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Kim J Cowie Author Posts

Witch’s Box sequel

steampunk girl

Work is in progress for two sequels to “The Witch’s Box”. The first appeared on Jan 15 2021 as an e-book with the title “The Golim War” (available now for sales), and as a paperback. Princess Maihara supports the rebel General Tarchon in his struggle against the Sar Empire. An e-book cover is shown here.

Order:

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com – or search Kindle for Kim J Cowie

Kim J. Cowie is also on Goodreads.

Review – The Many Not the Few

The Many Not the Few – the stolen history of the Battle of Britain by Richard North. (This is the first of what I hope will become an occasional series of book reviews)

Richard North is a defence analyst and blogger. In this book he seeks to dismantle the myth that ‘The Few’ – the small group of fighter pilots who fought in the ‘Battle of Britain’ – saved Britain from invasion in 1940. North paints a much wider picture.

Hitler’s war aim was to force Britain out of the war rather than to defeat Britain, and to achieve this he had to force Britain to come to terms. To do this, he mounted a three-fold pressure. While diplomatic approaches seeking a settlement were made in secret, Hitler attempted a blockade, threatened an invasion, and sought to undermine the morale of the British population. The blockade consisted of attacking shipping bringing supplies to British shores, and attacking our ports from the air. Preparations were made for an invasion, a threat which also had the useful result of keeping within Britain forces that could have been used elsewhere for fighting in the Mediterranean or protecting convoys. Finally, air attacks were meant, among other things, to undermine the will of the British people to resist. If the people had not been determined to resist, Churchill would have been forced to come to terms, just as various countries on the Continent had done.

Resistance to Hitler’s aims at sea was just as important as the battle in the air, and so was the determination of the people to resist bombing attack. North points out the importance of wartime propoganda: claims of Luftwaffe losses were greatly exaggerated, compounded by the comparison of Fighter Command losses with total German fighter and bomber losses. In fact, if one counts the total losses in all air commands on both sides, British and German aircraft losses were almost equal. The existence of an invasion threat was useful to Churchill, who could point to it to stiffen the resistance of the British people.

In actuality, the invasion threat was just that, a threat. The Germans gathered large numbers of barges in visible preparation for an invasion, but unlike the Allies in 1944 they did not possess any of the specialist ships and landing craft required for an opposed beach landing, in which material had to be unloaded at speed. German generals and admirals knew this and kept pointing it out to Hitler. Even when it became clear that an invasion was not practical, the Germans kept up the pretence of preparation to maintain the pressure on Britain.

On the whole, the British Government did a good job of resisting the Germans, though there were significant lapses. Even though fighter pilots were a scarce resource, no official efforts were made to rescue them should they have to bale out over the Channel, and many were drowned. Air-sea rescue was only set up much later. The Germans on the other hand had an efficient seaplane rescue service. The British rather unsportingly used to shoot these planes down.

Initially, little or no provision was made to aid people bombed out of their homes, and they were left to go from one office to another trying to get relief, being treated rather like cross-channel migrants. In a notorious incident hushed up at the time, a school acting as a relief centre for the bombed out, who should have been bussed to safety, suffered a direct hit from a bomb which killed a large but still unknown number of people. The provision of deep shelters was actively refused as a matter of policy, and people were forbidden from using the Underground stations as deep shelters. Only when people started breaking in, or buying platform tickets to gain access, was this policy reluctantly reversed. In various places, people used dank and facility-less tunnels as ready-made shelters. With a bit more incompetence in this area, a change in public mood could have lost us the war.

The question of war aims was another bone of contention. Those of a socialist bent wanted the Government to promise a workers’ utopia, wheras Churchill was determined that after the war things would remain the same as before. This thinking found its outlet in the myth of ‘The Few’ versus a ‘people’s war’.

This is a thought-provoking book and well worth reading.

The Witch’s Box

The Witch's Box cover

This is the first volume of a trilogy.

Imperial Princess Maihara does not get on well with her autocratic father and absorbs radical ideas from her tutor. Meanwhile, the Western capital is under assault by rebels, inspiring the strong-willed and curious Maihara to dabble with the magical box gifted to her by an unknown donor.

For more details, see ‘My Books’

https://mybook.to/Witchs_Box

Non-writing tech stuff 2

I bought a MSP990 36 volt satellite positioner box to update my satellite setup. It came without a user manual. I assumed I could easily download one, but no, nothing to be found anywhere. I tried purchasing one online, and mymanuals.net claimed to have it, but when I paid the fee the manual did not download, the manual was not in their database and all I got when contacting them was a lot of weasly excuses.

