Category Archives: After the Ruin
Banish misfortune (traditional music in fantasy)
Yesterday was the solstice, midwinter’s day here in the northern hemisphere. Dull it was too, a few cold spots of rain, and too overcast to see the Great Conjunction*, but this year is coming to its end and the dark … Continue reading
Imacah’s song
There are several songs in After the Ruin. Like the map, they’re there to give the impression of a world that is rather larger than the story between the covers of the book. The book was inspired by ballads so it felt … Continue reading
An end, maybe a beginning?
I’d like to say everything has sorted itself out, writing-wise, since my last post but I can’t, because it hasn’t. I’m in no part closer to finding the spark missing from my manuscript. Something has changed, however, as a result of a couple … Continue reading
Songs behind stories
This started out as a blog about folk songs. It’s evolved since then into a more general blog about books and writing, but the songs are still there in the background to my work. The inspiration they provide is nothing … Continue reading
About me (not really)
Harriet Goodchild was born in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. That’s the complete about-me section from one of my novels. Short, sweet and to the point. There’s more to me than that, of course, but to my mind the book … Continue reading
Connections
If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know I’ve a new book coming out in September, The Crooked Path. The back cover calls it a prequel to After the Ruin, which is close enough. The more accurate wording is ‘A … Continue reading
A couple of triolets
Back to verse after a run of prose. The prompt for this pair of triolets was a line in a previous post (…what had been left behind was lovely). What is left behind is lovely Though the moments slip away Though sunset … Continue reading
Sale!
To mark Hadley Rille Books’ tenth anniversary the e-book of After the Ruin, and many other HRB titles, is on sale for the next ten days. After the Ruin Amazon UK After the Ruin Amazon US There’s a ‘look inside’ feature … Continue reading
A deleted scene
This is from a pre-publication draft of After the Ruin. It was the original opening of chapter 6 but got replaced by a quite different scene for a minor continuity reason. I like the scene in the book, which is much … Continue reading
Villanelle III: A rose, a king, an apple tree
I’m supposed to be editing a novel but I’m easily distracted from this task. This evening I started playing around with one of the songs from After the Ruin and ended up turning it into a villanelle. Why? Well, why not? Even though it’s of no … Continue reading
Folksong and Fantasy 