Mistification

The cover and sample chapters of novel number three, "Mistification" are up at the Angry Robot Site.

I'm really happy with the cover. It captures the nature of Marvo, the magician at the centre of the novel, beautifully.

In the sample chapter, you'll read about some books Marvo finds:

He flicked through the books. Each had a different coloured cover; purple, mauve, aqua, dark blue, red and green. He read them so he knew every word, every figure. He flicked through them for hours, trying to pick the one he knew the least. He flicked through them, wishing hard for something new, something exciting, he flicked through them and one changed colour. It was brown. Tan brown. It was a new book inside too. He didn't tell his grandmother. He put the books away and didn't look at them for a while. He thought he must have missed the brown one, thought there must have been seven from the start.

Re-reading this, I remember how long the image has been with me. When I was seven or eight, I was given a set of workbooks; maths, English, puzzles, that kind of thing. I'd filled them all out in a week or so; I loved those books. I was sitting on my bed on a rainy day, flicking through them, desperately wishing that I had a new one, that there was an empty book in the pile that I could fill in.

I flicked through them once more…and there was a new one. It was tan brown. I swear I never saw it before.

But inside; I'd already filled it in. I shut the book and looked again; it was just the light. It was the pale purple book after all.

I've never forgotten that moment of magic. When I really believed that I had wished a book into my hands.

I've tried to capture this absolute belief in magic in Mistification.