New covers for four of my ebooks are now available.  Here they are:-   The image on the cover of Dark Tides   comes from one of my photographs of West Kirby beach.  It was a late summer evening and the tide was coming in, which is why there's a snaking rivulet of water over the shadowed sands.  Tides come in fast there as the Dee Estuary is very wide and flat, so there's nothing to slow the flow of water.  When we still lived in West Kirby I'd walk my dogs on the beach regularly, and we often go back with them now we're in Oxton, which isn't very far away. This cover uses one of my photos of the seaward side of Hilbre Island, where the Irish Sea pounds against the red Bunter sandstone rocks.  The rock pools around Hilbre and Middle Eye are always fun to explore.  You have to watch your footing, as the rocks are covered by slippery seaweed plus cockles and barnacles, but it's easily worth the effort.  Take binoculars if you want to...

Peacock King Jigsaw Puzzle While you're waiting for Fabian, the fourth novel in the Artisan-Sorcerer series, to become available - and it is coming soon! - have a play with this on-line jigsaw puzzle of the Peacock King, who features in the forthcoming book.  (The image is in much better focus on the jigsaw site). One year ago, we moved to this house.  It's incredible to realise that this little anniversary has arrived already.  Moving here was one of the best decisions we've ever made.  We're both still in love with the place. Last Saturday we scraped off old wallpaper in the dining room, up to the level of the picture rail.  Recently we had some repairs carried out on one of the walls in that room, and now the new plaster has had plenty of time to dry out properly.  Sunday saw me unravelling the mysteries of how to hang 7ft strips of patterned wallpaper without getting it in a glorious knot, tangled round the stepladder or stuck to the wrong bit...

Kate Wilhelm has been a writer since 1956, and after having had more than 30 novels published, (see her Amazon Author Page ) she has now embraced self-publishing and digital self-publishing in response to a long series of unsatisfactory publishing contracts.  With the help of relatives, she has now set up Infinity Box Press to re-release her back catalogue. It surely says a lot about the current situation in traditional publishing when a writer of this lady's experience and stature rejects a familiar route in preference for indie self-publishing.  Good for her!  I wish her well. Well, the July ebook bargains promo on Smashwords is over now.  Throughout the month of July I offered two ebooks free, and it was interesting to see that Spanish Jones was chosen by far more people than The Karens .  Maybe people don't expect me to have penned a sci-fi story?  The whole genre pigeon-holing issue leaves me a bit puzzled.  Ok, so I mostly write urban fanta...

This short ebook is now available on Kindle. The ASIN for this in all Amazon stores is ASIN B00690Q10I. Pirates, selkies and witches battle to survive in this dramatic short fantasy tale. When Charlie Porter makes a deal with Spanish Jones, he ensnares the Porter family in a vicious centuries-long feud. Can Charlie's descendent stop the violence? Set on the ruggedly beautiful Hilbre Island in the Dee Estuary, history and folklore blend to create a magically atmospheric tale by Adele Cosgrove-Bray.    

Dark Tides is now available on Apple iTunes at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/dark-tides/id472904959?mt=11 Spanish Jones is available on Apple iTunes at: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/spanish-jones/id472906427?mt=11 You can also find both these ebooks on Barnes & Noble at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/adele-cosgrove-bray I'm still waiting for these to be shipped to Kobo and Amazon, but that's in the pipeline.  They should also be available on Sony and Diesel within the next week or so.   

Wirral's annual Bookfest began today, with a chick-lit event at Bromborough Civic Centre with authors Lesley Pearse and Judy Astley.  Tuesday sees Professor Stephen Hawking at Birkenhead Central Library, talking about a replica Viking longship named Draken Harald Fairhair, which will sail to Wirral from Norway next year.  Wednesday brings Sir Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate, to Bromborough Civic Centre.  There are two events on Thursday 13th.  Elizabeth Williams, of the Gaskell Society, will give a talk at Bebington Central Library about the role of love in Jane Austen's and Charlotte Bronte's fiction.  The history of Birkenhead will be the subject of a talk by Elizabeth Davey at Upton Library. The event which interests me the most will be held at Wallasey Central Library on Friday, when Gavin Chapell will give a talk about the infamous Wirral privateer called Fortunatas Wright.  Personally, I suspect Wright might just be a pse...

