Will your story be in our tenth anthology? ... Four words which created a legendary story ... -~-~- Picture this: a mother and her four children walking through the streets of Edinburgh as the night begins to close in. They are looking for a room for the night, but each house is full. The stone buildings seem to grow darker as the streetlamps throw out as much shadow as light. Finally, one of the proprietors offers a positive response and the family hurry inside, into a cramped room with metal bunkbeds, but nonetheless comfy mattresses. Frightened at these new surroundings, concerned that she has brought her children into an unsafe surrounding, the mother puts the children to bed and tries to persuade herself to sleep. The room inside is darker than the putrid orange glow of the sporadic streetlights in the world beyond the curtains which are masking the window, and she once more checks the lock on the door before climbing into her own bed. Then it happens. Knock-knock-knock. Willing h...
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... ...