Monthly Archives: December 2016

The Author’s Kingdom #11

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles, where the Author explains his perception of Heirs to the Kingdom. It is written to cover the festive season of Christmas 2016.

The science behind the fantasy

Some time ago I was asked by a reader if I believed in Aliens. Now I must admit at the time it felt like the oddest question ever in relation to HTTK. What followed was actually a very interesting conversation, and whereas the questioner had actually asked a question with some merit, I found in the conversation that followed some plus and some negative points to their thinking.

I am a writer, and an avid reader, and I think that one of the things that reading allows us to do is open our minds to the possibility of anything and everything. Before I give an explanation to the question and my answer, I will explain a little about my own view point when writing.

I do see myself as being very open minded, I am at heart a liberal person who believes in personal freedoms, which I do not deny conflicts with a few peoples closed view of the world. I like science, I am by far no expert, but I read a huge amount of all sorts of unusual and different subjects. Like most people some things I can accept, and there are a few things even I find a little too weird for even myself.

So back to the question. Do I believe in Aliens?

After some discussion with my questioner, I began to realise that their principle premise for asking was the Ruling Council. It suddenly made sense, as in the books I do indeed refer to them arriving in our solar system and discovering the Earth, on which half of them set up house on this planet and then start creating things such as humans and Fae. Ok now it made for a very good question, and I had to admit it was not at all how I had first thought of it. In all truth the Ruling Council was my way of building a creation that was an alternative to the whole God created the world in seven days event, you see I had set a line of people on the earth (White Circle/ Green Circle) that were not exactly the same as us, and so in my way this was one way of explaining their race and the powers they had. I suppose I was looking for a way to introduce the magic that is used throughout HTTK, but I must admit the alien theory did intrigue me, as in a way my idea of the Ruling Council did indeed point to the fact that they were not of this planet, and so therefore they could actually be perceived as alien lifeforms.

The questioner then went on to explain that they believed aliens walked amongst us and that the human race was actually manufactured by aliens, Ok so suddenly mid conversation I found myself walking into what I consider to be conspiracy theory territory, and so I began to tread lightly. The thing here is that the questioner made some really good points that I had never actually considered, and this indeed is one of the greatest things about talking to the readership, because it does provide that window on their thoughts. Do I think we are a product of alien creation, well having read the origin of species by Darwin, and garnering an understanding of his Theory of Evolution, I would possibly say that currently I think the world view (Darwin’s Theory) has more merit and is more believable, but again I am open to a good theory, so show me credible evidence and I will give it some thought.

I think the conversation remained with me for quite some time; well obviously it did because here I am some time later still pondering the question. How do you explain Runestone? Well actually the most simplistic way would be ‘well actually this is a fantasy,’ so I need no defined explanation, but in a way that would be wrong, because even though this is a fictitious tale, I do try on every level to create a believable scenario.

Ok so here goes…. Did you know there is a tribe living on an island in the South Pacific named Melanesia? Most people don’t. I read an article in a magazine many years ago that actually had the theory that the people who lived there have a type of DNA that includes the involvement of a third species. Now I have to admit at the time I thought it was pretty interesting, I mean we all know the story of the human development being a mixture of the Neanderthal and the Denisovans. Science points to the fact that these two distinct types of being were the initial man/ape like forms that at some point met and interbred to create what we all know today as the Homo Erectus or human being. The thing that fascinated me was that firstly science is exploring what they believe to be a third kind of species of man, and the second thing which really grabbed my attention was that these people all had sapphire blue or jade green eyes. Hmmm see where I went with that?

My questioner when given these facts was a little disappointed, and sort of elated at the same time, they announced maybe the third DNA from these people was alien, which ok suited their need to believe and who was I to kill their joy? I just was not ready to buy into the whole lizard Martian type theory just at that moment in time. The good news is since reading that article scientists have indeed isolated a third type of DNA in these people who previously we had no knowledge of, as to its origins, well science still has a long way to go so stay tuned.

The important point which my questioner missed was the very simple fact that here was an interesting and science based fact that I was able to take and manipulate to work for my story. It’s what I do, and to be honest they were a little disappointed in me because of it and clung to their aliens are invading us script, which to be honest I have no issue with, for all I know they may well have done, one thing I have always believed is that looking at the millions of solar systems we see through Hubble, I think only fool would think we are the only life form in the entire galaxy, I just have not met anything other than human beings yet to confirm my own private theory.

I use all sorts of facts to create my story, I do indeed allow my imagination to run wild, but I always try to find a logical explanation. So at this point I will turn away from ET and his supporters and try to explain my answer as to why I made the first Ruling Council the way I did.

In a nut shell I did not want one all seeing all powerful god. That pretty much sums it up; I did not want to get dragged into some form of religious dogma, which then embroiled the whole tale around some all-powerful creationist who set his children free to roam the planet whilst sitting in judgement of everyone. I wanted something slightly believable, but I also wanted something that was a little bit more human. I wanted something no faith could claim, this was to be a work of fantasy, and so I got imaginative and tried to pull something that was unique, but felt comfortable. In many ways I like the theory of the Greek gods, although when it comes to Greek mythology I have to confess I get tired of it, I did so much at school that I think it turned me off it for life, my wife however loves it, and she is the one the children consult, and she is good at rattling it off. The one thing that did always appeal to me was that the Greek gods were human in their approach to life, and yes in a way I pinched a little of it. You see Greek mythology has very human aspects to it, their gods are lovers of the same things and have the same failings as us, and I really do find that appealing. One of the things about most of the other faiths that has always been a little bit of contradiction for me is the whole concept of man being created in the supreme beings image. We are told we all God like, and then you read the books that contain all the words of this supreme God only to find out that pretty much everything that makes us human is banned by the god. The Greeks had one thing going in their favour, Human appetites. They love food, adore wine, they think and study, they are wildly sexual to the point of deviance, and have the power to take life and give life, and most importantly they bred with the humans to create lesser gods. This is a mixture I could use, in the Council we can see the qualities of us all, and that I feel is a much better working theory behind my characters. I adore the fact that Hearne carries his deep love for Eve so deeply within himself, I think we can relate to a ruling council who makes a mistake or can be wounded or killed as Eleanor was. These are the things that build a sense of identity within my Earth Faith, and we see them in Runestone and Jade and all the other members of the circle lines. I find it creates a deeper bond built on similar imperfections and makes them more believable as a result.

The example of the people of Melanesia helped me to realise that I could create lines that fitted into the human form and appeared human whilst still wielding unusual powers, and having created my first real line of different peoples, it was not long before I could use the same believability to create more. The Fae, a race of two distinct lines all based in the same theory of creation, and that led me to then take one of those lines and morph it into another as the Dark One does to create Houlen or Darkmares. I found a way to go into a complete realm of total fantasy but still had that small set of believable facts behind it all to back it up, and that made for better writing which leads the reader into a much deeper and more fascinating tale.

I like to create questions in everything I write, I think it is important that books make the readers think. Runestone and her families ability to communicate via their thoughts is yet another example. We all have that deep inner sense of being, and call it what you will as science still cannot fully answer it, but we do have an uncanny ability to suspect something only to find out we are right. That one human quality helps me explore the deep inner workings of Runestone and her family line, it’s almost like the old tale of someone after they discover their partner has been cheating, I have certainly been there in the past. You know something is not right, there is no evidence at all, and yet deep down inside you just know, and so you look and look hard. Most of the time being right and discovering the truth is not satisfying, and yet something deep and primal within you had set you on the right path to discovery. It is still something science cannot explain, and yet we all know it to be true, and again it is one of the most fascinating things about the human condition, we believe it to be true with no evidence to prove it all because we have felt it and we have experienced it. These are the simple aspects of human life that allow me to take a thin thread of fact and weave it into a believable story line, and let’s be honest no one questions Runestone’s abilities because of it. She just turns to Robbie, smiles and says. “Trust me I know stuff,” and bang I have you caught in the web of believability, for no other reason than at some point in your life you have been there, and experienced the very same thing.

I don’t need Mars, Saturn, Venus or Buddha, I have no need for a Christian or Islamic God figure, I have five entities of energy, who create a lifeform from what was the primordial soup of life and they inhabited it with all their human qualities. They learned from their own experiences and created other life forms the same way that were likened to them, and their creations held all the same qualities, and those are the very same qualities as you and me, and that creates a situation where they become more believable, because we can all identify with them because we all have made the same errors of judgement.

My Grandfather was a head teacher, or head master as the position was known back then, he became the inspiration behind Albanlin. He once said to me when I was commenting on a book, if the facts support how believable the character is, and if they have something in common with you, then you will identify with them quicker, and as a result you will understand them better. He must have seen the writer in me long before I did, but I find today many years after he is gone, because he died when I was just 17 years old, he gave me some of the best advice ever in that small statement for writing. I must admit I have also passed it on to other writers as a really good way of expressing how I create and write my characters. You only need the smallest seed to germinate, and then you have a story worth telling based on that one grain of truth, everything that follows is built on that foundation, and as I think about it whilst writing this particular piece, I realise that my habit of sewing science, history, mythology and human behaviour into my tale, has actually brought it to life better than I ever expected it to. Is it based on aliens, well to be honest none that I am currently aware of, although I must admit, at the time it was indeed a very fascinating and well thought out theory.

 

 

The Author’s Kingdom #10

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles, where the Author explains his perception of Heirs to the Kingdom. It is written to cover the festive season of Christmas 2016.

 

Village life.

One of the most recognisable aspects of living in a small community is you never have any secrets. Village life is well documented for the neighbours who like to gossip, and if you move into a small rural community today, well you had better be squeaky clean in how you live, because if you are not, you can pretty much guarantee that very soon everyone else will know your business.

From an early point in Heirs to the Kingdom, I pretty much knew that I would to have to find some way in which to reflect community life, and it did not take me long to work out, that I had two options available to me. The first would be the monthly reports given to the Lord of Loxley by Fuse, and the other would be the gossips… Enter Agatha Patterdale, or as refer to her, the Queen of the Conversations.

Adding little snippets occasionally gave me the chance to explain a little of what was going on at Loxley whilst Robbie and crew were on the road. I had set up Loxley village in the early days with two rows of houses totalling 14 in all, and so by using gossip, I was able to fill in the blanks of who lived where and what their specific role within the community was.

The wonderful thing about doing this was not only did it give Loxley a familiar feel for the reader, it also gave me yet another place in which I could add scenes of importance. I think no one will forget book one and the clearing of the snow, without the kindness of Alice Kirk and a bag of warm scones, with a gentle prod in the back, you have to question if Robbie would ever have plucked up the courage to actually approach Runestone for a conversation. It was almost a mirrored scene of the one I had written at the time of their meeting when Rune first moved to Loxley, but that was a part of the story I did not share until book five.

The small street leading to the dusty road gets to see a lot of interesting moments, and I have to confess I do deliberately move back to the main street at times, simply because it is a place that I can picture so clearly in my mind, it is almost as if I am actually there.

The life and times of the dwellers of my street have become a very important part of Loxley, and early each morning we see the lights come on at just before dawn as the Alf Smith at number 13 starts his busy day preparing the meat for sale. Just up the street the smell of freshly baked bread is wafting from number nine, and Ann and Alice Kirk fill their ovens and put up their collapsible tables under the window ready for their freshly baked goods. Next door at number seven, Agatha is up and shuffling round her shop, as Melissa her granddaughter who has just snuck in after leaving the small flat behind number twelve is ready to carry the new Cheese from the cold store out to her Grandmother.

Johnathon Appleton and his sons Ben, Will and Ray have been up for quite some time and are already up at the farm herding the livestock out to grass, and as the lights come on in number Two, Graham Ashton and his wife Julie are feeding their two sons before heading to the farm to team up the horses to begin their long day working on the farm. It is a busy time, and as the sun lifts above the trees, the small street comes alive as the first of many visitors of the day arrives.

By Nine in the morning Joss and Maud Baily are hard at work in the candle shop, wrapping up their orders to be delivered, and across the street at Number 4, the pots and pans shop is open, and Susan and Jake Holmes are usually stood by their door sipping herbal tea and complaining about the lateness of John Lox’s latest delivery of freshly made metal pans. The last shop open is usually Number twelve, Trinkets and Trousers, and Runestone and her mother can be seen as they carry out their metal frames adorned with all the latest clothing designed and sewn together by Runestone. Across the street at Number 11 Ian Hall the furniture man, waves as he displays his latest freshly renovated furniture, and scowling across at the cheese shop is old Ruben Stien the cobbler at number 8, as he watches Agatha leaning on the doorway gossiping as usual whilst Melissa runs round the shop serving.

