Crowvus Book Blog

 If you want to know how someone sees the world, give them a pencil. Right from an early age, we have a love of drawing. It's true that sometimes children's drawings can be a bit peculiar, but they are exactly how they view the world around them and there is something rather special about that. A few years ago, we bought a job-lot of books and bits-and-bobs at our local auction. There were some rather lovely things amongst them and, since they only cost a couple of pounds, they were better than bargainous! In them was a collector copy of a biography of the sculptor Alfred Gilbert, who famously created the statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus. As part of the book, there is a hand drawn sketch of one of his designs. It is somehow both messy and precise, giving an idea of how he worked through his ideas until the reached the desired conclusion. But this was not the greatest treasure in the collection - at least not for us! Buried in amongst the rest of the published and printed book...

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to shine a spotlight on Jerry Madden 's fabulous book,  Steel Valley: Coming of Age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s ! So, let's meet the book... For readers of The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni and Last Summer Boys by Bill Rivers Love is never easy...even in easier times, like the 1950s and 1960s in the Ohio Valley with the steel industry booming. Second-generation immigrant families were reaching for the American middle class. And Catholic schools-made feasible by selfless Catholic nuns-promised bigger lives for everyone, including Jack Clark and Laurie Carmine. As they spent years searching for their separate futures, though, they were also stumbling toward love just as their world came crashing down. Steel Valley depicts a story of love longed for, lost, and perhaps still within reach, just as our nation's mythic yesterday became our troubled today, our l...

    Today for #HistFicThursdays, I am delighted to be sharing a book excerpt from David Fitz-Gerald 's fabulous new book! I'm once again teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to share a sample of the Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail  book series from  A Grave Every Mile ! First of all, let's meet the book... Embark on a harrowing trek across the rugged American frontier in 1850. Your wagon awaits, and the untamed wilderness calls. This epic western adventure will test the mettle of even the bravest souls. Dorcas Moon and her family set forth in search of opportunity and a brighter future. Yet, what awaits them is a relentless gauntlet of life-threatening challenges: miserable weather, ravenous insects, scorching sunburns, and unforgiving terrain. It's not merely a battle for survival but a test of their unity and sanity. Amidst the chaos, Dorcas faces ceaseless trials: her husband's unending bickering, her daughter's descent into madness, and the eve...

This short story is a part of my Caledon world - a much earlier incarnation of the spirit of Scotland. Here, the adventure heads back to the 9th Century Highlands, and the continuing skirmishes between the Norse and the Picts, as well as one of the most outrageous deaths in history... The Skjoldmø and The Seer “Not only is he a coward…” I listened to Father’s drunken words which filled the hall with laughter. No one would remember them in the morning. A spray of mead left his mouth as he added: “He is an ugly man.” “Sigrid.” Turning at the sound of my name, I frowned to find no one there. “Sigrid, I’m outside.” A smile split my face as I recognised that voice. I left the hall and walked to Bridei who waited there. His painted arm reached out to me and I took his hand, our fingers interlocking. “There’s a great celebration in there.” I nodded. “Father has challenged Máel Brigte to a forty-man battle, but he’s taking twice as many men.” “It won’t work.” Bridei pulled his hand back, hid...

 It is a truism that writers' minds spring to life the moment we are nowhere near our computers. As soon as we are snuggled up in bed, beginning to drift off to sleep, the best plot twists and most amazing characters appear in our mind's eye. This is why I have an array of notebooks by my bed, as well as about six pens (just in case the first five don't work!), because I know I will not remember these details beyond the morning. Be smart, writers: ready your notebooks! Here is an example, and the story of how The Year We Lived  came into existence... There is only one thing more immersive than a good book. No, not a film. I love films, but there isn't that envelopment which you get when you read, when the pages reach out and hug you into their story's embrace. The only thing more encompassing is a dream. In dreams anything is possible: any world; any time; any person - the opportunities are limitless. The only problem is we don't get to choose them. There are in...