Tag: Blood Gift Chronicles

Jolabokaflod 2022

December 24, 2022

In celebration of Iceland’s very wonderful Christmas Eve tradition, Jolabokaflod, I bring to you my own ‘Christmas book flood’: a 12 day book advent of my personal favourite reads from 2022. From fantasy and sci-fi, to short collections, to biography, steampunk, and epic historical fiction, it is a wonderful and eclectic collection brought to you in no particular order.

Enjoy!

Day 1 – Book of Fire by Michelle Kenney: feral people, a wild girl, hidden forests and so much more. A perfect blend of imagination, mythology, and plausible science to describe a possible future dystopia.

Day 2 – The Second Bell by Gabriela Houston – the intimate heartfelt story of Salka, a girl born with two hearts. An unforgettable MC, courageous in the face of harsh laws that test her demon heart.

Day 3 – The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – and just WOW what a read! Epic, deeply personal, and a testament to the true and lasting connections between history, tradition, the present day… and the immense power of stories.

Day 4 – Coalescence by Tim King – an extraordinary and dynamic collection of rhyming memoir, storytelling verse, rants, raves and revelations that reflect the clear light of day, told with grace, sparkling humour, punchy frankness and expert simplicity.

Day 5 – The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri – evocative fantasy with sapphic romance, lush world building, and forbidden tales of origin and magic folklore. Loved the feminist edge, unafraid of tackling issues of independence and empire pertinent to the world as we know it.

Day 6 – Everfair by Nisi Shawl – alternate history of Belgium’s colonization of Congo, exploring an outcome if indigenous people had had their own steam tech. Loved the inventiveness that blends perfectly with the African backdrop.

Day 7 – Broken Places and Outer Spaces by Nnedi Okorafor – biographical read from star athlete with lifelong scoliosis, to a paralysed patient following routine back surgery; how the transformative power of imagination ignited her passion for storytelling.

Day 8 – Noor by Nnedi Okorafor – biotechnology, cybernetics, destiny, and a kick-ass MC, AO, disabled from birth, determined, independent and powerful. ‘There are times when you either save yourself or you don’t.’

Day 9 – There – a wonderful poetry collection from Exeter’s Slam Champion Poet 2022, Clare Morris, in collaboration with artist, Nigel Bird. Word and art woven together, oozing with soul, that makes you want to saviour the moment.

Day 10 – The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey – on an imaginary Caribbean island, the love between man and mermaid felt as real as a blackbird’s song. Tantalising blend of the mythical woven into visceral realism of everyday life. A wonderful read.

Day 11 – The Iron Brooch by Yvonne Hendrie – a magical, dual-timeline novel, with captivating depth that delves into the preternatural. Brigid is forced to navigate a world where the veil grows thin, revealing the dangerous and mysterious Celtic fae. Spellbinding.

Day 12 – The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg – Uiziya’s journey becoming a great weaver: tantalising magic woven from wind, sand, song and bone. A brooding, sinister and colourful backdrop, with thought-provoking gender politics. Loved the trans MC. And magic carpets! Wonderful read.

***

In turn, it was wonderful to see my own Blood Gift Chronicles make several advents this year, including Stairwell Books.

Now back to my Xmas Eve read…

Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season!

Winter Hues

December 5, 2022

Winter has arrived, crisp, cold, and muted blue/grey skies with a strange white sheen that makes you wonder, is there snow on the horizon?

Either way, it’s time to hunker down, and hibernate with a good read, and a manuscript in progress. And I have to say, I’m loving the magic of Blood Gift Chronicles Book 3, a book that slips into different time periods, with overlapping lives as we move towards answers to the big question… I love a good origin story, and I love magic, so here goes. And with new societies and landscapes there’s much to get my teeth into. Finally, I get up close and personal with the elusive Evren, a woman who doesn’t fit, but who lives dangerously unapologetically.

November 25, 2022

I’m engrossed in the re-writes of Blood Gift Chronicles Book 3, with characters spanning the good, the bad, and the morally grey, in this far-reaching world where ‘reap what you sow’ takes on a whole new meaning. In a recent scene with a particularly dastardly character, it got me thinking about what makes a good villain.

