Jacey Bedford Confession: I write both science fiction (space opera) and historical fantasy.

Confession: I write both science fiction (space opera) and historical fantasy. 

The two are not mutually exclusive. I can easily switch from one to the other. My first published trilogy is space opera (the Psi-Tech trilogy) and my second trilogy completes in November with the publication of the third book, ROWANKIND.

With space opera, you can largely make stuff up as long as you are consistent and logical, but with historical fantasy, you've got to get your history right. It's the solid background of history that grounds your book, even if you inject elements of magic. It may be that your history has diverged from 'real' history at a specific point and therefore everything is now one sideways step from the real timeline, or it may be that real history is happening around your storyline with the addition of (say) magic.

That's what has happened in my Rowankind trilogy, set in 1800-1802.

I try to get my history right. This involves a lot of research because I'm not a history scholar. I have to fact-check everything, from the Napoleonic Wars, to the best timber to make the hull of a sailing ship. (Bermuda teak if you want to know.)

So I'd been ultra-careful when writing ROWANKIND and its predecessors, WINTERWOOD, and SILVERWOLF. I had to research Georgian England, from street maps of Plymouth and London in the relevant periods, to costume, transport, housing (right down to available paint colours), and the length of time it took for the mail coach to reach London from Barnsley.

But sometimes you need to know what you don't know in order to be able to look it up.

ROWANKIND was finished and delivered to my publisher (DAW in the USA). I was waiting for the page proofs, which is the final stage that the author has any involvement. With page proofs, you can't add or subtract a great deal. You can correct typos and make minor adjustments to punctuation, but you can't add in a new scene or even a substantial paragraph. At the climax of the book, my main characters are observing Parliament debating [something… but if I tell you what, I'd have to shoot you]. I was happy with the way the book ending was working… and then… I heard an article on BBC Radio4 about women being allowed to view parliamentary proceedings for the first time in the 1830s. And I had women viewing Parliament in 1802. (Not only viewing but interrupting the proceedings from a non-existent public gallery.)

That may not seem like such a huge mistake to you, but you can bet your bottom dollar, that someone would have pointed it out to me within a day or publication. Luckily a quick email to my publisher got me dispensation to make the necessary alteration at the page proof stage. Whew! Saved by the BBC. I love Radio4.

Rowankind 

by Jacey Bedford
November 27, 2018
479 pages
Publisher: DAW

"Swashbuckling action, folklore and characters to care about: this is an authentic English take on historical fantasy, magic and class." - Kari Sperring, author of The Grass King's Concubine.

What do you do with a feral wolf shapechanger who won't face up to his responsibilities? How do you contain magical creatures accidentally loosed into Britain's countryside? How do you convince a crew of barely-reformed pirates to go straight when there's smuggling to be done? How do you find a lost notebook full of deadly spells while keeping out of the clutches of its former owner? How do you mediate between a mad king and the seven lords of the Fae?

Ross and Corwen, she a witch and he a shapechanger, have several problems to solve but they all add up to the same thing. How do you make Britain safe for magic users?

It's 1802. A tenuous peace with France is making everyone jumpy. The Fae, and therefore Ross and Corwen at their behest, have unfinished business with Mad King George, who may not be as mad as everyone thinks--or if he is, he's mad in a magical way. The Fae have left mankind alone up to now because they don't care to get involved with mortals, but don't be fooled into thinking they're harmless.

"It's like an irresistible smorgasbord of all my favourite themes and fantasy elements all in one place, and a strong, compelling female protagonist was the cherry on the top." - Bibliosanctum

About the Author:
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Jacey Bedford has a string of short story publication credits on both sides of the Atlantic. She lives a thousand feet up on the edge of the Yorkshire Pennines in a 200-year-old stone house. She has been a librarian, postmistress, rag-doll maker, and a folk singer in an a cappella trio.

Story Behind the Story: Psi-Techs (A Psi-Tech Novel - Book 3 by Jacey Bedford) + giveaway

Psi-Techs in General and Nimbus in Particular

By Jacey Bedford

Nimbus, the final book in my Psi-Tech trilogy, is just out from DAW.

