This week, we finally managed to install our new (not new ) item of furniture - a mid-18th Century grandfather clock. It's not bright and shiny like more modern ones, but a dark oak with a warm patina which the beeswax polish is drawing out. In order to set it up, we had to do a certain amount of research - how to hang the pendulum, where the weight went on the endless chain - and it got me thinking... where and when did certain divisions of time come from? The time periods which I have written either had household clocks or didn't, I have not written novels from the time of their invention. Clocks have been around for a long time, and the obsession with measuring time in an ordered fashion dates back to at least the ancient Sumerians. It was they who established a circular reading of time and, I imagine, the sixty seconds/minutes came about as much because it was an easy way to divide a circle as anything else. But it wasn't until much later that the precision of seconds ...
I'm sorry I haven't posted a Middle Grade Monday post for a few weeks. The summer holidays have been in full swing and we have been far from idle. At the start of the holiday, I published the sequel to my debut novel. "Taking Wing" came out in July 2019, and it's a great relief to have launched "Doorway to the Sunset" which continues the story.
Not only does it feel great that it's finally out there, but it was super to be back with those characters again. The Feather Down series is a story I tried multiple times to write. Slightly different over the years, of course. Each time, I could never get beyond the first couple of chapters. I don't know what about "Taking Wing" made it stick. Perhaps because, by then, I was older and had more writing experience. Perhaps because I was teaching children who were the same age as my ideal audience. Either way, "Taking Wing" continues to be the book of mine that sells the most.
Freya, the protagonist, is drawn into a tribal system of Anglo-Saxon warlords, who have the ability to change into birds. There is the crow tribe (mainly because I was fed up with crows being depicted as the baddies) and the owl tribe, and some other minor characters mentioned throughout, but the crows and owls have been at war for centuries because the owl king, Raedwald, believes his enemies killed his wife.
He is, of course, mistaken.
If you'd like to find out who really was responsible, then read "Taking Wing" and, if you enjoy the adventurous escapades of the main characters, why not follow it up with "Doorway to the Sunset".
Next year, I'm taking a break from Freya and publishing the prequel which is a standalone story, but with many of the same characters. Consider signing up to our Crowvus monthly newsletter to get updates and offers as the publication date approaches.
Until next week... happy reading!
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