Several people have asked me why I've recently self-published two ebooks, Spanish Jones and Dark Tides .  In the past, I've been dead set against self-publishing.  Vanity publishing (where you pay a company to publish your book) is mostly an expensive dead-end, and self-publishing (where you DIY) requires much product promotion, can also be pricey, and in the past wasn't taken seriously.  The given wisdom was that people only self-publish when no-one will buy their book. Is that still true in 2011?  If readers didn't take self-published ebooks seriously, they wouldn't be buying them.  And they are, in ever increasing numbers, to the point that ebook sales are now apparently overtaking paperback sales. Producing an ebook can cost nothing but time if an author can create their own eye-catching front covers and do their own editing.  In my case, I went to art school where I studied art and design; I've worked as a photographe...

Pirates, selkies and witches battle to survive in this dramatic short fantasy tale. When Charlie Porter makes a deal with Spanish Jones, he ensnares the Porter family in a vicious centuries-long feud. Can Charlie's descendent stop the violence? Set on the ruggedly beautiful Hilbre Island in the Dee Estuary, history and folklore blend to create a magically atmospheric tale. Spanish Jones - a new ebook short by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, out October 1st, 2011. Available from:  Here     

Richard took this photo of me yesterday. It was taken in our garden; you can see part of the thick curtain of glossy ivy which climbs up the wooden fence by the contorted hazel tree, right by the entrance to the Grove or "circular lawn" as I obliquely describe it in my latest Hubpage: http://hubpages.com/hub/Adeles-Garden The photo was taken for use with my author's bio for a horror/dark fantasy anthology to be edited by Raven Digitalis , who started this project two years ago. Raven intends to submit the MS to an interested prospective publisher on October 1st. My contribution was Spanish Jones , part one of which was broadcast live on 7 Waves Radio in October last year. It's a tale of pirates, selkies and witches fighting to the death on Hilbre Island and Middle Eye. Anyway, here's hoping that the MS will be accepted. Meanwhile, Riverside Writers have now received one quote for printing our anthology. Obviously we're waiting for other quotes to come in, b...

Gardening can be hard work, as Ygraine demonstrates in this photo. Emily has discovered how to jump over the fence. As we'd like to keep our dog (and not be sued) we now need a higher fence. Ygraine has never once escaped. Emily has earned the nickname Houdini, and is currently under house arrest until the fence can be installed. It'll be delivered on Friday. But before it can be errected, the thorny hedge which I've been coaxing to slowly grow since we moved in now needs hacking back again. Now, when I say thorny I mean thorny. Think of 3" needle-thin spines every finger-space along every branch. As a deterent to two-legged pests it's done an excellent job. A certain four-legged scamp, however, just ducks underneath it then scrambles over the old low wire-mesh fence. So we spent part of the weekend pruning back tree branches and branches from a long and towering (not-thorny) hedge. This afternoon I began the task of pruning back the thorny hedge. I've do...

Heidi Ruby Miller has been running a series of interviews with authors. From the list of fifteen questions, the subject is asked to pick six to reply to. Her website lists the authors - 56 to date - who have taken part in her project. See this here:- http://www.moonstonewritings.com/interviews.html Or for the latest one (with me as the subject) you could just scoot over to:- http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/129800.html?view=520456#t520456 *** Yesterday afternoon found us sitting in a solicitor’s office, drawing up details to be included in our updated Will, such as our desire for a Living Will and for certain specific funeral arrangements. We’ve been meaning to update these documents for ages. Enough of procrastination! There’s no point in waiting for one of us to drop dead and then go, “Oops, we really needed to update our legal stuff! Quick, reanimate him/her and wheel us off to the lawyer’s office!” And today we have glorious sunshine! That’s a rarity this summer. Mos...