Sometimes big ideas start with a bang and arrive fully formed, sometimes they start small and grow. The Psi-Tech trilogy has not one big idea but two, though neither works without the other.

Way, way back in the mists of cliché, when dinosaurs walked the earth, we all cleaned our teeth with sticks, and Amstrad was cutting edge technology for a scribbler like me, a scene presented itself and begged to be written.

A telepath sits in a small, grey room on a backwater space station, acting as a human phone operator, making instant calls across the galaxy for anyone who can pay the going rate. It's a dead-end job, not what she's trained for, not what she's capable of doing, not what she's used to. So why is she here?

She's here because she's afraid. She's on the run from… someone. (I didn't know who or why, right then, but I knew it was serious.) If they catch up with her they'll kill her and she'll be very lucky if it's quick and painless.

She needs to escape, but her luck and her credit have run out.

She's contemplating cruising the transients' bars to see if she can hitch a free ride. She'll take anything, even the worst bucket-of-bolts mining barge, even if she's got to sleep her way on board.

Then a last-minute job comes in. She doesn't want to take it so she jacks the price right up, but the caller agrees anyway. It piques her interest. Telepaths always hear, but they mostly choose not to listen. This time she does. There's talk of a new colony. The settlers are back-to-basics Ecolibrians who've opted for a closed planet. If she can talk her way on to that mission she can steer clear of her pursuers, find safety.

That was how it all started. It grew slowly and changed over time, of course. In time-honoured tradition of authors everywhere, the first scene didn't survive, though the frightened Telepath and the Ecolibrian colony did.

The gestation period of a book varies from months to years and this one was years. I wasn't under contract to a publisher back then, so there was no pressure. When I sold my first book to DAW (Winterwood, a historical fantasy) and signed up with the Donald Maass Literary Agency, my editor said those words that every writer hopes for: 'What else have you got?'

DAW’s publishing schedule had an empty slot for science fiction before one for fantasy, so Empire of Dust became my debut novel. Under Sheila Gilbert's gentle but thorough guiding hand. I knew that DAW wanted a sequel, so I was building the world for at least a two book series and possibly three.

What has become my Psi-Tech Universe now contains a galaxy-spanning human society which uses jump gates and telepaths to navigate foldspace.

Neither jump gates nor telepaths are unusual tropes in science fiction. So what makes them different in the Psi-Tech universe? Mega-corporations more powerful than any single planetary government. race each other to colonise worlds and gobble up resources, using as their agents psi-techs, humans with psionic implants. Each one of them is economically tied to the megacorp that paid for their implant. They are treated well as long as they don't step out of line. If they do rebel, their attitude can be readjusted, but they may not come out of it exactly… sane.

Add to this the platinum problem. Platinum is a valuable catalyst and though it exists in lots of places, it's usually only found in tiny quantities and it takes a long time to process tiny quantities from a huge amount of ore. Fun fact: in the whole history of our world to the present date, the amount of platinum mined amounts to less than 25 cubic feet. In my psi-tech universe, with every jump through foldspace a small but significant amount of platinum is lost, so the need to find more and bigger platinum deposits drives everything. And the megacorp which controls the most platinum is in the strongest position.

And now back to that frightened telepath, Cara, fleeing from her former boss because she knows too much. When she hooks up with Navigator Reska (Ben) Benjamin, she plummets them both into danger. Friends become enemies. Betrayal follows betrayal. Knowing whom to trust becomes the ultimate survival skill. If they make the wrong move an entire colony planet will pay the ultimate price.

Cara and Ben's story is just the beginning, though. Solving one problem highlights another. Ideas demand room to grow and Empire of Dust is only the first outing for my troubled psi-techs.

