The Legacy of Vengeance - new title

I am currently working on two separate projects; the first being the second volume of The Chronicles of Prudence and the other a ghost/murder/mystery.  This is just a little post about the latter of the two. The legacy of Vengeance is actually just a working title and I'm not sure yet if it's what I'm actually going to go with.  I'm not completely happy with it to be honest, but I'll see when I've finished if it feels right or not.

The story centres around the character of Alex Sherwood, a young doctor with a successful career and a seemingly stable and secure future.  However, Alex has a dark and tragic event in his past which haunts him continually.  As a young boy of sixteen Alex was living in the small market town of Daringby, a peaceful and happy existence.  During the summer of that year a team of archaeologists arrive in the town to investigate a local ancient monument.  Alex and a group of his friends volunteer to help out on the dig and soon develop a keen interest in the subject.  Other local people however are not so keen on  digging up the site as there are a lot of local suspicions about the place being haunted, and they prefer to stay away.  The idea of ghosts though, just piques the interest of Alex and his friends and one night they decide to go up to the site to do a spot of ghost hunting.  They become separated in an early morning mist and rather than ghost,s a much more sinister protagonist stalks them and one of their number, Alex's girlfriend, Lydia Garnham is brutally murdered.
As the police investigation into her murder drags on with little success local gossip and suspicion begins to fall on Alex; a lover's tiff that got out of hand being the way most thoughts are going. Although there is little evidence to really point the finger at anyone let alone Alex the gossips do not relent and eventually Alex and his  family move away and start a new life in a new town.
For fifteen years Alex never goes back to Daringby although what happened there continues to haunt him.  He finally returns to visit an old friend and discovers that all those that were with Lydia at the site on the night she died are still just as disturbed by what happened as Alex.  Why was her killer never found?  Why was there such a lack of evidence?  Why didn't any of them see anything?  And, what happened to the murder weapon?  Once he is there Alex soon realises that he can't just walk away from Daringby again; he has to do something, however remote his chances of success to find some answers.
He joins forces with Abi Jordan, the daughter of one of the archaeologists who had been working on the site at the time of Lydia's death, but he then discovers that Abi has her own motivation to find the truth when it becomes obvious that her father is not being entirely honest about his own involvement in the events of that night.

So that's it, a very brief outline that I hope is enough to make you want to read more!  I am working on having it ready for publication by the end of April, but as you all know I'm rubbish with deadlines so be prepared for that to get pushed back a little!  I will keep you updated!

Kim

Reflections and Resolutions

This is not the most original of subjects for this time of year I know, but like everyone I am feeling a little reflective. 2014 was definitely something of a memorable year for me; getting my work into print was a dream come true and I still can't believe I can actually call myself a published author now! I have had such a lot of support from friends and family and I really want to thank everyone for that especially all those who bought the book and have been so positive about it. It's a great motivation to know that others are actually getting some enjoyment out of what you are doing.  A special mention has to go out to my daughter, Kay who has helped me so much with all the technical stuff.  I really couldn't have done this without her.
 I didn't really make much use of the time I've had off for Christmas - which wasn't a lot I have to say - but Christmas is for relaxing with the family, having fun and eating chocolate which I certainly managed to achieve!

So, resolutions.............

Well this is easy; I need to be a little more organised with my writing, both the stories and this blog.  I know, I couldn't be much worse surely - at least where the blog is concerned!  I am going to attempt to stick to deadlines a little more.  I did ask Santa for a few more hours in the day or days in the week, but he wasn't very forthcoming so I'm going to have to make do with what I've got! Oh yes, and a little less chocolate from now on!

For the first half of the year I have two projects on the go, the second volume of 'The Chronicles of Prudence' and 'The Legacy of Vengeance' a sort of romantic ghost mystery aimed at a bit of an older audience.  I am setting myself the goal of having them both finished by April.  'The Chronicles of Prudence' shouldn't be a problem as that is in the final stages of writing and the ghost story is one that I have had kicking around now for a long time so it's just a case of reworking and updating. I will be doing a separate post shortly all about 'The Legacy of Vengeance' and what to expect from this story.

So, that's it - I'm really excited about the coming year and I hope you'll stay with me through all that 2015 has to hold.

Kim

A little thing called Christmas

Here I am on day four of my break and whilst it has been a busy few days I have done very little writing - a little thing called Christmas kind of got in the way!  I have been busy Christmas shopping and putting up the tree and just generally getting in the festive mood!  I have to say this is most unlike me and Christmas is usually a bit of a last minute panic, so my logic is that whilst everyone else is running around doing last minute shopping I will be able to sit back, relax and crack on with some writing.  I had hoped to really eat into the remaining 25,000 words or so of 'Arthur's Sword', but so far have managed about 250!

