Crowvus Book Blog

 The events of the past week have brought home to me just how important the personal aspect and view of history are. One of the key questions I have both asked other authors and been asked myself, is whether there was a specific character they identify with. For my own part, I've always answered that there is a little bit of me in all my characters. And it's true. I have never based a character totally on myself because I have never belonged to a point in time except my own, I can't know how I would react! Now, I am less than a decade from my own lifespan encompassing the general 50-year gap for an historical fiction setting - a scary thought! Suddenly, my own early adventures are starting to sound like something from a historical novel. A few weeks ago, Crowvus published Child at the Pantry Door  and, at the end of the month, we will be publishing the next issue of our journal Hooded: Memoirs . The personal aspect to both of these books is a crucial resource to historical ...

 Today, we have another fun activity lined up for you. We're now only a week away from the launch of our new book, All the Time in the World , and we're so excited! In this crossword, all the answers relevant to the book, but we've given you some unrelated clues as you won't know how they fit into the story until next week. Once you've solved the clues, all you have to do is try and fit them into the grid. Enjoy!

 This was not exactly the blog that we planned to write. We were going to share a post about our Ghost Story Competition  (which this still is), but it has suddenly become very pertinent and personal. On Saturday, only a day after sharing our Puplishing  blog, we lost our founding publisher, Orlando. We are all utterly devastated, and Crowvus HQ has become very quiet. It is truly strange not to see him at the bottom of the stairs, or not to have him sitting at my feet while I write this. It is the little, everyday, routine  things where his death is most acutely felt. Nine years ago, in our first ever Ghost Story Competition , we received a story entitled Black Dog . I admit, I had preconceived ideas about this one, based on its title, thinking about baying hounds and the Black Shuck. Nothing was further from the truth. A. J. Black's beautiful story was a journey of grief, a coming to terms with a loss of more than life, but of a companion. I remember reading it and ...

 It is not long at all until our new Middle Grade book All the Time in the World  is released! We know you are as excited as we are about this book, so we've created a few activity sheets which we will be sharing right here on the blog throughout this week. Our first activity is a character wordsearch . We've hidden the names of some of the book's key characters in the grid for you to try and find. If you manage that, see if you can locate some of the extra words we've tucked in. If you're not sure what those words might be, we suggest you have a read through the blurb here . Once you've finished, you can decorate the border with your own artwork. We'd love to see your finished wordsearch, so please feel free to share a picture of it with us. You can do this via email , Facebook , or BSky . We can't wait to see them!

 One of the great joys about being an independent publisher is that you can make up your own rules for the office. Naturally, a principal rule is: "dogs must be present at all times". So today, we thought we would introduce you to the Crowvus puppies. These three canines have transformed our industry from publishing to puplishing , and the results have all been positive. Meet Orlando Orlando has been with Crowvus since the beginning, making him the founding puplisher. During his long and illustrious career, he has featured in a handful of books, been a poster boy for a Sprocker charity, and sat in on more meetings than we can remember having! Orlando is in his retirement now, which tends to feature long naps and 24hr cuddles. Meet Jess Jess joined the Crowvus team in 2022. She's very much an only girl and has perfected the timely swing from princess to tomboy and back again. Whilst she tries to be helpful, she is a very jealous Jess, and fills most of her Crowvus time dem...

 I - along with my fellow members of Crowvus - are very excited about our new release on 16th September. We fell in love with this story for a number of different reasons, and one of the key ones for me was the role of history. Of course, when you have a story about the governing and governance of time, there is going to be some element of the past, but the way in which Elizabeth McKay so casually and seamlessly interweaves the past with the present is both clever and effective. Finding our own place in time is not always easy, and neither is finding a place in our current time for the past. Discussing an historical fiction book recently over the weekend's breakfast, we were led into the confusing cycle of how fine the line is between pioneering characters and utterly unbelievable ones. The conversation actually began because of a discussion into our family tree and a look at how the role of registry offices allowed for a step away from the power of the church. In our increasingly ...