Robert Scott-Norton's Blog, page 2

Now what does the radiation read, Susan?

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And this is when it all changed. For ever.
I watched this for the first time when the VHS releases came out in 1989. But, my first experience of the story was from the Peter Cushing movie. So, none of this felt especially new to me, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment of it all. Even back then, my interest in the production of the show was forcing me to find comparisons between the two versions and as this was naturally longer, it was great to see all of this 'extra' material; almost like a director's cut.
Watching it now I still enjoyed it. The Doctor is still surprisingly callous to his companions so not the man we come to know at all. But, he's a scientist and an explorer and his arrogance is what puts the whole crew in danger.
I was brushing Emily's hair during this episode and whilst she wasn't giving it her full attention, she was certainly watching chunks of it.
The Doctor's business with the fluid link is so silly. The crew don't notice him fiddling around.Are they at all suspicious about what's happened with the fluid link?The Doctor is much kinder in this episode.Billy's fluffs about the affects on Susan.The food machine is nice, but a daft explanation for how it works.The city looks great.Separating seems an unnecessarily risky thing to doLove the doors closing behind BarbaraBackground music in the city is beautifully creepyJacqueline Hill's scream possibly saved the show?

BARBARA: Ian, where are we?
IAN: I don't know.
BARBARA: Well why doesn't he take us back?
IAN: I'm not sure that he can.
BARBARA: What, ever?
IAN: I hate it as much as you. I'm just as afraid. But what can we do?
BARBARA: Well, we could at least stay near the ship.
IAN: The ship's no good without him. We'd better keep an eye on him. He seems to have a knack of getting himself into trouble.
BARBARA: You think there's any danger?

The Dead Planet at TARDIS data core

Fear makes companions of all of us

I've kind of ended up watching the last two episodes of the first serial this week. Wasn't expecting that. And what else I wasn't expecting was to actually enjoy the episodes with the tribe of Gum.
My recollection from the last time I watched these four episodes was that it was all just a bit dull and tedious after the opening episode, and that was reinforced by my falling asleep during The Cave of Skulls. But, what I actually found when I was awake enough to appreciate it, was that the story is actually quite good. Two people fighting over the right to control the tribe—it's all about politics isn't it? And the acting is good. The four regulars are giving it their all and the guest actors (who must have been bemused by the show and irritated by the fleas in that sand) were all great. No one is hamming anything up here. Admittedly, I think you'd find it hard for anyone not already a fan to appreciate this story, but I've found a new found appreciation for it.The Doctor is still not the hero. He may be smart, but it comes across as rather tricksy.He really was going to bash that man's head in with that rock wasn't he? What a bastard.Ian is still the leader.Great camera work with the skulls on fire.Loved the final flight back to the ship. The regulars look like they're really pelting it, really frightened by their predicament.

From Forest of Fear
DOCTOR: Well, try and remember, if you can, how you and the others found your way here. Concentrate on that please. BARBARA: Yes, yes, I'll try. You're trying to help me. DOCTOR: Fear makes companions of all of us. That's right. BARBARA: I never thought once you were afraid. DOCTOR: Fear is with all of us, and always will be. Just like that other sensation that lives with it. BARBARA: What's that? DOCTOR: Your companion referred to it. Hope. Hope, that's right.
From The Firemaker
DOCTOR: Quench the fire. Take the fire away from them. Scaring them, somehow. SUSAN: (putting a skull on top of a burning brand) Hey, Grandfather, look! It's almost alive. IAN: Not alive, Susan. Almost dead. We're going to make four torches. We'll find the sticks. And we'll use the fat from the meat. And then SUSAN: And then? IAN: And then, to all intents and purposes, we're going to die.

Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman

Blimey, that's a fantastic cliffhanger of an image they left us with after An Unearthly Child. What the hell is causing that shadow? Answer, a rather dirty looking man. Oh.
I'll confess to generally falling asleep during some episodes of Doctor Who. I did with this episode as well. But! Wait! I was writing until about 11 PM and waiting for Mandy to get home (I'm normally well asleep by this time). So, I watched it again today whilst putting away the ironing (laundry activities feature fairly heavily in my attempts to stay awake during Doctor Who—you're going to think I don't actually like the show soon).
It was much better than I remembered it being.I was genuinely interested in the political struggles between Za and Kal.I'm glad there's not too much grunting.What the hell were they thinking doing a caveman story straight away? But on reflection far better than the Giants episode that would have been in its place.The Doctor is less annoying than I remembered him being. He's still not the character we know and love, but there are moments of recognition.Ian is ace. Viewers must have thought the show centred around him.
Ian Chesterton: Just a minute. You say we've gone back in time?
The Doctor: Yes, quite so.
Ian Chesterton: So that when we go out of that door, we won't be in a junkyard in London in England in the year 1963?
The Doctor: That is quite correct. But your tone suggests ridicule.
Ian Chesterton: But it is ridiculous. Time doesn't go round and round in circles. You can't get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future.
The Doctor: Really? Where does time go, then?
Ian Chesterton: It doesn't go anywhere. It just happens and then it's finished.

—and if we let go...That's who I am

I knew that even after one episode of the Doctor Who marathon there might have to be a tweak. I'd hoped to convince Emily to watch with me from THE VERY BEGINNING but she was having none of it. She was only interested in watching colour, but much more specifically from the 9th Doctor onwards. Inside a little bit of me died, but maybe this is a way for me to watch 'classic' who (I'm dropping the quotes from this point on) by watching at my leisure, and also doubling up by watching 'new' who at the same time.

My memories of Rose are vast and all mixed up with the various excitements about a new series coming back on air. When they first announced it back in November 2013 it was a teeny few paragraphs in Doctor Who Magazine and so prosaic that it reinforced the notion that this wasn't actually really going to happen.

When Chris Eccleston was announced as the Doctor, it was my wife that told me, on a Saturday when she was still working for the lottery, she managed to ring me up and tell me. Little bit gutted that I wasn't on the ball enough to find out for myself but there you go. Can't remember how I felt about his casting. I DO REMEMBER hearing about Billie Pipers' casting and probably with a lot of old school geeks being quietly mortified by this. No one really knew how good an actress she was and to many of us it just reinforced the silly idea that the BBC weren't TAKING IT SERIOUSLY.

And then we saw some of the first set photos...and I just forgot my worries. This show was going to be Fantastic.


Watching it again tonight I noted a few observations:Why do the first autons Rose meet try to kill her by hitting her? Why aren't they shooting her?Emily said the autons coming to life reminded her of Night at the MuseumLove the blue light effect of the sonic. Wish they'd had the money to carry on using that.No fatalities on the news. What happened to Wilson's body?Still don't like burping bin or plastic MickeyDr Rhemborg living plasticWhy does Clive leave the front door open? My wife would have killed me if I left the door open for her to shut whilst carrying a washing basket.Would UNIT be interested in Clive poking around?Would have been easier to whack the back of Mickey's head than fire a cork at himMissing hand rail in TARDIS. Can't stop noticing this.Love anti-plasticLove the chameleon circuit explanationLove the transmitter jokeJackie drops a carrier bag on the escalator. Hope it didn't jam.Why are there more explosions in the building once the anti-plastic goes in?Why does the bride dummies head just fall off in front of Jackie? Were they Autons or just dummies come to life. I'm confused. Real shop dummies would have better attachments for the head.Doctor looked helpless with the auton holding onto him. He's been a bit wimpish.Did he go off and have a load of adventures before picking her up that second time?Love next time trailerEmily got a bit bored at around 20 minutes and did some Doctor Who yoga, then sat and kind of half-watched with Harry whilst playing Lego.

