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#HistFicThursdays - New Year's Resolutions

 Happy New Year, Readers! New Year (only last week) seems like an eternity ago. The reason being that we have been snowed in for almost every single one of those days. For me, this has been amazing. I love winter (it's my favourite season) and we managed to build snowmen, go sledging, and have all kinds of wintry fun and games. Because of this, it seems like ages since I drew up a few ideas for new year resolutions. I'm not very good at sticking to my resolutions, but I'm hopeful that I might manage more than a week with this year's! They are not all to do with writing (I'm determined to get better posture, too), and they are more long-term aims and goals than anything I will slog away at all year round, but here are one or two of them... Firstly, I want to finish writing the first draft of The Nobility of Caledon , which is Book 5 in the Caledon series. Book 3, The Strength of Caledon , will be launched in August this year, so I really need to get a move on with co...

#MGMonday Celebrating a Summer of "Doorway to the Sunset"

 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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