PUBLISHED TODAY!
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The God’s Eye, the third Lancaster’s Luck book, is published today by Glass Hat Press (aka: me!)
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About The God’s Eye
Rafe Lancaster is reluctantly settling into his role as the First Heir of House Stravaigor. Trapped by his father’s illness and his new responsibilities, Rafe can’t go with lover Ned Winter to Aegypt for the 1902/03 archaeological digging season. Rafe’s unease at being left behind intensifies when Ned’s 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 Thoth’s deadly secrets, Ned is out of contact and far from help. When he doesn’t return at Christmas as he promised, everything points to trouble. Rafe is left with a stark choice – abandon his dying father or risk never seeing Ned again.
Wordcount: c110,000
Category: Steampunk adventure | M/M romance.
eBook Publication Date: 21 January 2020
Publisher: Glass Hat Press © 2020
Editors: Desi Chapman (Blue Ink Editing)
Megan Reddaway
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Internal Art: Margaret Warner
Buy Links
Payhip – pays me the most in royalties! Available in epub and mobi (Kindle) formats
Universal link to digital bookstores (Amazon, Kobo, B&N etc)
Paperbacks will soon be available from Amazon or you can get a signed copy direct from me. I sell at a discount against Amazon prices, but as I’m in the UK, the postage may be higher.
Early Reviews
“Anna Butler’s The God’s Eye is an absolute delight, and I am glad to recommend this romantic steampunk adventure…. I’ve enjoyed the Lancaster’s Luck series and hero, Rafe Lancaster, since book 1, The Gilded Scarab. And the series kept building in intrigue and romance with The Jackal’s House. So I am happy to say that The God’s Eye certainly delivers and is my favorite of the series. Rafe’s voice is as charming as ever, and Ned’s archeological explorations are central to this one. I won’t give away any more, except to say I highly recommend this novel.” – Desi Chapman, Blue Ink Editing, announcing her ‘editor’s favourite’ of the books she worked on in 2019.
Launch Giveaway and Tour
– 20$ (or equivalent) Amazon gift card
– an eBook version of the first Lancaster’s Luck book, The Gilded Scarab (or anything from my back list if you have this one already)
I’m visiting various blogs over the next few days where you’ll have other chances to enter the Rafflecoptor Giveaway:
| DATE | Blog |
| 2o Jan | Joyfully Jay |
| 21 Jan | My Fiction Nook |
| 23 Jan | MM Good Book Reviews |
| 24 Jan | Love Bytes |
| Bayou Bay Junkie | |
| 26 Jan | Boy Meets Boy Reviews |
| 27 Jan | Drops of Ink |
Excerpt
It was late, and most people in Cairo were sleeping. Not all of them. Outside in the street, a voice said something light and amused as its owner walked past, fading into laughter, and a cart rumbled by with the slow plod of hooves echoing against the midnight quiet.
We weren’t sleeping, either. Not yet even in bed.
Ned slid his hands through my hair and along my jaw, the touch light and caressing. Loving.
The curtains blew apart to let in the moonlight, stirred by a breeze bringing the scent of roses from the Ezbekiah Gardens with a faint underlay of the city’s prevailing tang of camel dung.
Ned’s mouth met mine.
And the world outside our hotel window, the warm, fervid Aegyptian night, vanished away. Its sounds muted into a stillness in which my heart beat a wild tattoo in my chest. The whole universe sharpened to the nucleus that was Ned, and Ned’s hands, and Ned’s kisses.
When Ned drew back and the kisses became the gentle brush of lips against lips, he unbuttoned my evening jacket. He was a most efficient valet. He worked swiftly, slipping the coat from my shoulders while I wrenched away my cravat myself, tossing it over a nearby chair before tugging the hem of my shirt free of my trousers. I smiled at him as I raised my arms, letting him pull the shirt up over them. It joined the jacket on the chair. Hugh would tut-tut in the morning over how creased it was. Not that I cared.
