A warm welcome to author Anna Butler joining us today to talk about new release”The God’s Eye”, part of the Lancaster Luck series.
Anna shares a guestpost with us, an exclusive excerpt and brought a wonderful giveaway!
Welcome Anna đ
The Perils of Empire
The main action of The Godâs Eye comes about because of real history (even if the steampunk elements of the book take history several steps to the side) when the close of the Victorian era saw fretful, difficult family relationships build up into competing global, imperial ambitions.
By the time Victoria died in 1901, the British, German, Danish and Russian royal families were all so interlinked, you could barely get a cigarette paper between their DNA strands. They were cousins, sometimes twice over. They intermarried like *crazy*âthe last Tsarâs mother was the sister of Edward VIIâs wife, Alexandra; the Kaiserâs mother was Edwardâs sister Vicky; the last Tsarâs German wife (another Alexandra) was the Kaiserâs cousin and Edwardâs niece by his sister Alice. There wasnât a royal court in Europe that didnât have one of Victoriaâs descendants in it. Only the Tsar couldnât claim Victoria as mother or grandmother, but her genetic inheritance still clouded the Romanov line. The bloodlines were as convoluted as a plate of spaghetti.
And like many families, they didnât always get on. By 1914, the British, Danish and Russians were ranged against the German empire, and World War One flashed and banged its way across Europe, leaving millions dead and empires crumbled into dust in its wake.
The Godâs Eye is set well before 1914. Twelve years before. But the seeds of the conflict are already there: Britain against Germany. By the 1890s, imperial antagonism between the two was growing. As one of the characters in The Godâs Eye says, ââŠyou British are the Prussians in your own world. Youâre blinded by the same ambitions. Your Imperium and our Empire want the same thing⊠Itâs inevitable that one day, you and they will clash. The world isnât big enough.â
Of course, this prescience about the future clash is entirely my authorial invention, but the sentiment is, I think, true enough. We British had the biggest empire this world has ever known, covering a quarter of the globe when Victoria died. Itâs never enough, though, is it? When you âownâ that much (and I use the quote marks deliberately, because Iâm well aware of the evils of empire), your insecurity about losing any of it is all the more aggressive and overwhelming. By 1900, the Kaiser was seen as heading what the British saw as âthe German Menaceâ. By 1902, the stereotypes of German autocracy and efficiency filled the British newspapers and journals, not to mention our popular literature, and fed our paranoia about the empire being under threat. You begin to see how people were manipulated into thinking war was inevitable.
And sad though that is, it gives a writer such a rich field to play in when it comes to writing even alternate-history fiction. From which youâll have guessed, that in The Godâs Eye, the conflict comes from the ambitions of the German Empire clashing with those of Rafe and Nedâs British Imperium. On a small scale, of course, and playing out on a remote plateau hidden deep in Abyssinia (the modern-day Ethiopian Highlands). But there, in microcosm, two empires come to blows, each trying to outdo the other, each fuelled by the belief that theyâre in the right, each determined that there can only be one winner.
It makes for some exciting scenes, I think, and a great deal of drama, tumult and tension, action and danger. What you might expect of an adventure story, in fact, where the tropes demand heroes and villains, dash and derring-do. But beyond the stiff upper lip and fighting for King and country, I hope the bookâs ending undercuts the idea of imperialism altogether for a more enlightened humanity. Which is, in the end, the only good reason for writing about empire and imperialism: to show how good men rise above it.
Title: The Godâs Eye
Author: Anna Butler
Series: Lancasterâs Luck
Necessary to read previous 2 books? Best read in sequence
Category: Steampunk adventure | M/M romance.
eBook Publication Date: 21 January 2020
Publisher: Glass Hat Press © 2020
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
BLURB:
Rafe Lancaster is reluctantly settling into his role as the First Heir of House Stravaigor. Trapped by his fatherâs illness and his new responsibilities, Rafe canât go with lover Ned Winter to Aegypt for the 1902/03 archaeological digging season. Rafeâs unease at being left behind intensifies when Nedâs fascination with the strange Antikythera mechanism and its intriguing link to the Aegyptian god Thoth has Ned heading south to the remote, unexplored highlands of Abyssinia and the course of the Blue Nile.
