Fantastic Freebies!

In a very special event, all of my digital books are free on Amazon on the 13th, 14th and 15th of November! 

Happy Dog is very Happy about this

If you don't have a kindle, Amazon do free kindle apps for apple products, android devices and PC's, so you don't have to miss out.

All  my books are rated 4 stars or above on Amazon UK. The easiest way is to go to my author page on Amazon, which links to all my books.

Click here for my Amazon UK author page, or here for my Amazon US  author page. If you aren't in the US or UK, they should be free on all Amazon sites, just search for Catherine Winchester in Kindle Books. 

So what's on offer?

Historical Novels

Hope for Tomorrow  (Amazon rating 4.8/5)
When housemaid Martha began an affair with her Master's son, Lucien, the future Earl of Marchwood, it was always destined to end badly.
Single, pregnant and unemployed, Martha struggles to forge a new life for herself and her daughter, only for Lucien to inadvertently destroy it.
She and her daughter are homeless and starving when they come to the aid of a man who proves to be their salvation.
Lucien is still obsessed with his lost love, the only woman who has ever rejected him.
A chance meeting seven years later could spell disaster but can they put their pain and pride behind them and seize this opportunity, or will old ghosts ruin their last chance at happiness?


Northern Light (Amazon rating 4.3/5)
Sometimes described as the female Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell's classic novel, North and South, dealt with issues of class, feminism, social reform and the plight of the working classes, entwining those themes seamlessly with a timeless romance between Margaret Hale and John Thornton. Northern Light is a continuation of that novel which sees John and Margaret embarking on their lives together whilst working to improve the lives of their work force.
With the threat of another strike, a series of bad mill accidents, a lethal fire and failed speculation, life in Milton is not easy for anyone and it won't be long before the mill masters and their workers clash once more, with devastating consequences.
Getting married and starting a family is difficult enough at the best of times but for John and Margaret, married life will present unique challenges and despite the reforms they are making, even they will not escape Milton's troubles unscathed.
 (No knowledge of North and South is necessary to read this book)


What You Wish For (Amazon rating 4/5)

Carrie Preston is desperately trying to stand up to her pushy family and failing badly. When her favourite aunt dies she retreats into her favourite book, Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, only to find herself suddenly stuck in that story and seriously messing with her favourite romance of all time!
When Carrie's kooky aunt bequeaths her a pair of amethyst earrings in her will and says that they will grant her her hearts desire, she has no idea that she will end up in the middle of the 19th century, slap bang in the middle of her favourite book. With nothing but the clothes on her back and her rucksack, she is taken in by the Hale family and soon finds herself living in the dirty, smoky industrial town of Milton.
The only bright spot on the horizon is that she gets to meet the romantic hero of the story, John Thornton but it's not long before he starts setting his sights on her rather than Margaret Hale! Far from living her dream, she is appalled to realise that she is about to destroy the greatest romance since Elizabeth Bennett met Mr Darcy!

A Merry Little Christmas (Amazon rating 4.3/5)
(Short Story - companion story to Northern Light)
The story of John Thornton and Margaret Hale's first Christmas together as a married couple.
Starved of time on their own, when Hannah Thornton announces that she is spending Christmas with John's sister, Fanny, John and Margaret decide to make the most of what little time they have together.

Urban Fantasy/Speculative Fiction

How to Train Your Zombie  (Amazon rating 4.5/5)
The zombie apocalypse, which has devastated the world, is in its final throes when Meg's husband is bitten. She has lost so much already that she simply can't face losing him too, so when it becomes apparent that he is about to join the ranks of the walking dead, she decides to employ her skills as a dog trainer and takes it upon herself to train him.
Not only must she face the dangers inherent in close contact with a zombie, she must also protect him from outside forces that mean him harm. Can she convince the handsome yet stern Colonel MacDonald that he deserves a chance? Can she stop him being used for vivisection? What about those who want to use him as bait for other zombies?
Join Meg during the final few months of the Zombie war, as she shares her, at times, gruesome, sad and darkly humorous story.

Bemused  (Amazon rating 4.5/5)
When self-made property developer, Niall, is attacked by vampires on his way home, his neat and ordered life soon begins to fall apart. His rescuer, the effervescent Mel, declares herself to be his Muse - better known in modern times as a Guardian Angel - and offers him a business proposition; she wants them to go into business as supernatural detectives.
Slightly sceptical to say the least, Niall eventually agrees to work one case with her - helped in no small part by his rather strong attraction to Mel.
Mrs Hart's house has been plagued by a series of deadly and inexplicable events, culminating in the death of a local boy. As they look into possible causes, Niall finds himself growing even more fond of Mel, although she seems determined to keep him at arm's length.
He discovers why she she is so reticent but that is soon overshadowed by the cause of Mrs Hart's problems; a foe so powerful that even the immortal Mel seems terrified!


