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Lucy Hounsom: Author

author, podcaster, mistress of strange

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11/10/14

2014-11-10 16.25.59

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The tale Myrdhin tells in Sistersong, 'The Five Ri

The tale Myrdhin tells in Sistersong, 'The Five Rivers of Lir', is loosely inspired by a real Irish folktale - The Children of Lir. It is one of my favourites because it, like the Twa Sisters ballad, is a transformation story.
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Lir, tribal chieftain of the goddess, Dana, has four children – two sets of twins. His wife Niamh dies giving birth and Lir marries again. But his new wife, Aoife, is a wicked and sorcerous woman. One day, out of Lir's sight, she touches the children, turning them into swans.
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Although the children flail and cry, they cannot escape their cursed forms. The girl, Fionnuala, asks Aoife how long the curse may last. The answer is terrible: 300 years the swans must spend on Lake Derravaragh before flying to the Sea of Moyle. There between England & Ireland they must spend another 300. And when those seasons have elapsed, a last 300 years must they endure on the western ocean. Only when the bell of the Christian God tolls across the land will the curse be lifted. "I, Aoife," she says, "have willed it."
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Although they keep their speech and their singing can move any person who hears it to tears, the children of Lir are nonetheless bound to their long exile.
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One spring, after nearly a thousand years have passed, and while drifting on the western ocean, they finally hear the Christian bell. The holy man ringing it knows of their curse and tries to lift it, but the King of Connacht desires the bespelled swans for his wife. Just as they are chained up, the curse unravels, revealing four withered creatures, the hoar of centuries upon their bodies.
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The holy man weeps, but Fionnuala bids him not to – they are so old, she says, that even their gods are dead. She asks that they be blessed so that they do not go godless to their rest.
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It is done and – at her request – the children are buried upright with their arms around each other, "as we stood together against the world and its ravages through the long ages."
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With thanks to Martin Wall and The Three Sorrows of Irish Storytelling for the quotes.
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#bookstagram #igreads #Sistersong #folklorethursday #childrenoflir #irishmythology #lir #swans #folklore #folktales

𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔞𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔫 𝔞𝔩𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔪𝔦𝔰𝔱, 𝔪𝔞𝔨𝔢 𝔤𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱.
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I finished the first draft of a new book today (121K) so celebratory prosecco is called for!🥂 There is, however, a lot of work still to do. To use a forge metaphor, the shape of the sword is there and now it's time to hammer out the impurities! In some ways, this is my favourite part because I have something to work with even if it's just a lump of molten metal 😅
Check out my aesthetic a few posts back if you'd like to know a bit about the book. Now I just hope I can persuade a publisher to buy it 🤞
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#wip #newbook #bookstagram #amwriting #amediting #prosecco #firstdraft #writing #fantasy #historicalfantasy #epigraph

𝕊𝕚𝕕𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕙: dramatic skies e

𝕊𝕚𝕕𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕙: dramatic skies edition.

Picture 2 is actually the view from someone's garden 😯 Picture 5 is a cute cottage so popular with tourists that it's on a postcard. While I love skies like these where the clouds try to eat the hills, I'm glad summer is back today!
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#sidmouth #eastdevon #devon #jacobsladder #june #skies #dramaticsky #seaside #seascape #sea #hills #cottage #thatchedcottage #landscape #clouds

❝𝘔𝘢𝘹 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤.❞
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Devastated to hear the news about Carlos Ruiz Zafón today. One of my favourite writers since I first discovered The Shadow of the Wind many years ago. His Cemetery of Forgotten books remains one of the most magical, lyrical, political and emotional series I've ever read. But his books for young adults are equally wonderful and not as well known. The Prince of Mist was the first published.
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Lucia Graves is a deft and poetic translator who renders these stories beautifully in English and if you haven't experienced Zafon's work before, I cannot recommend him enough. I am only desperately sorry that the world has lost such a great storyteller.
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#bookstagram #igreads #zafon #carlosruizzafon #theshadowofthewind #thecemeteryofforgottenbooks #theprinceofmist #beautifulbooks #readersofinstagram #restinpeace