It’s a busy street with a lot happening, and sometimes I like to stop just to catch a small part of the conversations. There has been a lot of late about the book shop at number one, it appears since old Mr Hargreaves left, (Because nobody was told exactly what had happened to him) Some members of the street do not approve of the fact that Young Judith who now runs the shop, has had it painted from the old burgundy to a new and colourful powder blue. Agatha is not at all impressed and referred to it as gaudy, whilst Ann shrugged and expressed the fact she quite liked it, and so this morning in particular, it appears Agatha has decided to canvass the visitors and get their opinion, but only after fully expressing hers.

This is a street with history; Robbie’s meeting with Leenard ended up in archery lessons, and below the window at number 12 Steph gave her approval in front of a very excited Runestone for a hunting trip outside the walls. At the bottom of the street is where for many a year a young and rather tom boyish dressed Jade Opal would lean against the wall of number 13, whilst waiting for her mates to arrive, before slipping off to create some mischief. Although when it comes to the approval ratings of this street, here is one particular victim of the gossip and the way in which it can turn on you. Jade has witnessed quite a bit of disapproval over the years from the cheese shop, and it has not always done her good, there have been many times alone in the workshop at the rear of number twelve over the years, where Jade cried alone after a particularly nasty scalding from Agatha.

Every February second the windows fill with candles as new light is brought into the world with Imbolc, and early on the first day of May, all the residents decorate the fronts of their houses with freshly cut blossoms from the orchard, and gather with food to celebrate the Beltane or May Day parade, where the street is the focus of the start of a long parade and showing of the candidates for the New Queen of the May. Robert Lox with his wolves head mask has led the parade many times down this cobbled street, and in recent time after his death, his wife and land owner Jessica has taken to leading them out with pride.

Fires are lit at both ends of the street during Samhain and to the rear of the bakery and cheese shop, the large market square is a hive of activity as the community comes together to celebrate the completion of the harvest and the preparations for winter. Like any other small rural village in any other part of the country, this small street has become the focus of everything the residents identify with home. It shares a part of all their lives, and is the place to be for all the latest gossip and news as to what is happening where.

Out of all the places I have created in my imaginary world of Loxley, and that includes Robbie’s Mere, which is probably the one place I would love to live most, Loxley Village is without doubt my favourite place of all. It is one of the first places I built in my mind back in the early 1980’s, and I have tried to sketch it a thousand times, but in all honesty I am a lousy artist with no sense of proportions, and somehow even though the pictures in my mind are so clear, I cannot find a way to get my hand to move the pencil exactly where it needs to be, and in a way maybe that is OK, because I am sure every reader has an image in their mind of how it looks to them, and maybe that is how it should be. I love this place and one of the saddest things about finally after ten years of work finishing the story, is I will more than likely have to move along and leave it behind, which is a sad prospect for me.

A day will come in the future, when the house at number 6 will fall silent, as there will be no more Jett Amber residing there, and the sound of military horses clattering up the street to the farm will fade away. Bread will still be baked, cheese will still be sold, and Ruben Stien will possibly still scowl across at Agatha. The bright red hair of Tegan Lox will shimmer in the morning light, as she helps her older sister Iona set up the displays for her mother at Trinkets and Trousers, and life will move on as the aged figure of Alf will walk besides his son, as the meat is cut and hung in the shop. Around the Village hopefully life will continue, although there will lesser guards and the days will slow as people move on to other destinations, only returning for market days and big parades.

If you are very lucky you may even catch a glimpse of Lord Thorn, as he goes about his duty on his snow white horse, tending to his duties on behalf of the Lox household.

It has been a remarkable journey from the street and back, and I have thoroughly enjoyed bringing you the drama of Agatha being confronted by Beth, or Maggs and Harry as they sold beer at the markets stalls and were positively filled with happy vibes at the looming nuptials of Rowan and Jade as Robbie walked away laughing. One of the happiest memories of the Village for me was back in early 2008 when a new member of the readers group was reading the start of the draft manuscript of Book Two. She rang me up complaining that the group had still not made it back to Loxley, I smiled as she spoke and I think it was at that particular moment that I realised that this crazy person at the other end of the phone had fallen as hopelessly in love with the Village as I had. Such was the power of Loxley that in 2011 she became my wife, only beta reader and editor.

It has been a wonderful journey to share with all of you who have read HTTK, and it is not quite over yet, so I am sure we will walk at least one more time down the street of 14 houses, all with small stone garden walls and wooden gates, all displaying their goods for sale to the sound of trudging feet, clattering horse hooves and gossip.

I am always interested in hearing your personal view and experiences, so please leave a comment either here or on FB and share your joy with everyone who reads this blog.

RJM.

 

The Author’s Kingdom #9

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The Author’s kingdom is a series of articles written by Author Robin John Morgan, as part of the Christmas event for 2016. Through the articles, Robin is sharing his point of view of the books and some of the secrets that create a much greater depth to the story.

 

The sightless centre

From the start of Book Two, one character has been a constant feature at the side of Robbie and Runestone, who without realising has become as important as some of the major characters, and yet this slightly melancholy and hard working part of the Specialists has at times been overlooked.

I speak of course of Sapphire.

Daughter of the mighty Tor and bird talking Melanie, she was destined to be the centre of the Table of Knowledge to succeed her Grandmother Gwendolyn, shortly after her birth. Merlin pronounced she had been rejected as a centre due to her lack of ability, and just when everything appeared to have been agreed, she was snatched with her mother and brother by the Dark One, and frozen in time hidden in the Realm of Sleep.

When Sapphire awoke, life had changed; she was a thousand years into her future, and hidden on the Isle of Lewis just below the famous waiting stones of Callanish. This would be home until her sixteenth birthday, when she would be packed up with her older brother, and shipped across the ocean to a safe haven provided by the family of the boatman who visited the island with their supplies. Separated from her mother and given the instruction to teach two orphaned children, Sapphire had little choice but to try and live her isolated life the best she could, not always aware of the truth of the world in which she lived. Her only real enjoyment came with the letters from her mother that talked of hooded men and circles of power, and for the time being it was enough to help her pass the time with wild fantasies of a world she thought she would never see, until that was, she received a letter telling her she would be leaving the safe house, and being collected by her mother and travel to join with the Hooded Man returned.

Just the above is a lot to deal with, and considering how young she was when she was taken by the Dark One, it is a miracle that Sapphire survived without some serious mental defect. Talk about trauma, and we think our own lives are difficult, and most of this was just on the first few pages that introduced Sapphire to Heirs to the Kingdom.

As she enters the books, it is clear that sapphire is very feminine, she is soft and gentle, very kind and very well educated in literature, maths and the affairs of court to the king. She comes across as a little timid and easily embarrassed, and suffers from bouts of self-doubt, and to be honest very little changes in those characteristics as she weaves into the story besides Runestone and Robbie.

From the point of view of her creator, I find Sapphire to actually be a very deep and emotional character, and I really do enjoy building her slowly up on a parallel to the other characters. I will add at this point with the seventh book being such a recent release to this event, I do have to hold back a little so as not to give spoilers, except to say, I have always considered Sapphire to be an essential part of the plot.

When we first meet her stood on the quayside waving to her mother, I am sure no one understood her relevance to the story, and as she journeyed across the waters to the coast of Northern England to meet her Aunt Una, it was clear that Sapphire was at heart quite a romantic and her notions of the Hooded Man had run a little wild with her fantasies. Sapphire honestly believed that she was in love with the Hooded Man, the only problem there was that Robbie was not even aware that she existed at that point, and there was also the minor fly in the ointment that he was and had been in love with Runestone for a very long time.

Alone with her dreams in a remote part of the coast and out of contact with the rest of the world, Sapphire had imagined she would be the one to win Robbie’s heart, and so to find out he was taken, and taken by the person who had also taken control of all the tables and prevented her from becoming the centre of a circle, must have been a crushing blow for her. From the moment she had been freed from the Hidden Realm she had been protected with her family under a veil of secrecy, and now suddenly she is on the mainland and away from her protections, and her introduction to the new world is she is hunted from the moment she lands by the Dark One, who has picked up her trail and is on route to capture her again. It was quite a dramatic entrance for Sapphire with her brother and mother as they ride like the wind to get to the safety of a circle of stones.

Sapphire up until that point has only ever talked of her powers to come, and yet here on horseback in the driving rain, she is suddenly called upon by Runestone to help protect the members of the group. Filled with terror Sapphire faced her first of many moments of bravery, as Runestone connects with her telepathically and floods her with the power of the Green Circle in order for her to aid her family. It is actually a very important if not terrifying moment for Sapphire who is riddled with self-doubt, and she is consumed and overwhelmed by the power and ends up exhausted and collapsed as she arrives at the circle.

That is all in the first few chapters of Sapphire’s introduction to the book, and my intention behind it was to show the readers that even though she had not become the centre of the circle of knowledge, which had been a place occupied by Bridget and inherited by Gwendolyn previously, Sapphire still had the ability when called upon to open a circle. It’s an important moment that points the way towards her future, for although at that point she feels she has been denied her destiny, we learn as the books progress that she does have a destiny that is far beyond what was first expected of her. In essence I was laying the groundwork for future events that would be vital to the plot of Book Six and Seven, and so began a long line of hints that showed you a little more of Sapphire as the pages turned.

Later in the book she strikes up a friendship with Keith, the son of Lee Sherman an important character in Book Three, and here I took her thoughts and feelings which had been aimed at Robbie, and allowed her to transfer them to Keith. As the days progress and Keith gives her more attention her feelings appear to grow, and she gives him a lot of attention in return, which if you step back for a moment and consider, from Keith’s point of view it is the best thing that has ever happened to him. If you read the first descriptions of Sapphire, you will find that she is described almost identically to Runestone. Sapphire and Rune have a similar look, similar figure, same sapphire blue eyes, she is in every way Runestone like, except she has long auburn hair, not the fiery red with golden strands that Runestone has. It is a deliberate act on my part, after all Sapphire should be the centre, and so in my mind I made as like her own centre as I possibly could, which for Keith a rough and tumble woodsman is a massive bonus. She likes the attention and transfers her image of Robbie onto him, and let’s be honest, Keith will never attract a girlfriend better looking than Sapphire, they finally partner up and everything in the camp is happy, or is it?

Sapphire has greater abilities than she realises, something the shrewd Runestone is very aware of, and she begins to instruct Sapphire in the control of her gifts.  In many ways I think it is apparent that Sapphire is a little bit relieved not to have fulfilled her destiny as the centre of a circle, she has many doubts that actually interfere with her progress, and as a result her true ability does not become clear until early on in Book Five, and even then she doubts herself so much, she actually prevents herself embracing her true nature.

I actually have always seen Sapphire as stronger than most people realise, but there again I am writing this, so I don’t need to show you the full side of her until I feel it is her time in the story, but occasionally I have given you a glimpse of what is to come, for example when Robbie is shot and falls to his near death in the wild river in Scotland, the one person who should be the strongest momentarily falls apart, Runestone goes into melt down, and what happens? This is the first peek at what Sapphire can be, without even thinking she dives into the rapids and goes in search of Robbie and almost drowns herself in the process, but it is her hidden abilities that come to the surface and help her. In the cave she loses herself and drifts in and out of consciousness, and yet she manages to keep Robbie going and it does save his life. There is moment my wife will never forgive, and I am afraid I have soiled her opinion of Sapphire forever, because when Robbie drifts in his half-conscious state and asks for Runestone, Sapphire (Who is Runestone like) leans over and kisses him softly. Believing it to be Rune, Robbie drifts back into sleep blissfully unaware of what has transpired and my wife will never forgive either myself for writing it or Sapphire as a result. (Giggles)

In my own defence this was yet another hint at how like Rune she is in the hope that some of you would start to see that actually Sapphire was a lot braver and stronger than she realised, and actually she did have the power and strength to control a table. Ok so it would be another four books before you see her destiny, but I think this was the first clear hint at her future task.

Once I had the second book finished, which to be honest was still a huge part of actually setting up the series, I had the time to sit back and focus on book three, which in my mind is where the story really starts to get going. It is in the third book that you really start to see the characters open up and reveal who they really are, and again for Sapphire this is an important book. It was not always easy I had to keep her a prominent figure in the book, but I also wanted to play her down a little and just keep her a familiar figure. It felt like a very fine balancing act as I worked out each part of her story and slipped in little clues as to what her final direction would be.

