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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!

 

A Slice of A Life.

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I often get asked what my series of stories Heirs to the Kingdom is really about, especially when confronted with a potential new reader, and in many ways the answer can be so complex I am not always certain I can give a direct answer.

The problem I think is actually a very simple one, and that is that there are two real ways to describe the books to another person. The first answer and the most simplest being that of the many stories I have read since youth, I have found many tales end with the rumour that the hero is not really dead and will return one day when the world needs them. It is true of King Arthur and Robin Hood and many more folk tales from our ancient past, I love the idea of this, and I think it is theme that runs through life, we even see it in religions, especially Christianity where we are told one day Christ will return to save us all, and so with that in mind, I chose to return a king, but as in all things there is a twist.

Rather than bring back the one true king to a Britain tore apart after a deadly virus wipes out the larger majority of the population, I looked to a hidden heir. I took the blood line of those heroes of old and zipped through time to the year of 2038 and presented their heir to confront the injustice that was rising in the land in hope that the blood in the veins of the heir would have what it takes to match the honour and courage of those ancients, and fight for was right and moral. Ok so I throw in a lot more just to spice things up, and I give all the characters their own personalities and doubts and worries to boot just to keep it all paced and interesting. In a nut shell I have a reminder of a glorious past mixed with the difficulties of life after a world torn apart; it feels to me like a good recipe for fantasy and adventure.

For anyone who wants a deep and inclusive read, I think and hope it works, but as for myself, the series is far deeper and more interwoven, after all this is me writing the kind of book I want to read, and I think it is quite safe to say, I can be somewhat rebellious and complicated, so what does HTTK represent to me?

In the easiest possible terms HTTK is a Slice of a Life.

Confusing I know, but that is how I see it, and it is for myself the reason I have always wanted to write it all down. Not only is it a slice of life taken from a struggling community who are doing their best to avoid what is seen as their inevitable destruction at the hands of the tyrant Mason Knox, it is and here is the important bit, the experience of my own life of experience’s and observations.

Recently I published the fourth book in the series entitled Queen of the Violet Isle, and at the start of the book I write the equation of Runestone Sapphire, (The lead heroine character of the story). It is a simple theory of a symbol which represents Life, Circle, Line. It is a main theme of the books and also has been the main theme of my life as this simple equation which I have tailored into the theme of the books is how I see what is important in my life. Ok so it does not fit everyone, but don’t forget I am the author and have the joy of knowing I can do anything I want as this is my story.

 

Life: I have questioned and pondered life for most of my own, which I think is not that unusual as most of the world has at some point probably asked why are we here, and what is the purpose of life? We all do it, and I certainly have done it a great deal. I love nothing better than to watch the world and talk to others about what they feel is the answer and even what they feel should be the answer. We are all basically carbon based life forms made of stardust, and whether or not you believe there is some unseen entity who brought it all together, or you believe in the big bang theory is actually irrelevant as all of us hold some unique personal insight deep within us that guides us in an almost spiritual way through life. I have read much on religious feelings on this and the science, and in my own way which is possibly influenced by Tolkien or even Wyndham, I thought it would be a wonderful fantasy to create my own, and so I began to write a tale that would run behind the story of HTTK that recreated the world in a completely different way to the way in which we all perceive the world today. I added mystery and hidden meanings within the story, and layered my ideas of multiple powerful spirits beings known as the Ruling Council within the story. It was a most delightful experience as I got to play with a few Celtic legends and myths, and in doing so I slipped in some of my own beliefs about the world and what comes after. It is all done I hope in a quite subtle way, but it does slip right into the fantasy deep end, and I hope create thought and discussion amongst those who eventually read the series. I will add at this point I do not like blatant direction in writing; hence I weave it slowly through the series of books and wait to see who picks up on it.

Another strongly held feeling of my own is how very precious and important life is. For myself, I feel all life is of the greatest value, unlike much of the world at the moment which is being swallowed by greed, oppression, and conflict. It pains me that the value of a life has become less as I have aged, and it is something that I find really hard to come to terms with, something I know is reflected in my writing, especially with my lead male hero. I actually like that even though he has to take life; he feels the pain of it and does not take it with such ease. I understand survival, and as a vegetarian of almost 35 years, I know if I was thrown into a world wide disaster, I would have no choice but to take life in order to survive and protect those around me, but I can say without any doubt, I would not do it quickly or easily, and having done it, I would never feel at ease or comfortable doing it. 

