Publishing update

I've spent the morning editing the Smashwords ebook into a Lulu paperback version, and it should be available now on the Lulu store. I'm not sure when it will be on amazon, but in the meantime: Ten Years A Bard is the Lulu link.

 

Update 7.1

 Aside from the usual weekend activities, I've been doing more research as to what, if anything, Gwernin will find at Aquae Sulis when he gets there. Conclusion: lots of hot water, but not much in the way of Roman remains. Time to start writing again...

Regarding the 6th book, I have a good idea what will happen in the first third, vaguer ideas about the rest. This will involve another set of initiatory experiences for someone, another meeting with Fráechán mac Tenusán, and the death of King Díarmait mac Cerbaill.

Update 7.0

 Not much writing today; mostly research for Gwernin's next stop. I also spent a little while designing a cover for book #6, which will be the 3rd in the "Gwernin's Quests" Trilogy. I'm hoping to have that one done by the end of next year. The water, by the way, is the Boyne at Newgrange.

Writing update, chapter 6.1

 1,150 words today, and essentially the end of chapter 6, bar a little editing. This was the story of Gwernin's visit to Prince Condidan's town of Corinium (Cirenchester). As usual, what I write about places is based on the history and archaeology as well as my own travels, although I had to invent a little more than usual this time. Next stop: Aquae Sulis (Bath). There is a bitter-sweet flavor to some of this section of the book for me, as we are about 15 years before the Saxon victory at Deorham.

writing update, chapter 6.0

 I haven't got much writing done in the last week due to the hot weather, which makes it difficult to imagine I'm in Wales in May, but I've started chapter 6 in The Old Gods Endure. Chapter title: "The Town Outside the Walls". It begins near the burial mound in the cover photo...

Passing a mound of the old ones not unlike the one I had once seen at Bryn Celli Ddu on Ynys Môn, I asked Taliesin if he knew this one’s history, but he only smiled. “We are not going to investigate it today, Gwernin,” he said. “Better not to disturb… those who dwell there… in any case. Although I believe the local people still leave offerings for them at certain times of the year.”

“At Samhain?” I asked, and he nodded.

“Just so.”

More Mac Criomthann Tales (2)

Chapter list for this collection:

Introduction
1. How Mac Criomthann First Came to Ériu
2. Mac Criomthann and Airecal
3. Mac Criomthann and the Need for Light
4. Mac Criomthann and the Words that Kill
5. Mac Criomthann and the Men who Disappeared
Afterword

The third and fourth stories are the new ones, which I wrote for this book. There will eventually be a paperback (Lulu) version, probably by Samhain.

More Mac Criomthann Tales...

 Haven't done much writing this week because it's been too hot. However, I've finalized my second collection of Mac Criomthann tales on Smashwords. It's officially published on September 1st, but here is a pre-sale link: 

https://www.smashwords.com/books/presale/1145123/J9JYP7

There are 5 stories in this collection. Three of the tales and one in its predecessor appear as interior stories in the fourth Storyteller book, The Fallen Stones, but two of the others are new. There will be more.

A taster:

Introduction

Many are the tales which were once told of the Druid called Mac Criomthann and the adventures which befell him in the years he wandered Ireland. For it was not a man of Ériu that he was, but a Briton, and how he came by his name and his nature in that great island I have told elsewhere. Most of his tales are lost now, or attributed to other heroes and magicians, but these few I have salvaged. I heard them once from an ancient Storyteller, long ago in a distant land. Now I share them with you here…