Favourite quote:

Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? It’s like when you’re a kid. The first time they tell you that the world’s turning and you just can’t quite believe it because everything looks like it’s standing still. I can feel it. {he grabs her hand} The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. And the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour and I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go… {he drops her hand}. That’s who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home.

Too many questions and not enough answers

It's a crazy idea. It's not going to last. And it's not even an original idea.

I'm known as a Doctor Who fan. My colleagues suspect I'm a little bit odd. I've even taken to wearing my Doctor Who scarf to work now, but not yet sat with it on in the office.

But, I've a secret.

I've not actually watched all the episodes of Doctor Who. Forgetting for a moment that there are 97 missing episodes (although you can listen to the audio of these), it's still a bit of an oversight. I do after all have all the available DVDs, just there are a fair few still in their cellophane wrap.

Lots of people do Doctor Who marathons. I've thought about it for a while. So, when series 9 finished it became obvious to me that I should just carry on watching Doctor Who episodes at one a week on a Saturday to feel the void.

Shame I didn't do my research properly. Turns out there are 825 episodes of Doctor Who. If I watched one a week, that's almost 16 years! I may have to rethink.

But for now, for tonight, I grabbed the first disc on the shelf and put it on.

I did ask Emily, my 8 year old daughter, but she wasn't prepared to sit through black and white television. She would only watch from 9th Doctor onwards. Her loss (although in hindsight, perhaps she'd anticipated that it might take 16 years to watch them all and she has no plans to still be at home in her twenties.

As I'm lazy, and still have novels to write, I'm not going to do ANY research for these posts. If you're a proper fan (i.e. you've actually watched all episodes) you're not going to find anything interesting here. Go and get a decent reference manual.

So, now onto the episode...

I can't watch this and not be reminded of the Five Faces of Doctor Who that was shown in the eighties. That was a seminal moment for my love of the show. I knew there were other Doctors (sort of), after all, I had seen the guy in the red outfit fall off a radio telescope and become the vet man, but I hadn't expected there to be quite so many.

I must have had quite a patient mum to let me watch these old repeats but I can't remember whether she sat down to watch them with me. All I know is that I was fascinated by the very first story. This one in fact.

The Doctor was a git. His granddaughter (as if, she was lying for some reason) was strange looking and a bit familiar with her teachers, and the teachers were just a bit too proper for me. It really didn't seem like it was my show at all. But, the moment they stepped inside the TARDIS I knew I'd made a mistake. This was the show I loved. The TARDIS looked exactly the same as it did with the 4th Doctor (funny how little I actually paid attention). It did do its take off a bit weird. I remember telling my mum (so she probably was in the room) that something had gone wrong because you could see the city streets on the scanner getting smaller as if it were a rocket. She put me straight, but I can't remember how.

The music was odd. The lighting was odd (in that there wasn't much of it), and the special effects seemed a bit thin on the ground.

Watching it tonight, and knowing a lot about how the show was actually made, my overriding thought was that it would be fascinating to see what audiences watching at the time would have made of it. What a barmy show.

Baring a change in plans it's going to be The Cave of Skulls next week. Oh dear. Perhaps it's a good job my daughter is not interested.

BARBARA: Look, can we go in now? I hate to think of her alone in that place.
IAN: If she is alone. Look, she is fifteen. She might be meeting a boy. Didn't that occur to you?
BARBARA: I almost hope she is.
IAN: What do you mean?
BARBARA: Well, it would be so wonderfully normal. It's silly, isn't it? I feel frightened. As if we're about to interfere in something that is best left alone.
IAN: Come on, let's get it over with.
(They get out of the car.)
BARBARA: Well, don't you feel it?
IAN: I take things as they come. Come on.

The Remnant Keeper - Out Today!

Very excited that today is launch day for The Remnant Keeper.

When the dead can testify, their killers resort to desperate measures

The Remnant Keepers are a loathed group of telepaths, paid to read the last memories of the recently murdered. Jack Winston is one of the best and hates it. Under the scrutiny of the world's most powerful corporation, Jack is as much a prisoner as those he helps send behind bars.

