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 ...
Firstly, happy new year! Secondly... New Year means New Goals! One of my goals this year is to publish a blog post every Monday, centred around writing for middle grade. 2025 is the year I publish my book Doorway to the Sunset , a middle grade fantasy adventure, and Book 2 in the Feather Down trilogy. What is Middle Grade? Middle Grade is an American term, coming from their education system, where Middle School is generally for ages 8 - 12. Middle Grade books, therefore, are aimed at that age group. It’s not a genre, but an age bracket, so saying ‘Middle Grade Historical Fiction’ just means that the story is in the genre Historical Fiction, but is aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 12. (There is some discrepancy over what ages are covered by middle grade, some people saying 9 to 13 is more ideal.) However, the age range is only a suggestion, used mostly by marketers to understand their audience. I, like many other adults, also love to read middle grade. Personally, I find them...