And following straight on from my last post, I’m pleased to announce that my other two novels, Taromancer and A Fairy Story By Any Other Name, are now on Google Play as well.
 © 2013 Alex Sumner |
 © 2014 Alex Sumner |
| Taromancer | A Fairy Story By Any Other Name |
Filed under A Fairy Story By Any Other Name, Books, Taromancer
Android users rejoice! You now have the opportunity to purchase my novels as ebooks from Google Play! This is in addition to Amazon Kindle, and iTunes. If you have an Android-enabled smartphone or tablet and want to both terrified and yet strangely aroused by some visionary & metaphysical fiction, follow these links:
| The Magus Trilogy | ||
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| The Magus | Opus Secunda | Licence To Depart |
Filed under Books, Eternal Witch, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, The Magus
Alex Sumner, novelist and writer on the Occult and now Football manager as well!
MANCHESTER – Officials at Old Trafford today have named José Mourinho’s replacement as Alex Sumner, following the former’s sudden sacking today.
Alex Sumner is a novelist and writer on the Occult. He published his first novel, The Magus in 2009. His latest novel, Eternal Witch, was published earlier this year.
When asked on his qualifications, Alex said:
“Well, someone said they were desperate to bring a load of red devils under control, so I immediately said, ‘Aha! I’m your man!’
“I don’t intend to use traditional coaching techniques to win matches. Instead, I’ll be evoking my old friend Andromalius to reclaim all the success that has been stolen from United; Orobas to win honours for the team; and Paimon to bind the referees from making unfavourable decisions.
“I admit I haven’t got a clue about football management at Premiership level, or indeed at any level. But on the plus side that at least gives me more chance than the last two cretins they had in the job.”
Look there’s a demon right there! If that’s not a Goetic symbol, nothing is! 😉
Filed under Books, Eternal Witch, The Magus
You now have the opportunity to buy all of my paperback novels, including especially The Magus Trilogy, as I originally intended them. I have spent the past few days migrating them to CreateSpace, so they are no longer on lulu.com.
 The Magus: Book 1 in the Magus Trilogy. |
 Opus Secunda: Book 2 in the Magus Trilogy. |
 Licence To Depart: Book 3 in the Magus Trilogy. |
Grr! All this aggravation about lulu… you know it makes me want to SHOUT!
Filed under Books, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, The Magus
A cautionary tale for both my readers and for other Authors! Please read on…
Not that Lulu. Unfortunately.
One of my loyal readers has informed me that the paperback versions of The Magus Trilogy are not available from Amazon except through third party sellers and then only for silly money! On investigation, I found the facts to be as follows:
On redeeming the Sumner Family Brain Cell from the local pawn shop and re-engaging it, the truth dawned on me. Of all my novels, the three books of the Magus Trilogy were published via the website http://www.lulu.com which I had used on the understanding that it would distribute the paperbacks through Amazon for me anyway. The Kindle versions however I published through Amazon’s own Kindle Direct Publishing.
Hence, it would appear that both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have decided to arbitrarily stop selling the books I created via lulu.com, but are quite happy to continue to sell those via Amazon’s own CreateSpace!
Might this have anything to do with the fact that Amazon earlier this year were consolidating their CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing ventures into one streamlined whole, and were therefore wanting to edge out competitors?
What bugs me, though, is that whatever the real explanation for this predicament – I received no notice of it from either Amazon or Lulu!
This may very well mean that you may be seeing new paperback editions appearing on Amazon via CreateSpace in the not too distant future. In the meantime, I encourage you to save a tree in the Amazon rain-forest and treat yourself to a Kindle version all the same.
Are you a Lulu-published author and have you been affected like this? Please respond in the comments below!
Filed under Books, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, The Magus
In my book Eternal Witch, I feature as a side-plot the story of Alison [sic] Balfour, who lived on Mainland, the Orkney Isles, towards the end of the sixteenth century. This was a period during which Witch-hunts were prevalent in Scotland (King James VI, the future James I of England, was particularly eradicating them). So much so that ‘Witch’ became a dirty-word – calling someone a ‘Witch’ was tantamount to accusing them of being in league with the Devil, and also put them in serious danger of them being arrested, tortured and executed.
As with most Witch-hunts later in England, many of the women so accused were not witches in any sense of the word at all, but were in fact people whom their accusers did not like (e.g. they were Catholics instead of Protestants; they were caught up in an inter-family vendetta; etc).
Alison Balfour was unique amongst women accused of Witchcraft, in that, as a herbalist and ‘cunning-woman’ she was the closest thing to being a ‘Witch’ in the true sense of the word – i.e. a ‘Wise Woman.’ Moreover, her crime was not that of getting caught up in a falling-out between neighbours, but of being scapegoated during a politically-motivated murder plot. She protested her innocence vehemently – even under torture – and only made a confession (which she later retracted) when she was forced to watch her family being tortured in front of her.
When I first heard her story it struck me that Alison Balfour was probably the best example in the British Isles of a woman who was a genuine witch, and who used her skills and powers only to help people, yet who came to a bad end nonetheless because of the machinations of others (i.e. men).
Source: Witchcraft in the Orkney Isles: The torture of Alesoun Balfour
Filed under Books, Eternal Witch
HOLBORN, LONDON: Football Hooliganism took a supernatural turn last night, when thugs attacked a man they believed was Croatian – only to find out that he was a notorious black magician and sorcerer instead.
Alex Sumner, 45, who is also a novelist and writer on the occult, and has a new book out at the moment, said in a statement:
“I was out at ‘The Happy Templar’ pub, which was noisy because of the game on. One of the guys asked me my favourite grimoire, to which I replied, ‘I’m a big fan of the Goetia.’
“Unfortunately, some upset England fans nearby overheard me and thought I said ‘I’m a big fan of Croatia -‘ and came after me with broken bottles.
“I quickly visualised the sigil of my favourite Spirit, Andromalius, and mentally repeated the demonic enn which summons him – and ran out of the pub, and across the road.
“The thugs tried following me – but immediately they were run over by an 18-wheeler articulated lorry that just so happened to be passing along Kingsway at that moment.”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, Detective Inspector Alan Crowley, said:
“Having reviewed the events of the evening, we are satisfied that Brother Sumner – ahem! I mean ‘Mr Sumner’ – did nothing wrong, and he has been released without charge. We take a dim view of soccer-related violence, and have arrested and charged the alleged attackers with offences under the Public Order Act – they will appear before local magistrates in due course.
“I should remind members of the general public that violence directed at someone because of their beliefs constitutes a Hate Crime. The Metropolitan Police will come down hard on anyone who discriminates against not only Goetic magicians, but also those who use other popular grimoires such as the Heptameron or Grimoirum Verum as well.”
Filed under Books, Eternal Witch