It is a mark of the human being and the arrogance of mankind that life is defined in terms of their lives. In my world life is everything, and everything is dependant upon each other in order to survive. One of the strongest themes that marks myself as the author and is strewn throughout my story is that of Balance. I feel very deeply that we have lost control of the balance of life as we put what man wants for greed far ahead of all other living things. My life which shows a certain theme of defending life especially that of animals and nature, and it is clear where my mind is on the world today. I have dedicated my whole working life to the preservation of life, either by protecting it via campaigns, or as a horticulturalist creating new life from seeds cuttings and various other techniques, often at the expense of being seen as a crack pot or old hippie tree hugger, for deep within me is that love of this our most precious gift and surprisingly it was never scripted to be any of the stories, it just flowed naturally out as I wrote.

Circle: The circle is such a wonderful symbol, and I love symbolism, so it was only natural I would use it within my stories. The circle is represented in my books mainly via the connections of Runestone Sapphire and her tables of power, and this is not a chance addition to the story. I thought for a very long time about it, years actually. Circles are something every single human being on earth has in common, for we form them naturally around us without thought or consideration. I speak of those bonds we make through life with everyone we meet and know, and if you want to see a glowing example jump over to Google plus and set up a profile, you will soon see those circles forming as you sort through who is who, and who is most important to you. From the moment we are born we are placed into a circle of our own life, be it, immediate family, extended family, in laws, friends, class mates, workmates, drinking buddies, we are surrounded by interlocking circles that defines our life and who we are. When I first scripted out HTTK is was the very first task I set myself so that I could create as a real a replication of life as possible. The books are littered with them, Specialists, Villagers, Lox family members, Fae, Cutters, Generals, as in life you could spend a week drawing the circles and adding them to charts to show how they are all interlinked in one way or another, and it is my hope by defining these circles, again I create a realistic and life like story which will appear almost as real as the readers own life and draw them deeper into the tale.

Line: Have you ever sat and thought very deeply about how you ended up here reading this on your computer? The simple fact is that most people haven’t, they just take for granted the fact that they exist. I use a line within HTTK that states “Look to the past, for it will guide you in the future” and it is something I believe is deeply important to all of us, for we are at the end of the day the sum total of all that have walked before us. It is a glorious thing to behold when you take a moment and begin to understand the actions of every person that has led you to the point of who you are and where we come from. You can travel back thousands of years and be absolute in the knowledge that there is a relative there of yours somewhere. It is something that fascinates me as you begin to see how thousands of chance encounters brought about the partnerships through wars, and depressions, and times of great trials to result in what you see in the mirror everyday.  

My grandfather was at the Somme in 1914 during WW1 and got shot in the head. He was lucky as the German army found him on the battlefield and took him to hospital where he received treatment and was nursed back to health. Have you ever been asked the question if you could travel back in time in a time machine where would you go? I have and my answer would be this. I would go back to that hospital and find those who nursed my Grandfather to health, and I would thank them with all that I have, because my family could very easily have been ended at the moment when the bullet hit him. It was a one in one million chance that he lived, and thanks to the enemy he did, and came home at the end of the war having been a prisoner of the Germans and he created my father, and later on along I came with my brothers to grace the world, and who would have thought it, I became a writer.

Like my story there are threads of chance weaving throughout our own lives that stretch back for thousands of years, and whether or not you choose to accept it, they are deeply significant and important, and we should never forget them. Like the circles they define who we are from the moment we are born, and as a result they should be respected, as we are the living heirs carrying the bloodline of all who have stood before us, we are all heirs to a kingdom.

Life, Circle, Line is the sum total of everyone’s life history, it is your slice of life story and it is the reason why I write Heirs to the Kingdom, for hidden deeply within the circles and lines are my own personal history and the pride I feel in my family line and the circles I have walked through in my life to date. I wanted to write the kind of book that would appeal to me, and in doing so I wove myself through it to bring it to life. So if you ever feel the need to ask what is HTTK really about, well you now know.

 

Live well and honour those who came before you always.

 

Provoking Thought.

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When I first began to seriously write Heirs to the Kingdom, I thought I would take the story that I had built up in my mind over what had been a long period of time and get it down on paper without really thinking about the words I was committing to the file. I know that sounds a little odd for someone writing a book, but at the time I was just doing an exercise to see if I could actually achieve it. There wasn’t any thought of publishing, or even having to talk to other readers of a finished work, it was simply me alone with my thoughts and feelings, letting everything I had kept deep inside me flow into my fingertips. It is still like that today, I cannot allow the thoughts of what others may think to even enter my mind, it has to be plain and simply that deep inner voice guiding my words, and although most of the people reading my work do not see it, it is probably some of the most deeply held parts of myself that come to the surface.

