Crowvus Book Blog

I could write for ages and ages about fantasy. It was the first genre I wrote, and I'm talking about being very much younger! It was also the first genre I loved to read. As I've grown older, I've realised that most fantasy authors try to instil a shock factor into their audience. I realised early on that, while I enjoyed middle grade fantasy, adult fantasy was often a bit too much for me. But, seeing as this is Middle Grade Monday, that's ok! What is fantasy? Fantasy are things that can't happen. Remember that Science Fiction ( here ) was things that can't happen yet . For fantasy, we just remove the 'yet'. Fantasy could, but doesn't have to, include magic, other worlds, parallel worlds, strange creatures, other humanoid races... the great thing with fantasy is that you can go wild! You want more stories about garden gnomes trying to rid the world of evil? You can write that! The Need for Rules Yes, you can make up the rules. But you do need to have...

I'm sorry this blog is later than usual! Truth is, I'm on holiday at the moment and a little tired and sore with all the walking and gardening. Not that I would change a thing - it's been a wonderful few days! Today, in our Character series, I'll be looking at what makes a good Friend character. The poor Friend never gets a great deal out of the story and I'm afraid this blog is going to be shorter than normal, so I feel like I'm adding to the Friend's misery. Sorry! What do I mean by a Friend character? To explain what I mean, it's handy to think in terms of the Oscars. The 'Best Actor/Actress' category would go to the person playing the main character, of course. The 'Best Supporting Actor/Actress' category would go the person playing either the villain or the friend. It's a basic explanation, but it's a start. We've already talked about the villain ( here ) so let's focus on the Friend. Dos and Don'ts Do allow Frien...

  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...

Characters in Middle Grade: The Main Character Every story needs one! Main characters in middle grade books follow similar rules, but there are some things worth mentioning that are more specific to this age range. Here’s a (somewhat brutal!) guide to developing middle grade main characters. Age Children generally don’t want to read about adults… they just don’t. Why would they? When I was a child, it was clear that adults got to go on more adventures than I did. They could choose where they went. If they wanted to run away with a magical ring to Mordor, then they could just up sticks and leave. Children don’t have that luxury. But this also goes the other way. Children don’t usually want to read about younger children. A ten year old will be more interested in reading a book about 10-12 year olds that 7-8 year olds. So, when you’re writing a middle grade main character, make sure you age them in the same small bracket as your intended reader. Personally, I liked to age my protagonists...

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...

 I'm not good at being told what to do. It's not just in writing, but in all walks of life. I don't mind guidelines - in fact, they can be very useful to creativity - but writing to someone else's criteria is another thing. So, back in 2021, when my sister Judith told me about Sapere Book's competition to write a series of books on one of their briefs, I initially ignored it. But then she said she would submit to their Age of Sail  brief if I did the Medici/Borgia books. I was still on something of a high after the success of The Year We Lived , but equally stuck in a deadspot in terms of creating a book which could live up to it, so I agreed to have a go at it, the resulting story being Poisoned Pilgrimage . My research took me far away from anything I had ever written creatively. Instead, I returned to my degree days and wrapped myself in the theology of the day. And it was good to be back! My set of stories was not selected by Sapere, but it didn't matter. I...

 Well, I won NaNoWriMo, actually with three days still on the clock to complete. That means I’m being inventive with writing my words if I want to get all my badges and, in turn, that means that I’m getting this blog written. I’ve been meaning to write a NaNoWriMo blog all month (Virginia wrote one which is available here ) but I’m only just getting round to it on 28th November. I can’t share great words of wisdom, because I’m not a great researcher like Ginny is, but I can tell you that this is the first time I have ever – ever, mark you – completely pantsed a novel. Here’s how it happened… Before NaNoWriMo comes Preptober, and I took it seriously this year. I came up with this idea of “Me: A 50 Piece Jigsaw”. This would be the story of a girl whose dad dies and so she joins the circus (or, more precisely, the fairground) whilst realising that she’s actually psychic. Oh, and there’s this villainous doctor in the shadows who is trying to “cure” people of psychic-ness and her friend...

