The Swithen Book 5: Wonderly Wroth ready for pre-order!
Greetings folks! I hope you are well and my, I must say you look smashing today.
I am delighted to announce that the fifth book of my Arthurian series, The Swithen, is finally approaching being finished, and is now available for pre-order! I’m delighted because this one took a bit longer for me, almost two years, and was definitely a challenge to keep focused on during the pandemic.
If you don’t know, The Swithen is my interpretation of the REAL King Arthur saga (i.e. not the movie version) and the promise of my series is that I cannot change anything from the medieval Arthurian legend as written 1136-1485. I plan twenty-five novels to tell the full Arthurian saga in all the scope and majesty it deserves, and with this novel, we’re one-fifth of the way there! I’m also happy about that… five novels in!
Now, there’s not much in the Middle English sources about this period of Arthur’s life, so, like Book 4, this one is 95% original (but it has to slot seamlessly into the real legend). It was inspired by one paragraph in Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur that says while Arthur was being made to pull the sword again and again—while the rulers of the country made sure there wasn’t anyone older—he was put into training with the knights that served his real father, King Uther Pendragon. The thought of Arthur hanging out with and getting to know the knight characters I love from previous books was just too much to pass up, so I decided that we had to have a novel that fills in this time.
Anyone who’s read my books knows that I love the character of Ulfius, who was Uther’s main knight and best friend. Ulfius had a huge part in Book 3, and we get a lot more Ulfius fun here. Arthur is also being trained by the foremost knight of his biological mother Igraine, that knight being Bretel.
The main thrust of the story is that on the knight Arthur was conceived through magic and trickery (all depicted in Book 3: The Void Place), while Merlin made Uther look like Igraine’s husband, he also made Ulfius look like Bretel. His doing so lost Igraine’s trust in Bretel forever… so when Bretel finds out that it was his good friend Ulfius that was responsible for all this, he becomes murderously furious—or Wonderly Wroth,which is the reason behind the title.
There’s also a big separate thread in which Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, lets Merlin know that he’s not the only supernatural power in the realm. We have some fun deviousness with Morgan Le Fay plotting Arthur’s destruction. And King Lot is not about to let a teenage boy become king—not without a good war (that’ll be Book 6). A number of other familiar Arthurian characters begin to weave their stories, which will play out over the next twenty novels.
Which is also part of the excitement of this book for me… the first three books laid down the stories leading up to Arthur’s birth (events which loom large over his story… the past is very much present in this series). But now Arthur is with us, and the main thrust of the story is underway. From Book 4 onward, we begin constructing a vast interconnected society of characters and their densely-woven storylines, all of which will play out over the course of a massive fantasy saga unlike any other—and guess what? No making it up as we go along. The ending is planned now, all twenty-five books are planned out now. And BTW, this story has endured for almost a thousand years. But it has never been told in such detail and clarity, making the themes and interconnections clear for modern readers.
So if you like, get on over and pre-order The Swithen Book Five: Wonderly Wroth. It’ll be only $0.99 until it is released, at which point it will increase in price.
Thanks for reading! Now to get started on Book 6…
Book 5 Preview
Greetings friends. I just finished putting up the final video in my serialized audiobook of The Swithen Book 4: The Flower of Chivalry, and for people who watched it all–or other interested parties–I’ve put up a video talking about where the story is going to go in the next installment, Book 5. And here’s that video, right below.
Book 4 brought our future King Arthur from 2 years old to fourteen, at which point he pulls the sword from the stone. Next in the legend the rulers of the country make him pull the sword again and again while they wait to see if there is someone–anyone–else to take the throne rather than hand it over to a child, and that’s the period in which Book 5 takes place. During that time Arthur is put into knightly training with the knights that served his father, Uther Pendragon, and his mother, Queen Igraine. The book ends with Arthur being coronated as king.
