Coffee Pot Book Tour: The Coronation by Justin Newland

 

Welcome to another stop on the Coffee Pot Book Tour for The Coronation. Grab a cup of something warm and settle in. We have a great guest post for you today from author Justin Newland! The Coronation is celebrating it's two year anniversary! Enjoy.

 

The Details

 

Book Title: The Coronation

Author: Justin Newland

Publication Date: 28th January 2019

Publisher: Matador

Page Length: 216 Pages

Genre: Historical Fantasy, Supernatural Thriller 

 

The Blurb: 

It is 1761. Prussia is at war with  Russia and Austria. As the Russian army occupies East Prussia, King Frederick the Great and his men fight hard to win back their homeland. 

In Ludwigshain, a Junker estate in East Prussia, Countess Marion von Adler celebrates an exceptional harvest. But it is requisitioned by Russian troops. When Marion tries to stop them, a Russian captain strikes her. His lieutenant, Ian Fermor, defends Marion’s honour and is stabbed for his insubordination. Abandoned by the Russians, Fermor becomes a divisive figure on the estate. 

Close to death, Fermor dreams of the Adler, a numinous eagle entity, whose territory extends across the lands of Northern Europe and which is mysteriously connected to the Enlightenment. What happens next will change of the course of human history…

 

Meet Justin Newland 

Justin Newland is an author of historical fantasy and secret history thrillers - that’s history with a supernatural twist. His stories feature known events and real people from history which are re-told and examined through the lens of the supernatural. He gives author talks and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Bristol’s Thought for the Day. He lives with his partner in plain sight of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England.

 

Follow Justin on Social Media

 

Website: https://www.justinnewland.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.newland.author/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-newland-b393aa28/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjustinnewland/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/~/e/B06WRQVLT8

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52079518-the-coronation

 

His Books 

The Genes of Isis is a tale of love, destruction and ephemeral power set under the skies of Ancient Egypt. A re-telling of the Biblical story of the flood, it reveals the mystery of the genes of Isis – or genesis – of mankind. ISBN 9781789014860.

 

“The novel is creative, sophisticated, and downright brilliant! I couldn’t ask more of an Egyptian-esque book!” – Lauren, Books Beyond the Story.

 

The Old Dragon’s Head is a historical fantasy and supernatural thriller set during the Ming Dynasty and played out in the shadows the Great Wall of China. It explores the secret history of the influences that shaped the beginnings of modern times.  ISBN 9781789015829.

 

‘The author is an excellent storyteller.” – British Fantasy Society.

 

Set during the Great Enlightenment, The Coronation reveals the secret history of the Industrial Revolution. ISBN 9781838591885.

 

“The novel explores the themes of belonging, outsiders… religion and war…  filtered through the lens of the other-worldly.” – A. Deane, Page Farer Book Blog.

 

His latest, The Abdication (July, 2021), is a suspense thriller, a journey of destiny, wisdom and self-discovery. ISBN 9781800463950. 

 

“In Topeth, Tula confronts the truth, her faith in herself, faith in a higher purpose, and ultimately, what it means to abdicate that faith.”

V. Triola, Coast to Coast.

 

Guest Post

 

A Guest Post about how you combined historical fact with fantasy elements to create this novel.

 

The novel, The Coronation, is set in Eastern Europe in the 1760’s. At the time, Europe was at a crossroads. Society remained strongly religious, but since the Reformation, there had been conflict between Protestant and Catholic, and this manifested in the Seven Years’ War. In the European theatre of this war, there was Lutheran Prussia on one side, and the Catholic states of Austria and Russia on the other. 

It was a time when there was no industry to speak of other than cottage industry. There were no factories, no mechanisation, no machines, and little technology beyond the plough. There were the beginnings of some instrumentation, such as the astrolabe, and more importantly, the printing press.  

The period was called the Great Enlightenment for good reason. It ripped away the veil of confusion and superstition from many areas and gave birth to the sciences of biology and chemistry. 

Even so, the times were shrouded in superstition. For example, there was no cure for rabies, and people did not understand how it was spread. A common medical procedure was using leeches to suck the blood of the patient. 

