Ned Hayes's Blog, page 139

“The day is almost upon us, the houses and trees...

“The day is almost upon us, the houses and trees silhouetted by a faint blue light in the east. The burned croft is a smoking wreck, embers steaming in the dawn.

The wind blows a hard gust. There is a simmering argument in the crowd. When the harvest failed and the belts tightened in this starving season of ours, most were left too weak to search for food outside the village. How can any of us take a journey now?

……

As the light bleeds into the sky, the feeling of the crowd shifts with it. The hunger for this journey jumps back and forth between the villagers, like the heat of a flame passing between them.

For the spirit moves the men, just as it moves the wing’d creatures and rough beasts. I think of our first parents—Adam and Eve—as they staggered away from their paradise, thrust out of the garden by an avenging angel.

We are at the edge of the village commons now. After this point, we cannot turn back. We must find out who did this.”

— from the novel SINFUL FOLK

 

PHOTOS: Seasons (by Erik Witsoe)

Cover Reveal for new novel SINFUL FOLK

Cover Reveal for new novel SINFUL FOLK

"Rooks have clustered on either side of the long road. It is as...

"Rooks have clustered on either side of the long road. It is as if they line a grand parade route for our passage. Their black feathers are stark as soot against the white road and the snow. They stab at the ground with their strange bare bills and gray unfeathered faces. The birds are like rough-edged black stones on a string around this stripped cold neck of road. The old books tell us rooks bring the virtuous dead to heaven’s gate."
— from the novel Sinful Folk

New Book Endorsement: Brenda Vantrease (Bestselling Author of THE ILLUMINATOR)

I’m excited to announce that Brenda Vantrease, National Bestselling Author of The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller, just endorsed my forthcoming novel Sinful Folk . 

Here’s what Brenda Vantrease said: 

A pilgrim tale worthy of Chaucer, evocative, compelling and peopled with unforgettable characters artfully delivered by a master storyteller. Be warned: Dress warmly before beginning this perilous journey across a winter-blasted, medieval landscape of fire and ice. Your heart will shiver and not just from the cold.

"I really, really enjoyed reading your excellent novel, Sinful Folk. I wish you much success with this wonderful book. I hope it finds the audience it deserves."

Thanks, Brenda!

New Book Endorsement: Brenda Vantrease (Bestselling Author of THE ILLUMINATOR)

I'm excited to announce that Brenda Vantrease, National Bestselling Author of The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller, just endorsed my forthcoming novel Sinful Folk .

Here's what Brenda Vantrease said:

A pilgrim tale worthy of Chaucer, evocative, compelling and peopled with unforgettable characters artfully delivered by a master storyteller. Be warned: Dress warmly before beginning this perilous journey across a winter-blasted, medieval landscape of fire and ice. Your heart will shiver and not just from the cold.

"I really, really enjoyed reading your excellent novel, Sinful Folk. I wish you much success with this wonderful book. I hope it finds the audience it deserves."

Thanks, Brenda!

I have read that London was once a great city of the ancients,...

I have read that London was once a great city of the ancients, and we live in the cast off cloak of it now, a place long removed from former glory. The ancient world was built by a race of wise giants, hale and hearty in mind and body. They built the great structures – the walls, aqueducts and even the solid expanse of the road we long used – styled now the King’s Road, but once the Roman road. We are but a pale shadow of the world that once was.

Far above the teeming mass of the city rises the White Tower in its glory.”

 

— from the novel Sinful Folk 

"I can see her now. On the day we take the forest path to the...

"I can see her now. On the day we take the forest path to the deep stream beside the alder copse. There a plover calls in the deep woodsy stillness, and then a pair of martins dart across the over-grown path. Through the trees can be seen the thick and fast-moving line of flowing water, a steep bank beneath our feet and flowering at the edge of the water, the purple loosestrife and meadowsweet of spring."
— from the (forthcoming) novel SINFUL FOLK

PHOTO: from aquieterstorm

Great review for my first novel on Amazon — “Coeur d’Alene Waters is a murder mystery that rises...

Great review for my first novel on Amazon — “Coeur d’Alene Waters is a murder mystery that rises above the genre with language that is simultaneously lyrical and hard nosed. This work of literary fiction complex… taut… lyrical.” http://amzn.to/12gwruG

"Our days begin with trouble here,Our life is but a span;And cruel death is always near;So frail a..."

“Our days begin with trouble here,

Our life is but a span;

And cruel death is always near;

So frail a thing is man.”

- Gravestone inscription. (via diaryofabooknerd)

"The Manor Hall is grand and dark inside. Thick columns are...

"The Manor Hall is grand and dark inside. Thick columns are carved with figures ancient and fantastic. Draughts of smoke curl through the stabbing shafts of light that come in through the mullioned windows, from the west. All along the walls are great columns with stone carvings of men and birds and animals that have been worn down by time."
— from the novel Sinful Folk

PHOTO: A Light Through the Window - Original Photograph 8x10 - Amber Gold Medieval Architecture by TammieBowdenPhoto on Etsy