Blog Tour: The Old Dragon’s Head – Justin Newland Extract.

I am so excited to be working with Zooloo’s Book Tours to be bringing you a stop on the The Old Dragon’s Head blog today. Today I am bringing you an extract, but before we get to that, let’s meet the author and take a look at the book itself.

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.

You can connect with Justin on Facebook, and his website

Now it’s time to take a look at the book.

Constructed of stone and packed earth, the Great Wall of 10,000 li protects China’s northern borders from the threat of Mongol incursion. The wall is also home to a supernatural beast: the Old Dragon. The Old Dragon’s Head is the most easterly point of the wall, where it finally meets the sea.

In every era, a Dragon Master is born. Endowed with the powers of Heaven, only he can summon the Old Dragon so long as he possess the dragon pearl.

It’s the year 1400, and neither the Old Dragon, the dragon pearl, nor the Dragon Master, has been seen for twenty years. Bolin, a young man working on the Old Dragon’s Head, suffers visions of ghosts. Folk believe he has yin-yang eyes and other paranormal gifts.When Bolin’s fief lord, the Prince of Yan, rebels against his nephew, the Jianwen Emperor, a bitter war of succession ensues in which the Mongols hold the balance of power. While the victor might win the battle on earth, China’s Dragon Throne can only be earned with a Mandate from Heaven – and the support of the Old Dragon.

Bolin embarks on a journey of self-discovery, mirroring Old China’s endeavour to come of age. When Bolin accepts his destiny as the Dragon Master, Heaven sends a third coming of age – for humanity itself. But are any of them ready for what is rising in the east?

Published: October 9th 2018. Matador. Pages: 293.

Amazon.
Goodreads.

What do you think so far? It is time for the extract I promised at the beginning of the post.

Ru was playing in their small garden while Luli sat at her writing desk. She moved her calligraphy brush over the paper. She was crafting ‘Zhongguo’, the two-character word for China. The Chinese character ‘zhong’ comprised four independent brush strokes. The character looked like an arrow hitting a target in the ‘middle’, from which it derived its core meaning. She added the descriptive character ‘guo’, meaning kingdom – hence Zhong-guo, Middle Kingdom.

Encapsulated in one word – Zhongguo – were the three ideas: that China was the kingdom in the middle of the earth, that it was a gateway between Heaven and the rest of the world, and that the Han people were a bridge between Heaven and the peoples of the world. Whenever any divine ch’i flowed from Heaven, it first appeared in the Zhongguo. Above all others, the gods favoured the Middle Kingdom and her Han people. Both were chosen to fulfil a special purpose on earth. And one day, one day soon, Luli would join that special purpose and help summon divine ch’i not only to the Zhongguo, but to the whole world.

That was a noble idea, but her attention was drawn by the jerky, uneven nature of her brush strokes. They lacked her usual subtlety and finesse. Something was wrong and it wasn’t her. She decided to check the day’s almanac. She rifled through the charts, her eyes following the deft movement of her index finger, along row and column, until she found the relevant entry.

It indicated that today was a good day to receive a visitor.
Would that be Dong, she wondered? The Abbot often sent her parcels of food and bundles of firewood, but rarely visited himself. Perhaps her neighbour Bolin? But he never came to see her, because when he did call, it was for Ru. Of late, Bolin had joined the conscripts working on the wall, so she hadn’t seen much of him.

So long as it wasn’t that vile Bao. The man was dangerous and always abusing his senior
position. She’d heard about his dreadful antics at the White Mulberry Inn the other day. She wasn’t surprised. She was a widow and even if she admitted it herself, she was still pretty – not youthful pretty, but elegant pretty. Bao would often pester her for a kiss and a cuddle and sometimes more. She was having none of that! What a gross apology for a man.

Then it must be Feng. Twice, she had called on his house in the Yamen. The Lady Lan had
asked her about some letters for him. He would be along to collect them sooner or later.

She pulled the lapels of her robe and rubbed her hands together. In a cup, she fingered a dozen bronze cash and a silver tael. Her finances were good. The Po Office business brought her a steady if unspectacular income. While it was over thirty years since the Hongwu Emperor had thrown the Mongols out, people were wary of the uneasy peace with them. Villagers in a border fortress like Shanhaiguan lived in daily fear that the blue wolves would swarm out of the northern steppes and re-occupy the Zhongguo. In the shadows of an uncertain future, people were cautious, but that failed to deter them from abiding by the traditional belief in soul transmigration.

Since the Song Dynasty, donors had left Po or soul envelopes for their successors and even passed on IOUs. Of late, the Great Ming Code had confirmed that financial debts were transferable in that way, so a soul donor could pass on their financial debt to the person who inherited their soul, a debt the latter would be liable to pay in full. Luli earned a fee from everyone who left a Po envelope with her, providing her with a profitable livelihood.

She put away her cup of money, tidied her writing desk and wandered into the herb garden. There she was pleased to find a few brave shoots nudging up through the cold earth. When they flowered, she’d need them to treat her growing list of patients.

There we have it! What did you think of this extract? Does it make you want to read the book? Let me know in the comments below.

Don’t forget to follow the rest of the tour, either by looking at the rest of the bloggers included in the image below, or by checking out the list here.