The Collector of Tales
The Quay
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About
The Story
Welcome to The Quay, where literary and culinary creativity meet in an eclectic melange.
The recipe design and foodie references are intended to provide an immersive feel and general background to a collection of novels that I have written over the years.
I hope now to reach out to a wider audience.
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The Literature
A window onto a stranger world
I have created the place called Se Molde (same old) from the Old English word for "the earth". That is, the stuff that we walk on and not the planet. It is a world that is low in technology in the same way that the medieval world was relatively low in technology. For The Northern Lands read early modern Europe and for The South read Byzantium around the same time.
This world allows me to set my tales within a frame that I am comfortable. Most of the novels are in the fantasy genre. Not high but rather low slash dark slash grim dark. There are however no great quests or lofty visions. This is a sordid little world of scheming humans and other species (trolls, dwarfs, werewolves that sort of thing).
At the present time there are two trilogies wholly immersed in Se Molde; a tale about autism that is a trilogy in the forming; and, a separate novel that has nothing to do with Se Molde whatsoever.
The Collector Trilogy
Crafting Experiences
In this world I want to talk about the ordinary things, everyday events, not to have to rush off on some great quest or to combat impossible odds. In this world I want to be an observer of ordinary life. It is for this reason that I have created the trilogy called The Collector of Tales.
The Seagrum Trilogy
Innovative Creations
I want to tell stories that are actually a little more in the spirit of the fantasy genre than The Collector. I want them to have a focus more on skirmishes rather than on epic battles; on nasty calculating intrigue rather than a struggle between good and evil. For this reason I have created a further trilogy about an irascible dwarf called Seagrum.
Dreamweavers
Autistic Presentations
This is an attempt to document the influence of autism on individual lives in a fantasy context, based loosely on the experiences of two of my sons, both of whom are twice gifted. The novel that is out there is not the complete task as it needs a significant re-write to make the autism more real. It is called The Dreamweavers.
Turtles swimming in Sea Grass
Experience Rich
A more personal account from a part of my own life, framed around a christening in Cyprus and whose main characters are Zeus and Hera. It is called Turtles Swimming in Sea Grass and it is a romance after a fashion.