SCATTERING - Chapter 1 - edited

 

Finished editing the first chapter of SCATTERING, Book 2 of THE FARM series. Very happy with the result. My amazing editor does a wonderful job of turning my story into readable literature. 

Tomorrow we begin Chapter 2. Only 15 more to go!

SCATTERING - Coming soon

 Extract:

We saw the girls, who had finished their lunch and were chattering surrounded by several young men. Clare sighed. ‘Takes you back, doesn’t it?’

I gave her a weak grin. ‘I was never that popular.’ 

While we were watching, some of the workers began to trickle back to work. People crossed the open space in front go the forge and suddenly I held my breath. At the far end of the small square, someone had crossed from the forge to the next building. In the five or six strides he took, I recognised him. I’d know that easy, slight swing of his hips anywhere. It was Sugden. 

‘Clare! Did you see that man crossing at the back there?’ I could hardly get my words out. She peered through the small crowd and saw nothing. I was out of the door in an instant, racing around the corner of the visitors' centre and across the space. Behind the cluster of old workshops there was nothing but hedges and undergrowth. I ran inside the store shed but there was no one there. A second later Clare and the girls were behind me. 

‘What is it? What did you see?’ Bianca grabbed my arm.

‘I thought I saw someone I knew.’ I smiled apologetically at them. ‘But it couldn’t be,’ I looked across at Clare. Lynn had joined us.

‘I’ll talk to our security.’ Clare spoke softly as we followed the girls making their way back to the car. ‘We do have some security cameras.’ 

I was certain that I’d seen him. Belatedly, I realised that if I’d drawn attention to him, he could have been arrested. To many survivors in Sheffield, he was the man in charge of the community surveillance force, the dreaded CSF, but to me he was the man who had brought toys and much more to the orphans I’d supervised. He was the man with Japanese tattoos on his torso, who had tried to teach me about good Scotch, and he was the man who had warned me about the danger the children would face when the army attacked the Town Hall. I tried to keep involved with the conversations in the car, but I couldn’t get the image of him out of my mind.

SILVER MANTLE -article

 Recently, I was asked to provide an article for Readers' Magnet / Authors Lounge. Since then, I've discovered that many authors are not overly impressed with the company. The didn't ask for money but did ask me to write an article about my book, Silver Mantle. The article is below.

When young Megwin finds that she can speak to animals and rescues a fox from a royal hunting party, her life is changed forever. Recognising Megwin’s powers, the leader of the powerful Mantle magi, Silver Mantle, takes the girl to the capital of the Five Kingdoms, the city of Vellin, to the imposing Talarin, The College of the Mantles.

In the Talarin, Megwin begins her life as a novice, studying the dark arts of the magi, but soon her inexperience to control her increasing powers causes consternation among the senior Mantles, the members of the Souran. She hears their private conversations in her mind and is one of the few to feel the silent menace of an imminent earthquake. When a man is found strangled by his own vines, the Souran’s concerns appear justified, and they accuse Megwin of using her powers for revenge. 

Although she is supported by her mentor, when Megwin’s growing friendship with the heir to the throne becomes known, Silver Mantle uses her own impressive arts to destroy that friendship. Stung by the treatment she receives from Silver Mantle, Megwin leaves the capital and travels the countryside with her companions the fox and her horse, renewing her friendships with creatures and restoring the balance of nature. Her peace does not last long. She returns to The Talarin when a war between the kingdoms becomes inevitable. During the conflict, Megwin will be called upon to use her powers to defeat her most unique and dangerous enemy, and it will be her task to heal the land when war is over. 

Silver Mantle is the first in a series of five books, each one bearing the name of one of the Souran Mantles. Readers follow Megwin from the royal court to the inhospitable marshes, from fiery volcanoes into treacherous storms at sea as she gradually uncovers her past and how she is linked to the ancient forces of the land.

Gail Merritt

Since childhood I have always relished books, and I’ve always written for my own pleasure. As an adult I was fortunate to win some short story competitions, but Silver Mantle began its evolution from a challenge. Invited to pitch a young adult book to several Australian publishers, I began to write it during the school summer holidays. I was delighted that Lothian Books, Melbourne published the earliest version, now out of print, and they encouraged the completion of the second book in the series, Green Mantle. Sadly, my work and growing family curtailed my writing until I decided to retire from teaching.

As an upper primary school teacher, I encouraged my students to go beyond the facts presented in class, to consider scenarios based around the topics we were covering, often linking it with creative writing lessons. The Mantle Chronicles reflect some of those popular topics as the settings for Megwin’s adventures. The natural world offers plenty to investigate, the flora and fauna of various landscapes, the oceans and their populations, the subterranean world of rocks and volcanoes. In later books, human rights, the use of resources, the development of technologies and the destruction of landscapes feature, and throughout the series, the quest for personal identity and the value of family mingles with legend and magic.

While the early books were aimed at young adult readers, I have been pleased to hear that parents have enjoyed reading them too. Each book adds slightly more complex themes, all the better for discussion in class or between parents and their children. 

That said, I wrote Silver Mantle to be enjoyed, not as a teaching tool. If children get nothing more than the pleasure of meeting Megwin, the fox and Gilbert the horse, and in their imaginations travel the same roads and share the adventures of the three friends, then I shall feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do, to write a memorable tale.

• ‘Silver Mantle’ is available from Amazon as an e-book or paperback 

• (ASIN: B089RY75NY)