I started writing my first book when I was still at school. It wasn't historical fiction, it was high fantasy, and it was the first of ten books, under the collective title The Watcher's Heir . I knew from the word go that it was going to have this number of books, although I didn't really work out exactly what would happen in each one. Twenty-five years on and the books are still not finished, although I now only have a couple more to go! Every Christmas I settle down and manage to write a chapter or two more, and every New Year it is my resolution to finish them. I suspect this will go on for a few years more. In the passage of time since then, I've written more than a dozen books. I can't quite pinpoint what it is which keeps obstructing the conclusion of these books. It could be that I am not the same person I was 25 years ago (who is?!), and so the voice which began the books is almost unrecognisable. It could be that I have now passed the age almost all of my ...
As it's very nearly Christmas, here are a few little Christmas samples from my writing. Since Christmas is a big deal in the Crowvus household, it's unsurprising that it tends to be a big deal in my books, too! Last year, I shared these Christmas samples from Beneath Black Clouds and White . Here are this year's words... The service was beautiful. Throughout much of it, Francesco simply stared at the illuminated altar, unable to bring himself to speak or move. It was like a dream being played out around him. He had not attended the chapel since his arrival and he could not believe the difference the season had made. As he stood there, he could imagine this as the seat of the first nativity, and he heard the words of the liturgy and the music of the psalms drawing him only further into this belief. ~ from Poisoned Pilgrimage (you can find the opening of this novel in the Embark Journal) And so Christmas found the two sisters in very different ways. The Jenkyns’ C...