THE PERFECT HORSE free to download 21st - 25th December

With just a few days to go before Christmas Day, don't forget to download your copy of THE PERFECT HORSE - available FREE from today up to, and including, 25th December.

Happy reading and happy Christmas!

TRICK RIDERS free to download until 20th December!

From today until 20th December, you can download the e-book of TRICK RIDERS FREE for the first time! 

Click here to download https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trick-Riders-Jane-Ayres-ebook/dp/B01HX1SRTE

Two exciting pony books in one for pony mad children and teens - and nostalgic adults!
Welcome to the exciting world of equestrian vaulting.....

Related post: 
https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2018/09/trick-riders-now-available-in-paperback.html

FOREVER HORSE e-book FREE until 15th December!

For anyone who has dreamed of finding their forever horse - this book is for you.

A fantastic read for horse lovers of all ages. 
Pony Mad Book Lovers

From the 11th until 15th December, the e-book of my popular  FOREVER HORSE trilogy is FREE to download - for the first time! Three books in one, this chunky read is an emotional roller coaster full of drama. Enjoy! And if you do, please stop by on Amazon or Goodreads and leave a review.  Thanks.

The Horse on the Balcony - FREE e-book until 10th December!

From today until 10th December you can download  THE HORSE ON THE BALCONY FREE!

"An outstanding read."  Pony Mad Book Lovers 

And if you enjoy reading this exciting story, you can buy the sequel Dark Horses from Amazon. 

FREE e-book of MATTY AND THE MOONLIGHT HORSE until 5th December!

From 1st December until 5th, you can download MATTY AND THE MOONLIGHT HORSE for free! This was a lot of fun to write, and all my royalties from the Matty trilogy are donated to Redwings Horse Sanctuary.  So if you enjoy your free read, I do hope you will want to buy Matty and the Problem Ponies and Matty and the Racehorse Rescue, knowing that your purchase is helping horses in need. 

Also see:

https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2017/05/redwings-and-matty-pony-book-series.html

DECEMBER e-book FREEBIES for pony-loving readers!!

To celebrate the run-up to Christmas, I will be giving away FREE e-books of 5 of my most popular pony titles, some for the first time ever, from 1st December up to, and including, Christmas Day!

These are:

1st - 5th       December MATTY AND THE MOONLIGHT HORSE
6th - 10th    December THE HORSE ON THE BALCONY
11th - 15th   December FOREVER HORSE
16th - 20th  December TRICK RIDERS
21st - 25th   December THE PERFECT HORSE

Keep an eye out on my Amazon author page to download your free copy!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jane-Ayres/e/B004MWCTD8/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Sharing the Spotlight in Writers' Forum

I'm really thrilled to have an article published in the latest issue of Writers' Forum magazine which is all about being a speaker earlier this year at the Faversham Literary Festival with fellow pony book author Amanda Wills. Lots of useful info for any writers thinking about getting involved in a local lit fest - go to page 48!

Related post: https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2019/02/talking-pony-books-author-event-at.html

A spooky page turner for Halloween....

The nights are drawing in - time to snuggle under the duvet for a spooky page turner. Funnily enough, I have just the book for Halloween - and it's yours for just £1.99 (or £5.99 if you want to splash out on the paperback!) Available in all Amazon territories for Kindle and print editions. BUY LINK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spooky-Pony-Mystery-other-stories-ebook/dp/B07HKNBL4Z/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537726145&sr=1-2&keywords=the+spooky+pony+mystery 


Related post: 
https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2018/10/5-star-review-for-spooky-pony-mystery.html

The Horse in my Heart - FREE read for the Bank Holiday!!!!

FREE e-book to download from 23rd August for 5 whole days!!!! (in all Amazon territories)

click here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Horse-my-Heart-Jane-Ayres-ebook/dp/B00GJYWGFS

THE PERFECT HORSE is FREE from 11-15th August!!

FREE e-book to download from 11th August for 5 whole days!!!! (in all Amazon territories)

click here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Horse-Jane-Ayres-ebook/dp/B00MFTBTRW

THE HORSE WHO DREAMED OF HOME - FREE to download for 5 days!!!

FREE e-book to download from 6th August for 5 whole days!!!! (in all Amazon territories)

click here: https://amzn.to/2GQryEh

Related post: https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-horse-who-dreamed-of-home-in.html

Sunshine and flowers

In 2015, I published a post called Japanese wisdom for writers about an article in a writing magazine that quoted a Japanese saying about the power of quietly repeating the same activity. I have been exploring a number of Japanese concepts, including ikebana, haiku and the concept of ma (more in a future post) so thought it seemed a good time to repost...…...

継続は力なり
Continuance is strength

It got me thinking about how daunting many tasks and projects can seem,  to the extent that we can become so overwhelmed we don't actually start, or give up halfway through.  I've been working on some really big, ambitious projects over the past few years - mostly non-writing related - and this saying really hit home.  Of course, as the author of the article, Robert Paul Weston, points out, feeling overwhelmed can be especially relevant for writers embarking on a novel.  