Sometimes a bike ride can help reduce carbon, so each trip you make will help in a small way

Sometimes a bike ride can help reduce carbon, so each trip you make will help in a small way

Personally it can be quite a surprising experience, as things I never actually intend to share come out in the words I put down, of which I would say the most obvious has been the power that is contained in my love for the plant world and the whole of the planet on which we live. Shortly after writing the first two thirds of the Bowman of Loxley, I let a few very close friends read what I had done, and then waited with baited breath for their comments, it was to say the least quite a nervous point in time. I suppose having been surprised myself at what had come out on the paper my insecurity did increase a little, because I had made some bold statements about how we all live within this world, and pointed out a great deal of my private disillusion with the world.

One of my market trading friends Pru was actually the very first person to read HTTK, and she surprised me a great deal when she informed me that it was indeed very thought provoking, and she had thought a great deal about what was written for quite some time after reading it, and that became a bit of theme, as I allowed others to read the first drafts of the first book. I have never forgotten that time, and even though I still do not allow the opinion of others to cloud my writing of the books, I have begun to open up and share a lot of what I feel passionately about in my Blog posts.

The blogs are for me, another way of expressing my thoughts in a none story environment, it’s a place when I can be a little more direct about my point of view, yet remain within the confines of the HTTK themes. I have found that there are quite a few readers who have not read the books, who still read the blog posts, and as a writer it’s another wonderful way of allowing all the thoughts tumbling through my mind to tumble out for another audience.

The story of HTTK is very much the representation of my struggle through life with various issues, especially that of a green campaigner and supporter. I do see the world as two separate sides in these days, and to be honest at the moment I think the side of stone builders is winning. I see a lot of the ways of Mason Knox in the world today, especially in our Governments across the world as they are seduced and corrupted by big large multinational corporations, I think if Mason was indeed a real living person in today’s world he and his evil mother would very much be the people behind the scenes pushing government’s into raping all of the natural resources of the planet on a road that can only lead to the eventual destruction of everything.

I am and always will be a member of the Woodland Realm, like young Robbie in my own early teens I sought to fight those of power to change the world, and even today I still try to educate people in a way that opens them up to what is really going on globally. I have been ridiculed for a great many years for being the Hippie type campaigning for trees and life, and to be honest what felt like insults in my youth, I wear today as my badge of honour. I have campaigned for petitions and protested and even at times employed a few Specialist tactics under cover of darkness to strike one for the green cause, although these days I am getting a little too long in the tooth for covert activity, and my mind has turned to thinking about other solutions.

Writing is certainly one of them, it’s a little warmer sat at the computer than walking the cold streets handing out leaflets, and I also look at today and the way the world has changed so much since my youth, and ponder as to whether there is a better way for all of us to live together in a more balanced way.

In the UK this week, we have been told that over the coming years we will see our bills rise to an unprecedented level because as our natural gas supply runs out, and old coal power stations are taken offline, we will need to import more gas from the continent. It’s a reality that in a world where those like the Knox family, have corrupted every system, and brought the global economic climate crashing down to the benefit of themselves. Once again the poor of this country and countless others, will be forced into the hardship of bearing the costs, and the costs are not just financial, they are also a cost to the world we live in, a cost that will punish our future generations.

The biggest argument I face is that in this world of technology, people will not support an environmental point of view, because even though they are not calling the government’s into question over their lack of effort on the environment, they have embraced all the new technology so much that to take an environmental road will deprive them of the little joy they have in life these days. When you look at the wide range of products we have available to us, it is a valid point, let’s face it communication and labour saving devices have never been so good, and our lives have been transformed by all of them, but surely there has to be a way forward for all of us to do our bit.

It can appear like a double edge sword, either we change drastically and give up everything, or we continue on the road towards destruction, but really do the choices need to be so stark?

I think not. Why is so impossible to see that the environment and technology can walk hand in hand. In my books I take the best from the old

We can make a choice that uses the best technology to balance our lives, with very little change to the wat we all live

We can make a choice that uses the best technology to balance our lives, with very little change to the way we all live

world and add it to the natural world, in a way that benefits people and yet has little impact on the world, why is so hard for the UK and other countries to follow the same lead? Oil does not have to be the future of everything and neither does Gas powered, I am very anti-nuclear, simply because it’s just too expensive and as we have seen in Japan, it’s not quite as safe as we thought it was. Britain is considering fracking as a gas alternative, but that is actually banned in many European countries because it has been proven to be far more harmful to the water table than our Government are admitting. We have already had one large scale earthquake caused across Yorkshire and Lancashire because of the early drilling; do we really want to destroy and poison the North West of England?

