R.E. Palmer's Blog

in tolkien's footsteps (I wish...)

As a teenager, I used to wander through nearby fields and woodlands, imagining scenes from Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I discovered the great man spent his formative years just three miles from where I was brought up.

My first job at 16 in Shirley, Birmingham (not Shirely!) was less than a mile from his childhood home in Sarehole Mill. In my lunch break, I would go for a run and unknowingly pass his house. But best of all was the route through Moseley Bog - a...

Why write epic fantasy?

I'd written five books before I finally plucked up the courage to write epic fantasy. It's always been my favourite genre so perhaps I was a little apprehensive to take it on. But come on... epic fantasy. It's a made-up world and it's epic! So what writer wouldn't want to take up the challenge? 

Where to start? I decided it would begin with a map. I became fascinated with maps when spending the summer holiday with my grandmother when I was around 8 years old. She had a huge world atlas from the 1...

Sea of souls is here!

Sea of Souls (click to enlarge) It's taken a little longer than I'd hoped (unfortunately my 'day job' has to take priority), but the third book in my Song of Echoes Epic Fantasy Series comes out tomorrow! The kindle edition is available on 20th, March 2023, and the paperback will be published mid-April.

Sea of Souls is the third installment of the five book series, although as I flesh out the scope of the fourth, it might end up needing six to complete the story!

The feedback from my invaluably be...

Book 3 is taking shape

I've been encourage by the reviews of the first two books - well most of them :0) It was quite a nervy few weeks when I published the first book after committing to write 5 in the series. What if everyone hated it? Should I continue?

Thankfully, it hasn't come to that, and many readers have also rated the second book, 'Age of Shadow' highly - with some saying they enjoyed it even more than the first :0)

So, now I'm fast-approaching the half-way stage with the third in the series. Unusually for me,...

Age of Shadows (Song of Echoes #2) ARC is ready.

I've just completed the ARC for the second book in my Song of Echoes series (I plan 5 in total). By some strange coincidence, Age of Shadows is within 200 words of the first at 128,880. When I noticed, I thought it might be cool to make each book the same length, but then it gets too complicated... and a little silly :0)

Anyway, I've been encouraged by feedback from my beta readers and am very pleased with the result - although one can never be 100% satisfied, but I would say I'm about 85%.

I'm about to send the ARC out to a dozen or so reviewers, if you would like one please contact me via my website .

I hope to get the final edition ready (both print and kindle) by sometime in December - although this could slip depending on the demands of my day job and other challenges.

Stay well everyone :0)

Roy

COver reveal... Age of shadows

I've almost completed the second book of my epic fantasy series, Song of Echoes! The Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) will be ready in around 2 weeks. I've already had feedback from a number of beta-readers who have trawled through the early drafts. 

I hope to have the book ready to publish by mid-December (maybe a little later). But here I want to do the cover reveal.

And here it is.... well, the Kindle edition for now.​ The artwork is by the brilliant Kentaro Kanamoto - see full image below fo...

Almost there... my first fantasy novel & MAP!

Ever since I opened a copy of Tolkien's The Hobbit and unfolded the map I was hooked into fantasy. As a ten year-old, I vividly remember looking at the mountains and forests and could imagine stepping into Middle Earth and meeting his rich characters.

From an early age, I had drawn maps of imaginary worlds inhabited by strange races and creatures. I envisaged impassible mountain ranges, deep ravines, impenetrable forests, and marshes where the insects would eat you alive. And then ask, what creat...

Inspiration and ideas

I'm often asked where do I get my ideas for my stories... well, okay not that often, if at all, but I do ask myself that question. For The Never Dawn it's pretty obvious that Orwell's 1984 plays a major part in the concept. But sometimes it's things I've read or watched years before that leave an impression that re-surface to influence my stories.

One I'd forgotten was Fritz Lang's Metropolis. I must have watched it when I was in my mid-teens and it blew my mind, as they say. Lang's 1927 film...

That all important title... how the hell do you come up with one?

To date I've written five fiction, and three non-fiction books, and the one thing in common will all of them is coming up with the few words for the title! I always struggle and can take weeks (or even months) to find something appropriate.

I've made a promise to myself - next time I'll start with the title and then write the book.

But that didn't help with the three books of my dystopian trilogy. I did what most people do and googled 'how to choose a title for my book' and after trawling throu...

Who would have thought writing a dystopian trilogy could be so much work?

The success of Divergent, The Maze Runner and my favourite of the recent trilogies, Hunger Games, will have inspired hundreds of writers to have a go for themselves - including me. And why not? The temptation to build a world with its own rules, populated by a diverse bunch of characters straight out of our heads is very tempting. Add the hope that it may become a best-seller with a massive movie franchise (however remote) and it's too good an opportunity to miss.

But... while I find ideas for...