Tour London in The Cold Kiss of Death (+ Giveaway)

US Cover

Well, I'm a bit later posting this week's celebratory giveaway, as I got carried away* with the writing today. Anyway, we're now on week # 14 of my 16 weeks of giveaways to celebrate the the upcoming US release of book 2  The Cold Kiss of Death (out 26th April - only 10'ish days to go!!! Yay!!), and the UK release of book 3 The Bitter Seed of Magic (Out Now! And don't forget you can get it from The Book Depository with Free WorldWide Del (she says, just dropping that tiny bit of self-promo in there . . .) *g*

So it's all about MY BOOKS this week!! And one of the things I love about using London as the setting, is that it's full of fantastic and interesting places. In fact, sometimes I have a hard time choosing which ones to use. But when it came to The Cold Kiss of Death it was all made easier for me by a lovely birthday day out. Here's a tour of some of the great places appearing in the book, that Mr Mc treated me to! Yay! Love that man!

First up is the London Experience and The London Tombs ~ a fun, and sometimes scary exhibition with a good dash of the historical, which is a great day out for all ages (remembering that it can be scary . . .). It's a place that plays a big part in the book. Here's an extract from chapter two where Genny is in the tombs working on a ghost survey with Finn:

"Chewing the end of my pencil, I scanned the underground site again. Bare bulbs in their yellow hanging cages lit the place brighter than the midday sun, even though it was past midnight. The bright lights didn’t make me feel any better: they cast weird shadows over the abandoned builders’ tools, turning them into hiding places full of staring eyes; watching. Thick cobwebs stretched across the arched brick roof and damp stained the walls with algae-slimed patches. And it smelled old and musty, with an underlying whiff of putrefying flesh – a smell Finn had assured me existed only in my over-active imagination, not that his assurances made the smell go away. The place was creepy enough even without the steady stream of ghosts drifting by. Finally my gaze skittered over the more modern breezeblock wall blocking the River Thames end of the tunnel and landed on the cordoned-off area in one corner. An avalanche of old human bones spilled out over the floor. The very bones I’d been trying to ignore all night, especially as I had an odd notion that they kept whispering my name."

The Clink Prison Museum ~ the museum is built upon the original site of the Clink Prison, which dates back to 1144 making it one of England’s oldest, if not the oldest Prison. It's small but perfectly equipped with a selection of original artefacts, and torture devices. The museum is another place that plays a big part in one section of the book. Here's an extract from chapter 11:

"I reached the Clink and almost slipped down the small flight of worn stone steps that led into the museum. I paid my admission and walked slowly through the exhibits towards the large back room.

A concrete troll sat at a big wooden table, rolling a crap-shoot of plastic dice back and forth between his large slab-like hands. He was old – or at least he’d had a hard life; his nose was missing a chunk and his age cracks had been filled with blue-coloured grout, making his pitted concrete skin look like it had a map of wriggling blue lines drawn on it.  The troll’s name was Blue, unsurprisingly appropriate, and the info plaque in front of him stated that trolls had been used as jailers at the Clink as far back as the fifteenth century."

London Bridge ~ There's been a bridge over this section of the Thames since the Roman occupation of the area, nearly 2,000 years ago. It's been replaced/rebuilt a few times over the years, and the current bridge has been there since 1973. Bad things happen to it in the book!

The Borough Market in Southwark ~ a fantastic food market, with some scrumptious eateries. We had lunch at a fab fish restaurant (fish is my fav food as anyone who knows me *g*) with a lovely glass of bubbly*. The market gets a very brief mention in the book :-)

The Golden Hinde ~ The Golden Hinde is a full-sized reconstruction of the Tudor warship in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in 1577 – 1580. We didn't visit this, so that's a trip for another day, but the ship does get a mention in passing in the book, along with a selkie who's squatting in the captain's cabin.(now that's a short story waiting to happen . . . sometime *g*)

And one place we went that didn't appear in the book: Vinopolis ~ The place to go in London for a wonderful wine tasting tours.

So onto the giveaway! Here's what you need to do to be in with a chance of winning your choice* of one of my books: Leave me a comment telling me which place from The Cold Kiss of Death you'd choose to visit.

And if you haven't tried any of my books yet, then check out the books pages on  my website. UK editions here. US editions here.(UK and US editions have the same text, but different covers)

How to enter:

Leave a comment with which place from The Cold Kiss of Death you'd choose to visit.

Please leave a way to contact you (email in comment: Please remember to replace @ with [at] to forestall spam - or your twitter name - no way to contact you - no entry).

Giveaway is international and closes end of day (GMT time) 21st April 2011.

Full General Terms and Rules at the bottom of this post here.

You can get an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway. Leave the link to the tweet as an extra comment.

And don't forget to check out the Giveaway Schedule here. And so you don't miss out on a chance of winning any of the wonderful books in the coming weeks, why not follow me? (following is not a condition of entry).

Please note: My usual blog policy is that I try to reply to all comments on the blog, but for ease of admin I won't be replying to any comments made on any of the giveaway posts during the 16 weeks. Sorry, but it makes it much harder to sort out the winner. However I do read and enjoy all the comments, and will, of course, continue to reply to comments on any other post, so if you have a question for me, leave it on one of those, thank you :-)

All book links lead to Amazon (UK/US) or the Book Depository, and contain affiliate links. I've decided to go affiliate as I love giving books away (and not just as a way of shameless self-promo), but boy, does it get expensive.

*I blame it on the ménage à trois that turned up unexpectedly. Definitely didn't see that one coming! *g* And no, before anyone asks, the ménage isn't who you're all thinking! Mwahahahahaha! *Evil Author Moment* 

*Yep, I know, bubbly for lunch, and then a wine tasting! Hedonistic! But hey, it was my birthday!

* Winner can choose one book from: The Sweet Scent of Blood #1, The Cold Kiss of Death #2, The Bitter Seed of Magic #3, Home Improvement: Undead Edition #1/2 (contains prequel Spellcrackers short story).

x/posted to LJ. Comment here or there. One entry per person.