I have at last re-established the fact that I am the author of The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff. I was listed as the author for quite a while, but I think when Amazon bought it up, they must have killed the link. It is a simple enough process, and I should really have got round to doing it ages ago, but you know how you look at a set of instructions on how to do something and then you think that it would probably be easier to do something else completely different.
Now that I know what to do, do you think I should claim to write under the pseudonym of J.R.R. Tolkien as well? These things are moderated, so I'm sure that someone might notice.
Showing posts with label Billy Goats Gruff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Billy Goats Gruff. Show all posts
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Paper book availability.
Well, I guess it was inevitable in the current book market that my little book should founder a little in the sea of literature, which is becoming a scene with almost as many contributors as there are consumers. I have been informed that last year I sold less than a hundred copies, and so it will only be available in print for a short time longer. If you have been putting off getting a copy, I strongly recommend that you do so now, and if nothing else, you will be getting your hands on a rarity!
What am I doing about this? Well, I am talking to you, for a start, and more importantly I am doing a quick second edition. Mostly this means having another look at the syntax, having read the book out loud for the first time recently, but I have also picked up a few errors such as referring to Eadmund as Eadwine on several occasions, which I noted has confused one reviewer!
The new edition will be out on Kindle in the near future, and I will of course keep everyone up to date with news here.
P.S.Ласкаво просимо всім моїм шанувальникам в Україні, мені шкода, що я можу використовувати тільки Google Translate би подякувати вам за ваше регулярних відвідувань. Я сподіваюся, що вам сподобалося дізнавшись про "Пригоди козлів Графф". Так благословить вас Бог!
Якщо це нічого не значить для вас, або що ми називаємо по-англійськи "Gobbledegook", будь ласка, коментувати, але майте на увазі, що якщо ви відповідаєте українською, мені доведеться використовувати Google Translate, щоб зрозуміти його, так що відповіді англійською мовою буде оцінили!
What am I doing about this? Well, I am talking to you, for a start, and more importantly I am doing a quick second edition. Mostly this means having another look at the syntax, having read the book out loud for the first time recently, but I have also picked up a few errors such as referring to Eadmund as Eadwine on several occasions, which I noted has confused one reviewer!
The new edition will be out on Kindle in the near future, and I will of course keep everyone up to date with news here.
P.S.Ласкаво просимо всім моїм шанувальникам в Україні, мені шкода, що я можу використовувати тільки Google Translate би подякувати вам за ваше регулярних відвідувань. Я сподіваюся, що вам сподобалося дізнавшись про "Пригоди козлів Графф". Так благословить вас Бог!
Якщо це нічого не значить для вас, або що ми називаємо по-англійськи "Gobbledegook", будь ласка, коментувати, але майте на увазі, що якщо ви відповідаєте українською, мені доведеться використовувати Google Translate, щоб зрозуміти його, так що відповіді англійською мовою буде оцінили!
Thursday, 6 December 2012
A peep inside
It is now also possible to view the beginning of the book through the publisher's website: here
Of course, you can do the same wherever the book is available in Kindle or e-book format, even if you intend to buy the hard copy.
Of course, you can do the same wherever the book is available in Kindle or e-book format, even if you intend to buy the hard copy.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
A new episode?
I think I have got through The Other Project now and random thoughts of a sequel to the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff are being jotted down with a working title of The Revenge of the Grufflings. The first half of the book is pretty plain sailing, but the second half throws up some issues which I don't know how to resolve as history kind of gets in the way ...
That's the problem when you involve known historical characters such as Penda in your story; you can only interact with them in certain ways, unless you choose to go down some alternative reality line. In part that could happen (there are trolls and elves in the milieu of my book after all), but I think it would be cheating to do so.
The decision has yet to be made and the journey has only just started, so although I know what happens next, I don't know the exact route to get there.
That's the problem when you involve known historical characters such as Penda in your story; you can only interact with them in certain ways, unless you choose to go down some alternative reality line. In part that could happen (there are trolls and elves in the milieu of my book after all), but I think it would be cheating to do so.
The decision has yet to be made and the journey has only just started, so although I know what happens next, I don't know the exact route to get there.
