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Lords & Ladies: A guide to the land magic

In Albion, Novellas, Questions and answers
September 30, 2022
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Are you curious about the land magic? Carillon’s background? What it means to be a Lord in Albion?

Did you know there’s a new novella out? It’s my treat if you sign up for my newsletter. (Feel free to unsubscribe when you need to, of course. But I hope you’ll stick around, at least for an email or two that will let you get all the other treats I share with my newsletter subscribers.) 

A copy of Ancient Trust displayed on a tablet, surrounded by drinks on a drinking cabinet. A man holding a book and glass wearing a grey suit stands at the right of the image.

Ancient Trust is all about what happens when Geoffrey Carillon inherits the title on his brother’s death. It has quite a lot about the land magic customs at Ytene. It also led to some interesting questions from a reader. 

(I love reader questions. Sometimes I haven’t settled on my final answer about something. But I’ll let you know if you ask something I can’t answer yet. Or if you ask something that’s too much of a spoiler for something that’s coming out in the future.) 

The questions: 

It got me thinking, how do the Lords of Albion engage with the House of Lords? Is attending Westminster an additional responsibility for Carillion? Do Albion peerages result in having the right to sit in the House? And what about the women? How does the Land Magic recognise women?

These are great questions – and also some that I haven’t quite found the right place to get into text. Let’s take this one by one in an order that should help.

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A glimpse into editing Best Foot Forward

In Land Mysteries, Research adventures, Writing and publishing
August 25, 2022
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I’m currently in the editing process for Best Foot Forward, and thought you might find a glimpse into the process interesting.

I do most of my writing on the desktop that lives in my bedroom. However, I do most of my editing on the laptop that lives in the living room, which has fewer distractions.

Here’s a shot of what that looks like. Read on for a description of both the image and the process.

A laptop with a black fountain pen with shimmery metal lying on the keyboard on top of some index cards. The screen shows a Scrivener window with multiple areas of text and notes, in shades of dark green, black, and gold backgrounds. The content of the screen is described in the following text.
Getting ready to edit Best Foot Forward
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Mistress of Birds is out!

In Announcements, Mysterious Powers
August 5, 2022
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Cover of Mistress of Birds, set on a table surrounded by pinecones and red berries, against a white background. Cover of Mistress of Birds. A man and woman in 1920s clothing silhouetted on a purple and deep blue-grey background. He holds a walking stick as tall as he is and wears a cap, she wears a hat and long sweater. Apples are inset in the top left.

Mistress of Birds is the final book in the Mysterious Powers series, exploring the impact of the Great War on the people and institutions of Albion.

Thalia has had a certain small success with her literary writing. But her inspiration is gone, and no one is buying her stories. When her family volunteers her to stay at her great-aunt’s house on the edge of Dartmoor, she figures at least she’ll be fed.

Adam had a bad War. Ten years after he was invalided out of the Army with shell shock, he still hasn’t recovered. His family have lost patience, and when his uncle breaks his leg badly, they ship him off to lend a hand. Adam isn’t sure he’s able to do anything useful. When his uncle wants a report on the apple orchard, though, Adam realises something isn’t quite right.

The mysteries of the house and the apple orchard bring Adam and Thalia together, in search for answers. Together, they might just be able to figure out what’s going on, what’s making the eerie noises in the house, and why the apples ripen so late.

Mistress of Birds is my take on a Gothic romance (spooky house and all). All of my books can be read in any order, but this one stands alone particularly well.

One particular content note on this one (also on my content notes page). The book does deal with long-standing PTSD (what we’d now call CPTSD). If you’re sensitive to discussions of it, chapter 31 briefly references the barbaric treatment of it in 1917. (One paragraph, strong implications of what happened, few explicit details.)

Get your copy!

Read on

People together (groups and organisations)

In Albion
July 7, 2022
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Welcome to the next stop on the tour of the authorial wiki. Last time we talked about characters, so now it’s time to take a look at groups and organisations.

