Ned Hayes's Blog, page 89

"Hillocks and haystacks rise up, isles in a smoking brume. After...

"Hillocks and haystacks rise up, isles in a smoking brume. After the snow of the night before, the day is washed clean: all is silver and bright with ice, and a light wind moves us forward. Here and there snow has blown aside, revealing the line of the great white stone road that slices through the hills. It is an unswerving line marked by the Romans, carved straight out of this untrammeled landscape.”

— from the novel SINFUL FOLK

PHOTO: Coquihalla Mountain ➾ Luke Gram

"Sound carries far here in the trees. Snow slides off a heavy...

"Sound carries far here in the trees. Snow slides off a heavy oak as some creature shuffles through the woods, and ancient branches snap. Out of the corner of one eye, I see the flash of colored feathers. It is a yellowhammer, black eyes flickering in a hedgerow, tiny breast plumped out in golden livery, streaked with colors rich and brown. It was calling in its winter song:

    A little bit of bread and no cheese—

    A little bit of bread and no cheese—

Moments later, the bracken flutters and the slight shadow of the bird darts into the woods. Deep in the forest now, I hear a low voice that wends back and forth, whispering in secret.”

— from the novel Sinful Folk 

PHOTO: 90377: unbenannt by marzukrene on Flickr.

"Words, so innocent and powerless as they are… how potent...

"Words, so innocent and powerless as they are… how potent for good and evil." — Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Fog lifts in the valley, rising as mist through the bare-limbed...

“Fog lifts in the valley, rising as mist through the bare-limbed trees. Far below lies the deeping combe with our village in the heart of it. My whole world for nearly a decade has been contained in that place—and now the village of Duns looks so small. This is the very place at which I first saw the village ten years ago. The line of trees here on the ridge is unchanged, as if I came here only yesterday. I waited in the quiet vale of Duns far too long.”

— from the novel SINFUL FOLK

PHOTO: untitled by Eugene_Malyhanov on Flickr.

Review - No More Grumpy Bookseller

Wow — nice little review this morning from TLC Book Tours and the "No More Grumpy Bookseller" site.

"Ned Hayes’s latest is superb, guys! I mean really superb! There are so many things I want to note but I’m trying very hard to restrain myself because I think I’d prefer to leave some of the surprises for other potential readers to discover on their own. So here goes!

It’s historical fiction set in 1377 with a truly fabulous narrator. Mear/Miriam has very good reason to hide her identity, not least of which is the fact that we soon discover the villagers’ fear of single women living amongst them. As their travels progress Mear becomes even more afraid of the possible discovery of her identity in spite of the fact that she oftentimes is the one who saves many of them from grave peril.

And it’s Mear’s secrets that really make this a stand out - what she’s running from and why she’s kept her identity secret for so long. Hayes intertwines Miriam’s tale around Mear’s journey, revealing pieces of her past through her own memories while also giving clues through other characters along the way.

Hayes’s tale is wrapped around a true historic event - apparently medieval records do note the deaths of a handful of village children in a fire in 1377 and the villagers’ journey to seek justice from the king. But the twist is even more clever - there’s a second historical note that has inspired this tale and that’s what I don’t want to give away. I will say this, considering some of my recent reading this was a timely one for my TBR.

Sinful Folk has elements of mystery and suspense and an obvious careful attention to historical accuracy. Hayes sets the tone nicely and Mear does all the rest! Historical fiction fans take note, this is definitely one not to miss!

Rating: 4.5/5

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here »

bookgeekconfessions:Goodreads again!

bookgeekconfessions:

Goodreads again!

"If you use magic in fiction, the first thing you have to do is put barriers up. There must be limits..."

“"If you use magic in fiction, the first thing you have to do is put barriers up. There must be limits to magic. If you can snap your fingers and make anything happen, where’s the fun in that? … The story really starts when you put limits on magic. Where fantasy gets a bad name is when anything can happen because a wizard snaps his fingers. Magic has to come with a cost, probably a much bigger cost than when things are done by what is usually called ‘the hard way.’””

- Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld series, on writing magic. (via moniquill)

“Spring grew into summer, and the rhythm of my life now included...

“Spring grew into summer, and the rhythm of my life now included Nell. I learned that her secret lavender and mint beds were deep in the woods, out by the chuckling stream that disappeared underground. She gathered plants she needed every day, and she was as a child who gathers flowers in May.”

— from the novel SINFUL FOLK

PHOTO: branna-laurelin: Shades of Green

"And I thought about books. And for the first time I realised that a man was behind each one of the..."

“And I thought about books. And for the first time I realised that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper.”

- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (via treesofreverie)

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION DATE OF...

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION DATE OF “WALDEN” BY Henry David Thoreau

August 9, 1854

Life In the Woods

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Henry David Thoreau

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