In Book Three as the Specialists enter the dark brooding castle of the Dark One, here we see that Sapphire has an important role besides Keith as she works slightly up front of Robbie and Runestone as a protective guard. Again this is an important aspect of her position within the Specialists as it shows the growing confidence that Runestone has in her. At one point she slides down the wall exhausted after fighting the Smoggarts, and she says. “Whoever said be true to yourself is an idiot, I have just faced myself two dozen times and won.” Like many things in HTTK it at first appears like an insignificant comment, but again from my point of view as I wrote it, this is another sign that sapphire is growing in confidence and is starting to understand who she is becoming. Again in Book Three I give another cryptic hint in the form of the pendant that Runestone gives to her during the ceremony of the passing out of talismans. Sapphire receives a butterfly, which in universal symbolism is the symbol of the passing of information. Butterflies carry the words of those who send them, as Runestone presents her with the talisman she tells her. “Carry my power with you always, and know you are close to my heart.” We now know that actually at this point Runestone has already created a table of power for Sapphire, and it is hidden within the talisman she has just p[resented her with. I like this part as it actually shows that not only is Sapphire about to fully understand who she is, it also shows that Runestone is well aware of what is set for Sapphire and is already at work preparing for her, a point which is actually vital to the end of Book Six.

At the start of the fourth book I took a little time out to work out a few of the advanced details for future books. I had up until then been working on what was just a basic rough outline of what was to come, and in the case of Sapphire, I knew I had to start preparing the readers with a little more information so that they began to understand there was something important to come. It was not the easiest task because actually as some of the readers now know, there is a direct link between Sapphire helping Merlin transport Jade and Robbie into the Hidden Realm to collect Runestone who is trapped there, and Book Seven. At this point before writing four, I had to fully work out the details of what would become the Bridge of Sequana, I had already dropped a hint in the form of cryptic mentions of it, but at this point I really had to focus on the detail and then try to replicate it without giving it away.

In order to do this I brought in the aide of Rhiannon, who after all is high Fae, and is aware of most deep Fae magic, she is also one of the most important ingredients to the equation, she is a queen of Fae. By placing Merlin, Rhiannon and Sapphire together and then pulling in the use of great power, it is obvious that what is really happening is not lost on the very perceptive Rhiannon. Rhiannon says nothing, but she is aware that actually Merlin is wakening up parts of Sapphire that she is not aware of, and through this action Merlin forces her true powers through all her self-doubt and brings them to the surface. In book seven you will a better explanation of this as given by Iona, so I will leave it there and you can read it at some future point.

There are unresolved issues within Sapphire and when Runestone returns she becomes aware of the big changes going on inside her. As a way of helping her, Runestone takes her back to Callanish and awakens the sole of her father who is buried on the isle in the centre of the old stone circle, this really is the first part of the unleashing of Sapphire as a centre. During the powerful session which also starts to show Keith the true powers of a centre, Sapphire meets her father and begins to understand her past and the events that have led her to be over one thousand years into her future. She begins to see that she has far more than first expected and she has the chance to ask her father questions and more importantly tell him how she feels and say goodbye. It is a massively important moment in the life of Sapphire, and from this her powers begin to rise and show themselves.

At the start of book five the dreams begin, and Runestone sidesteps a little and allows her grandmother to take some control. Opal already has an idea of the direction of Sapphire, after all Opal has been sneaking about and observing things she shouldn’t for a very long time, and it is Opal who is in contact with Runestone who takes the lead and starts to explain to Sapphire where her new direction will lie. For poor Sapphire this becomes very confusing and she just cannot understand why she has been chosen, she had finally given up all notions of becoming a centre, when Opal announces she will be the centre of the circle of sight.

At this point it is worth just taking a moment to contemplate the whole picture. Here is a girl who has pretty much lived her life in isolation, at the age of 16 and just when she was starting to learn about who she was, she was taken from her mother to a strange remote place and given the task of education two orphans. She is alone lost and very lonely living a very sheltered life. Suddenly out of the blue her mother arrives and brings her to the mainland to meet all of her family, and the infamous Hooded Man, a figure she has fantasised about. Within days of arriving on the mainland she is in the thick of a war, and is teamed up with the Specialists where she encounters Cutters, and the Dark One, a figure she is aware is hunting her to kill her. She becomes involved with Keith and for a short time she manages to stabilise her life as best as can be expected considering the circumstances. Out of the blue the two orphans she has educated turn out to be the future king and his sister, and she was not even aware of it, and Sapphire starts to understand that this has all been part of some elaborate plan set for her by her Grandmother, who just happens to have been one of the most powerful seers of the Fae. Towards the end of Book Five Sapphire finds herself alone at the farm of Rafe’s parents, suddenly she is separated from all the chaos she has faced since she had arrived at Loxley, and she finally has the time alone to actually think and process everything that has happened. I thought about this time a great deal, and I think in my mind it was clear that this would be the turning point where Sapphire began to understand that her whole life up until that point had been manipulated by others.

As her powers which have now been unlocked within her start to grow, Sapphire starts to feel it is time to take back the control of her own life, but for her who has been sheltered for so long; it is not as easy as she thinks. Her powers have awoken her gift of sight, so as she comes to terms with who she is becoming she is haunted by a dream of a young bohemian boat girl. She does not fully understand the significance of the dreams, and it feels like just one more aspect of her life preventing her from deciding what she wants and who she wants to be. This is an important moment where Sapphire has to face herself and make some harsh decisions, and these decisions are vitally important to the relevance of her future, and so with the aid of Opal her process of change begins, although it is suddenly interrupted when out of nowhere she is awoken by Opal and cast out of the circle of protection and told to immediately go to Robbie’s aid.

Talk about confusing?

At the end of Book Six sapphire finally faces her destiny and accepts the mantle of Centre to the Circle of Sight. She is very nervous and apprehensive, and Opal is very intense as she appears to be distracted by a rhyme that sapphire for some unexplained reason cannot get out of her head, it is clear this will become a very important aspect of Book Seven, but again here I have to hold back a little to allow those of you who have not yet read the book catch up. Book Seven will force sapphire to finally accept her destiny, and it will also show her the way in which she chooses to live her life, and it is not what many expect. The gift of sight is a bonus and a curse, and as it intensifies, Sapphire has little choice but to accept it and deal with it, and in doing so finally we see the true courage and power of the real Sapphire.

I personally have thoroughly enjoyed her journey to date, she has been a very detailed and intense character to write, and I must add it has not always been an easy task, as I could only show the readers small parts of her at a time, I have done a lot of editing along the way to ensure she developed at the right speed for the readers. There is far more to her than first appears, and that has actually been part of the joy of writing her character. Books Seven and Eight will finally show you her true self, as she grows in power and understanding, and you will see her find her place in this world, and in the world of the Fae of the Earth, because finally she will travel to Florae to fully understand her future role as a teacher to the future Queen of Fae, but that is yet to come and the only hint I am prepared to give. Will she ever truly find a settled place where she can feel at one with her surroundings?

Well even I am not completely sure as I am scripting out yet more of her for the final book, I think she will have to endure great hardship before that can happen just to make it a reward worth waiting for. The one thing I do know is that she is far more important to HTTK that all of you may first have guessed, and that begins with Book Seven, so I will now take a back seat and allow all of you to catch me up as I put together the final book of the series, and in the mean time I wish you all well and hope this has again opened up a window that has given you yet more insight into Heirs to the Kingdom.

The Author’s Kingdom #8

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The Authors Kingdom is the Author, Robin John Morgan’s point of view that reveals an insight into his writing of Heirs to the Kingdom. It forms part of the Christmas Event for 2016.

 

The sinister edge of everything

When I first started to seriously plan the first book in the series, I asked myself the question, Is Mason Knox a God fearing man?

I realise it may at first to be an odd sort of question considering who Mason is and what he doing to the country as it recovers, but it felt like a very important question at the time, simply because I was dividing up the loyalties of the people to create the areas that would eventually become Woodland and Stone loving, and I knew that any surviving churches would have some say with the people.

The answer to the question was obviously no he is not, I mean how could he be, considering who is mother is? so I asked a second question. Could he bribe or influence the church to support him?

This is a far more interesting question, especially considering the state of the country at that time. I looked at the scenario I was creating, with the Cutters inflicting pain and death and stealing the harvested crops of those who could not defend themselves, and it was abundantly clear that Mason was storing up as much as possible behind his walls and swords. So here was the man who had everything, and he controlled everything, and in this scenario I think it would be pretty clear that to support Mason at that time, would indeed benefit those individuals.

It was clear to me that after a chaotic event such as the Red Death, people would seek out answers as to why the world went the way it did, I was under no illusion that there would be members of every faith that pronounced this as Gods will, after all there are certainly enough passages in all religious writings to show how God would punish the evil. It is a modern day phenomenon that after all disasters and community crisis, churches that have been almost empty for months, suddenly find themselves filled to the rafters as lapsed worshipers seek some form of spiritual guidance and answers, and in my mind the Red Death would be no different.

Ok so I have had a little bashing in the last nine years, and I have even been called anti-Christian, but actually this is so far from the truth, and my defence has always been, I have done my best to show a balanced representation of how I feel the church would evolve after a post-apocalyptic crisis. I am after all a people watcher, and obviously I have used the Christian Church as my example simply because firstly, Mason has been raised in what up until recently has been a predominately Christian country in which he has had to blend in for 100’s of years, and secondly, I have been involved with it and have spoken at great lengths to members of this faith throughout my life time. I would say also that when I talk of Christians, I am not talking about “The Church,” to me they are very separate indeed, as I see the Church as the organised political wing of Christianity, and Christians as the many diverse individuals who believe in the faith, and in my mind mainly due to my own experiences, they are indeed two very separate machines.

The Christian Church is simply wonderful material for a writer, it has a rich and at times highly questionable history, and really if you take the time to look at the broader picture of the Roman Catholic, Church of England, Baptist, Methodist and even Latter Day Saints side of the organised parts of the Church, there is a whole list of drama’s and scandals on which a writer can build a working profile. I asked myself would men who want wealth and power be drawn to the church, well yes of course they would, these kinds of people have filtered into every walk of life in the past to seize control and make personal gains, and so I had no problems lining the hierarchy of my surviving church with such people. I would add at this point that Mason has these kind of people all around him, they are in his Marshals, Captains of his Cutters, part of his military and so forth, and so it makes great sense that they would also be in the church. This was never a personal attack on belief, if anything it is my own attack on capitalists and greed as individuals, for the world today is riddled with them and I despise every one of them.

I once knew a Reverend who was to be honest one of nicest and kindest individuals that I have ever known. He was pretty unorthodox in his approach to the way he ran his church, he was very much a reformer, and I can tell you he was not popular with the old crowd. He died not that long ago, and I was so sad to hear it, because I genuinely really admired the work he did with his wife, I have some wonderful memories of his time at my local church, and the happiness and joy he created as he filled his church with young people and children.

The old crowd hated him, he disturbed their out dated ideas and routine in the church, and after a year they conspired and found a way to get rid of him, it is of these people, the control freaks and monopolisers of the church that I speak about when I write of Brother Argus and the First Church Council. Even though I was young at the time, it was easy to see how he threatened their control and the comfort they felt controlling the local church. I saw with my own eyes the pure vile and evil of these people, and it was a harsh eye opening in my youth to confront such prejudice and two faced hypocrisy. At the end of the day it all boiled down to a power play for control of the church, they won by underhanded means, but their church emptied and the collections slipped back to normal, in a way at the time it felt poetic.

I think it is very important to make the distinction between how I feel about people like this, and how I feel about people of faith, and within the plot line of this series, which I hope is as accurate and true to life as it can be for a work of fantasy, I would like to think that I have struck a good balance that highlights the difference between those who truly believe in their faith, the those who see it as a convenient position of power for personal gain and control of the people. Historically the Church has always played its part in politics and the control of their local areas, today they are not as influential which I feel is a good thing, but take the country into the kind of scenario I have created, and I think you will see some traits of old resurface, especially in a leaderless society.

It has been my aim throughout all of HTTK to show the accurate picture of division within the Christian faith, because it is an important political element to the plot. As the story has progressed and the Church has been woven through it, I show the side of Christianity I have seen in the form of Sister Mary, Father Warren and John Stevens, and I have pitted them against their opposing numbers, which again I have seen in life, such as Bishop Holmes, Brother Argus or the Brethren. I think it is evident, that good people do good things, and corrupt people corrupt everything, and I have shown this not only within the church, you see it in the midst of the army of Mason and at times within the Woodland forces, especially in the south where there is very much a sense of distrust amongst certain groups. Silas and his jealousy of the Outlaws for example.

One thing I do know, and has been something I have watched all my life is the scramble for power at every level of life, and so I think it is a natural element of every organisation, and no matter how hard you may want to believe that all within the church or any religion for that matter are pious, the simple fact is hypocrisy will show its hand far more often than not. When you pit the faith of one against another you will always get sparks of prejudice, and history is riddled with it within the church. The witch burnings, the crusades, the slaughter of native Americans and even the Irish conflict are examples of how certain aspects of the Christian church in the past has exerted it’s power, and even in today’s climate we see a great deal of war that has become embroiled with religious conflict within what should be a modern civilised world. I think it takes little to get emotions high and then factions clash and all text about peace and love get pushed to the side as the texts of fire and brimstone are wheeled out for battle.

