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 [...]
It's tough running a country. Especially when your father (the king) dies suddenly in suspicious circumstances. And at just twenty-two you have all the responsibility and decisions surrounding his kingdom hurled, like a heavy wet flannel at your face. That was where I found myself just over a year ago. I am Queen Ariane of Kelwyn, btw, and I'm taking brief respite from my duties and stresses to explain, dearest reader, about the awful mess we've fallen into. I need [...]
People often ask me why I became a writer and where I got my inspiration for the Legends of Ansu series. The obvious answers are: books, a warped and rampant imagination, and the stubborn determination to avoid getting another proper job. Been there - done that. A more subliminal response would be a daily consumption of M&M's: Music and Movies. Both were key to my becoming an author. And song and screen still fuel this dizzy writer's head with wild [...]
You take a sudden turn in a road, the scenery shifts, open fields yield to dark woods. A stone bridge spans a gurgling rushing stream below. Beyond, high hills frown down as you shift up, placing toe hard on the hammer. You have never been here before and will never return, so enjoy the moment. You cross that bridge, the road narrows amidst twists and turns, you change down twice, giving it full gas until you crown that first rise. [...]
I, Corin an Fol, one time heavy drinker, womaniser and general good for nothing, was born during the night of the Great Storm. That same infamous blow responsible for wrecking the High King's flagship off the rocky southern coast of Fol, and claiming the lives of his spouse, the High Queen, her adolescent son, and her younger sister, together with her own baby boy. My village, Finnehalle, was battered and several people died. That was what they told me, back [...]
