http://myBook.to/WalkingintheRainDrumbeatstrilogy
Single mother, Jess, has struggled to get her life back on track after the betrayal of her beloved husband and her best friend. When she is on the brink of losing everything, including her family and her job, she feels that she can no longer trust anyone. Then she is sent a mysterious newspaper clipping of a temporary post back in Ghana. Could this be her lifeline? Can Jess turn back time and find herself again? And what, exactly, will she find?
Finding Jess is a passionate story of love, betrayal and second chances – and of one woman’s bid to reclaim her self-belief and trust. It is a feel-good story of a woman’s strength and spirit rising above adversity.
Finding Jess purchase link http://mybook.to/FindingJess
Guest Post: My Publishing Journey, and how I never gave up!
Today I’m celebrating the publication of my Drumbeats Trilogy as one omnibus/box set edition on kindle, brought out by my lovely publisher Endeavour Media who have all my books. You can find it at http://mybook.to/DrumbeatsOmnibus
The last book of the trilogy (Finding Jess) came out last summer (2018) but Endeavour wanted to make the whole saga available together at a reduced price. But I wanted to tell you about the ups and downs of my journey to publishing my six books in seven years (I’m writing my seventh at the moment). It hasn’t always been easy, but I have a message for you at the end of this piece …
Where do I start? So much has happened in the last seven years! I started writing as a child as soon as I could hold a pencil in my little hand but I only began to write seriously for publication in about 2011. I guess I never really believed I could get published, so for years I just wrote for myself. I longed to be a “proper author”, but never had the encouragement needed either from my parents or my first husband. I had a busy professional and personal life: I was a university academic and had spent ten years as a single mum raising my daughters alone, before marrying again to my second husband and trying to blend a step family together. Some of you might know what I mean!
It was friends in the US and Australia that I met at conferences who believed in me and persuaded me to write for publication. My first book was initially self-published; a multi-genre memoir / history of food / recipe book, because we were renovating a Victorian rectory in the heart of the English countryside and I was researching the lives of the previous occupants. I was fascinated by the idea of what they cooked in my kitchen. It is centred on two ideas: that the kitchen is the heart of the home and that people through history leave some kind of ‘mark’ on the fabric of a building. Friends in the USA persuaded me to publish in the US.
The Old Rectory: escape to a country kitchen was born http://myBook.to/TheOldRectory I was amazed when it began to win international awards and became an Amazon best-seller. Later I moved it to a UK publisher, the one I have now.
I also had another book on the go at the time, a children’s medieval fantasy called S.C.A.R.S, which I wrote the first draft of when I was a child and then reformed it when I was at university studying medieval history, language and literature. That one was gathering dust in a drawer. After The Old Rectory was published in the US, I was inspired to begin work again on S.C.A.R.S, adapting it for the current children’s market http://myBook.to/SCARSchildrensbook
My big break came when I joined the Romantic Novelists Association new writers’ scheme, by chance really, following an email from a friend who said ‘apply for it’. I did and I got in. Again, friends had given me the spur I needed. I started drafting A Shape on the Air. Within three months I had an offer from my present UK publisher, Endeavour, who wanted my existing books from my American publisher including the complete Drumbeats Trilogy. So I juggled with getting a number of books prepared for the new publisher’s requirements.
In 2017 Endeavour published my medieval time-slip mystery, A Shape on the Air, which takes me in a new direction in my writing: I love this genre, moving between 499 AD (the Dark Ages) and the present as two strong but undermined women reach out to each other across the centuries. This too became an Amazon best-seller http://myBook.to/ASOTA My present WIP is a slightly later medieval multi-period mystery.
And now …I’m thrilled that my Drumbeats Trilogy has won more international awards. I had started the trilogy because since I lived and worked in Ghana many years ago, I’ve always wanted to write about that fascinating West African country. The first of the trilogy, Drumbeats, http://myBook.to/Drumbeatstrilogy is set in 1965 in Ghana and it’s a coming of age story about naïve 18 year old Jess working on a gap year there amidst civil war. The second book, Walking in the Rain, http://myBook.to/WalkingintheRainDrumbeatstrilogy moves Jess’s story on, as she has to find the strength to cope with a husband with mental health issues, and Finding Jess, completes her story back in Ghana. The trilogy is a passionate saga of love, betrayal and second chances; it’s one woman’s struggle to find the strength and spirit to rise above adversity. A feel-good trilogy, I hope http://mybook.to/FindingJess
I love writing about strong women because I think we try so hard to do the best for our families, our loved ones, and lastly ourselves. I’m so grateful for the feisty women around me who don’t let things get them down. What an inspiration! And so my message is: believe in yourself and never give up.
All my books are available on Amazon, in ebook and paperback editions:
But do check out my other sites:
Author website: https://juliaibbotsonauthor.com/
Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/JuliaIbbotsonauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JuliaIbbotson
Pinterest page: includes boards with pics and images that inspired each book
Goodreads author page: https://www.goodreads.com/juliaibbotson
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