A New Dawn for 2014! Stone Lord + Moon Lord NOW AT STONEHENGE VISITORS CENTRE!

I received some really great news today. My Stonehenge novels, STONE LORD and MOON LORD are now being stocked in the new English Heritage Stonehenge Visitors Centre for 2014!

We made a proposal a couple of months back and it obviously worked! What this means is that potentially over 1 million visitors to the henge a year will be passing through and will have the chance to buy a copy of my books ...

I now have my books for sale in two prehistoric henges/UNESCO World Heritage Monuments - AVEBURY STONE CIRCLE (The Henge Shop) + STONEHENGE !!!

(Print copies can also be obtained at GLASTONBURY'S GOTHIC IMAGE LTD as well as London's oldest esoteric shop, ATLANTIS BOOKSHOP.) Kindle and Print copies available on Amazon as usual, currently riding high in the Charts at No.4 and No.8 in its category.

                                          STONEHENGE'S £27MILLION VISITORS CENTRE

AVEBURY STONE CIRCLE AND HENGE

MOON LORD, PROMOTIONAL TRAILER VIDEO

click here: MOON LORD PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

Many Sun-Turnings have passed since the Ardhu the Stone Lord inherited the kingship of Prydn. His illegitimate son Mordraed seeks his father's hall on the Great Plain, and a place among the famed warriors of Kham-el-Ard, but his appearance brings a shadow and a doubt. With his power waning and the land beginning to fail, Ardhu must lead his warriors on a final journey to retrieve a golden Cup, which the Maimed King of the Wasteland foretells will unite a crumbling kingdom. Gal'havad, most trusted of Ardhu's men, and his only legitimate heir - a sickly youth, half in the World of Spirit - is befriended by his half-brother Mordraed and lured into a deathly pact. Meanwhile, The Merlin, old and ill, struggles to see through the darkness that is rising and is made temporarily powerless to help, betrayed by those he thought friends. With An'kelet and Fynavir's illicit affair discovered, Mordraed manipulates his father into leaving his Kingdom to wage war on his former friend and seizes power himself, turning the fields to dust and slighting Khor Ghor, the great temple to the Ancestors upon the Great Plain.. Mordraed, the Dark Moon, has Risen... and the Stones of the Giants' Dance will fall!

AVAILABLE IN KINDLE,KOBO,NOOK,iTUNES & PRINT

Book One

click here to see the trailer for the first book: Stone Lord: The Legend of King Arthur,The Era of Stonehenge

In Southern Britain, the Giants Dance stands alone on the Great Plain. For 500 years its massive trilithons have remained unruled by any chief. With invaders from distant lands attacking Britain's shores to steal its precious tin, another king must be chosen-this is the Quest of the Merlin, high priest and shaman. He brings together U'thyr Pendraec, the Terrible Head, and the beautiful Y'gerna, wife of another man, and from them a child is born...a boy who can move a sacred stone and take the ancient dagger beneath...a boy who will become High King. With totems of power and an ancestral sword from the depths of the sacred lake, Ardhu Pendraec assumes the mantle of the Stone Lord, ruler of the Great Trilithon, protector of ancient Britain.... It is a time of gold-clad kings, a time of ritual and death, a time of Axe and Dagger. The beautiful Irish Princess, Fynavir, the White Phantom, is Ardhu's chosen Bride. The Breton Prince An'kelet, bearer of the Great Spear, is his right-hand man. Yet, Ardhu's 'Golden Age' is fleeting, with betrayal and deception rife by those closest to him - Morigau, his scheming half-sister, who releases the Boar T'orc to ravage the land...and Fynavir and An'kelet, whose forbidden passion may bring down all the young King has worked to attain. 

DOWNLOAD TO YOUR DEVICE OR BUY IN PRINT HERE

More rave reviews for Stonehenge novel. MOON LORD Sequel to STONE LORD

Signed copies sell well at Avebury's No.1 Pagan Store, The Henge Shop

                      Signed copies of STONE LORD &  MOON LORD ARE AVAILABLE

IN THE HENGE SHOP IN AVEBURY STONE CIRCLE (THE LARGEST STONE CIRCLE IN THE WORLD) Nr SWINDON, WILTSHIRE.

http://www.hengeshop.com/

and another Five Star Review just in ...

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, 22 Dec 2013

By 

Judith

This review is from: Moon Lord: The Fall of King Arthur - The Ruin of Stonehenge (Paperback)

I really enjoyed Stone Lord as I thought it was a well-written, original piece of literature giving a new twist to an old legend.

