Out Now
Published Monday 3rd April:
The Zarduth Imperative Discovery
Want to read some chapters from the book? Click here. The link is now live, and you can read the first eight chapters.
It will take a bit longer to make the book available on Kindle, and hopefully some other e-book platforms, as I have to learn how to make an ePub. I’ll keep you updated as to when the e-book goes on sale on the various platforms.
I’m off to Birmingham this Friday for a weekend at Eastercon, at which the book will be on sale for the first time.
I am getting together with three friends to make a book trailer in the next few weeks. You’ll see it here (and on my YouTube channel) first!
At some point after Easter there will be a book launch in Peterborough. Please feel free to join me then for a fun night — and do keep popping in here for more information!
And do look out for the sequel to TZI Discovery, TZI Clanship, which comes out later this year — I can’t be very specific about dates but I aim for it to be out by the Peterborough Radical Book Fair on 14th October, and Bristolcon and Novacon, which follow in short order on the 23rd October and 10-12th November.
Incidentally, I’d like to give a shout-out to my artist for this fantastic book cover, Paul McCaffrey. He’s done a fantastic job — I was looking for a cover in a photorealistic style — and he really pulled out all the stops to get this ready for me to take it to Eastercon. Cheers, Paul — you’re a star!
On my return from Eastercon, I will add a PayPal button for this book, so that you can buy it directly from this website if you wish.
Just a quick mention: any physical books that you buy from Zarduth.com can be signed, so if you’d like that, please let me know when ordering, and let me know who to sign it to if ordering for someone else.
Book Wall for Helen Claire Gould Books
I’ve also made a book trailer for The Stallion, again with the help of Mike and Jason. Here it is:
So, I finally got round to making a book trailer for She… – and here it is, with a soundscape from my cousin Mike Cooper, long-time arts champion, and video editing by my son, Jason Gould. Many thanks to both of you, guys!
And here’s one of me reading the first scene of Spindrift, from She… – enjoy!
Here’s a video of me reading from Floodtide. It has three scenes, each written from a different character’s viewpoint. Enjoy…
I do apologise for the pixelated thumbnail, the video’s fine once it gets started!
Paperback editions are available from these stockists in your area:
- Waterstones, Bridge St., Peterborough;
- Bookmark Spalding, 20, the Crescent, Spalding;
- Red Lion Books Ltd., 125, High St., Colchester, CO1 1SZ;
- Beccles Books, 1, Exchange Ho., Exchange Sq., Beccles, NR34 9HH;
- Djibo Art at Van Hage’s Garden Centre, Peterborough.
- Bourne Bookshop, 19, North St., Bourne, PE10 9AE,
- The Old Copper Kettle Tea Rooms, 6, North St., Crowland.
The Stallion and She.. are also available from Beccles Books, Waterstones Peterborough, and Djibo Art.
Not in your area yet? The paperback edition is now also available mail order from this website.
The e-Book promotion during the Coronavirus Outbreak is now finished.
But you can still buy the books on Amazon Kindle, at:
Floodtide: £3.49, B00NMDZRS2
The Stallion: £0.99, B07BHRWKR5
She…: £1.99, B07H8NJFF9
They’ve just gone back to their usual prices. Please note, these links may not take you straight to the Kindle book. You may need to click on the book cover to go to the Kindle version, or you may be offered a choice of a Kindle version or a Paperback version to click on.
Out now: She…A Trio of Short Fiction Featuring Female Protagonists
Published in September 2018 as part of a project to celebrate International Women’s Day 2018, this is £1.99 to download For Amazon.co.uk https://www.amazon.co.uk/She-Fiction-Featuring-Female-Protagonists-ebook/dp/B07H8NJFF9, or you can buy the print version directly from this website for £3.99 + £1.00 postage and packing, via Paypal. There will also shortly be a list of local independent bookshops which stock the book.
Cover of She…
She… contains three short stories: two very short horror stories and a longer time travel story. Here’s the low-down on them:
In The Rustling of Silver Fishes, a woman who has been unable to fully bond with her daughter finds she’s become extremely affectionate after an encounter with genetically-modified wildlife.
Witchbabe: A woman suffering from infertility seeks remediation for her condition from an unusual source.
And a daughter seeks a cure for her mother’s illness across time and space in Spindrift on the Seas of Time. Ironically, the mother was the one seeking the cure before she became infected herself.
These stories all have female parent protagonists, and their common theme is of women’s experiences of parenthood not turning out as expected. Consequences tend to be appropriate to the situation…
Click here to read the start of the novelette Spindrift on the Seas of Time from She…
Pay via PayPal – sorry, UK mainland only at present.
