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!
Showing posts with label goats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goats. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
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!
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Setting (1) The time and place at the beginning of the book
The book opens in the autumn of AD633 in a place I call Gatburgh. The ruler in the region at the time was King Eadwine. This land would later to be known as Northumbria but there was no such political sense of unity at the time and each separate component of the realm ruled by Eadwine had its own history and traditions. Gatburgh lies in the province that I have called Dinware from the Welsh Din Guaire. This later becomes merged in the popular mind with Bernice (Bernicia) which lay further to the south, centred on Tynedale and especially Corbridge.
Eadwine had converted to Christianity a mere six years earlier and so the religion from the south had strong backing but relatively weak roots. Christianity had been known of for much longer among the Welsh population of Britain, but although there had been Welsh Christians in the north of Britain for a long time, it would seem that this corner of England had remained pagan even up to the coming of the English. In my book I have assumed that it was the threat of encroaching Christianity that persuaded the leading families of Dinware to offer the rulership to Ida, a Saxon pagan already strong in Bernice to the south. By bringing in a strong pagan of a different tradition, they safeguarded their own ancient ways against the tide of Christianity. The tactic works for about two generations, maybe slightly longer. By this time the population is thoroughly mixed and the language of Ida and his successors dominates everyday life to the point that names of places are becoming English names.
Gatburgh is an attempt to give an English name to modern Yeavering; a place known to history as Ad Gefrin. This itself is a Latin rendition of Welsh Gafre Vrin which translates as the hill or place of the goats. My name Gatburgh derives from the Old English gat (goat) and burh (fortified place). The place is named in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Bede) as being a royal palace site, from where we get the Latinised name. Excavations by Brian Hope-Taylor (H-T) at Yeavering revealed a sequence of occupation whose earliest stages probably pre-date the Anglo-Saxon presence in the area but whose development clearly shows evidence of a change in building style that suggests the arrival of a new culture. I have assumed for the book that the name Gatburgh will fall out of use once Eadwine's people are no longer in command of the site.
You can see the attraction of the place for my story about goats. Yeavering was probably a site which in pre-Christian times was the centre of what can only be called a goat cult. This is echoed in Grave AX from H-T's site report which is mentioned in passing in my book and has both an animal skull and a broken staff in it. The animal skull, identified as a sheep by H-T, I have re-assigned as a goat. The two skull types are difficult to tell apart as the two species are very close (hybrids are possible). More importantly, the staff (which is discussed in terms of being a surveying device by H-T) is surmounted by a bronze and wood figurine that closely resembles a goat. This staff and another identical one come into the story at different points in time and are a significant part of the development of the story.
I still find it somewhat strange that I learned all of this long after I had chosen Yeavering as the origin place for the brothers; before I had really researched the place. Even the place-name was at that point an unknown factor, all that I knew was that it was a known site of Anglo-Saxon date. It was one of several times that I found things falling neatly into place as I developed my story. That I subsequently developed the story around the site I can only hold up my hand to but then it really is a fascinating site.
Links/further reading:
H-T's book Yeavering: An Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria is usually pretty expensive; I was fortunate to have access to it while studying at Newcastle University.
A more accessible format for information on this subject is Paul Frodsham's recent book Yeavering: People, Power and Place
More immediately you can view the Past Perfect website devoted to the location. Check it out (especially the sparrow's flight), it is well worth a visit!
Eadwine had converted to Christianity a mere six years earlier and so the religion from the south had strong backing but relatively weak roots. Christianity had been known of for much longer among the Welsh population of Britain, but although there had been Welsh Christians in the north of Britain for a long time, it would seem that this corner of England had remained pagan even up to the coming of the English. In my book I have assumed that it was the threat of encroaching Christianity that persuaded the leading families of Dinware to offer the rulership to Ida, a Saxon pagan already strong in Bernice to the south. By bringing in a strong pagan of a different tradition, they safeguarded their own ancient ways against the tide of Christianity. The tactic works for about two generations, maybe slightly longer. By this time the population is thoroughly mixed and the language of Ida and his successors dominates everyday life to the point that names of places are becoming English names.