Fun in the (unexpected) sun 🌞 The prophesied th

Fun in the (unexpected) sun 🌞
The prophesied thunderstorms have not yet arrived so enjoy some gorgeous beach pictures! Sometimes this place looks closer to the Mediterranean than the English Channel. Thank you to @clauangelini for ensuring there were actually some people in my photos for once 😂
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#sidmouth #eastdevon #devon #sunshine #tan #seaside #sea #seascape #beach #englishchannel #cliffs

Can't beat @drvictoriajames in the Chelsea Physic

Can't beat @drvictoriajames in the Chelsea Physic garden, but here are some photos I took this morning in Sidmouth's Sensory Garden and Connaught Gardens, which might just win on the view. 😉
The last couple of photos are of the incredible carved cliffs near Jacob's Ladder.
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#sidmouth #gardens #devon #connaughtgardens #eastdevon #seaside #cliffs #jacobsladder #flowers #jurassiccoast

Irish myth claims that Cana Cludhmor, a goddess of

Irish myth claims that Cana Cludhmor, a goddess of inspiration, invented the harp. After a quarrel with her husband, she took a walk along the seashore where a strange and unearthly music lulled her to sleep. When she awoke, she discovered that the sound was made by the wind blowing through the skeleton of a rotting whale. She took the idea and created the harp.
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Humans have an emotionally complex relationship with this instrument. It is described as transportive, able to lift us out of ourselves, to induce melancholy or joy depending on the melody. Harps feature in many diverse mythologies and cultures. They're often things of magic which can entrance, or reveal the truth. This latter ability is a key part of the Twa Sisters ballad, which Sistersong reimagines.
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There is also something transformative about the harp and maybe this dates back to its genesis at the hands of Cludhmor, who turned a carcass into a beautiful instrument. It's this element that drew me to Twa Sisters, where the drowned girl is made into a harp to subsequently denounce her murderous sister. The harp's frame is carved from her breastbone, her golden hair its strings, her finger bones the delicate pins, her nails the pearly inlay... only in this changed form can she speak undisputed truth. And yet the harp is also a prison, a unique kind of lie, locking her into a bloody one-sided story forever.
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You can probably see why I wanted to get my hands on this tale. There is so much to explore in the harp motif alone – ideas of revelation, of truth-telling, storytelling, of transformation. I hope I've done this part of the ballad justice.
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Sistersong is published next Spring, but in the meantime, let me know if you have any favourite harp stories. My favourite harpist protagonist is Morgan of Hed in Patricia A McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy. I've also been meaning to read Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer 😊
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#Sistersong #bookstagram #igreads #twosisters #FolkloreThursday #folklore #mythology #harps #harper #folktale #folkballad #music #irishmythology #goddess #storytelling #upcoming #writing #fantasy #historicalfantasy #patriciaamckillip #ellenkushner #thomastherhymer

❝𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒔, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔.❞ ✦

I suspect this is a chronically underead book so that's why I'm sharing it! Also I had fun playing with the animations... One of the grandfathers of fantasy, Lord Dunsany is probably better known for his novel, The King of Elfland's Daughter, but these short stories are wonderful, utterly bizarre creatures. Check them out if you like the sound of the Under Pits of The City of Never, treasure hoarding gibbelins, unreachable countries through magical windows, or elfin horns blowing on the heights...
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#bookstagram #igreads #booklove #fairytale #folktale #lorddunsany #wondertales #beautifulbooks #readersofinstagram #bookphotography #alwaysreading #bookworm #fantasy #magic #fairyland #thekingofelflandsdaughter
#vimage

❝𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝔀

❝𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓭 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭 𝓲𝓼 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽.❞
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More woodland walks for you. But today I will let Robert MacFarlane speak for me when he talks about the 'wood wide web', a 'mysterious buried network that connects us all.' The following extract comes from his phenomenal book Underland:
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𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘜𝘳𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘢 𝘓𝘦 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘯'𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭, 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘵𝘩𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴. 𝘖𝘯 𝘈𝘵𝘩𝘴𝘩𝘦 – 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 – 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 "𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵."
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#bookstagram #igreads #robertmacfarlane #underland #thewoodwideweb #theunderstorey #nature #ursulaleguin #thewordforworldisforest #forest #trees #treeroots #devon #sidmouth #woodland #woods #woodlandwalk #river #stream #sciencefiction #networks #weareallconnected