We need jobs to get the economy growing again and take the pressure off the benefits system, as well as move away from the old fossil fuels, so why are we not looking towards Germany for inspiration? Literally on our doorstep, we have so many solutions that are good for everyone that it must provide a way that leads to jobs and cheaper fuels for all. In Germany they invest heavily in green technology, not only do they encourage solar power plates on homes, they have solar farms, which they combine with wind power to create a substantial amount of clean green energy. Ok the costs for setting it up have been high, but let’s be honest, it has to be better to pay UK citizens a good wage and build and install these systems rather than just paying our money to an Eastern European country for extra gas. Wind power across the globe rose by 20% in 2012, Ok so there are a great deal who hate the sight of windmills; personally I think they look a lot better than the gaping holes we create for strip mining, or the sight of large Fracking drills. I love windmills I have to confess, I want a small one on my house, I will probably paint it to look better than just plain white, but yes as soon I can afford it, I will get one simply because it will drop my household bills over time, which means I can invest in more fun tech for me and the kids.

The environment and technology can work as partners, and benefit all of us, but it takes a slight change of thought before we can implement it. Governments can change their view when they see that votes will not go their way, and it is up to all of us to finally make that stand and point them in the right direction. The future of this planet can only come with the will of the people, and it is up to everyone to share the information that will eventually force governments to change their mind. We have to abandon our complacency and apathy towards the way we choose to vote. It can be done as we have seen with the banking industry recently; as it was the public’s opinions that forced the government to make changes that are finally bringing them into line, and caused some very high profile job dismissals.

You make not like the way they look, but its a hell of lot nicer than drilling platforms of a devastated landscape

You make not like the way they look, but its a hell of lot nicer than drilling platforms of a devastated landscape

Just imagine this small point. This country has a huge amount of public buildings, what if we all made it clear that the government should fit solar panels to every one of them.  Have you any idea how many jobs that would create in fitting and manufacturing them? Do you know how much pressure that would take off our old and rapidly decaying oil and gas burning power stations? New technology can be environmental, and a shift such as this would not change the life of anyone, but it would do a massive amount towards reducing carbon emissions in this country, let alone globally. There is a very important lesson to be learned from some of HTTK, and it shows that we can share the best of every world and create a sustainable future for our children and our grandchildren’s generation, it just takes a few moments to think about it, and then voice your opinion, which funnily enough was what the hippies were saying forty years ago, It kinds makes you wonder why we didn’t listen?

There is always another way forward if you take the time to think about it, and then get out of your seat and do something about it. If you look hard enough there are so many other ways to improve our lives and the planet we all share, and whether you believe it or not, it does not belong to those like Mason Knox, it actually belongs to all of us, its home to seven billion people.

 

Point of faith.

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Every now and again I get a comment, usually from a Christian about how anti-Christian my writing is. I must admit I tend not to take up the argument with them, as from previous experience I have found that those who have what I see as a blind faith, and are not at all open to a grown up discussion about religion, and in most cases they have not read my books in their entirety and have only been alerted to certain passages, which is very frustrating for me at times.

If they would sit and actually listen, they would find that I am not against their religion at all, if anything I find the concept of their belief fascinating and would relish a good conversation, it’s just I want to talk openly with someone who for want of a better word, is not simply preaching off an indoctrinated mantra at me.  Most people do not take the time to listen to my observations of the Christian religion, and so therefore just sit and quote what feels like well-rehearsed lines of defence, as taught them through what I see as the institutions of doctrine. It is the one thing I dislike the most, as I am more interested in their own personal spiritual beliefs, not the same old flawed series of points and quotes as brandished by every member of the clergy.

I love the human race, nothing is more fascinating than what makes us all tick, and yes I have spent a life talking to find out more about what all of us feel inside and think about the planet we all share as home. I have a deeply spiritual side, and so at times its wonderful comparing notes, I suppose at the end of the day, we all want to know how alike or different we are to each other.  I love nothing better than to sit and read, and believe it or not, I have read the bible, possibly much more of it than those who preach their religion and choose to argue with me. It may also surprise a great deal of people to find I was raised in the faith and was quite involved in it from an early age. I am indeed an ex Altar Boy and Choir member, and believe it or not I served as a replacement Sunday School Teacher for a year in my early teenage years, so I have indeed experienced Christianity from both sides of the Altar rail.