The Church has always played a very important role in the affairs of state, none more so than in the monarchy. Lord Loxley mainly due to his teachings from Leenard is wise enough to know that without the Church he will never convince the people to support him. I think is also a relevant point that Mason has been more aware of, as he began very early on garnering support with the recovering church, and as the books begin it is already very obvious he has been hard at work behind the scenes laying the foundation for his own coronation.

Most of this comes down to a single point of great interest in relation to HTTK; can the church tolerate a Pagan King? This really is the centre of everything, because had Leenard provided paperwork for an heir to the throne that was a recognised Christian, would Lord Loxley really be having the fight he has to convince the church to support him? I think not. I am well aware that under the constructional laws of this land, the King or Queen become the immediate head of the Church of England. No Catholic is allowed under constitutional law to be seated on the English throne, so really any prejudice that is aimed at Lord Loxley in not so much about the fact he supports a Pagan faith, but more about the point that he supports a king assumed to be Pagan, I would imagine Argus and co would hate him equally as much if he was trying to place a Catholic, Muslim or Buddhist on the throne too. It is a rather wonderful mess and absolute gold for a writer as the web of deceit and intrigue widens out.

Historically the church has always used its very significant power to control the masses, and I think it is for this reason Mason would have looked to the church. He built them a new stone headquarters at Hull. He repaired and expanded the Cathedral at Lincoln, and funded Argus after the fall of the Church Council, in order to ensure that the church continues to publicly support him and convince the people to side with Mason as King, and not this so called Pagan pretender offered by Lord Loxley. As Mason is attracted to the church and its power, so are others for exactly the same reasons, and I would say if you look hard enough, you will see some of these kinds of people in positions of power in the church, local and national government and industry today, they are the ones who enforce the rules, yet they themselves do not live by them.

I see all organised religion today as divisive, and I think it shows in the writing. Religion preaches tolerance and compassion, and it is very evident in the world today that some people honestly believe in those ethics and live their life accordingly. On the other side of the coin, if you look at the internal squabbling in recent times over women vicars and bishops, and more recently gay marriage, the divisions are also clearly seen, and they are very deep indeed. On a more personal level, if you talk religion, or better yet compare religions with others, you very soon see the divisions between individuals, and this from my point of view has allowed me to open up a debate within all parties in the story to create much greater depth. Robbie takes what he has read in the small book given him by Sister Mary and found a great deal that matches in with his own belief system, and yet Sapphire who has suffered at the hands of the church hates them with good reason, although even she was touched by the kindness of Bishop Stevens. It is this wonderful set of contradictions that play well into the story line and it does give me great latitude to play people off against each other, be they Christian against Pagan or Christian against Christian.

Religion can be a mine field and I do tread carefully when writing, after all my aim is not to offend, but to provide interesting dialogue, but I do find I have a wonderful wealth of information on which to base my characters and their belief system. In book Seven you see yet another great example of the divisions created by religion when even Jett Amber, possibly one of Robbie’s loyalist supporters, speaks out publicly her objections to Robbie’s support of part of the church. It’s a wonderful heady mix that helps add yet more life to this tale, and it is my hope that it does keep the plot alive and bubbling.

I think it is safe to say that Mason probably enjoys watching the church fight internally for the controlling power of the people. To a degree it serves his purpose well, as all he has to do is sit back and wait for one to emerge with all the power, who he can then manipulate via their own greed to give him what he wants. After all he is the one holding all the best cards as he has the best equipped force, and all the reserve supplies to push the country forward into something more inclined to his view of the world. I have a three way conflict in so much as I have Mason, the church and Lord Loxley, and as the story has evolved there has been a good amount of doubt and uncertainty on all sides, which has allowed me to play out a scenario that does indeed hold tension at times. I have always felt this was good for the reader, and it has embroiled them in what possibly is one of the oldest conflicts of mankind. Historically none of these groups can be perceived as thoroughly good; all of them have a somewhat jaded history, be it the crimes and greed of the Christian faith, the rape and pillage of the Saxons, and even the Celts as they spread out from Europe long before biblical times, committed some horrendous acts against their enemies.

My aim has always been within the plot to show that not everyone is nice, and some people try very hard to do the right thing, I think this is a clear example of mankind, we are all saints and sinners and no one is perfect. As much as the old hippie inside me wants peace in the world, I fear it will never be so, it’s a great shame as we have the technology and the intelligence to actually create a far better world than we have today, hence my unrest and lack of faith in mankind at times. Sadly part of the human condition for some is greed and control, and I think no matter how far the human race goes, even if some apocalyptic incident happened, we would still be the primitive war mongering tribes we have always been. I think in the world today we may wear suits and act like we are responsible humans, but always simmering just below the surface is the primitive being we have always been, and all it takes for that side of humanity to emerge is one big chaotic event. Heirs to the Kingdom is for me a chance to lift up the false charade and take a peek at why lies underneath, and whereas sometimes it’s not really that bad, occasionally it does make all of us a little uncomfortable.

So in conclusion I will simply say this, I am a writer, and from my experience of writing and reading over my lifetime, I have found at times being uncomfortable makes for good thinking and the questioning of ourselves, and that is not always a bad thing.

As always, I love questions, because that begins good conversations that broadens the minds of both parties, and all of you are welcome at any point to message me and ask them, so until my next piece, I bid you all happy ponderings.

 

The Author’s Kingdom #7

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles by Author Robin John Morgan that provides some deeper detail and understanding of his writing. This event has been written and planned for Christmas 2016

 

The Cycle of Life.

There is something quite special to the relationship between a person who works with the land and the natural world that surrounds them. Having spent most of my life working with plant life, I feel a lot more in tune with the world, than say some of my friends and acquaintances that work in offices and factories.

Even now, whilst I am no longer working as a professional in horticulture, and I sit at a desk most days to write, I still take out time to walk within the natural surroundings of my home. The strong urge to reconnect is never far away, and I can only go for so long before I feel the urgent need to work in the soil or walk beneath the trees. It is often hard to explain this to others who live a more material life within the built up areas of town or in the city. I feel that it is within this part of the person that I am that I have created the woodland peoples and the realm that they live in.

There is something about working outdoors and being part of the circle of creation of life that has a deep impact on you, and in many ways your senses changed and become more in tune with Nature. I have found after most of my life working with plants within each season that I feel the changes in the weather and the atmosphere as they build. People laugh when I tell them I can smell snow or rain coming, but I do notice those slight subtle changes. It is probably odd to say it, but the smell of the earth changes as you work through the seasons, and there is a very real difference between the damp earth of autumn and the earth of high summer.

Basing my Woodland dwellers in this cycle of a working life that is dependent upon the life cycle of life, not only gives me the chance to express a great of the joy I take from the wilderness, but I have also used it as a vehicle in which I can share some of these precious moments of my year with the readership. There is no coincidence that Robbie and Rowan react as they do to the world around them as I add small details to the background of my writing to let you know what is going on in the British wilderness at that specific time of year.

I started the books on New Year’s Day as a deliberate act so that as I progressed through the books I could introduce the circle of the year’s events and some of the tasks involved in the life cycle of the plant and tree life around the characters. It really pays to visit the British countryside and witness the life that the people there live, it is very similar to the way in which Loxley functions, and it is a very important part of our living heritage. Many towns and villages still celebrate many of what are now the old country traditions, and you would be surprised at just how many people get involved and celebrate. We are indeed a country that was built around Christian worship, and yet I am never surprised to see that a great deal of our Celtic and Saxon country based traditions are still upheld and celebrated, be it corn dollies in Somerset or well dressing in Buxton.

In many ways it is nice to know that around the country there are small pockets of people that work very hard to keep alive important skills and traditions. All of us have visited craft shows organised around our larger towns where we get to see just a small selection of a few of the living skills we hold on to, and it is important we see them, but it always appear to be the same old skills of wood turning or hand pottery throwing, yet in my travels over the past forty years I have delighted in finding that there are people keeping these important crafts alive such as spinning wool and cottons by hand and traditional weaving, even glass blowing has had a resurge over the years. What is even more important is that these skills that have been passed down from an age where they were essential to the survival of the community are now being taught to our young, and this is all happening quietly behind the scenes of modern life.

There is no coincidence that I started my series by mentioning how those who flocked to the countryside were saved by the country folk who had the skills but were too old to carry them out on a larger scale. I was questioned by a few in the early days of HTTK as to whether or not this would be a likely scenario, but if you look at the plain facts of younger people fleeing in terror from the crumbling cities, it is abundantly clear to me that the influx of extra youth into rural communities would serve to greatly enhance the survival rate of all of them.

I have always tried to encourage the people around me to look at these skills and learn them, my children have benefited greatly from both myself and my wife taking time out of our routines to teach them these skills. My children see this as fun family orientated activities, but it serves the important tradition of helping to keep these traditions alive, and it also has the added benefit of allowing me the personal experiences that enable some of my writing from a point of knowledge. We have made our own arrow heads, started fires without matches, learned to identify all the wild foods that are actually very nutritious and safe to eat. As you can imagine the kids love our wild rambles outdoors, as I always point some form of food they much as we walk, and even though they are not aware of it, I am preserving some very important ancient skills that sadly were once common knowledge.  

As with all things within the writing community, every experience helps to enhance the writing and although most readers probably do not realise it, HTTK is riddled with some really important ancient skills that are the reason we survived through the pre modern times. Ok so maybe we will not have some major apocalyptic event, I mean it’s not like I am planning one any time soon, but the thing here is we do really know the fate of the world? When I look back at my youth and then compare it to just the last five years of my life, I think it is very noticeable how the weather has become more and more extreme round the globe, even here in the UK we are seeing flooding and freak weather we have not witnessed before. It matters not if this caused by global warming or not, the fact is that the world as we know it at the moment is very unpredictable, and so the scenario I have painted or something similar could very well happen, and I feel that is even more an important point to consider. Learning a few of the skills of our past may be the very thing that gets us through some major future event, and that is why I feel it’s important to share the information or make people aware, which is one of the many purposes that HTTK also serves as a hidden layer between the pages. Ok so we don’t all have to become arran clad folk singers, who spend our days weaving and carving, although I must admit I think the influence of my father has given me a bit of a desire to get into wood work, which I need to find more time to practice more, but let’s be honest being more connected with anything remotely natural is not exactly a bad thing.

I cannot mention nature, country living without the influence of Pagan ways on my woodland dwelling folk. Earth Faith, which I created as a slightly enhanced version of what is traditional Paganism. I have had the privilege of being around Pagan’s for a very long time, and I do have a very deep understanding of their beliefs, many of which I share. HTTK does contain a huge amount of pagan ritual and beliefs due mainly to the fact that the faith is based to work within the wheel of the year and it is a very seasonal linked faith. When I wrote the very first draft of the Bowman of Loxley with a readers beta group, a great deal of the questions I got were Pagan based. The Beta group asked if it was actually feasible that a woodsman type belief would actually resurge across the country as depicted in the introduction of the book. I think they were surprised to learn that actually in this country there are far more Pagans than people realise, it is a faith that has been growing steadily since the 1950’s and I have been a large part of it. Unlike most mainstream religions Pagan tend to be quite secretive about their beliefs, which mainly is due to the stigma placed on it by both the Christian and Islam faiths. Devil worshiper is a tag often placed on Pagan, and even in this modern time, the slightest hint of anything remotely Satan based is still something very much shunned and frowned upon. The sad thing is that Satan or the devil is a Christian creation, and no self-respecting Pagan would support such nonsense, but mainly due to the fact that for almost two thousand years the Church has demonised Pagans, it is still a very sore point with modern pagans today, and society frowns due to a huge lack of understanding of the Pagan faith.

From my own observations and involvement with Pagan belief, I see it as a kind of spiritual environmentalism, which considering who my lead female character was going to be revealed as works perfectly into the woodland community. From my own point of reference and my knowledge of the lifestyle that surrounds plant life, I do not feel that there is a great stretch of the imagination to understand that people who turn to country ways in order to survive would embrace a Pagan based faith. I have always felt that people would tend to embrace what was around them, and Pagan tradition and lifestyles do still predominately get practiced on a higher scale in more rural areas today. It did help create a good backdrop on which to work in the politics of some of the Christian faith, after all we have over a thousand years of historical rivalry between the two, so from a writing point of view it does give me a good vehicle for a lack of understanding between the two factions. Although it was never planned or scripted, I have found from my conversations with readers of HTTK that it has actually broadened peoples understanding of the faith, which cannot be such a bad thing as knowledge breeds acceptance, so I take that as a plus for the books.

