Tim Flanagan's Blog, page 30

The Knights Map

I came across this interesting puzzle within the pages of Historia Regum Britanniae. It’s an ancient map that King Arthur’s Knights used to locate buried gold coins. Where a runic number is etched in a square, it indicates how many coins are located in the squares surrounding that square. There is only one coin in each individual square and a coin cannot be buried in a numbered square. Mark the locations of all 25 of the coins, one has been included to start you off.

St Giles Cathedral

When I began planning the ‘solving of the riddle’ section in the first Moon Stealer book, I looked for locations that would add interest to the story. Edinburgh provided numerous different possible locations, but one I particularly

liked was St Giles Cathedral, home to the Chapel of the Order of the Thistle, an ancient order of chivalry of knights, consisting of the Sovereign and sixteen Knights and ladies.

Many important Scottish people have memorials or monuments within the cathedral including the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, famous for Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Linking the history or the Order, together with Stevenson’s plaque added great authenticity to the story, as well as real places to visit for anyone wanting to follow the riddle themselves.

Steven Knights Survival Plan

Dear readers, I have pleasure in welcoming Steven Knight as a very special guest blogger. He will impart some of his knowledge in surviving life with the Moon Stealers in a series of posts. As his life is very unpredictable, I’m sure you will understand if his posts become irregular or fail to arrive.

Welcome to my first Guest Post.

Before we get down to the important issue of survival, I think it is only right of me to introduce myself. My name is Steven Knight. I’m an operative for the Secret Intelligence Service – SIS (also known as MI6) in London, England. I worked in the Unexplained Foreign Activity department investigating hoaxes and fake photographs, but never truly finding any evidence of aliens. That was until I went to investigate a meteorite landing site in Yorkshire.

But, none of that really matters anymore. The world has changed, humans no longer stand dominantly above everything else on the planet. A new threat has arrived, one that is stronger and more deadly than us. And it threatens our entire existence on Earth and whether we have a future on it. You can’t imagine what life is really like in a world where humans are the hunted. We hide at night, listening to the creatures as they test our defences and attempt to find a way in. For now we are safe. We have found many ways to find food, collect water and harness energy, which I will share with you all over the coming weeks. If we are to survive we need to share our survival tips. Together with my friends, Georgia and Tracker, we are slowly learning how to live in a world without luxuries. When there is no power, even the simplest thing, like brewing a cup of tea, becomes a long and complicated process.

Join me on my next post, when I will tell you about the basic equipment you need to survive in this new world.

Until then, stay together – SK

Ground Dwellers – a short introduction.

There are many different races that live in the underworld, but one I enjoyed writing about were the Ground Dwellers.

They are generally short, about the height of a 10 year old child and tend to be quite grumpy by nature. Their ancient kingdom comprised of a network of tunnels and chambers deep beneath the Arenadra Plains called the Dragonheart Cavern. Underworld legend says that all the bad souls that die make their way to the dragon to be burnt and cleansed by her fire. The Ground Dwellers tunneling unexpectedly disturbed the dragon allowing some of the bad souls to escape and poison many of their people.

Ground Dwellers cannot resist gold and shiny objects and by nature are quite greedy. The current Lord of the Ground Dwellers is Lord Claydem, son of Pithleslip. Although they don’t like to admit it, Ground Dwellers are distant relatives to Hill Dwarfs.

(Artwork by the brilliant Grzegorz Rutkowski)

Translating Runic Magical Script

Ancient scripts have often played an important role in fantasy themed books. In the Moon Stealer series, I didn’t want to invent a new language, but instead decided to use an ancient script that was already part of our history.

As previously mentioned, runes were often used to foretell the future as well as for provide personal guidance and transformation. Runes would have been etched on staves of wood, scattered, three selected then read by the officiant. Today it is known as ‘asking the Norns’, or the Wyrd sisters – representing the past, present and future.

Here are just a few interpretations of the runes:

A Puzzle from Sir Hadwyns Tomb

Beneath Edinburgh Castle lies the tomb of Sir Hadwyn, a loyal Knight to Mary Queen of Scots. Engraved upon the soft stone walls was this unusual puzzle, which had been documented in the ancient pages of an untitled volume once owned by Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford in the 12th Century, and recreated for you here by the blog author.

