My writing room is a lovely airy space. It’s also north facing, which is great, except it gets essentially no direct sunlight. Which is why I’m sitting here at 11am shivering in the dark. Okay, that’s entirely self-inflicted: my lights work fine and I both have, and can afford to use, central heating. I’m farContinue reading “Pretty Poisons”
Tag Archives: Wizard and the Imp
Flamelily
An entirely non-earthshattering image for this #StoryPromptOfTheWeek, simply because it’s sunny outside and I happy to have a photo of a very summery flower from my garden. This year’s crop are not quite out yet but it certainly doesn’t feel like it will be long. By the way, I have no idea what plant itContinue reading “Flamelily”
Trapped
Today’s #StoryPromptOfTheWeek image I think was taken while at the Scottish Wild Foods Festival some years ago. For some reason my previous post from that event is recorded as being in 2016, which I know isn’t true. Anyway, while on a walk there we came upon a collection of objects strung up in a tree.Continue reading “Trapped”
Guardian of the woods
This week’s #StoryPromptOfTheWeek was taken way back in 2016 at Cragside. At least, I think that’s where I took it. It was a while ago. I don’t think this statue (which on reflection may have been made of a very grey wood rather than stone) was the inspiration for Malachite. Certainly in my mind MalachiteContinue reading “Guardian of the woods”
They’re here!
A few days later than I’d planned — that’s what happens when you don’t check if you’ve actually pressed the ‘submit order’ button on a web-page. Surprisingly, receiving actual copies of book 2 was even more exciting than the last one. I’d figured last time that it felt special because it was the first. TurnsContinue reading “They’re here!”
The Chase
Breaking with recent traditions, this week’s story prompt image is relatively recent. It was taken in July this year in the walled garden at Culzean castle. Yes, I go there a lot. I know it isn’t the only place worth going. It’s still a favourite, so I don’t see us breaking the habit any timeContinue reading “The Chase”
Racing the Sun
Arran is one of my favourite places in the world. It treads the delightful line between familiar and novel. Evidence, perhaps, that we go there far too often. After all, there is so much world out there to see and I have experienced a pathetically small sample. Despite this I am firm in my beliefContinue reading “Racing the Sun”
Faltha’s Celebration
Way back when I first wrote Summer Sorcery (in that no-one-else-gets-to-see-ever first draft) I imagined a backstory scene with Faltha and Malachite. There’s a nod to it on p125, but the book didn’t need derailed with the plot-irrelevant personal history between two important but ultimately secondary characters. However what made it into the book plantedContinue reading “Faltha’s Celebration”
Wizard and the Imp Location #2 – The Faerykirk
For as long as I can remember one of my favourite things has been finding out that places in stories are real locations that can be (theoretically at least) visited. Of course, as a dyed-in-the-wool sci-fi fantasy fan you can imagine how often I stumbled upon the places that I’d read about. Annoyingly, the woodsContinue reading “Wizard and the Imp Location #2 – The Faerykirk”
Wizard and the Imp Location #1 — The Tower
This month we’ll take a look at the site that was my inspiration for the Tower of Sorcery. Calais Muir Wood is a small patch of woodland about (34 hectares, which apparently counts as quite big these days) on the eastern edge of Dunfermline. It’s been something of a lifeline over the last 18 monthsContinue reading “Wizard and the Imp Location #1 — The Tower”
Brandon Lim 