M. A. McRae, author

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Never a victim.

Very pleased with this review for 'Not a Man.'

Compelling reading, 6 Jan 2013

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Not a Man: The Story of Shuki Bolkiah: 1 (Paperback)

'Not a Man is as much an exploration of the consequences of unimaginable beauty as it is a story of unimaginable horror. Set against a vivid international backdrop that veers towards fantasy but never so far as to be unbelievable, it tells of Shuki, a beautiful young boy castrated as a child on the orders of his master to keep him that way. The characterisation is superb, no one is completely good nor evil, and Shuki himself is stoic, tenacious, intelligent and at times downright Machiavellian, but never a victim and importantly, never unlikeable.

A unique premise handled with both confidence and compassion. I would recommend this.'

I am especially pleased because I never saw Shuki as just a victim - he is far, far more. Machiavellian? I hadn't thought of him as quite Machiavellian, but cunning, certainly - never the sweet and docile boy his master likes to think. That he poisons the doctor who did the 'small operation' proves that - and he was only ten at the time.

The next book in the series is 'The King's Favourite' (published)

There are stories from ancient times of eunuchs rising to high positions as King's Advisers. Can it happen again?

followed by 'To Love and To Protect,' (not yet published and the book-cover far from final.)

A Story of love and of life.

To buy 'Not a Man' or 'The King's Favourite' as an ebook:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Samray

or other online retailers.

To buy as a Paperback, Barnes and Noble,

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/-Not-a-Man----McRae?keyword=%22Not+a+Man%22+++McRae&store=book

or other online retailers.

If you like what you read, of course, a review is always welcome.

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Don’t be in a hurry to publish

Don’t be in a hurry to publish

It is so easy to publish now. No longer are manuscripts waiting for months and years as hopeful authors query agents and publishers. But that waiting time served a purpose. All the while, most authors would be looking again and again at that manuscript, not just picking up errors of grammar and spelling, but noticing that discontinuity, realising that that part needed a bit of explanation, noticing the awkward sentences and smoothing them out. The story was polished.

But now, some authors write ‘The End,’ and immediately start formatting for publication. I think that was why a recent novel I read was so hard to follow – that the author was impatient. Others have too many errors – errors that should have been picked up by the author long since. It is not good enough to upload a rough story, and expect to fix the mistakes later. People are going to pay money for a story, and even if you only charge 99c for the ebook - even if you offer it free for that matter – it should be a polished and professional work of art.

Take your time, get it perfect. Wait a month, and have a look at it again. Wait a couple of months, go back to it, and only then, when you’re totally satisfied, should you publish. It is a lot more important to do it right than to do it quick.

All the best works of art take time to form – sometimes a very long time. My best book was completed around five years ago, and was only published October, 2011. That was 'Not a Man.'

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Man-Shuki-Series-ebook/dp/B0089H5X58/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339113886&sr=1-2

Sunday, 16 December 2012

Kids in Care? Children's Home?

So alright, this is an ad.

Just that I think these books would be good gifts for kids who are in, or have experienced living in foster homes or institutions. If you're a foster parent, especially a short-term foster parent, or if you run a Children's Home, you should consider adding them to your library.

They are complete novels, of 90,000 words and 70,000 words respectively, (around 300 pages.) They are suitable for adults and for teenagers.

They are not the sort of 'Misery Literature' that seems so prevalent these days, but stories of the boys, full of character, and Penwinnard, a Home for twenty-four boys who have no home of their own.

The books are $12.50 for 'Angel No More,' and $9.50 for 'You Gotta Have Manners.'
The second might especially interest you if you have a child who wets the bed. Check the opening pages, free, on the Smashwords or Amazon sites if you want.

Buy from: http://www.amazon.com/M.-A.-McRae/e/B008BYWRQ2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1340847276&sr=1-1

or from the UK site:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=M.%20A.%20McRae

Also available in eBooks, currently just 99c, soon to be $2.99.

Saturday, 1 December 2012

Young girls forced to wed?


