On July 24 I talked about “being  in the lull”, that happy time when you have passed one book deadline and the next one is not immediately looming, and you can take a few deep breaths and play catch up with the rest of your life. And then, if you’re really lucky, you get a bit of a holiday and then what happens is you start to get itchy fingers—you begin thinking about the next book, and other books that could happen after that, as well as shorter stories that could evolve out of the worlds and characters you have already created.

Needless to say, as I put my authorial feet up on the metaphorical porch rail and chill out between completing The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two on 1 July and wait for the copyedit to arrive in the next week or so, that is exactly what I have been doing. Obviously I have been thinking a lot about launching into Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three—but I have also found myself thinking about the Thornspell story. A couple of ideas for potential spinoffs to the main novel have come bubbling up (& I love how that happens when you have that precious “suppin’ whisky on the metaphorical porch” time) but I’ve also been thinking how cool it would be to have some short story fun with the characters right here on the blog.

And then I got to thinking that it would be even more fun if you were to tell me the Thornspell character you would most like to have a standalone short story written for, or about—as well as why, based on that character’s exploits in the Thornspell story.

So here’s the deal:

• Obviously you can comment ‘right now-today-at once’ to tell me the Thornspell character that you like best and why, and consequently would love a spinoff short story about—and I hope you will do just that!
• But I’ll also be keeping the opportunity going over the next month through until September 4, with a Fun with Thornspell feature every Thursday (in which I’ll be exploring some aspect of the book that’s important to me as the author.)
• At the end of that time, I will ask three judges of high repute (to be named in a  subsequent post) to decide on the very best “why” put forward—and I will then write a story for that character and post it right here on the blog, with a personal dedication to the nominator!
• And who knows—if there is enough interest there may be more than one story …  (Did I not say that my fingers have been twitching?)

But wait, there’s more …

• One thing I’m always mindful of is that Thornspell is a story written for kids (as well as the perenially young at heart 😉 ) so any of the commenters who are 1) pupils at either primary/intermediate/secondary school; and ii) enter the name of their school in their comment, will go into a draw to win a copy of Thornspell for their school library—and I have 3 hardcover copies to give away.

So there it is, “Fun With Thornspell” right here on Anything, Really. You might also like to check out the Thornspell website, where each of the images on the site has a piece of sample text embedded …  😉