"Typing that last sentence can feel so far away, you may as well be trying to scratch it out in the sands of Mars. As such, dwelling on that ultimate goal can become an intolerable distraction, perhaps intolerable enough for you to give up. If you believe in this old saying, however, the only thing to do is forget that the end even exists. Just keep going."

A profound insight, and one that we should apply to life itself. 


Article: Japanese Wisdom for Writers by Robert Paul Weston in Writing in Education, issue 65, Spring 2015
http://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/wie-editions/articles/japanese-wisdom-for-writers.html
http://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/wie-editions/editions/nawe-conference-collection-2014.html

LAST CHANCE HORSE - ebook FREE until 10th June!!!

The e-book of LAST CHANCE HORSE will be FREE to download in all  markets from 6th - 10th June.
Click here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Chance-Horse-Jane-Ayres-ebook/dp/B01AH3N7EU

Gemma and the Pony Club Dance ebook is FREE until June 5th!!!

Girls, boys - and lots of ponies!

Gemma and the Pony Club Dance ebook is FREE until June 5th 
in all Amazon territories!

Click here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gemma-Pony-Dance-Books-ebook/dp/B00ET9VTS0

In the first story of the series, you’ll meet pony-mad teen Gemma and her feisty new pony Fireworks – along with Gemma’s long suffering boyfriend, Steve, her horse-loving friends Fizz and Kath and best mate Callie. They want to raise funds for the new horse rescue sanctuary by organising a Pony Club Dance at the community centre but then a gang of vandals cause trouble and put the horses in danger.  Fireworks goes missing – and to make matters worse, Gemma soon suspects her best friend, Callie, is secretly going out with the ring leader of the gang!

Will Gemma find Fireworks? 

Will she lose her friendship with Callie? 

And after everything that happens, can life ever be the same again?

If you enjoy this, there are 3 more ebooks in the Gemma series - all fast paced reads!

Gemma and the Tattooed Horses
Gemma and the Black Colt
Gemma and the Disappearing Showjumpers 

Guest blog for Womagwriter: why being determined is essential for a writer

So excited today to see my short story Back on Track in the Summer Special of The People's Friend.  I have been trying on and off for nearly 20 years to get a story accepted here and it is great to finally achieve this.  Tenacity is essential for a writer.

And if you want to find out more about getting short stories published, I am honoured to have written a guest post for the brilliant, inspirational Womagwriter Blog - an essential resource for anyone wanting to write fiction for the magazine market.  Click here to find out more about the process from submitting my story to People's Friend to the publication date over a year later. https://womagwriter.blogspot.com/2019/05/guest-post-by-womagwriter-jane-ayres.html

Horse on the Balcony FREE until 30th May!!!

The Horse on the Balcony ebook is FREE until May 30th in all Amazon territories!
Click here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Horse-Balcony-Horses-Secrets-Book-ebook/dp/B00SV4R1R2

This thrilling novella for horse lovers is one I am proud to have written. 

Two accidents crush the lives of two girls in very different ways.

Jenni is grieving from a loss that rips her world apart.

Holly is wracked with guilt after an accident she feels is her fault.

A chance encounter at a railway station brings the girls together and they share their tragic secrets. When Holly reveals she keeps seeing a mysterious palomino on an apartment balcony, which Jenni has dreamed is in danger, they decide to find him.
In the process, they discover that sometimes, hope - and redemption - is found in the most unexpected places…

"An outstanding modern pony novel." Pony Mad Book Lovers.


Read the sequel, Dark Horses.  Available as ebook and paperback.

Author goes live!

I am grateful to Confluence magazine for organising such a lovely launch night at Poco Loco in Medway - and I got to read my published memoir piece about my late maternal grandmother, plus a few deeply felt poems, also inspired by my upbringing in Peterborough. I was nervous, but once I got going, I enjoyed every minute - such an enthusiastic, warm audience and an honour to share space with so many wonderful writers! 

To buy the latest copy of this beautiful magazine, click link below https://www.confluencemagazine.co.uk/magazine

Related post: https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2019/04/memories-in-confluence-magazine.html

Matty and the Moonlight Horse - all royalties go to Redwings Horse Sanctuary!

Today I have been looking back and was reminded that the first book I made available for kindle was Matty and the Moonlight Horse - an exciting, fast paced adventure for pony lovers of 8 years upwards.  So if you haven't read it yet, please do take a look.

From a writer's viewpoint, Matty is the favourite of my characters.  Kind hearted, bold and impulsive, she is always getting into trouble - but mostly because she cares!

And all the royalties from the Matty e-book trilogy are donated to the wonderful Redwings Horse Sanctuary.

Have a great weekend!