The Past series

Past Due - Book One  (Amazon rating 5/5)
Francis 'Frankie' Wright thought she was an old hat at dealing with the supernatural, until she was reassigned to Edinburgh, the most haunted city in the world.
Her latest case soon takes a deadly turn. Young women are being slain in satanic rituals and it's up to Frankie to find the murderer before he kills again.
Frankie must juggle vampires, shapeshifters, witches and zombies, all the while trying to keep the truth from her sceptical ex-boyfriend, Will Campbell, who just happens to be heading up the police investigation.
The clock is ticking and she soon finds herself forced to team up with the vampires and shapeshifters in order to stop the killer before he can literally unleash hell on earth.

Half Past - Book Two  (Amazon rating 4.3/5)
Simon Hamm was a run of the mill con man, lying, cheating and stealing his way through life until met Marilyn, a vampire. Enthralled by her power, he courted her and made her fall in love with him, whereupon Hamm was reborn as a child of the night and Marilyn was dead by his hand.
Unwilling to play by the rules, Hamm turned rogue and cut a bloody trail across Britain in his quest to build himself a private army of vampires, courting the wrath of the vampire council in the process.
Employed by MI5 to police the supernatural community, Frankie Wright's life is far from normal but when Joshua asks for her help in tracking Hamm down, her life quickly begins to spiral out of control.
Forced to stay away from her boyfriend, Frankie begins to realise just how important Alex is to her but deceived and betrayed, she soon finds herself fighting not only to bring down Hamm but for the right to even exist.


Past Life - Book Three  (Amazon rating 5/5)
For once, Frankie Wright's life is relatively calm. She's settled into her new role, working for the Vampire Council, she's getting used to being single again and she's reaffirmed her friendship with Will Campbell.
She should have known that it was too good to last.
First Will learns about the existence of vampires, then her parents turn up unannounced, expecting to stay with her. Frankie must juggle her friend and her family, all the while hunting for the psycho who is murdering young women and killing family pets.
To top it all off, Dante is kidnapped and Frankie must race to find him before he becomes the next victim...


Please download, enjoy and if you like it/them, tell your friends. If you dont like them, lets never speak of this again, m'kay?

Northern Light, Chapter One

Another day, another Sample Sunday!

Book Blurb: Sometimes described as the female Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell's classic novel, North and South, dealt with issues of class, feminism, social reform and the plight of the working classes, entwining those themes seamlessly with a timeless romance between Margaret Hale and John Thornton. Northern Light is a continuation of that novel which sees John and Margaret embarking on their lives together whilst working to improve the lives of their work force.

With the threat of another strike, a series of bad mill accidents, a lethal fire and failed speculation, life in Milton is not easy for anyone and it won't be long before the mill masters and their workers clash once more, with devastating consequences.

Getting married and starting a family is difficult enough at the best of times but for John and Margaret, married life will present unique challenges and despite the reforms they are making, even they will not escape Milton's troubles unscathed.

How does a card carrying history hater write two historical novels?

When I was a kid, I hated history. No, that's not quite right; I loathed it, I despised it.

So how come here I am, 20 years since my last history lesson, having just written two historical novels? (Northern Light and one still in the editing stage).

That's quite a transformation!

The problem I had with history was that my lessons focused on names, dates and places. As a dyslexic, these things are my idea of hell. It took me over two years to learn my mobile phone number. I have a brother called Paul, an uncle called Paul and an ex-boyfriend called Paul. When I met my last boyfriend for the second time, do you think I could remember that his name was Paul?

In short, history lessons were my own personal hell and aged 14 I was quite happy to give the subject up without a backwards glance. Tarred with the same brush, I also avoided historical TV dramas, documentaries and novels.

How did this change? Well I was living in Spain at the time, I had no English TV, no computer at home and I'd run out of books to read and so in desperation, I picked up a historical romance by Audrey Howard. I was enthralled and read it in one sitting. Gradually I came to the realisation that history wasn't about names, dates and places, or at least not only about that; it was also about experiences and that was what I found so interesting, reading about what day to day life was like for people back then.

Since then I have read many historical novels, some by modern authors like Howard, some classics like Elizabeth Gaskell and just about everything Jane Austin has written. Some were better than others, of course.

Sometimes when I had read about or seen something that interested me, I'd educate myself further on that subject. Yes, you read that right, I voluntarily learned about history! After watching the adaptation of North and South, for example, I looked up the Great Exhibition and from there went on to learn about the Crystal Palace. It's all fascinating stuff, providing a glimpse into a world that is both beautiful and barbaric.