But when his latest case arrives, Jack's world shatters as his wife is brutally murdered. Fuelled by vengeance, Jack vows to catch the murderer, but as the bodies pile up, Jack realises he's made a terrible mistake; he was never the hunter, only the hunted.

Amazon UK: https://t.co/GoHzuExYC9
Amazon US: https://t.co/cSMZFg0n0d

My night in a haunted asylum

I’ve wanted to stay in a haunted house for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure where my interest in the paranormal came from but I’ve always enjoyed the uneasy fear of the paranormal. I used to read short ghost stories when I was a child, and loved shows like Sapphire and Steel which definitely went in for that paranormal vibe.

So, a night in a haunted mental asylum was a perfect opportunity to explore this side of my personality. Would I be so comfortable with the paranormal fear when I was there, standing before it?

I organised to go on an organised ghost hunt with a well known company and went with my friend Ged. The other names in these notes have been changed to respect their privacy. Some of these notes are my own rambling reflections on what happened. I wrote these all up within an hour of getting back home, and have not adjusted them at all (save to correct a few typos). The notes have proved invaluable to me as they've formed the basis of a novel I've written (as yet unpublished).

Welcome
Went to wrong gates first of all but they were already unlocked. Could have gone through there and had something bad happen. Good idea for story.
Met organisers at the real gate. Signed in on the clipboard. Told to follow the road round. The road was hard to spot. At one point wasn’t sure if I should go left or right. Went left. Big metal gates blocked the courtyard with barbed wire over the top.Man waved torch over to get our attention on where to park.Felt really dark. Could barely make out the edges of the rest of the buildings. We were effectively sealed inside the complex at the point with no obvious way of getting out.People met inside the base room. Table with hot drinks, cold drinks and biscuits.Little battery LED candles lit the edge of tables.The main room was cavernous. The dumb waiter in the middle seemed innocuous. Too modern for such an old structure. Bare wires. Ripped off light fittings. Trolleys left in the corner. A mixture of chairs arranged to listen to the speaker at the front.Nice wooden floor. Few holes here and there.One woman trod in dog shit and brought it inside.Everything was delayed whilst she sorted it out.Tried to speak to the medium (Tony), asked him how long he'd been doing it. He said a long time then kept shut. Didn't seem very chatty at all. Bit of a bossy twat. I asked him if we're going to get a bit of a history lesson and he told me that that was what Google was for.Got read instructions. Get read a disclaimer effectively saying that we could take away from the event what we wanted and that it was their opinions.
First vigil - The Autopsy Room

This was a kitchen but was converted at some point.It all felt very badly designed, which I suppose it was. It was never designed to be a hospital so everything they did to the original orphanage would have been a compromise.Shining torches into rooms we weren't going into just yet.An old sheet resting on a pipe.Papers scattered across a desk. Food orders dating back thirty years.In the autopsy room. Emerald green tiles around the wall. Many cracked and broken. The cooker hoods still in place. The other end of the dumb waiter in the corner. A series of metal stairs leading to a boarded up office overlooking the room. A child's broken unicorn toy strewn on the steps.Glass bottles with fake bits of body in them to set the mood.
A plain brown table in the middle of the room. Chairs around it in a circle.Told to go in a circle around the room holding hands. Reaching for gloved hands of strangers.EM reader placed on the table. Green light. Barely visible. Orange light occasionally flickered and Tony the medium used this as a sign that a spirit was present.We introduced ourselves to the spirit. He might have been called John. He was a porter who worked there. Tony did most of the questions.We stood in the dark for close to an hour. One lady kept getting scared and asking for the torch to go back on.Ged felt something touch his knee and got panicky. Then something touch his neck.Others spoke of smelling formaldehyde (how would they know).Then a second spirit. He was patiently waiting in the corner. Kept making me want to glance in the corner although I couldn't see anything and it didn't matter what direction I was looking in.Someone had brought their own EM reader and placed in on the floor in front of GED.The girl next to Ged felt something.The man two away from me was getting into it.Everyone kept commenting that it was cold, and it was! It was cold. But there was no breeze.Tony opened by getting us to imagine a safe place. This would protect us. He asked us to tell the spirits if we were happy being touched or not.Reminded of sensory deprivation and how your mind works to fill in the lack of stimulus.In summary, nothing ultimately happened in this room. We left and went back to the main room. Tony told us we couldn't have a drink yet, we had to go off in our groups for smaller vigils.
Second vigil - Enter the WardsWe were with Janet, a young girl who thought that working here was better than working in Aldi.