In the second novel, Crossways, the survivors, now wanted by the megacorps on trumped-up charges, take refuge on a huge space station run by a coalition of crimelords. Crossways fought for its freedom from the big corporations, so its denizens don't ever intend to let it be taken over again. It's a kind of future version of Tortuga-in-space where pirates, smugglers and free-traders can take refuge alongside displaced persons, refugees, radicals, free-thinkers, and opportunists. The megacorporations have been looking for an excuse to take down Crossways and the psi-tech presence there might just be the excuse they need.

But something is stirring in the unfathomable depths of foldspace. Pilots and navigators are told that foldspace visions are an illusion, but that’s a lie perpetuated by their teachers ‘for their own good.’ Yeah, right! In the third book, Nimbus, what’s really happening in the Folds will change the future of humans in space, but not unless the conflict with the megacorporations can be resolved and humankind tackles the problem together.

Nimbus (A Psi-Tech Novel - Book 3) 

by Jacey Bedford

3rd October 2017,
DAW  Mass Market Paperback
544 pages
Nimbus is the third Psi-Tech book, bringing the story of Cara and Ben to a close for now.

In a galaxy where the super-powers are the megacorporations, and ambitious executives play fast and loose with ethics in order to secure resources, where can good people turn for help? The megacorps control the jump gates and trade routes. They use psi-techs, implant-enhanced operatives with psionic abilities, who are bound by unbreakable contracts. Cara Carlinni once had her mind turned inside out by Alphacorp, but she escaped, and now it’s payback time.

Ben Benjamin leads the Free Company, based on the rogue space-station, Crossways. The megacorps have struck at Crossways once—and failed—so what are they planning now? Crossways can’t stand alone, and neither can the independent colonies, though maybe together they all stand a chance.

But something alien is stirring in the depths of foldspace. Something bigger than the squabbles between megacorporations and independents. Foldspace visions are supposed to be a figment of the imagination. At least, that’s what they teach in flight school. Ben Benjamin knows it’s not true. Meeting a void dragon was bad enough, but now there’s the Nimbus to contend with. Are the two connected? Why do some ships transit the Folds safely and others disappear without a trace?

Until now, humans have had a free hand in the Galaxy, settling colony after colony, but that might have to change because the Nimbus is coming.

Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Go to Empire of Dust and Crossways

About the Author:
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Jacey Bedford has a string of short story publication credits on both sides of the Atlantic. She lives a thousand feet up on the edge of the Yorkshire Pennines in a 200-year-old stone house. She has been a librarian, postmistress, rag-doll maker, and a folk singer in an a cappella trio.

GIVEAWAY

A copy of EMPIRE OF DUST, the first in the psi-tech series.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Character guest post: Corwen (wolf shapechanger) from Silverwolf by Jacey Bedford

Corwen Speaks:

Denby Hall, September 1801
I don’t usually get the opportunity to say much. It’s not that I’m henpecked, you understand, but—well—my author is female and she lets my beloved, Rossalinde, tell the story. So it’s nice, for once, to be able to speak for myself rather than letting my actions speak for me.

Let’s get the important bit out of the way first. I’m Corwen Deverell and I’m a wolf shapechanger—not a werewolf! I sometimes have to make that very clear to people. I’m not moon-called, which means if you’re with me when I change into my wolf, I’m not going to tear out your throat and crunch your bones. Please don’t get the wrong idea. I can, but I won’t. No, that’s all right, don’t apologise. I didn’t know the difference between a werewolf and a shapechanger at first, either. I was, after all, only nine when I changed the first time.

That first change was brutal. My family didn’t take it well, however my mother got over it once she’d spoken to her sister and found out that it ran in her family. It had skipped a generation so no one had thought to warn her. My father never got over it. He thought I was just doing it to taunt him and that I could simply stop being a shapechanger whenever I wished. To a certain extent I can—now—but as a child, the changes were involuntary. He decided to beat it out of me until one night when I was about twelve or thirteen. I’d been out running—there may have been a lamb involved, I’m not proud of that—and I crept into the house via the back door, naked and muddy. 

