Crowvus Book Blog

 I love fantasy books, and I love adventure so, put those two genres together, and I get very excited! I was, therefore, delighted when I was offered the opportunity to review this book. The author sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review. The book can be purchased here. Summary Matthew is an average boy who doesn't realise his father is the Blademaster, a title given to one person capable of wielding the sword of the elements. This sword can metamorphosise, depending on what the Blademaster needs. The sword of wind can creating tornados, while the sword of water can manipulate (you guessed it!) water. When Matthew's father goes missing, and is presumed dead, Matthew is given a special book that can transport him to his father's native world. There, he finds out that he is the new Blademaster and begins a quest to seek out the evil Black Knights and hopes to find what happened to his father. Reviewing... The Plot I love stories about parallel worlds, and it's alw...

I honestly can’t remember what inspired me to write about Alexander the Great. I think it was probably the Horrible Histories song , but I could be wrong about that. I suddenly just wanted to know everything there was to know about him, and to put it into story form. I actually started the story before I knew much about him and his campaigns at all so, still in its first draft condition, the opening chapter of the book has some rather hilarious mistakes and inferences. By the second chapter, I had eased into the story a little more and, by the fourth chapter, the research was there to support it too. This story was unique among my historical fantasy because of the sheer quantity of research which I did for it. I devoured anything and everything I could find about Alexander the Great. There was a wonderful blog called The Second Achilles, and I spent hours poring over archived posts, reading as much as I could about different theories and stories about the great conqueror. The blog disa...

Anyone who writes is a writer but, in my humble opinion, you need to be published to be an author. This may be a contentious view to some, and I'm sorry if your offended. If it's any consolation, self-publishing counts. If fact, I'm writing this blog with self-publishing in mind. When you publish your own books, you have to be on top of everything. Not only are you writing the book, you organise the editing, you organise the marketing and publicity. And don't get me started on distribution! It is enough to drive the most sane person mad! So, to get all of this done, it's important to set yourself realistic goals. You could say you would get everything in a month, but you'll burn out pretty quick. If you have a book you'd like to publish, here is my calendar for publication. There are a couple of points to make first, however. 1) I work best under pressure. If you don't, add on a couple of months to the timeline! 2) If you'd like to try and get your b...

 This week for #HistFicThursdays, I'm delighted to be teaming up with  The Coffee Pot Book Club  to once again shine a spotlight on  Julia Ibbotson 's fabulous writing! Here is her fabulous book, The Rune Stone . So, let's meet the book... A haunting time-slip mystery of runes and romance When Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, finds a mysterious runic inscription on a Rune Stone in the graveyard of her husband’s village church, she unwittingly sets off a chain of circumstances that disturb their quiet lives in ways she never expected. She, once again, feels the echoes of the past resonate through time and into the present. Can she unlock the secrets of the runes in the life of the 6th century Lady Vivianne and in Viv’s own life? Again, lives of the past and present intertwine alarmingly as Viv desperately tries to save them both, without changing the course of history. For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, Christina Courtenay. Praise...

 Happy Monday! This week, we'll be sticking with the Science Fiction theme from last week. If you'd like to read up on my top tips for writing Science Fiction, they can be found here . At school this week, we have the Caithness Science Festival show all sorts of great things for the children. Kids love it! Talented presenters come and share cool facts in fun ways, and the classes can have a go at some really awesome experiments, or meet some funky animals. I love science, and I get a buzz from seeing the children enjoy science too. This can link into fiction, too, where science fiction can ignite children's imaginations of possible futures and new inventions. Today, I'll be sharing some top tips for writing stories on other planets. This is not something I've done much, partly because I know I will get drawn into a rabbit hole of research because it's just so fun. When I'm not being an author, or a primary teacher, I am a student at the Open University, stud...

© Christine Taylor  I wrote Death At Priest’s Acre for a callout by Quill and Crow , who were looking for stories to fill a “Bleak Midwinter” anthology. It wasn’t the right fit for them and, to be honest, the beginning and end needed a revisit which has been provided for this anthology. Beginnings and ends are very important in Gothic Horror: they are what tell you that whatever terrible happening has been taking place has successfully scarred the characters involved. If the events of the story aren’t enough to leave an indelible mark on the character, they aren’t going to be enough to leave a mark on the reader. Priest’s Acre was a completely new place to me, which popped into my head one day and I just loved the idea of writing the story of the vicar there. However, as I wrote it, I discovered that the priests who the place was named after were not, in fact, Christian priests at all, but from a time predating Christianity. Then, I knew that druidic magic would play a role in the...

  Happy Monday and welcome back to our Middle Grade Monday series: genres! Today, I'll be sharing a couple of hints and tips for writing science fiction for children. I'm not a sci-fi author, so I'll be addressing this mostly in terms of being a primary teacher. When teaching about genres to children, it is often a struggle to explain the difference between fantasy and science fiction and, in fact, these two genres often get muddled together in awards and libraries etc. The explanation I landed on was to say that fantasy was things that cannot happen. Science fiction, on the other hand, is things that cannot happen... yet! That all important word at the end leads to my first tip. 1) Science fiction needs to be believable. You need to convince your middle grade reader that it could actually happen, perhaps to them! You do this by explaining anything that may seem magical or far fetched. This, in turn, leads onto the next tip... 2) A knowledge of science really helps! When do...

For this week's #HistFicThursdays blog, I'm thrilled to be welcoming  R. N. Morris  to the blog with a guest post about his latest book  Death of a Princess ,   as part of his  Coffee Pot Book Club  tour. In Roger's guest post, he explains why he loves writing historical crime novels and the influences he has drawn from. But first, let's meet the book... Blurb Summer 1880. Lipetsk, a spa town in Russia. The elderly and cantankerous Princess Belskaya suffers a violent reaction while taking a mud bath at the famous Lipetsk Sanatorium. Soon after, she dies. Dr Roldugin, the medical director of the sanatorium, is at a loss to explain the sudden and shocking death. He points the finger at Anna Zhdanova, a medical assistant who was supervising the princess’s treatment. Suspicion also falls on the princess’s nephew Belsky, who appears far from grief-stricken at his aunt’s death. Meanwhile, investigating magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky arrives in Lipetsk from ...

  Characters in Middle Grade: The Baddy Happy March! We saw our first daffodil out in the garden on St David's Day, 1st March. Very fitting! Last month, in our middle grade characters series, we looked at the main character, giving some (I hope!) useful tips and pointing out some things to watch out for. Today, we’ll be looking at your main antagonist, otherwise known as ‘The Baddy’ ! I’ve read some fantastic middle grade baddies, and some terrible ones, and I’m going to share what I think makes a great antagonist, and what to learn from some of the books that just don’t get it right. Before we start, I have a slight confession to make. It doesn’t matter who my bad guy is, they’re always my sister’s favourite character. She likes Raedwald in Taking Wing, she likes the pirates in Exiled (yet to be published!) and I haven’t asked her, but I bet she likes Nox in Heartstone. The book I wrote for her Christmas present last year was a pirate story where there were two sets of baddies: th...