November 15, 2022

Part Two of World Fantasy Con 2022, and a few thoughts from a great panel that I was one of the speakers of – Just Who is the Villain? A deep dive into looking at the good, the bad, and everything between. Who doesn’t love morally grey villains that strike that uncomfortable chord?

November 8, 2022

Coming to the end of a wonderfully inventive, inspiring and truly imaginative World Fantasy Convention 2022. As we look for ways to break the mould, as well as barriers in our stories, international conventions are looking to do the same, finding platforms to raise a wonderfully diverse range of voices. It’s also a reminder of the inequity of barriers faced, as we search for those authentic voices. Hopeful, as we see gains made, reflected in my ever-going to-read list, while humbling in the knowledge of an uneven worldwide playing field. Still, there’s hope. If anyone knows how to find new and innovative solutions, it’s surely those that occupy the speculative fiction sphere.

October 31, 2022

Looking forward to the week ahead, because… it is WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION 2023, my third year there, and I will be tuning into New Orleans from the comfort of my writing room. Really excited for so many inspiring panels, and conversations with readers and writers alike. And of course, I’m looking forward to being a panelist again, programmed on Friday’s, Just Who is the Villain panel. Buzzing – but more on that later.

September 26, 2022

After a slight interlude, here is the promised Part Two, to follow my recent post entitled WorldCon 2022 Non-Conforming Women.

Whereas the first post looked at some favourite women on screen, there are some wonderfully inspiring books out there that go a long way to challenge the gender status quo and free all our characters up to be who they want to be. Representation matters and I’m all for subverting expectation to give unique stories and characterisation.

As for the question of how I explore gender in my own epic fantasy series, Blood Gift Chronicles …

August 30, 2022

Two days to go and I will be at Worldcon, the 80^th World Science Fiction Convention which this year is being held in Chicago. Thanks to the wonders of technology, I’ll be tuning in from the comfort of my writing room. As well as being an avid spectator, I’m joining in with the programme, which involves taking the time to consider my work and perspectives.

And this Tuesday morning it’s all about dragons… which feature in my series Blood Gift Chronicles. Prior to the books, in the planning stages, I didn’t start out with the intention of writing dragons, although it’s possible that there was something happening in the sub-conscious. I mean who doesn’t love dragons? I remember the decision-making process, whether to go with something as familiar and perhaps obvious, or go for invention. Ultimately, I was drawn to dragons, or at least versions of them – as familiar as dragons are, I’m definitely going for a whole new angle.

I was thinking about the quote by Ursula Le Guin: “I do not care what comes after; I have seen dragons dancing on the morning winds.”

They are creatures that reveal an awe-inspiring feeling of other-worldly magic. They are the ultimate strength, the lesson in humility, the fact that there are things bigger than us, out of our control. But rather than the idea of going up against a dragon, trying to beat a dragon, the story develops into becoming a dragon, what that reflects in us, storylines analogous to loss, love, loyalty, grief and empowerment – the idea of ‘beyond this place, there be dragons’ – rather than an outer journey, thinking about an inner journey that someone might go through in transforming.

Back to Blood Gift Chronicles, and dragons don’t actually feature until the third book. Stories are told of them in the second book and the magic is alluded to, but it’s not until the third that we discover the big mystery of the dragons.

A final thought for now, the idea of dragons comes with a kind of melancholy, that idea of bordering on extinction – extinction of magic, and the fantastical, and creature extinction. That fits with some of the themes in the books, around wildlife and the environment. There are storylines around the interplay of capitalism and corruption and impacts on nature, and just generally, wildlife is a very visible backdrop throughout the books, almost with an identity of character in lots of ways. In fact, in book one it does take the form of a fantastical creature character.

Have you met the Mantra yet?

The Warder Celebration & BGC Art

June 29, 2022

June 2022 was the month for finally getting together to celebrate last year’s release, The Warder. The event was set to go ahead here in Exeter, and preparations were going swimmingly…

but alas, we were thwarted by Covid. Life can be as unpredictable as the twists and turns of our stories, and so came a last-minute shift onto zoom.

Hosted by my publishers, the lovely folks of Stairwell Books, and joined by local guest readers bringing more fantasy, folklore, poetry and rhyme, it was lovely to spend time in the company of other writers, as well as readers of my series so far. And onto my readings.