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Facebook page update
Just a quick post to say that the Facebook page for the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff can now be reached here. The link is facebook.com/Grufflings.
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Book reviews
One of the things that has been hardest for me as a new author has been getting a print review. Of course I'm pleased to have been reviewed on-line and would welcome many more, but its certainly good to see a review in a printed format. I think it helps that there is the feeling of independence involved that may not apply to online reviews.
I was very pleased when a colleague told me that the Crack magazine had reviewed the book. This worthy and arty magazine has a good circulation in the Newcastle area. I couldn't have asked for a better first review, so many thanks to GM!
The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff
Kevin D. Futers, Strategic Book Group, £8
This is a lovely curio of a book from Futers, a Scottish author who has been resident in Newcastle since 1974. It’s a sort of re-telling, or retro-updating, of the story of the three billy goats Gruff; an old folk tale usually associated with Norway. Here the action is set in ancient Northumberland and sees three brothers inflicted by a curse that turns them into goats who must set forth into a land besieged by trolls on the hunt for a maiden’s kiss: not an inconsiderable task when you are distinctly goat-ish in appearance. Naturally, there is a bridge, but killing its guardian heaps only more trouble on the trio who get caught up in an almighty feud. The author’s evident interest in mythology doesn’t come at the expense of a really cracking read in a tale which is full of cauldrons, kings and people answering to the moniker of “Cerdic the Tall” and the book will appeal to both adventurous adults and children alike. GM
Being a lifelong looker of gift horses in the mouth, I would point out that my middle initial is a P, not a D but that is the fault of the font on the cover, so fair enough!
It was also strange to be described as Scottish, even though I am. I put British on the Census!
Now comes the crucial bit - extracting a quote to help with marketing. "A lovely curio of a book" or "a really cracking read" are possible, or a longer bit from "The author's evident interest..." to the end.
I was very pleased when a colleague told me that the Crack magazine had reviewed the book. This worthy and arty magazine has a good circulation in the Newcastle area. I couldn't have asked for a better first review, so many thanks to GM!
The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff
Kevin D. Futers, Strategic Book Group, £8
This is a lovely curio of a book from Futers, a Scottish author who has been resident in Newcastle since 1974. It’s a sort of re-telling, or retro-updating, of the story of the three billy goats Gruff; an old folk tale usually associated with Norway. Here the action is set in ancient Northumberland and sees three brothers inflicted by a curse that turns them into goats who must set forth into a land besieged by trolls on the hunt for a maiden’s kiss: not an inconsiderable task when you are distinctly goat-ish in appearance. Naturally, there is a bridge, but killing its guardian heaps only more trouble on the trio who get caught up in an almighty feud. The author’s evident interest in mythology doesn’t come at the expense of a really cracking read in a tale which is full of cauldrons, kings and people answering to the moniker of “Cerdic the Tall” and the book will appeal to both adventurous adults and children alike. GM
Being a lifelong looker of gift horses in the mouth, I would point out that my middle initial is a P, not a D but that is the fault of the font on the cover, so fair enough!
It was also strange to be described as Scottish, even though I am. I put British on the Census!
Now comes the crucial bit - extracting a quote to help with marketing. "A lovely curio of a book" or "a really cracking read" are possible, or a longer bit from "The author's evident interest..." to the end.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
The role of magic
I have had some misgivings over the role of magic in the book given that it is also a book with a real historical background. As soon as the plot line had been realised, the magic was a necessity for the simple reason that young men cannot pretend to be goats and everyone who sees them treat them as goats if they are just imagining it all. They have to become goats and that needs magic.
For there to be magic it follows that there should be a practitioner of magic, so I had to give the family Gruff an enemy, Cerdic or Caradoc. He is not particularly effective as an enemy until the time of the battle, spending his time in miserable conditions in Harthope Valley eating broth made from squirrels or hedgehogs and longing for a bit of decent goat's flesh. His putative enemies don't even think of him as an enemy - they simply are not aware that the man exists to be a threat to them.
He however knows them and he holds them and their king to be responsible for his squalid living conditions. So we learn a little about the history of the little land I call Dinware and how Ida joined it to his own realm of Bernice with the promise to its inhabitants to protect them from Christianity.