My sister bought me this book of Norwegian folk/fa

My sister bought me this book of Norwegian folk/fairytales last Christmas and I have been flipping through it today while listening to Cecile Corbel 😍 The illustrations are by Kay Nielsen, one of my favourite illustrators. His style is so eerie and perfect. I think the best fairytales aren't supposed to leave you feeling comfortable but rather with a clinging sense of unease. They often have something to impart.
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Prince Lindworm is a great one, where a queen seeks a witch's help to become pregnant, but disobeys her order to eat only a single enchanted rose. The queen has twins, one a beautiful prince, the other a lindworm, who once he grows up, demands a bride and then eats her so the king and queen cannot persuade any girls to wed him. It's a beauty and the beast style story but much darker, involving sloughing skins, whipping, milk and lye before the curse is lifted. It also has a hint of Tam Lin about it too, as the beauty of the story must hold the worm no matter what he looks like in order to break the spell. Anyway it makes a good escape on a rainy afternoon.
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#bookstagram #igreads #booklove #fairytales #folktales #folkstories #kaynielsen #illustration #eastofthesunandwestofthemoon #norwegian #scandanavian #beautifulbooks #readersofinstagram #bookphotography #alwaysreading #bookworm #fiction #ilovereading #bookish #cecilecorbel #tamlin #beautyandthebeast

These pictures are also from the Salcombe Hill cli

These pictures are also from the Salcombe Hill cliff walk I did - you would never guess they were taken in the same place; wide ocean vistas immediately become tangled woodland. And while I love the expanse of blue, there's something magical about the way light touches bark and green. You very much feel as if you're walking in Fangorn or the outskirts of Lórien. Fairy foxgloves abound. And then we stumbled across that odd mound like a grassy cairn. While it reminded me of the way Tolkien describes Arwen's fate, there was also a marshy puddle nearby and the suggestion of something oval under the soil that made it seem a buried ship. Whenever I come across mounds like these, I can't help but wonder if there is anything human in them or about them – they are so deliberate. Anyway here's some more of the Arwen quote because I love it —
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𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘯-𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦, 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢.
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#bookstagram #tolkien #thelordoftherings #lotr #arwen #burialmound #woodland #salcombehill #devon #woodlandwalk #foxglove #trees #green #fairy #springtosummer #sidmouth #lorien #fangorn #fantasy

Digging through the archives, I found the cover of

Digging through the archives, I found the cover of Heartland (book two in my trilogy) that never was and thought people might like to see it too! I always loved the colours in this one. It does exist outside of my computer because Amazon somehow got hold of it, but since we redesigned the series halfway through, this version wasn't actually printed. Still think it's cool though 😊
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#bookstagram #igreads #worldmaker #worldmakertrilogy #coverlove #heartland #starborn #coverdesign #fromthearchives #fantasy #fantasybooks #epicfantasy

Time to talk about Sistersong’s magic system! Bu

Time to talk about Sistersong’s magic system! But first I’ll start with the relationship between weaving, women, fate and magic and how the whole concept is bound up in the archetypes of the Goddess and the Wyrd Sisters. I think it’s interesting that Tantra, ‘one of the world’s most esoteric and primordial religions,’ as Martin Wall describes it, ‘derives from a Sanskrit word meaning “to weave”.’ The idea of weaving is a very ancient metaphor for creating and destroying life and controlling fate.
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Women hold a unique place in the collective cultural and spiritual imagination and weaving has long been considered women’s work. The Greek Fates measure, weave and cut threads in much the same way as the Anglo-Saxon Wyrd Sisters, presiding over the lives of men. It’s the meditative element of this that interests me – the repetition of warp and weft – as well as the creation of patterns.
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Funnily enough, I invented Sistersong’s magic system before reading up about any of this, which just shows how powerful archetypes are – they reside in the collective unconscious and we use them to navigate our world. The magic in the novel comes from the ability to see primal patterns in the landscape and plays with another ancient and cross-cultural idea: that there is a spiritual connection between the land and the people.
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Today we might say this is realised as respect for the natural world. In my alternate 6th century Britain, however, the connection becomes threads of power that can be woven into magic. There are patterns that call fire, turn the wind, cause earth to sunder beneath unwary feet... Restoring the bond between land and people and learning to see patterns, is a big part of my protagonist Keyne’s journey.
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#bookstagram #igreads #FolkloreThursday #fantasy #historicalfantasy #celtic #anglosaxon #mythology #thegoddess #archetypes #wyrdsisters #thefates #weaving #loom #Sistersong #magic #pagan #amagicalhistoryofbritain #britons #earlymedieval #6thcentury #writing #magicsystem

