The Scroll Thief is available now & a competition

So excited. Can hardly type!

“The Scroll Thief” by R. F. Long

Genre:

ISBN: 978-1-60504-395-1

Length: Plus Novel

Price: 6.50

Publication Date: February 24, 2009

Cover art by Anne Cain

Love is the wiliest thief of all.

A Tale of Ithian

Malachy and his sister rely on his talents as a thief to survive the dangerous streets of Klathport, former capital of the once-great kingdom of Ithian. Stealing a few papers should have been a simple job. Instead, it nearly costs their lives and throws them into an improbable alliance with a shape-shifting official, a desert tribeswoman, and a healer of enchanting beauty.

Cerys is far more than a simple healer—and the roots of her mission go deeper into the past than anyone can know. She needs Malachy’s skills to recover a stolen scroll, one that can be used to rewrite history and, in the wrong hands, release the dark powers of the Demon Realm.

Her mission was supposed to atone for a dreadful, long-ago act. Instead, it unleashes a chain of events which sees them pursued through city and desert by the fearsome Dune Witch and a killer known only as His Lordship. Romance, tragedy, and adventure blend in a tale of a magical land on the brink of war, and five unlikely allies who, by putting their lives—and their hearts—on the line, have the opportunity to finally set things right.

But at a terrible cost.

Warning: Contains scenes of graphic violence and torture, captivating magic and beauty, two dashing heroes, three gutsy heroines, several love stories and a heartbreaking sacrifice.

Read An Excerpt Online

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To celebrate I am giving away a copy to someone who comments here. I have no long post or words of wisdom – they will happen elsewhere. Well, I hope they are words of wisdom. Excerpts might happen too. But today I am far too giddy. Giddy as a giddy thing with a certificate in giddiness.

This novel is especially dear to my heart as it comes from the adventure stories I used to read as a child – Arabian Nights, Robin Hood, King Arthur – and the films & serials I used to watch – Zorro, the Three Musketeers (yes, I know but I never read the books!), pirates, Stewart Granger movies and of course more Robin Hood. Anything where buckles were swashed.

So leave me a comment and tell me what adventure story from your childhood still resonates with you today. Best story wins. 🙂

14 thoughts on “The Scroll Thief is available now & a competition

  1. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is an adventure story–not a swashbuckler, but an adventure– that captivated me as a child and has influenced me ever since.

    It’s the tale of a boy named Sam who runs away from his home in NYC and travels deep into the Catskill forests carrying nothing but a knife and flint. There he intends to live all alone by his hands and wits–and he succeeds for a year, via frequent trips to the reference section of the local library! You have got to love that.

    Between trips to the library, he does everything that made my young heart go pitter pat– he lives in giant hollowed out tree–inside which he fashions a cozy little bed and stove. He makes his own buckskin wardrobe. A local weasel and raccoon pay him calls, and, most thrillingly, he raises a pet falcon who helps him hunt.

    This book taught me that it was okay to be alone, and to like being alone (although its end message is that people need people). It primed me to read Thoreau in high school, which lead me to reading Emerson, which led me to read…etc.

    But most important, it led me to a love of hiking and forest craft. Thirty years later I’m still not as skilled as Sam, but I still get a special thrill–some remnant of my Sam-crush, I’m sure–when I go for a walk in the foot hills and find acorns or berries or spring greens to take home and eat. And I still like to pretend that I can talk to the animals.

  2. That sounds like a wonderful story, evie. Isn’t it amazing how clearly the good ones stand out in your memory!

    Thanks for commenting.

  3. Can’t remember that far back but wanted to say this is a fabulous book to anyone thinking of reading it!! Congrats Ruth and all that hard work paid off!

  4. Sadly, I didn’t read much when I was younger. Seems kinda odd considering I never not have a book beside me now.

    I bought my copy of The Scroll Thief this afternoon. I checked first thing this morning but the new books for today were not posted yet. Maybe it’s always like that :). But I got mine.

    Congratulations!

  5. Ruth, I think my favorite early one was ‘Robin Hood’. That was a very long time ago. Another was the story of ‘Alladin’. That is a very old story that has been told and re-written often. Then there was fantastic ‘The Three Musketeer’s with the ever famous quote “One for all, all for one”

    These are the type to stick in your memory for a lifetime.

    Thanks for jogging my memory.

    Sandie

  6. I used to read almost anything and everything I could get my hands on when I was a kid. I loved the Hardy Boys stories. They were awesome. I loved all the Fairy Tales growing up too. Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel. You name it I loved it.

  7. When I was a child, I used to read the Willard Price “Adventure” books (Volcano Adventure, Jungle Adventure” etc etc), about two brothers who visit remote places looking for endangered species in order to protect them from poachers.

    I can’t remember much about them, apart from the cure for snake venom in the eyes (wash them out with milk). The first time I got one out from my middle school library the librarian asked me, “You do realise they’re for boys?” I’d been reading them for a while, and it had never occurred to me they weren’t something I was “supposed” to read.

  8. Congrats on your latest release – the cover looks great & I can’t wait to read it.

    As for my favourite adventure story – it HAS to be The Wind in The Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Now I know its not an adventure story in the traditional genre but I’ve had plenty of adventures from ‘messing around in boats’ …..

  9. Of course The Wind in The Willows qualifies.

    there is nothing – absolutely nothing, half so worth doing as – simply messing around in boats!

    As well we know. 🙂

  10. When I was younger I found the Myths and Legends series in the library and devoured most of them (there were a few unavailable in Galway but I tried) I loved the Norse legends and the Greek and Roman ones (made parts of doing a degree in Classical Civilization more interesting).

    I got a box set of C S Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia at 7 and loved it. I also loved Enid Blyton as a kid. When I was a little older I ran out of reading material and a neighbour introduced me to Andre Norton and Anne McCaffrey and that was the downhill road to SF fandom! I have an ambition to read all of Andre Norton’s books at some stage, I think I’m about 25% there!

  11. Congratulations! Every time I’ve seen the book cover as your RD avatar, I’ve been curious…would love to read it. I love, love, loved fantasy when I was younger, and I’m still a huge fan of any kind of adventure story with a healthy dose of romance! It looks wonderful.

  12. Thanks everyone. The last couple of days have been a bit of a whirl. But one I am enjoying immensely.

    So *drumroll please*

    the winner is Deirdre!

    Yay!

    I’ll be in touch with you shortly.

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