The Ouroboros Star

Just like the locations I use in my books, I also like to include known symbols and imagery that actually exists. This gives the books a bit more of a feeling of realism, even if the subject is pure fantasy.

When I began writing about The Faerie Queen in the second Moon Stealer book, I realised that she needed a powerful and magical symbol that incorporated some of her Faerie nature, as well as her immortality. After some research I decided to incorporate two symbols, the Ouroboros and the Seven pointed Star, creating the Ouroboros Star.

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol that represents something that is constantly re-creating itself or being reborn, ie immortal. The serpent or dragon that makes up the ring consumes its own tail and is often seen as a Sigil – a symbol of magic for continual life and death.

To give the Ouroboros more

magical importance, I placed a seven pointed star within the ring called the Elven Star (also called the Faerie Star). The points of the star refer to the sacred number seven. One explanation states that the Elven Star represents

 the human race (two legs, two arms, and a head) together with two wings representing the Faerie race. Another theory suggests the points represent the seven magical elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Life,

Light and Magic. Whatever you think the seven pointed star could represent, it certainly has a lot of conn

ections to the world around us: seven is a prime number, rainbows have seven colours, the seven wonders of the world, seven days of creation, seven virtues and seven deadly sins, amongst many, many others.

New Cover Art for the Moon Stealers

Do you fancy being immortalised in a book? Well, that’s one of the prizes on offer as part of a new project I have on the go at Kickstarter. You could be a character in the fourth Moon Stealer book which is due out in December 2013. There are some other great items to win including signed books, limited edition prints, as well as afternoon tea at the Dorchester, London. How civilised!

I’m raising money to get a unique set of artworks created featuring a scene from each of the Moon Stealer books. I have been talking to a brilliant artist from Poland called Grzegorz Rutkowski who’s artwork would suit the Moon Stealer books perfectly and help make them more appealing to Teens and Young Adults.

Follow the link below to read about the project and if you feel inclined to be part of this exciting opportunity simply bid anything from £1 to £300. Anyone in any country can pledge.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1232024306/cover-art-for-the-moon-stealer-book-series

Caniards – Wolf Herders

 

For the second Moon Stealer book, I wanted to create a new type of human, so came up with Caniards. They are a short race of people that are in tune with nature. They had dark skin, very much like native Americans, with dark braided hair. Every Caniard pairs with a wolf for life. A special mental link exists between the wolf and its owner that enables them to talk to each other as well as tune into their senses.

Generally a peaceful breed of people that farm and live in communities, they also traded with the travellers that passed through the portals from our world into theirs. Some Caniards, particularly royalty, have the ability to see into the future. They are skilled in metalwork and fabric work. Their speciality is making cloaks out of wolf skins that enable them to blend into the surroundings.

King Ulfric successfully ruled the Grey Wolf Caniards in the Underworld until he was betrayed by his blood cousin, Wolfram De Gau, the Black Wolf leader. The Faerie Queen destroyed his kingdom and collected the wolf pelts as trophies. Ulfric’s surviving daughter, Princess Ralphina, helps Sir Edgar and the children across the Underworld to join the native creatures and help overthrow the Queen.

Mystery’s of the Stone Circles

The local legends that surround stone circles often have one thing in common – petrification, or turning humans to stone.

The British Isles have the highest number of stone circles in the world, the most popular of course is Stonehenge. There has always been scientific and religious speculation over the origins and purpose of the circles, but the legends that are known locally provide much more interesting stories.

Local legends say that a single stone on its own was said to have been thrown or dropped by the Devil, a giant or a mighty hero. However, multiple stones were thought to be living people that had been petrified because of wickedness. At Mitchell’s Ford in Shropshire, a wicked old woman milked a Fairy cow dry so was turned to stone. Other stones were placed around her to pen her in. Whilst in Oxfordshire, the Rollright Stones were once thought to be an invading king and his army, thwarted by a witches power.

When writing the Moon Stealers, I wanted to choose a mystical location where a magic portal could open to another world. The stone circle on the hill overlooking Parsley Bottom is thought to be the site of Lud’s Chapel where the marriage between a human, Sir Gawain of the Knights of the Round Table, and Belphoebe, a Faerie Princess, was taking place. Faerie lore forbid marriages between humans and Faerie, so the Faerie Queen turned the couple, as well as the attending guests and Bishop Baldwin, to stone.