Rock, Paper, Swords! - the Historical Action and Adventure Podcast

Join us today as we chat about things like:

The Kindle Storyteller Award - how to enter, and what you can win (20 grand!)

The "magic formula" for understanding Amazon's algorithms (there isn't one!)

Amazon's new book categories and how to use them best

Amazon's charts

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it might affect KDP in future be it for "writing" nonsensical books, or affecting the charts

Paperback printing

And a load more!

If you have a question that we didn't ask Darren please post it here, or on our social media pages and we'll pass them on!

https://www.facebook.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast and Twitter @rock_swords

Our guest today is Matt Lewis.

Matt is an author and historian of the medieval period, with a particular interest in the Wars of the Roses and Richard III. He has written biographies of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry III, Richard Duke of York, and Richard III, as well as accounts of The Anarchy, the Wars of the Roses, and Rebellion in the Middle Ages.

Matt is also chair of the Richard the Third Society and host of the popular Gone Medieval podcast.

Welcome to RPS, Matt.

Today's fantastic guest is Theodore Brun, author of The Wanderer Chronicles. He has a brand new book out NOW called A SAVAGE MOON, which Matthew read and endorsed thusly:

We spoke about his work and his life in general, discovering his life is often as exciting as his books, so make sure you give it a listen.

Note - Steven tested positive for COVID just a couple of days after recording this, and you can hear it in his voice so that's why he says even less than usual in this episode!

Theo's website - https://www.theodorebrun.com

Give it a listen, and make sure you buy A Day of Reckoning...

Our guest today is Angus Donald, author of the Outlaw Chronicles, about a medieval gangster called Robin Hood, a 17th-century series about an unusual but rather brilliant chap called Holcroft Blood. And writing as Angus Macallan, he has also tried his hand at fantasy with the Gates of Stone.

His most recent novels are in the Fire Born series, set in 8th century Europe. Book four in the series, King of the North is published by Canelo on 28th September. 

Welcome to RPS, Angus.

http://angusdonaldbooks.com/

Our guest today is Paul Finch. Paul Finch is an English author and scriptwriter. He has a diverse and very successful career, from the popular TV programme The Bill, to horror and fantasy stories and films, Doctor Who spin-off stories and the incredibly successful gritty crime series of DS Mark Heck Heckenberg novels, with over 1 MILLION book sales!

Paul’s latest pivot has been to move into the historical fiction genre, writing under the name P.W. Finch. USURPER, set in the cataclysmic year of 1066, was published earlier this year. 

Welcome to RPS, Paul.

Our guest today is Ethan Bale, author of The Swords of the White Rose series.

Book 1, Hawker and the King's Jewel came out last year and the follow up, The Lost Prince, has just been published.

Ethan Bale (Clifford Beal), is a former defence journalist. Despite writing about modern military technology for much of his career, he was always passionate about history, particularly the Renaissance and early modern Europe. 

Over the years he has been flung about in military aircraft, trained in 17th century rapier, fired flintlock pistols, messed about in boats, and ridden both horses and motorcycles. These days he is usually found wielding a pen and not a sword.

Welcome to RPS, Ethan!

Alex Gough is an author of Roman historical adventures. The Carbo Chronicles, including Watchmen of Rome and Bandits of Rome, was written as a result of a lifelong obsession with ancient Rome, and the culmination of a lot of research into the underclasses of the time. He has also written a collection of adventures following Carbo and other characters from Watchmen of Rome, where you can learn more about their rich lives.

Alex loves our theme song so much that he recorded a cool tribute to it which you can find at the end of the episode.

If you're a musician and want to record your own cover version, send it to us and we'll use it in a future episode (unless it's really, REALLY bad lol)!

This is a super short episode just to give listeners an update on how we're planning on moving forward with the podcast. Matthew's latest book, "Forest of Foes", gets a paperback release, and Steven has also just made a brand new MODERN DAY short story available for pre-order, called "Have You Seen This?" so we discuss those a little bit too.

Enjoy, and we really hope you liked the latest episode with Robin Warder of The Trail Went Cold podcast. Look out for our next episode on June 23rd which features an interview with bestselling historical author ALEX GOUGH!

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? buy link (FREE with Kindle Unlimited!)

FOREST OF FOES paperback buy link (also FREE with Kindle Unlimited!)

TRIGGER WARNING! At 13:16 there's a VERY creepy answerphone message, listener discretion advised, don't listen alone in the dark...

You may be wondering what this has to do with "historical action and adventure" but readers of Steven's Forest Lord novellas Faces of Darkness and Sworn to God will know they were based on true stories - true stories covered in episodes of The Trail Went Cold! We chat about those in this episode, and much more. This is something a little different and we really hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Rock, Paper, Swords, Robin!

Trail Went Cold episode 18, Cindy James (Faces of Darkness inspiration) - https://www.trailwentcold.com/2016/10/12/the-trail-went-cold-episode-18-cindy-james/

Trail Went Cold 159 (Sworn to God inspiration) - https://www.trailwentcold.com/2020/01/29/the-trail-went-cold-episode-159-charles-southern/

Robin's articles on Cracked.com (brilliant stuff this!) - https://www.cracked.com/members/Robinwarder