This week's curator on the @WeeklyScribe account is E.L. Lyons ( @Lyons_Pen ), author of  Starlight Jewel . Here is her writing advice on drawing from history to incorporate into fantasy... When writing fantasy, the magic system always seems to be at the forefront of attention. Wands and dragons and spells are exciting. But when writing epic fantasy, where you’re creating a whole world different from ours, history is essential to grounding that magic and those cultures to make them seem real. If the history doesn’t feel real, or the world seems like it’s just starting, it gives the entire environment an inauthentic feeling.  Contrast this with the terrible E word… Exposition. The one thing that no fantasy author wants to be accused of. You have to craft your world’s history, lace it with magic, and then you can’t even tell your reader about it. But you also have to make sure they know it’s there.  I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons about this delicate balance with Starli...

It is #HistFicThursdays once again, and today I'm delighted to be sharing a guest post from Brenda W. Clough, in which she explores the creation of believable speech and the power of slang! My great power in historical fiction, the thing reviewers praise me for, is making my characters sound genuinely historical. You would never mistake the people in my novels for the folks in Bridgerton or Dakota Jackson movies. I make them think and talk and react like they were born in 1819, not 2009.  The trick to this, as you might expect, is research. You can find out how people talked when Victoria was queen. The great charm of the 19th century for the novelist is that there is so much material! Newspaper archives, paintings, periodicals on line, books, massive memoirs and biographies of the main players of the period – you could research forever, and never come around to writing your novel. But be careful to consult the right sources. Google, for example is unreliable. Those sites ‘Twelve V...

 By the very nature of the books I write, whether medieval, Jacobite, or regency, there are invariably battles to recount. A lot of historical fiction features wars of some kind because it's often in these times of trial and conflict that we can see the very best and the very worst of humanity. Writing battles is a daunting prospect. After all, most of us writers have never been in a battle, and certainly not one which used the type of warfare with existed 200, 500, or 1000 years ago. Re-enactments and handling artefacts are great for getting an idea of the weight of weapons, the blindspots of armour, the power of a charge, but these events are full of people who have all gathered for the same purpose. This means (thankfully, I should add!) that there is not that driving fear and recklessness which must have been present in those forays. But this is where you as the writer come in. No one enters the field of combat without some reason for - or belief in - what they are doing. Mass ...

One of the most incredible things about history is that, the older it gets, the more it resonates. It doesn't shrivel up like an old apple, or drop limbs and branches like an ancient tree, it just gets bigger. With every second which passes and every century which grows, history only piles up. Of course, there are aspects which fade, artefacts which succumb to erosion, but that's the archaeology not the history. I don't remember exactly what got me into writing historical fiction, but I do know I have always loved that my family are hoarders of antiquities. Ranging from the colossal millennia-old ammonite fossil my dad saved from the children who were chipping it to pieces, to the papers which define my own thirty-six year history, we have kept so much. It has it's downside - moving house this year has been a long, drawn-out process of about five times as many trips as a normal family move - but the richness it affords is second to none. But you don't have to come f...

One of the most problematic aspects of this genre is that, inevitably, we end up covering real people in some way, shape, or form. My books have included a range of real people, from kings to outlaws, prime ministers to military captains. It's not really possible to write a convincing historical fiction story without at least referencing someone who was a true historical figure, and with this comes a series of considerations which historical fiction writers have to address. My multiple-great-grandfather, William the Conqueror (pic: Man vyi) Firstly, in what way are you choosing to reference this character? It could be one of three things, and each of them have pros and cons attached: The real person is only mentioned. There is a pretty decent likelihood that your invented characters will know of the people who existed in the real world. This is a cunning way of setting a time and place for your story. The obvious one being a reference to a ruler and, unless you're writing with ...

 Did you ever play that game where you have to avoid the cracks on the pavement? The original version of it seems to be: Tread on a crack, break your back although we used the slightly milder version of: Step on a crack, marry a rat With hindsight, its more a cautionary piece of advice than a game, but it certainly was a fun game to play as a child, trying to gauge how many times to put your feet down on each flagstone. But the warning remains in place. Don't fall into or over the cracks... ...unless you're a historical fiction writer! At the moment, I'm writing a book for Sapere Books' Writing Competition . I have to admit, I originally recoiled from the idea of writing to someone else's brief, but I am putting together a submission for Brief 5 as a way of encouraging my sister to put in her entry for Brief 4! And I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge. [It remains to be seen as to whether or not we submit our entries but, either way, I intend to take my charact...