Click this button for 2nd class postage:
Price £4.99 (includes £1.00 P + P – 2nd class postage)
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Out Now: The Stallion
From today (21st March 2018) you can download The Stallion for £0.99 For Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BHRWKR5 or buy the print version directly from this website for £2.99 + £1.00 postage and packing, via Paypal. There will also shortly be a list of local independent bookshops which stock the book.
Cover of The Stallion.
Book trailer for The Stallion:
Here’s the background to the story:
WHEN HUMANS DISCOVERED THARGOS IV, it seemed the perfect place for a colony of desert-dwelling tribes: an arid planet, deserted but for the native leafless grasses and trees – named Calibans for their squat, ugly appearance – and a few animals. Terran grass and plants grew there with little persuasion. So the colonists came, and built a settlement, and farmed crops.
But the colony was going under. Promised supplies and equipment had never arrived to help the colonists establish themselves on-planet. And the sandstorms had become worse and more frequent.
14-year-old Bashir didn’t expect what happened when he went to help his father at the souk one day. First, a tale of horses living as a wild desert her; then a vision of a beautiful white stallion; and then he learned that the trees were not at all what they seemed as he watched them thresh their limbs from his prayer mat…
‘I enjoyed this…a very assured style…tidy prose…a sound piece of writing.’ – Graham Joyce.
What readers say about The Stallion:
What Readers Say about The Stallion
Click here to read an extract from The Stallion.
Pay via PayPal – sorry, UK mainland only at present.
Click this button for 2nd class postage:
Price £3.99 (includes £1.00 P + P – 2nd class postage)
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Out now on Kindle: Matthew R Cash’s 12Days horror anthology
Cover for 12Days anthology
I mention this because I have a short story in it, Avenging Angel. The anthology consists of 12 “countdown stories” based on the song The Twelve Days of Christmas, plus a further cycle of stories with horror themes, again loosely based on various Christmas songs. My story is included in the wider anthology. All proceeds go to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, which runs a helpline for sufferers and their families, conducts research into the disease and has campaigned for the indtroduction of a new drug which slows the progress of the disease if given to young children with this devastating genetic disorder.
The countdown stories are available on Kindle separately at £0.99 each; the wider anthology is available on Kindle at £1.99 (this excludes the countdown stories); and the paperback version includes both the countdown stories and the wider anthology, and is currently priced at £12.49.
Here’s the video of me reading a short scene from the story:
And here’s the link to the Amazon page for the 12Days anthology: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1539056201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482144396&sr=1-1&keywords=12days+anthology
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Now on Kindle – Helen Claire Gould’s FLOODTIDE
Here’s a video of me reading from Floodtide. It has three scenes, each written from a different character’s viewpoint. Enjoy…
Kindle edition £3.49
Click here to buy Floodtide now >>
Release date: 13/10/14
Paperback edition £9.99 from various independent retailers listed above, plus Waterstones Peterborough. You can also buy Floodtide, The Stallion or She… from me at various open mic nights in and around the Peterborough area, Science Fiction conventions, and from my stall at various events in the Peterborough area. Notifications of these events will appear near the top of this page, and on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Floodtide new cover for paperback edition
ON ICY NAXADA, the Shiranu farm in lava tubes under a dormant volcano, avoiding hunter tribe the Sargussi. But the mutually-hostile tribes’ world will soon be torn apart by natural forces.
Planetary geologist and astronomer Jordas Krata, part of a team observing an incoming asteroid, becomes telepathically linked with Yado, a Sargussi man, as he cements a relationship with the lovely Shiranu female runaway Soolkah. Jordas enters this precarious balance of nature to rescue both tribes from the destruction about to rain down on them and help resettle them on a safer planet.
But as a consequence of the brothers in each family group being telepathically linked, and a shortage of females, the social structure of both tribes forces them into polyandry. How can Jordas avoid emotional involvement when he and Yado also share the physical senses – including both painful and pleasurable sensations?
Click here to read chapters 1 – 3 of Floodtide
Pay via PayPal – sorry, UK mainland only at present.
Click this button for 2nd class postage:
Price £13.49 (includes £3.50 P + P – 2nd class postage)
Click this button for 1st class postage:
Price £13.99 (includes £4.00 P + P – 1st class postage)
What readers say about Floodtide:
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And look out for Helen’s next two novels: The Zarduth Imperative: Discovery and The Zarduth Imperative: Flagship.
THE ZARDUTH IMPERATIVE: DISCOVERY
Part One
Cast List
In approximate order of appearance
(JSEP: Joint Space Exploration Programme, a body run on military lines, dedicated to the exploration of space for the colonisation and exploitation of resources, which draws its staff from all over Earth.)
Characters in Book One