Category Archives: novel
A year in books or, What I read in 2020
Overview This year, for the first time, I kept note of the books I read for pleasure or curiosity. As ever, it was mostly fiction. It’s been an odd year and, given external events, I tended towards books I thought … Continue reading
Deleted chapter (The Fisher’s Boy)
This is the deleted first chapter from a spin-off from the work in progress. I’m posting it here because I doubt it will see the light of day elsewhere. The Fisher’s Boy Sometimes in later life the smell of a … Continue reading
Detecting folk songs
One of my favourite authors is Dorothy L. Sayers. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve reread or simply revisited her detective novels, even though I’ve known whodunit in each of them for years. Her best known books … 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
Prologues revisited:This is what will happen
I’m in the throes of revision of a manuscript that will be the third, and final, book in the sequence set in and around the Later Lands. The story is pretty well worked out and now I’m now thinking about structure and … Continue reading
The Crooked Path, winding its way into the world
The Crooked Path is published today! Stories link together. What is done in one time and place spreads out across the world to shape the future: there is never a single beginning, never a simple end. But, since this tale … Continue reading
Five fantasy novels
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve not been writing much lately. I have been reading. It passes the time and expands the mind. Making lists of best books is a fool’s game. Reading is such a subjective … 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
On prologues
People differ on the subject of prologues. Some consider them unnecessary and advise leaving them out. Why not start at chapter one, they ask. That’s where the story begins. My answer to that is, although the story (probably) starts at … Continue reading
New book: ‘The Crooked Path’
There’s news! Today I signed a contract with Eric T. Reynolds of Hadley Rille Books for The Crooked Path. It’s a prequel, after a fashion, to After the Ruin, and is a fairy-tale inspired by Celtic mythology and Greek myth. … Continue reading
Folksong and Fantasy 