In HTTK I have taken the workings of the rural community, added a more earth based faith, and introduced what are basically the living skills of the medieval era, spliced with a small amount of modern technology. In my mind this was always a natural direction to take considering the scenario I had created, but I have to admit that from the initial scripting, to what has evolved in the books to date I am happy to find that the story almost feels timeless. I have had quite a few people comment that suddenly during the reading they stopped to think, and realised this is a story set in the future, and yet it would also fit snuggly into modern or even medieval times. It is hard for to me comment as at times I become so immersed in the story as I write that even I lose track of the date, although I will add at this point I do actually keep a calendar of 2038-40, to which I add each event as it is written just so I am aware of the actual date and the season. It is important that I keep this kind of record of events as it allows me to place my horticultural knowledge in its correct time frame, which is why I can write about the aconite popping through the snow or the honeysuckle creeping through the hedgerows of green.

There are days I sit back and ponder just why the hell I spend so much time sat at my desk adding all this stuff to the story in ever increasing layers, and then I get a message or someone I meet who has read the books comments on a particular aspect of the story, and it is during these moments of seeing the enthusiasm of a reader that all of it makes sense and it brings me a great feeling of satisfaction. I really do enjoy the feedback I get and the chances to explain something in deeper detail, and I always encourage questions, and so as I pull this next instalment of The Authors Kingdom to a close I will say that I am here and even though I have written a lot for this event already, I am happy to work out a piece that explains any aspect of the Kingdom, all you need do is message me, and I will write something to provide my view of it for you. It matters not whether I have one, or one million readers, as long as it is required from one of you, I am happy to keep writing it, and I am very grateful to all of you for the love and support you have shown my work, as always my thanks to you all.

 

 

 

 

The Author’s Kingdom #6

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles, where the Author explains his perception of Heirs to the Kingdom. It is written to cover the festive season of Christmas 2016.

 

Modern Living?

When I first began to write HTTK, I was asked what would be the one bonus of the world grinding to a halt in a major disaster. I have not forgotten that moment because as I remember it, I took less than a second to answer it. It may appear like an odd question because in all honesty who would even want the Modern World as we know it to end?

Sad as it may appear, I would.

When asked at the time I answered without even questioning, and my answer was, the collapse of modern banking and multi-national corporations would be the greatest gift to humanity that we could ever wish for.

It blew the mind of the friend that asked the question, for a moment they stared at me unable to completely comprehend what I had said, and in my mind I could see in their eyes that the fight between green and stone had already begun.

Heirs to the kingdom is exactly that question answered through my eyes. I have brought the state of today down to simple camps, those who would fight to maintain the status quo, and those would throw it away for a more simple and sustainable way of living. Mason vs Loxley.

Life today is unnatural. As a race of beings we have sold out our values and given up our heritage and the skills that allowed us to develop into the beings we have become. Today no one really understands those vital skills that brought us here, we no longer knit, crochet or weave, we do not labour in our gardens to grow our own food that is healthy and chemical free, we have lost so many of our stone cutting and wood working skills that if disaster struck, we would more than likely starve to death, because eating money would not be a viable survival option.

Today we are born into a world where everything is created by machine, packaged and assembled in convenient large stores, where we travel out of town and collect what we need with the little money we own, and then we head home and eat the food, that is not really food, but some chemical laced enhanced molecular plastic mixed with a few real organic ingredients, and we sit at our electronic devices that inform us of the world view, that seldom contains the truth as it is manipulated to death by the media, and we live the fantasy of thinking this will make us happy.

We go to school, where once again we are taught the world view which is not really the truth, and we are taught to pass a test after years of sitting in a small classroom that will not help us create a good life, but it will inform the world of our place in the endless mass of working opportunities. We will be condemned to spend the next forty years, not earning enough to really live, as we can just about afford our bills. Without even noticing we have entered the labour machine and a lifetime of boredom and resentment as we work longer hours creating more rubbish for the world to buy. What we buy has designed obsolescence built into it, and it will break so we will throw it away, and add it to the landfill where it will decay and poison the land. We will simply buy the newer improved version and tell ourselves we cannot really afford it, but that is what credit cards are for, and again we will hold the fantasy that we are happy. Welcome to capitalism, a system of legal slavery, where we are the source of revenue that makes the top 4% richer and richer, and all we get is a pitiful existence as they reap the benefits of our labour.

I do not know anyone who really loves their job, I see a world around me filled with people who are becoming more and more isolated from each other. Everyone complains about their life as they count what little money they have and hope it might just be enough to get a cut price holiday for two weeks each year. They hold some false hope that by sitting in a strange foreign land for two weeks will somehow magically make the people they live next door to nicer, and their job somehow better when they return broke, and feeling a little worn out from the endless cocktails they drank to cover the fact they were counting the days in dread, and wishing their holiday would never end.

This is what we called the world of Modern Man. I could write pages of this stuff on the modern world, and the fake charade that people endlessly play to con themselves into thinking they are happy. I am told I am cynical, I argue that maybe I am just better informed, I am told I am just some unrepentant old hippie, and I agree, I am. I am told that I am just a dreamer, and need to grow up. I respond I am a writer, I watch people and study life deeply, and yes I do dream, it is a wonderful dream, because it is a dream where everyone wakes up. They snigger, tell me I am lost cause with a head full of magic and I smile… Maybe?………………… Stone Lover… Hippie!

I am a dreamer, I do indeed have a head full of magic, oh and what glorious magic it is, you see I have seen the greatest kind of magic there is. I have had the joy of spending the last 35 years of my life working in something I did love, and I am lucky to have found another love to sustain me through into old age, and it is not part of the machine, it is not part of some elaborate money making system, hell I am not sure looking at my bank balance each month there is a name for what I have become, I simply call myself writer. I do dream, I do look at life, pull it apart and then find ways to put it back in a way that has wonder, and yes I am not ashamed to say it has magic, deep and glorious magic.

I began my career in horticulture, I look back with great joy on it, because it was magic, I have had the privilege of working with something so wondrous and magical, it made every day a joy. It took one simple ingredient to make everything fascinating and glorious, you may know of this magic, it is in many books, and has been talked of often in the modern world, and yet it also something that was once a deep part of who we were as people, and yet most people have forgotten this wonderful and glorious magic power. I call her Runestone, you will probably know her better as Nature.

Want to meet her? Simply go outside and turn around and take a good long look, go on… look up… There she is in the form of a tree, go on take a good long look. Enjoy the structure, man could never in his wildest dreams create something that complex and intricate, and keep it looking as simple and beautiful as that. We see trees every day, and yet we never really take the time to look at them, and it is such a shame for there before you is the wonder of true magic. Look at its feet, look at that brown stuff it sits in, that my dear friend is the earth on which we live, and it is rich and organic and filled with millions of micro life forms and trace elements, all of which have one task, to sustain life.

We do have a choice in this world, and it is one that is not the easiest, but it is still a choice. We can live hand in hand with nature, we can throw away our paper money and grow our own food, farm our own livestock, weave our own clothes. The sun has free power, so does the wind and the water, and the crazy thing is, we have created the technology to actually do this, but we don’t.

I have built up this lifestyle and called it Loxley, Woodland, Green. All you have to do to sample it is read Heirs to the Kingdom, there it is, a simplistic way of living that reunites man with the earth, in a way that provides the very best of the modern world, working side by side with what we now call the old world view. It is a world which requires community, people working together, laughing together, sharing a way of life and at times crying together. It is a world of balance, and one that will not destroy what surrounds us, but respect it and nurture it because there is the understanding that actually we need it.

To quote John Lennon “You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one.” I am not, there are a lot of people out there who think as I do, and within the story that I have written is the message of my belief that mankind can change, and can turn away from the banking world dominating multinational corporations to build something more in tune with the earth. We have forgotten that we are a part of this earth, we have forgotten that we need to understand that, and live as such, because if we do not, then just maybe like my story Nature will turn on us and there will be a mass extinction, and no amount of paper money or gold bars will prevent it. The reality is that if we continue treating the earth as we have, which is basically as our personal asset to strip and dismantle, mankind will not survive the next 1000 years.

Heirs to the Kingdom is not just some random fantasy filled with love and the struggle of a family against another family. It is a very serious message of what could be. I actually think it will be worse than I have portrayed it, but the message written throughout all of it is very real. I see the modern world as a con, and I do not believe I am wrong, the irony is because of the way world is, HTTK will never be a best seller and so my message will only reach a limited number of people. That is OK, because if a few of you understand my words, you may be able to change a few small things, and that could lead to other changes etc… I believe that if one man changes the way he lives, it does have an effect on others, and they may change as a result, and they will affect the lives of others, and so on….. and so on. But hey I am just a dreamer!

 

The Author’s Kingdom #5

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles by Author Robin John Morgan, as he explains some of his reasoning behind how he writes the Heirs to the Kingdom series, as part of the Christmas event for 2016.

The problem with calling a series Heirs to the Kingdom, and making it about the lines of the future, is that eventually someone has to die to make way for the next generation.

There have been many times when a reader has asked me. “Oh why did you have to kill so and so?” Feeling the emotion of their words makes it difficult to simply answer, “because it was their time to go.” Like all other aspects of HTTK there is always a well thought out reason behind the writing, I am not after all George R R Martin, and the removal of a character is never an unfeeling moment within the writing process. Timing is important, actually timing is everything, but to the reader lost in the pages, I know that there is never a good time to take a character forever.

From a personal point of view, I have never believed that death is the end, and I still to this day remember my physics classes from school. ‘Energy does not die, it merely changes its state and continues in another form.’  It is as much my own personal spiritual philosophy as much as it is the basics of science, and with that in mind I have followed my belief and written it into HTTK.

In the early days, I pointed the way with Gwendolyn and Opal, and then I began and followed each character and walked them through the reasons they had to leave, and what follows is my reasoning behind each of them. I love that many of the readers have become as involved with these people as I have in their creation, and the fact that you see them as real, is without doubt the finest compliment I have ever been paid, and so I thank all of you.

ERIC. (Book One)                                                              

Eric was a hard choice, because in my first draft he was never meant to meet his end so early. I had actually created a character to be killed in the silliness that was Harry. He was deliberately written in a comic piece, and never meant to live, but as his popularity soared and I saw the benefit of keeping him, I am sorry to say poor Little Eric became my next target. I will add that he would have gone in book two though, so his demise was a little earlier than expected, but he died for the very same reason.

Eric was always meant to be the one thing that brought everyone together and created a deep bond between the fractured and suffering members of the group. He was young and inexperienced, but dedicated, and that alone gave a privileged within the Specialists who wanted to take him under their wing. I did write a piece in the early days where the Specialists got to see the mass slaughtered people as the Cutters moved north, and Eric’s death was meant to be the thing that cemented them all together at the end of what was a harrowing time. Because I brought his death forward a little, I changed parts towards the end of Book One, and then later wrote a more detailed piece that was added during the journey to save Alice, and that became what I call the mound of red flowers on the edge of Scotland, after the burial of an entire town is butchered by the Cutters.

The Death of Eric in Book One does work so much better and Harry lived, which has actually been to the benefit of HTTK, as Harry has provided some wonderful and interesting moments. Eric’s death as a sacrifice and then the honour showed to him by his comrades I think is some of my best writing, as it really does add weight to the Specialists at a time when I was still trying to paint the basic picture of HTTK before adding in all the detail, so if I am honest, it was a good change that did indeed improve the story.

Hog (Anthony Ashford) Book Two

Hog was a much easier decision in the scheme of things, which probably sounds colder than it is intended, but when writing these books, none of you will understand the pressure I feel at times when it is time for a character to depart. In my mind Hog was an important yet simple loss, you see Hog was James’s younger, simplistic, if not stronger brother. After the death of their parents James (Fish) put his own life on hold to ensure the safety of his brother, but he was destined to be at the side of Amethyst. It was quite a simple decision, you see had Hog lived, James no matter how much he loved Amethyst would never have consented to marry her and move to Avalon and abandon his younger brother. It really was that simple, and so Hog was written out allowing for James to brood and recover from the death of his brother before the introduction of Amethyst into the Specialists. I felt a three book gap would serve as a good period of mourning, and so at the end of five and eventually in book six James finds his happiness besides Amethyst and moved to serve as the Queens consort in the crystal castle in the Mirrored Lake. In a way I think it helped cement the plot, as James deserved to find happiness, and even if Hog had remained at his side, it would still have meant him leaving the Specialists as they made their way back to Loxley, and so the outcome would have been the same. Hog on the stair protecting Runestone made for a far more honourable exit for him, so I think it all worked very well in the end.