King Eadwine however accepted Christianity and even brought his foreign priest to Gatburgh, a place sacred to the old ways. His father, then the priest of the place had carried on regardless in his pagan practices but had died the following year, leaving Gatburgh without a pagan priest. When Cerdic turns up to claim his place as high priest, he is turned away.
So he has a grudge and among the damage that he inflicts upon the family is to turn the youngest three sons into goats. Only later does he perform more difficult magic to make the change permanent, a thing which as all good tales insist must have a get-out clause, the charm that will undo the spell.
I thought about this for a while, trying to think about all of the spells that are overcome in traditional tales - such as the Frog Prince, the Beast, the Seven Swans; all of these seemed to know what would break the spell and hang around waiting for the right person to come along. Rather than have my young billies blundering along blindly, I made sure that they knew what their fate would be. They are also unable to reveal the method of their disenchantment to others.
After these spells cast at the beginning of the book, the magic sort of dries up. It has not entirely gone but there are no more wizards chucking spells about. Obviously there is magic of a background nature whenever the brothers stray through into Elfland but magic there has an altogether different quality. The trolls do not seem to use magic, although they have their Gifts and they seem comfortable with things which are magical, perhaps they even make some things which are magical.
Finally there is the problem of protection. I mention in the book that Cerdic looks at a pagan king and sees upon him charms that will turn aside his magic. Why then can Cerdic use magic against the brothers, who are Christian?
My only answer is that the brothers had been baptised but aside from hearing some stories that they liked and therefore talk about amongst themselves, they never truly understand what it is they have become part of. This time is discussed by Bede as being a time when kingdoms became Christian and then returned to their old ways, for the understanding of a religion with only a single god was not established. They could understand a jealous god wanting his brothers (and sons, cousins, lovers, sisters ...) ignored and all of the glory being given to him but not that the gods had gone away, were no longer capable of offering luck to whoever would treat with them.
This ambiguity can best be seen when Frith asks his brothers what elves are (a question that does not get a precise answer - more of a guess really!). In the dramatis personae the elves are listed as Osen, which is my own word based on the name element Os as in Oswald, Oswy, Oswine, etc. which is usually interpreted as God in lists of name meanings. Os is an older element referring to the pagan gods and is directly linked to the Aesir of Norse mythology. I have tried to avoid obvious links with Norse mythology because although that mythos can shed a light on Anglo-Saxon religion, it is a dim light and not at all helpful. There is no evidence, for example, of a god equivalent to Loki in Anglo-Saxon religion. The trickster role is therefore taken by Woden, which explains why the chief of the Anglo-Saxon pantheon is identified with Hermes/Mercury rather than with Zeus/Jupiter in comparisons between cultures.
Another symptom of their half conversion to Christianity is the name that all of the characters use for Christ, namely "The Healer" This is a very wide play on words. One of the names of Christ in the Old English period is se halend which could literally be translated as "the one who makes things whole" and is therefore equivalent to conventional epithets such as the Saviour or the Redeemer. However, by calling him "The Healer" I have hoped to add a level of ambiguity. By itself it is not a bad title to give Jesus - he was a healer. To the minds of children and young men it resonates with magic - the stories of miracles would have been of great interest to pagans who accept the everyday reality of magic in their lives. In addition it illuminates the lack of understanding that the characters have for Christianity in that they misinterpret the meaning of one of their titles for Christ.
For there to be magic it follows that there should be a practitioner of magic, so I had to give the family Gruff an enemy, Cerdic or Caradoc. He is not particularly effective as an enemy until the time of the battle, spending his time in miserable conditions in Harthope Valley eating broth made from squirrels or hedgehogs and longing for a bit of decent goat's flesh. His putative enemies don't even think of him as an enemy - they simply are not aware that the man exists to be a threat to them.
He however knows them and he holds them and their king to be responsible for his squalid living conditions. So we learn a little about the history of the little land I call Dinware and how Ida joined it to his own realm of Bernice with the promise to its inhabitants to protect them from Christianity.