Later I managed to figure out the essentials of how to operate the box so I could use it. The standard definition satellite receivers now don’t seem worth a lot of effort to repair them, as more channels switch to HD. Currently I have one HD euro satellite box and one working SD.

A few days ago I received a new router from my internet service provider, as I had had the original one for 8 years. I just had to pay a postage and packing fee, and agree to send the old one back.

Witch’s Box news

The Witch's Box cover

I am working on a sequel, , and have a complete draft which is now under revision. The provisional plan is to e-publish another instalment on the aniversary of publication of the first part (15th January).

Non-writing tech stuff

I am used to electronic kit being mostly reliable but have had an epidemic of failures in the past few months, several discovered yesterday:

Two spare BD players – both no longer play BDs

Satellite receiver/positioner – died.

Spare satellite receiver/positioner – remote control dead, half of positioner not working.

Universal programmable remote control – dead.

I have had the multisatellite system for quite a long time and it has undergone several modifications. The dish is moved by a 36 volt jack actuator, which will mean little to most people, but it is a scheme which has become obsolete for domestic-sized dishes. Similarly the integrated satellite receiver/ positioners have become obsolete. The makers of my two do not seem to be even making any satellite receivers of this type any more.

Which leaves me with a problem, since the whole system is currently unusable with no working positioner. How to repair and future proof the system? I intend to purchase a stand-alone dish positioner box, which will get the system working and allow both receivers to work. All components of the system will then be replaceable with parts that are currently available new or used.

Too bad that the all4one remote died as I was going to program it to replace the dead satellite remote, but a replacement for the Echostar remote is only £10. I could work it from the front panel but it seems worth the investment to avoid crouching over the set-top box.


Upcoming Internet Radio interview

The Witch's Box cover This Thursday (6 Feb) I have an interview booked on Chat and Spin Radio at 4:50 pm, where I will be interviewed for about 6 minutes about my latest title “The Witch’s Box.”

If you are not already a listener to internet radio, you will need to download an app, e.g. TuneIn (for PC).

CHATANDSPINRADIO.COM

“Welcome to the website of Chat and Spin Radio! The home of MORE MUSIC and MORE VARIETY. Listen to us on the go via our app and on the Tune In Radio app. We are a 24 hour Internet Radio Station Broadcasting over 6 years covering UK Local, National & International with our Head Office based in Tyne & Wear. We interview Book Authors / Bands / Singers / Charities / Businesses / Groups.”

“The Witch’s Box” now published

The Witch's Box cover“The Witch’s Box” (Kindle and paperback versions) is now available on Amazon. See details in post below.
Handy links:
https://mybook.to/Witchs_Box
amazon.co.uk/kim+j+cowie
amazon.com/kim+j+cowie

Please be aware that you don’t need to own a Kindle tablet to buy Kindle books – you can download them to a PC and you should see a link to download the Kindle book manager for PC.  The same applies to Android devices IIRC.

What early readers said:

“That was a very good read, by some margin the best I’ve read by this author .”
“…the execution of teaching Maihara about life is fabulous.”
“This isn’t the usual genre I’d read but I really enjoyed the book.”
“This is a well-structured, fun read with some incredibly well done battles and an intriguing magic system.”

Apologies for the pricing of the paper back, but it is 500 pages long and some 30mm thick.

 

Upcoming novel

Kindle Cover I will shortly be releasing another epic fantasy novel: “The Witch’s Box.”
I started writing this over five years ago, based around a character from an earlier story, and on the way the plot and the working title have changed, and the story has grown in length.

Imperial Princess Maihara grew up cocooned in luxury, but as she nears adulthood, her cocoon becomes a trap. Her father dislikes her and suspects her of having witchy powers, just like her dead mother. And reformist rebels are besieging the city. With the Empire in peril, Maihara opens a magical Box gifted to her by an unknown hand, but it all goes horribly wrong when she is caught conjuring a flying monster and imprisoned on her father’s orders. The rebels and their barbarian allies capture the city, and Maihara, with no experience of life outside the Palace, must use all her courage and intelligence to survive. Unable to find safety anywhere, and hunted by her father’s sinister Fifth Bureau, she must contend with warfare, politics and a handsome rebel general while clinging to her dream of becoming Empress.

 

Publication date should be 15 Jan 2020 on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions.

paperback cover
Draft paperback cover

Fantasy Map
Draft map