Crowvus Book Blog

Three years ago, when I launched my first book, Clemency made me two CDs to take with us on our roadtrip. In many respects, those became the soundtrack for my entire family saga. But many of the songs belong to the finished novels. This blog is looking at the music which inspires me while I'm writing. As I mentioned in last night's blog and in my #AuthorOfTheWeek interview, most of the music I listen to when I'm writing has no words. This is the safest way of ensuring I don't just start writing out the song lyrics instead of my stories! But, for the sake of this blog, I'm thinking about a mixture of songs and instrumental music, just to ring the changes! So I've come up with 6 pieces which inspire me (there could have been many more, but I don't want to bore you!) - here they are: 1 - The last three tracks of the Gladiator soundtrack (Elysium, Honour Him, Now We Are Free) [Hans Zimmer] I fell in love with this soundtrack from the moment I went to wat...

So far this week I've shared with you some places and some things which have been a source of inspiration for me. Today, I'm going to share some people who have inspired me. Some of these people are not what I would call heroes, but are people whose stories have touched my own and, in some cases, whose work I hope to continue and honour with my own writings. I unashamedly have an obsessive nature. If I uncover a new person (usually someone from deep in the realms of history!) I want to know all I can about them. There have been several occasions when I've deviated from the research I was meant to be doing, and click through a series of links until I find myself researching someone who I have no idea how I even found them! The back button is very useful for this! One good example of this was when I was researching for a book which is coming out next year, called The Year We Lived , which is set just after the Norman conquest. Most of my characters who are erroneousl...

Last April I launched Beneath Black Clouds and White . It's a book of which I'm exceptionally proud for a number of reasons. Among them, is the fact that I researched and researched, not just dates and events, but the critical thinking of the time (1790s) and the classes involved. Being somewhat limited in my interests, I have also accumulated several items which - though many have virtually no monetary value at all - are invaluable to me. Letters written in the hand of a contemporary of my book... the weave of the parchment it was written on... you can't beat the chance to hold these objects in your hands and feel the history seeping through to you. As a countdown for last year's book launch, I shared a number of objects which I've collected. Most of them are a little later than  Beneath Black Clouds and White was set, several linking in to later books which I have written. Here are a handful, as well as an explanation of why I have and hold them... ...

During this coronavirus craziness, it can seem almost impossible to remember the places we've been to. We have a slideshow of photographs which come up on our computer and looking at them now is like seeing a different world. Isn't that how it is with writing anyway? We find a place which speaks to us and, not only while we're there but every time our imagination transports us back, we move into another world. Invariably, because of the genre I write, I head back to another time, too. Bear with me as I take you on a little journey through a few of the places which have brought me great inspiration... 1 - The Big Burn, Golspie I don't know how many times we'd driven past the little sign for The Big Burn. It's an oddly insignificant little walk, but there is a waterfall there which you can walk up and over. Standing back a little bit, on that first walk we took there, I was struck by how strangely human it looked. The picture above was how I first met t...