Tim Flanagan's Blog, page 32
January 20, 2013
Title of the third Moon Stealers book is…
Just a quick snippet of information.
The third instalment of the Moon Stealer series will be out around April and continues immediately after Book 1. Steven, Georgia and Tracker have fought off the creatures to find sanctuary in Butterwick Hall but they hear a mysterious radio broadcast calling for survivors to make their way to London to help build a new community. Book 3 follows their desperate journey and the deadly consequences of the hunter now becoming the hunted. With plenty of twists and turns, hidden agendas, power struggles and a little bit of gore, it prepares us all for the explosive fourth and final book.
Anyway – as the title of this posts suggests – the third Moon Stealer book will be called…..
The Moon Stealers and the Everlasting Night.
A sample chapter will be posted shortly, as well as book cover images.
January 18, 2013
A Puzzle from Sir Hadwyn’s Tomb – The Runic Square
When Sir Edgar and the children enter Sir Hadwyn’s tomb beneath Edinburgh Castle (see MS#1:Ch16) they have to decipher the riddle that will lead them to discover the Silver Bough. Many other puzzle’s were later found within the tomb, here is one.
Can you solve the Runic Square?
January 17, 2013
Where’s King Arthur when you need him?
From the 12th Century onwards, there was a popular belief that King Arthur would return in Britans greatest need. In ‘De Miraculis Sanctae Mariae Laudensis,’ the French cleric Herman mentioned that Arthur still lived, as did William of Malmesbury, in ‘Gesta Regnum Anglorum’ (Chronicles of the Kings of England), after stating that the tomb of King Arthur had not been found, said : “whence ancient ballads fable that he is still to come.” When Philip II of Spain married Mary Tudor, he is believed to have said that he would resign the kingdom if Arthur should return.
Geoffrey of Monmouth (Historia Regnum Britannie – History of the Kings of Britain) reported that Arthur ‘was mortally wounded at Camlann but was then carried to the Isle of Avalon to be cured of his wounds.’ In Vita Merlini, Geoffrey implied that Arthur would return once he was cured of his wounds. Other thoughts suggested by others such as Loomis, suggested that Arthur resided in an underground world awaiting the time to arise once more.
What do you think?
In The Moon Stealer series of books, I took the ideals of chivalry that the ‘Knights of the Round Table’ lived and died by, and placed them into Sir Edgar, the childrens guide. He reported that he was send by Arthur to protect England and in doing so was his representative. Instead of a literal translation that Arthur would return in a physical body, I thought that Arthur’s spirit and belief’s may be a better way to represent his return and make for a more believable story.
January 16, 2013
A Winter Coast
This is a picture that I took this morning as I was walking to work. It snowed overnight and was so cold that it covered the beach. Very pretty.
January 15, 2013
From Feet to Fiction
I work every day as a Podiatrist, looking at people’s feet. Not very glamorous, I know, but there is always more to people than what there first appears. I also get an awful lot of enjoyment from writing, but it wasn’t always like that….
I’ve always been a stubborn person, which my wife will happily agree with, so when I was about 14 years old and my English teacher said that I could never compose complete sentences I made a point of proving him wrong. I remember sitting in my bedroom writing the greatest piece of descriptive work I possibly could about a tree. The Thesaurus had never been used so much! But the important thing was that I went back over the 500 word piece of writing and edited it several times joining the short sentences together to improve it.
So you could say that my writing started at that point, purely out of stubbornness. But I also learnt that my writing couldn’t keep up with the speed of my brain. If I wrote everything I thought of it was vital to go back and edit to improve the structure and flow of my work.
The next piece I wrote at school was a fantasy story that ended up being a lot longer than was required. After I had handed it in (together with an artistically drawn front cover. I think it was called The Citadel) the aforementioned English teacher stopped me in the corridor as I was going for my lunch break and asked if I had really written ‘The Citadel.’ He then gave me the highest mark possible for it and from then on we seemed to have a reasonable appreciation of each other.
So here’s to you Jed for making me want to prove you wrong!