Hilda Pickles (Mum to Maggs) Book Two

Most people forget about Hilda, she is the feisty yet very caring older mother of Maggs. She wears pink wellingtons with flowers painted on, puts water bottles under her pigs at night, and cares deeply for all animals and people in the world. It is a shame that few remember her passing, because I loved writing her and was actually quite fond of her, but in all honesty there was no more really to write about Honey Hill at that point. Even though I had considered a return to Honey Hill at some point, during the writing of Book Two it had not been scripted yet as I wanted to see where the story was going naturally, and so I took Hilda out defending her animals from the Cutters in one last act of bravery. However for those of you who have read Book Seven, you will know I decided to add a little tribute to her in honour of her memory.

Martin Reef Book Three.

Once again with Martin I had reached a point where Big John was becoming the principle character of the group close to Robbie and Runestone. Shortly before the writing of Book Three I wrote the piece. “Life from a Crushed Rose.” The story of Rose and Sinclair, and so once I began writing the third book I already knew there would be losses within it. During the book the group separates and each takes their own route up to the top of the castle of the Raven to meet in the final battle, and it started to become clear that I had a few too many running round the castle, and so I gave a great deal of thought to thinning out the group a little.  Hard as it is to maybe understand, Martin was still a minor role that had not be as developed and I had no extra plans for him, whereas I had already pencilled in the partnership of Bear with Big John, and so in the final scene of the fight in the castle Martin is killed by the Dark One. In many ways, I think Martin accurately illustrates the sacrifice solders make every day, and I think there are times when we need to understand this point. Today we have great freedoms due to the sacrifice of many men and women like Martin during the world wars we have suffered in the past. I am absolutely anti-war (Yes even though I write this stuff) and yet I recognise the bravery and dedication our service men show every day, I think in my way Martin is my voice showing this and also showing how simply soldiers pay the highest price along with their families. All of us should feel the pain and the anger Lord Loxley felt, because maybe then we would speak out more against the horrors caused by wars, and petition for more peace.

Mac Book Three.

Ok I am just going to say this once, Mac was based on the characteristics of a group of three individuals who made my life at School a living hell, and so yes, from day one I wrote a character I was never going to like. Mac does serve as an important vehicle, in so much as his mother Una has to show some great strength in future parts of the story, and I have also found that I have gained great strength out of some pretty painful times. Una has given up the life of her other child to save her mother, and puts her focus on raising Mac, who in turn, turns against her and betrays everyone. It was easy to write him as I knew his death was imminent, and I must say I did enjoy those moments where Alice vented her frustrations at him and humiliated him. I also think there is a lesson to be learned from Mac, in so much as he did have a choice, and yet he chose the path of power and domination, which resulted in his life ending on the end of Violet feathered arrow. He could have walked a different path, he chose no too, and that was his undoing.

Lee Sherman. Book Three

I think it was clear from the start that Lee was the last of a generation, and I think it made very simple deduction that he would not last long, he was old and he was ill and he just wanted one more moment of action like he had experienced in his youth with Jake. I really enjoyed writing him into the story and I think he played his role very well indeed.

Rose and Sinclair Book Three

In book five I added the whole piece I had written prior to book three to explain the loss of Rose and the reasons behind it as she made way for Grace. Read the chapter Life from a crushed Rose.

Robert Lox Book Four.

Knowing Robert had to go was never going to be easy to write, and to be honest I wrote his death several times and did not really like any of them. None of them carried the weight of his position and loss as I wanted them too, and so after some frustration instead of writing his death, I slipped in a few lines and then focused on the consequence’s from the point of view of Robbie, Runestone and Jess, and to be honest I think it gave great weight to start of the book. Once again the difficulties of writing these parts often has a positive effect, and Robert’s death inspired one part of the story where Steph talks with Robbie as he heads home from the moors. I really enjoyed putting this small part together for the book, and I think Steph pays Robert a mighty tribute with her words. I think I have said it hundreds of times since, “This series is called HEIRS to the Kingdom” Simply put Robbie is the heir, and so Robert had to go.

Scarlet of Caerleon. Book Four

Once again Scarlet was always going to have to step down in order to make way for her daughter Jett Amber. In the chapter “The Coming of Queens” I paint the first real picture of what is to come with Jett. It is through her grief that you see how much training she had been given, and in a way that chapter was my little tribute to the power that was Scarlet of Caerleon. I have never really decided if there should be an after task for Scarlet, but I have referred to her legacy and skills in working out future events in advance to prepare the defences of Loxley, and once again this shows her the greatest of respect, not just from myself, but from those who worked around her.

Ruby Book Four

Ok some of you still have not forgiven me this one. Put as simply as I can, Ruby can walk onto any battlefield and wipe out the whole army opposed to Robbie in a matter of blindingly white seconds. As long as Ruby lived, there was no longer a need to continue writing HTTK, sadly as much as I loved her  and loved writing her, she had to go so the story could progress, and I had the time and space to fill in all the blanks I had created. I always had a backup plan for Ruby, some of which you will see in Book Seven.

Mordred Book Four

Mordred was not so much killed as dragged screaming from the sword, and disposed of by Rhiannon in some unknown outer reach were the Dark One will never find him again, and that is probably a good thing. There was a very good reason for adding Mordred, and simply put, it was Raven Merle for Book Seven.

Alexandrite Book Five.

The death of Ally was simply a huge shock for everyone. She was a healer, weapon less and one of the gentlest members of the Specialists, and that makes her death so much harder to take. Life is never simple and we do not always get things our own way, and book five shows this to the Specialists in a brutal fashion. It’s the horror of war that the innocent must suffer, and this is another example of how evil war can be. There is no justification for her death, no reason she deserved to die, like so many in this world, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, she pushed Gaynor out of the way in a selfless manner to save her, and in doing so it cost her her life. Nothing I write will ever make that right, and I certainly will never try.

Leenard/Merlin Book Five.

Did Merlin die, or cover his tracks, there are answers in later books (Smiles)

Deaths that were not Deaths.

Mason Knox Book two.

I love the this moment in Book Two where Mason and Robbie meet. It took a lot longer to write than you would ever think, and I think it was worth it. The joke was it was not his death, or at least I never intended him to stay dead, the clue here is in the next book with Mordred. It was always clear in my mind that if the Dark One can bring back Mordred, most readers would work out she would do it again with Mason. It’s all about the life tied to the Raven, and there will be much more on this subject in the final book.

Jade Opal Book Two.

Ok so Jade did not die, ( be honest we all panicked a little) but she would have if it had not been for the intervention of Runestone. What a horrible choice to have to make, and as you see it causes both Jade and Runestone immense pain. Life is about pain, and one of the reasons I added it was, firstly to actually show you what Una had done to save her mother, and secondly without death, we would not understand the value of life. It is an important lesson for Runestone as she makes the transition from young girl to women, and also as the force of Life within nature, she also needs to understand the worth of the life she gives. I think Runestone learns from this the value of the gift of Eve, and in doing so, she takes life sparingly and only with great reverence. It was a hard lesson, but possibly the most important one she will ever learn.

I realise there are other deaths around the edges, Sebastian being one who made room for his younger brother Bear, although as you see Bear does have another brother in Brett. Brett is older than Bear and should rule next, but in book five he gets crushed, and as it stands he will never recover enough to rule properly, and so he has side stepped his position for later when Bear takes his place.

Treen lost her father in Book Five, something she had to do to fully understand her role in life in the future. It was also important she was seen to be doing something against Mason, so when the time does come, she will be able to return to her home in Morbihan and take her father’s place.

Bess the dog was the sole focus of Woody in Books four and five, and as a result Woody was remaining isolated. In Book Six he takes on a task that will greatly affect his future, and as he recovers from the death of his beloved dog, he will find his inner courage to move forward and finally step out of the shadow of his sheltered life.

As you now see, losing a character is not a discriminate thing, it is well thought out long before the event happens, and it is something I do take seriously as I am sure most writers do. I honestly believe life is the single most precious thing we have, and I feel it should be valued far more than it is in this modern world today. I take a lot of care when writing these losses and try in some way to honour the life given. I know that the readers who have become deeply involved with the characters feel the loss as much as they would any one they may know, and I hope you can see, I try to show the very same level of respect and sensitivity whenever I take a character from the books.

The Author’s Kingdom #4

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles written by the Author to show some of the reasoning behind his books. Today is probably one of the most contentious issues within the early books, as he explains:

When you look at this series of books and how the readers view it, nothing has created more turmoil within the readership than this one particular person.

Billy aka William Knox has tested the emotions of most of the readership, with the resulting conclusion that just about everyone hates him. (Laughs) The mere mention of his name will draw a scowl from my wife, followed by a description of him that I am afraid I could not possibly write here.

Love him or loathe him, I have to confess that for myself as the author, he is one of my favourite characters to write. I can almost feel your gasps of horror as I write this, but the truth is, that he is one of my most complex characters, and as a result, one of the most intriguing to write. In order to really understand Billy, you do have to leave any prejudice behind and simply look at his circumstances.

In the first book Billy appears at the side of Robbie and is besotted with Alice. He has been adopted by the Lox household and is living with Robbie and his family and is in every sense of the word a brother to Robbie. I have absolutely no doubt, that being in their home and being subjected to the love the family shows for each other has a profound influence on Billy, and he enjoys his life on the farm and running free in the woodlands around Loxley.

Later in book one we find that he is simply playing role, as he was placed there by his father many years previous. At first it is hard to comprehend, and yes the hatred that most of the readers showed towards him was indeed very real if you consider the comments I got at the time.

But really, is he as bad as is first made out? That I am afraid is for the reader to decide, but from my own perspective… Well I always knew what was to come, and so yes, I must admit I painted him black deliberately to throw all of you off the sent.

The way I see it is actually very simple. Firstly Billy did not have any say in this, he was told to what to say and what to do by his father, and let’s be clear here, at the time he was just a young boy, not the 18 year old you read in the book. So this scared little boy was placed into the care of Samuel Jack Moores, who we find out is a brutal and sadistic trusted friend of Mason Knox. Moores takes Billy and beats the living hell out of him, almost to the point of death, and then dumps him in the snow knowing Jessica Loxley will pass by and discover him.

From my point of view, doing that to a very small and young boy can only be very intimidating and at that time enough to ensure that billy does as he is told. Billy is beaten and bandaged and is also in a strange household miles away from his mother, brother and sister. I can only imagine something like that must have been immensely difficult to deal with, just think of the fear he must have felt being so young and then seeing Samuel Moores actually walking round Loxley Village. Personally I think that alone would be enough to convince any young boy to stay in line.

Billy’s Grandfather (Oscar Hargreaves) is already planted in the Village as the owner of the bookshop, but he is an old and frail man, so he is no protection to Billy, and I think it’s clear from the flash back in book five that Oscar is equally as afraid of Moores. Billy lives in the family and slowly over time he becomes more and more a part of a family that treat him with care and love, and he grows to love them all deeply, even to the point where he starts to consider Jessica as the only mother he remembers.

I always considered his life when writing his parts in the early books, and in my mind he was happy and contented living the life of a woodsman and isolated from the world his father was building. The problems only really began when Samuel Moores started to visit Loxley more often, and it soon became clear to Billy who was now 18 years old, that a time was drawing closer when his father would expect him to give him all the information he required to bring down Loxley.

Suddenly he is caught in a trap, which in many ways was partly his own making, after all he had lived the lie and not confided in any one, not even Alice in whom he was now very much in love with. Behind the scenes we find out in book five, he is actually being awkward with Moores. By now he is very strong and has grown bitter towards his father. In my mind I always felt he was not giving his father the whole story, which is why when a band of Cutters do find their way into Loxley Woods, their plan to take out Old Joe fails. I felt that Billy deliberately planned their attack on Joe’s cabin to coincide with Robbie’s visit on purpose, after all, he knew Robbie well enough to know how he would react, and he knows Robbie who is a superior Woodsman to most, would go to his uncle’s aid.

In a way even though a little misguided, Billy assumed if the raid failed because the Cutters were not good enough, (Which he knew they were not) Samuel Moores could not blame Billy. Moores we discover has found out about Alice, and uses it as leverage to keep Billy in line, which creates a whole other problem, as Billy has to try and keep her safe. The answer was always simple, go to Robert Lox and tell him the truth, or was it? The clue was delivered in book five during the flash back, where Billy mistaken calls Jessica Lox “Mum.”

Billy was happy within the Lox household, he was loved and cared for, he also had a position of privilege at Robbie’s side as the Lox family were the most powerful family in the area, in my mind Billy had grown to feel happy and home here, how could he even take the risk of losing it all? As Oscar puts it in the flash back, “you will be off soon, after our task will be over, little Alice will be safe and you will be free to do as you please.” In essence just do the job and get it over with, then you can leave the service of your father and live here forever. Billy trusts his grandfather and so continues to play his part, which ensures that Alice is kept safe.