Gatburgh is an attempt to give an English name to modern Yeavering; a place known to history as Ad Gefrin. This itself is a Latin rendition of Welsh Gafre Vrin which translates as the hill or place of the goats. My name Gatburgh derives from the Old English gat (goat) and burh (fortified place). The place is named in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Bede) as being a royal palace site, from where we get the Latinised name. Excavations by Brian Hope-Taylor (H-T) at Yeavering revealed a sequence of occupation whose earliest stages probably pre-date the Anglo-Saxon presence in the area but whose development clearly shows evidence of a change in building style that suggests the arrival of a new culture. I have assumed for the book that the name Gatburgh will fall out of use once Eadwine's people are no longer in command of the site.
You can see the attraction of the place for my story about goats. Yeavering was probably a site which in pre-Christian times was the centre of what can only be called a goat cult. This is echoed in Grave AX from H-T's site report which is mentioned in passing in my book and has both an animal skull and a broken staff in it. The animal skull, identified as a sheep by H-T, I have re-assigned as a goat. The two skull types are difficult to tell apart as the two species are very close (hybrids are possible). More importantly, the staff (which is discussed in terms of being a surveying device by H-T) is surmounted by a bronze and wood figurine that closely resembles a goat. This staff and another identical one come into the story at different points in time and are a significant part of the development of the story.
I still find it somewhat strange that I learned all of this long after I had chosen Yeavering as the origin place for the brothers; before I had really researched the place. Even the place-name was at that point an unknown factor, all that I knew was that it was a known site of Anglo-Saxon date. It was one of several times that I found things falling neatly into place as I developed my story. That I subsequently developed the story around the site I can only hold up my hand to but then it really is a fascinating site.
Links/further reading:
H-T's book Yeavering: An Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria is usually pretty expensive; I was fortunate to have access to it while studying at Newcastle University.
A more accessible format for information on this subject is Paul Frodsham's recent book Yeavering: People, Power and Place
More immediately you can view the Past Perfect website devoted to the location. Check it out (especially the sparrow's flight), it is well worth a visit!
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Introduction
Hello world, this is the blog for the Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff, a novel by Kevin Futers (that's me!) about the Three Billy Goats Gruff, available from Eloquent Books in the near future.
I'm not certain at this stage what you can expect from this blog but I will try to keep things nice and simple, tell you a few things about the book and other things that are going on connected to the book, such as promotions and book signings.
For now I can tell you that the story takes the traditional story as a starting point and then takes the three protagonists (or antagonists if you take the trolls' viewpoint) on a quest to undo a curse. The action takes place against the background of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, England and The Borders Region of Scotland during the seventh century AD. It is a world still in touch with other realms of reality, a world where trolls walk freely in the waking world (so long as you are awake at night) and a walk in the mists can transport you to the delights and horrors of Elfland. It is a world on the cusp of change, a change that is fragile and could easily be halted.
The brothers Gruff are in Trolldom against their will because they have been turned into goats and only the trolls have the solution to their predicament. As we all know, things get off to a bad start over a simple bridge crossing. Can they turn the situation around and dispel the curse?
I'm not certain at this stage what you can expect from this blog but I will try to keep things nice and simple, tell you a few things about the book and other things that are going on connected to the book, such as promotions and book signings.
For now I can tell you that the story takes the traditional story as a starting point and then takes the three protagonists (or antagonists if you take the trolls' viewpoint) on a quest to undo a curse. The action takes place against the background of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, England and The Borders Region of Scotland during the seventh century AD. It is a world still in touch with other realms of reality, a world where trolls walk freely in the waking world (so long as you are awake at night) and a walk in the mists can transport you to the delights and horrors of Elfland. It is a world on the cusp of change, a change that is fragile and could easily be halted.
The brothers Gruff are in Trolldom against their will because they have been turned into goats and only the trolls have the solution to their predicament. As we all know, things get off to a bad start over a simple bridge crossing. Can they turn the situation around and dispel the curse?
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