Moon Lord was eagerly awaited and did not disappoint. The development of the characters, the beautifully written descriptions and inclusion of current archaeological findings and well-know prehistoric sites made for a thoroughly enjoyable and absorbing book. In this novel I didn't once find myself trying to place the action in the traditional Arthurian legend as the book stands entirely on its own merit.

J.P.Reedman has developed into a skilled storyteller and I look forward to her next novel.

THE QUEST FOR THE ROSE. New YA Dystopian Novel, Coming Spring 2014

A world wreathed in endless winter. A dangerous foe hidden in plain sight.
An unlikely heroine on a mysterious quest.

The Quest for the Rose is a tale of fantasy and mystery, darkness and magic. The land of Adanica thrived on magic. Summer and prosperity reigned, while the Wistren, magic wielders and protectors of the realm, were in control. But they grew careless… and when the enigmatic sisterhood of the Sestren descend upon them from the North, they are defeated in a Great War that changes Adanica completely. At the Sestren’s ascension to power, magic is banned and its remaining practitioners persecuted relentlessly. The sisterhood reign with an iron fist under the banner of their cold deity, the Lady of Snows.

They reign unchallenged until Esmerelda Midnight, an awkward, orphaned girl of the lowest place in the social order imposed by the Sestren, accidentally stumbles onto the truth about the holy sisterhood. Their intentions and her own destiny are intertwined as she seeks the long-lost Rose of the World… before it’s too late.

The Quest for the Rose is an exciting, fast-paced story. A tale of an unlikely hero, caught up in a mission that changes her… and her world in the process.

“This is such an intriguing story!” says Martha Kosyfi, the editor of the project. “Fantasy and magic, interwoven with the element of the dark create a powerful, compelling mix; a cruel utopia of a world- seemingly perfect, but in truth, a dystopia in hiding, where nothing is what it seems. A place where magic still roams free, if contained to hidden places, staving off the encroaching darkness. I had great fun working with the author on this project, looking forward to more!”

Janet Reedman wrote her first story at 5 years old, a novel length fantasy at 12, and she’s never stopped! She has always been interested in Celtic mythology (which was, she might say, somewhat in her blood, since her grandmother originally came from Southern Ireland). Her first published novel, Stone Lord, was inspired by the Arthurian legends and acclaimed archaeological digs in which she herself has participated.

The Quest for the Rose is a departure from her usual writing in the historical fiction genre, bearing a dystopian, sci-fi feel. With a nod to Pullman’s Dark Materials and the fiction of Lewis and Tolkien, it’s her first novel to be set in an alternative world and is based heavily on her growing up in Canada during the 1970′s.

“I am very pleased to be working with Oloris Publishing in bringing my first young adult novel to publication. Hopefully this will be the first of many more to come!” ~ J.P. Reedman

SOLSTICE BLOG 'HOP'

THE WINTER SOLSTICE MONUMENTS by J.P Reedman

   The image is iconic. Summer solstice at Stonehenge. Crowds of up to 30,000 crammed within the megalithic circle on Salisbury plain, a sea of faces turned to the north-east where the Heelstone marks the rising sun. As light blooms and the horizon grows bright, horns blow and shouts of the throng echo through the Stones and rise to the sky.

   But…it seems that Midwinter solstice may have been the more important day for the prehistoric people of Stonehenge. Finds by the Riverside Project show that at nearby Durrington Walls the time of the winter Solstice was one of great communal feasting, with young pigs being slaughtered in a ritualised hunt with bows and arrows. The arrows were of a particularly lethal type, made to cause maximum blood loss rather than instant death and there would have lots of squealing and shrieking. (Interestingly a man’s leg bone, also pierced by a similar arrowhead, was founds amidst the bones of the pigs!) There was so much food available to the community of Durrington (which may have seasonally held several thousand inhabitants) that the people were tearing off chunks of the best meat and then throwing away the rest—so that even the Neolithic dogs, resembling modern terriers, had their share.

   Durrington Walls itself was aligned on the rising sun at the Winter Solstice, the light of dawn shining over the nearby hills and lighting the metalled trackway that led down to the River Avon, which may have been considered a sacred waterway like the Ganges, a deep place inhabited by great chthonic spirits, a sacred space to deposit cremations and other offerings.

     However, whereas Durrington Walls and its long vanished circular timber structures, possibly resembling Stonehenge in wood, were aligned on the rising Sun…Stonehenge itself is centred on the setting sun, the winter sun as it dies on the shortest day of the year.