It’s not the best of situations to be in, but I think any 18 year old boy would see it as the only option, as it avoids hurting anyone, I mean so far no one has been hurt, so all is technically fine, why cause undue stress and strain? In my mind that would be his plan, and he lived up to it until suddenly the dynamic changed. Out of the blue Robbie was made Lord and brought into the Fellowship of the Bowman. Billy was side-lined, not by Robbie, but by the family that had protected him and I felt he resented it a little, which is why he decided to go on the journey to find the secrets of Leenard and finish the job set by his father. That plan was foiled by Jade who caught him dealing with Samuel in the back grounds of Caerleon, where she kills Samuel with her daggers, and Billy who has been revealed has to flee.

At this point he no longer has any options of remaining with the Woodland fighters, the only place he has left is his father. I feel this was not an easy adjustment, after all his brother and sister were older and he hardly knew them. I think he tried to treat them as he would those of the woodland, which we can see by Judith’s comments was caring, and she bonded quickly with him. Lance I feel was difficult, Lance was actually quite a weak and frightened boy, but never the less deep inside he wanted the power and glory of his father, so the arrival of an older brother was not something he would have accepted easily as it demoted him in his father’s eyes. I show a little of this in book two where Mason shows the wall and the cities he has built to Lance, and I really think that was the turning point where Lance decided he would find a way to remove Billy from the scene at a future point.

The change is very stark for Billy who has to become William Knox, I thought a great deal about this at the time of writing. In my thoughts, Billy was jealous of Robbie and this showed on the journey, but in many ways he resented his father and own family more, because they abandoned him at a young age and placed the brutal Samuel Moores to watch over him. This really for me was the deciding point where Billy understood he was isolated from both sides, and would have to find a way out that freed him of all ties. His first act was when he discovered Alice had become pregnant was to try and save her from his evil grandmother. Using all his skills and cunning he exploits his father’s position to acquire the use of the castle at Craigeavar, then convinces his father she will provide his heir, and arranges for Alice to be kidnapped and brought to the castle. Ok so it’s not the best plan, but he is operating alone within his father’s army, and desperately wants to protect Alice from them and this appears to be the only way. I think in Billy’s head there is a lot of wishful thinking going on, but I do think his motives are honourable, if not a little misguided.

At the time of writing book two, I think Billy felt with time and care he could win Alice back, possibly not the smartest idea, but all the same a true motive, sadly Alice saw it differently, and she does go out of her way to vent her anger on him. Billy is called to his grandmother’s castle, and while he is there Robbie and team swoop in and rescue Alice. During the visit to Dunnottar Castle where his dislike of Morgan is made very clear, she tricks him and he is presented with the sword that contains Mordred who possess him, and for a while Billy is pushed into the darker corners of his own soul.

It’s a complicated and difficult situation as his will his forced back by the reanimated spirit of his long dead Great Uncle, and thus begins a battle out of sight between the two of them, which as those of you who have read book three, surfaces when confronted with the Sword of Destiny.

I ask you all, imagine just how that would feel and how you would react? I would say pure hatred would just about suffice, but that is what gives Mordred his power, he feeds off Billy’s hated and uses it to suppress him, up until Robbie reappears, and then Robbie does something no one expects, he orders Billy on the oath he swore to Loxley to fight his way back into control. At this point my mind set was that Robbie actually by this point had the time to understand Billy far more than anyone had realised. The one thing Robbie knew was how much Billy loved his life in Loxley, and even though it was a gamble, I think it is clear that by evoking all those memories inside Billy, it gave him the one thing he needed to defeat the darkness, he realised his love of Jessica as a mother and Alice and the Loxley life was his heart’s desire, and that gave him the hope to fight his way back.

I always thought it was that moment and that moment alone in book three, where Robbie decided the fate of Billy, and so when the final confrontation arises in book four, it is that one moment in time that rules Robbie heart and results in Billy being spared, although in many ways it is by far a cruel fate for Billy. Just as Robbie should make the final blow to kill Billy and end his suffering, he stays his hand and gives Billy his life back. The cruelty of the gift is that as he gives Billy life, he takes the only life of real meaning Billy knows, and Robbie bans him from Loxley for life, it is indeed a cruel act, and Billy knows it.

 

A lot of people have suggested that at that point Robbie should have killed Billy, and I can understand why a lot of the readers felt that way, but never forget, everything is written for a reason. At the time of publication book four had been written for about two years and I had moved on and was writing the rest of the series, so I knew what was to come.

THE SAGE

When the Sage first appeared everyone liked him. Let’s be honest he was kind and considerate and he went out of his way to save the life of Ben, and as we find out later Slip, who he gets a good job on the boats. Martin meets with him and the three of them embark on a task set by the Green Lord, where they meet up with Markus and plan a daring raid on Tintagel to free the old wizard. I must admit my wife (Total Billy hater) really took to the Sage, she thought he was a true example of what a woodsman should be. (Well he was he was Loxley trained)

Melin is trapped and so by this point are Runestone and Robbie. Now this is an important point, you see Robbie and Runestone are stuck in the Hidden Realm, which is also referred to as the Hidden Realm of Sleep. This is the place where Merlin and Opal were imprisoned for the age of sleep. Ok so Runestone has the powers and even though she is trapped, she will survive, Robbie however is mortal which means for him the clock is ticking, he needs to escape or his life will end. The one person who can save them is Merlin, because he knows of a way, but he is also imprisoned at Tintagel with the Sage heading his way.

The only way to get to Robbie without being detected is to use the Bridge of Intention (Bridge of Sequana). Ok so there is a problem here, because Sapphire needs to open it, and at the moment she has not discovered her own powers. I think it is a wonderful little twist, and putting it all together was indeed a task that took a great deal of working out. The way it had to go was: Merlin had to escape, he then had to get to Sapphire and manipulate her into opening the bridge before she was ready. In order to do that he needed a powerful Queen of Fae, but he could not reveal to her that this particular secret of her line was known outside the Realm of the Moon. He had to open the bridge and connect it to the hidden realm without alerting the Dark One, because if she had realised, she would have swooped in and killed Robbie and Runestone. So the plan was simple, without Merlin, Robbie would die, because Runestone would never leave him alone in the hidden realm the lives of all the woodland would be thrown into chaos and Mason would seize full power and kill all those loyal to Loxley.

See where this goes? Everything is written for a reason. The Sage frees Merlin, and as you see in the books the plan goes into action. It was at this point , The Sage talks to Merlin, but the old wizard does not use the name Sage, he calls him William. I still laugh as I remember watching my wife suddenly stop and flick back through the pages just to check she read it right. As I now know a great many of you did the same, all of you were fooled by a wooden mask and a green bandana, what about the white stubble on his chin, and the blues eyes behind the mask? I honestly thought someone would twig, but they didn’t and all of them got the surprise of their life.

When Opal reveals the truth to Sapphire later on, you can see the wisdom of her father the Green Lord. He saw the truth of Billy all along, and yet allowed him to play out his part as a way of giving him an example to learn from, and so the story continues as the Sage makes his way to the south in a bid to do his bit in aiding the Woodland Realm.

As for hating Billy, I never have, I love writing his complex and at times crazy way of living. His hidden depths and confusing thoughts have all added to the enrichment of what I see as a wonderful character, and one I think you will find you may meet or hear about in real life. There is an old saying of never judge a person until you know their true story, and I feel in this particular case it is very true. Billy is a conflict for all the readers, because they hate him, but like the Sage, and that causes a lot of heart ache for some, but the fact of the matter is, he is a very real person and you have probably met someone like him in real life. I suppose it’s Ok to hate him still, but remember if it was not for his action in saving Merlin, Robbie would be dead and Runestone would be trapped in the Hidden Realm forever, and Loxley at this point would no longer exist, because Mason would have burned it to the floor.

It’s a confusing and twisting tale of a very complex person, and the future of this character will prove in the later books to be just as complex. He is a fascinating figure within HTTK and I really do enjoy the time I spend threading him and out of the pages, I hope most of you will just take a few moments to digest his story and then maybe think a little more kindly of him… Or maybe not (Smiles)

I shall leave you all to ponder those thoughts for now.

The Author’s Kingdom #3

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles, where the Author explains his perception of Heirs to the Kingdom. It is written to cover the festive season of Christmas 2016.

Women who Inspire Other Women.

For this particular article in this Author’s Kingdom series I have made the decision to write about something which for some time has been on my mind, and does directly include heirs to the kingdom, as well as many other authors and their work.

There are times when I read the media posts from within the book industry and I feel confused, especially when it comes to the roles of female characters within literature. It appears to be a bit of a modern day phenomenon as the media suggests there are just not enough female role models and heroines within today’s books. So this also leads me to question, should every writer being doing their bit inspire young women, I mean would it not be a far better example to be inspired by a real life living heroine?

Now I am not one to judge, but I find my own experience of books and writing to show quite a different story, just to name but a few, I would instantly suggest Lyra from the Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pulman, Hermione and I may add Molly and Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter stories most certainly come to mind, in fact I would say just from the Harry Potter stories alone there is great deal for young women to admire, even dare I say Bellatrix, who although on the side of evil, she is most certainly a women who has no problems getting the job done.

I have thought often on this subject, and I do wonder at times (Being a male writer) what it is exactly that young women want from a leading character? I cannot claim to be that aware, although from my own point of view, and from personal experience, I have always noted the qualities of grit and determination within the females characters I have read in the past, and many I have met in real life, and I think that has played a naturally important role in the characters of Heirs to the Kingdom.

As most writers do today, we often get asked about our work and the people we create, and I always get asked who is the central most important character within my story, and to be really honest, it is not that easy a question to answer.

Ok so the Lord of Loxley is possibly the central figure within the books, after all he is the one who leads the fight to defend the Woodland Peoples, but the answer is really just not that simple. For instance how can I point at Robbie without also including Runestone, or Jade, or Jett for that matter? Would my hero be doing as well as he is if it was not for the bravery of Sapphire who threw herself into a fast flowing river, risking her own life in Book Two? Although, would he also be doing as well if it was not for the power of violet that is wielded by Runestone? Would his home be as safe as it is, if it was not for the grim determination of the quiet and at times isolated Treen? I mean after all she was the one who filled the shoes of Scarlet and stood alone on her platform directing the battle with great skill, her only aide being the shy and nervous young Claire the flag girl, who stood beside her as the arrows of the enemy rained out of the sky at them.

Like all readers, I too have my heroines from books, and I hope in a way it shows in the books I write. I am particularly fond of Scout from To kill a mocking bird, I admire her grit and stubborn determination, and what about Josella from Day of the Triffids? She more than shows the courage and strength of women in a classic piece of literature from the late 1950’s. I also think Luna Lovegood is an extraordinary character in the Harry Potter tales, so okay she did not wield an axe and batter a troll, but she exhibited a quiet determination that I feel should inspire any young woman of today, personally I feel there was not enough of her in the books. I also will add, sorry but in my mind Ginny Weasley would not have sat idly by while Harry faced so much danger, I honestly feel that in the last book, Ginny should have been at his side, she was without doubt one of the bravest members of Dumbledore’s Army, I really feel she should have had a much more active role in the final part of the story. 

When it comes to bravery, Lyra as stated above shows immense bravery as she avoids the evil grip of her mother and fights to find and re-join her father, I mean wow the girl confronts an armoured bear face to face to negotiate for a fair fight for her friend Iroek, tell me that shows no courage? All of these have served in one form or another to influence the way I see women in books, and therefore have had a dramatic impact on HTTK.

Can women fight? Hell yes they can, I have seen some pretty scary stuff in my own life from the smallest of women, where do you think Jett and Blades come from? Jett Amber is possibly one of the most aggressive characters of HTTK, not only is she trained by a very formidable women (Her mother Scarlet) Jett although only slender, has the aggression, skill and coolness of mind to out fight any of the Specialists. Remember Ivor Walters? Jett was overcome with the grief at the loss of her sister and mother, she had not slept, and yet when faced with the man who plotted their deaths, she dug deep within herself to overcome her fear and fought him to his death, not unlike I may add, Eowyn as she defended her father’s crushed body on the fields before Gondor in Lord of the rings. Need more well lest we forget Blades, for she prances like a deadly cat, armed with her two swords as she twists and weaves through her enemy with cold and deadly surgical precision?

I really cannot understand why the critics think there is a lack of role models for women, maybe they  want less aggressive women, but even there I would say there is no small amount, want true grit and stamina, enter Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice? She is no fighter with a weapon, but hell what a women of intellect and words, she single handily stood against every aspect of the social convention of her time to state her terms and live as she fully intended. I would add that if you look to what is possibly one of the most compelling modern classics, Game of Thrones; there is no shortage by far of immensely powerful women, Cersei Lannister being my first choice. Is there anything that women will not overcome, and hell what about Arya Stark or her sister Sansa, look what they have endured, which has to be a real beacon to the will power and determination of any women?