Check out the video for a preview of what’s coming in The Swithen Book 5:
Deep Writing Process Discussion
Hey there! Are you that person who likes to go right to the spoiler of a book? Or to put it differently, to hear the thought process that went into setting up a novel in a certain way? If so, you might want to check out a new video I just posted that discusses the big spoiler/reveal in the middle of my novel of King Arthur’s childhood, The Flower of Chivalry.
I’ve been putting up an audio version of the novel on YouTube in small parts every weekday (making it a video audiobook, but whatevs), with a little introduction to each installment where I discuss who the characters are or which parts are adapted from a real Welsh legend or what future events of the Arthurian legend I am setting up with a scene in this book. But when I got to discussing the big spoiler I knew I had to take a bit longer to discuss it, while also avoiding spoiling it for the people who don’t want to know… which is why I ended up making the separate video.
So in the book we find out the identity of a major character, and hopefully it makes the reader reassess everything that has happened in the book to that point—and I’ve been very gratified that it has worked, most of my readers had no idea who this character was and were shocked when it was revealed. I discuss how the idea came for this, and also why it fits into the conclusion to another character’s arc.
We also discuss a major character that had to be written out. I am adapting the Arthurian legend and this character vanishes after the story told in the first novel, although I managed to keep her around for a while. That said, by four novels in the character had no place in the overall narrative anymore, and it was time to write her out. I discuss my process in doing that in a way that respected her important place in kicking off the story.
So deep writing process discussion, and it’s all here in the Post-Reveal Discussion. Just remember it WILL spoil the biggest reveal of the book for you…
Free audiobook
We’re almost seven weeks into the serialized audiobook of The Flower of Chivalry, which tells the story of King Arthur’s childhood, and we’re almost up to the big reveal that comes halfway through the book, so if you feel like checking in, now’s a good time.
I introduce each of the segments and give a little extra info when needed to understand who the characters are, what’s happening or why I decided to put that in the book… usually it’s setting something up later in the book or sometimes even later in the series. And as we’re listening hypnotic background videos play, usually a slow-motion pattern from nature, like rustling leaves or surfaces of water.
The book isn’t like the King Arthur stuff you’re used to, and that is definitely by design. It’s more patterned after classic novels of childhood, and my series tries to get us involved in their thoughts and emotions rather than remain in awe of the grand destiny they all have ahead of them or whatnot.
At this point in the story Arthur is starting to realize that he’s not like his family, although no one will be honest with him and tell him that he is adopted. He is also a gifted child which leads his foster parents to want to hold him back and give their own son a chance to shine, to not always be in Arthur’s shadow.
It is the gift of the Arthurian legend that it laid out these fascinatingly rich relationships.
Anyhoo, should you wish to check it out, you’ll find “Free Audiobook” in the top menu of my site, or you can find the free audiobook on YouTube.
Free audiobook serial: King Arthur’s childhood
Greetings, folks! Yesterday I started an audiobook serial novel of Book 4 of The Swithen, The Flower of Chivalry, which tells of King Arthur’s childhood until he pulls the sword from the stone. It’s on YouTube, which makes it a video audiobook [?!] but let’s not get caught up in semantics. The point is it’s free, it’s a fun ongoing thing, and you should go over there and check it out!
The deal is that there is one or more chapters uploaded every week day until it’s done. You watch soothing nature videos (shot by me) as you hear the story unfold, and I tell you any information you need to know in a short introduction to each segment.
This book is mostly light, fun and lyrical (until it turns dark and terrifying) and is kind of young adult, although there is violence and a hint of adult themes, so I tell people that although it is about a child, it is written for adults. I’ve made a separate video explaining what happens so that parents can decide if it’s appropriate for their kids. There’s also another video that will catch you up on everything that happens in the first three books, so you know what the context is. Even so, this begins the Arthur story and introduces mostly new characters, so it’s a great place to start.
Check out the first video in the series… they’re all linked from there! There’s also a playlist that will take you from one to another. Hope you like it, let me know what you think!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4_iO4yuYhA
The Swithen 