Ned stopped to look at me. His eyes were eclipsed, the greeny-golden hazel a mere corona around his dark, widened pupils, and his breathing was harsher than normal. He licked his lips, his tongue flickering out to pass over their fullness. I bit back the moan the wicked, lascivious sight drew from me. The pure wantonness of it.
Ned gave me a sly little smile and ran his tongue over his lips again. I might have whimpered. I am as affected by beauty as much as the next man.
Our last real night together. The next day I would take them to Hermopolis, and the day after I’d be returning to Cairo alone. The following five months’ worth of nights would be Ned-less, blank and empty. That night in Cairo was to treasure and savour, to be my bulwark against loneliness.
He skimmed his fingers over the skin under my trouser waistband, round from the small of my back and over my hip bone, making me jump and laugh, until he reached the button fly and worked it open. It was good to step out of them, and it was the work of a few seconds to shimmy out of the cotton drawers I wore beneath. Ned watched me, raking his wide, lust-blown gaze up and down.
I licked my lips. “Either I’m underdressed for the occasion or you need to hurry to catch up.”
Ned laughed. He splayed his hand over my chest, fingertips over my thumping heart. “You’re beautiful. And I am overdressed.”
For a man who’d had a valet all his life, Ned was handy at getting out of his clothing in a trice. It was sheer pleasure to watch the swift unveiling of those long limbs and the pale skin which glowed in the soft light of the aether lamps on the table beside the bed. The scar from the accident that killed his wife, jagged and frosty-white, arced around his chest. The sight of it always hurt. Ned could have died that day, and I’d have lived without knowing him. The thought always left me feeling my heart was plummeting through the bottom of my chest. As I often did, I leaned forward to gentle the scar with my mouth and hands. The faint ridges of the damaged skin reassured me. Ned was alive. Loved.
Mine.
About Lancaster’s Luck
The Lancaster’s Luck series – which is best read in sequence – is set in a steampunk world where, at the turn of the twentieth century, the eight powerful Convocation Houses are the de facto rulers of the Britannic Imperium. In this world of politics and assassins, a world powered by luminiferous aether and phlogiston, and where aeroships fill the skies, Captain Rafe Lancaster, late of Her Majesty’s Imperial Aero Corps, buys a coffee house in one of the little streets near the Britannic Museum in Bloomsbury.
So begins the steampunk-coffee house adventure/mystery m/m romance series.
The Gilded Scarab : Returning to London, hard up and looking for a new career after being invalided out of the Aero Corps, 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. (https://books2read.com/The-Gilded-Scarab). The Gilded Scarab was a finalist in the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Awards, and nominated for the Independent Publishers Book Awards in 2015.
The Jackal’s House: Ned’s 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 Ned’s young son is on the line, Rafe carries out a daring rescue attempt and learns the shocking truth about his own heritage. (https://books2read.com/The-Jackals-House) The Jackal’s House won joint first place for Best Gay Historical Romance in the 2018/19 Rainbow Awards, and joint third place for Best Gay Book.
Spreading The Word
One of the lovely people who preordered a previous book told me she’d started reading my novels because of a “glowing recommendation from a co-worker”. More than anything else, that kind of personal recommendation is pure gold to an author.
If you’re enjoying the series and you feel comfortable about recommending it to fellow readers, please do spread the word. Twitter, Facebook, or sharing the cover on Instagram or Pinterest using the links I’ve given you here in the newsletter.. word of mouth to all your mates down the pub… it all helps enormously.
If you’d like to use pre-done Twitter texts or Facebook post, then go to DROPBOX where you can download the texts and a copy of the cover (you don’t have to be a member of Dropbox to use this link – choose the ‘download’ link in the top RH corner of the screen). The pre-done texts are purely factual – links, blurb etc. If you use them let me know, and I’ll add your name and email into the Giveaway.
Anything you do in this regard is going above and beyond, and I know that. It will be much appreciated.
PUBLISHED TODAY!
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Anna Butler 
Congrats on the new release!
Just to let you know, the Payhip link isn’t working for me.
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Thank you!
And thank you for alerting me about the link. I’ve fixed it!
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