So where is this lack of female role models?

Maybe the critics are reading the wrong books, I know from my daily reading of most of the industry publications there is no shortage of female writers, and I personally feel there is definitely no lack of strong female characters, I love nothing more than to read of women equalling the efforts of men. Personally I really enjoying reading and writing both sexes as they work together and interact as equals, something I feel is very well represented in my own work. My own work currently has a readership of 52% women and 48% of men, I talk to my readers regularly to gauge their opinions, and to date have found both sexes fully enjoy my work equally as much, so I have to conclude that to date I have served my purpose and done my bit to promote true equality.

I must admit that when I am actually writing, these sort of issues do not come to mind, I can honestly say that after writing seven books, I have never once sat down to sort out the diversity of everything. I simply write what feels natural, and I actually do believe that it is the only the way a writer should put the words on paper. We all get bashed from time to time, and I have certainly had my fair share of comments aimed at me for my writing, but I still feel that once a writer has created a character, they must allow that particular character to evolve naturally. In my own case, I feel they have, and luckily both sexes have had their fair share of praise and glory.

I realise we now live in a society of political correctness, and yes we should all encourage a fair and tolerant range of views and characterisations, but I also think that left alone to their own devices writers will always naturally show the whole range of diversity within their own work. Never forget that for a serious writer; watching the world is something we pretty much do all the time. Every experience and observation is food for our work, and so I feel if you sit back and look at the massive amount of diversity across all of literature past and present, everything and everyone is given a voice and a platform within all the given works. Maybe we just need to see the bigger picture, especially the critics, after all, we all choose to read what appeals, and so it is within the best interests of all writers to write what is appealing.

Having considered this issue, I feel I have to ask what I feel is an important question. Do the critics who express this lack of female heroines, say so due to a lack of female lead characters or just a lack of inspiring female characters in general? I must admit at this point I would look at Harry Potter, possibly one of the most influential books of or our current time, and yes Hermoine is a lead character, but are Ginny or Luna? They are without doubt some of the most important characters in that story, and they certainly are in my opinion inspiring characters for any young women, but they are somewhat of background characters. I could say the same of many own characters, although I have across the series brought my ladies to the fore to be featured in one specific book or another from the series, they are by and large background characters, albeit Runestone, who is without doubt a lead character sharing the lime light with her counterpart Robbie.

I am not convinced that an influential character has to be the lead, in which case todays critics need to re-evaluate their stance, this is only my own opinion I understand that, but I feel it holds some validity. Jade Opal in my own stories is possibly one of the four most important characters of Heirs to the Kingdom, she is in all the books in a prominent position beside her sister Runestone, and I must admit is still the most popular of all my female characters, but she is not the lead of the books. Many of the female fans I speak to identify with Jade, which I feel speaks volumes of my point and the character, although I would love my female readers to let me know if they agree.

Having looked at this issue I must admit maybe I have shown a little complacency, because I suddenly find that I may be amiss in my approach to selling HTTK. I admit I have always put the books out there and allowed those who felt it would be something they may enjoy to choose; maybe I should be applying more marketing to young female readers? It is certainly something that up until now I have not considered, maybe it is time.

 

 

The Author’s Kingdom #2

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The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles, where the Author explains his perception of Heirs to the Kingdom. It is written to cover the festive season of Christmas 2016.

Between the Lines.

One of the things that I enjoy about the way in which I write Heirs to the Kingdom, is that it can be as simple or as deep as I want it to be. What I mean by this is that when I write, firstly I try to write it in such a way that it is written in a simple style without too many flowery words, so the reader can read at their own pace and garner a great deal of enjoyment out of it. But… if you want something richer and deeper, then you can also walk in my realm of hidden prompts and clues that take into account a lot of symbolism.

In the early days of writing Kingdom I used a Beta Group, who read the books as they came together and gave me feedback on the story. Two of that group in particular (Louis, Corinne) were used to reading books and looking at the detail to garner extra clues, and obviously both of them would try their hardest to get me to slip and spill a few details of what was to come, and I have to say they did at times really test me. The greatest aspect of this was it gave me the Author, a good insight as to how others perceived my work and how much I could hide between the lines. Not only did I make some things very obvious, I also hid certain little details about future events within small insignificant parts of the text. From my point of view as the writer, it was great fun seeing if they took the bait, and secondly it let me know if people who read the way I do would find the clues and create a much richer experience of the kingdom.

A few of my favourite aspects the earlier books were the twists that were, “Who is the traitor?” and “Who is the King?” I also thought the riddles of Gwendolyn worked very well, although in many ways they were pretty obvious to the deeper readers, but for me it was simply great fun. In regard to the identity of the king, I made it clear to all the readers that they either appeared or were mentioned in each of the first four books, and it was really funny to see them digging through the lines to find out who the king was. It was the same with the traitor in the camp, although I think it was so obvious, but that was all part of the plan, I made it so obvious that no one believed it, and then when they found it, it was hilarious to see their expressions. I deliberately created doubt, because hey that is what life is all about, but it worked very smoothly and just about caught out everyone I was in contact with at the time out. (Smiles smugly)

But hidden within the text are a million other little helpful clues, and as I tell everyone who messages me, “everything is written for a reason.”

I think the best example to give you all a hint, because I know that maybe there will be a few reading this who have not read everything yet, 90% of the names will give you the most important aspects of the character? Opal the first person we meet from the Green Circle family for example. Opals contain water, and water is the source of life. Runestone is life (and Opal’s Granddaughter) and draws her greatest power when closer to water, there is no coincidence that down from her home is a huge Mere, or that when just starting to understand her powers she achieved a huge feat by helping the boat get thrown out of the cave at Tintagel and into the open sea. Most names will give you a good idea of their magical traits. If you look on the website you will find a page of limited names and their meanings in the background section.

In book Two, you find the biggest clue to whom Rowan really is when he takes Jade back to visit his home, and he tells her his true name (Book two Revised Edition page 75). Look at the gravestones and the names carved on them, most people missed it, but I think you will a find a name on it that Billy used in his tale in Book One (page 5 of the revised edition). Did you go look it up? (Giggle) See? A lot of readers were caught out and surprised in book five, but it was always there. It is the same with the king, and once you have learned his true identity, you can then look back to book one and go through them slowly and you will see he is mentioned in book one, two, three and four. I hide him in plain sight and that is why most readers missed it.

Robbie’s chain is also a wonderful bit of symbolism. I ask you this? When Billy takes off his chain to offer the pendant to Robbie, he could have picked either the lion or the dragon. Both symbolise the king and royal assent, yet Billy chose the lion why?

The silver lion has diamonds for eyes, it is quite deliberate. In most old symbolism, the lion is a sign of Royal Protection, which was my first big hint in the early pages to give you a clue as to what would be asked of Robbie. Diamond: The symbol of Royal power (He will become a Lord and the kings protector). Promotes love and harmony and dispels anger. (He is the only guy for Runestone/will unite everyone) It is the symbol of brilliance and durability, (His task will be difficult and make great demands of him, even in doubt) It is the perfect object to transfer light. (The light of White Circle will transfer via Rune into Violet) Ok so it is cryptic, but it is not fool proof as a few people worked it out. The thing is it is there when you look deep, as with many other tiny little hints. I had a great deal of fun adding symbolism and naming everyone, and I must admit I tested myself a great deal researching the meaning of names. I do keep a log of all the characters and important events within HTTK, and at some point will add it to a book. I have always wanted to add it to the final book, but at this time it is only half written, and so I cannot promise as I am guided by the page count, either way it will appear at some future point.

The Circle and the Star are well used throughout all the books. The circle (or tables) that are woven and blended together in this tale actually represent our own lives. I can certainly say from experience and in my youth, I had several circles of friends that I kept very much separated. I would move from one to another, as each circle fulfilled a certain aspect of me. For example: I had one of close friends in my home town, one of my college friends, and one which was comprised of the people I talked music and visited Rock clubs with. Many of us have these circles if we look at their lives, I am sure you have your work mates, your family, best friends, acquaintances etc.. all of them overlap and cater to you as an individual, and I find in life it is something all of us share, hence the Specialists, Loxley Village, the Outlaws, family, and of course the tables of power, of which Runestone is the centre of all of them.

One of the most important symbols we have today which has been used throughout all time is indeed that of the circle. It represents the flow of time, which constantly repeats itself, and as we know history or at least the actions of man have repeated themselves many times, hence the sentence “look to the past and learn for the future,” in others words learn and try not to repeat the mistakes of the past, a lesson I feel Mason should learn. Circles most importantly represent life, the circle of birth, life, death and resurrection are a stable of every religion and are also the prime ingredients of life depending on your view point. The circle of life is a vastly important theme throughout all of HTTK as it deals with the life cycle of the planet with the seasons, and the attitude that we have towards it in the modern age. Once again there are countless other examples that I have worked within the text to hopefully present a deeper meaning. These factors which at first are not apparent, actually imitate life and as a result it provides the reader with something they can identify with. For myself as the Author, it is the single most important factor, because if the reader can identify with the life of the characters within their circles, they can draw a parallel with their own life, and thus, the story feels real.

The star is quite obvious, it’s a pentagram and represents all of the qualities of life in the realm, earth, water, air, metal, spirit, all essential elements in the composition of all things. The star also represents the Five Swords of power for good and the five spirits that created the realms, and if you look deeper I am sure you will find several other links that bond five items in union.

In Book Seven, (recently out) we deal with the ‘Bridge of Sequana.’ I am aware as I write this some of you have not read it yet, but one of the biggest response’s I have had to date, especially in the run up to the publication was: Who is Sequana? What you missed her I ask? Look at the prophecy at the very start of Book Two, yup there she is giving you a clue as to what to look for. Also remember the events of Robbie’s fall into the river and Runestone’s melt down? Now for this you will need the revised edition, as this small clue got edited out in the first edition, I put it back. After Robbie is found and recovers, he goes to Robbie’s Mere and shows it to Rune. They spend the night together, and in the morning Robbie goes off to hunt leaving Runestone alone. Her grandfather turns up and gives her a telling off for being reckless. When Robbie returns they talk of “The Book of Black Runes,” and Runestone’s response is, “but the black book is a myth, like Sequana’s Bridge.” So you see it’s been there for some time.

At the start of book five, the passage on the very first page is from Una’s childhood diary, and once again Merlin talks of the bridge, and here you have two clues, firstly the Bridge is mentioned and what it does, and secondly Merlin tells you he is going to use it, so later on in the book when he confronts Morgan… Well you already have the answer. Book seven has thrown a lot of readers, it does start in a pretty dire situation, but look back and it all there so do not despair, you have six books of clues, and yet none of you saw it coming (Grins) Why? I have to ask. Just who is Runestone?

Well she is the stone on which all is written. I must have written that so many times in the previous books, and book seven is the reason I use that phrase, also her grandfather is the guardian of the Whitelines. As Eve explained in book six, the powers mingle, so it should not take a huge amount to deduce that the Whitelines are also referred to as “The White Lines of Time.” We have also spent most of the last book in the Forest of Time, so the clues were there for the plot twist if you looked at it in a simple way. I was thrilled that my wife did not get it either, she is pretty good at predicting things, and I have to be so guarded when working to make sure I do not slip up, thankfully I pulled it off and hope you all enjoyed it.

One of the nicest compliments I have been given by quite a few readers to date, is that they have read the books several times, (which in itself is a huge compliment) and they tell me each time they read it, they pick up on other things, so slowly the layers are peeling back. From the point of view of the Author, I am delighted that for some of the readership these books have given you that kind of extra pleasure. In many ways it can be quite a solitary and at times hard life writing, so being able to play around by layering in symbolism and clues, I get a huge amount of fun in the writing process. I have never expected to be on the best sellers list or make millions writing this, my aim has always been purely the joy of being able to work this tale in a way that it will hopefully give other people the same enjoyment I get from writing it, and for the small readership that has remained faithful, I think it has.

Over the coming days I will provide more details on HTTK and show you how I pull it apart and build it brick by brick, and I hope it will add a little more depth to the books, which are a huge part of my life and also my persona as a human being. Previous Events and the website have a lot on it, so please have a good look round it.

Ok before I finish today, I think you now have a better idea of what is hidden within the pages and there are a great deal more little hints and clues than I have mentioned, so have a good look and as you wait for the final book of this series which I am currently working away on, think of this.

Who exactly is Ena? This one is a lot more cryptic than some of the others, but the loose strings are already there waiting to be tied up, all you have to do is dig deep enough.

Happy Hunting

RJM.