I chose to seek another path, its a personal choice based on my observations, and I do not preach that everyone should take the same path, I never would because I feel very strongly we all have a journey of personal spiritual discovery to make, and no other should be able to influence it, but for the record I will share a little of my own personal insight. In my teenage years, which I found to be a time of strong emotional turbulence and questions, I asked my vicar for answers, and rather than sit and talk to me as another human being, I was treated like an inferior and lectured, and told to forget and ignore what was essentially a very natural process of development that I was going through, even if I didn’t realise that at the time.  As a result I began to search out my own answers, and the facts I discovered changed my thoughts and feelings about Christianity forever.  Later I discovered Paganism, although I am still uncomfortable with the word Pagan, which in my mind was a derogatory word used by the church, to address people who were seen as lesser because of their beliefs, and I coined the term Earth Faith to more accurately describe my beliefs at that time, although as with many terms used in the past, Pagan has become a term used and accepted by everyone today.

I looked at the facts of Christianity and found so many contradictions and acts of misuse that I felt it would not suit me as the person I had become, and that is still very much true of today. Do not get me wrong, I really do not have any problems with those who wish to follow the Christian path, there is much within the teachings that even today I still live by, the Christian ideal does provide a good blue print of how to be a better human being and live within this world, I just find a world that also serves and balances within nature is more suited to my spiritual belief system and works better for me.

I am writer, and it is the experience of writing and editing which in many ways when mixed with the facts helps me to gain a better understanding of how the words of Christianity were spread across the globe. Let’s face it the Bible has become the foundation stone of most of what we see as the civilised world, You could even say that it is the most powerful book ever written, but it is within that simple fact that my biggest doubts were formed. I suppose the natural researcher within me was not given the satisfaction it sought, and from looking at just pure facts, I very quickly came to the conclusion that many of the details of early Christian text came about through human error, and so therefore over the last 2000 years more and more errors have led to what has become the foundation of society, let me elaborate a little.

2000 years ago the only way to make a book was to sit and handwrite it all down, and then bind it together, which is how the very first gospels were created, many of those early copied handwritten gospels survive today in one form or another. My problem lies in the fact that the only way to copy those first gospels was to copy them by hand, and it is here in that small fact that my experiences of being a writer takes over. It is simple human behaviour that when copying a text by hand natural mistakes are made, something I know well from my own experience of writing. The brain runs slightly faster than the hand, and if you are reading and writing at the same time there is no doubt whatsoever mistakes will be made, its completely unavoidable, and if you doubt that then try spending a whole day sat copying a book down on to paper, you will find there will be more errors that you ever imagined.

So take the very first books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as written by those very disciples and copy them, and the result will be an original book with mistakes, because there would have been errors in the very first copies, so we have a copy containing the original mistakes and also new ones made the person who copies it. Add to that the fact that the original books were written in Aramaic, and had to be translated into as many languages as was required to spread the word of Christ, and suddenly your second generation copy gives birth to many wrongly translated copies, all of which will be copied to increase the amount of books that would be required to spread Christianity and enable it to grow as it has over the years.

I think it is safe to say that when the books were translated from Hebrew, they had already been copied countless times and so had become riddled with mistakes, and also translation is not an easy thing, a great deal of the time translating a book requires the one doing the translating to make adjustments so that the books become an interpretation of the Aramaic text, and again the books change and distort from that original copy of the gospel.

My concern grew from the fact that books were copied probably thousands of times by hand before we reached a time where printing was possible, and at that point when a modernising Church made the decision to print a new revised copy of the Bible, which I believe was somewhere around 1611, well over a thousand years had passed and the handwritten books they had were deeply flawed and not a very close resemblance to the original books. I find that alarming, because this one book has set the laws and rules of behaviour that modern society had been built upon, and yet this version also had to be approved by not only the church, but also the government of the day, it is a very flawed version of events that has deviated away from what was written in the originals.

It is fact that today there are countless thousands of handwritten copies of the New Testament held in museums, and places of study all over the world, and no two are the same, every one of them is completely different, which possess the question just which one exactly is the closest to the one’s written by the disciples? The oldest copy of the New Testament dates to about two hundred years after the death of Christ, and it is just a small fragment of paper containing a few dozen lines, and they do not match up that accurately with what we read today. I find that to be quite a disturbing fact considering how important the Bible has become as a moral and social compass to modern day society, and it is something I find difficult to accept.