   A journey to Stonehenge at Solstice in 2300 BC might have gone like this…after greeting sunrise at Durrington Walls, with offerings of meat and milk placed in pots beside the entrances, the celebrant or initiate might have travelled down the Avon by boat or foot. Maybe he/she had drunk ‘mead’, the magic drink, the Intoxicator, which gave its name to that famous mythic Irish Queen, Meadbh, or perhaps he/she had taken hallucinogenics—mushrooms or ergot. On either side white riverbanks would tower, strange and disorientating, while the sinuous winding and twisting of the river would add to the otherworldly sensation. Reaching the place where the even older henge monument known as West Amesbury henge once stood (its banks would probably have been visible), the participant would have then travelled up the between the parallel banks of the Avenue, a ceremonial pathway that leads across by King Barrow ridge and down into the valley. For a while Stonehenge itself vanishes from view, hidden by the swell of the land…but as the traveller follows the Avenue onwards, it suddenly appears again, as its builders truly intended it to be seen, rising in layers towards the south-west, with the Great Trilithon, just over twenty four feet tall with its lintel in place, standing pre-eminent over all.

   This is the place where the Sun would have ‘died’ at Midwinter, between the  Great Trilithon’s narrow arch and over the micaceous 16 foot block of the Altar Stone, now lying beneath one massive fallen stone of the Trilithon. Even today, with one side collapsed and the lintel tumbled on the ground, it is impressive to witness the winter sunset from near the Heelstone, watching the sky bleed as the sun sinks through the monument’s remaining stones and descends behind a later round barrow which had a ‘totem pole’ on its top (obviously the grave of someone important connected to Stonehenge in its later phases—a well built male, laid out on a wooden plank.)

   What could the symbolism be? It will always been debated, as no written records exist, but as in most cultures, the sun was seen as a life-giver. The winter solstice would have greater significance than summer because the winter was a time when life was more fragile, when children and the old might sicken and be carried off to the Land of the Dead. Greater feasts and rituals would have to take place to placate the sun, which was probably not seen so much as a ‘god’ with a human face, but a powerful non-anthropomorphic entity. And then there were also the ever-present ancestral spirits (who, far from being friendly Grandma’s ghost, were often seen as malevolent and in need of constant placation!)

   The two faces of Solstice, the rising sun and the setting sun, figure prominently at the cluster of important monuments within the Stonehenge landscape. This is mirrored at the Boyne complex in Ireland. At the Irish tomb of Newgrange, about 600 years older than Stonehenge, the rising sun on the Winter Solstice shines down a 60ft passage to light up the chamber at the end; nearby, at the passage-grave of Dowth (the Hill of Darkness), the alignment is on the winter solstice sunset, as it is at Stonehenge. Interestingly Newgrange and its satellite temple-tombs are also near a ‘sacred river,’ the Boyne, whose mythological deity was Boann, the White Cow.

   One wonders if the Great Trilithon, built several hundred years later than Newgrange’s famous Lightbox, was meant in some way to represent the mouth of an earlier chamber tomb (this is thought to be the case in monuments such as the Cove at Avebury), having a similar function but with some of the emphasis passing from the more funereal to multi-functional, from Ancestors to deities, from events hidden from living eyes within encasing stone to something that that could be witnessed by people standing outside the monument on the Avenue.

    Recently there have been some local attempts to recreate a procession down the Stonehenge Avenue on the night before Solstice as the sun sets. Unfortunately problems over land access has caused the route to be changed this year, but the solstice walk will now take in a section of the Avon where the ancient people would have passed on their processional route and also the ‘sacred pool’ recently discovered at Vespasian’s camp (on private land) where deposits of a Roman curse and bronze age dagger, like Excalibur thrown into the waves, followed a massive ancient deposition of flint by Mesolithic hunters who feasted there, eating wild boar and giant Aurochs…the pre-Stonehenge people, who may have made this part of Wiltshire a ‘sacred Ancestral Space.’

~ J.P. Reedman, Solstice 2013

Last years Solstice Lantern Parade from Stonehenge to Amesbury

This years Solstice Fairy, Cara Druce

Janet Reedman is author of two historical novels, STONE LORD and MOON LORD, which take place at the time of Stonehenge but utilize the Arthurian legends as a basis. She is also author of various short stories and poetry relating to myth and prehistory, available as e-books. 