Fantastic walk on top of the cliffs at Salcombe Hi

Fantastic walk on top of the cliffs at Salcombe Hill today. Looking east towards Branscombe (and eventually Lyme Regis), and in the last pic looking west back towards Sidmouth. No.3 is of the famous Frogstone! Could not have asked for more glorious weather.
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#sidmouth #salcombehill
#cliffs #southwestcoastpath #southwest #eastdevon #devon #englishlandscape #summer #lockdownwalk #seaside #sea #bigsky #frogstone

I hit 90K words on my still untitled work-in-progr

I hit 90K words on my still untitled work-in-progress today. And I thought, well, shit. This isn't a scruffy twenty-odd page document anymore. This is a chunky slice of another world. Since 90K coincides with starting the third and final part of the book, I thought I'd give you a little introduction.
*𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲*
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La Serenissima, the Most Serene Republic of Venice, is ruled by the Council of Ten. It is the strongest city state in Europe. To the casual observer, the Ten appear human, but their borrowed faces conceal beings of immense power. Beneath the labyrinthine streets and canals lies another city, a Venezia inverted. It is the lowland, the domain of the Ten's opposites and deadly enemies, the Sleepers. These beings of light above and of darkness below, wage a silent war, forever at a stalemate. Because the only people capable of tipping the scales are the alchemists...and they were killed off years ago.
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Corvo is a bad actor with a big heart, who trusts too easily, rescues kittens and believes the best of everyone. Meren is the long time servant of the Sleepers, jaded, merciless, already on his tenth life.
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This is a story about a playhouse boy who discovers a talent for turning lead into gold. This is a story about the man who must kill him.
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*𝗡𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲* Of course there's waaay more characters — like Ghisola, the dead alchemist imprisoned in a philosopher's stone, Thusa, the corsair who loved her, now also dead and the self-styled Corpse King. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 nemesis, Kiyo, displaced death god, and Lucrezia Morosini, the aging noblewoman who builds flying machines while searching for a way to murder her brother, the current Doge of Venice. Phew. ✢
Anyway all of this means I've written something like Fullmetal AlchemistxNeverwherexGood Omens but stuffed full of Italian fairytales in a Renaissance setting. I just hope I can bring it to you when it's ready 😊
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You can find the art I included on the relevant pinterest board (@silvanhistorian) with links to the full images and artists.
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#bookstagram #aesthetic #amwriting #fantasy #venice #wip #alternatehistory #alchemy #alchemist #writing #newbook #italianfolklore

Rediscovered these the other day - the first three

Rediscovered these the other day - the first three Sevenwaters books by Juliet Marillier. I loved them as a teenager and have almost the whole collection though I haven't read anything by the author for quite a few years. Daughter of the Forest is based on the famous folk / fairy tale The Six Swans, where six young princes are bespelled by their stepmother. To break the curse, their sister must weave six shirts from nettles and neither speak nor cry for six whole years. The last shirt is missing a sleeve when she ends up tied to the stake accused of witchcraft. Her brothers save her, but the one whose shirt is unfinished bears a swan's wing instead of an arm forever after. I love the stories of cursed children and prophecies, though they are often tragic.
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Marillier brings Celtic Ireland so vividly to life and really captures a Pagan world under threat of Christianity - the sense of magic fading is palpable and the fae are capricious beings that sometimes help and sometimes hinder as befits their arbitrary nature. Recommended if you are keen for some rich historical fantasy!
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#bookstagram #igreads #booklove #femalewriters #bookworm #beautifulbooks #readersofinstagram #bookphotography #alwaysreading #booksbooksbooks #fantasy #fairytale #folklore #folktale #pagan #celtic #magic #fae #historicalfantasy #ladyoftheforest #daughteroftheforest #julietmarillier #sevenwaters #sixswans

