City of Masks

City of Masks is now available on Amazon.

If you’re considering buying it, bear in mind that Amazon takes an extra dollar as their cut, so I’ll benefit more if you go through Lulu or CreateSpace. But if you wanted to review the book on Amazon…

Just because I did the writing, the copy-editing, the cover design, the voicing and production of the audiobook, and the marketing for City of Masks doesn’t mean it’s a one-man production. It wouldn’t be nearly as good without these excellent people:

• The former Cityside book group: Andrew, Brenda, Derek, John, Karl, Nicole and Arthur, who liked the first two chapters and encouraged me to write more. Arthur, in particular, kept encouraging me at intervals until I finally finished it.
• My hand-picked critique group: Andrew, Brenda, Derek, Pam, Arthur, Kristen, Mark, Sarah, Gabrielle and Evelyn, who gave excellent feedback and insisted it should be longer.
• Erin, who besides being my wife – not a small contribution – picked up a potentially embarrassing mistake in the penultimate proof, and suggested much-needed improvements for the blurb.
• Joshua, who made helpful comments on several of the early chapters.
• Donia, who allowed me to use her beautiful mask illustration for the cover in exchange for acknowledgement.
• Jon Sayles, who loves Renaissance music so much, he set it free. All the incidental music in the podcast and audiobook is performed, excellently, by Jon.

Also, of course, it wouldn’t have been possible at all without the millions of people, sung and unsung, who have deliberately or otherwise contributed to developing the technologies of affordable digital publishing. When you have enough normal-sized people to stand on the shoulders of, giants are superfluous.

City of Masks is a swashbuckling adventure in a setting reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Italy (complete with twins).

In the city-state of Bonvidaeo, by custom and law everyone must wear a mask and act in character with it, or face civil, social and religious penalties.

Gregorius Bass is sent to Bonvidaeo as the Envoy of Calaria, primarily to get him out from underfoot. Masked as the Innocent Man, and in the company of his radical young Bonvidaoan servant, Bass stumbles into mystery, intrigue, heresy and murder.

It’s speculative fiction (though it’s neither science fiction nor fantasy). It’s a mystery (with a serial killer) and an adventure (with a sword fight after a rooftop chase). There’s intrigue, some humour and a little romance. Beneath it all, though, is a serious reflective point about identity and social convention. Besides Shakespeare, the strongest influence is probably G.K. Chesterton, though there’s also a little Dumas.

It’s available in print from Lulu, CreateSpace and Amazon and (for New Zealand and Australian residents) directly from C-Side Media. ISBN: 978-0-473-12213-3

You can download a sample containing the front matter and the first five pages of the novel or download the entire ebook for free (both in .pdf format). If you want other ebook formats they are available at Smashwords.

I’ve recorded the book, in my own voice, and serialized it here as a podcast. You can subscribe here, on iTunes or on podiobooks.com.

The beautiful cover illustration is by Donia.