Book Giveaway – The Thief-Taker Series (22/07/13)

What do Charlemagne, Catherine de Medici, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Ghandi, Rudolph Valentino and I all have in common? Pleurisy. Which was and still is like being knifed in the kidney every time you take a deep breath and so not much got done last week except a great deal of practice in controlled breathing. I’d like to mark it down as research but to be honest, any character who has this shit is pretty much going to lie very still taking very shallow breaths and whimpering until they either get better or die. And if they absolutely have to do something, it’s going to come with an extremely bad temper and a great deal of shouting and roaring in pain. Maybe they could function if they have access to something like morphine. A lot of morphine.

Also included in last week’s research was the discovery that A&E will indeed turf you out in your knickers and a dressing gown at 5:30am on a Sunday to “make your way home.”

I’m back to working on SF stuff. Empires: Extraction (working title). The whole of Europa has been turned into a neutrino detector, American special forces have come face to face with an alien in the Libyan desert and I think I’m about to break Docklands. Also, lasers, in the vacuum of space, are INVISIBLE.

INVISIBLE!

You know who you are.

Dragon Queen comes out in less than four weeks. Have I mentioned that one of the major characters is a cross-over from the Thief-Taker series? Have I? Here’s the opening of Dragon Queen is case I haven’t.

The King’s Assassin came out in mass-market form a couple of weeks back. Kind of over-shadowed by some other stuff, sadly, but week’s giveaway is a complete Thief-Taker set. All three books, signed and lined by me.

thieftakers apprentice coverwarlocks shadow cover - shrunkkings assassin new

Usual deal – comment on this post before July 27th  and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim for a free copy of the series.

This week we’re playing Thief Supermarket. So you need your comment to come up with something to do with thiefly characters in fantasy, SF or real history and the comments have to be in alphabetical order. So for example, “A is for Always keep your caltrops handy,” “B is for Buried Treasure,” “C is for Cutpurse.” etc. etc.

Anyway, to enter the competition, you have to play the game. You can enter as may times as you like but I’ll count the first two entries – the rest are just for fun and showing off.  Extra points for humour and originality, not that extra points actually translates into anything useful :-p

Although, though no one has yet complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, it can take a while and if you live abroad then it can take even longer. Sorry about that, but they do get there eventually. Well, so far.

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72 Responses to “Book Giveaway – The Thief-Taker Series (22/07/13)”

  1. Ade Couper says:

    H is for Horses & other Highwayman essentials….

  2. Alek Cristea says:

    A is for Always have a dagger in your boot…and inside your sleeve…and under your shirt…and…you get the picture!

  3. Romeo Kennedy says:

    B is for Bash ‘em, Bag it, and Bloody leg it!

  4. Jane Winter says:

    C is for Cameron.

  5. Robin says:

    D is for the dastardly dagger wielding cut purse

  6. Will Bryan says:

    E is for embezzle

  7. Leanne says:

    F is for the Fiddle Game – a two-man swindle involving an expensive cheap violin

  8. Samantha says:

    G is for the Garotte………..hope it doesn’t happen to you!

  9. Paul says:

    H is for the Hand of Glory

  10. waseem says:

    I is for invisibility cloak

  11. Ewan McIntyre says:

    J is for Jimmy the Hand, best thief ever (probably)

  12. Briana Daily says:

    K is for knickers!

  13. Mango Heroics says:

    L is for the Lannisters who seek to steal the Iron Throne!

  14. Michael says:

    I hope you get well soon.I am not sure I can keep the orc alive must longer -at least if he stays in front of me when I fire my bow!

  15. Melissa Burkart says:

    M is for Mark – the thing you leave behind so they know whom to blame. (But make sure they can only blame your Moniker! )

  16. Barb Petersen says:

    N is for nicking things, it’s what thieves do.

  17. Katharine says:

    O is for opportunities, matched with luck, the two things that make the difference between a good thief and a dead one.

  18. Romeo Kennedy says:

    P is for penny-snatcher, so watch your shrapnel at the chip shop.

  19. Brandon Boss says:

    Q is for quick, for if your not you’ll surely be caught!

  20. Raymond Just says:

    R is for rapier, a thief’s blade of choice!

  21. Edwin says:

    S = Sly
    T = Thief
    ST = Sly Thief

  22. Julian says:

    U is for urchin, look-out and diversion.

  23. blodeuedd says:

    V is for villain, as some think they be

  24. Tony says:

    W is for wending your way silently over rooftops.

  25. Stephen says:

    Moderator: I’ll allow skipping ahead back to A at this point.

  26. Dreama Pritt says:

    A = act like you know what you are doing and people will believe you do

  27. J Turner says:

    B is for basements, often thief hideouts.

  28. Simon Bradley says:

    C is for Caper

  29. Adam Parrish says:

    D is for dirt encrusted fingernails

  30. David says:

    E is for evidence – never leave any behind.

