The Stone Bridge: Book III of the Devil’s Bible Series

Hey guys!

Hope y'all were able to enjoy a nice Holiday. Mine was good. I spent it with family, as it should be.

At any rate, today I'm bringing you something special. Guest, Author Michael Bolan, is presenting us with his newest work.

Sit back, relax and enjoy.

 

Why should history be boring? Throw away the text books which boil our past down to a dreary series of names, dates and places. Immerse yourself in a world of passion and intrigue, where a ragtag band of individuals battles the might of Empires and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Title: The Stone Bridge: Book III of the Devil’s Bible Series
Author: Michael Bolan
Release Date: December 1^st, 2016
Price: $2.99

Blurb:

The Rapture continues to wreak havoc across Europe in its quest to acquire the elemental Seals, the only thing preventing the Devil’s Bible from purging the world in fire. Brought to Prague by the Fianna, the Seals’ only protection lies in the secrecy that shrouds them.

Reinald, leader of the Rapture, enlists the world’s greatest minds to free the Devil’s Bible from the depths of Prague Castle, where it has languished under lock and key for centuries. Meanwhile, the plans of the Four Horsemen unfold, wreaking havoc and misery across the entire continent.

Not content with forcing his siblings from their ancestral home, Reinald sends a vast army to harry and persecute them, forcing them to flee ever eastwards. Taking shelter with their friends, Willem, Leo and Isabella commit to one last act of bravery, making a final stand to defend the city of Prague.

As each nation commits its final resources into the conflict, all roads lead to the Stone Bridge that divides Prague, where the Sons of Brabant and their Fianna allies will face the ultimate test of their strength.

 

Praise for the Devil’s Bible Series

“Meticulously researched and intelligently written, The Sons of Brabant spins itself out gradually, culminating in an especially action-packed climax.”

“There is plague, war, intrigue, back-stabbing, love, and obsession – something for the whole family!”

“A fantastic mix of myth, religious references, fact and fiction layered on to the Thirty Years War.”

“Joyce, Beckett and Behan... meet Bolan. This is a classic sit-by-the-Aga and have a cup of tea page-turner.”

“The Sons of Brabant is a wonderfully crafted novel. This is the best start to a series I've read in quite a while.”

Author Bio:

Michael Bolan: nomadic Irish storyteller

It took Michael Bolan over two decades of running in the corporate ratrace to realise that all he actually did was tell stories.

There was no Damascene revelation for Bolan which caused him to pen his first work of fiction, "The Sons of Brabant". An avid reader, he simply felt that he could do as good a job as many of the authors he read and decided to put his money where his mouth was.

Living and working in many countries left him with smatterings of a dozen languages and their stories, and his love for history focused his ideas on the Thirty Years War, the most destructive conflict that the continent has ever seen.

Now living in Prague (again), Michael brings alive the twisted alleys of the 17th century and recreates the brooding darkness of a fractured Europe, where no-one was entirely sure who was fighting whom.

Michael writes while liberally soused in gin, a testament to Franz de le Boë, who was mixing oil of juniper with neat spirit while the thirty Years War raged around him.

His website is a place where he can post his thoughts and feelings – along with reviews of books he finds lying around the internet.

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Author Central

My Top 10 Books:

1. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco


2. Magician – Raymond Feist


3. A History of the World in 10½ Chapters – Julian Barnes


4. Mort – Terry Pratchett


5. Animal Farm – George Orwell


6. The Sett – Ranulph Fiennes


7. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller


8. Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien


9. On the Beach – Nevil Shute


10. Gods and Fighting Men – Lady Augusta Gregory

10 Things You Need to Know About Me:

1. I read fast, but forget details after a while.


2. I love music and listen to it constantly, but can neither sing nor play an instrument.


3. I’m a cat person.


4. Gin


5. I was born in Northern Ireland, but have lived in ten countries since leaving.


6. I can hold a conversation in seven languages yet struggle to find the right words when I write.


7. I’m actually an introvert, but most people would never realise.


8. Rugby


9. Coffee should be drunk black, without sugar or milk. Or syrup. Or marshmallows. Just coffee.


10. I think of conversation topics and rehearse before social interactions.

:) LOL. I hope y'all enjoyed this today, I did. Okay, so that's all for now. Talk soon.

 

Y. Correa

Guest Post by Michael Bolan: Reefer & Writing

Hey y'all, how goes it? Today I have a friend, writer and special guest who offered to entertain us with a small article I like to call "Reefer & Writing". I thought the concept of the article was hilarious yet super informative. I'm not saying I condone using marijuana while writing, but it indulges the imagination nonetheless. Without further ado, I present you with this Guest Post written by author Michael Bolan.

I started writing because it made daytime gin-drinking acceptable. Expected, almost. “Write drunk, edit sober”, that’s what Hemingway said. It seemed like the best excuse I was going to get…

From Kerouac to Joyce, writers and journos seem to thrive on a steady diet of booze (and who knows what else). Recent reports of cannabis being found in four of Shakespeare’s pipes made me wonder who else was under the influence of nefarious substances when at their most creative. A quick Google search and I was lost. Most revealing was an article about Lee Child, whose Jack Reacher books are so popular that one is bought every two seconds. “I’ve been smoking weed for 44 years, five nights a week,” he stated shamelessly. “My dealer’s on speed dial.”

There’s a theory that poetry and alcohol go together, as complementary means to achieve transcendence. You can trace the idea back to ancient Greece, where poems were created and recited at drinking parties. Many arguments have been put forward for why writers should rely so heavily on mind-altering substances. Kingsley Amis suggests displaced stage fright as a cause of literary substance abuse. The writer might not see his audience, but he’s still aware and still scared. He’s supported by Tennessee Williams, who wrote, "Why does a man drink? There's two reasons, separate or together. 1. He's scared shitless of something. 2. He can't face the truth."

But now science is suggesting something altogether more constructive, and it’s all in the mind, it seems: in the frontal cortex of the brain, to be precise. The average brain is bombarded by up to 100,000 different stimuli every hour and struggles to process them all. The frontal cortex sorts out the useful from the forgettable, processing the information that is most important and storing it away for later use.

But when you get tired, the activity of the frontal cortex slows dramatically because your body starts to block the dopamine receptors in your brain; dopamine is the feel-good chemical, associated with reward, but also with focus, planning and attention span. With the frontal cortex slowing down, other parts of the brain come into play, solving problems in a very different way. The state between wakefulness and sleep, which psychologists call hypnagogia, has often been cited as a creative well. Archimedes had his Eureka moment when he dropped off in the bath, Mendeleev drew the periodic table in his bed, and Paul McCartney wrote down the tune of Yesterday when he woke from a nap. (His original words needed some work, “Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs”). How often have you had a great idea, a moment of intense creativity, while standing on the dreamy precipice between wake and sleep?

Getting drunk, (or high, or both), has a similar effect – it limits frontal cortex activity and allows different parts of the brain to take centre stage. So perhaps the love affair between creative geniuses and mind-altering substances isn’t so much a crutch to support them in the real world, as a gateway to the realm of creativity, where the normal rules don’t apply. Whatever the reason, and whatever the cost, we’re blessed that these people chose their own course, leaving us with a wealth of art we might not otherwise have had.

As Hemingway also said, “Drinking is a way to end the day”. And this post, so I’m off for a drink. G&T, please…

Well, there you have it folks. Now, go entertain yourselves with a book by Mr. Bolan, they are worth the read.