We went into a ward. It was a bit odd. Looked like it had been make shifted together. Old rubbish mattresses on steel beds. Not proper hospital beds. No real bedside furniture. A few of the cubicles had curtain dividers half pulled across. Wouldn't really want to wander around there on my own. At least, not at first.



Went into a smaller room. Windows all boarded up. Most of the glass had cracks in it. You could hear the traffic from the main road. Strip light fitting had been leant against the wall.

Janet placed a green light gun across the doorway and into the corridor beyond. This was meant to help us detect movement outside as anything crossing the beam would be detected. I just thought it was intended to help fuck up our perceptions.

She took out the first of the two Ouija boards we'd be using. Only she forgot something and had to go and get it. We wandered around a bit in pairs sizing the place up. Occasionally you'd walk into a room and catch sight of another group in the room beyond and do a double take.



Sarah's group started on the board with Keith and his partner. 5 in total. They started calling out. They were told to move the glass around themselves to build the energies up. Questions were always fairly basic.

Are you a man?Are you a patient?Did you die here?How old were you when you died?Are you happy for us to stay?Do you want us to leave?Was somebody cruel to you here?Etc.
Nothing of significance so moved to the far end of the ward. An empty room apart from a couple of tables. Janet set up a planchette with pen attached like a kids game. A3 flipchart paper put down on the table.

I took part in this. Curious to see it move. And it did move but I had nothing to do with it. Suspected Keith was doing stuff. Curious to see how much pressure it would take to get it to move where I wanted. Fairly tricky, but then it probably would be if others were already moving it.

Squiggles came out and looked like nothing. Questions were directed, assuming it was a child, like that activity would attract a child rather than a mental raving lunatic.

Got bored of the game and they brought in another Ouija instead.

Took the opportunity to peek through some of the holes in the chipboard around the windows. First one overlooked the first set of gates we were going to drive through. Looked proper spooky. You could imagine Michael Myers just stepping out of the shadows at that point.



The next Ouija session, Sarah and her daughter took control off pretty much from the off. She seemed determined that the spirit they'd contacted was her dad. The board spelled out monster and talked about a dog. Wouldn't reveal its age and seemed to imply bad things would happen to someone they cared about. She challenged the spirit, saying she didn't think it was her dad.

BreakCoffee. Queued up. Cup a soups and buns, chocolate biscuits. Crisps. Water.

Third vigil - Naughty Boys' Corridor and MorgueWent with Claire upstairs. Up the far staircase with the suicide fence. Didn't look like it would really stop anyone from jumping over the edge though. A great looking door ripped off its hinges and resting against a sealed off part of the hospital. Shining torch through the gap to try to see what was down there.



Went out into a ward. Similar to the one for the first vigil. Lots of eighties furniture.

Nothing creepy. Getting used to it by now.

Went into the naughty boys corridor. The corridor outside it had no windows and there would have been no natural daylight in this part of the hospital.



The NBC is a long corridor with a door at either end. About ten cupboards against the right wall, each separate. Doors matched them on the other side but they might never have been used as naughty cupboards as you could crawl through from one to the next.

Not a nice place but then we'd been conditioned to think that it was almost a place of torture. Yes, it was inhumane, and rumours are that a boy died in there.