Groups

There are a number of common group connections in Albion – notably related to the Five Schools, but also secret societies and professions. Read more about the professional and social organisations in general over here.

Copy of Point by Point against a cream brocade wallpaper with a key and aquamarine brooch.
Point By Point shows what a group can do together.
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Character Connections

In Albion
June 23, 2022
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We’ve talked about extras, maps, and timelines in our tour of my authorial wiki. Now it’s time to talk about characters. Every point of view character has a page. (That means everyone who’s been the point of view in a novel, novella, or extra…)

Cover of Eclipse displayed on a tablet, resting on a pine bough, surrounded by wood five-pointed stars.
(Eclipse has my largest character list by far…)
(more…)
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Timelines: Who, what and above all, when!

In Albion
June 9, 2022
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Welcome to the next stop on our tour of my authorial wiki (public version). Today, I want to talk about timelines and finding out when particular events happened.

Cover of Eclipse displayed on a tablet, resting on a pine bough, surrounded by wood five-pointed stars.
Eclipse is, of course, my book which is particularly anchored to a specific time and region.

One of the reasons I like WorldAnvil (the software I use for the public wiki) is the chance to create maps and timelines. With books ranging across the 1920s, a few Edwardian titles, and a couple during or just after the Great War, being able to put the books in order is key. I’ve currently got five different ways to get timeline information, read on to learn more about them!

(more…)
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Extras, get your extras!

In Albion, Writing and publishing
June 2, 2022
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A copy of The Fossil Door with its burgundy and orange cover lies on a brown leather sofa with a matching orange pillow.

What’s an extra?

Now and again, I write something extra. It can be a few thousand words, or thirty thousand.

It can be a bit of backstory I need to write out to keep going in the book. Or something that happens after the book ends that affects future events.

Sometimes, I just want to spend a little more time with those characters.

Other times, it’s a chance to get a bit of a story from someone else’s perspective.

I share these extras with my newsletter subscribers. And now I’ve got an easy way to let you know what extras there are (and what they cover).

Check out the Extras page on my authorial wiki for a short summary of each available extra. Click through on the title for each one to learn more about it. Scenes from the extras are also on my books and extras timeline.

Getting copies for yourself

If you’re already getting my newsletter, starting on June 3rd, 2022, there’s a link at the top of every newsletter that will let you download whichever extras you like without putting in an email address.

If you’re not already on my newsletter list, you can get all the extras here. You’ll need to enter your email address for each one (or sign up for one, get the first newsletter email, and then use the link there to get the rest. Up to you!)

I hope you’ll stay around on my newsletter for news about what’s coming soon, more extras, and a few links and snippets of information from my writing that week. I send an email most Fridays. But if that’s not for you, it’s fine to subscribe and unsubscribe as you see fit.

Read on

New and exciting!

The cover of Upon A Summer's Day shows a man in a suit silhouetted over a map of northern Wales in a muted green. He is gesturing, holding his cane in one hand, a cap on his head. Behind him is an astrological chart, with Jupiter and Saturn highlighted in the sign of Taurus.

Upon A Summer's Day

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Ancient Trust Appearances Authorial Wiki Best Foot Forward Bound for Perdition Carry On Casting Nasturtiums Chasing Legends Complementary Country Manners Eclipse Elemental Truth Enchanted Net Facets of the Bench Folklore and traditions Fool's Gold Forged in Combat Four Walls and a Heart Goblin Fruit Illusion of a Boar In The Cards Magician's Hoard Mistress Of Birds Nocturnal Quarry Old As The Hills On The Bias Outcrossing Pastiche Perfect Accord Point By Point Sailor's Jewel Seven Sisters Shoemaker's Wife Silent Circuit The Fossil Door The Hare And The Oak The Magic of Four Three Graces Treats And Extras Trellech Upon A Summer's Day Wards of the Roses Winter's Charms With All Due Speed WorldAnvil

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