Book link to buy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matty-Moonlight-Horse-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00942U36G/

Thanet Writers and Poetry

Had a lovely walk on Tankerton Slopes this morning and breakfast in nearby Whitstable Castle to celebrate having a poem accepted by Thanet Writers, and published today on their website.  You can read the poem here: https://thanetwriters.com/poem/

Memories in Confluence magazine

Was really thrilled to have a short piece of creative non-fiction Memories of Ethel published recently in the beautifully produced Confluence magazine. I love the cover design and artwork. My work is inspired by precious memories of my late maternal grandmother. You can buy this lovely magazine here: https://www.confluencemagazine.co.uk/confluence-issue-9

FREE until Wednesday! Kindle edition of The Horse in my Heart!

The ebook of The Horse in my Heart, available from Amazon in all territories, will be FREE to download until Wednesday - click the link below.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Horse-Heart-Jane-Ayres-ebook/dp/B00GJYWGFS

All writers have a book that they are especially proud of, and for me, this is that book.  It's an emotional story of love, friendship and loss, and was the bestselling of all my novels, selling over 162,000 copies in 7 countries. (The original title was Transitions). Follow this link to some lovely reviews and reader feedback

https://janeayres.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Horse%20in%20my%20Heart

It is also available in print as a paperback, UK price £5.99

Guest Post: Amanda Wills and Book 8 of the Riverdale Pony Series

I am delighted to welcome to my blog the best-selling pony book author Amanda Wills as part of her mini blog tour to launch her 8th book in the Riverdale Pony series!  
Over to you, Amanda......

Few stories have a stronger association with Dartmoor than the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The bleak and remote moorland is the perfect setting for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale of an ancient curse and a monstrous hound.

And it was this tale of greed and duplicity that inspired my latest book and the eighth in the Riverdale Pony Stories, The Mysteryof Riverdale Tor.

image credit Amanda Wills

My heroine, 14-year-old Poppy McKeever, lives on Dartmoor with her beloved Connemara pony Cloud.

Solving mysteries and having adventures is Poppy’s speciality. So, it was only a matter of time before she was faced with the kind of conundrum that would have had even the great Sherlock Holmes scratching his chin.

Writing The Mystery of Riverdale Tor was the perfect excuse to re-read The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The perfect marriage of a detective story and a gothic tale, the book had me gripped from the first page to the eagerly-anticipated denouement.

There are no supernatural hounds in my book, nor ancient family curses. There are no escaped convicts and no gloomy Baskerville Hall.

But there is a killer dog on the loose, and no-one knows where it’s come from or who it belongs to.

When the sheep on her best friend Scarlett’s farm are attacked, Poppy makes it her mission to track down the dog that has been terrorising the moor.

She must turn detective if she is to discover who owns the menacing hound before it kills again.

Of course, like any good whodunnit, there are plenty of dead ends and red herrings along the way and Poppy knows she must sift the truth from the lies if she is to find the killer dog and its nefarious owner.

There is also the small matter of a TREC competition to train for with her friends.

What Sherlock Holmes would make of Poppy’s sleuthing skills, who knows?

But if readers enjoy the book half as much as I enjoyed writing it, then I will be a very happy author!

Amanda Wills is the author of the Amazon bestselling Riverdale Pony Stories. The eighth book in the series, The Mystery of Riverdale Tor, is out now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystery-Riverdale-Pony-Stories-Book-ebook/dp/B07PGBX7NH/

You can visit Amanda’s website here: https://www.amandawills.co.uk/, find her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/riverdaleseries/ or follow her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/amandawillsauthor/?hl=en

 

Pony book author postcards and bookmarks

I recently invested in getting more of my popular bookmarks printed - along with a new postcard design.  Hope you like them!

STOP PRESS: I am delighted that on Wednesday 20th March, this blog welcomes best-selling pony book author Amanda Wills as part of her mini blog tour to launch her 8th book in the Riverdale Pony series!

Related post: http://janeayres.blogspot.com/2018/12/pony-book-authors-at-faversham-literary.html

Pony Book Freebies!!!!!

Over the next few weeks, I will be running several free e-book promotions, with my latest title, The Spooky Pony Mystery, available to download FREE until Wednesday. After this, some of my other titles may also be available free, each for 5 days at a time, until the middle of March - although not all at the same time. 

These may include Valentine Horse, Matty and the Moonlight Horse, Coming Home, The Horse on the Balcony and Beware of the Horse.

Keep checking my Amazon author page so you don't miss out!

Related post: 
https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-spooky-read-for-halloween.html

Talking Pony Books: Author Event at Faversham Literary Festival

Thanks to all the lovely folk who came to the author talk at Faversham Literary Festival today that I did with fellow pony book author Amanda Wills.The sun was shining too!

Related post: https://janeayres.blogspot.com/2018/10/interview-by-bestselling-pony-book.html