New year, new start!

Happy New Year!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate it.

Again I find myself in the the position of having to say sorry for being away for so long.

I'm delighted to see the number of people who have been visiting and reading my rambling. I WILL make a massive effort to keep this blog up to date as a way of saying thank you.  In fact I will make  new year's resolution to write this blog at least once a month. How does that sound?

As it turns out, I have a lot to tell you.  So much, it's difficult to know where to start.

I have two really exciting things to tell you.

The first, if you didn't already know, is the new covers that I've had drawn for all the books so far.

All In a Day's Work - New cover by Chris Askham.

This is the new cover drawn by Chris Askham. As you can easily see, Chris has put a lot of work into it and the pair of us put a lot of thought into it too. 

It all started back in  November when I went to a book fair to sell paperback versions of my books. The customers always went for the cover of the third book (see below).  I think there were two main reasons for this. The first was that it had Isomee on the cover.  The second was that it had more colour than the other two.

Original book 3 cover

Armed with this information, Chris and I came up with a composition that would use and improve on these two aspects.  As you can see we put Isomee right at the front and kept many of the original artist's elements. Brackenbelly is stood behind her in a protective pose with his sword out ready for action. This was important too because I wanted people to know that there would be swords and action in it as well as a sweet looking eleven year old girl.   The main addition has been uncle Hogg-Bottom. Chris has captured him brilliantly.  He has just the right amount of menace.  I love the way he's looming over everything.

Two's Company artwork by Chris Askham

For the second book, Two's Company, both Chris and I wanted something more dynamic and eye-catching.   As the book is packed full of action, this was easy.  I'm sure you'll agree that this cover is awesome!

Chris is currently working on the third cover.  This one will have Wilbakar on.  It'll  be the first time we've seen him and I'm very excited.

After that, he'll do a new cover for book 4 and then we'll be moving on to a whole new chronicle.  There's also the possibility of a collected edition of the first four stories available in paperback only.

At the moment All in a Day's Work and Two's Company are only available with the new covers on Kindle. Paperbacks will follow very shortly.

I think that's enough for now.  I'll save the other news for future blogs.

Please visit the Kinmaran Chronicles website for more pictures.  Look in the Uma Archives. You'll need to sign up for access.  Don't worry it's quick and easy.

See you on Kinmara soon!

Geese and Ballet

I don't know about you guys, but I've had an awesome couple of days!

Last night I went to the famous Nottingham Goose Fair. I've been going for the last ten years, ever since I moved up here.  I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of the rides but there's something special about it's atmosphere.

Part of it is the history.  The fair's been going for hundreds of years.  It has the world's oldest movable helter skelter.  It's also the largest fair in the world (or so I was told).

So far we have only seen how humans celebrate on Kinmara. How do uma have a good time? We already know the uma are great inventors.  Perhaps they have built fairground rides. What do you think?

This afternoon I went to the ballet with some children from my school.  It was amazing.  I LOVE stories and a ballet isn't just dancing, it's telling a story through dance.  Soon you will find out that the warriors' guild isn't the only guild the uma have.  There's an entertainers' too.  I wonder if they tell stories through dance?

Everywhere I go I see things that'll help me tell great stories and bring Kinmara alive.