Afghan girl killed over refusal to wed Friday, November 30, 2012 » 05:56am taken direct from the Bigpond Home News page. Two men have been arrested for slitting the throat of an Afghan girl after her family refused a marriage proposal, police say. The girl was carrying water from a river to her village home in northern Kunduz province on Wednesday when she was murdered, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told AFP. 'The two men attacked her and slit her throat with a knife,' he said on Thursday. 'They were arrested and are in police custody.' Hussaini said one of the suspects had proposed marriage to the girl, but her family had rejected the offer. Extreme violence against women and girls remains a major problem in the conservative Muslim nation more than a decade after US-led troops brought down the notoriously brutal Taliban Islamist regime. According to figures by British charity organisation Oxfam, 87 per cent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage. Last month a 20-year-old woman was beheaded by her husband's family in the western province of Herat after she refused to become a prostitute, police said. Four people were arrested over the brutal killing. And in September, five people were arrested over the public flogging of a 16-year-old girl for allegedly having an affair. The girl was whipped 100 times in front of village elders and family members in central Ghazni province. Her alleged boyfriend was fined. Unmarried girls are often confined to the home and forbidden from maintaining any contact with men outside the immediate family. * But it is not only conservative Muslim cultures where girls and women are effectively slaves to the men in their family. There are certain Christian cults where the Master, Divine Leader - whatever they call him -have claimed access to the girls as a right. Even in the sort of Christian derivative sects whose representatives come knocking at your door - they invariably preach that women are very much second class citizens. In past centuries, European cultures were just as bad as the Taliban would have it now - young girls married off without the option, girls kept in strict seclusion, women unable to earn a living and deprived of an education, men exhorted to keep control of their wives to the point where beatings are condoned, even 'honour killings.' But mainly, western cultures are far more enlightened in the treatment of women. Women may complain of being ignored in conversation, or being passed over for a job, but they are far from slaves. I am now working on the third in my Shuki series. Shuki lives in a culture where girls are given away as brides, often without any consultation, where they are regarded as marriageable from the age of thirteen, and where, if they're not found to be 'pure' on the wedding night, they are lucky if they escape with only a beating. I have not preached directly against these customs in my books - they are just a part of the culture. It seems to me that if anyone reads and does not recognise the cruelty and injustice behind these customs, they must be ignorant indeed.

To find my books, go to https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Samray

or http://www.amazon.com/M.-A.-McRae/e/B008BYWRQ2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1340847276&sr=1-1

Thursday, 29 November 2012

New Release - the first two Penwinnard Stories

New Release:

The first two Penwinnard Stories

are now available on Amazon

as eBooks or as paperbacks.

The Penwinnard Stories are set in a privately run Boys' Home in Cornwall. It caters for 24 boys of between 11 and 18 (or until they leave school.)

Ian MacKender is the manager, and likes to boast that he runs the best institution of its type in the whole of the UK and very possibly, the whole of the world. The boys think it's the best as well. It's right next to the beach.

Penwinnard means place of the falcons.

The boys are proud to be falcons.

(This image with the kind permission of Greta van der Rol.)

The first two Penwinnard Stories have just been released on Amazon.

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/M.-A.-McRae/e/B008BYWRQ2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1340847276&sr=1-1

Amazon UK author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=M.%20A.%20McRae

Amazon US:

‘Angel No More’ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=%22Angel+No+More%22++%2C+mcrae

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=You+Gotta+Have+Manners%2C++mcrae

'Angel No More' is the first of stories.

He calls himself Robert Kelly, known as Bob. They call him the mystery boy.

A boy is discovered walking on a country road. He is injured, exhausted, lost and alone. He refuses to tell what happened to him, and the name he gives matches no records. But he tells a story, a story of routine kidnaps, murders, and abuse. It wasn't him, though - he was never there. ‘Someone’ had told him about it. This is the story of Bob, who would never again be called Angel.

Ian Mackender is the manager of Penwinnard Boys' Home. . He knows his boys, he knows the good and bad of them. He understands them better than they understand themselves. But this new one? He doesn’t understand Bob.

When the story finally breaks, the ramifications will be felt worldwide.

'You Gotta Have Manners' is the second.

Sid wants a new family and is willing to go to a lot of trouble to find one.
As he says rather too often, 'You Gotta Have Manners.'

A review for 'You Gotta Have Manners'

After reading ‘Angel No More’, I was hoping for more of the same – and I wasn’t disappointed. Although the focus is slightly more on young Sid, who’s desperate for a new adoptive family, there is still plenty of action involving the other boys. We’ve said goodbye to some characters and we meet a few new ones, but as before this is a fly-on-the-wall account of life in a privately-run boys’ home in Cornwall. And it’s beautifully done too, with just the right amount of detail. The author has perfect timing – knowing when to focus in on something specific and when to pull back and give us the wider picture, resulting in a satisfying read. Thoroughly recommended again. (see on Smashwords)