I know, I'm so undisciplined when it comes to my writing!  As I've said before I think that's what I like about self-publishing - you don't have to stick to other people's deadlines, although I know when I'm back at work tomorrow I'll be wishing I was at home writing!  Still, this time of year is so much fun - especially when you have a two  year old granddaughter to share the fun with!  As far as 'Arthur's Sword' is concerned I have revised my target date for publishing (again) to early in the new year - and I really, really am going to try and stick to that!

Kim.

Arthur's Sword: An update

As promised (weeks ago!) here's a little update on how the second volume of The Chronicles of Prudence, Arthur's Sword is coming along.  At 40,000 words I'm about halfway through which is nowhere near where I had wanted to be at this time - but as usual for me time is something of an issue.  So, what's happening with Prudence?  I'm going to give a brief outline of the story without (hopefully) spoiling the first book for those who haven't read it yet!

'Arthur's Sword' starts just weeks after 'The Gatekeeper' finished with Prudence and her friends trying to get back to some semblance of normality after their adventures of the summer.  School seems to be the best way to achieve this and eventually a place is decided upon that is deemed safe enough for the children to attend.  They are sent off to the Forest of Hale to a school that is just about as far away from the troubled border with Breena as they can be.  However, here they meet an eccentric wizard called Emrys who leads them off on another adventure every bit as dangerous as the one they had before.  They venture through the troll hills and into the very heart of Prudence's troubled homeland, Breena; their mission, to find an ancient sword imbued with incredible power before the dark wizard Mareck can locate it.

Some familiar figures return to help Prudence and her friends including the soldier Lyndal, the rebel leader, Gil and Prudence's guardian Miles Colwyn, but there are also some new faces.  Prudence meets wood elves, dwarves and even the King of the Pixies and she also has a less favourable encounter with Prince Tristan again.

 Oh yes, and then there's Bob, a bad tempered, cantankerous old dragon who, like the wizard Emrys believes that Prudence, Rupert, Maggie and Sam are destined to play a much greater role in the fight against Gideon and Mareck.

Kim.

Writing Fast

Hello everyone, I know I've been a bit slack with my posts but I hope this one will explain why!

First of all this is not about speed writing it's to do with fasting as in abstaining from writing for a while.  In my 'day' job, as I think I may have mentioned before, I work as a contact lens advisor for Specsavers in my local town.  This involves, as the title suggests advising people about their contact lens options and also teaching them how to put the lenses in and out.  Now, as anyone who has tried contacts will know getting them in and out is not quite as easy as it sounds particularly when you're a beginner.  It can be very frustrating and one of the things I always say to patients is if you find you're getting frustrated just go away and do something else for 10 or 15 minutes and then go back and have another go.  It's like everything, if you get frustrated whilst trying to do something you usually end up either not being able to do it at all or making a bad job of it.

So, when I recently got to a part of 'Arthur's Sword',(the project I'm working on at the moment with my writing) that I was really struggling with and finding it difficult to go forward I decided to practice what I preach and take a break from writing.  It was only for four or five days, but in that time I didn't look at it or think about it at all.  I didn't do any promotion for 'The gatekeeper' (the first book in the series) as this just made me frustrated again that I wasn't writing, I took a complete break.

And, I am happy to say that now as I face four days off work I am revived and ready to go again! I have already resolved the problem that was holding me back before and I'm raring to go again with the promotion for 'The Gatekeeper' too - so be prepared for lots of Facebook posts and tweets!

Kim

Sources of Inspiration

I have been asked quite a lot recently what inspires me to write and I suppose the answer is; a lot of things!  Music seems to be the main thing for getting the creative juices going.  I can sit and listen to a piece of music and easily get lost in 'Kim world'!  It doesn't have to be a particular type or genre of music either; I can just as easily listen to AC/DC's Highway to Hell as I can Wagner's Pilgrim's chorus, it's just that different types of music inspire different moods and therefore different ideas.

As far as my latest project is concerned I'm really not sure where Prudence came from.  She had been kicking around in my head for so long before I actually 'put pen to paper' that I can't remember how she actually came into being. It was learning that I was going to be a Granny for the first time that really kick-started the whole project though; I decided that now was as good a time as any to be writing (or attempting to write) my first children's story. So, by way of research I read a lot of childrens fantasy books, JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter', Alex Scarrow's 'Time Riders' and Rick Riordan's 'Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief', to name a few.  I loved all of them and they really inspired me to have a go myself.