Father had been waiting for me all night, and he had a cane in his hand that he kept swishing against his boot. He cornered me in the hallway. By that time changing was easy and quick, so I allowed my wolf to let him know that beating me was inappropriate. What can I say? I was at that snarly age anyway. I didn’t bite him, but he suddenly saw the wisdom of leaving me alone.

Let’s skip over a few years. I left my siblings to their normal life. My brother Jonathan had new-fangled ideas about agriculture and my father’s biggest interest was our woollen mill. He was thinking about getting one of those fancy new steam engines made by Mr. Boulton and Mr. Watt. My twin brother, Freddie, who hadn’t shown any wolf-tendencies at all, was still at Oxford, and my little sister, Lily, was the apple of our father’s eye. They were a normal—if privileged—happy family—much better off without me. So I found a place for myself with the Lady of the Forest and the Green Man, good people once you get to know them.

That’s when I first saw Ross. She was on the run, a pirate’s widow with a price on her head for a murder that she wasn’t really responsible for. It’s a long story, and Ross told much of it in Winterwood. The Lady asked me to guide Ross and her two companions out of the forest safely to the Bideford road. Even dressed in man’s array I could see how beautiful she was. I’m always surprised that people don’t immediately spot Ross’ gender. She always looks feminine to me. Ross thought I was simply a trained wolf, of course, but right then I wanted to chase her down and eat her. Hmm, eat may not be quite the right word to use in this context, but it’s all I’m going to say. I was a civilised wolf, just as I’m a civilised man, so I let her go on her way, not without regret.

She didn’t even recognise me the next time we met. There was no reason why she should, of course. I was in human form then. The Lady had seen things coming that neither Ross nor I suspected, but as a precaution she sent me to be Ross’ watch-wolf. Ross didn’t take too kindly to that. It took a while for her to trust me, but when she did, we… Well, actually we didn’t, not right away. There was a small problem. Ross wasn’t disinterested in sex, and by that time she was starting to see my worth. She was a widow, dammit, not a blushing virgin. It was her widowhood that was the problem. Her late husband, William Tremayne, was still hanging around. It’s hard enough to compete with another man for the woman you’ve come to love, but when your competition is a ghost, and a much-loved, much-missed ghost at that, it’s almost impossible. I mean, how are you ever going to live up to the memories of a perfect man? Yes, I know Will Tremayne wasn’t perfect, but he was Ross’ idea of perfect.

The Lady of the Forests had sent me to do a job, or rather to ensure that Ross did what was needful to free the rowankind, but the nearer we got to knowing what that was, the less I liked it. This thing that Ross had to do could suck the life right out of her. For a while I thought she might refuse to do it. There were issues other than her personal safety, and she wondered for a time whether doing it was the right thing to do. I had no doubts that she would do it if she thought it was right. She wasn’t lacking in courage, but part of me hoped that she would decide it was too big a step to take. It could do more harm than good. Part of me hoped that in the weighing up of potential consequences, she would decide against it, but she didn’t, and all I could do was to support her as she stripped power from herself and her siblings to right a wrong that had been done two hundred years earlier.

You’re still reading this, so you’ve realised that Ross didn’t die, or I’d have been running round the forest howling at the moon by now.

We had a brief chance at a happy-ever-after, but that didn’t last. With the rowankind freed, it seemed that Ross had opened the gate for a lot of other magical creatures to find their way into the world, and we had to deal with a kelpie who’d been eating children in Devon.

If that had been all we could probably have gone back to our happy-ever-after, but that wasn’t all. We were called back to Yorkshire, to my family home. Yes, I know I said I was never going to go back, but things had changed, and until my sister Lily wrote I didn’t know any of it. My brother Jonathan had died. The number of times I’d been near to death because of some injury—protecting Ross isn’t without its hazards, so it’s lucky that I heal quickly—and yet Jonathan, always healthy and never in trouble for anything, had succumbed to a burst appendix. Our father had had an apoplectic fit at Jonathan’s funeral and my twin, Freddie, just when he should have been taking charge of the family, had ducked out and run off to London to enjoy the season with his disreputable friends, rakes all of them.

