Flies and dust. Greasy hair stuck to my face. My Longsword, Clouter, leans against the bar. My sax, Biter, hangs from my sword belt, my sweaty fingers drumming the hilt. Unfriendly eyes glance sly to where I'm seated. Alone. Thirsty. And in a rare ragged mood. Where the .... Is Hagan? My Partner these last few months. It's not safe to operate down here alone. Permio: desert realm, outside the Four Kingdoms and as nasty a nest of cutthroat and [...]
I watch as all around me dark waves surge and muster, striking causeway, frothing white and then falling back again, only to resume their eager timeless dance -- a ceaseless rhythm of water on stone. Wind tosses my hair disheveled and mocks my ears with laughing voices. Gulls swoop and circle above, their shrill cries joining the wind.'Fool,' it whispers, 'Dreamer!' the birds mewl. I ignore them every one, what care I for their assumptions? Clouds scurry ahead, remote heedless [...]
Mother left us that windy night midst winter's darkest hour. I never forgave her, casting that thin white body from the keep's tower, allowing it break like brittle clay on the rocks below -- a gift to the Sea God. She gave up, did mother. Deserted me. Left me with them. Father, fallen to drink and murderous brooding. My brothers three, to fighting, wenching and dealing such harm as only they could to the small folk in the village. People [...]
Next month Gol my first fantasy epic will feature as a Goodreads Giveaway. I will be mailing 10 copies to the winners, and with that in mind I thought I'd trawl back and spend a few minutes explaining the passion and drive I had writing this sizeable novel. Gol can either be read as a stand alone tale or as Book's 1&2 of my ongoing Legends of Ansu series (I'm currently writing The Glass Throne - Legend 4.) Gol [...]
For a time during my twenties I worked in construction, a brief happy period betwixt my military years and my eventual shift to driving trucks. On the whole I enjoyed the building trade, though not enough to make it a career - so many rainy days in Britain ensure bricklaying and carpentry is hard on the body. But what I learnt at that time left me with a keen interest for messing about with stone and wood, resulting in garden [...]
Christmas is a time to filter thoughts and reflect on what's important - not what's on sale. It's an annual marker stone enabling us look back at the past, recalling lost faces and smiling eyes, hearing again, old tunes and warm happy stories told by roaring log fires. Remembering childhood times when presents were bigger and Christmas mornings filled with mince pies, socks, and magic. It's still a time when imagination and faerie lights can carry you far away from [...]
I was born in the north of England and grew up in Sussex down in the south east, but more recently spent many years living in Cornwall in the far south west. This rugged sea-washed spur, known also as Kernow in the Celtic tongue, thrusts west from Devon and is almost an island, with the River Tamar separating it from the rest of England. But it's not just a physical divide. Cornwall is different: the mood, the atmosphere - whether [...]
As I stare out on these cold castle walls, awaiting the inevitable attack by the baying hordes below, my mercurial mind wanders down dark paths, causing me to look back over the last few months and wonder what has become of me, and more importantly, who I have become. Shallan, lady of Morwella. Simple. A name and a title - what more could one want in this life? happiness, you say. Fulfilment... I know little of those fleeting birds, mine [...]
Have you ever had that creeping feeling you're not alone? Maybe you are walking through a wood as autumnal leaves dance by your face. It's cold. You feel a shiver and glance ahead. There's someone standing there, watching you beneath the trees. No...twas but a trick of the light! Or else maybe a deer, or some other wary beast observing your clumsy progress through the tangle of forest. You chuckle at your foolishness and walk on. And from the shadows [...]
There are some terrific fantasy writers out there at the moment: Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss, Trudi Canavan, and of course GRR Martin - to name but a few. Doubtless in days to come many future authors in the genre will talk about how the above names influenced their own work. And that the early 21st century was a terrific time for the fantasy genre - and they'd be right too. But, as a grizzled 54-year-old ex soldier/trucker, real-ale [...]