Prudence slowly grew and developed and weaving her world into ours using the Arthurian Legends was what really enabled me to take the whole story forward quite quickly.  Once I had that basis to build on the rest followed along fairly easily.  During this process I took myself off to the the Lake District for a week.  This has to be my favourite little corner of the country and I spent the whole week just walking and writing - it was heaven!  Who can fail to be inspired in such a beautiful place?  I know that greater minds than mine have found these mountains and valleys an infinite source of inspiration for their art and they certainly helped me!

Kim.

Introducing Prudence

Having written a few posts now about my experiences with self-publishing I thought now would be a good time to introduce Prudence to those of you who haven't read the book!  The best way to do this is with a little extract from the book, so here is the opening page or two of 'The Gatekeeper'.  Hope you enjoy and don't forget if you want to read more you can purchase the whole book on Kindle or in paperback through Amazon.

-1-

Good News and Bad

Prudence sat on the chair outside the headmistress’s office and wondered what it was that she had done this time.  As far as she could remember she had completed all her homework, she had kept herself and her part of the dormitory tidy (well, most of the time) and she was absolutely sure that no one had seen her when she had crept out the night before to exercise her wings.  That was the problem with going to a school full of elves; elves just did not understand a fairy’s need to fly.  They may well have a rudimentary grasp of magic that fairies would never have, but elves did not have wings and Prudence knew exactly which option she preferred: nothing compared to flying, the exhilaration, the feeling of being free and having the wind rushing passed your face.  She really felt sorry for beings without wings.

Prudence knew, of course, that she was really lucky to be attending this particular school.  It was, without doubt the best school in the country – even the King of the elves sent his son here – and it wasn’t really the place a foundling like Prudence could have expected to attend.  Prudence had been left on the doorstep of an orphanage as a baby, and for eleven years she had lived there quite happily.  Naturally she had wondered about where she had come from, who her parents were and why they had abandoned her, but the orphanage had provided her with an extended family and she had grown up in a secure and caring environment.  Again, it was an elven orphanage, but with all the continued unrest within the fairy kingdom of Breena there were many refugees from that country seeking a new life with the elves of Ealdhun.

At the age of eleven, however, Prudence had been informed of the fact that her Guardian had been found.  He was the one who had placed her in the orphanage as a baby and now it seemed he intended to pay for her to go to the very prestigious King Leofric School.  Prudence had had little say in the matter although she had not been happy about it at all. After two years at the school she had settled into her life there quite well, although it had been difficult at first.  None of the other children there were orphans for one thing and they seemed to regard her as something of an oddity.  They were all the children of wealthy or famous elves and were curious about who Prudence was and where she came from.  Prudence soon got fed up with all the questions especially as she got the impression most of them did not believe her when she told them, quite truthfully, that she came from an orphanage.  Most of them just thought she was being rude or silly, which only made Prudence angry.  She eventually made a few close friends, but generally kept to herself.  She preferred the easy friendship she had with the children of the orphanage to all the pretention of King Leofric’s School.  And, she still had not met her mysterious Guardian.  He seemed quite happy to control her life from a distance, liaising with either the headmistress at the school or the matron at the orphanage.  He did not seem that concerned about actually meeting his charge, and for this reason Prudence had decided that she did not like him.  She was not expecting constant supervision from him, but the occasional visit would have been nice, and the fact that he could not even introduce himself just seemed rude.

Prudence pulled her thoughts back to the present and tried to consider what trouble she was in this time.  She concluded that it must be the flying thing; fairy law stated quite clearly that no fairy should be allowed to fly unsupervised until they were fifteen, which was, as far as Prudence was concerned, a stupid law.  Her wings, she knew were quite strong enough, and developed enough to carry her weight.  She was quite small for her age, and despite her appetite, quite thin also.  In all of her extra-curricular flying she had always been very careful – never flying too high or too fast – and so far she had not had even the slightest wobble.  So, that last detention she had received from Miss Rodenberry for ‘reckless use of her wings’ had really been quite unfair.

But, Prudence had been really careful lately, doing her best to behave and making sure all her homework was finished on time.  She had made an extra effort to make sure she was always clean and presentable and that her long red hair was brushed and tidy – well at least at the start of the day anyway.  It was, after all, nearly the end of term – school report time – and although she had no parents to report to, Prudence knew only too well that the matron at the orphanage had a habit of finding extra chores for those with bad, or not so good, reports.  So, if she was trying so hard to be good, why was the result of all her efforts to be sitting outside the headmistress’s office again?

Hope you have enjoyed this little snippet.

Kim