1. Helen Hollick : A little light relief concerning those dark reviews! Plus a Giveaway Prize
3. Prue Batten : Casting Light....
4. Alison Morton ‎ Shedding light on the Roman dusk. plus giveaway
5. Anna Belfrage http://annabelfrage.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/let-there-be-light-2/
6. Beth Elliott : Steering by the Stars. Stratford Canning in Constantinople, 1810/12
7. Melanie Spiller : Lux Aeterna, the chant of eternal light
8. Janet Reedman   The Winter Solstice Monuments
9. Petrea Burchard  : Darkness - how did people of the past cope with the dark? plus giveaway
10. Richard Denning : The Darkest Years of the Dark Ages: what do we really know? Plus a Giveaway Prize! 
11. Pauline Barclay  : Shedding Light on a Traditional Pie
12. David Ebsworth : Propaganda in the Spanish Civil War
13. David Pilling  :  Greek Fire. Plus giveaway
14. Debbie Young : Fear of the Dark
15. Derek Birks  : Lies, Damned Lies and … Chronicles
16. Mark Patton : Casting Light on Saturnalia
17. Tim Hodkinson : Soltice@Newgrange
18. Wendy Percival  : Ancestors in the Spotlight
19. Judy Ridgley : Santa and his elves  Plus a Giveaway Prize
20. Suzanne McLeod  : Dark of the Moon
21. Katherine Bone   : Admiral Nelson, A Light in Dark Times
22. Christina Courtenay : The Darkest Night of the Year
23. Edward James  : The secret life of Christopher Columbus; Which Way to Paradise?
24. Janis Pegrum Smith  : Into The Light - A Short Story
25. Julian Stockwin  : Ghost Ships - Plus a Giveaway Present
26.  Manda Scott http://wordpress.mcscott.co.uk/ 
27. Pat Bracewell Anglo-Saxon Art: Splendor in the Dark
28.   http://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/we-will-have-fire-arson-during.html
29. Nicole Evelina What Lurks Beneath Glastonbury Abbey? 
30. Sky Purington  :  How the Celts Cast Light on Current American Christmas Traditions
31. Stuart MacAllister (Sir Read A Lot) : The Darkness of Depression
    a few links may not be working; if not try these instead--
    

    Prue Batten  http://pruebatten.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/casting-light/

    Anna Belfrage http://annabelfrage.wordpress.com/2013/12/20/let-there-be-light-2/
    Beth Elliott                       http://regencytales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/steering-by-stars-stratford-canning-in.html 
    

The Winter Witch and the Krampus. YULE STORY **FREE FOR A LTD. TIME!**

This is my latest offering on Kindle, for just .94p over the Christmas period.

A YA fantasy novella, which can be enjoyed by adults as well, loosely based on the folklore of the Alpine regions, where the Krampus, a demonic being, goes amongst girls and boys with his switch, seeking the naughty on one terrifying night. In The Winter Witch and the Krampus, Hildefrith the Witch loses control over the wintry weather when the evil town Mayor sends her a cuckoo clock that contains...a Krampus, who, with his sinister companion Nickor, steals her Book of Spells and began to unravel winter, melting the customary snow and ice. 
With the aid of the strange silver child known as Argent and the enchanted Erl-King from Everlode in the far North, can Hildefrith restore the town to its peaceful winter state? Or will the snow melt on the mountains and wash the entire town of Joyous Noel into deep Diamond Lake?

... FREE FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY ...

Said about TWWATK : "This is a wonderful tale of a witch,a Krampus and a child who is not what he seems. Lively prose with great imagery makes it suitable for both kids and adults.If you like the works of Tanith Lee and the films of Tim Burton,this one's for you. It's a good counterbalance to all the sickly fluff that floats around this time of year."

BUY ON AMAZON UK

BUY ON AMAZON COM

4.0 out of 5 stars nice winter story 24 Dec 2013

By J. Joe - Published on Amazon.com

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a short story and it was free when I got it. I liked the story and found it to be written well. The characters amused me. It does have a bit of fantasy in it. Its an interesting tale. I do recommend it.

A New Dawn: New Stonehenge Visitors Centre

LOOK AT THE NEW STONEHENGE VISITORS CENTRE

Tomorrow sees the opening of the new Stonehenge Visitors Centre, a multi-million pound project that has taken years to realize.

Opening to mixed reactions stemming from the politics of the situation over the last few decades, there won't  be anyone hopefully who won't agree that interpretation has been sadly lacking at Stonehenge for decades.