Searching for Thothâs deadly secrets, Ned is out of contact and far from help. When he doesnât return at Christmas as he promised, everything points to trouble. Rafe is left with a stark choice â abandon his dying father, or risk never seeing Ned again.
BUY LINKS
Universal link to digital store
 Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | B&N | Kobo
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Lancasterâs Luck series â which is best read in sequence – charts the adventures of Rafe Lancaster, ex-aeronaut and pilot in Her Britannic Majestyâs Aero Corps. After being shot down and injured in action during the Boer War in 1899, Rafeâs unable to continue as a fighter pilot.
The Gilded Scarab
Returning to London, hard up and looking for a new career, Rafe buys a coffeehouse close to the Britannic Imperium Museum in Bloomsbury where he meets love of his life, archaeologist and First Heir House Gallowglass, Ned Winter.
The Gilded Scarab was a finalist in the Romantic Times Reviewerâs Awards and nominated for the Independent Publishers Book Awards in 2015.
The Jackalâs House
Nedâs excavation at Abydos, Aegypt, faces disruptive tricks and pranks that develop into a real threat to their lives, all seeming orchestrated by the god Anubis. When the life of Nedâs young son is on the line, Rafe carries out a daring rescue attempt and learns the shocking truth about his own heritage.
The Jackalâs House won joint first place for Best Gay Historical Romance in the 2018/19 Rainbow Awards, and joint third place for Best Gay Book.
âRafe,â Ned whispered.
He pulled me down over him, bare skin to bare skin. He pushed up to meet me while I ground against him, Nedâs hard cock rubbing my own, and everything was heat and lightning and glory. I kissed his shoulders, then worked my way up his throat until I reached his mouth, the two of us rocking against each other, panting into each otherâs mouths.
Ned slid his hand between us, fisting my cock inside his warm, dry palm. I managed to follow suit with his, although a tiny portion of my mind laughed with delight at the picture we must make, backs curving like contortionists to stay in contact, rubbing each other, kissing and gasping and panting. I held Nedâs heavy cock, squeezing and running my fingers over it⊠and all of a sudden thisâNed, me, everything we felt about each otherâwas so simple and so profound, so right and yet so deep, I couldnât find the words for it.
Ned rubbed his fingertips over the head of my cock, giving it a peculiar little twist that had me letting loose a very manly yelp and moaning out loud. Ned caught the moan in his mouth, and did it again, and then I was riding the surge of pleasure, trying not to yell, grinding into Ned. His kisses lit the lightning flickering through every nerve until the pleasure was almost pain, and I spilt all over Nedâs hand while he pumped hot thick essence over my fingers. We shuddered against each other, panting, gentling the kisses, letting them cool us.
Ned rolled me over until we were lying side by side, then lifted his hand to his mouth and licked his fingers clean, every movement of his tongue languid and luxurious, his eyes gleaming a golden hazel in the dim light. The sight, so wanton and sweet, sent a little jolt to my heart.
Nedâs smile was slow and sleepy now. I reached for the sheet and pulled it up over us, snuggled in, closed my eyes, and followed him into sleep, smiling.
Anna lives in the depths of the Nottinghamshire countryside with her husband and the Deputy Editor, aka Molly the cockapoo, whoâs supported by Mavis the Assistant Editor, a Yorkie-Bichon cross with a bark several times bigger than she is but with no opinion whatsoever on the placement of semi-colons.
Website and Blog
Facebook
The Butlerâs Pantry (Facebook Group)
Pinterest
Twitter
Sign up for Annaâs occasional newsletter
Between 20 January and 07 February, enter this Rafflecoptor for the chance of a first prize $20 (or equivalent) Amazon gift card, or the second prize of an ecopy of The Gilded Scarab
Thank you for hosting me here today!