Anyhow, I won’t go into all that, Ross has told that story in Silverwolf. And yes, despite everything I married her. I never thought I’d marry. I mean, looking for a wife is difficult enough, but when you need one who won’t mind if her children turn into cubs one day, you can’t just turn up to the next assembly and pick one out for her looks or her graceful dancing. (And believe me that’s all that’s ever on show as the proud mamas show off their featherbrained daughters in the hopes of a good match.) Ross accepts me for what I am. That’s one more reason that I love her. Did I say she was beautiful, and brave, and resourceful? I probably did. So if I’ve started to repeat myself I shall put down the quill, blow out the candle and go to bed. Ross should have warmed it by now and with any luck she won’t be asleep yet.

If you want to catch up with all this from Ross’ point of view the stories are here in the books of The Rowankind:

About the Author:
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Jacey Bedford has a string of short story publication credits on both sides of the Atlantic. She lives a thouand feet up on the edge of the Yorkshire Pennines in a two hundred year old stone house. She has been a librarian, postmistress, rag-doll maker, and a folk singer in an acappella trio.

Spotlight: Silverwolf (Rowankind: Book Two) by Jacey Bedford + giveaway

Silverwolf (Rowankind: Book Two)

by Jacey Bedford
January 3, 2016
DAW Mass Market
432 Pages
Some have returned to Iaru to find freedom with the Fae; others are trying to find a place in the world, looking for fair treatment under the law. The course of the industrial revolution may change forever.

Wild magic is on the rise. Creatures of legend are returning to the world: kelpies, pixies, trolls, hobs, and goblins. Ross and Corwen, she a summoner witch and he a wolf shapechanger, have freed the rowankind from bondage, but now they are caught in the midst of the conflict, while trying their best to avoid the attention of the Mysterium, the government organization which would see them hanged for their magic.

When an urgent letter calls Corwen back to Yorkshire, he and Ross become embroiled in dark magic, family secrets, and industrial treachery. London beckons. There they discover a missing twin, an unexpected friend, and an old enemy—called Walsingham.“Swashbuckling adventure collides with mystical mayhem on land and at sea in this rousing historical fantasy series launch set in a magic-infused England in 1800.” —Publishers Weekly

“Bedford crafts emotionally complex relationships and interesting secondary characters while carefully building an innovative yet familiar world.” —RT Book Reviews

Winterwood (Rowankind)

by Jacey Bedford
February 2, 2016
432 pages
It's 1800. Mad King George is on the British throne, and Bonaparte is hammering at the door. Magic is strictly controlled by the Mysterium, but despite severe penalties, not all magic users have registered.

Ross Tremayne, widowed, cross-dressing privateer captain and unregistered witch, likes her life on the high seas, accompanied by a boatload of swashbuckling pirates and the possessive ghost of her late husband, Will. When she pays a bitter deathbed visit to her long-estranged mother she inherits a half brother she didn't know about and a task she doesn't want: open the magical winterwood box and right an ancient wrong—if she can.

Enter Corwen. He's handsome, sexy, clever, and capable, and Ross doesn't really like him; neither does Will's ghost. Can he be trusted? Whose side is he on?

Unable to chart a course to her future until she's unraveled the mysteries of the past, she has to evade a ruthless government agent who fights magic with darker magic, torture, and murder; and brave the hitherto hidden Fae. Only then can she hope to open the magical winterwood box and right her ancestor's wrongdoing. Unfortunately, success may prove fatal to both Ross and her new brother, and desastrous for the country. By righting a wrong, is Ross going to unleash a terrible evil? Is her enemy the real hero and Ross the villain?

About the Author:
website-FB-twitter
Jacey Bedford has a string of short story publication credits on both sides of the Atlantic. She lives a thouand feet up on the edge of the Yorkshire Pennines in a two hundred year stone house. She has been a librarian, postmistress, rag-doll maker, and a folk singer in an acappella trio.

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One winner: print copy of Winterwood and Silverwolf

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