Finds from the Stonehenge Landscape have been portioned out to various academic institutions and two museums over Wiltshire and the U.K. Finally, some of those finds are now coming home back to the landscape including some interesting and rarely seen burials.

It's taken time, money, a great deal of public consultation, but initially the results look a billion dollars better than the woeful and outdated facilities that see over 1 million visitors a year from all over the world coming to our part of Wiltshire.

In my world of Stone Lord and Moon Lord, my remit was to provide that interpretation in the form of fiction where I could bring the people alive.

The stones did not build themselves. It's people that worked and lived in this landscape for the last 10,000 years since the days of our hunter gatherer ancestors settling down at the warm springs next to the River Avon, erecting large pine posts on the site where Stonehenge came to be built, 5,000 years later. With outlandish theories ranging from alien landing sites to portals to other dimensions, the basics are pretty simple. It's the people that have been missing from the landscape and this is where we will learn about Stonehenge, from the continued examination of them and their material culture.

Like any big changes, there have been casualties, and the politics seemingly doesn't show any of sign of disappearing. There's been difference of opinion throughout mankind's history as regards the nature of religion, how the dead are treated, and how our history has had to become sustainable in order to survive in this commercial climate. Material culture is not a new concept, it's a thing that would have been very familiar to ancient man, especially at the height of the Bronze Age.

Addendum - 31 Dec 2013 : You can now pick up copies of both my novels at the new Stonehenge Visitors Centre!

J.P.R 

Another 5 Star Amazon Review

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dark Moon is Rising.., 8 Dec 2013 By  Olivia - See all my reviews This review is from: Moon Lord: The Fall of King Arthur - The Ruin of Stonehenge (Paperback) `Moon Lord' picks up some years after Reedman's previous 'Stone Lord' and reimagines the later stages of the Arthurian saga in the same Bronze Age setting, centered around the Stonehenge landscape.  The plot revolves around Ardhu's waning strength and confidence in his role as unquestioned ruler, and in turn the reader is witness to a reversal of fortunes for several of the main cast. The illicit lovers Fynavir and An'kelet are discovered and reduced, Merlin is 'elf-shot' and weakened. All this makes for a darker, more emotionally explorative novel.  Even the new character of Mordraed, the Moon Lord himself, is no exception; he is compromised, hesitant to enact his dark fate and compelling. Only Morigau remains untroubled and deliciously maniacal.  I won't reveal the climax, but suffice to say it is faithful to the novel's darker tone and harshness of climate in which it is set. In terms of form, Moon Lord continues the rich imagery and vividness of setting I so enjoyed in the first book.  The locations map and glossary of place/character names are welcome additions that enhance appreciation.

SUCCESSFUL BOOK LAUNCH IN AMESBURY 2013 FOR "MOON LORD"

"No epic is a realistic representation of a society or age ; it is a fantasy, but a fantasy in which reality keeps breaking through ... " - Heinrich Schliemann

AMAZON.COM CLICK HERE for Moon Lord in Kindle for $5.20

AMAZON.UK FOR EUROPEAN READERS
iTUNES CLICK HERE  Available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.

New Book from J.P Reedman

A new e-Book, from the author of Stone Lord, Moon Lord, Dance of the Dead, The Sword of Tulkar ...

The Jewel Karngorm DOWNLOAD HERE

Product Description

A short story set in the British Bronze Age, in a time of warfare and unrest. The warrior-woman Habren of the Shirdani seeks the Jewel Karngorm to release her shaman brother from the dreadful sleep of Death. But a price must be paid for using such a powerful talisman...and who will pay it?

Just 0.77p Pounds Sterling

$1.26 US USA and .com customers CLICK HERE

!!!! FREE TODAY !!!! FRIDAY 6TH DECEMBER 2013

THE WORKS OF J.P REEDMAN

Amesbury Museum MOON LORD Book Signing - Saturday 07/12/13

I will be doing a book signing at Amesbury Museum and Heritage Centre, Melor Hall, Church Street, Amesbury on Saturday 7th December where I will be signing copies of my latest Stonehenge novel, Moon Lord, as well as 2nd Edition copies of Stone Lord, published last year.

I hope you can attend and look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible. Need an unusual Christmas present for a loved one - one that is singularly about Amesbury's prehistoric past? Look no further...

Amesbury Museum and Heritage Centre  - Home of Blick Mead and Vespasians Camp, the oldest continually inhabited town in Britain. Cradle of Stonehenge.

DECEMBER ISSUE OF THE STONEHENGE TRADER. PAGE TWO MENTION!