Announcing St. Agnes and the Selkie

I’m pleased to announce that St. Agnes and the Selkie, the sequel to The Wistful and the Good is now available in eBook form, with paperback to follow in a few days. If you wondered what happened to Elswyth after she left the beach of Twyford in The Wistful and the Good, all is now revealed.

The story covers the years AD 793-794. The principal locations are Whitby Abbey and the king’s hall in the City of York, but they also include a rather harrowing trip to the North York Moors and a night on a dark beach with an encroaching tide.

Here’s the cover:

And here is the blurb:

“Oh, Agnes,” Eardwulf said, “you are not tired, I’m sure, for you and I are young and vigorous and we do not tire. But what am I to do? No butter for two more days! So I must let you go with Aunty. But two days hence! Ah, then I will attend you, with butter and misrule.”

Mother Wynflaed of Whitby Abbey rules a joint house of monks and nuns, and many layfolk besides. Her office forbids her to have favorites, but when a young woman appears on the doorstep, soaked from the sea and too terrified to speak her name, Wynflaed comes to see her not only as a potential postulant, but as a daughter. She names her Agnes, but before Agnes can become part of the community, Wynflaed must discover her secret.

Though Wynflaed finds it impossible to think ill of Agnes, Agnes herself keeps pulling down one penance after another on her head, as if trying to expiate some grave crime. As some in the abbey begin to fear her, Agnes becomes Wynflaed's obsession, upsetting the harmony of the abbey, and leading Wynflaed to question her worthiness to rule.

When Eardwulf, the young king of Northumbria, comes to Wynflaed seeking counsel, he too becomes infatuated with Agnes.

As Wynflaed unwinds Agnes's secret, she begins to fear that Agnes is a danger to both the abbey and the king. She plans to send her away. But Eardwulf has other ideas, and Agnes has other admirers.

If anyone would like to have a review copy — in exchange for the promise of a review, of course — please let me know and I will send one along.

Reviews, alas, are vital to authors these days, not only because readers read them, but also because the Amazon algorithms use them to determine what to recommend to readers. Books with few reviews don’t get recommended. So please, if you enjoyed The Wistful and the Good, take a moment to leave a review. And if you love St. Agnes and the Selkie, please leave a review once you have read it.

Exposure is also vital, and so I am experimenting with BookFunnel sales promos for Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight. You would oblige me by clicking through to the second of these, Myth & Fairytale Sale. The first of them is also still running: Fantastic Female Led Adventures. Every time someone clicks through that increases my reputation on BookFunnel (satisfying the appetites of the algorithms, once again), so I do appreciate the click throughs.

I do hope you enjoy St. Agnes and the Selkie, and that if you do enjoy it you will remember to leave a review. And watch out for the third book in the series, The Needle of Avocation, which will be out in the next month or two.

If you want a review copy (in exchange for the promise of a review) do let me know by responding to this email or writing to me at author@gmbaker.net.