Having highlighted some of the history of the time, the fantasy elements were easy to introduce into the novel, because I simply described some of the prevalent irrational and superstitious beliefs. 

 

For example, one episode in the novel was based around and inspired by the iconic Hieronymus Bosch painting, Cutting the Stone. It’s also called The Extraction of the Stone of Madness or The Cure of Folly. It shows a man wearing a pointed hat about to cut open another man’s head. A monk is in attendance, as is a nun, wearing a book on her head. The painting aptly summarises one of the novel’s main themes - the blurred line between sanity and madness in human affairs. 

In those days, madness was often attributed to possession by some devil, or demon, which had to be exorcised. 

Amongst other things, that’s what’s portrayed in the painting. 

The episode in the novel was also a launch pad to explore the meaning and significance of the horrific Medieval medical practice of trepanning, when a hole is drilled in the skull to release the malevolent spirits. 

This theme is hinted at right at the start of the novel, when, in the preface, I included this old Saxon rhyme:

 

“Who can tell,

When heads will swell?

Or what’ll be felt,

When skulls do melt?”

 

Into the mix of this comes the eagle, shown hovering above the head of a Madonna figure on the front cover of the book.  

The eagle has played a prominent part in European heraldry for millennia. It was carried by the Aquilifer (the eagle-bearer) before every Roman army, and features on the heraldic arms of many European countries, including Russia and, of course, Prussia. 

I employed symbols like the eagle to make the fantasy elements in the story more believable. So, I introduced the Order of the Black Eagle, the highest chivalric order in Prussia, and cast one of the scenes in Konigsberg Cathedral. Using this folklore and heraldry, I conceived the idea of a supernatural entity, the Adler (which means eagle in German), and the part it would play in the development of the single most important event in modern times – the Industrial Revolution. 

The 18^th Century saw the shift from the agrarian-based feudal society built around peasant workers and landowners (or Junkers as they were called in Prussia) to an industrial factory-based one with huge anonymous cities. In those days, village people still retained a strong binding relationship with the land on which they lived, expressed through folk customs, song, dance, story and the like. This relationship, mostly lost today, was epitomised by the Ancient Greek idea of Arcadia, denoting a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature.

 

Again, to make the supernatural elements more credible, I explored the regular ceremonies of the peasants, and the novel opens with a scene celebrating the harvest, and the thanksgiving for it. I also researched the folk lore of the times and the area, and was pleased to discover a German peasant trickster figure called Til Eulenspiegel, a character I explored in the novel.

Eulen-spiegel literally means owl-mirror, and these are the two objects he’s holding up in his hands in the picture. 

 The kind of tricks he used to play were to sit backwards on his saddle, so he couldn’t see where his horse was going. So, he’s a kind of fool or jester figure. 

I had great fun researching these fantastical elements, and introducing them into the story. In my novels, I try to make the supernatural natural, and the fantastical probable. Because when you go to pick up the phone, and you know who it is on the line before you answer, isn’t the fantastical much closer than you think? 

Welcome to the world of The Coronation.

 

 Buy Justin’s Book

 Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coronation-Justin-Newland-ebook/dp/B0827YLXRZ

 Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Coronation-Justin-Newland-ebook/dp/B0827YLXRZ

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Coronation-Justin-Newland-ebook/dp/B0827YLXRZ

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Coronation-Justin-Newland-ebook/dp/B0827YLXRZ

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-coronation-justin-newland/1135273653

Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-coronation/justin-newland/9781838591885

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-coronation-6

Author’s Website (buyers can enter a dedication to be signed by the author): https://www.justinnewland.com/the-coronation~102

Publisher’s Website: https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/fantasy-and-horror/the-coronation/

Wordery (UK): https://wordery.com/the-coronation-justin-newland-9781838591885

Bookswagon (India): https://www.bookswagon.com/book/coronation-justin-newland/9781838591885

Booktopia (Au): https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-coronation-justin-newland/ebook/9781838597849.html

Saxo (Dk): https://www.saxo.com/dk/the-coronation_justin-newland_paperback_9781838591885

Exclusive Books (SA): https://www.exclusivebooks.co.za/product/9781838591885

 

Thanks for stopping by The Book’s Delight. I hope you’ll check out other stops on Justin’s tour.