We did human pendulum. Sarah told Claire how she wanted to do it. We got in a circle and Claire asked us to close our eyes. If anyone felt anything moving them they were to become 'it'.

Sarah didn't want to be it, but she was nominated. Claire put one hand in front of Diana and one behind and asked the spirit to show us what the sign for a yes would be--Sarah tipped backwards, then what the sign for a no would be--Sarah tipped forwards.

With a series of yes no questions this was pretty much what was established.

It was a patientIt was a heHe had mental issuesHe wasn't happyHe was happy for us to be thereHe died in his twentiesHe didn't have any familyHe was frequently locked in the cupboards when he was naughty (see how Sarah got confused, she's now imaging the spirit as an orphan rather than a patient).There was another spirit. A nurseShe didn't want us to be here.She enjoyed hurting the boys (nurses in an orphanage? More confusion)She wanted us to leave.
Sarah then came out of her trance. Suggested I do it.
I stood there and didn't move. I was told to relax my arms.
I was told I wasn't receptive.

Another woman stood in and immediately starting swaying. Similar stories.

Then went to the morgue.




Had to go outside.Ducked through an improvised wooden boarded door.Into a chapel area, and the fridges beyond. Ged crawled into the cremation pit.I took photos.We sat in the chapel around a table to do table tipping.
Almost immediately with everyone around the slightly wonky table, there was a vibration. Questions were asked. Come on try and move it more. Thank you for giving us that wobble. Just a bit more.I lifted my fingers off every now and then. Ged started talking to it. We went around the table asking it to reveal itself through the art of rocking a table.I was sure it was Sarah's daughter. I tried to see how much effort it would take to get a good rock on. It was surprisingly easy to get it to rock more--the other's immediately noticed.
After about twenty minutes it was time for another break.

BreakI asked Sarah about the Ouija board. She said that she didn't like them because they always attracted evil spirits. She knew it was her dad though because his last words to his granddaughter was 'I'm not a monster' at the time he was hooked up to tubes in a hospital bed.

Fourth vigil - Poltergeist and snoringWent with Tony into the basement. Not an especially nice place because the ceilings were lower.
Went into a room with sewing equipment and maxi pads.

Stood in the dark with Sarah in the corridor outside. Tony telling us that there was a poltergeist here and that he liked to touch people up in the corridor outside. Kept telling 'John' to go and touch her face.



She came in quick quickly, not liking the feeling out there.

I volunteered to stand outside (at Ged's insistence).

Not that nice.
Stood by a single open locker.
Had to shout for the others to hear me.
On my right there were open rooms and I could hear dripping water.

Tony said the spirit was interested in my beard. I told him I couldn't feel anything.
No sensations.
And I couldn't.
My heart was beating quickly for the first couple of minutes, but once I closed my eyes I calmed down.
Tony asked if I was a sceptic. I told him I was open minded. He asked again and I repeated. Tony didn't like me.

I came back in. He asked why I came back in so quickly if I didn't feel anything. I told him it was lonely out there and thought someone else might like a go.
Ged did. He wandered further down the corridor. All the way to the end. He didn't experience anything either.
The EM reader barely flickered.

We moved to the locker room at the end of the basement.
There was a table set up. We sat down. He put the EM reader on it.
We turned out torches off and he asked a few questions. He seemed quite bored by this point. No one else wanted to ask questions. I was bored. I closed my eyes and could have fallen asleep. I noticed the lights flashing a few times but no one said anything. I wasn't sure what we were waiting for. Then someone accused Tony of snoring.

He denied it but we all laughed and chimed in, asking why he hadn't commented on the flashing lights. He didn't have a good answer.

This was the most dull vigil with absolutely nothing happening. Not even Sarah managed to liven this one up.

BreakChatted with the organisers.