King Eadwine however accepted Christianity and even brought his foreign priest to Gatburgh, a place sacred to the old ways. His father, then the priest of the place had carried on regardless in his pagan practices but had died the following year, leaving Gatburgh without a pagan priest. When Cerdic turns up to claim his place as high priest, he is turned away.
So he has a grudge and among the damage that he inflicts upon the family is to turn the youngest three sons into goats. Only later does he perform more difficult magic to make the change permanent, a thing which as all good tales insist must have a get-out clause, the charm that will undo the spell.
I thought about this for a while, trying to think about all of the spells that are overcome in traditional tales - such as the Frog Prince, the Beast, the Seven Swans; all of these seemed to know what would break the spell and hang around waiting for the right person to come along. Rather than have my young billies blundering along blindly, I made sure that they knew what their fate would be. They are also unable to reveal the method of their disenchantment to others.
After these spells cast at the beginning of the book, the magic sort of dries up. It has not entirely gone but there are no more wizards chucking spells about. Obviously there is magic of a background nature whenever the brothers stray through into Elfland but magic there has an altogether different quality. The trolls do not seem to use magic, although they have their Gifts and they seem comfortable with things which are magical, perhaps they even make some things which are magical.
Finally there is the problem of protection. I mention in the book that Cerdic looks at a pagan king and sees upon him charms that will turn aside his magic. Why then can Cerdic use magic against the brothers, who are Christian?
My only answer is that the brothers had been baptised but aside from hearing some stories that they liked and therefore talk about amongst themselves, they never truly understand what it is they have become part of. This time is discussed by Bede as being a time when kingdoms became Christian and then returned to their old ways, for the understanding of a religion with only a single god was not established. They could understand a jealous god wanting his brothers (and sons, cousins, lovers, sisters ...) ignored and all of the glory being given to him but not that the gods had gone away, were no longer capable of offering luck to whoever would treat with them.
This ambiguity can best be seen when Frith asks his brothers what elves are (a question that does not get a precise answer - more of a guess really!). In the dramatis personae the elves are listed as Osen, which is my own word based on the name element Os as in Oswald, Oswy, Oswine, etc. which is usually interpreted as God in lists of name meanings. Os is an older element referring to the pagan gods and is directly linked to the Aesir of Norse mythology. I have tried to avoid obvious links with Norse mythology because although that mythos can shed a light on Anglo-Saxon religion, it is a dim light and not at all helpful. There is no evidence, for example, of a god equivalent to Loki in Anglo-Saxon religion. The trickster role is therefore taken by Woden, which explains why the chief of the Anglo-Saxon pantheon is identified with Hermes/Mercury rather than with Zeus/Jupiter in comparisons between cultures.
Another symptom of their half conversion to Christianity is the name that all of the characters use for Christ, namely "The Healer" This is a very wide play on words. One of the names of Christ in the Old English period is se halend which could literally be translated as "the one who makes things whole" and is therefore equivalent to conventional epithets such as the Saviour or the Redeemer. However, by calling him "The Healer" I have hoped to add a level of ambiguity. By itself it is not a bad title to give Jesus - he was a healer. To the minds of children and young men it resonates with magic - the stories of miracles would have been of great interest to pagans who accept the everyday reality of magic in their lives. In addition it illuminates the lack of understanding that the characters have for Christianity in that they misinterpret the meaning of one of their titles for Christ.
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Around the world with the Billy Goats Gruff
Friday, 27 August 2010
The Billy Goats Gruff in Blighty!
The Adventures of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is now available from Amazon in the UK, priced £7.60
Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.
Thanks Amazon.co.uk for including the additional information that I sent in.
Thursday, 19 August 2010
A small beginning
If you can't wait to get your hands on my book it is now possible to order copies of the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff from the publisher, Eloquent Books. This is at the full (US) market price of $13. It should be available on Amazon and Barns & Noble soon.
Friday, 13 August 2010
I have the proof!
Just a quick word to say that I received the proof for The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff this week. It really is a book! I'm making good progress going through it and should be ready to confirm by the end of the weekend.
Sorry to any conspiracy theory fans misdirected to this post. It's all part of some Google - led plot!
Sorry to any conspiracy theory fans misdirected to this post. It's all part of some Google - led plot!
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