Dear friends and followers,

Who wants to be a character in a murder mystery game?

I am planning a third instalment in the Eric Peterkin mystery game series, and here’s the deal: for each copy of "Murder at the Veterans’ Club" you order between now and 04 August, I will place your name (or another name supplied by you, if you prefer) in a hat; on the day itself, I will draw three unique names from the hat and apply those names to characters in the game.

(Yes: if you place three orders, you get to put three names in the hat.)

I’m not really pushing very hard for sales this month, so your chances of getting picked out of the hat are probably really, really good.

Re: last update

Did I say 04 August? I meant 04 September.

Because this isn’t science-fiction and there is no time travel. Even if it is set in a historical time period.

Hi all,

A while ago I have made a campaign pledge to Norwood UK Charity: 2£ or 3.5$ (that equation was right before Brexit which resulted in the pound dropping in value -lol) from every order using a special referral account I have opened for them. 
I have kept the pledge for every order I got on the course of July (once the campaign was over).

Norwood UK is a leading Jewish charity supporting vulnerable children, families and people with learning disabilities. It costs £35 million a year for Norwood to provide their community services and it must raise £12 million from voluntary donations.
Norwood strives to ensure that everyone can live the life they choose, irrespective of their ability. They  provide professional help in a warm and caring environment, supporting people to be as independent as possible.
Their Family Services include children and family support, social work, an inclusive nursery, and special educational needs, while their Learning Disability Services include education, after school clubs & holiday schemes, transition, supported living, residential care, lifelong learning and health and well-being.
I wanted to thank Simon Walton, my close friend, for introducing me to this wonderful charity.

So here’s the math: 27 orders have been made using Norwood’s special referral, on top of that I got 5 orders after the campaign was over. 32 order * 3.5$ (let’s keep the dollar amount, it’s better for them) = 112$...
I expected more , so decided it is fair to double this amount to 224$, which is in today’s exchange = 140£ donation to Norwood (which is worth 175£ as I let them keep the giftaid tax relief).

That was done thank to you and your help - but if you want to learn or donate more - please please visit Norwood here.

As for "the Wolf" - I have submitted the manuscript nearly a month ago, after frivolous help from my wife and friend Micha Knopf to make sure all is proofread... I have submitted a creative brief on the same occasion and I am waiting to hear back from Angela our talented Marketing Manager & Girl Friday Production as to the editorial progress. Will keep you posted!

-Jonathan

Dear friends and followers,

Over the past little while, I’ve introduced a few of the characters from the novel. You may have noticed that all of them are male. This is perhaps to be expected, given the setting: there aren’t many female members in a gentlemen’s club, I think. Today, however, I’m pleased to introduce one of the women in the novel: Martha Garrett, wife of Edward Garrett.

Ladies’ clubs did exist, incidentally: just like gentlemen’s clubs, offering the same sort of services, but for women only. The University Women’s Club, founded in 1886 as the University Club for Ladies, is still "women only" today.

In the novel, Martha Garrett mentions having lunch at the Cavendish: that would be what is today the New Cavendish Club, founded in 1920 expressly for the ladies of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, or VAD. VAD nurses were not the same as military nurses: the latter were career women with stringent medical training, while the VADs were volunteers who might have had no prior experience. There was apparently some friction between the two at the beginning of the first World War, lessening as the war dragged on.

If the Cavendish was supposed to be for the VADs, would Martha Garrett, as a former military nurse, have been a member? I don’t know, but I’m sure she wouldn’t have let a trivial detail like that stop her.