Mistress Of Birds Archives

Grown Wise displayed on phone on a table with apples, squashes, fallen leaves, and other autumnal items.

Secret Societies

May 20, 2025 / Albion

An overview of the seven notable secret societies of Albion.

Eclipse, Grown Wise, In The Cards, Mistress Of Birds, Mysterious Fields, Perfect Accord, Point By Point, The Magic of Four

eReader with cover of Carry On showing on it, on a bed of pale pink rose petals.

Healers and apprenticeship

February 4, 2025 / Albion

Exploring what healer apprenticeships and training are like in Albion, along with some notes on related medical training.

Carry On, Casting Nasturtiums, Four Walls and a Heart, Mistress Of Birds, Sailor's Jewel

Four Walls and a Heart lying on a table with autumn gourds. The cover is a deep red, with a man in a wheelchair and a man standing, both in silhouette, in front of a large blue and glass door.

Age, characters, and time passing

January 24, 2024 / Questions and answers

A look at characters, age, and time passing. What it means to write across a range of time periods for me and my characters.

As The Ground Shifts, Mistress Of Birds, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door

Copy of Best Foot Forward lying on a bed of sand, covered by an enamelled Horus medallion. The cover has a deep red background with map markings in a dull purple. Two men in silhouette stand, looking up at a point in the top left. An astrology chart with different symbols picked out takes up the left side of the image, with glowing stars curving up to the title.

Up for a 2024 reading challenge?

December 18, 2023 / Reading

Ideas for 2024 reading challenges (with some help about which of my books fit some prompts.)

Best Foot Forward, Carry On, Chasing Legends, Facets of the Bench, Fool's Gold, Forged in Combat, Four Walls and a Heart, Illusion of a Boar, In The Cards, Magician's Hoard, Mistress Of Birds, Nocturnal Quarry, Outcrossing, Pastiche, Sailor's Jewel, Shoemaker's Wife, The Fossil Door, The Magic of Four, Three Graces, Upon A Summer's Day, Wards of the Roses

Cover of In The Cards displayed in a gleaming silver frame, with purple flowers on the right and a purple velvet high-heeled shoes.

Happily ever after, no kids

September 13, 2023 / Mysterious Arts, Mysterious Charm, Mysterious Powers, Questions and answers

Do people need to have kids to have their happily ever after. Some of my characters have kids, but not everyone does! Here’s more about those books.

Ancient Trust, Bound for Perdition, Complementary, Fool's Gold, Four Walls and a Heart, Illusion of a Boar, In The Cards, Mistress Of Birds, On The Bias, Point By Point, Seven Sisters, The Hare And The Oak

Cover of Mistress of Birds in a night scene with purple. The cover has a man and a woman in silhouette on a deep purple background, with an apple in the corner. The man holds a walking stick as tall as he is.

Idea to Book: Mistress of Birds

June 14, 2023 / Ideas to books, Mysterious Powers

Learn about the ideas behind Mistress of Birds: the title, gothic romances, Dartmoor, and apples.

Mistress Of Birds

A copy of Bound for Perdition lying on a piece of aged paper with elegant handwriting. The cover of Bound for Perdition has a man and woman silhouetted in dark brown on a green and brown background, with the woman holding a book while the man gestures. An open blank book and pen are inset in the top right corner.

Summer (any time) reading fun

June 7, 2023 / Reading

Doing a summer reading challenge? Here are my books that fit specific prompts/bingo squares/etc.

Best Foot Forward, Bound for Perdition, Eclipse, Fool's Gold, Magician's Hoard, Mistress Of Birds, Point By Point, Sailor's Jewel, Seven Sisters, The Fossil Door, Wards of the Roses, Winter's Charms

What I got up to in 2022

December 22, 2022 / Land Mysteries, Mysterious Powers, Novellas

It is the time of year where a roundup of what I did seems useful for a variety of reasons. (Come back next week for what’s coming in 2023!) What came out in 2022 I put out four novels, two novellas, and a substantial extra in 2022. That’s a lot! Links here that aren’t the title (in the header) will take you to my public wiki. There you can see more details about people and places.

Ancient Trust, Best Foot Forward, Bound for Perdition, Forged in Combat, Mistress Of Birds, Nocturnal Quarry, Old As The Hills, Point By Point, Shoemaker's Wife, The Hare And The Oak, Upon A Summer's Day, With All Due Speed

Mistress of Birds is out!

August 5, 2022 / Announcements, Mysterious Powers

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

Mistress Of Birds

Welcome to 2022! More books ahead!

January 6, 2022 / Announcements, Writing and publishing

Hello, and welcome to 2022! I have aspirations and intentions of doing more regular blogging about my books and writing this year, so I thought it’d be great to start out with what I’m hoping to write and publish this year. (As always, my newsletter gets all the news first, including some additional details that won’t be on the blog. Also some extra scenes or short stories from time to time as I’m inspired to write them.) (2021 was an amazing year! The Fossil Door, Eclipse, Fool’s Gold, Sailor’s Jewel, Complementary, and Winter’s Charms all came out thanks to my being home a lot more. I’m expecting my writing speed to drop a bit in 2022, but I also have a lot of things I want to write, so I’ve got some ambitious goals.) (Likely) coming out in 2022: I’m hoping to release 4 books and 2 novellas in 2022. Because of the way I draft and edit, three of the four novels already exist in draft (or will within a week or so, I’m finishing one of them right now.) My goal is to hit the months indicated, but it’s a changeable world out there, so dates may shift somewhat in the process. The Hare and the Oak: A later-in-life romance featuring Cyrus Smythe-Clive (seen in Sailor’s Jewel as Rhoe’s older brother, and briefly in Carry On and Eclipse). When Lord Baddock shows up at the Council Keep looking for help, Cyrus and Mabyn Teague (seen briefly at the end of

Best Foot Forward, Casting Nasturtiums, Chasing Legends, Complementary, Country Manners, Eclipse, Fool's Gold, Mistress Of Birds, Point By Point, Sailor's Jewel, The Fossil Door, The Hare And The Oak, Winter's Charms