  31. AP says:

    F is for filcher – what else are you going to do on a Sunday afternoon but filch :)

  32. AP says:

    G is for Ganking a Grifter – why go to all that trouble to swindle a mark when you can just gank him later and take the booty?

  33. Jane Winter says:

    G is for Grey Mouser.

  34. Jane Winter says:

    Oh bother, x-post. H is for hotwire.

  35. Danny Whittaker says:

    I is for Inigo Montoya of princess-stealing fame. :)

  36. Melissa Burkart says:

    So if XYZ are skipped and we have something we want to use, can we just add them at random?

  37. George Poles says:

    J is for James Bolivar DiGriz, aka Slippery Jim aka the Stainless Steel Rat, conman, thief and all-round rascal.

  38. liveotherwise says:

    K is for Kheldar, a thief’s real name :)

  39. Aaron says:

    L is for Loose Locks, the dream of any thief.

  40. Russell says:

    M is for Money, or Merely a way to keep score.

  41. Russell says:

    N is for Narcissus, who stole the heart of Echo.

  42. Yagiz [Between Two Books] says:

    K for “keys”. Thieving is easier when you have the keys.

  43. Yagiz [Between Two Books] says:

    oops… too late. I’ll come up with the next letter… hopefully

  44. Yagiz [Between Two Books] says:

    O is for “outfit”. A thief needs the right one.

  45. Danny Whittaker says:

    P is for Picking the Pockets of Preoccupied Pedestrians

  46. Richard Ritenbaugh says:

    Q is for quiet, if not perfectly silent, in doing the deed.

  47. Stephanie says:

    Q is for quality. If you’re going to steal something it should be worth the effort.

  48. Richard Ritenbaugh says:

    R is for the Romany, reputed to be thieves extraordinaire.

  49. Dan says:

    Q is for quiet. Don’t want to wake up the people you’re robbing, do you?

  50. Aleksandra Kesek says:

    Stealth – quite useful on the job;-)

  51. Sam says:

    T is for timelord, as a time lord is a perfect thief to steal artifacts throughout time

  52. Alison says:

    U is for underdog, there is always one of those

  53. Alistair says:

    V is for Vagabond, a suitable disguise.

  54. Robin carter says:

    W for whoremonger

  55. Joshua says:

    W is for Wits, and always keeping them about you

  56. Joshua says:

    Bother, too late.

    X is for Xebec, a three-masted pirate ship, the naval thieves of lore.

  57. kieran says:

    Z is for zipline a tool for many thiefs and a stylish entrance to boot!

  58. paul walsh says:

    A is for Alladin , one of the great thieves of fantasy and myth

  59. Will Bryan says:

    B is for bandit

  60. Eva says:

    C is for Cut the throat, Call the police, Catspaw,…

  61. Tim Jay says:

    D is for Dancing. Preferably in the rain.

  62. Kristjan Helgi Hjartarson says:

    D for Diplomacy. It is better than bluffing if used right.

  63. Thejaswi Udupa says:

    E is embezler (he stole the other z)

  64. Marina says:

    T is for Thieves’ Guild, an honourable thief is always registered.

  65. Ian Taylor says:

    F is for Fafhrd, companion to the redoubtable Grey Mouser

  66. Ian Taylor says:

    G is for Greed, the downfall of so many thieves.

  67. Robin carter says:

    H is for hangman … The person thieves hope to never meet

  68. Aleksandra Kesek says:

    I is for Invisible like Ezio in the crowd – pickpocket master.

  69. Kristjan Helgi says:

    J for the jailer. The unappreciated part of evey scoundrels story.

  70. Aleksandra Kesek says:

    K is for Kill the witness (if any) – cheaper than bribes.

  71. Alisa K. Santana says:

    Jonathan Wild (born c.1683), probably Britain’s most well-known criminal of the 18th century, was known as the director of a ‘corporation of thieves’. He learned his ‘trade’ while serving a sentence in a debtor’s prison, and established a curious reputation as ‘Thief Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland’. He directed a largeband of thieves and felons who dealt in stolen goods, kept the stolen goods himself and waited until the crime and theft was announced in the papers, at which point he would claim that his agents had found them, and would return them to their rightful owners, demanding a fee. Any criminals who would not comply with his organization were betrayed by Wild to the police. He informed on about 120 men during his career, and all went to the gallows. He himself was arrested on a minor felony charge, found guilty and hanged at Tyburn in May 1725. His gang included Jack Sheppard, housebreaker, Nathaniel Hawes, highwayman, William Burridge, horse stealer, and others, all executed in the 1720s.

  72. Stephen says:

    The gods of random selected Aleksandra for Stealth (note that was the first of his entries) and I’m going to offer a copy of something to Alisa too for the essay on Jonathan Wild :-)

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