Reclusive Muse

Publication Day - Sword of Light

2012-02-01T06:00:00.179Z

Today, King Arthur's daughter Rhianna Pendragon rides into the world of men on her first adventure. She'll be visiting several other blogs over the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open (she rides a mist horse that's prone to vanishing, so you might need to look twice). Here she is... Rhianna Pendragon - "don't mess with me!" Meet her friends... Prince Elphin, Arianrhod and Cai..

The Author and Bookseller Skiing Challenge 2012!

2012-01-24T18:44:00.001Z

So what do authors and booksellers get up to when they are not writing or selling books? The unicorn brings you this exclusive report from the French Alps... Katherine Roberts (author) and Chris McCosh (Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop, Biggar) challenged each other to see who could make the most turns without falling down this very snowy "red run". Katherine (in blue) and Chris (in red) 1. Chris

2012 - Year of the Pendragon!

2012-01-01T18:25:00.001Z

According to the Chinese Zodiac, we are about to enter the Year of the Dragon... the perfect year to launch my author's new Pendragon Legacy series about King Arthur's daughter! Pendragon means "head dragon", and that used to be King Arthur until his evil nephew Mordred killed him in battle to take the throne of Camelot. But Mordred doesn't know yet about Arthur's secret daughter, who has grown

Happy Winter Solstice!

2011-12-22T09:03:00.002Z

sunrise at Stonehenge Here in the northern hemisphere today is the winter solstice... midwinter, the shortest day of the year... and it’s time to celebrate! For this is the darkest hour. From now until midsummer, the days will get longer and the nights shorter, which means you’ll soon have more sunshine (well, daylight anyway) to frolic with your loved ones, which can only be good thing. The

Books... the last chapter? No, it’s the sequel!

2011-12-14T19:50:00.001Z

I was just about to turn off the TV and curl up in my warm unicorn stable last night, when an Imagine programme called “Books - The Last Chapter?” came on, which you can watch on the BBC's iplayer HERE. That title made half the glitter fall off my horn, I can tell you! I immediately started worrying for my poor author, and what she’s going to do for the next 20 years of her working life if books

Warrior Princesses

2011-12-07T17:02:00.000Z

What is a unicorn to do? I just can't seem to stop my author writing on other people's blogs these days! Remember Xena? Well, my author used to be glued to the TV when this series came on, which might be why she wanted to be a warrior princess... meet some more girls with swords, including a very special heroine for 2012 over on The History Girls. And don't forget to vote for paper or ebooks on

RIP Anne McCaffrey

2011-12-02T14:00:00.017Z

At the start of this year, I signed up for the Anne McCaffrey reading challenge proposed by Caroline at Portrait of a Woman to bring some wonderful fantasy books to a new readership. Little did any of us know then that the great author would no longer be with us by the end of the challenge... the great Anne McCaffrey died at her home in Ireland last week, aged 85. I was reading one of the

The Unicorn's First Blog Award!

2011-11-26T15:35:00.002Z

Sometimes it seems blogs are all hard work and no play, but occasionally something happens that reminds you why you do it, and the lovely Jenny Alexander who writes in the House of Dreams has sent me a blog award! Liebster is a German word meaning "dearest", and the award is given to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers, which means the unicorn qualifies unless 161 people

HOUSES, HILLTOPS AND HOT AIR BALLOONS by Pauline Fisk

2011-11-20T06:00:00.064Z

Today the unicorn welcomes author Pauline Fisk, who tells us how she came to write her Smarties Prize winning novel MIDNIGHT BLUE, now relaunched just in time for Christmas as an e-book for Kindle... over to you, Pauline! The house stood on the hilltop above my village. In the morning when the sun came up, its windows turned to gold and you could see them shining for miles around. When I first

Coming on Sunday...

2011-11-18T18:37:00.000Z

This Sunday the unicorn will bring you an exclusive guest post by Smarties Prize winning author Pauline Fisk, talking about the magical house she lived in while she was writing her book "Midnight Blue". Curious? Then be sure to visit again next week and leave Pauline a comment!

Winter Warmers

2011-11-06T18:42:00.000Z

I know, I know... nothing new posted here for two weeks! What has the unicorn been up to? Well, I do have an excuse. I'm helping my author write her third Pendragon book about King Arthur's daughter, and my poor little unicorn brain can only think about creating one piece of writing at any one time. Bowed horn. But since it's now officially winter, and you humans have been messing around with

Tricks and Treats in Unicorn Wood

2011-10-22T14:16:00.002+01:00

As Katherine’s muse, I naturally have a lot of influence over her work. This week I’d like to point my glittery horn towards her second novel Spellfall, which features a whole herd of unicorns as well as a haunted wood, an old lodge, a mysterious standing stone, an evil Spell Lord, and – since it's set at Halloween – plenty of tricks and treats! This is the only one of Katherine’s books that

The Mystery of Unicorns

2011-10-08T16:50:00.002+01:00

It didn’t take Katherine’s new publisher Templar very long to find out about me. I suppose an author’s muse is quite important, since without muses where would our poor human authors be? They would just be writing their old stories over and over again… which is only good if their last story happens to be something like Harry Potter. Anyway, Templar wanted a biography of Katherine to go on the

The Unicorn’s Great Dream

2011-10-01T17:21:00.000+01:00

What do authors do on their days off? I followed mine when she sneaked away from her computer last weekend and tracked her down at Interrogate! the UK’s first ever festival of social justice, held at the lovely Dartington Hall. This festival used a mixture of debate, dance, and drawing (the artistic kind, not the “hung, drawn and quartered” kind) to interrogate income inequality, which is

Song Quest cover winner!