That is just one of my own personal feelings about the bible, and it is not one I have ever asked any other to agree with, but when I add to that, the endless contradictions I found in the Bible, such as “an eye for an eye” compared to “Turn the other cheek” and love each other as you would yourself, one can only ask the question which one do I follow? The simple fact is that there are thousands of contradictions, which leads me to believe that it is so open to interpretation, that you can pretty much use any aspect of the Bible to make an argument to sustain any point of view you please, be it degrading women, burning witches or wiping out other religious faiths by pronouncing them as Satanic, even though Satan is a Christian creation who has nothing to do with other faiths. The one fact I do know to be true about man is that they will interpret things to bend to their own will and gain them the best of any situation, and sadly I do feel very strongly that is the truth of the institution we all refer to today as “The Christian Church.”

I am no fan of the church, the past is documented with the facts of how they have abused their power to control and hurt the masses, even in the modern world of today, and I have to confess I see them now in the same light as I would any other multinational corporation, and to be honest they have not provided any of us with actions to prove me wrong. All I see is the mantra of their god, used to increase their profits, gain land and exert more control over the people, which is why I am not interested in the spin of mindless Christian Mantra and would much more prefer a conversation about how a person feels personally about the faith they own as their own as an individual and how their belief helps them through life.

At the time of the life of Jesus, who I do believe was a real person alive at that time, there were also many people who acted as commenters on life around the world, and yet in all of the manuscripts (Which unlike the gospels, are the original handwritten texts that have survived) there is no mention at all of Jesus, the first real reference comes over two hundred years after his death. Maybe it is me, and yes this again is my own personal belief, but if Jesus was the man we have been led to believe, such as a man capable of working miracles, do you not think these people would have heard such tales of wonder and reported them at the time?

None of them did, which I feel possibly can be interpreted into the fact that Jesus was somewhat of a local hero, and it was those locals who held him in such high esteem that they chose to remember his life by writing about it. I find it hard to believe he was the son of a god who lives in some realm above us that science cannot detect, I do believe as the Dead Sea Scrolls infer that he was indeed the son of a Roman noble, who for want of a better words became a champion of the poor in his local vicinity. If the bible is correct he was a very well educated man for his time, and that would have gained him a huge amount of respect, I certainly feel he had great wisdom, and many of the things he taught at that time are still very relevant today, and yes all of us can benefit from his words, but as for being a deity, I am sorry, but I personally cannot accept that at all, but again for those who do believe I really have no issue with that.

I chose to walk a different path from Christianity many years ago, and it is one I feel is a more natural approach to every living thing on this planet, for I feel that to supress a natural feeling or urge as the Church instructed me to is an unnatural way of being. Through Pagan belief I found I could embrace and express myself as a person openly without judgement and live more in tune with who I am, and that for me made a huge difference to my life at a difficult time. We all have one life on the planet, and as we live we form our own natural affinity with what surrounds us, and through that we take a path of spirituality that serves us best, mine is Earth Faith, but that does not mean I am anti-Christian or any other religion for that matter, what it means is that I am aware of who I am as a person, and I acknowledge and accept the responsibility of all I feel and all I do. I am by no means perfect, my life has been a struggle like everyone else’s, and is littered with bad judgement and mistakes, but I have learned wisdom from all I have done, and when my time here comes to an end, I will have that wisdom in my final breath and it will ease my passing into something else.

The core ethics of Christianity offer everyone a sense of hope, and a path that embraces everything and everyone you meet, I think I can safely say as do all religions, and yet it is my observation that especially in the world at this time, we are placing too much emphasis on an individual’s spiritual beliefs, and it is being used as a weapon of division, one I feel is detrimental to the human race. I do not believe any religious views should be used to judge an individual or be used as a means of control. I do not believe that a religion should have the power to dictate government policy, or be applied on mass in schools. I feel very strongly that spiritual belief should be kept within the confines of the family home, and be chosen to fit the individual. There is too much hate and pain created by these so called religions of peace and love, and I do actually think that the leaders of each religion should be more accountable for the institutions they run and get their houses in better order, because the hate is preached at a higher level than the love these days.

So if you are one of those who has pointed the finger at my writing and sat in judgement of me because of it, please consider this. Believe what feels right for you as one unique person, and if that is Christianity then that is right for you, and I am happy you feel that way, but please do not make snap judgements about me because we do not serve the same god. Christianity limited my view of myself and the world, and so I searched for a path that I could identify with, and yes at times it does appear in my writing, its bound too because I write from the heart of who I am, and through my writing I try to share some of the wisdom that has helped me through life.

