"Night Music" now available!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Night Music, the first volume of my autobiography (series title Memoirs of an Eighteenth-Century Werewolf) is now available on the Amazon Kindle platform.  (Compatible with Kindle, Android, Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone).

 

The standard edition can be found here and the deluxe Illustrated Edition here.  The first four chapters (standard edition) may be downloaded free of charge from Amazon.

 
Night Music covers the period from 1748 to 1752, and includes accounts of my initial experiences with lycanthropy at home in Wales, and my subsequent encounters in London with both the Sisterhood of the Wolf and our hereditary enemies, the males of our kind known as Apostates. I also tell of my relationships with the composer Handel and the statesman William Pitt, both of whom I counted among my friends and mentors, though neither knew anything of my true nature.

The publication of Night Music would not have been possible without the indefatigable efforts of my human friend and editor, Dr Brian Stewart, to whom I offer my heartfelt thanks. As readers of this blog already know, it was Brian who first suggested that I make my story public, and his critical eye in preparing the manuscript for publication has been most appreciated. His own contribution has been to add certain bits of historical information in the form of footnotes (including recommended recordings of the music mentioned), and to select eighteenth-century paintings and engravings relevant to the story for the Illustrated Edition. Needless to say, he has also negotiated the technical hurdles of making Night Music available on Amazon Kindle.

Brian was also kind enough to write the Amazon description text, which is couched somewhat in marketing-speak, but accurately captures the gist of my story:

The young Welsh duchess Andronica Llewellyn is a rebel – she reads Caesar, shoots pistols, and is not amused when her elders decide she is to marry some English nobleman for his money. When she wakes in the forest one morning, naked and covered with blood, Andronica realises that rebellion was only the beginning. Her beloved cousin Bronwyn is dead – decapitated and mauled by a wolf – and hunting parties are searching for the beast.

In her father's library, Andronica discovers a mysterious family history containing clues to the nature of her affliction, which seems to recur in the Llewellyn clan every few generations. According to the ancient chronicle, every previous victim of the curse was also named Andronica, and its appearance was associated with the arrival of a beautiful but enigmatic white-haired woman who became her lover.

As months pass and more innocents are killed, Andronica becomes desperate to find a cure for her condition. She consults all the scientific literature available in her time, but learns that the only 'treatment' suggested for lycanthropy is burning at the stake.

Finding no answers and unwilling to kill again, Andronica decides to end her life with a silver bullet. At the last moment, however, a letter arrives which changes everything. Andronica rushes outside to discover who left the message, and is told that it was delivered by a strange woman with snow-white hair.

Sent to London by her father to escape the horror at home, Andronica enters the world of finer society, where she entertains the nobility with her virtuosity at the harpsichord and studies music with the composer Handel. Through the instruction of her Aunt Margaret, a keeper of secrets and purveyor of information, Andronica learns how women can wield true power behind the scenes. With her intelligence and wit, she impresses the future Prime Minister, William Pitt, who engages her to spy on his political friends and enemies, including members of the Royal Family.

Dazzled by the glittering world of Georgian London, Andronica nearly forgets her affliction, but it soon reasserts itself with a vengeance and draws the attention of author and magistrate Henry Fielding, who suspects that she is not what she seems. His suspicions grow when Andronica's closest friend and secret lover is brutally murdered.

As she struggles to control her animal instincts and accept the dire consequences of her actions, Andronica faces even greater danger when she encounters a male of her species, Lieutenant-Colonel James Wolfe. The bloodthirsty Wolfe vows to destroy Andronica when she rejects his advances. This leads to a terrifying confrontation between male and female which is certain to end in death and destruction.

In this first volume of her autobiography, Andronica introduces us to the world inhabited by the Sisterhood of the Wolf, and we meet some of the characters who will accompany her subsequent adventures in the royal courts of Europe and on the battlefields of the Seven Years' War, both in Europe and America.

Readers are invited to address their questions to me in the form of comments to this blog or as e-mails to andronica.llewellyn@hotmail.com!