2011-09-23T14:07:00.000+01:00

One for ShiTwo for KasheThree for RialleFour for KherronFive for the Silver ShoreSix for a golden cover… ...and seven for a secret now revealed! Here is the winning Song Quest cover as chosen by YOU (with 54% of the vote, so it was very close). It was designed by Mandy Norman and drawn by Johanna Basford, and will be published by Catnip in February 2012, when you’ll be able to read the book

Song Quest cover vote!

2011-09-09T15:28:00.000+01:00

THE STORY OF THE BOOK. A first novel is always exciting, and the unicorn was kicking up his heels in joy twelve years ago when “Song Quest” first got published in hardback by Element Books. Here’s the original 1999 cover. Katherine was kicking up her heels in joy, too, when she walked into Waterstone’s in Piccadilly and saw 150 copies of her book displayed around the top shelf of the foyer…

Seven Fabulous Wonders Competition Update

2011-08-30T19:09:00.001+01:00

Hello, it’s the unicorn again! I apologise for my long absence from my own blog, but slave driver Katherine Roberts has had me chained to her desk finishing Book 2 of the Pendragon Legacy for delivery to her editor, who will be the first person in the entire world to read it apart from me. Meanwhile Mati the Tygrine cat has been here holding the enchanted mists open for me, and he’s told me you

Exclusive interview with the Tygrine Cat!

2011-08-15T06:00:00.042+01:00

The unicorn would like to introduce you to Mati, the Tygrine Cat, who has come over to this blog today to give his first ever interview… that’s him on the cover of his book, glowing a little (he does that sometimes). As you can probably tell, Mati is no ordinary cat. He is of an ancient bloodline that dates back to a legendary Egyptian queen who gave birth to two magical kittens. The spotted Sa

MUSE MONDAY - Italy "the leg-shaped country" by Mary Hoffman

2011-08-08T06:00:00.062+01:00

This Monday the unicorn is delighted to welcome Mary Hoffman, prize-winning author of over 90 books - that's a LOT of writing! Here she talks about her muse and the inspiration for her latest novel David. Over to you, Mary... I never thought of myself as having a Muse at all until Katherine's unicorn gave me the opportunity to visit his blog on a Monday. And I was asked to talk to Mariella

Summer Glitter Madness – 7 books for the price of 1!

2011-07-31T12:27:00.005+01:00

Yes, I thought the sun had gone to my author’s head, too… but it seems she’s just being nice for the summer holidays. She’s making her Seven Fabulous Wonders series re-available as e-books and would like you, loyal unicorn fans and friends, to have the chance to buy them at summer glitter prices. So here’s how it works. On the 1st of each month, from now until January 2012, one of these titles

We all need a bit of kindness and care...

2011-07-23T19:43:00.002+01:00

Being a unicorn, I naturally enjoy days out with my author to places where you can find creatures with four hooves. Unicorns are a bit thin on the ground in your world, but last week we discovered these sweet ponies at our local mare and foal sanctuary. Anybody brought up on the Follyfoot books like Katherine was will know exactly what a mare and foal sanctuary is. It’s a place where horses and

Festival Fever

2011-07-09T19:43:00.000+01:00

It’s festival season! There used to be just the big ones like Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Hay-on-Wye. Famous authors were invited to get up on stage and talk to their fans, after which they might sell a few books and sign them. In those days, Katherine went to Edinburgh – where she read out the curse in the Great Pyramid Robbery and broke the microphone. She has not been invited back. Katherine went

The History (and legend) Girls

2011-07-06T06:00:00.025+01:00

My author must be in a summer holiday mood... would you believe she’s crept off again to post on another blog! Today she discusses horses in history and myth over at the brand new History Girls, where you can find out why one of her books never got published… (Muse: no unicorns in it, maybe?) Twenty-six writers of historical fiction for all ages will produce a daily blog post, and there will

My e-book has a cover… AND a vampire!

2011-07-01T15:07:00.000+01:00

The Muse would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the cover dilemma for my author’s short story collection. Two strong favourites emerged, with the comment that they gave very different impressions of the contents: Romantic types were attracted to the heart, obviously, with the more romantic title “Rubies”. Others went for the pale sphinx, with the comment that the title was a

A Mystic Afternoon in the Library

2011-06-27T17:09:00.000+01:00

How could a unicorn resist? As part of the Independent Booksellers Week organised by the Torbay Bookshop, a group of mystics came to talk about their work in our fabulous (new!) library, just opened last year: The afternoon covered past life regression, totem animals, and astrology. All very different ideas, yet all connected by their authors’ belief in the spirit world that lies behind our