Hello! I’m not quite sure where the time has gone, but this is my first newsletter since April; my good intentions to produce one since the spring have clearly failed! Current Projects Another apology: my hopes that the latest full-length Morton Farrier novel, The Sterling Affair would be available before Christmas have not been borne out. For a variety of reasons, including the fact that this book is the longest and most complex book I’ve ever written, the release date has been pushed back to mid-January. I will of course keep you posted as to the specific date (in a newsletter and on my social media channels) but I’m hoping for around the 15th of January for both paperback and Kindle formats (with audiobook to follow). The book, currently in the final stages of proof-reading and edits, stands at 140,000 words. The previous longest book, The Wicked Trade was 110,000 words, to give you an idea. The feedback from my editors and early readers has been very positive, so I hope that, when you eventually get your hands on the book, it will have been well worth the wait! |
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Future Projects Once you have read The Sterling Affair you might be able to hazard a guess at what my next writing project could be! Whilst I was in Salt Lake City this February for RootsTech I undertook some of the initial research for this project. I’m very excited to get to work on it and will share further news on this front once The Sterling Affair is released. The America Ground audiobook I’m pleased to say that The America Ground is now available in audiobook format on iTunes / Amazon / Audible. If you have already purchased the Kindle edition of this book, then you can download the audiobook version with a substantial discount. The Missing Man is currently in production, which will be followed next year by The Suffragette’s Secret and The Wicked Trade. The America Ground Audible |
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Trips & visits I’ve been busy gallivanting around the country since the last newsletter, predominantly attending a variety of genealogy shows. In April I attended the first Family Tree Live event at Alexandra Palace, signing my books and getting to meet up with friends and readers. This was followed by THE Genealogy Show in June at the Birmingham NEC Arena. As well as selling books across the two-day event, I was delighted to be one of the four keynote speakers, delivering two talks in the main arena: Self-Publishing Your Family History with KDP and Turning Fact into Fiction. It was indeed an honour to be featured alongside the genealogy royalty, Blaine Bettinger, Lisa Louise Cooke and Judy Russell. The event was dubbed ‘The People’s Show’ and featured talks on a huge variety of subjects and included world-wide genealogy. |
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At THE Genealogy Show with Blaine Bettinger and Judy Russell |
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In October I attended the Devon Family History Society Conference and again signed and sold my books, as well as giving a talk on using ‘Fact in Fiction’, where I discussed some of the real characters, locations and storylines from my novels. |
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Finally, after many years of discussion, RootsTech finally migrated out of America for the first time, arriving in the London Excel Centre at the end of October for a three-day genealogy event. I decided not to be an exhibitor at this event, but to go and attend as many lectures as I possibly could! For personal interest and also answering a need in my next writing project, my lectures were predominantly DNA-themed. I learnt a great deal from industry experts, such as Jonny Perl, Debbie Kennett, Maurice Leeson, Michelle Leonard and Angie Bush. I also very much enjoyed the keynote speech by Dan Snow, one of my favourite historians. Whilst there I took the opportunity of purchasing some discounted Family Tree Y-DNA kits for my Dengate / Dungate One-Name Study. The Ministry of Defence were among the exhibitors at RootsTech London, running a pilot project where WW2 service records were provided with a two-hour turnaround time. Having received an abridged version of my grandfather, Albert Goodwin’s WW2 records nineteen years ago, I took the opportunity of ordering a full version, which ran to several pages and provided an illuminating account of his war years. |
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It was such a relief to hear that there was little that anybody would want to change about the books and the comments were overwhelmingly positive for the characters, time periods, locations and plot-lines. Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey. I will repeat the exercise in the future, as it really taught me a lot. Family History Very sadly, my maternal grandmother, Eveline passed away in June at the age of ninety-four. It was her maiden name, Dengate, which got me started in genealogy at the age of 12. Thankfully for me, she was a great collector of family memorabilia, keeping vast amounts of keepsakes, including annotated photographs, newspaper cuttings, invitations and orders of service. Among the items, which I have inherited, are my grandfather’s old home videos, which I have spent several weeks digitising. The videos begin in 1986 and include me roller-skating through the park in Hastings and, for some reason unknown to me, being escorted from Hastings Police Station! I was delighted to find that the tapes also included a cinefilm of my great grandfather, Leslie Dengate who died in 1984. |
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The first ever video of me in 1986, sitting with my dad. |
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I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a peaceful Christmas and New Year and to thank you all sincerely for your support in the last twelve months. I will be back with more exciting projects in 2020! Nathan |
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