Of course, when I embarked on Northern Light, I had a lot more than just light reading to do. I had Gaskells original novel to draw from, of course, but there were many things missing from that book that today's readers (not to mention me) would expect from a modern book.

For example, the details about Mr Thornton's Mill were sketchy to say the least; and let's be fair here, what middle class woman in the 1850's would know about cotton mills? So I looked into the machinery, the individual jobs and the process of turning cotton bolls into thread and fabric. The wages were also glossed over in North and South, so I looked into not only cotton mill wages but wages for lawyers, doctors, clergymen, clerks etc, so that I could have an understanding of what exactly was a fair wage for manual labour was and how that compared with the various social classes.

Not all of that information made it into the book of course. Did you know, for example, that there are 14 different species of cotton plant? No, but then while mildly interesting in an abstract sense, it's not exactly going to keep you turning the page!

Then of course, came the tricky part of my research, the minefield that is Victorian etiquette! Not only are there a thousand and one do's and don'ts, the Victorian era spanned 64 years, during which time some standards changed drastically.

For example, many people will tell you that Victorian widows spent the rest of their lives wearing black and it was considered unseemly for a woman to remarry. Which is true... after 1861 when Prince Albert died. Following the example of their Queen, who mourned for her husband for the rest of her reign and practically withdrew from public life, it became very unseemly for a lady to remarry.

Prior to 1961 though, mourning periods were dictated more by the rules of the Georgian era when it was normal for a woman to be in mourning for around one year. At six months she could enter half mourning, when she could wear lilac shades; then at a year she was free to return to her regular wardrobe if she wanted to, free from censure.

With North and South and Northern Light being set in the 1850's it was clearly the latter rules that I had to follow when dealing with mourning, even though most people would attribute the first set of rules to the Victorian era.

As as if the strict rules of etiquette weren't enough to make my head spin, I then had to enter an even more sensitive area, Victorian morals. If you believe everything you read there were no public displays of affection and married couples sleept in separate rooms. In fact, the Victorians seem like such a puritanical and prudish bunch that quite honestly, it's amazing that anyone ever reproduced!

It's probably worth mentioning here that Victorian morality stemmed from Queen Victoria herself. When the monarchy was finally restored after the civil wars, especially in the Georgian era, they were noted for their hedonism and debauchery. It is thought likely that Victoria's strict moral code was a reaction to what she saw in her youth and that as Queen, her moral code filtered down to and was adopted by the rest of society.

But of course, one must always remember that with things like etiquette books, they were generally written by upper middle class women who were generally not very worldly and tend to say how things should be (or how they would like them to be) not necessarily how things actually were. Which is not to say that men and women were constantly all over each other with public displays of affection, but there are enough tales of unwed mothers and shotgun weddings to belie this outwardly prudish appearance.

Not to mention a very interesting array of artefacts from this time which prove that while frowned upon and certainly not easily available, contraception was around. Examples include condoms (usually made form animal intestines and secured with a ribbon at the base) sea sponges soaked in vinegar, quinine or olive oil which were thought to act as spermicide, vaginal douches and even diaphragms (usually called rubber pessaries). Then of course there was the withdrawal method and the rhythm method (although that could be very ineffective, depending on which school of thought you followed on when a woman was most fertile).

In Northern Light I mention birth control in a very round about way but out of respect for Victorian sensibilities, I'll leave my readers decide which method John and Margaret used!

The difference in birth rates between the working classes and upper classes makes it clear that contraception was usually something only available to either the wealthy or the educated, though probably a combination of both factors.

However, despite the above, it must also be remembered that some words that are perfectly normal today were positively obscene in the 1800's. Pregnant, for example, a perfectly harmless adjective today, was not a word one would ever speak back then! I confess, I missed that one and it was something picked up upon by my editor. I still find it hard to believe pregnant was ever considered obscene, but alas she is right and I was wrong. The word still appears in my narrative since I am writing for a modern day readership and to be frank, there are only so many euphemisms for pregnancy and I was getting slightly tired of calling it 'with child'! However in keeping with the time period, none of the characters utter the word.

As you've probably gathered by now, I have become something of a history nut! These days I find it fascinating, all the nuances and differences, though I confess that my favourite period in history is probably from the industrial age onwards.

I suppose if there's one lesson I wanted anyone to take away from this blog, it's that history is not what your school made it seem. History isn't about facts, history is about people. People pressing for change, people inventing new things, people falling in love, people dying, people cheating and people struggling to survive in a harsh world.

I've been asked in the past, would I ever want to go back in time and my answer has always been very definitive. Yes... but ONLY if I was wealthy!

Where to buy
Kindle version @ Amazon.co.uk
Kindle version @ Amazon.com
All other Ebook formats