It was quite a while after when I went back to fantasy novels. I gained an honours degree in Podiatry and followed the sensible career path, wrote a couple of medical books, but let’s be honest, they are pretty boring. For my own pleasure I had continued to write many different things including an Agatha Christie style whodunit, as well as a rather depressing story about a guy with cancer which was supposed to be a love story, but many of them still sit unfinished in a folder. One of the reasons I think I got bored with them was because they were restricting in many ways for me as the writer.
Things changed for me one morning in the bathroom when me and son, James, came up with the idea for The Moon Stealers. I find that writing a book for young people provides me with a lot more freedom for ideas and possibilities than an adult one. They are much more likely to accept things that an adult’s methodical and scientific brain would be closed to. With children there is no ‘that’s not possible,’ or ‘he wouldn’t do that,’ or ‘because of the erratic nature of ion’s it would not be physically possible for teleportation to occur when it rains.’ In short, to a child anything is possible. And, as a writer, that’s exciting. It’s like taking a child to a toy shop and saying: ‘play with whatever you want, however you want…. Oh yes, you can take it all home with you too if you want.’
Writing is inspiring. Children are refreshing. Freedom to write what you want is liberating. Sentences are sometimes short. Fiction is more interesting that feet.
October 31, 2012
The Moon Stealers Book 1 is now FREE on Kindle at Amazon.com
The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough is currently FREE on Amazon.com
Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Adventure series for Teens and Young Adults.
Help yourself and spread the word!
http://www.amazon.com/Stealers-Quest-Silver-Bough-ebook/dp/B008EE2DZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351600270&sr=8-1&keywords=the+moon+stealers
October 23, 2012
GREAT REVIEWS AND UPDATES
INCREDIBLE REVIEW OF BOOK 2.
"No words can describe how excited I was to read this book ... The adventures or fights they get into had me on the edge of my seat for most of the book! ... his writing is amazing ... I hope this series never ends"
I couldn't ask for better than that could I?
Read the full review here:
http://addicted2bookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-moon-sealers-book-2-by-tim-flanagan.html?zx=7de7480e8bf1f6ef
FIRST BOOK IS GOING FREE ON AMAZON US
The first book in the Moon Stealer series is available in several different places for FREE.
Amazon is making the book free on a permanent basis, which I'm happy about, as more people will be able to read it. Unfortunately it's on Amazon in the US that has made it free so far. (Working on UK amazon.)
http://www.amazon.com/Stealers-Quest-Silver-Bough-ebook/dp/B008EE2DZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351021794&sr=8-1&keywords=the+moon+stealers
Also free at Smashwords (for US or UK readers) in all versions of ebook:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/179735
So help yourself - the more people that know about the books the better. Enjoy!
September 25, 2012
THE MOON STEALERS FEATURED ON MAGIC FM RADIO
The London Radio Station, Magic FM, has the two Moon Stealer books featured in their Book Club (Extra reads) section of their website. Click the link below to go and have a look. http://www.magic.co.uk/moon-stealers-tim-flanagan/
BOOK ONE IS FREE TO DOWNLOAD
USA:
http://www.amazon.com/Stealers-Quest-Silver-Bough-ebook/dp/B008EE2DZE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348578858&sr=8-2&keywords=the+moon+stealers
UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stealers-Quest-Silver-Bough-ebook/dp/B008EE2DZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348578897&sr=8-1
September 15, 2012
SECOND BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE
Im pleased to let you know that the second book in the Moon Stealer series is now available in Ebook and paperback from:Amazon,
Smashwords,
B&N
"After finding the magical Silver Bough in the first Moon Stealer book, the portal to the underworld opens enabling Sir Edgar and the children; Max, Joe and Scarlet to jump through. They find themselves in a world at war and quickly become involved in an uprising against the Faerie Queen.
Their quest to find Peter Crisp continues, but the threat of the alien bacteria back home looms over them. Sir Edgar's attempt at gaining the Faerie Queens help in ridding the Moon Stealers from Earth looks like it may be a fruitless task.
In such an unchartered land it's difficult knowing who is friend and who is foe.Danger lurks in the most innocent of places.
