Ok, so when the world turns up side down you have to turn with it. Don't ask why just smile and hang on. If you're trapped spinning in the tumble dryer you have to hold to hoping that some kind soul will eventually switch it off. You'll fall out, your hair will look crap, but hey you'll be fine. Trust your hunches and roll with the punches as Jimmy Buffett would say. So when everything you thought you knew about promotion and publishing goes topsy turvy, [...]
OK - first big apologies for the tardiness of this entry. Many excuses - none suffice but, well... back here now. The Haven is ready after being proofed by the excellent Julia Gibbs @juliaproofreader and Shattered Crown almost there. Been a long road - hard, twisted and challenging, but worth every mile. Being back in Ansu with Corin left me feeling I needed to expose my far-reaching goals for this forthcoming fantasy series. So for this entry my purpose is to [...]
I received three stunning images from Roger Garland last week, one for each of the Chronicles of Corin. I already have an over-image for the Chronicles on my website. These new artworks are dazzling and I think will really help the books fly. For The Shattered Crown we have an eagle-prowed ship, a wolf god and a churning ocean, with Oroonin's all -seeing eye in background. The Glass Crown shows Caer Carranis my city beset by Vaarg the firedrake, with [...]
Time to meet the leading four! First up Corin an Fol: orphan, mercenary and Longswordsman. Corin has a troubled past that works against him; he yearns for solace from war and strife. But he's got an attitude problem. Corin loves complicated women, but lacks the finesse to hook them, becoming tongue-tied and clumsy. He's lethal with that blade of his, and reckless brave when fighting (which is almost every day.) During the quest for the lost crown (the Tekara) Corin [...]
It's kind of cathartic in a sense - going back yet again, seeing Corin an Fol make his woody descent down to Finnehalle, his village, as evening sun slips below western water. I started writing The Shattered Crown back in the nineties, pen and paper, scribble and scrape. The story grew and grew, the characters all pressing me for bigger parts. I succumbed under pressure, hence SC morphed into Legends of Ansu, a wider story. This was represented for a [...]
Ok - so the Haven is done, subject to last minute tweaking after proofread. The story is succint and precise, bonding past with present and written in a modern upbeat style. The book is short - novella (perfect for kindle.) The script twists and turns frequently, and I think (and hope) will lure you, dear reader, until you are hooked. Certainly made a change writing contempory, and focussing on a spot I know just down the road - although ,discluding [...]
Snowdrops winking sleepy under crac-creaky willow; lambs a-gambol in wind-lashed fields, and those first brave yellow daffodils -waking up to promise of springtime after the long cold dark. The sap is rising, my friends: bleak winter in Cornwall shall soon relent his hold.It is a time of change.Change: that ever spinning wheel - constant always shifting. What must those weary souls caught up in the Industrial Revolution have thought when they saw the first steam train rolling in? And the [...]
OK- a ghost story. Simple - or is it?.Primarily, make it scary and full of surprises, and then - set the backdrop somewhere local where people think: ( oh! I've been there and, well it did feel a bit creepy that afternoon, didn't it Nigel? Even if it didn't (and Nigel shakes his head,) Chinese whispers and auto-suggestion work wonders I find.The concept of course came from Rae, specifically two of her paintings - Maid of Haven and Anwyn, (we [...]
They arrived yesterday my fledgling masterworks - shiny cling-wrapped harbingers of distant Spring. I'll illuminate: after so long beating against the winds of publishing/self-publishing, of launching eBooks and promoting manuscripts, it felt so good to feel the real deal in my grubby eager palms.Of course, there are only thirty - I didn't want to overdo it in a pre-launch, but after two years determined scribbling it's rewarding to see the finished product. Fall of Gol - first in a series [...]
To explain this mad affliction I have to go back to the very beginning. You see, I grew up with trolls goblins and such - Tolkien's fault (oh, and Narnia - I lived in a world of magic from age 9 onwards, even a spell in the Guards couldn't drive it away completely.) But to create your own world? Pour life into wonderful and ghastly creatures - oh what sorcery is that! So a writer I had to be. Easy...? No.That [...]
