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The Collector of Tales
The Quay
The Novels
The Tale Behind The Novels
I have been writing novels for the past 15 years although in that time I have focused on getting the ideas down in writing rather than in attempting to get them out into the public domain.
Now with the move to Dartmouth, I am looking to get my affairs into a position where I can at last begin to tell the story of my stories.
This web site is going to be the principal vehicle for that.
The Literary Vision
The World Known As Se Molde
My mission has been to create a world in which I can express myself with relative freedom. A fantasy world of sorts where the themes, generally speaking are not lofty, nor epic and where there are, sadly, no dragons.
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.
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At the same time, I want to tell a stories , some of which are actually a little more in the spirit of the fantasy genre but with a focus more on skirmishes rather than 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.
I have also experimented with a young adult novel but it is still a work in progress. It is an attempt to document the influence of autism on individual lives in a fantasy context and is 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.
And finally, so far, I have put together a more personal account of a part of my own life, framed on a holiday 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.
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Web site, novels and audio samples (c) copyright David Payne 2025. All rights reserved.
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