Gorgeous walk to the seafront this morning. It is

Gorgeous walk to the seafront this morning. It is a perfect blue sky day. Very few people around and the sea is calm. Apart from the gull letting loose on my foot (which I washed immenditaly lol) it was lovely. The only thing missing was coffee, so I've returned to the garden to make an iced latte. I suppose I'd better do some actual writing now 😅
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Staring at the border of ocean and land reminded me of Emily Dickinson's wonderful poem, Exultation —
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𝘌𝘹𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨
𝘖𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘢,
𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 — 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 —
𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘌𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 —
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𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦, 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴,
𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯
𝘖𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥?
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#sidmouth #devon #eastdevon #lockdownwalk #seaside #englishseaside #ocean #summer #sunshine #walk #beach #seagull #sea #exultation #emilydickinson #poetry #poem

❝𝓗𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓷

❝𝓗𝓮 𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓱𝓲𝓻𝓮, 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝔀𝓸𝓸𝓭𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓯𝓲𝓮𝓵𝓭𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓻𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓼.❞
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After two months of lockdown walks around The Byes, everything is a riot of green. Hurray for summer! The last photo was taken in mid-March and is there for comparison. So bare!
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On this walk we found somebody's riverside swing, an insect hotel, a beautiful orchard, a woven storyteller's hut and a mysterious path. The tangled woodland, stream and fiery green fields feel very Tolkien.
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#bookstagram #tolkienquotes #tolkien #thelordoftherings #theshire #lotr #frodo #bilbo #hobbiton #woodland #lockdownwalk #sidmouth #thebyes #devon #spring #summer #river #woodlandwalk #fantasy #insecthotel #appleorchard #storytelling

My Sistersong post today discusses why I included

My Sistersong post today discusses why I included the Saxons as a major power in the novel. We talk a lot about the Anglo Saxons, the founding of England and the English identity out of a cultural melting pot, but we don't talk so much about the 400 years preceding - when large parts of the Westcountry, Wales & Scotland were still tribal. Germanic peoples had already begun settling in Northumberland, East Anglia & the Midlands - the latter establishing the famous kingdom of Mercia - but the Westcountry would face hundreds of years of struggle before it finally became part of the kingdom of Wessex.
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The origins of Wessex lay with the Gewisse Saxons. They were later very important to the Anglo Saxons under Alfred; the Anglo Saxon Chronicle took pains to trace the royal lineage back to Cerdic and his son Cynric who landed on the Hampshire coast in 495 (this date is widely disputed) and began to conquer towns, gradually moving west.
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Cerdic & Cynric appear in many stories, usually alongside the apocryphal King Arthur. Since both their names are actually Celtic in origin, there is evidence to suggest they were low level ealdormen who already had ties of blood to the Britons, and who only started their campaign once the last of the Roman yoke fell away. Still, they are people on whose shoulders stories can be built and I thought they would pose an excellent threat to the tribal kingdom of Dumnonia, which held the Westcountry around the time the book is set - 535AD.
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Sistersong is a fantasy too, so the Gewisse represent the antithesis of magic - but also the future of the country. Although the people of Dumnonia like to see them as bloodthirsty invaders, that is only a single narrative with a single blunt purpose. We have always feared those we perceive as different or other — racially, culturally, socially, sexually — and I wanted to explore the consequences of this attitude and the scars it has left on our history.
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#bookstagram #igreads #Sistersong #history #britishhistory #england #anglosaxon #wessex #kingarthur #pagan #romanempire #devon #writingcommunity #historicalfiction #fantasy

Following my last post about the Japanese postcard

Following my last post about the Japanese postcards Mum brought back from her 1976 Rocky Horror tour, here are some actual photos or her as Janet. Super impressed at the high kick. The last two were taken later when she played Alice in Dick Wittington alongside Barbara Windsor. I have a cool mum right?
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#therockyhorrorshow #rockyhorrorpictureshow #janetandbrad #downmemorylane #theatre #mum #acting #panto #barbarawindsor #70s #1970s #throwback #archive

Mum dug out these incredible (now vintage) postcar

Mum dug out these incredible (now vintage) postcards from 1970s Japan. Some of you might know she played Janet in The Rocky Horror Show which toured Japan in the summer of 1976 for 3 months. They visisted Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Fukuoka, Sapporo, Hakodate, Kochi City, Kyoto and Beppu among other places and to be honest I'm gutted I wasn't born yet to see it!
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#japan #日本 #therockyhorrorpictureshow #therockyhorrorshow #vintage #vintagepostcards #postcards #showbusiness #1970s #70s #1976 #touring #tokyo #mum #bestmum #howcool #throwback #archive

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