Lore is Published!

A good couple of months ahead of schedule, Lore ~ a fishy tale of maritime folklore, is now available to purchase :)

Completed - Lore ~ a fishy tale of maritime folklore

Had a mammoth writing day today, the result of which is that I can finally announce the completion of my third novel: Lore ~ a fishy tale of maritime folklore.

The book, which details the week a folklorist spends holed up on a shore notorious for its dark and pagan oceanic folklore, should be available by the end of August 2018 :) Phew.

Illustration for the cave scene in Lore

Introducing the final illustration for Lore ~ a fishy tale of maritime folklore:

The above is the scene of a callous murder, where the killer expects a deal with ghostly sailors to be struck.

Half Way Through Draft 3

Very difficult to write with this one in my face all the time lol:

But I have now reached the halfway point through my final third draft of Lore :)

Working on Chapter Two of Pixie-Led

Pixie-Led Begins...

Lore Promo

London Trip

I took a trip to London today. With the second draft of Lore now completed (I still need to do a quick third draft before I send it to the publishers), I made use of some of my down time to do a bit more planning on one of my future novels - Pixie-Led. This particular tale is a faery story that I originally intended to be aimed at younger readers. I am now minded to alter and darken the story somewhat and raise the target audience to an adult readership. As well as a bit of planning, I also managed to get the first page of text written for the novel, although that page contains only one line of text lol...

Whilst in London, I visited this lovely pub:

Yours Trully Enjoying a Drink at The Spaniards Inn

The Spaniard's Inn is has a rich history and was frequented by Dick Turpin (his father was the landlord at the pub at the time). Charles Dickens and Keats were also frequent customers at the establishment. The pub is mentioned in Dicken' The Pickwick Papers and Bram Stoker's Dracula, whilst Keats actually wrote Ode to a Nightingale whilst drinking in the pub gardens. Not a bad place, I thought, to get my own writing pad out lol:

Finishing Chapter 10. Draft 2

Tumbleweed

A little while back, I wrote that I would be using the characters Pinnochio and Raggerty from Rupert the Bear as inspiration from one of the folk tales contained in my next novel, Lore. Well, the second draft of that story has now been completed and I have now also finished the illustration I wanted to go along with tale.

I had the opportunity to visit the British Museum a couple of months back, and whilst there I saw this fella:

He is a wooden carving of a water spirit (I am sorry to say there is little further information I remember about the object) and as soon as I spitted him, I knew I wanted to use him as the character in folk story. I had to change a little of the detail of the actual structure of the figure as the water spirit in this tale manifests itself, not as a piece of sculpted wood but from tumbleweed. Anyway, the photo below shows the drawing I finished of him this afternoon...

...and here is the finalised imaged that will be used in the book:

The completed illustration of Tumbleweed

Can't Beat a Morning Like This

Llangynidr

Working on the second draft of Lore on a lovely sunny morning on Llangynidr :)

My cats hate me writing lol

Second Draft!

When I write a second draft, I WRITE a second draft ;)

New Crawley Cover Design

February 07, 2018

To match the stylistic theme of my new novel, Lore, when it is published on October 31st, I have decided to update the cover of my first novel. Here is the new design: