Cynan Jones's Blog - Posts Tagged "re-telling"
Bird, Blood, Snow
The book starts to feel a little more real when you see the typeset.
It was very different to write this, so still bemused as to how people will react, given what I've written before.
Uncorrected proofs due soon after a fight with some legal bullies.
It was very different to write this, so still bemused as to how people will react, given what I've written before.
Uncorrected proofs due soon after a fight with some legal bullies.
Bird, Blood, Snow
Now available to pre-order. But brace yourself... this is completely different.
The original Peredur tale recounts the adventures of a youth bent on recognition as a true knight worthy of place in King Arthur’s court. En route, he defends maidens, defeats giants, and eventually overcomes the witches who threaten the Arthurian world.
Bird, Blood, Snow brings the tale into the present with a story of a delinquent child’s quest into adulthood.
Peredur's mother has taken him from the estates in the hope he won’t suffer the same fate as his father and brothers, all of whom are dead, jailed or missing.
But the world won’t be held at bay. When kids from the nearby estate cycle into Peredur’s life, he wants to join their games.
Collapsed into alcoholism, Peredur’s mother can’t stop him from heading off, accompanied by the notion of finding Arthur – an absent invisible guardian.
Always building his own play worlds, he reacts to the people he meets as characters of his own making. So he’s something of a joke. Until he seriously maims one of the older boys. And that brings the police after him.
Taken from his mother, he’s moved round children’s homes and foster parents, often escaping to pursue his quest for Arthur. Through various violences and demolishments his mis-shapen mind carves its own route through adolescence, and into a lunatic adulthood.
The original Peredur tale recounts the adventures of a youth bent on recognition as a true knight worthy of place in King Arthur’s court. En route, he defends maidens, defeats giants, and eventually overcomes the witches who threaten the Arthurian world.
Bird, Blood, Snow brings the tale into the present with a story of a delinquent child’s quest into adulthood.
Peredur's mother has taken him from the estates in the hope he won’t suffer the same fate as his father and brothers, all of whom are dead, jailed or missing.
But the world won’t be held at bay. When kids from the nearby estate cycle into Peredur’s life, he wants to join their games.
Collapsed into alcoholism, Peredur’s mother can’t stop him from heading off, accompanied by the notion of finding Arthur – an absent invisible guardian.
Always building his own play worlds, he reacts to the people he meets as characters of his own making. So he’s something of a joke. Until he seriously maims one of the older boys. And that brings the police after him.
Taken from his mother, he’s moved round children’s homes and foster parents, often escaping to pursue his quest for Arthur. Through various violences and demolishments his mis-shapen mind carves its own route through adolescence, and into a lunatic adulthood.
Book out.
When I read through the original text of Peredur I thought: shit. Unlike the other tales, it was thin on imagery, the plot was incoherent at times, and there seemed little to hook a re-telling off.
I was the last to be asked to contribute to the series, and it was the only story left. There was a reason the other writers had left it.
One image stood out clearly: the bird killed by a hawk dead in the snow. Other than that, I sensed a lunacy, and a violence.
That was the starting point.
I was the last to be asked to contribute to the series, and it was the only story left. There was a reason the other writers had left it.
One image stood out clearly: the bird killed by a hawk dead in the snow. Other than that, I sensed a lunacy, and a violence.
That was the starting point.
