Michelle and Tom

I have been writing stories for as long as I can remember. My earliest stories were about a dog called Charlie who, in one adventure, saved the moon when it accidentally split in two by throwing a javelin up into the sky. The javelin shot right through the moons two halves, which had the effect of pinning them together, thus saving the day. Later, when I was around the age of nine or ten, I started writing what was planned to be a series of books detailing the adventures of two children - Michelle and Tom Norkett. The original tale in this series, and one which I never really got past writing the first couple of chapters of, was Michelle, Tom and the Skull of Terror. Dramatic, eh? Lol.

Anyway, about ten years ago or so, when my daughter was small, I thought about bringing Michelle and Tom back to life in a story called Michelle, Tom and the Witch's Cat. Again, I never got past writing the first few chapters of this story, although its premise now lives on in my writing project Pixie-Led. My daughter loved drawing back in those days and was keen to help me in my writing endeavours. Getting out my old notes from that project to rework them into my current story, I found this illustration she produced for me. I don't really want to go into too much detail about how this new tale opens, but you will get a fair idea from her drawing:

The tale of Pixie-Led is a lot darker than Michelle, Tom and the Witch's Cat and not aimed at the young audience the original was to be targeted at. I am therefor unable to use my daughter's drawing for the new book. I have however, been able to produce my own 2018 version of the illustration for the Pixie-Led ~ a tale of smoke and mirrors. It was based on a photograph of one of my cats but I have darkened the image and transformed her tabby appearance into a rough and wild cat that really does not like to me messed around with:

Whilst I am already working on the third chapter of this new novel, I am still working on the details of the story and am still unsure of exactly what direction the story will take. So, realistically, I am looking at some time post Spring 2019 as a publication date for the book, which will be my fourth published novel...

Crawley - Promo Pics

18/08/2018

A couple of promo picks for Crawley - an adult faery tale. 'Tis time to start marketing...

Pixie-Led Cover Design

I am only a couple of chapters into my new novel but I am already quite happy with this image design for its published cover:

Early days yet though as I don't plan of publishing this, my fourth novel, until sometime in 2019...

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 :)