With a brief intro. to Book One, Return of the Mantra, I was reminded of intrepid Suni and her search for justice and her own identity. Thrust into some stark environments, she discovers what she’s really made of, in contrast to the mountaintop view where her worldview is forever changed. And of course, when you’re up against tyranny and fighting for the natural world, it takes more than one voice. Onto Book 2, The Warder, where we get to know more of our heroines and heroes.

With three main characters in The Warder, three scenes jumped out at me to share.

Wanda, an eighteen-year-old young man, gifted but also cursed by a shadow bound to him. One of his opening scenes is a favourite, looking out over the grasslands, searching for respite from his curse.

Ten-year-old Luna, troubled by strange visions, experiences her own personal breaking high in the mountains.

And, perhaps holding it all together, Suni returns, working to restore harmony to her hometown, while using her gift to watch out over her young friend.

The dominoes are falling, squeezing characters and revealing timeless bonds. All set in a world with new lands revealed, where old and new, the mundane and the fantastical, coexist. Prepare to be cast away to an archipelago of islands in the far western reaches, with the musty air of the cavernous temple and the sound of footsteps crossing the mosaic-tiled floor; in contrast to the warm desert winds of Shendi, carrying spells and curses that touch all those with the gift to hear…

With themes of wildlife and the environment, social justice and marginalisation, magic, animism, being true to oneself, and dragons… Not to mention a diverse range of character arcs revealing love in all its forms.

Prior to the event, I set myself a project to imagine what my characters might look like. Of course, it’s ultimately for readers to draw their own conclusion, but I’ll leave you with the result of the project: a series of portraits, my own artistic interpretation of my beloved characters that span the series, Blood Gift Chronicles.

Happy Reading!

The Magic of Fantasy

May 13, 2022

It’s been a week of furniture building and the house being upside down, including, shock horror, my writing room being out of action, and bookshelves out of reach. Among plenty of sorting and cleaning, I made progress on a latest painting project, more on that another time. And for solace, I thought of some of my favourite characters from fantasy fiction.

Any here that you recognise?

Rooted in the imagination, the inventive genre of fantasy knows no bounds. And soon, soon I’ll be back on Book 3 of Blood Gift Chronicles. And I’m looking forward to it, seeing how the world further expands bringing new landscapes, new people, new vivid sensory images to delight, appal, and offer up a spot of virtual travelling. We all have some favourite story places. I would gladly visit the lands of Patricia McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and share a meal with Sybel in her cottage on Eld Mountain, watched by her weird and wonderful menagerie called by wizardry. Or a visit to the remote deserts of apocalyptic Sudan, in Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, and meet with Onye, a powerful, gifted, flawed, steadfast young woman. I can still hear the sound of her singing voice communing with the desert.

George R.R. Martin said, ‘We read fantasy to find the colours again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs sirens sang.’

Yes to all of the above, and to learn, reflect, challenge, escape, have fun, and flex that all important muscle – the imagination. Fantasy shines a new light, and creates a different edge. It redefines boundaries and allows for reclamation of landscapes. It offers up worlds filled with adventure, to inspire, offer hope, and teach us that anything really is possible. It shines a light on our identities, letting us know we are valid and valued, despite our strengths and flaws. It emboldens us to demonstrate we can tackle our demons, fight for our cause, and realise a state of peace and empowerment. And so much more.

So there is no shortage of inspiration, in a genre that can extend to the reach of your imagination. I look back fondly on scenes from the first two books in Blood Gift Chronicles: some of the stark environments thrust on Suni in Return of the Mantra, where she discovers what she is made of, contrasted with a mountaintop view where her view of the world will be forever changed. And in The Warder, as the dominoes fall, squeezing characters and revealing timeless bonds, the world extends into new lands where old and new, the mundane and the fantastical, coexist. If I close my eyes I’m transported to the islands and the musty air in the cavernous temple, with the sound of footsteps crossing the mosaic-tiled floor; in contrast to the warm desert winds of Shendi, carrying spells and curses that touch all those with the gift to hear…

Finally, I’m happy to report I’m back in my writing room, ready to explore new worlds.