I feel my writing in Heirs to the Kingdom has shown all sides of the coin, at its heart it is a story of a Pagan Woodland peoples who have to fight to protect their way of life, against the survivors of a post apocalyptic Britain, who wish to resurrect the old modern ways of man. Yes I have shown some corruption within the Church of Christianity, but I also feel I have shown the kindness and love from the other side of the Church, pay more attention to Sister Mary and Father Warren, and you may find yourself surprised, especially in some of my views of tolerance towards each other. I write about my own country, which for the time being is a predominantly white Christian country, I dare say if I lived elsewhere, lets say the middle east, maybe my story would focus on Islam rather than Earth Faith, the simple truth is I write what I know, and I know Christianity and Paganism enough to be relatively accurate, I will admit as a writer I do have the liberty of fudging a few facts to aid the flow of the story, but saying that the religious belief is still only a tiny part of the story as a whole.

Finally I will state for the record, that my own personal belief is that all of us should believe in something, not necessarily the same something, but I feel we all have a spiritual side that should be nurtured as we would every other aspect of ourselves. If yours happens to be Christian or any of the other faiths, then more power to you. This world lacks a great deal of tolerance, as we have seen in recent times, we show a lack of wisdom and understanding in many aspects of life, such as sex, gender, sexuality, and religion, would it not be wonderful if we all embraced each other’s uniqueness, and tried a little harder to get along, maybe then we can all sit down and have wonderful and fulfilling conversations about life and all the many wonders that come with it and live more peacefully as one race with more harmony.

A sad reminder of my dissapearing world.

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Working in horticulture for most of my life, I have always felt that because I worked so close with plants, and within the plant kingdom, in a way it made me a guardian of that world. I strongly believe, as do many of my colleagues in the industry that it is our responsibility to do everything we can to support and protect the green world, especially in this modern age of destruction

Yesterday, I paid a visit back to my horticultural past and visited the large garden centre I worked at for the first time in 13 years. It’s a place I feel is a very large part of me and it played such a big role in my life through my 20’s and 30’s.

I must admit I loved the place, and I think it’s for that reason I spent such a long period working there, it certainly holds a very large place in my heart, and one of the reasons I think it’s been such a long time since I have been there, is due to the fact that leaving it was very difficult for me, it is indeed a very special and precious part of my life.

To get the full picture, I should say that it was a small place when I first went there, set at the bottom of a deep valley, in a very beautiful rural setting, it was edged on two sides by a river and the car park broke past the boundaries into a wide open landscape of wild flower meadows of outstanding beauty. I remember well arriving very early in the mornings and listening to the birds all over the place singing, you really could not have asked for a more wonderful welcome to your working day. I always thought that set in the centre of what is a country park, It was the perfect complement and a tribute to the surrounding area.

The centre itself was like a colourful jewel set against the backdrop of lush green from the meadows and the trees, as most of the garden centre was planted like a huge private garden, for any gardener it really was a very magical place, for myself with my ever growing love of the plant kingdom it was paradise, and a place where my own learning took a huge learning curve, as I was given the space to grow anything and everything and work it into the lavishly landscaped surroundings. I loved the place with all my heart and I loved being there, much to the annoyance of my partner at the time, as it was rare I worked less than seventy hours in a week.

I have and always will be deeply proud to be known as a horticulturalist, pride in my work to me is without doubt one of the most important qualities of who I am, and over the years I worked there, I stamped my mark well and truly all over the place, working with some of the most professional colleagues that I have ever had the privilege to work with. We were one of the best working teams in the country priding ourselves on creating the most awe inspiring displays of planted flower beds, which were accompanied by wide paving that had row upon row of the potted plants from each bed available for the customers at the highest quality. I have never been in another place that has beat us at making the garden in Garden centre really carry its truest meaning, it’s what set us apart from the mass designer rows of concrete and craft filled shops and DIY outlets at that time. I loved the fact that when the customers came in, we presented them with a completely different model of how the business should be presented, and because our setup was so unique, it did attract a lot of customers, in my time alone the customer base rose tenfold from when I first started there.

Change for change sake is not a good thing; it is my biggest argument with the world as I age. I deeply believe being unique and original is what makes the world such a wonderful place to live in, it has defined our past as those who chose not to follow the crowd made sweeping advances in every walk of our history, and it does appear to me that as we progress in the future of what is our time of modern man, we are starting to become more and more like clones of each other in the way we build the world. I have always shied away from the current trends, I see the world with truly inspirational leaders who are rare, who are followed by those who want to be like them, I think that is quite an accurate portrayal of many, and a great deal of my love of nature is precisely because even though it replicates itself, no two places are ever the same, it is the greatest wonder of the natural world.

