This week has been hectic. In the pandemonium of the lockdown - and therefore being unable to work - I'd just about forgotten how demanding times were. When, in August (hopefully), I get back to work, it will be interesting to see how a timetable works again!
While I sit here typing there's not a single cloud in the sky! The heavens are blue, the canopy green, and the landscape amass with all colours. Inspiration is really in the air. It's perhaps little surprise, then, that I've returned to my wonderful set of friend, The Clan of Caledon, as they run through the Scottish landscape. With the lockdown (even as it's easing) despite being outlaws, they are more free than I am. An interesting thought. Currently, they are in their fourth adventure.
This week has been dominated by these characters, beginning on Monday when I joined chair Ann Landmann and fellow author Olga Wojtas in pre-recording our event for the #Cymera2020 festival. You can find out about the event by clicking on this link:
I had such a great time recording the event, I really hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed taking part in it!
I was immensely disappointed when the festival was cancelled due to Covid-19, but the fabulous Cymera committee moved the whole event to a digital platform. Now, as well as being delighted to appear as part of the festival, I'm really excited about being able to watch all the events!
If Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror are your chosen genre(s), you are in for an absolute treat with the events Cymera have lined up! You can find them all here:
On Wednesday, I shelved my Caledon friends in favour of the wonderful Doctor Henry Fotherby, in my appearance as part of the second Our Own Write. There are very few characters I have written in whom I can see every aspect of myself. Fotherby is the one who knows me best, and who I can fully understand. Even when I have let him run wild with his own story, I know where he'll go, because it's where I would have gone, too!
I gave a short reading from Beneath Black Clouds and White followed by a sharing of fanart(!) and answering a few questions.
You can watch this by following this link:
Authors! Our Own Write is running on the final Wednesday of every month. This is a brilliant event to get involved with. Your audience is global and full of like-minded people. Check out their website and join in the bookish fun:
In addition to this, my New Year's resolution is still going strong. This week it was a submission to Wigtown Poetry Prize.
The books mentioned in today's blog can be found here:
Caledon: amazon.co.uk/dp/B083JNL9NK
"Go out and tell all those you meet, Caledon has risen. Caledon will be protected and defended. And to you who would cause her harm, be prepared. A new fight has come."After the destruction of the Jacobite forces at Culloden, Scotland is divided, vulnerable and leaderless, with survivors from both sides seeking to make sense of the battles they have fought against their fellow Scots.
James Og flees Drumossie, seeking the protection of his uncle's house in Sutherland. It is here that James learns that the Northern Highlands hold a secret power only he can wield: Caledon. When Ensign John Mackay begins hunting Og's family, James realises he must harness this power to defeat the enemies of Scotland.
But, as the ageless Caledon awakes, so too does an ancient evil. When it allies with Mackay, the small Clan of Caledon faces enemies at every turn, discovering that even those closest to them may seek to destroy them.
Beneath Black Clouds and White: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QFYFB6V/
Accompanied by his wife to Flanders, Josiah Tenterchilt meets a man who could not be more different from him: an apprentice surgeon named Henry Fotherby. As these two men pursue their own actions, fate and the careful connivance of a mysterious individual will push them together for the rest of their lives.But it is a tumultuous time, and the French revolutionaries are not the only ones who pose a threat. The two gentlemen must find their place in a world where the constraints of social class are inescapable, and ‘slavery or abolition’ are the words on everyone’s lips.Beneath Black Clouds and White is the prequel to Day's Dying Glory.
Keep safe and keep smiling!
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