Claire said the boss used to go on every single hunt, but there were so many now that he couldn't. He was off in America setting up the American side of the business. Most of the guides are recruited from previous attendees. Claire has no psychic sensitivity at all.
Gemma thought it was a cool job. Claire had to travel from Preston.

Free timeBorrowed an Em reader and wandered around the building. Checking out the autopsy room and basement again.



Ended in the naughty corridor again and we were the last to leave.
Ged spent time in a cupboard
Tony 'closed' us so were able to leave.
Concluding thoughtsDid I see a ghost?No.
Did I experience anything remotely paranormal?No.
What I did find was a group of people who seemed to believe in something. What surprised me (or perhaps it shouldn't) was how quickly people were ready to accept the most mundane for something paranormal.
Have you done anything similar? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

The Remnant Keeper - Pre-order

I'm so excited to announce that The Remnant Keeper is now available for pre-order.

The Remnant Keeper When the dead can testify, their killers resort to desperate measures
The Remnant Keepers are a loathed group of telepaths, paid to read the last memories of the recently murdered. Jack Winston is one of the best and hates it. Under the scrutiny of the world's most powerful corporation, Jack is as much a prisoner as those he helps send behind bars.
But when his latest case arrives, Jack's world shatters as his wife is brutally murdered. Fuelled by vengeance, Jack vows to catch the murderer, but as the bodies pile up, Jack realises he's made a terrible mistake; he was never the hunter, only the hunted.
The Remnant Keeper is the first book of Tombs Rising, part of The Tombs Legacy. If you're a fan of Torchwood, Stephen King, or The X-Files, then you'll love a series that combines all of their best traits in a fast-paced, captivating, thrilling adventure.
Buy THE REMNANT KEEPER and take your first steps into a universe of darkness created by author Robert Scott-Norton.
You can buy at Amazon UK or Amazon US (or wherever there's Amazon!)

Stone of Fire (ARKANE Book 1) - J F Penn

Morgan Sierra is against the clock to gather sacred stones to save her family. Is she going to do it in time. Do I care?

Yes, I actually do.

There have been comparisons between this and Dan Brown books and I’d agree that I feel the similarities. But whilst some would say that’s a bad thing, I welcome it. It’s a ‘religious quest against time’ book and fits nicely into that genre. I really, really enjoyed it.

Joanna does plenty of research and that absolutely shows in the book with passages bringing the locations and characters to colourful life. I found in some places, I’d have preferred less description just because I was keen to get on with the chase. That’s a personal preference for me though and not a criticism of the writing which is of a superb standard.

To be honest, I’ve had this sat on my Kindle for a while, and am regretting that I left it so long to read. It’s Crypt of Bone for me next. Keep them coming, Joanna!

Pick up your copy here.

Or visit Joanna's website.

The Tombs Legacy

Getting thereA photo posted by Robert Scott-Norton (@rscottnorton) on Oct 13, 2015 at 12:34pm PDT

I talk a fair bit about what my grand plan for fiction is. Hell, sometimes I talk about it so passionately, I convince myself that the whole thing is a done deal. Only, it's not quite so straightforward. There is definitely a plan, and a plan for getting to the end goal, but until it's all actually written, who's to say that my end goal will stay the same?

I'm talking years of future writing projects here. Things might change.

But, if they do, it won't be drastic. The whole idea of having an umbrella plan for my fiction was that I could work in different genres and not worry so much about upsetting a fan of a particular genre. The pay off for the reader comes in the book they're reading. The second pay off comes for that reader when they read the rest of the books in that series. The third pay off comes to the reader that reads across the series.

I'm the third kind of reader, and I'm writing this way because I love it. The subtle intricacies of story elements crossing from one tale to another; characters being seen in different lights from different points of view; stories demonstrating that genres aren't some tight-walled prisons that won't let the cool things escape. It's all good.

And with the release of every book, things are getting one step closer.

Soon, very soon. But, probably not as soon as that, there will be more books in the Tombs Legacy to enjoy. I can't wait to share them.