Yesterday as I walked through the place that was once the most inspiring jewel of my working life, I think my heart broke a little. What was once a lavish, colourful and magical tribute to nature and the plant kingdom, is now a concrete replica of any other garden centre anywhere else in this country. It has become a clone like all the other followers of the trend and as the manager told me. “You cannot stop progress Rob.” I question very much whether what I saw was indeed progress?

The magnificent mature Cedar’s and weeping Larch are no more, the flowering cherries that grew at over two feet at the base and towered in the air like giant candy floss, shedding their blossom in every shade of pink and white in a gentle rain on me as I worked, have been bulldozed away, and there is exactly one 6×6 foot flower bed. Nothing is grown on site, and everything is bought in adding to the same bland choice of plants dictated by the growers in Holland, it truly was heart wrenching to see something so uniquely beautiful destroyed with such a massive lack of respect, and for what reason?

It is the age old reason of man, Money. Am I only one who does not understand why we must worship money so much? I am realistic, I know in these modern days we all need it to live, but must we be so careless and destructive to acquire it. I feel today like one of the most important times in my life has been completely erased for nothing more than if it looks big people will come and spend money, and the foolish thing I felt walking round, was how on such a gloriously hot sunny day in May how quiet the place was. Back in my day the staff on days like that would have been working full tilt to keep everything stocked up, and the place would have been buzzing with gardeners who were delighted at the row upon row of differing varieties of high quality plants. I very much doubt there was one quarter of what was once stocked there yesterday.

It’s so sad, and yet another reminder of the arrogance and greed of Mason Knox, and I always thought I was writing fantasy…. I wonder now if I am.

 

(Out of respect I have not included pictures or the name of the centre)

 

 

Worlds Watching.

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          My books reflect the difference between peoples in this land, and they draw from my experience of growing up at the tail end of the peace and love generation. I have lived through the seventies, a generation I have to admit that although slightly wacky, was actually one I very much identified with. I felt great sadness as we entered the eighties and nineties, as I witnessed the slow decay of a way of being that for me seemed like the only way to live. For the last three decades I have seen with my own eyes, how money and power have crept into society and replaced friendship, and community spirit.

            The world of Mason Knox is not very far from the reality we live in today, and those years of the woodland attitude in my mind are now very much a distant memory. I suppose like all writers, and although in many ways I am still very much at the start of my life as a writer, I do have the added benefit of being able to look back on 40 years of life and report my observations via the stories I write.

            The events of recent days, which has seen a large volcano in Iceland erupt, spewing massive amounts of ash into the atmosphere, has again brought to mind the very reasons that I divided my world in the ‘Heirs to the kingdom’ series into those of Mason Knox, and those of the woodland family of Lox. I very much think that if Mason was indeed a real person today, he would be investing heavily in hotel stock as he grabs an opportunity to jump on the gravy train that is the suffering of those left trapped in foreign lands with cancelled plane flights. Across the world Humanity is being trashed, as the greedy owners of hotels charge up to ten times more per room, per night, to line their pockets from the misfortune of those who are stranded. Today it feels very much like the stories I write are closer to that of the reality of the modern age than even I realised.

            In the past, one of my critics has labelled me a hopeless idealist, and in some ways I had to agree with them, but I also think I am very much a realistic thinker, I have sat for years talking and watching the world around me. It does very much appear at this moment in time, that for Robbie and Runestone, and a great deal of people who read my work, do hold that ideal of family and a peaceful life close to their hearts. I have not met many people who do not dream of a peaceful; and fairer world, where everyone lives in harmony, yet I find it ironic that as a teenager campaigning in the seventies for such a dream, I was scoffed at and ridiculed, yet here I sit each day answering emails and talking on social networks to those who have read HTTK, and they too seem to identify with the themes of my story and dream of the same things for their lives.

            As I sit here I am reminded of my character in the Lost Sword of Carnac, (HTTK Book two) named Fuse. When asked by Robbie what the modern life was all about, he gave his impression of the world he lived in (Today), and in many ways his view of the world feels very apt today, even though it was first written in 2006.  It is fascinating for me as a writer, and as an observer on the world, to see how the story of life in the real world compared to the lives of those in my imagined world pan out. No doubt there are many more chapters in both to follow, and with luck and good health hopefully you can enjoy the journey beside me.